Tlie Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C.Thursday, February 8, 1973

Street-Closing 1$ A Hardship

NOT A VERY ENCOURAGING SCENE!

What began as an apparently routine matter has become a matter of major concern to many citizens.

The City Council was requested by the State Highway Commission to approve closing of Charles Street while the bridge across Greene Mill Run was reconstructed in preparation for widening the street to five lanes and relocating a portion of it.

A Crossroads In Government

By BRYAN HALSLIP RALEIGH Two-party government has brought North Carolina to a political crossroads which could lead to significant changes in practices and institutions.

The election of a Republican governor threw a new light on the old way of doing business and turned the thoughts of politicians to the future. The^ must grapple with the challenge of how to

BRYAN

HAISLIP

adapt to the altered circumstances of an electorate less responsive to party labels.

For the General Assembly and the administration of Gov. Jim Holshouser there is the further issue of working within the checks and balances system when the legislative and executive branches are in the hands of opposing parties.

Breaks with tradition already are in sight. Annual sessions of the legislature, eithr fixed by statute or at the choice of lawmakers, appear virtually a foregone conclusion.

Later primary elections, moved from the customary spring date to summer or early fall, is getting serious attention.

Campaign Pattern Affected Both are changes which would influence the structure of government and the pattern of political campaigns.

Even more drastic innovations are suggested by Hargrove (Skipper) Bowles Jr., the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor last fall and titular head of the party by virtue of the fact.

A restriction on second primaries and eventually moving state elections to the off-year from national campaigns are among ideas Bowles has shared with county chairmen and members of the Democratic state executive committee.

Bowles said the 1972 elections, aside from his own defeat which interrupted a line of Democratic governors back to the turn of the century. damaged the institution of political parties. The ticket splitting tendency, he said, results in divided government and weakens accountability of officeholders to voters.

Two-party politics is good.

. . but two-party government can be bad. he asserted. Citizens can have a hard time finding out who is to blame or who should get credit when things go right or wrong.

Bowles Proposes Reform

Bowles ^i^ted reforms he

regards as essential to put more power into the party system.

Shorter campaigns The primary elections should be moved later in the year.. . In these days of mass communications, we exhaust candidates and voters with these long campaigns. Believe me, I know. Restriction on second primaries Inter-party bitterness out of run-off primaries must be reduced, Bowles said. I am not wedded to any figure, but the law should read that a candidate who gets, say, 40 per cent of the first primary vote is the winner.

Campaign spending limits We need limits on spending. We need more access to the media for those candidates who cant afford the hight cost of campaigning. We need to make sure that incumbents dont have an unfair advantage with the media.

Long range, Bowles said, North Carolina should think about moving the state elections to the so-callcd off-year, separating national and state political campaigns. Six-Year Term For Governor One day to do it, he suggested, would be to lengthen the term of the governor from four to six years and retaining the single term for a governor. That would coincide with the off-year at least for two out of three elections, he said.

These reforms, linked together, could give a governor time to really carry out his program, yet stop the building of political machines, Bowles explained. They could allow a governor time to really become a leader in national affairs if he wanted to. They could also help give voters a clear-cut choice on state and local issues, and not mix them with national issues during a single campaign year.

Theres little indication the legislature will be prepared to go quite as far as the Bowles proposals in overhauling the framework for political campaigns.

While a later primary date and campaign spending limits are certain to bp debated some good chances for some vavorable action, tampering with the run-off system and lengthening the governors term are definite long-shot possibilities.

Another means of untangling state and national politics in on the agenda. That is the repeal of the presidential primary, initiated in North Carolina last. year.

Some Democratic politicians thought it had a negative impact on the state campaign. Bowles said revisions are in order if the presidential primary is retained. Down the road, he added, a national primary system would be preferable.

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Charles Streeet needs the improvements; in fact it is one of the more used thoroughfares in the city. But if the street is closed traffic will have to go east to Elm Street or west to Evans in order to travel north of Greenville Boulevard. The closing will mean that university traffic going to Minges or the Allied Health Building will have to come around by Elm.

