'mm

4Hm DaUy Reflector. Greeevtte, N.C.Meeday. OtUkm a. 1*72

Some Federal Aid May Be Cut

Considerable interest has been generated in the federal revenue sharing funds which were approved by Congress last week.

It is reported that Pitt County will get $902,000 and Greenville is to receive $590,000. Other

Questions Pay As You Go Plan

By BRYAN HAISLIP RALEIGH - Reexamination of the pay-as-you-go policy North Carolina has followed in recnet years for capital needs is suggested by an economist who studied the sUtes tax structure.

BRYAN ^ HAISLIP

Increased revenues from economic growth could have financed expansion of existing programs and launched new services, even without tax increases, had the state gone the bond route for capital improvements over the past decade, said Dr.

Charles D. Liner.

During the 60s, he pointed out, the legislature chose to use over $378 millicm in current tax receipts for capital improvements other than hi^ways while wily $189 million in bond issues was ai^proved.

Indeed, the Ux structure would have pormitted even more new programsan expended kindergarten program, for exampleif the state had taken greater advantage of its excdlent credit rating by issuing bonds rather than using current revenues to pay for capital improvements, he observed.

Any consideration of future changes in the tax structure should include as an altemative a chaise in capital financing policy, he added.

N.C. TaxatioB Study Dr. Lino' summarized the findings of his study of state tyratiAn in the current issue of Popular Govememnt, the publication of the Institute <rf Government at Chapd Hill. Dr. Liner holds a Ph.D. degree in economics from Washington University, and joined the Institute faculty last year.

Four criteria formed the basis for his evaluation of the Tar Heel tax structure. They were: adequacy and

reqionsiveness to growth; equity in application to taiqiaycrs; neutrality in the operation of the economy; e and administrative ef-m ficicncy.

Without implying that the states tax structure meets these standards in every roqiect. Dr. Liner concluded that, overall and iiTits basic features, it appears to measure up very well ac-cording to the criteria.

He attributed the favorable finding largely to the state income tax and the sales tax. To a great extent, the income tax accounts for the large increases in total revenues that have occurred continuously since the early 1930s with only relatively minor tax rate increaese, he said.

That its burden increases as income increases hefps to oHset the tendency of otltor taxes to burden the poOT mcM*e than the ridi, he said.

The effect of the sales Ux,

he added, is to burdoi the Uxpayers in rough proportion to their incomes.

29-Year Reveane Growth T(^ sUte operating expenditures have risen from some $261 million in the fiscal year 1961-52 to almost $1V^ billion in 1971-72. The remarkaMe aspect of th^ increases is that they have been financed with a Ux structure basically unchanged since 1933, he added.

Tax reform as an issue for public debate raises the possibility that the subject of taxation will get serious attention in the 1973 General Assembly even though candidates for governor are (dedged to no new taxes.

Two study commissions dealing with taxation are due to report. One, at work fw the past four years, deals with the tax^ structure as a whole with a view to resolving any inequities. The other, created by the 1971 session, is concerned with the property Ux and its exemptkms.

A {Hoposal to revise income Ux rates, shifting the burdi more to the upper end of the economic scale, was raised last sesskm and is likely to be brou^t f(wrard again.

Bonds Wfll Be Issued Bond issues also will be pn the legislative calendar.. Pending proposals include sUte park land purchase, facilities and equipment to further Career education, public school construction, and perhaps mental hospital needs.

North Carolina presently has bonds outstanding of slightly more than $425 million. The total does not include $150 million clean water Ixmds and 12 million for a state zoo, issues authorized but not yet maiiceted.

The sUtes debt services payments have declined over the past 10 years from 4.2 to 3.2 per cent of oprating expenditures, Ih*. Liner noted.

He pointed out factors favoring bond borrowing for capital improvements. New programs usually require new buildings and equipment immediately, but these usually last for many years. Rather than paying for new buildings from tax revenues collected vhen the program begins, they could be paid for over the life of the Imildings by people vho are using them, he explained. ^

The current revenues thus freed can then be used to finance expanded programs to meet currit rathCT than future needs, he said.

Thus, vdien the capital financing policy followed in North Carolina is taken into account, we must cmiclude that even greater demands for current services could have been met had the General Assembly chosen a different policy.

The Daily Reflector

INCORPORATED 209Cotanche Street, Greenville, N.C. 27834 Established 1882 Published Monday Through Friday Afternoon and Sunday Morning

DAVID JULIAN WHICHARD, Chairman of the Board JOHN S. WHICHARDDAVID J. WHICHARD PuMishers Second Class Postage Paid at Greenville. N.C.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Payable in Advance Home Delivery By Carrier .%^r Route Monthly $2.25

municipalities in our rea'Wffl'receive varying^ amounts under the revenue sharing formula.

