Picasso Legacy For The Ages

OUR ONE LAST IRON IN THE FIRE!

No doubt Mankind will spend centuries digesting the influence of Pablo Picasso on the world of art.

Piccasso died in France this week at the age of 91. His period had spanned the great era of world history that saw most everything we consider modern developedthe automobile, aircraft, electric power and, perhaps the thing that affected his style most, photography.

Basic Catalyst Of Tax Reform

RALEIGH Politics is the catalyst moving tax* reform from the realm of abstract discussion to realistic possibility in the 1973 General Assembly.

WTien Gov. Jim Holshouser, a Republican, gave his support to repeal of the soft drink tax, it sent Democratic legislators searching for alternatives

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IIAISLIP

It cast a hopeful new light on proposals to take the sales tax off food and make it up with adjustments in tax rates on higher incomes, reform ideas promoted in two sessions by Sen. McNeill Smith of Guilford.

"Now weve got a chance. said Smith. Tax reform is the best issue to unite Democrats, east and west, rural and urban.

The platform he advocates is equity in taxation based on ability to pay, and assurance thaf any relief granted will reach the greatest number of citizens.

While tax reform has been talked by intellectuals and populist politicians for some time, evidence of broad public response has been slow in building. Most legislators are convinced that the majority of Tar Heels are lukewarm to repeal of any taxes, and insistent in demands for further services.

Public Favor Rising

Smith said he detects awakening public sentiment for changes aimed at a fairer distribution of the revenue burden. "Ive had a lot more letters on the subject recently, he reported. Now that it looks possible, I believe we will see it is something the people really want.

The opportunity for a demonstration of public support will come at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, he said. A date is not firm, but the hearing probably will be held next week.

Taken as a package. Smith pointed out. his reform program would not weaken the states total resources.

A more limited approach, taken up by some Democrats, would simply lop off one cent of the sales tax on food. What that would cost is revenue would be roughly the same as repeal of the soft drink tax, or about $20 million per year.

Despite Gov. Holshousers indication that North Carolina can afford to give up the money brought in by the soft drink tax. Democratic leaders keep a cautious at

titude.

Tax Relief Secondary Lt. Gov. Jim Hunt said he has not changed his position that tax relief is secondary to unmet needs. The budget prepared by the Appropriations Committee must be carefully evaluated, he said, before consideration for reducing revenues.

"In light of federal cutbacks in essential programs in North Carolina, to take a substantial bite out of the tax base would have very serious consequences, he warned.

In the event a tax cut is possible, he added, it should be as broadly based as we can make it. We should take into account the fairness and equity of the tax, and also whos going to get it back. The soft drink tax would rank high as a candidate for elimination on the basis of its discriminatory bature, he granted, in terms of who get the tax back, food would rate higher, Hunt said.

Repeal of the soft drink tac has been the object of a highly visible and intensive lobbying campaign by the industry.

Hard Choice Posed What some Democrats would like is to put the Republicans and Gov. Holshouser in the politically uncomfortable position of choosing between a special interest, such as the bottlers, and the tax on food.

Efforts to get a vote on soft drink tax repeal in the House Finance Committee failed last week. It was sent, along with a variety of tax reduction measures, to a subcommittee for study. The delaying tactic presented a serious handicap to the repeal effort.

In the aftermath, Holshouser intimated he nfight revise his position after assessing the situation. Im not prepared to say yea or nay right now. he said, on whether he will stick with the soft drink tax repeal.

The larger question is the scope of the revenue structure, not just a single levy, said Sen. Smith. North Carolina has moved over the past decade from dependence on the income tax to the sales tax as its major source, he said. Id like to see that trend reversed, he said.

Taxpayers would come off better under his plan, even those in the $20,000 income bracket, he predicted. The typical family at that level would pay $10 more income tax and save $40 in sales tax on food, he said.

Higher taxes would result for less than three per cent of taxpayers, those at the very top, he said. Through credit on federal income tax. Smith noted, they would recoup some of the increase to the state a form of revenue sharing.

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He was actively at work on new art, which will become priceless treasurers, right up to his death. Contrary to the image of the great artist whose work is only appreciated many years after death, Picasso enjoyed huge success while he lived and was probably the worlds richest artist because of it.

