No Surprise In Hospital Bids

With st^dily ris^ construction costs it is not too surmising that bids for the new Pitt Memorial Hospital came in well above the money allocated for the jM*oject.

The bids and various costs for the new complex

Professional Gambling Eyed

By BILL NOBLITT

RALEIGH Millions of dollars are lost gambling in North Carolina every year, but worse than that. State Bureau of Investigations Director Charles Dunn believes, are related crimes spawned by gambling activities.

In the past several months, there have been at least six murders directly tied into professional gambling activities in this state. And those are just the ones we are positive of. There are probably more murders connected to gambling which we cant tie in, Dunn said.

Also, the SBl chief said, he has hard facts on other types of crime promoted by gambling. Our records consistently show that some of our criminals regularly engaged in safecracking and in many robberies are tied into gambling, he said.

What can the SBI and other law enforcement agencies do about the problem?

Law Is Confused Very little Dunn concedes. Largely because North Carolina gambling laws are a hodge-podge, and end up putting professional gamblers and Wednesday night poker players and office workers who flip for a bottle of pop or cup of coffee in the same boat: guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or up to two years in jail.

The result is, nobody goes to jail for gambling. We are making a number of good sound cases every year, and to my knowledge since I have been director of the SBI no one has gone to jail.

Dunn would like to see some major changes in those laws, primarily a change which would make the professional gambler guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. .

To do that, a sharp line has got to be drawn between the professional gambleror as legal terminology has it a person who advances, {NX)motes and-or profits from a gambling operation and pecle who only participate, EHinn said.

Just about everytime I make a speech on drugs at a school, this qu^tion comes up: how come youre busting kids for poss^sing some marijuana, and letting all this bigtime gambling go (m? Dimn said.

Dunn said the SBI coi^rated with local officials in making 68 gambling arrests this year, including confiscating 52 slot machines and truckloads of punch boards and other gambling devices. Of those convicted of running gambling operations, the average fine was ^60.

Thats petty cash...and theyre back in operation in a matter of days, Dunn said. He recalled that one sports gambling operation in Randolph County has been hit six times, another seven times, and both are still in opo'ation.

Burning Violation

It's gotten so bad that when our men went in to raid them, and the operator started burning some of the paper tickets, one of my agents charged him with unlawful burning feeling he would get a bigger sentence out of that than from the gambling charge, Dunn said

How big is the business in North Carolina? I dont really know. IlQidw it is in the multi-million dollar class, but whether that means $5 million or $10 million or $25 million, we cant say, Dunn said.

Dunn and Attorney Howard Satisky met with the N..C. House Judiciary Committee Number One recently to plead for a rewriting of state lawprimarily to make professional gambling a felony, and also to take the heavy penalties off those who participate in gambling but arent operators.

Present law is a mess. If you and I flip a coin for a Coca-Cola were just as guilty as the guy running a big lottery opeation. Now thats ridiculous, Satisky said.

Satisky, now in private practice in Raleigh, was formerly a member of the Attorney Generals staff and drafted a bill which would make the changes in the gambling laws. He said his own personal preference would be to completely remove any laws dealing with players whether they flip coins, take part in a Wednesday night poker game at somebodys house or visit a professional gambling establishment.

Its ridiculous to bring somebody into court for a Wednesday night ptricer game when the judge was probably playing poker that night, too. Even a legislator or two has been known to play a little poker. The idea here is to get the prafessional gambler...running a criminal enterprise, Satisky said.

The committee, chaired by Wake County Rep. Howard Twiggs, will take a further look at the proposed law with an eye to some legislative change in the upcoming session of the General Assembly in January.

Armed Fortress To illustrate his concern over the growing professional nature of gambling in the state, Dunn described a fortress in northeast North Carolina run by gamblers from Norfolk, Va. The house is in a rural field surrounded by dense woods in which armed guards patrol.

Another bigtime operation is located on a houseboat which takes on board the people to play then cruises away from land and lawmen.

Another. Dunn said, is a rotating operation using motel suites in the Piedmont section where the operators serve food, drinks and continue in operation around the clock for several days before moving on.

The Daily Reflector

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HIM \tmrn nimtomnmill T in "Til 1 Viil >ii

totalled $18.8 million but the amount oi money an hand and in sight totals only $14.195.

This means that additional funds will have to be found somewhere or cuts will have to be made in the building t6 bring the costs of its construction in line.

