4The Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C.Friday, December 3, IfTl

The Taste Of Things To Come

North Carolina had a taste of things to come last week-end as it witnessed probably its worst traffic jam in history on Interstate 85 north of Durham.

' . Admittedly it was a combination of unusual circumstances which caused traffic to back up some 20 miles on the major highway. There was a series of wrecks coupled with the heavy holiday traffic as motorists headed for home during the waning hours of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Although such traffic tie-ups are rare on the states major highways, it is evident to most people that the states highway conihiction program is

Shoplifting Is Big Problem

By BRYAN IIAISLIP RALEIGH - Cash registers jingling a merry Christmas shopping season for Tar Heel merchants will miss millions ^ dollars worth of merchandise ^oplifting. a year-round problem, is a December plague. Lavish advertising

BRYAN

HAISLIP

and loaded counters heighten temptation, crowded stores and bulky winter clothing increase opportunity, and sticky-fingered pilferers walk out with goods from toys to kitchen appliances.

Ten million is a conservative estimate of the shoplifting loss the states retailers will suffer this month, said Thompson Greenwood, executive vice president of the North Carolina Merchants Association.

The rule-of-thumb for the toll from shoplifting is 1 per cent of sales, Greenwood explained. On that basis. North Carolinas 85,000 merchants with an annual volume of $11 billion are hit for $110 million per year. At least 10 per cent of the total comes in the busy final month of the year.

Those are minimum figures, and probably only scratch the surface, Greenwood emphasized. No one knows the real extent of the shoplifting traffic Consumer Is Loser

While the merchant feels it first, the loss really falls on the state and community in uncollected sales tax and finally on the consumer who pays the price.

And the shoplifter, particularly the young person for whom apprehension can mean a record marked thief for life.

Shoplifting antedates the general store, but in recent years it has soared to the proportions of a national scandal. Greenwood said.

Modern merchandising methods are a factor. The self-sr V ice trend tnolc products off the shelf and put them within easy reach of the customers with fewer clerks to keep surveillance. The boom of discount and variety stores demands a high inventory and makes it difficult to keep track of losses.

The permissive society aggravates the problem. Greenwood added. Few shoplifters are driven by basic economic need. Most respond to a dare of the quest for a thrill without thought for

the consequences. Some simply recognize no bounds of property rights for others. Then there is the cadre of professionals. They operate with a high degree of skill, devising ingenious means to pursue a profitable trade.

Drug Scene Reflection The drug scene casts a reflection. Among the professionals, there has been a tremendous increase as a result of the drug problem, Greenwood said An addict who needs $100 a day to feed a habit has to steal about $500 worth of merchandise because he gets so little for it selling to a fence. They go out in the morning and stay at it all day. just like you and I go to work, he explained.

Combatting shoplifting erosion has mobilized the retail industry. National consulting firms have emerged as specialists in the field, advising merchants on systems to cut losses.

Here in North Carolina, merchants succeeded in getting a tough new shoplifting law through the 71 General Assembly.

Its key provision removes civil liability for the merchant or his agent who detains a person suspected of shoplifting. Previously, the possibility of being sued for malicious prosecution or false arrest inhibited stores from crakcing down.

Fears Not Realized Debate over the bill raised cries of a threat to personal liberty Such fears have not been realized. Greenwood contended.

The word is reasonable, he noted. The detention must be in a' reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time, and only when there is reasonable ground to believe the person committed the offense of shoplifting. Since September, the merchants association has held 32 seminars across the state to acquaint its members with the law and to offer guidance in following its provisions.

As a further step to reduce shoplifting. Greenwood said, the association next year will add a full time member of the staff to work with members in the security area.

Mrc4tants Aiim abotrt tackling shoplifting actually contribute to the problem. We encourage merchants to make arrests when they are aware of violations, Greenwood said. Shoplifters know where the soft touches are, and flock to them.

More important, he added, strict enforcement can deter those who might otherwise succomb to temptation. Education for prevention is our best cure for the disease of shoplifting.

not keeping pace with growing traffic. It is true in areas of the state where there is less population just as it is in the areas around the major cities in Nmth Carolina.

