4~-TbeDaUyRcflctor,Oreenv111e, N.C.Thunday, December2,tan

if Big Issues For N.C. Speaker

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Rep. Carl Stewart, D-Gaston. will serve as speaker of the House in the N,C. Legislature for 1977.

He was nominated for a second term at a recent House Democratic caucus and will be formally elected when the legislature convenes in January.

Stewart thinks this will be an important session of the legislature. The session will deal with more significant legislation than any two previous sessions combined, he said.

Up for consideration will be a constitutional amendment to give the governor the veto power; which Stewart supports, along with one to give the governor the opportunity to succeed himself.

Stewart said he would appoint a constitutional

amendment committee which would be favorable to sending the legislation to the full House.

Stewart also predicted that this would be a lengthy session of the Legislature and he said he would have committee assignments and Chairmanships ready by the first day of the session.

We concur with Speaker Stewart that there are going to be important issues to be settled in next years session of the Legislature. We would hope that some way will be found to avoid a iong drawn out session, since we feel that the states business can be handled in less time than has been taken in some previous sessions.

Stewarts experience as speaker of the House and his plans to have committees ready to go to work when the session opens might be a help in speeding up the work of the Legislature.

No Question About Energy Costs Rising

President-Elect Jimmy Carter has said the government should do more about saving gasoline because energy prices are going to go up rapidly.

He said he planned a fireside Chat to appeal for conserving energy.

We dont have any doubt that energy costs are

THIS AFTERNOON

going to go up steeply, but it is going to take more than appeals to get at the problem. There are going to have to be requirements that energy of all types be used more efficiently. Otherwise we are soon going to find ourselyes being bled to death economically to pay exorbitant oil prices on the world market.

Hunt Seeks Popular Touch

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ByBILLNOBLITT RALEIGH A minor crisis resolved gives a great deal of insight into what kind of administration Tar Heels can expect from incoming Gov. James B, Hunt, Jr.

The professional planners, security people, logistics experts were all bogged down in details the other day figuring how to get the inaugural party to the Capitol.

It would take X-number of cars, military police, motorcycles, etc., they computed as the maneuver ' got more and more complicated.

Wait a minute, and aide piped up. The people only have to go a block and one-halffrom the Governors Mansion to the State Legislative Building to assemble; then everybody walks together another block to the Capitol.

Well, lets walk the whole distance; it itsnt that far.

So cars will be provided for any In the party too feeble or elderly to walk the block and one-half ; Hunt and others will use the sidewalk.

Security But the planners were

THE INSIDE REPORT

worried, then, about security; it would take a monstrous number of officers to line the sidewalk and keep the people back, they figured.

Again, Hunts people rejected that approach. He will, they insist, be a governor of the pecle who wants to be in touch with the state. Stories of Gov. Clyde R, Hoeys regular visits to a downtown soda fountain are recalled fondly.

Hunt may be on the way to a similar relationship with the peoplehe was seen one day boarding a downtown bus for the short ride from one governmental office to another; while waiting on cameras to be set up at the Capitol for his official portrait-making, he joined a passing schoolchildrens tour for a talk; seeing a flock of governmental employees hiking into a nearby building and learning from one of them that they were going to a staff meeting, Hunt trailed along to the auditorium and met with the group for awhile.

The new governor insists he will spend a lot of time keeping in touch with people across the state; has already

pledged to keep the ombudsman office for public contact (although wondering if the name might be changed to bureaucracy-busters instead); and has promised an open-door policy.

Old Office He is also intrigued with the idea of having his offices in the recently restored Capitol rather than the bureaucratic sterility of the Administration Building.

The richly decorated, tradition-ssteeped old Capitol, Hunt feels, lends an aura of history and importance to decisions and conversations. At the least, he is toying with the prospect of having a ceremonial office and a hideaway to get out of the hustle and bustle. Most staff would have to remain in the Administration Buioding, but that may prove a blessing rather than handicapt.

The approach to his term signals more than just a relaxed informality; it portrays a determination to run the office rather than to let it rui Aim. At the gathering for new and veteran governors at Pinehurst recently to talk about the job. Hunt was

especially impressed with observations from old-timers that the key to success if finding the best people, setting priorities, putting things into motion, and reserving energies and attention for the truly important matters.

Hunt has already promised to stay out of the minute, daily nitty-gritty of things, and there is talk now that he hopes to move in that direction so strongly that he can have the time and energy to be out of the office listening to people and promoting his ideas.