A group which called itself Interested Citizens of Greenville soon swung into action. They placed newspaper ads asking, Can you imagine one of the busiest streets in Greenville to be closed from May to September to build a bridge. We say no. Give us a temporary bridge so we can still get through Charles Street.

We are inclined to agree. Charles is, indeed, a vital street for moving traffic in the southeast area of the city. If it is closed completely, the heavy traffic which uses it every day is going to be detoured on other streets which are already crowded.

The City Council is considering the matter tonight at a public hearing and we hope that the council will make an effort to get a temporary bridge installed while the work is underway. Consideration should also be given to constructing half of the bridge at the time, such as was done on Tenth Street when the bridge there was constructed. Traffic was kept moving through out that project.

Street construction is inconvenient for the motorist, although it is a necessary inconvenience if we are to have the thoroughfares we need. However closing entirely a street like Charles creates a major hardship for our populace. Surely something can be worked out to keep traffic moving while this construction is going on.

All The Losers Favor Control

ByJOHNKILGO RALEIGH - Reform legislation which would reduce the length and cost of statewide campaigns seems io have the unanimous support of candidates who were defeated last year.

It also is being pushed by a winner, Lt. Gov. Jim Hunt, who made campaign promises all over the state to strive for a bill that would limit campaign spending.

The legislation being debated has the support of people who, it would appear from past performances, have little else in common.

Skipper Bowles, who spent more than 1 million in his quest for Governor, wants a top put on spending.

Pat Taylor, the man Bowles defeated in the Democratic primary, wants to see the primaries and general election moved closer together, and a limit put on spending.

And Hugh Morton, who ran for Governor for several months, says: My number one civic project is to help get legislation that would cut the cost of a campaign and shorten it considerably. There is widespread support in the General Assembly to pass reform legislation in this area.

It wont however, be a cakewalk, because a con-situtional, enforcable bill must be the product of this discussion, or the effort will be lost.

One veteran House member tells me: Some people are just trying to grab headlines. Some proposals that have been made couldnt be enforced and they know it. We need legislation to control campaign spending but if we pass just anything, itll do more harm than good.

Morton agrees.

We need a limit on media advertising, Morton said. You can audit how much money a candidate spends for radio. TV, newspapers and ^ billboards, but you cant audit how much money he shells out to haul people to the polls.

A two-pronged attack might well come out of this legislative session. One would limit media spending, based on the number of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election in the state. The other would shorten the campaigns, by moving the primary to September, with the general election following in November.

The cold reality of politics enters into the latter part of this discussion.

Long, drawn-out primaries split political parties wide open and make it doubly hard to unite for the general election.

For instance, Bowles and Taylor people never did smooth out the differences created in their fight in the Democratic primary. Each side blamed the other, which is natural, but the fact is a lot of people who worked hard for Taylor sat on their hands in the general election.

Political leaders feel their parties would be hurt less with shorter primaries. This would also mean some kind of a starting date to begin actual campaigning.

Bowles and Hunt started highly visible campaigns a full year before the general elections.

The mood in the General Assembly seems to be in favor of legislation that would limit campaign spending in statewide races. Theres also strong support to change the primary date.

What kind of bill will emerge is still anybodys guess. A lot of politicians want to be leaders in this area, because they feel sure the public is watching.

Quote

I studied the lives of great men and famous women; and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the job they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.Harry S.-Truman.

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strength For Today

OVR COUNTRY Anybody who does not know that America the latter half of the twentieth century is the best place in the world to live should be given a oneway ticket to some other better place and told never to come back again. Problems? We have lots of them. Mistakes: We make them every day. You cant expect imperfect people to have a perfect nation, but thisA country of ours has a com-^ *>ination of advantages that ive should all prize, cherish and protect.

Patriotism is not just an emotional outburst when the flag is unfurled and carried past us. Patriotism is a living matter of everyday dedication. We do not look down on any country. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. We have good

leaders, a few bad leaders, and most of them average, like ourselves.

Would yotii like to have lived a thousand years ago in any part of the world: That would be about the time of the Norman invasion of England. George Washington believed in blood-letting, and he insisted that they take about ninety ounces of blood out of him during his last illness. He died of course as a result. One of the four doctors attending him declared that the time would come when instead of taking blood out of a sick man they would put blood into him. This was a hundred and fifty years before the first blood transfusion.