County officials have 90 days in which to award the contracts. At the end of that time they could reject the bids and re^id the proiect. However, with the constantly rising cost of building, if the project were re>advertised there is a good chance that the new bids would come in even higher.

The county commissioners will hav some difficult decisions to make concerning the new hospital within the next few weeks. They will have to decide whether to reduce the scope of the project, or to attempt to come up with more money. Either way it is going to be difficult, but it is our hope that some way can be found to construct the hospital as it is presently envisioned.

Senseless Vandalism Causes Needless Delay

It is regrettable that senseless vandalism could delay the completion of needed housing; yet this has happened in the Newtown project.

It was reported at the Housing Authority meeting that vanijals had tom out copper piping and concrete would have to be tom up to repair the damage.

This could delay the time when these homes will be available to families who needed them in addition to being costly.

It is regrettable that vandals dont think about what they are doing, before they deny housing to those who need it.

Iraq May Turn To Washington

By ROWLAND EVANS and ImBERT NOVAK

BAGhVaPUnprecedented straids, on Iraqs relationship with its less militant neighbors, particularly Syria, and with its treaty benefactor, the Soviet Union, may be opening the way for a far more flexible

Baghdad foreign and commercial policy, with important prospects for Washington.

Possibly reflecting this change, Saddam Hussain, the most resourceful and powerful figure here as vice president of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), hinted to us in his first postwar interview with a Western reporter that reappraisal of relations with the U.S. might be in order.

Severance of diplomatic relations (broken during the six-day war of 1967), he said, should not be permanent. As a matter of fact, there are many countries with disagreements who maintain diplomatic relations.

Likewise,, the suave and darkly-handsome Hussain carefully indicated that Iraqs awards of multi-million-dollar development contracts to U.S. concerns in the last few months would not be revoked (assuming the war isnt renewed).

If America makes a bid better than others, we waste no time to make the award, he told us. We cannot lock Iraq up in a safe.

Often viewed by the West as Arab enemy No. 1, Iraq was treated by other Arab states as a poor relation before, during and after the war of Yom Kippur. It was relentlessly ignored.

For example, despite the clear language of Article 8 in its 1972 treaty with Moscow calling for immediate consultation in situations, .which threaten the peace of eitherthe RCC had no hint from Moscow that war was imminent. Nor did it have a word of consultation on Moscows sudden decision to try to end it with a joint U.S. ceasefire appeal.

The first public comment on the war by Iraqs tightly controlled press on Oct. 6, the day Israeli forces were attacked, was a short radio commentary calling the war just another imperialist plot. On Sunday, Oct. 7, a key Arab diplomat here redeived this urgent question from the RCC: Is this war serious?

On being told it was, Iraq immediately dispatched two armored brigades and part of a third division to the Syrian Mt. Hermon front on the (k)lan Heights. Its air force went into action both on the Syrian and Egyptian fronts.

So unprepared was Iraq that, pitifully short on tank carriers,, it had to. send its tanks to the Syrian front on their own treads, some 300 miles over paved roads. Carriers were borrowed from Saudi Arabia and possibly Kuwait which picked up the tanks halfway. Although Iraqi casualties in the bloody Galan battles were extremely high, Arab diplomats here claim Iraq closed a gap oiT Syrias northern (jrolan front which blocked Israels ap proach to Damascus.

When Washington and Moscow surfaced their ceasefire plan, the Iraqi foreign minister flew to Damascus and obtained Syrias secret pledge to reject it. He then flew to Algeria, obtained a pledge there of opposition to any ceasefire, and on to Liby afor the same purpose. On landing in Tripoli, however, he heard over the radio that Syria had accepted the ceasefire.

That partially explains the immediate and furious Iraqi withdrawal of all its troops from Syria. As for Moscows failure to consult, one ranking official told us: We have made the appropriate debit mark in Moscows ledger.

Saddam Hussain and the Baathist government are now engaged in an emotional political campaign against the ceasefire, against compromise on the Israeli question and against Arab

(Continued on page 5)

Strength For Today

LIKE BEATEN ANVILS Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was sentenced to death for his religion, and in the year 116 AD. was cast to the lions for the amusement of the peo{de, as Emperor Trajan asserted in the death warrant. Yet, on his way from Antioch to Rome, Ignatius wrote a series oi epistles which insinred his generation and which reveal to the present day the undying courage of the man. At Troas he sent a message to his young colleague, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna,

things the injunction, Stand like a beaten anvil. Later he wrote, (Dome fire and cross, grapplings with wild beasts, crushing my whole body; cmly be it mine to attain Jesus Christ.