Superhi^ways that have been constructed in various sections of the state normally do a good job of handling the traffic flow. But there are times that congestion slows traffic along many sections of these highways, even without the kind of situation which developed Sunday near Durham.

In its hi^way construction program, as with other phases of state operations. North Carolina has reached the point in its growth where it must run at an increasing pace just to stay eve. With the time involved in planning and constructing major highways it is necessary to think in terms of needs a decade from now rather than in terms of needs a year or two from now.

In far too many states, the kind of traffic jam that occurred on highway 85 Sunday has become a common-place, almost daily occurrence. North Carolina must see to it that it continues to plan and build with adequate foresight to assure that such traffic jams are the exception rather than the rule on both its major and minor highways.

Public Money Shouldn't Go To The Politician

Rep. Wilbur D. Mills, D-Ark., sees pressure in President Nixons threat to veto a pending tax bill.

The House passed a version wUch was reportedly acceptable to the president, but the Senate added a number of measures which are unacceptable. The two bills must now go to committee to iron out the differences.

One of the things which is unacceptable is the amendment which would allow individuals to earmark $1 of their income taxes to finance presidential campaigns.

The president should do all he can to see that this money grab is left out of the bill. Politicians should not be allowed to get their hands on public money to finance their campaigns. This provision should never be allowed on the tax reform bill.

*Noh. lo pull iiiVMlf I(^elli4r su I rt*ad jiImmiI Nixoirs lnMibl*s**

ran

By J.J. KILPATRICK

Morgan Happy Impressions In Greece

m m m ^ an\r fimA tliii

With Decision

ATHENS - The revolutionary government of George Papadopoulos sits

over Greece as stolidly as the legendary Colossus of Rhodes. It wont be toppled

The Daily Reflector

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By JOHNKILGO RALEIGH Exactly two weeks after Attorney General Robert Morgan decided not to run for Governor, he says: After getting back in this office, I feel better than ever that I made the right decision.

Morgans decision not to run for Governor was made at 1 p.m. two weeks ago. I asked him when he decided for certain that he wouldnt be a gubernatorial candidate.

At 10 oclock on the morning that I made the announcement, he said. I called about 10 of these lawyers in who had been helping and advising me. I told them now was the time to make the definite decision. We talked for a couple of hours, debated things back and forth and decided that I would take myself out of the race for Governor. Morgans reason not to run was because of the pressing duties in his office of attorney general.

We had done a lot since we took this office, Morgan told me, but there was plenty left to do. Things were Tiroving str fast in the Governors race that I would have had to devote full-time to that campaign, which means I would have to resign this office. I couldnt see my way clear to do that. I like and believe in what Im doing in this office and were not finished with the programs that weve started.

Morgan says no one knows how difficult the decision was to make. He says he believes in his heart he could have won the Governors race.

It was not a question of getting cold feet, he said. Many of my friends were extremely disappointed that I

didnt run for Governor.

Was Morgan hurt politically by getting out of the race?

At first I thought I would be, he said, but I dont believe so now. Ive received mail from all over the state from people who say theyre sorry I didn't run for Governor but say they can understand why I didnt. I acted in good faith and I believe the people understand that and accept it.

Morgan was feeling the pressure from other areas, too. Hector McGeachy had already announced for attorney general and had some billboards up. Elton Edwards had announced for the office, even though Morgan was insisting that he had not completely made up his mind to run for Governor.

And to cap things off. House Speaker Riil Godwin was planning to announce for attorney general. Morgan was pressured by time and while he had Uiought for weeks that he would be a-candidate for Governor, it didnt work out that way.

He made the No-Go announcement to clear the air.

I had a lot of things to consider, Morgan said. I told people all along that I had to consider these things but they didnt really believe me. It was a tough decision to make. But Im satisfied I was right.

Morgan left the door slightly ajar to a U.S. Senate race. But the smart money is that he will seek reelection to the office of attorney general next year.

Other Editors Say Defusing Bugouts

(Rocky Mount Telegram)

In making his recent announcement of a substantially increased U.S. troop withdrawal from Vietnam, President Nixon has again refused to do what the Bugout Brigade in Congress seeks; precipitate withdrawal Irhm Vietnam without regard to the consequences.

