4The Daily Reflector, UreenvUle, N.C.Thuraday, March M, 1S77

Startling Changes Are Sought

The Carter administration has come up with two rather startling proposals for amending the election laws.

The plan was prepared by Vice President Walter F. Mndale who discussed it at a news conference Tuesday.

Included is a proposal to eliminate the Electoral College and elect presidents and vice presidents by popular vote. Since the Electoral College is provided for in the Constitution an amendment would be required to bring this change about.

The popular vote for president and vice president seems logical to us, since that is the way most voters think of the election in the modem times. Most of us dont even know the names of the electors we choose since we vote for president and vice president by name on the ballot.

The electors almost always follow the will of the people in casting their ballots when the Electoral College meets sometime after the general election. There is, however, always the possibility that a president will be elected by a minority vote, even if the electors follow the mandate of the voters in their individual states. //

So lets go on and make the,^ection of presidents official by popular vote. Electoral College no

longer serves the purpose of a modem democracy.

Another part of the proposal is not so wise. Mndale, citing the experience in his home state, wants the laws changed so that unregistered citizens may register and vote up to and including election day.

Mndale cited an increase in voting in Minnesota due to election day registration.

We suspect that the beauty of this system to some would be that all qualification for voting would be eliminated and almost anyone could vote unchallenged. Most voter qualifications have been eliminated, but there is still an 18 year old age limit for voting and convicted felons are not allowed to vote. How would these qualifications as well as bonefide citizenship be checked out if there is no way to challenge a prospective voter?

In North Carolina we now have year around registration and efforts have been made to register voters through libraries and other methods. There seems ample opportunity for anyone to register and participate in any election if he or she wants to participate.

We see election day registration as a situation which would be fraught with the danger of fraudulent voting.

Job Cut Impact Doubtful

ByBUlNoblitt

RALEIGIf Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr. has proclaimed Bk efforts to trim the numbers of state employees a 'Success.

It was tou0j, he said, but needed to be dmie at the outset of his administration before status quo settles in.

Just what was accomplished? A list of 880 jobs has been sent to the General Assembly in nine state agencies over which the governor has direct control.

It will mean a savings of $10 million a year, money which isnt a mirage or an Ulusion; it is $10 million in new money. The General Assembly can now reallocate it to other needs. Its just as good as a tax increase; as a matter of fact, its better because it doesnt require a cent in higher taxes, the governor said.

Real Progress A closer look at the situation leaves little room for exultation.

To begin with, at least half of those 880 jobs had been vacant for an extended period

THE INSIDE REPORT

of timesome a year or two.

Traditionally, bureaucrats leave authorized jobs unfilled as a way to accumulate extra dollars which they can either divert and use in some pet project; or return to the General Assembly as surplus.

The bulk of money returnedreported as credit balanceand carried forward into next years budget is made up of unpaid salaries. A goodly portion of the savings will be simply less of a surplus.

Secondly, the governor earlier insisted the two per cent job cutback would apply to all state agencies. He hedged that when he announced success in his agencies; As for other agencies, I am asking them to cooperate. . we have not gotten a lot of re^nse from that. This is something the General Assembly will probably want to look at.

Most importantly, just how does the two per cent cut stack up against the job increases which Gov. Hunt has already submitted to the Gieral Assembly?

Im not sure. I have not yet taken a close look at that, but Im sure this will be more than that, was his response.

For the nine agencies und^ his supervision, peitaps. But not across the board.

Add7,00BPlus Hunt has endorsed adding 7,689 employees to the state payroll over the next two years, and has made that request in his budget now before the General Assembly. Total cost of those new employees: $40 million over the biennium. Tliose totals do not

include additional state employees to be added in the university system.

Most of the increase (5,401) will be aides to boost reading, and 308 to cut class size in kindergartens. For guards in new prison spaces, 102 slots are set, and 94 judges, prosecutors and clerks to

Implement speedy trials.

The list also includes five people to beef up the governors ombudunan staff and community involvemoit office.

Here is the way the state payroll has grown; in 1975 there were 155,600 jobs; in 1976 it was 162,600; recommended for the coming fiscal year are 167,000 (minus 880); and for 1978,171.00.