This particular year, the extra money ia unique in that the municipal and county budgets have already been made up and tax rates set

No doubt the county commissioners and city councUmen are already receiving a wide variety of suggestions as to how the funds should be u^. Suggestions we have heard are various capital imjurovements projects, schools, salary increases and countless other things. Perhaps the most often heard suggestion is to cut pro|rty taxes by a corresponding amount.

Wdl, we are not going to add to the list of projects on which the governing bodies can spend the money. There are plenty of needs in Pitt County, Greenville and the oth^ municipalities to more than take up these initial federal funds.

We expect it is doubtful that any wholesale cut in local taxes can or should be made. The revenue sharing funds were designed to help hard pressed local governments meet their needs without continuing to increase the spiraling property tax rates.

More than likely our local governments will find that this will be the real benefit from the'revenue sharing funds in future years; they will make it easi* to hold property taxes in line.

As for this first installment, we would not want to see the local governments simply hoard the funds.

It will, however, be wise to pnxied with caution in allocating the funds. There is a good chance that some federal programs which are already funding local projects will be reduced. If this should happen it would be necessary to shift some of the revenue funds to these areas to make up the difference.

Enriched Because Of

By Mail. One Year Six Months Three Months

$27.99

13.59

6.75

(Pricm Include Tax By MaU execBt In Pitt Co. Add l percaot) '

MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is exclusively entiUed to use for pblication all news dispatches credited to 19 or not therwlse credited to this paper and also the local aews ppblished herein. All rlght^of publications of special dispatches here are also reserved.

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL,

Advcrtistal rates and deadlines avaUable upon request Member Audtt Bureau of Orcfdatlon.

Henry Belk's Service

Of All

Months

Editors Note: Hal Boyle iometimes asked by readers which of the more than 7,000 columns he has written ia his own favorite. Here it is, reprinted from his recit book, Help, Help! Another Day!

I By HAL BOYLE

1^ NEW YORK (AP) If the Lord whispered in your secret heart that you had iHit one month to live and let you pick that month, which would you

*^1iings arc looking up for me!

For the party! For business! For the eoiuitrv! Kver>lhing is looking FP! Vl*l l !l*T"

By ART BUCHWALD

It is with sadness that we note the passing of Henry Belk, editor emeritus of TTie Goldsboro

News-Argus. .

Mr. Belk was a man of great influence m North Carolina journalism and, interestingly, he achieved .

eminence as editor of one of the states smaller TUgfQ ShOW iSUSinGSS

daily newspapers. He had a great love for East I IVJ w w Carolina UnivCTsity. He served on its bwrd of trustees and as chairman firing the time of greatest growth, , both in size and prestige.

Our state is rich* because Henry Belk chose to follow his journalistic career here.

Nixon Silence

Stirs Concern

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - The most politically significant aspect of Clark MacGregors uncharacteristically harsh assault on the Washington Posts coverage of the Wtergate affair is the fact it was ordered directly from the White House Oval Office.

MacGregor, President Nixons campaign manager, cf was pondoing what to do next about the deepening swamp of charges when orders came from the White House Monday to atUck. Not understanding the ground rules, an aide informed newsmen that MacGregor would be available for questions after his carefully drafted statement attacking the Post. Instead, the White House ruled out any questions at all. So, the usually genial MacGregor was viewed on natimial trievision making an angry, ad hominem attack on the newspaper, then stalkin redfaced from the room.

That was in keeping with overall White House strategy ever since Republican financed spies were caught hugging Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate June 17. The strategy; dont get too excited about this little caper and fire back hard at anybody who criticizes us. With two weeks to election day, the strategy has become

increasingly troubling to thoughtful Republicans.

Nobody believes that the Watergate indictments or the attendant charges of political subversion seriously threaten Mr. Nixons lapdslide. Rather, his silent Republican critics fear the long shadow the Presidents see-no-evil, hearHM>-evil reaction casts on his second term.

One prominent Midwestern state Republican leader has argued with the White House in terms instantly recognizable to Richard M. Nixon: the Alger Hiss caw of a generation ago.

While freshman Congressman Nixon was escaping anonymity in his relentless pursuit of espionage charges against Hiss, President Harry Truman was pooh-poohing the entire affair. That gave C(mgre8sional Republicans an open pass for heavily publicized hearings that helped build the huge iblican victory of 1952. pooh-poohing the itergate, this Midwestern ite leader fears, Mr. Nixon opened up a politically profitable investigation ip 1973 on which Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has now taken out an option.