It is great to live in a day of progress, and in most matters with all our problems we are progressing.

By Earl Douglass

By J.J. KILPATRICK

Balderdash And

WASHINGTON - A text is at hand of George McGoverns speech at Oxford on Jan. 21, It ranks among the most remarkable public documents of our time, a curious blend of balderdash and basic insights, strong wine pressed from sour grapes.

Years hence, in tranquility, the Senator from South Dakota will reread this speech. He may then discover in his own messianic attitudes a few of the reasons why Richard Nixon whipped-him so soundly in November. For the moment, this remains something of a

mystery to me. He cannot understand why the people declined to follow him. It is as if Peter and Andrew had said they would rather catch fish.

Clearly, the Democratic nominee has failed to comprehend one important characteristic of the American people, especially as the people view the electoral process. This is the element of gamesmanship. The vocabulary of politics is in large part the vocabulary of sports. We live in a world of front-runners and dark horses, of teams and managers engaged in contests. The metaphor

Other Editors Say Matching Funds

(Washington Daily News)

Governor Holshouser has recommended that the legislature set aside the sum of $50 million in state monies to be used by local school groups in North Carolina on a matching basis.

Thus if a county school unit wishes to build a new school, up to 50 percent of the money could come from the state, if the legislature enacts the governors recommendation.

It is very true in recent years that local people all over the state have been most reluctant to pass school bond issues. Somehow the needs so often pointed out by the educators have been disputed by many citizens. As a result the issues have been defeated in most cases.

We suspect that if the state does offer matching funds for school building purposes, it could make the passage of school band issues easier. At least the issue in each individual case could be smaller than would be the case if the state did not participate.

It also could work in another direction. It could conceivably cause local units to call school bond elections that they otherwise would not do. And if that is done, it will hurt the overall effort to fulfill dire educational needs in our state.

Just because the state might be willing, if indeed it is willing, to bear half the costs in no manner should serve as any invitation to any school groups to call referenda if the school building needs are doubtful.

Over the years we have witnessed what appeared to be strong efforts to carry through with some program on the basis that unless we appropriate local money, we will lose federal money.

In our opinion at times using money, local or federal, for what seemed to be a non-essential was wrong.

School groups, if this money is made available by the state, should be very discerning and should emphasize the glaring needs there and not the fact that the state is furnishing half the money. And let us repeat. The state might well turn down the governor in his request.

We sincerely believe that where educational needs exist, they should be met. If we do not look after our most precious possessions our children most of them will not be looked after, educationally speaking.

And yet in every case the people by their votes will make the final decision. And that is as it should be.

Insight

demands, among other things, the image of the good loser.

The embittered McGovern has yet to grasp this. By huffing off to England on the inaugural weekend, there to deliver this querulous address, McCJovern insulted not only his victorious opponent, and not only the office of the presidency; he also insulted the concept of good sportsmanship. It was a mean-spirited act, graceless and ugly Jt lacked style; it lacked class.

Yet the speech contained elements of sober truth, and these merit reflection. McCJoverns theme was the exhaustion of American institutions, notably the Congress and the two major parties.

Among the rights clearly assigned to the Congress, he said, are the powers of war and peace and the power of the purse. The power to make or unmake war...has been stripped almost completely from the Senate and House. And now, for the first time, the Executive has mounted serious challenge to the congressional of appropriations.

The exhaustion of Congress, McGovern went on to say, is matched by the exhaustion of the political parties. The Republicans, in his view, offer little more than an administrative program. The Democrats are in peril of comprising a party with no principles, no programs, living only from day to day, caring only for the prequisites of office, doing nothing, and worse, not caring that nothing is done. McGovern had little to suggest by way of revitalizing the pai-tms. Here he diagnosed without prescribing. But he spoke with great candor and conviction in saying that American liberals must reverse the 40-year trend toward a stronger president and return to the 200-year-old tradition of shared power. The Congress must regain its constitutional stature as a co equal branch; and toward this end. Congress must reclaim its lost power of the purse.