How much of a savings will the Gierai Assembly realize with the 880 job cuts? The governors recommended pay raise of 6.5 per cit will cost $103.2 million in the first year of the biennium; another $106.4 miUion to continue it the secmid year, and cover new employees as well-a total of $209.6 mUlion. And thats before arrangements are made for another pay raise in the secwid year of the biennium.

I am announcing today what I believe is a significant step forward in making government learner and more effective, the governor said in his pews OMiference recently.

AnotherAngolaShapesUp

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - Even after early warning signals from both Western-allied Zaire and pro-Western elements in Marxist Angola, the U.S. was helpless to interfere with the invasion of Zaires c(^per-rich Katanga province by battle-hardened veterans now Cuba-trained of the old Moise Tshombe Katangan constabulary.

That helplessness ^ows that the impact of the Vietnam war, followed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigations, traumatize Congress today as they did during the 1975 Angolan civil war. Congress remains transfixed with fear that U.S. aid will lead to military intervention, and is still unwilling to use the undercover CIA option. So, there is no effective reanse to the invasion of Zaire.

Accordingly, U.S. and Western European experts here have already conceded this result in the two-bit war

over a kings ransom in copper: the fall from power of Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko, whose hapless army cannot begin to turn back the Soviet-armed, Soviet-supplied Katangan troops.

This may well be only the first of several agonizing results. If Mobutu does lose the presidency under the shock of losing the richest part of his huge country, the momentum of that loss would expose much more of Zaire to ravage by the Katangan forces. Backed by Angolas own Cuba-directed army and supplied by huge Soviet military r^urces, the old Tshombe constabulary may now be accompanied by Cuban and Angolan leaders.

President Carter has been strongly urged by Eurc^an allies to solemnly appeal to Moscow to halt the invasion. U.S. officials are uncertain, as we write this, how deq)ly Moscow was involved in the decision to invade Zaire. Nevertheless, there is strong presumption that a word

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from Moscow could st(^ the invading force dead in its tracks, by merely threatening to withhold supplies.

But diplomats here have little h(^ that the Soviets will lift a finger in rei^xmse to such a request from Mr. Carter any more than they did in reply to Henry Kissingers plea to stay out of Angola in 1975. Indeed, coloration by the Kremlin is made all the less likdy by repeated Soviet embarrassments from Mr. Carters human rights campaign.

Nor does the mood in (Congress incline Moscow to defer to U.S. wishes. The skeptical, even frightened, attitude on Capitol Hill over foreign risk-taking was dramatically evi-dent last week when Secretary of State Cyrus Vance testified before the House International Relations Committee (Ml fattened aid for Zaire.

In response to Vances request for $32.5 million in military aid for Zaire, liberal Democratic Rep. Don Bonker of Washington informed him that Zaires army was corrupt from t<^ to bottom and that Mobutu did not have the confidence of his people.

Bonker later told us that was the prescription that led the U.S. Into Vietnam. But Bonkers was the formulation that led Congress into shrugg

ing off any re^XMisibility for Angola.

Vances aid re<]uest has not yet been authorized, but it is now too late for it to have any impact on the mUitary situa-tkm in Katanga (now called Shaba province). Moreover, even if Bonker overstates the weakness of Mobutus army, the fact that it is not an effective fighting force is well known here. It may indeed be too late for rehabilitation.

With Havana and Moscow watching to see how well the old Katangan ciMistabulary performs in Shaba province, success is expected to gain their support for more extai-sive (^rations. The game is to destabilize Mobutu, one d^lomat t(dd us, and after he is destabilized, the avenue is wide open for many nefarious purposes.

A glance at the map of southern Africa shows why. The fall of Shaba province to the Communist-backed Katangans would surround Zambia the only other Western-leaning black state in southern Africa, with black states which all lean heavily toward Moscow and away from Washingt(Mi; Angola, Tanzania and Mozambi(ue. So, in any civil war in Zaire between a U.S.-backed force (under Mobutu or some suc-

(CooUnuedaipageS)

Strength For Today

LIFE ON THE CROSS

Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods by their cruel st^mother. They wandered about, becomming hungrier and hungrier, until at last they fell asleep. They were awakened by a beautiful white bird who led them through the forest tq a gorgeous house make of cake, sugar, and ibices. Overjoyed at their gcwd fortune, they immediately fell to eating.