Noting that 80 per cent of the men who were in Vietnam when he took office have now come home, Nixon announced that over the next two months 45,000 more Americans will return. As for the announcement of future withdrawals, the President states that these will be determined by three factors;

The level of enemy activity and particularly the infiltration route because if these levels substantially increase, it would be very dangerous to our sharply decreased forces in South Vietnam.

The progress of Vietnamization, the U.S. program of training the South Vietnamese to handle the combat duty themselves.

Any progress that may have been made with regard to the two major U. S. objectives: obtaining the release of all POWs wherever they are in South Asia.

These three criteria, the President declared, will determine the next announcement, both its duration and its rate.

As for the American combat role in Vietnam, it is already concluded, the President said. American troops are now in a (kfensive position.

To the critics of U.S. bombing policy in Vietnam, the President replied: As we reduce the number of our forces, it is particularly important for us to continue our air strikes on the iftfiltratiOh fmites. If we see any substantial step-up In Infiltration in the passes, for example, which lead from North Vietnam into Laos, and, of course, the Laotian trail which comes down through Cambodia into South Vietnam if we see that, we will have to not only continue our air strikes; we will have to step them up.

That is why the President has been categorical about that situation, because as the level of our forces drops, the danger to them increases. Nixon insists he is not going to allow the enemy to pounce upon our remianing troqis through our failure to use air power against increased infiltration if it occurs. That makes sense.

any time soon. But if the colonels should be run out of office, it wont be because of their despotic rule. As such things are measured in the Balkans, the colonels are not so awfully despotic but they are dull. And the Greek people are not sorely oppressed; they are bored.

These impressions emerge from a hectic week of interviews, briefings, long talks and field trips. I advance them tentatively, subject to later revision.

Ibe complaint, it appears, is that there is simply too much peace, too much order, too much stability. These are novelties in Greece. For most of the past 150 years, since the glorious revolution of 1821, the Greeks have been passionately fighting someone. When they run out of Serbs, Croats, Albanians, Turks, Germans and Italians, and find time hanging heavy on their hands, they fall to fighting each other. It is their finest national pastime.

For nearly five years, since the colonels seized power in April of 1%7, this bellicosity has had to be contained. Because there is no

parliament, there are no elections; hence no functioning parties, no splinters, no factions. The Queen Mother, who once provoked some splendid quarrels, has vanished from the scene. 'The Communists are lying doggo. And the colonels, whatever their ideological faults, are riuining the country superbly. Politically speaking, the Greeks are like three well-fed bridge players who cant find

(Continued on page 5)

Life's

Little

Quirks

By HAL BOYLE NEW YORK (AP) - Please, please, pleasedont send me an adenoid for Christmas!

Or the deed to a square inch of Texas either. Or two live tropical birds. Or a cobra-skin necktie.

(hie of the trials of being a columnist is the habit some readers have of bombarding him with unexpected weird gifts. Some of them are rather hard to dispose of.

The adenoid came in a test tube full of alcohol. Youd be amazed how few people want to buy a second-hand adenoid. I did, however, have a few bids for the alcohol.

I gave the cobra-skin necktie to a teen-ager. The two birds died. The deed to a square inch of Texas I put away in a safe deposit box. Theres always the chance that some innocent promoter may come along and build a big city over my inch of soil.

But my point is that it isnt the presents you get at Christmas that make you happyits the ones you dont get.

So, if by any chance you were planning to get rid of something in your house by mailing it to me as a Clhristmas present, dont send me;

A life-size, inflatable, plastic

(Continued on page 5

40 Years Ago Today

By GWYN COGHILL Dec. 2.1931 It was announced today from Kinston that the Ram Neuse, suicide ship of the Ckmfederacy, will remain in its watery grave in the .

channel at the edgeTIf toe |

Kinston business district.

City officials have no money to clear the bulk which has '

been made visible by low water in the river. The Neuse, named for the river which now holds it fast in mud and sand, was built in the early years of the Civil War. When it was launched, a big ironclad designed to play havoc ;

with wooden craft of the Union forces, there was not enough water to float it to tidewater and freshets were waited for, but Federal forces came before the freshets and the craft, useless in the

narrow river, was sunk to prevent the enemy from capturing it.