The Christian church has, at times during its life, been tempered in the hot fires of persecution. But the sjurit of St. Ignatius lives on. Let us h(^ that there will omtinue to be multitudes oi men 9^ are willing fcnr the sake oi their faith to stand like beaten anvils.

.. .\iid some of the |M*o|ile all of tin* liiiuv Iml W4* cairi

fuel all of tlie jKNiiiJe all of the time.*

Big 3' Hopes Dimmed

By CARL P. LEUBSI>ORF AP PoIHIcal Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The unpredictability of premature presidential politics is being demonstrated in the difficulties of three 1976 Republican hopefuls, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Rockefeller and John <?onnalIy.

All three have been running into trouble this fall in the opening moves of what they hope will be successful White House bids in 1976.

Reagan and Rockefeller encountered significant setbacks in last weeks off-year election, while Connallys star dimmed amid last months GOP outcry at the possibility he might become vice president.

Reagan had campaigned hard for his constitutional amendment that would limit future state taxes and spending. He planned to make it a major plank in his expected presidential bid.

But the proposal was rejected decisively 'Tuesday, by more than 300,0(K) votes. 'The complex issue was seen by many as a referendum on Reagan himself.

'The 62-year-old governor was undeterred, however, declaring he might use the issue to reveal to people how difficult it is to halt the growth of government, the entrenched position that the government establishment has.

By ART BUCKWALD

Questions And

WASHINGTON'The mail has been very heavy from readers in the past few weeks

and I feel obligated to answer some of the questions that keep popping up in my let-o

And the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew has left Reagan, according to polls, the top choice of GOP conservatives.

_ Rockefeller, meanwhile, suf-

^ \A/ r* ^ array of setbacks

I I O wV I O around New York state. His

home county of Westchester, for the first time in history, elected a Democratic county

executive.

Other Editors Soy Fever Spreads

(Cartaret News-Times)

Investigate is becoming as popular as blaming everything on the Communists used to be.

The states lieutenant governor recently decided to name an investigating committee to look into the governors firing of a hundred highway department employees.

The News and Observer, Raleigh, calls it a dangerous step, commenting on it as follows:

The potential for abuse is substantial. And its not limited to political controversies. When will a Senate committee be given subpoena power to compel testimony from such sometimes controversial interests as utility companies, labor unions, trade groups and foundations! When will the turn of private citizens come? The answer has to be when some future lieutenant governor similarly armed with subpoena power thinks its in the public interestand in the interest of his career.

The Senate was unwise to give the present lieutenant governor this authority. It tempted him to act in just such a heated controversy as has developed over the highway department firings.

The firings in the highway department unquestionably are legal. On the whole, and despite the heated partisan reaction, the firings probably are justified too. There are more than 12,500 jobs in this most politicized of state agencies. And given the departments record of swift readjustment to every new governor, it is absurd to think that there arent always at least 100 politican operatives and hacks on its payroll.

Former Gov. Robert Scott tocdc office publicly promising to shake the ol apple tree in the highway department. He did it, too. . .

Governor Holshouser is cleaning house politically; not very skillfully, and perhaps not justly in some individual cases. But he is not setting a precedent. His dismissals arent reason to open a Pandoras box and release on this state a new brand of legislative committee, frightening people with new subpoena power.

Lieutenant Governor Hunt should reconsider his precedent setting move to investigate the highway department firings, at least until the legislature reconvenes. It is a hasty action, not^ well thought out and not at all debated by the Senate in whose name it is taken.

ters.

QDo you think President Nixon was wrong in turning over only seven of the nine tapes he promised to Judge Sirica?

ART

BUCHWALD

ANo, I dont. Nobodys perfect and, while the media have been very critical of the Presidents failure to produce the two missing tapes, no one has given him credit for the seven he turned over. I think we should emphasize the good things the President has been doing and not the bad things.

QWhy did the President fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox?

ABecause Cox wouldnt stop wearing bow ties. The President hates bow ties and on several occasions he asked Cox to wear a regular tie like everyone else in the Administration. Cox refused and Nixon had no choice but to get rid of him. Its impossible for a President to run a country when his own special prosecutor refuses to obey a direct order concerning his neckwear.