In fact, a key staffman said. Hunt will come close to being his own liaison with the General Assembly. That is a critical job in getting budget changes made and program proposals approved. Hunt has hinted that he will likely appear personally at some sessions of the bidget com-mittees pushing his programs. Veterans around the Legislative Building feel it would be both refreshing and very effective for the governor to be seen regularly going about his business in that setting.

I Realists Run Yugoslavia

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By ROWLAND EVANS

AND ROBERT NOVAK

BELGRADE-At the very least. President Tito and Stane Dolanc, his shrewd and agressive Communist party chief, gained important yardage in their hard-nosed talks with l^nid Brezhnev two weeks ago. symbolized by Brezhnevs unprecedented pledge to absolute noninterference in Yugoslavias internal affairs.

The question now fn the dangerous sparring betWeen Tito, the man who embodies the country, and the adversary he has feared and contained for three decades is whether that gain can be held in what is invariably termed the post-Tito period.

Knowing the question has no remotely conclusive an--swer, the Yugoslav Communists are now scurrying hard to exploit their gains from the Brezhnev meeting.

hoping that Moscows instinct for aggressions in all forms somehow can be tamed in the very special case of Yugoslavia. One method of taming; holding an acetylene torch of publicity on Moscows pledge of noninterference.

Thus, in his remarkable speech here last Friday (Nov. 26) Tito could only have been aiming at the Soviets when he excoriated those who resort to pressure with the aim of..

endangering our independence. The speech was remarkable for its plain-speaking, but also for its masterful delivery. The old Communist revolutionary, nearing 85, spoke without slurring a word, raising a glass of water several times with no temor of his hand.

When Dolanc followed him to the podium in the ornate Old parliament (where deputies ratify party

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decisions without dissent) he quoted at length from Tito, referred to existing differences between Belgrade and Moscow, then said it should not be forgotten by anyone, east, west, north or south that Yugoslavia is non-aligned.

When we asked a party leader why Dolanc boxed the compass in the absence of any external threat to Yugoslavia except from the Soviet Union, he said it was simply a matter of convenience. Moscow clearly was the target.

The clear decision here to keep the torch of publicity on Moscow may actually have been aided by Jimmy Carters blunder when he ruled out U. S. troops if the Soviets moved against Yugoslavia in the post-Tito period. TTie first reaction was, in the phrase of one diplomat, extreme nervousness. But the headlines Carters campaign blunder made, and his later clarification, brought the post-Tito prospect under vivid scrutiny, which is exactly where resourceful Yugoslavia seems to want to keep it.

In similar vein, Brezhnevs

Strength For Today

FRUSTRATION There is an old story from the Arabian Nights about a genie who was corked up in a bottle by a magician and was then thrown into the sea. The genie at first made solemn vows to bestow on whoever would be his liberator everything his heart could desire. But as the centuries rolled on and the genie still lay in his bottle on the bottom of the sea, he became bitter and swore that he would kill his liberator. A poor fisherman one day found the bottle and (^>ened it. But because of the fishermans unexpected cleverness, the

genie was not able to carry out his intention and wound up again in the bottle at the bottom of the sea.

This fanciful tale is a parable on frustrationthat blight which destroys the character and happiness of thousands of people. As their lives progress and problems increase, as they see years of struggle ahead to earn a living, many become bitter like the genie.

It might be helpful if they could remember that this bitterness led the genie to miss his only chance for escape.

-byEliriiaDouglasB

TRICK IS TO SEPARATE THE INSEPAgAjjj^_ ^BS ITI

Great

By JAMES J. KILPATRICK

Other Side Of Rip-Off

WASHINGTON - Several months ago Senator Frnk Moss of Utah uncorked a sizzling report on the delivery of heaith services under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Senator found that a smalt minority of medical practitioners were engaged in a large rip off. His report was intended to arouse indignation, and it sureiy aroused mine. I wrote a hot piece.

The piece stands. In my own view, for whatever it may be worth, the medical profession as a whole still is not doing nearly enough to expose and to denounce the licensed rip off artists. Neither is the government yet doing what ought to be done to prosecute fraud or to correct abuse. But there are different kinds of rip offs, and different kinds of abuse; and there are aspects to this story that Senator Moss neglected

to discuss.

