rilo l)ail\ Hoflootor. (irooinillo. Thursday. January Ifi, 197.

Electricity Costs Will Go Up

A SOUR BUT COMPELLING NOTE!

Local electric customers may as well brace themselves for major increases in the cost of electricity.

First, the fuel charge, which all of us see on our bills every month is creeping up again. Right now it is reflecting the higher cost of coal, which is used for much of our power generating and which is increasing due to the higher cost brought on by the recent labor settlement, as well as other factors.

In the next few months the $3 per barrel tax on imported and domestic oil. which President Ford has said will be imposed, will be reflected in the fuel charge. Bear in mind that the local utilities has no control over the fuel charge. It fluctuates according to fuel market conditions and is computed by the private companies which supply the power to the municipalities. The charge is added to the customers bill and then is paid to the private companies. It is a cost increase that requires no hearings for anything else, other than the fuel e^t computation. !

But in addition to that. Virginia Electric and Power has proposed a base increase of around 51 percent to wholesale municipal customers. That includes Greenville, and through Greenville,

THIS AFTERNOON

Winterville and Ay den.

The increase will require hearings before the Federal Power Commission, but in the meantime VEPCO will put the increase in effect under bond and begin collecting the additional charge Jan. 22 if the FPC allows it.

Greenville Utilities is presently studying its retail rates and they must be increased to reflect the wholesale rate increase GUC will soon be paying. The proposed new rates will soon be announced and a public hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall.

Local electric customers are not going to be very happy with the increases but it is an economic fact that both the additional fuel charge and the wholesale increase must be passed on by the municipalities. The only question is how the wholesale increase will be divided among the various categories of customers. It is our hope that the local utilities will follow the pattern recently set by the State Utilities Commission in requiring Duke and Carolina Power to place more of the burden on large electrical users.

1

Alternative School Course

By BILL NOBLITT RALEIGHWhether he is the candidate or not, Ben F. Currin is positive that somebody will offer an alternative course to the direction of public schools under present State Superintendent Craig Phillips.

Currin is aggressively testing the political waters with an eye to making the statewide race in the 1976 general election. What he does , Currin says, depends on the support he sees for his alternative position.

That position, he sums up, is a return to the basics of educationreading, writing, and arithmeticand a trimming of the faddish, experimental, bu^aucrat-ically top-heavy educational system which he believes operates the public school today.

I would have to find a clear indication of strong sentiment of support before I would entertain the idea of running for the office ... but even if I dont, somebody will who can offer a clear choice to the people, Currin said.

Finds Support The 38-yar-old Rocky Mount city schools superintendent professes a philosophy closely linked to that of State School Board Chairman Dallas Herring,

and says he has widespread support within the Classroom Teachers Association.

In all, Currin does not see himself as a Phillips antagonist : I have raised some questionssome construc

tive criticismsabout state leadership, the management by objectives approach to education, the time which teachers are required to spend writing long-range plans and short-range plans and doing other things instead of teaching.

But these questions must j be answered by the people of the state, Currin believes.

His principal criticism focuses on restoring public confidence in the ability of the public schools to produce ^ child who will be able to read, write legibly, and do arithmeticadding and subtractingwhen the child finishes elementary school. Some cant even do that now in high school. Our emphasis has been on workshops and management techniques and accountabilitynot on reading.

To the public, it looks like we are just floundering about trying to see if we, as ecKicators, have a magic qire,

I think we have it at our fingertips: our teachers can teach if given the time to teach, Currin said.

Time To Teach

But teachers today dont have the time to teach, Currin said. Career awareness, and other experimental programs, have been implemented which are not well thought out and planned. But more importantly they take time away from the more important role of the classroom teacher in elementaryand junior high . .

I feel we are trying to do too many things too fast and moving into many areas in which we are unsure. Those are the fads and frills of education ... at the expense of emphasis on the basic skills.

Currin. an Oxford native and graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a doctorate in school administration, has been a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and for the last four years superintendent of the Rocky Mount school system.

He comes down hard against the idea that seeking alternative answers would save money. It takes money to get quality education; the gut question is how that money is spent.