The annual sale of Tu^rculpsis Christmas Seals got under way this week. The sale is being conducted through the health department by the Womans Qub. Mrs. H. S. Ragsdale is chairman for the drive.

It was announced today that the Greenville Banking and Trust Company has been appointed a depository for U.S. Postal Savings Funds.

Save The Smaller Breweries

Strength For Today

DELAY Never put off until tomorrow the thing that needs to be done today.

This is an old adage but a helpful one. What if you get violently ill before tomorrow? Suppose that the people who could help you fade out of the picture and you are left to handle a difficult situafion alone? &me people are superstitioqs about making their wills. They think it will hasten death which of course it ^ will not. The letter that should have been written to a friend qr to someone within the circle of your own family do it now. The interest payment and the note from the bank you know what that means. Oh, Ive had enough education. Two years in high school is plenty. Im going to get a job and make a

lot of money.

Except for those who have inherited wealth, practically every successful person has worked hard to get what he actually owns today. That scholarship which makes the difference between a college degree or no college degree dont delay in your effol^ts to get such a scholarship. toe brakes on your car \are slipping, you know what\ to do. If you think you can ^t along without taking a vacation, you are gettina ready to be sent to a hospitid\ bed. If you tura on the same TV program every evening.

other people in the house who are not being entertained.

Delay has caused empires to fall. If may catch up with your Wttle empire and mine if we are not careful.

by Earl Douglass

By ELMER ROESSNER.

The Federal Trade Commission is concerned over the concentration of breweries in the United States and may take some action to save some of the smaller breweries before competition results in the existence of only two brands of beer in the entire United States, perhaps with one brand put up in aluminum cans and green bottles, the other in steel cans and brown bottles.

COMMENT; I have long mourned the day when almost every valley in the United States had its own brewery with its own distinctive flavor of beer. In those pre-freeway and preturnpike days, travel around the country was always an exciting adventure. Even if

you wer slapping the reins of

a reluctant horse, toe next bend on the road could hring in sight a small brewery, making a distinctive beer from spring water by an old family recipe. There was usually a biergarten attached and a large stein of beer for a nickel. And if you engaged

the proprietor in conservation, he would invite you in to see the brewery and let you draw as much as you wanted through the spigots on

ELMER

ROESSNER

the huge barrels.

And you never had to worry about having too much. The horse knew the way home. Poor Hit Hardest By Tariff

The hidden costs of tariffs weigh slightly more on the poor than on the well-to-do, according to Norman S. Fieleke, economist for toe Boston Federal Reserve Bank. A family with an in-come-^ 4A91IT mi^ be paying $l(f in passed-along 1967 tariff charges he calculated. He did not project his theoiy to toe cost of the poor of toe current 10 per cent emergency surcharge,, but the inference is obvious.

COMMENTf It would seem that the low-income families should be alerted not to buy imported goods. If they concentrated on American goods they would be avoiding the tariff penalty and^ more important, help to strengthen demand for American products which will in turn increase employment here and possibly improve their earning power.

Variable-Rate Mortgage Up Again

Theres renewed talk about home mortgages with variable rates of interest. When the Federal Reserve rediscount rate or some other widely accepted rate declined, the interest on such mortgages would decline proportionately ; when the key rate rose, the mortgage intrest rate would rise.

COMMENT^ This sounds -

like an attractive idea right ' now, when interest rates are declining. But in actual practice, its gravy for len-/ ders and a trap for mortgaged families.

Under ordinary mortgages

today, if the general interest rate falls, the mortgagor can usually refinance the mortgage, paying a small penalty. If the rate goes up, he still pays the original rate, which becomes a bargain* But under a variable mortgage, he would pay less if the rate went down, more if it rose, and never could he be sure that his payments were stabilized.

What Will TV-Phone Do To

Us

The National Science Foundation has granted $30,500 to two Cornell researchers to determine the benefits and problems from the wide-spread use of the coming video-telephone.

COMMENT: Perhaps a useful- ida. It might stimulate the sale of both pleasant and horror masks

id wigs^r What woman^woiird

answer a video-phone before 8 a.m ? But if the idea is really useful, why isnt A.T.&T., I.T.T. and other electronic companies putting tip the money instead of Uncle Sam, the patsy?