Other Republicans worry about dangers less concrete but perhaps more serious. Some Nixon surrogate candidates note that while (Continued on page 6)

WASHINGTON - The biggest thriU any American can get is to appear on television shaking hands with one of the presidential candidates. In s9me cases it could diange a man!s life forever.^

Last wek I saw a Mr. Larry McTaggert shaking hands with Sen. George McGovern in front of a factory gate. McTaggert was quoted as saying, Meats too high, and the big guys get all the tax breaks.

That was it.

After the show I decided to find out what happens to an average man who has had his

one great moment on televisiona chance that may never happen again.

I sought out McTaggert at his home a week later.

Wh^ I walked into the living room, I found him wearing a red velvet jacket, a * white turtleneck sweater, plaid pants and blue

monogrammed clippers.

Im rather pressed for time, McTaggert said.

Forgive me if I dont offer you a drink.

Thats okay, I said. Im just grateful you could see me at all. I saw you on the news last week with Sen.

McGovern.

Other Editors Say Tax Or Bankrupt?

strength For Today

(Henderson Dispatch)

Senator Ervins warning that continuing colossal spending by the Federal government will almost certainly hasten the day when the Federal government will have to choose between confiscatory taxes or bankruptcy is alarming. They can term the senator an old fogy, say that he is behind the times, or what not but he is one of the few men in the United States Senate who has the courage to point to a day of reckoning and to vote his convictions against spendthrift outlays which the government cannot stand.

The senator was concerned about a bill the Senate passed which would pay the victim of a violent crime up to $50,000. He was one of only eight who voted against the measure. He also voted, and wisely so, againt Federal sharing of revenue which it doesnt have with the States, involving an outlay of more than $33 billion and notice that is billion, not million. At the time, too, when the government is in the red by $35 billion just this fiscal year.

What has happened to fiscal common sense in this country? Senator Ervin is only one man with only one vote, and with such limitations cannot sweep back the waves of the sea. Soon Ck)ngress is to be asked to increase die debt ceiling, already $450 billion.

There can be but pne ultimate end to this prodigality, and that is financial catastrphe. The thought can be crushed aside, but it is an evil that just will not go away. The day will inevitably come when there will be a showdown. When that happens, the beneficiaries of government squandering will be far worse off than they were before the gratuities began.

When and if bankruptcy comes, the road back will be long and very hard. It will mean sacrifices and austerity perhaps the like of which has nevbr been experienced in this country. It could so weaken the nation that it would become a sitting duck for a powerful enemy, only waiting to pounce upon the nation. Its worth serious thmight.

Yes, McTaggert said, George is a fine man; I enjoyed working with him. I thought you gave a wonderful performance. It was honest and sincere, and you came through as a true American, I said.

I did the best I could in the part, McTagge^ said. Of course I couldnt have done it alone. Some of the credit has to go to the cameramen and the wonderful technicians I worked with. I also have to

thank the producer and director of the show for the marvelous co-operation they gave me. And I want to thank my mother and my wife who had faith in me during all the years I was struggling to get on TV. And last but not least, Timmy OLeary, my foreman, who let me off 15 minutes early so I could get to the gate before the other guys were let out of the factory. Youre a very modest man, Mr. McTaggert. Tell me, if you had to do the show again would you do anything differentiy?

McTaggert said, Meat and taxes seem to be the main issues of the campaign and if I raised other issues they might have been left on the cutting-room floor.

A vast number of people seemed to enjoy what I said, and in our profession thats all that counts.

Would you consider making TV your career? Well, said McTaggert, its a very risky business. Its true I had a big hit with McGovern, but thats no guarantee my next appearance would be a smash. Theyve asked me to play a role in front of the fence when ^iro Agnew visits the plant next week, but I dont want to be typecast as a factory worker. Frankly, Id rather 'be on one of those medical shows where you get residuals.

Have you had many of-

choose? Id say October.

The birds love it, the beasts love it, and man himself then stands upon the summit of the year.

October is all the other seasons wrapped into a 31-day grab-bag pftckage, tied with a rainbow ribbon. It is the period when Mother Nature, the great dramatist, brings her traveling road show to a climax.

This is the month that, like a cider press, squeezes out the best juices of all the other monthsthe promise of spring, the sultry days of summer, the afterglow of autumn, the premonitory chill of winter. Everything that walks the earth feels an amber thrill, a tremendous bubbling vitality that sings in the pulse.