He thinks millions of dollars are now being wasted in bureaucratic fluff at the

top, overstaffing^ at the state and regional level in supervisors, directors, etc., at the expense of classroom teachers, and considers the state and federal funds being pumped into the Right to Read effort as money paying only for an empty slogan.

Teaching reading, he argues, does not require gimmicks and fads and massive numbers of special reading instructors and aides; it must be taught by classroom teachersnot by specialists. A majority of our elementary teachers could do the jobif they clearly understood that this is the priority, and if they were given the time to do this at all costs.

Above all, Currin thinks it is time for state and local educators, lawmakers, and parents to pull together to solve educational conflicts. He sees teachers and administrators fighting over labor-management issues, state and local officials fighting over control, and public school versus community college people fighting over who will do which job.

It is time to get through with this infighting and get on with the business of educating out children instead of figliting one another, Currin said.

The INSIDE REPORT

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK WASHINGTONWhen a special House Democratic task force met behind closed doors last Thursday to finish up its emergency economic package, it quickly, exposed the Achilles heel of congressional decision-making by killing proposals to loosen environmental restrictions and thereby conserve energy.

Unable to concoct language that would not offend environmentalist Congressmen, the task force decided to finesse this pivotal question by ignoring it. Nor was this an isolated example

within the task force of the old congressional obsession for consensus at the cost of rationality.

The task force, eyeing _ organized labors power, exempted wages from proposed economic controls. Instead of recommending specific steps to solve the energy crisis, it vaguely suggested several options. While endorsing ever-iX)pular consumer tax cuts, the task force did not even discuss how to stimulate desperately needed industrial expansion.

This soupy conglomeration is scarcely what was expected when Speaker Carl Albert, named a task force to

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seize the initiative from the floundering Ford administration. Its failure to draft a crisp program may deflate euphoric dreams, rampant among 75 freshmen Democratic House members, of the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress running the federal government.

Demonstrating that any President, no matter how weak, can make decisions more easily than a hydraheaded Congress are the task force recommendations on energy. Its tentative language drafted last month suggested possible temporary relaxation of environmental strictures on the burning of coal and on automobile emission controls. Another section added that those controls may have been responsible for high (auto) prices, lack of consumer confidence and energy shortfalls.

But at Thursdays windup meeting of the task force, Rep. Jonathan Bingham, a New York reform leader, argued that this language would offend en

vironmentalists and urged its removal. He was strongly backed by Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, running for President with environmentalist support, and Rep. Philip Burton of California, chairman of the House Democratic caucus and the most powerful figure on the task force.

The task force chairman, moderate Rep. Jim Wright of Texas, did not agree but, outnumbered, did not resist. While conceding that no comprehensive energy proposal could dodge environmental questions, another task force member told us there was no way to harmonize everybodys views.

In contrast. President Fords new energy program does harmonize differences on coal and auto emissions between Frank Zarb, Federal Energy administrator, and Russell Train, Environmental Protection director. When Zarb and Train deadlocked on one coal (Continued on Page 14)

Strength For Today

ALPHA AND OMEGA I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and omega is the late. This statement, which w^find in the Book of RevelaMw, is the declaration that God is the beginning and the end of everything. He is life from A to Z, as we would say today.

Hie BiUe is undeviating in its assurance that when people have faith in God they have everything. The pains.

the disappointments, the unfilled desiresthese things are nothing because there runs through them something that never fails, and that something is the spirit of the living God.

God is all-sufficient to those who put their trust in Him. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last In Him is completeness, sufficiency, unity.

By Elisba Douglass

By JAMES J. KILPATRICK

New Hampshire's Case

The United States Senate has been described, by some of its more extravagant admirers, as the greatest deliberative body on earth. In the matter of the New Hampshire election contest, the Senate will want to make a special effort to justify that high reputation.

The contest involves delicate considertions of partisan politics. It involves principles of federalism as old as the Republic. The issue cannot be resolved, one way or another, without creating a

precedent that will serve as a guide for the future. For all these reasons, the Senate has a high obligation to take its time, and to settle the matter with every appearance of absolute equity.