As the Medicare-Medicaid programs now operate, the doctors themselves also are being ripped off. Physicians are compelled to accept lower fees for treating government patients than the doctors customarily charge for treating private patients. Hospitals are similarly imposed upon. One result is that private patients must take up the slack.

A letter is at hand from Dr. Charles K. Harmon, a surgeon in Sanford, Fla. He provides some specific examples.

A hysterectomy was performed upon a 69-year-old patient. It was a complicated operation, for which the surgical fee was $540. The charge was submitted to Medicare. After two months. Medicare paid $360 only. Because the patient also was on welfare, the balance of $180 was submitted to

graceless resort to Little Red Riding Hood to assure his stunned hosts here that Moscow was not a big bad wolf also served to put Soviet-Yugoslav post-Tito relations under the world microscope. (Worse than a wolf, the Chinese ambassador murmured to a friend.)

When we asked how top party officials had reacted to the fairy tale, one of them advised us to read the whole story: how the hunter (in his version) slew the wolf and found Little Red Riding Hood inside, alive and well.

Anti-Soviet feeling runs high with virtual unamimity among all Yugoslavs, somewhat less high among party apparatchiks and with Tito himself but not much less. Thus, while giving Yugoslavia its head on non-alignment with the Warsaw Pact and promising noninterference, the Soviet effort to portray Belgrade as a full partner in socialist (proletarian) internationalism a euphemism for communizing the world under Moscows direction is anathema.

Tito insisted on eliminating

Continued <m page 5

Other Editors Say The Growers Know

(Henderson Dispatch)

Tobacco growers face the big decision on December 16 in deciding whether to approve extension of the tobacco program for another three years. It is absolutely unthinkable that they would reject it, for the crop faces one of its major challenges in the next few years.

Producers know now what their quotas will be for 1977. Basically, the reduction is twelve percent under allotments the past season. But that is not the total answer. It is not known as yet how much poundage will be involved in carry-over from 1976 that was either not planted, or not harvested and sold if it were.

A maximum of ten percent can be brought over into the new crop. In addition, there is a ten percent tolerance, or allowance, for over-production next year.

The two extras could amount to considerable marketinp charged against the twelve percent reduction decreed.

These factors will be in the minds of farmers when they vote on extension of the program.

If the traditional plan were to be rejected in the upcoming referendum, chaos would be inevitable. The producer would be fearful of not planting his share, whatever that might be, and in some instances would likely go all-out. Or, if he voluntarily curtailed his own cn^ and others didnt he could be left holding the bag. Most likely, prices would collapse.

All of which is mere conjecture. Tobacco growers are not going to risk any such disaster. Along with all the urge for approval that will be heard, the farmer knows as well as any one what the stakes are, and will not ignore the threat that would arise. It is by no means a wild guess that the tobacco program will be approved overwhelmingly for another three years.

Medicaid. After 17 months, Medicaid paid $67.50. The balance had to be written off.

Another elderly patient, similarly situated, underwent extensive skin grafting. The charge was %300. Ultimately Medicare and Medicaid paid $186.25.

In a third typical case, a gangrenous leg had to be amputated. The charge was $660. Dr. Harmons office finally recovered $456. In yet another case, an 81-year-old woman broke her hip: the femoral head was replaced with a metai prosthesis. The charge was $775; the ultimate reimbursement, $573

Dr. Harmon's experience evidently is universal among American physicians. A family doctor in Florida treated a J7-year-old boy for a serious rattlesnake bite. It took a four-day struggle to save the boys leg. The family was on welfare, but it had not been on weifare quite long enough to acquire a "transaction number. The red tape could not be unsnarled, and a $125 charge had to be swallowed.

A dermatologist in Massachussetts writes that his customary fee for a private patient is $22. Medicaid pays seven dollars only. This doctor remarks that when he went into medicine more than 20 years ago, he accepted his humanitarian obligations. Since then he has given more than 10,000 hours of his time to charity work, "but I have to pay my staff, rent, and expenses. The reduced fees paid by the government do not even cover his overhead.

Hospitals make the same complaint. In September the Indiana Hospital Association filed suit in U.S. District Court in an effort to compel Medicare administrators to pay full costs for Medicare patients. Under present regulations. Medicare allows nothing for a hospitals continuing overhead costs. In the end, private patients must make up the Medicare shortfall.

On the matter of fraud and abuse, HEW spokesmen say the governments efforts have been greatly expanded.