Here, put in tbe form of childrens story, is tbe dream of thousands of people. A beautiful white bird will someday appear to lead them

to a million dollar, a handsome and wealthy husband or wife, social eminence, power. The distinguished English man of letters, Thomas Carlyle, had something to say about this;

"A perpetual dream there has been of paradises, where brooks run wine and trees bend with gold. But suffering, contradiction, error, have their perainial abode on our earth.

The cross is the Christian symbol of what tbe worid is really like. But it is also the hope of what heaven is like. -^lyEUshaDoiiglaas

By JAMES J. KILPATRICK

l^^ouse and Senate vgim with a whoop and a h&ler last week to repeal the Byrd Amendment on Rhodesian chrome. An exultant President signed the bill the next day. This puts us on the side of whats right and nnmer, he said. It was a

It s been here in the While Hous' 'long as anyone can remember . .. and there's one just like it on Capitol Hill/'

An Embargo On Honesty

fatuous remark, but no more than what we are learning to expect from Mr. Carter.

Until it was snuffed out a few days ago, the Byrd Amendment was the <Mie bright flame of truth in a murky world of diplomatic falsehood. As such, it was a

Public Forum

Letters snbiiiitted for Public Fomm must be Umited to 3M words.

TotheeditiH-:

I am often asked what the Council on Aging is all about. The Pitt County Ctouncil on Aging is a corporation composed of rqiresentatives of groups and agencies in Pitt County interested in all aiqiects of the aging process and associated in any way with efforts to improve the economic and social cimdition of the older adults of the county.

The objectives of the (Council are to devel(^ community-wide interpretation of the councils goals; to promote community understanding of the aging process and knowledge of the potential problems and needs of the elderly; to emphasize the importance of pr^aration for the later years; to coordinate and strengthen services for older persons; to provide services which will enable older persons to live in their own homes or residices of their choices with maximum ind^ndoice and dignity; and to remove individual and social barriers to economic and personal indqiendence for older persons and encourage them to use their talents.

A 20-member Board of Directors is elected each year at an annual meeting to represent a geographic cross-section of the county. This Board is the governing body of CoA.

We try to implement any program that hdps us live iqi to our objectives and serve as an advocate of our senior citizens. We now have transported more than 840 persons who live out in the county to and from their home to and from Greenville. These people have various reasons for using our services visiting Social Services, the Social Security Office, doctors offices, tax dqiartments, the Nutritional Center, and paying bills. We use the Jarvis Memorial United Methodist C3iurch van and pay mileage on it. We now are adding two days to pick up senior citizais in the county and, in the near future, will begin picking up senior citizens in areas not served by the city bus system. Tliis service will be by advance reservation only. Anyone wishing inf(MTnation may call me at 752-1717 between 8 a. m. and noon any weekday.

Mrs.PoUyDail TransporUtion direchr Pitt County Council on Aging

To the editor;

Thank you, Mrs. Qark, for saying so well what I have thought and said so many times. I, too, have seen trashy magazines and nude and suggestive pictures in public places In our town. I do not like it.

Let those who want to corrupt their minds do so, but not at our childrens expense. There have always been places ior smut, and lets put It back where it bel<Migs- away from the eyes of iih nocent children and peale w1k> hate corruption.

This brings up another area of shameful openness that of outside theaters showing all forms of human degradati(Mi.

Id appreciate hearing from people of like views. Ive talked to many, so maybe we could all get together and decide on a plan of action.

Mrs. Toni McLawhcm 015 Hilleadale Circle' Greenville

great embarrassment. In the midst of ten thousand lies, there stood the Byrd Amoidmait: Little Orphan H(Miesty. Observers of the African scene were perplexed: Whats a nice kid like you, they kept asking, doing in a joint like this?

During the five years of its existence, the Byid Amendment provided the only breath of integrity in the UNs fetid swamp. The amendment openly, unapologetically, without shame or subterfuge, authorized the importation of Rhodesian chrome. The amendment was in palpable violation of the United Nations sanctions against trade with Rhodesia. So long as it remained (mi the txx^, the amendment made Uncle Sam a kind of pariah, as welcome as Billy Graham at an East Side orgy.