Now is the glory of the universe manifest, and in the mighty pagent of the hills each patch of woods elects its own tree beauty queen. You like the dogwood? We dont quarrel. Ill take the maple, that yellow torch!

It is as if everyone suddenly had been given magic color glasses. The stars bend nearer. And that big blob of moona Child feels it is so close he could reach up with a knife and spread it on his bread like butter.

The stag stamps on the hilltop and lifts an amorous bugle to the night.

The squirrel, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, becomes an "annual miser. The bear invests his excess profits in fat, planning to live off this stored capital until he emerges from his hibernation next spring, cross and bankrupt.

The wind at night now had

(Cmtinued on page 6)

Forty Years Ago Today

ByGWYNCOGHILL October 23,1932.

Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic nominee for the Presidency, arrived in Louisville, Kentucky for a brief address while enroute to Knoxville and Atlanta, Georgia. The special train pulled into the station where the Presidential nominee was greeted by a throng of spectators and party supporters.

(Continued on page 6)

Todays newspaper introduced a new member of the youhger set in Hollywoods film colony. Newspaper ran a photograph of Stuart Erwin, Jr., aged three weeks, with his mother, June Ck)llyer, and father. Both are motion picture players.

VERY IMPORTANT

Atmosphere. We live in it. Shut if off for a minute or two and we are dead.

This is physical at-, mosphere. There are innumerable varieties of atmosphere go into one place of business and find a certain atmosfrfiere and in the same type of business across^ the street a ^different kind of atmosphwe. 'There is atmosphere in the home. Sometimes it makes for happiness. At other times it makes for quaiTeling and unhappiness. Just as physical life depends upon the presence of good and invigorating atmosphere, so menjal and spiritual life depends in precisely the same way upon good atmosphere.

The elections are* drawing near. Sometimes we wonder why we have not torn our country asunder by the

diversity of views expressed. Some table-pounders are sure that everyone who does not agree with them isji villain, a theif, a cheat all around.

Atmosphere makes the planet on which we live habitoble. Good atmosphere makes a happy home. Stifling atmosphere makes an unhappy home. There are some homes which the minute we enter them we know that we are entering a sphere of happiness and contentment. There are other homes that five minutes after we have, crossed the threshold we know that we have entered what might alniost be called hell-on-earth. Inasmuch as life is made up for the most part of little things, atmosphere is something that makes a great difference.

Atmosphere is vitally important.

" 'By Earl Douglass

China Trade Up To $5 Billion

By JOHN CUNNIFF AP Business Analvjjt NEW YORK (AP) - A China authority who represented 14 American companies in trade negotiations this year at Canton and Peking estimates that within 10 years the United States could be selling $5 billion worth of goods a year to China.

Harned Pettus Hoose, a Los Angeles attorney who was born and raised in China, noted in an interview that a sudden increase in China., trade not only would mean a vast outlet for the huge U.S. production machinery but a source of raw materials also.

In hundreds of hours of talks with high-level trade officials of the Peoples Republic, Hoose, who helped

brief President Nixon for his February visit, was told, We are a very, very rich nation in minerals because we came into the industrial world late.

Among those in great quantities are copper, iron, lead, manganese, zinc, molydb-num and tin. All are in over-supply, he was told. And China is already recognized as having the worlds largest tungsten and antimony reserves.

In addition, it has oil reserves large enough to make the nation self-sufficient. These supplies have been estimated to place the Chinese 12th aniong oil reserve nations, but Hoose now believes those reserves are grossly underestimated.

The Chinese think their offshore reserves are very significant, especially in the northeast, Hoose reported, adding that a. Chinese geologist told him that inland there is a vast ocean of oil under and adjoining the Gobi Desert.

These, he said, are among the assets the Chinese believe will permit them to afford massive imports of American industrial machinery. A second great asset, he said, is the people. Our people will work very hard, n^otiators told him.

'The Chinese, Hoose concludes, are now , ready to enter Phase 'Three of their development. The first phase was the revolution, the second the* solution of material problems.

They have solved their material needs, Hoose said flatly. I reject the notion that they are starving equally. C!hina is now well fed and clothed, and in some medical areas, such as in eradicating veneral disease, they exceed our accomplishments.

Phase Three is the industrialization. China, he said, has decided it shall have industry forthwith, even if they have to buy it with the money they earn. *

The situation presents Americans with an un-paralleld opporJunity to present their wares and show their skills if, said Hoose, using the words reiterated so often by the Chinese, our relations continue.