(Condnued on page 5)

Demand

By JOHN D. McCLAIN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite a late summer-early fall sales slump, more citlzois band radios will be sold this year than in the 18 years since the general public has been permitted to use them, an Industry trade group predicts.

John Sodolski, an Electronics Industries Association vice president, said 1976 sales will total nearly 10 million sets, more than double the number of CB radios sold last year.

Retail sales of radios, antennae and other accessories should t<^ $2 billion this year, he predicted.

Sodolski said there are nearly 20 million CB sets now in use. Tlie Federal Communications Commisshm said it has issued 7.5 million licaises, with the rate of applications continuing at about 300,000 a month.

Many CB enthusiasts install units in both their homei and their cars to enable home-to-mobile conversatimis.

The industry expects CB sales to continue to climb next year, Sodolski said, due largely to publicity since the growth of CBs began in 1973, new features and the expansion of the current 23-channel CB band to 40 channels next month.

Recent F(X: figures show about 70 models containing the new 17 channels have been approved for sale on Jan. 1 whei the FCC channel expansion becomes effective.

Sodolski said only three million CB sets were sold between 1958, 44hen CB radio as it is now known was created, and 1973, when a combination of factors triggered the current

(Continued on page S)

40 Years Ago Today

December 2,1936 Reinforced government troops drove back a violent fascist attack on Madrid today after Premier Francisco Caballero, addressing the Spanish social parliament at Valencia, warned there was imminent danger of a European war.

A European war is now being fought on a small scale on Spanish terrain, the premier declared, and unless the League of Nations takes steps to permit the legitimate government to purchase arms and supplies, it will inevitably spread over Europe.

The premier declared the Spanish insurrection would have been subdued within a few weeks had the fascists not had direct assistance from Germany and Italy from the beginning.

President Roosevelt, hailed by the Latin Americans to whom he brou^t a picture of a new world united for peace, left Argentina today for his journey to Brazil.

Standing on the deck of the U.S. Cruiser Indianapolis as it sailed for Montevideo, Uruguay, he waved a small Argentine flag to the rain-soaked throng which cheered from the docks and nearby streets.

With the Presidents plea to consolidate Western democracies against aggression for our mutual safety and mutual good, the Inter-American Peace Conference launched into informal organizations.

Barbara Mathews

Se^s Possible Red China Trade

By STEPHEN FOX AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -Will Americans be watching Monday night football on Red Chinese television sets a few years from now?

Thats one of the intriguing questions raised by Barry Richman, professor of management and international business at the Graduate School of Management of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Richman, an expert on the economy of the Peoples Republic of China, thinks trade between the United States and China will increase dramatically in the next few years, with color television sets, transistor radios and other consumer electronics among the possible items being imported by this country.

You may well see color television sets from China

within the next five years, Richman said in an interview. Theyre producing them now, but theyre talking about producing them for mass markets. If they did, they could undersell the Japanese. In fact, I think youll see some of the same imports here that you saw after World War II from Japan and Korea.

Richman, who hastraveled wictely in mainland China, says the recent purge of the socalled radical Chinese leaders after the death of Oiairman Mao Tse-tung may lead to more rapid industrial growth for Oiina under its new rulers.

It remains to be seen whether Chairman hua Kuo-feng Maos successor will abandon substantially the traditional model of self-reliance in favor of a rapid, long-term infusion of foreign capital and technology to

meet the pressing economic requirements of modernization, he said.

But if the moderates can maintain control for the next 10 to 15 years, China would be in a position to achieve a real economic growth rate in the range of 5 to 8 per cent a year.

Richman says this could boost Sino-American trade to the $3 billion to $6 billion level, a whopping increase from the $1 billion figure of recent years.

Some of the products likely to be exported from the U.S., in Richmans view, are chemical plants, agricultural machinery, computers and heavy transportation equipment. j

In turn, the Chinese are likely to sell Americans gourmet foods, textiles, ^rting goods, musical instruments and minerals, he believes.

China has paid much more for imports in recent years than it has gained on exports and suffers from a balance of payments deficit. However, Richman thinks the mast Chinese oil reserves coulij, reverse that trend.

China may well have more oU in the ground, and especially offshore, than all of Saudi Arabia, he said. Exactly how much is there, we dont know.

But, we do know the quantity is very great, and China also has much potential to develop and utilize other sources of energy. So it is highly possible that the export of oil in ex change for technological goods and expertise <rould turn Chinas recent balance of payments deficit into a surplus.

Eds; John Cunniff Is on vacation.