QWhy does the President go to Camp David every night?

ABecause he cant get any sleep at the White House. People stand in front of 1600

(Continued on page 5)

Other suburban and most upstate areas also showed some decline in traditional Republican strength, while the GOP virtually was wiped out in New York City.

A $3.5-billion transportation bond issue, for which he had campaigned, also was defeated.

In neighboring New Jersey, where Rockefeller went to campaign for conservative GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles W. Sandman Jr., Republicans suffered their worst defeat ever.

Democrat Brendan T. Byrne beat Sandman by better than 2-to-1, and Republicans lost heavily in the legislative and local races.

As for Connally, some friends think he has suffered substantially from the reaction that oc- ^ curred when it was speculated Nixon would pick him last month to succeed the resigned Agnew.

Republican leaders in the Senate said flatly that selection of the former Democratic governor would split the party and he would be rejected.

Nixons request to GOP lawmakers for a listing of favorites brought a noticeable lack of support for Connally.

There also were inklings from the Connally camp that the Texan had decided he didnt want the nomination anyway, out of a desire to keep some distance from Nixon and the detailed background investigation that faced the vice presidential nominee.

Reading Wall St. Barometers

By JOHN CUNNIFF AP Business Analyst

NEW YORK (AP) - As a barometer of economic and business activity, the stock markets record isnt outstanding. Its needle sometimes points to sunshine and rain foUows. It falls, but the economic weather improves.

But when y(Hi see those averages mired in the same low range for between 5 and 10 years, you must conclude the barometers are rusty or the weather really is bad.

The likelihood is that the barometers, although perhaps faulty, arent the primary reason for those low readings. They hardly could be wrong to-getho-.

The Dow J<mes industrial average is back to where it was in 1966.

The Standard It Poors 500-stock composite is only a bit hitler than it was in 1968.

The New York ^ock Exchange composite index is below its 1968 reading.

The Value Line unwei^ted

en to 1963 levels.

More than that, the new rules confront business with limitations it cannot understand.

Incredible as it may sound, growth could become a dirty word, particularly if it uses up too much energy or pollutes or reduces the supply of essential materials.

How does a businessman, reared to believe uncritically in the goodness of growth, use all his aggressive instincts in pursuit of restraint? How does he explain it to stockholders? How will stockholders respond?

It is these questions that lie at the base of the problem. Even before the full definition of the energy crisis sank into public awareness, invesUxTs were concerned about (Hrofits.

Various analysts have noted that while profits reached record highs, they mi^t have included an illusion. They wca% inflated inventory buying that will reduce future sales. They failed to account fen* deterioration of plants.

But now they realize that no is far

more meaningful. TTie markets product is growth Without growth there isnt a product.

The age of shortage has arrived in the land of plenty. The acquisitive demands and the insistence on spending that have been bred into Americans has produced enormous consumption and now shortages.

The selloff last Friday, in which the DJ industrial average sank 24.24 points to 906.41, IH*ovided more than a clue as to what bothers the market. The message was that the country was short of energy, and energy is synonymous with profit.

Rarely, in fact, have the ups and downs the maricet in re-coit months been so clearly attributable to one cause. Almost always there were multifde factors. But oa Friday there was one big reason.

Recognition <rf vdiat an energy shortage means to the American eccmomy is only gradually being absorbed by the consciousness. Everyone knows it mi^t mean rationing, automdl)Ue bans, ciild apart-mmrn,^ Bat >t maans mati

more.

Just as the closing of the frontier, as described by Prof. * Frederick Jackson Turner, caused America to reach a historic, reflective level of maturity, the end of plentiful resources is another watershed.

It signifies the end of easy, profitable exploitation. Gradually the public is realizing that an economy cannot operate by digging holes and not refilling them, dumping waste in its drinking water, destroying without replenishing.

For business, the complexities grow, and so do the costs. It costs dearly to observe the rules of conservation and community rights.

Americans are collecting almost anything, but not stocks. You can sit in an antique chair but not in stocks; you cant ride stocks, you cant use them for shelter, you wouldnt want to hang them on your walls.

The primary and almost file lone reatpn for buying stock is to raise your level of living. And if stocks arent likely to do that, you wont find