The election of November 5, 1974, saw three candidates in the New Hampshire race Republican Louis C. Wynian, former congressman and state attorney general; Democrat John A. Durkin, former insurance commissioner; and Carmen C. Chimento, a 44-year-old

The Achilles Heel Exposed

Other EiJitors Say Auto. Prospects

(Christian Science Monitor)

Detroit closed out one of its worst years in 1974 with auto sales down 22 percent from 1973, and a backlog of 1.7 million unsold cars.

The industry is suffering from what its executives call a buyers strike. Detroit may well have itself set the stage for the strike by running up prices more than $1,000 dollars on many models in little more than a year, an increase capped by the hike posted last summer on 1975 models. And therq were other factors. The energy crisis of last spring and the continuing confusion over energy policy and gasoline prices have made the public edgy about auto ownership. Then too, real income is down an average of 6 percent, and consumers, apprehensive about the depth and length of the recession, are trying to pay off the installment debts they already have.

Simple logic suggests that cutting prices would be the best way"to end the buyers strike. Better deals on used cars in trade-ins, some shaving of prices on options, longer warranty offers, have been tried by dealers and auto companies. And Chrysler Corp, is reportedly getting ready to give buyers rebates of $200 to $400.

But apparently the automakers are still trying to protect their sticker pricesagainst the possibility of a return to wage price controls as well as in hope of outlasting the buyers strike. And, some in the industry argue with the current general disinterest in buying cars, a price cut now might be premature. Better to wait until showroom interest picks up in the spring, they reason.

Meanwhile, Detroit may also be keeping an eye on help from Washington. Alan Greenspan, chairman of President Fords .. Council, of Economic Advisers, said Monday that the economys^ revival later this year will depend largely on the strength of revival of auto and housing markets. In the last auto industry recession, the Nixon administration came through with a sharp cut in the auto excise tax to stimulate sales. While the need to curb gasoline use makes such a bailout in 1975 doubtful, the industry may be betting that enduring the slump a while longer now may prepare the way for a stronger recovery later.

Bit it would still seem simpler to cut prices, or to plan to build cars Americans can again afford to run and own.

NASA engineer who ran under the American party banner. In the first official tally, Wyman appeared to have won by 355 votes dver Durkin. In a second tally, prematurely certified by the secretary of state, Durkin appeared to have won by 10 votes over Wyman. In a third tally, certified by the bipartisan State Ballot Law Commission, the figures were declared final:

Wyman 110,926; Durkin 110,924; Chimento 1,513

To judge from the evidence submitted to the Ballot Law Commission, the election was not exactly a model of perfection. Twelve new voting machines in Manchester may have malfunctioned; absentee ballots in Nashua may have been incorrectly counted; the secretary of state may have wrongly excluded certain write-in ballots in Exeter. Other questions were raised about the count in Claremont, Concord, Hanover, Newmarket, Pelham and Salem. The tally was probably no better and no worse than the tally in other elections across the nation, but the outcome is believed to be the closest in history. No fraud has been alleged by either Wyman or Durkin.

What to do? The Democrats control almost two-thirds of the Senate. If they order a recount by a Democratic body, and promptly award the seal to Democrat Durkin, a cry of foul will be heard. Because of the lopsided imbalance in the Senate, the Democrats could gain five seats on Senate committees by denying the victory to Wyman. But if Durkin did in fact win a majority of the valid ballots, Durkin of course deserves the seat.

In the absence of fraud, the Senate will want to think carefully about the wisdom of substituting its judgment on disputed ballots for the judgment of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Com-(Continued on page 11)

Q & A

About

Energy

By STAN BENJAMIN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) President Fords energy program is a big, confusing package featuring plans to sock the public for $30 billion in higher energy costs, then give the money back.

Here, in questions and answers. is an explanation of the energy policy proposed Wednesday in Fords first State of the Union address: Q. Youve lost

me already. I thought high enrgy prices were part of the problem. Why does the President want to raise them even higher? A. He thinks that if energy costs more you will use less and save fuel. And he figures future energy supplies will be costly to produce, so it will take higher prices to pay for them.