Picassos style was tremendously controversial and from most of us it brought forth the observation, It may be ^rt, but I dont understand

it.

Picassos answer was, Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of birds? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But where art is concerned people think they must understand it.

Picasso was the genius of modern art. His output of work was huge and because he lived so many years, he left us a legacy of art which will elicit debate and controversy for years and even centuries to come. It may be equally as long before the effect of his work on art and design is fully evaluated and appreciated.

There's Not Much The Peacekeepers Can Do

There is not much the peace keeping mission in Vietnam can do, if its helicopters are to be shot down by Communist forces.

Nine persons were killed in a helicopter crash over the weekend, including four members of the commission. Since then two other helicopters have been shot at in missions over Viet Cong-held territory.

The Viet Cong expressed deep regret at the deaths but claimed the helicoptor was off its prescribed path.

A peace keeping commission should be able to go whereever it needs to go to end the shooting in Vietnam. It is most regrettable that this is not now the case.

Deaf Ears In White House

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - The deepening resistance of Richard M. Nixons White House to outside criticism on the disastrous course of the new Nixonomics was dramatized in the Presidents refusal to accept a prepaid telephone call from Dr. Pierre Rinfret last week.

Rinfret, Canadian-born head of the New York economic consulting firm of Rinfret Boston Assoi&iates, sometimes acts the brash iconoclast in the occult world of economics. But to President Nixon and the 110 gilt-edged financial and industrial clients in Rinfrets consulting portfolio, he is more often regarded as a trend-setter whose advice politicians of all ideologies seek out.

Indeed, President Nixon thought so highly of Rinfrets ability to marry economics and politics on the speaking platform that he named him chief campaign spokesman for economics last fall. There never was any r^ret inside the White House over that decision.

Yet, when Rinfret attempted to telephone his galvanic alarm over runaway inflation to Mr. Nixon one day last week, he failed to reach not only the President but his chief of staff, H. R. (Bob) Haldeman. Instead, Rinfret was deftly deflected to Haldemans assistant, Lawrence M. Higby. Higby listened and said nothing when Rinfret, in a burst of exasperation, told him to inform Mr. Nixon that the new Nixonomics of rampant inflationwith no sign of serious preventive medicine either at the White House or in George Shultzs Treasury Departmentmark the political Waterloo of the Nixon presidency.

Rinfret is not the only objective, outside economist now convinced that if Mr.

Nixon does not plant across-the-board price controls on everything the American consumer buysa major shift in administration policy which had not occurred as we write this the American economy will be sucked ever deeper into ruinous Brazilian-style inflation, followed by recession.

Albert Sindlinger, probably the nations leading expert on consumer analysis, is telling his marketing research clients that his earlier prediction of an acceptably gentle economic downturn in the fourth quarter 6f 1973 has been drastically changed. The new prediction; a full-fledged recession.

Sindlingers remarkably accurate polling data, based on thousands of nationwide telephone samples, shows a precipitous decline in consumer confidence since the Presidents self-defeating and politically disastrous March 29 ceiling on meat prices ceilinged at their highest price level in history. It shows, more ominously, a dangerous increase in hedge buying against future inflation.

In short, it makes this telling economic point with immense political significance: that inflation psychology, all but knocked out during the successful Phase I and II of the Presidents anti-inflation program, was magically reborn with the pro-inflation adrenalin shot of Phase III three months ago.

There is, moreover, irrefutable evidence that Mr. Nixon had originally planned a far more draconian antiinflation move on March 29. The speech he made that night, imposing a ceiling on meat prices, was originally drafted by the President himself with little advice from do-nothing administration economists. At the last minute, however,

(Continued on page 6)

Strength For Today

GOD CARES

Does God have any real care for our needs?

Men have asked this question with^ bated breath from the beginning of time. Hiere is nothing academic about a question of this type. Men ask it as the circumstances of life jostle them. It is in the hours of darkness that they doubt the goodness of God. If they are broken by evil fortune they anxiously ask themselves and anyone el^ who will listen to them: does (Jod really care?

The Bibles answer to this

question is always positive and unwavering. Yes, God does care. He is against our sin, but he is never against us. In sunlight and darkness, in health and in disability, in prosperity and poverty, in achievement and in disappointment, God is always with us. Even the Old Testament writers, to whom the fulness of Gods loving purpose had not been revealed, affirm that God is good. In the New Testament, we find the full answer to this question as we look upon the life and purposes of Christ.