(Continued on pa^ 6)

Life's

Little

Quirks

By HAL BOYLE NEW YORK (AP) - Curbstone comments by the Pavement Plato:

Do you ever stop to think how much of your life is spent in performing rituals?

A wild animal lives largely by obeying his instincts, a human being by the rituals he fol-

HAL

BOYLE

lows.

Rituals are the little habits of conduct by which we meet the common occurences of our existence. They govern us from dawn to dawn, from Monday through Sunday. They are help ful because th^J^lil us what tc do in most situations, but sometimes they also bore us half to death.

They become too patterned, loo chorelike, and at times we yearn to break out of the confinement of rituals and do something wild, free and mildly insane. And, of course, at times most of us do.

Here are a few commonplace rituals:

Shaving, the most irksome task of any mans life.

Brushing your teeth.

Spraying something in your armpits so you wont smell like nature meant you to.

Telling a hospital patient he looks swell when he looks like hell.

Saying something nice about Ihe hero of the occasion at a funeral, when your private opinion is that the world would have been better off if he had died ten years before.

Picking up bar and restaurant checks for liberated women.

Laughing at the right time when the boss tells a joke, no matter whether you memorized the joke yourself when you were in high school.

Congratulating the pastor of your church on Sunday on the powerful sermon he preached (hat you never really listened to.

Going to functions where they have after dinner speeches.

Going to cocktail parties where everybody is either too clever or too pontifical.

Telling" our innocent little children how they must behave (Continued on page 6)

40 Years Ago Today

ByGWYNCOGHILL February 8.1933 The Carolina-Virginia Tobacco Companys $80,(X)0 re-drying plant and stem-mery with the contents of 1(X),000 pounds of tobacco and 7,(K)0 bags of peanuts were destroyed by fire in Tarboro last night. Origin of the blaze, the most destructive that has visited the city in many years, was undetermined.

Governor J.C.B. Ehringhaus of North Carolina, said today he had received an invitation to attend the conference in Washington. D.C.. March with President -Eiect Roosevelt and the governors of all the forty-eight states. The governor will attend the Roosevelt inauguration while there.

Fuel Oil Promotion Mistimed

By JOHN CUNMFF .AP Business .Analyst

NEW YORK (AP) - While alarm is expressed over the threat of a serious oil shortage. the National Oil Fuel Institute has produced for distributors a little folded advertisement designed for "stuffing in mail to customers.

It is a classic of mistiming. Simulated on the first page are headlines such as "Electric Customers Suffer 8-Hour Blackout" and Gas Company Cuts Service" followed by the question, "Aren't you glad you have oil heat?"

More accurately stated, it would read. "Aren't you glad when you have oil heat?" The possibility of shortages

seemingly never occurred to the institute, which continues :

"As an oil heat customer, you don't have to worry about being left out in the cold next winter or. for many, many winters.... That's because there's plenty of heating oil around for everyone, and more is being discovered all the time."

Could the industry really have been so shortsighted? Could it have failed to foresee a shortage that was only weeks away? <

The answer is complex. Some did see it but. like retirement to a 45-year-old worker, it didn't seem eal Some knew that energy demands were rising, but they didn't foresee the political, economic and en

vironmental obstacles to supply.

A large part of the industry foresaw many of the problems but felt stymied in doing much about tiiem because of the absence of a national energy policy in which government and private efforts were coordinated.

If today's shortages had been foreseen 10 to 15 years ago and effective action taken, we w ould be nearly self-sufficient today, John McLean, head of Continental Oil Co.. said at a media reception to announce 1972 earnings of $170 mijlion.

Instead, the country is highly dependent upon foreign imports- while domestic and continental energy supplies remain un

tapped or underutilized Only 30 per cent of oil is taken from wells today, for example, before they become uneconomic.

This provokes some questions: t Why* should the nation be vulnerable to foreign governments?

Why should it continue to add to its huge payments deficit'

Why shouldn't the United States develop its resources for the benefit of its residents^

Many of the poluical. governmental, economic and environmental restraints on the industry will continue over the next decade, while demand is expected to nearly double. If it s bad now. it can get much worse.