Q. What will this program cost me? A. Zarb says the program would add about $250 to the average familys fuel bill, a 26 per cent increase. The administration estimates its proposals would raise the cost of petroleum products around 10 cents a gallon.

Q. What about natural gas?

A. The gas industry estimated the average residential price last year at about $1.17 per thousand cubic feet. Ford is proposing to add a new federal tax of 37 cents per thousand cubic feet.

Besides, he wants Congress to end federal regulation of interstate gas prices, allowing the prices to rise sharply.

Q. I thought Ford didnt want price controls. How would he raise the cost of oil? A. He J Continued On Page 12)

40 Years Ago Today

January 16.1935

The first attempt to temper North Carolinas stringent death penalty law was made here when Charles A. Jonas, Lincoln countys house member in the 1935 general assembly, introduced a bill which would empower judges to sentence offenders to life imprisonment instead of the electric chair in capital offenses.

Such sentences would be within the discretion of the judges, but would, of course, be applicable only when a jury recommends mercy for a condemned criminal.

Agitation for such legislation erupted as a result of the Taylorsville bank robbery case. Although only one man was killed during the robbery, four men, three of them in one day, went to their death in the states electric chair for the one murder, despite the fact that the jury in the case recommended mercy for two of the convicted men. Present law makes it mandatory that the death sentence be imposed for the conviction upon a first degree murder charge.

Currently, only the governor has the power to commute death sentences, and then, strictly speaking, only when extenuating circumstances. such as the discovery of new evidence, is uncovered after the death sentences are handed down.

Susan Price

Help For Low, Middle Income

By R. GREGORY NOKES Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -Taxpayers at low-and middle-income levels would get a better tax break from President Fords proposed tax reductions than high-income taxpayers.

Ford has urged lower tax rates, b^inning with taxes being withheld this year, in order to offset a new round of proposed energy price increases. The lower rates are in addition to the one-shot 12 per cent tax cut proposed for taxes on 1974 income.

Families of four with incomes somewhere between $12,500 and $15,000 would break even under Fords plans, getting a tax cut about equal to the increase in their energy costs, according to government estimates.

Energy costs for a family of four are tpected to increase about $250 due to higher energy taxes, according to

Federal Energy Administrator F'rank Zarb. The $250 also represents the approximate tax savings to the typical family of four with an income of between $12,500 and $15,000.

The income group that would benefit the most from the tax reductions is in the $10,000 category, where a family of four would enjoy tax savings of $349, or $99 more than the average new energy costs. The tax for this family would decline from $867 at present to $518.

At the $12,500 income level, the tax savings would be $300, and at $40,000, it would be $130, meaning taxpayers in the higher bracket would receive $120 less than the average increase in energy prices.

Everybody at the low end (rf the income scale would at least get $80 Zarb said this would more than cover

higher energy costs at low

income levels, which he estimated at $44 a family.

If a person has insufficient taxable income to pay any taxes, he or she would receive an $80 check from the government to cover higher energy costs, a kind of negative income tax.

This payment would go to every adult 18 years and over who earns too little income to pay any taxes and who is not eligible to be included as an exemption on someone elses tax return.

A total of $2 billion would be distributed in this fashion to about 25 million adult Americans, Treasury Department (rfficials said.

The tax program announced by Ford in his State of the Union address altogether would return $28.5 billion to individual taxpayers in 1975, counting a 12 per cent tax rebate for 1974, t<Aailing $12 inllion, and a

$16.5 billion cut in income taxes for 1975.

The rebate for 1974 would be paid in two installments, one in May and one in September, while the tax cut program is designed to be permanent and would be effective on Jan. 1 of this year.

A major part of the Presidents tax cut plan for 1975 includes a doubling of the so-called income allowance to $2.600 that would remove an estimated five million more taxpayers from the tax rolls.

Under Fords plan, a family of four with income of $5,600 or below would not pay any income tax. The current tax on $5,600 income is $185.

In contrast to the tax rate reductions for 1975 and beyond, which would give proportionally greater benefits to low-and middle-income earners, the tax rebate for 1974 would benefit all income levels.