By Earl Douglass

"'S'

-/

By ART BUCHWALD

Inspector Colombo Calls

WASHINGTON-Peter Falk playing his famous role of Columbo walked into the East Room of the White House in his dirty raincoat and flashed his police card. Inspector Columbo he said showing it to Fh'esident Nixon. Say, this sure is a nice house you got here. How much does a place like this cost?

Im 'having a private party for my staff, the \^^dent said indignantly, ni^at do you want?

Oh, I really apologize, Columbo said. I didnt mean to come busting in on a party. Say, is that a i^j^oil painting of George Wasmgton? Its a fantastic work of aredont get me wrong, I dont know anything about painting.

Will you state your

business. Inspector?

Im jsut making some routine inquiries about the Watergate bugging case. You see. Im on loan to the Senate investigating committee from the Los Angeles Police Department. It will only take a few minutes. We have nothing to hide here, the President said. This is my assistant, H. R. Haldeman, my legal aide, John Dean III, my former assistant, Charles Colson, the former secretary of commerce, Maurice Stans,~and the former attorney general, John Mitchell, and his wife Martha.

This is really a great honor, Columbo said. I never thought I would get to meet so many important people. Wait till I tell my

Other Editors Say 'Accident Of Birth'

(Goldsbwo News-Argus)

'Ihe U.S. Siq>reme Courts ruling upholding the use of local property taxes to finance public schools has, perhaps predictably, been decried by a number of educators.

Hie yield of crops and the concentration of wealth in individual communities will continue to determine the king of education each child receives, says Allan M. West, acting executive secretary of the National Education Association.

Hius the quality of education a child receives depends in no small part upon the accident of birth or residencethe place a childs parents happen to live.

'Hiis is essentially true, but it is also true that a great many other things in life also depend upon the accident of birth, beginning with looks and basic physical staminathe kind of parents one happens to choose.

The question is how far government should attempt to level out the inequalitites of life, and this seems to be one thicket which the Supreme Court wisely refrained from leaping into.

If it is properly within the domain of the courts to equalize the financial disparities between a states school districts, what about the disparities between the quality of police and fire Iffotection and other government services in each community? 'Hien there is the larger question of educational inequalities between the states themselves.

As West points out, there is nothing in the decision to prevent the states from reforming their own school finance systems. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., writing 'for the majority, made clear that the court was not endorsing the status quo. ^

This, and the fact that there have been so many class-action * suits on the issue, not just the one in Texas on which the court based its decision, suggests that it is a very real problem which the individual states must sooner or later find ways of remedying.

wife, aies really going to be bowled over."

What exactly is it you want to know? the President asked.

Oh, yes, Columbo said, taking out his pad and pencil. Now let me see.

Martha Mitchell said, Inspector, Id like to tell you a few things about the Watergate....

Martha, will you shut up? John Mitchell interrupted.

Theyre not going to hang this on my John, Martha said.

Martha!

Can I offer you a drink. Inspector? the President asked.

Just some orange juice if youve got it, Mr. President. I have a bad stomach. You know in this jdb you never eat properly. Last night I had a tuna fish sandwich on a roll and....

Will you get on with it. Inspector? H. R. Haldeman said. ^

Im sorry, where was I? Oh yes, now about the Watergate. This is just routine, you understand, but where were each of you the night of the break-in? I was watching Patton, the President said.

I was in Mexico City at a bank, Maurice Stans said.

I was reading FBI files, John Dean III said.

L was cutting the budget, H. R. Haldeman replied.

Ill tell you where John was, Martha Mitchell said.

Martha, clam up, John Mitchell said.

Well if Idont tell him. Ill tell United Press, Martha said.

You see, Columbo said, shutting his notebook, I knew this would all be a waste of time. I told them no one in the White House knows anything about the Watergate. Say, that is some rug. Do you mind if I take a pj^ure of it to show the folks irt Los Angeles?

Just then the butler came in with Columbos glass of orange juice.

Thank you very much, Columbo said to the butler, I (Continued oh page 6)

Boyle

Views

Life

By HAL BOYLE NEW YORK (AP) Jumping to conclusions:

Most men cant speU may-onaisse.

At any one timeexcept whi they are asleepno more than two out of every ti people are usually free enough from fear, passion, financial troubles or loneliness to be called as sane and normal as they should be. When they are asleep, the number of normal people probably rises to two out of fiveon good nights.

HAL

BOYLE

If you are over 40 and want to be shocked by how far you have failed physically, simply play a game of hopscotch with a lO-year-old girl.

The cheapest millionaires are tho^ who sm(*e cigars. They will generously take you to lunch, but when you return to their office for a talk they will fi^ a big cigar from an expensive box of them on Uie desk and spend the next hour blowing smoke in your face. Rarely will they hold out the box to you and iiivite you to have one or a handful. To them the cigars are a kind of symbolic reward which only they deserve. If you need a free cigar, ask a cab drivernot a millionaire.

On a rainy day, three times as many men as women will get their eyeball stuck by the point of an umbrella. Anyone who' thinks this percentage is accidental doesnt know human natureor the female gender.

The reason I havent taken up yoga, as many of my friends have, is that I figure if God had wanted me to be a pretzel, he would have made me one.

The ordinary adult feels about teen-agers pretty much like Gelett Burgess felt about the purple cowhed rather see than be one. Speaking of Burgess, here are three more lines from this wry and partly forgotten humorist you may like: Many people live alone and like it. but most of thn live alone and look it. To be two years a widow exceedeth a college education. If the Lord would only send something in-tresting, I wouldnt mind if it was only a plaid pig.

Any girl who sticks a guy for a sirloin steak three times in a row when he takes her out to dinner doesnt deserve marriage anyway. v

One out of three people who take up an office collection for any cause doesnt chip in a buck himself. And it isnt because he forgets to.

Guys with white shoes dont wear very well either.

One of the things I feel sorry for about kids growing up today is that most of them never have put their ear to a railroad track to hear if the train is coming. Remember what a thrill and feeling of daring that gave you the first time you did it?

For that matter, how many alive now can recall ever having been switched by a buggy whip? Once was enough to improve any character.

No man really knows the my^ery of life until he has (Continaed Oa Page 6)

Environmental Care Is Costly

life, a

By JOHN CUNIFF AP Business Analyst

NEW YORK (AP) - The American way of primarily the quest for cleaner, safe, more secure environment, is contributing inexorably to the problem of rising prices.

Cleaner air, safer cars and more employment security are some of the more positive and desirable factors that can lead to higher prices. But negatives, such as poor workmanship, are equally potent inflators.

_ Close to 37 million vehicles have been recalled in years for the correction safety defects, at least jpome of which can be attributed to faulty worktiWanship at the design or assemUy stage.

Another negative factor is theft. In a new book,

of

Security Control: Internal Theft, Bob Curtis, a business and government ^consultant on retail store theft comments;

Employe theft is the most critical element in store inventory shortages. It accounts for an^ estimated 60 to 75 per cent of a stores losses, and nearly a third of ail business failures...are Ix-ought about by employe theft.

Environmental issues, however, appear to be second only to rising demand itself in pushing up some prices, not just for gasoline, fuel oil and electricity but, it is claimed, for new housing also.

Advance Mortgage Q)rp., a home mortgage lender, claims that efcological restrictions already are pushine uo oricqf ilk ,

/ *'

Washington, D.C., Southern C^alifornia, the New York suburbs and less pronouncedly in Atlanta and Chicago.

P^^adoJtically, says Irving Ros, president, the ecological restrictions have increased demand. The news that they are in prospect converts future into present buyers. People rush jo acquire their piece of Eden before the gates are shut.

Lumber suppliers and critics of U.S. land policy also claim that short supplies could be alleviated somewhat by permitting easier access to reserves on public lands.

Automobile safety standards are criticized as inflationary in this months First National Qty Bank Monthly Economic Letter, which suggests "*that some

requirements might be made less rigid and others optional.

It notes that an Office of Science and Technology report estimates the 1975-1976 federal standards could hike the retail price of a car by $350, or twic what industry \ officials believe would be the I cost of less stringent , California measures.

An Environmental Protection Agency report to Congress estimates that in 1977,^ when all federal controls on motor vehicles are scheduled to be effective, the annual costs will be more than $8 billion.

It is not only the demand 'for quantity thats pushing up prices^), the demapd for quality is, too.