With this irritating splinter removed, the United States may again be as crooked, as deceitful, as filled with hypocrisy, as everybody else. And this will be a tremendous relief. For the past ten years, since the UN imposed these punitive sanctions nom of the leading members of the UN has paid the lightest attention to them. Visitors to Salisbury have marveled at the evidence of worldwide commerce before their very eyesToyotas from Japan, Fiats from Italy, Volkswagens from Germany, Chevrolets from the United States. Every major nation of the world has violated the sanctions in every conceivable way.

Rhodesia produces the finest metallugical chrome in the worid; and for the past ten years, despite the UN embargo, Rhodesia has sold every ton that could be mined. The ore has gone to Russia, to England, to Germany, and of course of the United States. The ore will ciMitinue to find its way into the channels of steel prodiK;tion worldwide. The only difference, now, is that the cheating will be unanimous.

Mr. Carter, maintaining his fatuity record in this regard, referred the other day to the Ulegal regime in Rhodesia. The regime at Salisbury is precisely as Illegal in its

(CootinuedaipageS)

Union Bill is 'Dead'

By PEGGY SIMPSON Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A biU that would have strengthened the hand of striking construc-tkMi unions is dead not only for this year but for the f<H-seeable future, a dejected sponsor says.

In a stinging defeat fin- organized labor and the Hoiee Democratic ieadershh>, the common situs picketing bUl went down to a surprise defeat

(CotdimedaopageS)

40 Years Ago Today

March24,1937

Insurgent Spanish armies, in the new role of the beseig-ed, dug in to withstand government assault far northeast of the capita] todiy while a sudden insurgent sea sortie left men, women and children dead and dying in a Catalan coastal town.

An insurgent warship was said by rqwrts of a Spanish news agency to have bombarded a place 40 miles north of Valencia early Tuesday. One shell fell into (Antral Plaza, killing seven and wounding 30, many of them women and childrwi.

The attacking ship lay 48 miles north of Valencia.

M. K. Blount, who has served Greenville as mayor since November, 1935, today announced his carididacy f(M-that position for the city election May 3.

Iii announcing his candidacy, Mr. Blount declared that he was running on hfe record and a platform that t the city could progress and at the same time maintain an economical government.

Mayor Blount was appointed by the Board of City Aldermen to fill the unex-plred term of the late mayor,

Roy C. Flanagan. Shortly after his appointment he was named to the legislative committee of the League (rf Municipalities and at its annual meeting iast summer was chosen as third vice president. 3

Bartiara Mathews i

i

Lowered Food Prices Indicated

ByBRIANB.KING Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -The Agriculture Departments first, heavily qualified projectkms of this years harvests indicate continued build-ups of feed grain and wheat stocks balanced by shrinking rice and cotton supplies.

If fulfilled, the predictions would mean good news f<-grocery-buyers because of cheaper feed for animals from which the food industry draws meat, eggs, poultry, milk and dairy products. That in turn could ease food prices.

The dq;>artmait {mijectyd an increase in retail food prices this year of betweai 3 and Spa* cent, althoufd) some officials are worried privately that droui^t in the Wert and Midwest could push prices h^her by years id.

In contrast, cheap feed means lower returns to wheat, (xrni and feed grain producers. Too much producti(Mi of meat and those other products in a cheap-feed period evaitually would damage livestock farmers incomes.

That, In turn, might mean the grocy-buyers taxes would go f(M* high- payments to farmers, with food production eventually curtailed to raise farm prices.

The final outcinne of 1977 c^ production is many months away and uncertainties cloud the outlook, the Agriculture Departments Oidlook and Situation Board said Tuesday. Weath conditions wiU have a large impact ( predictions, the board said.

Tbe board projected a harvest of feed grains of about tbe same as last vear

with good weather, leading to * a 20 per cent decline in exports and increased beef, pork and chicken production.

With bad weather, production could be off 20 p cent, it said, with livestock feeding dit^iping back to 1974-75 levels, a small drop in eiqxM^ and only enough left in late summ 1978 to fill feedph>rtines.

For Mdat, with a l.i-billion busbd surplus, the

total acreage and production

for this year will be down whatever tbe weath, the board said. Good weather would continue tbe decline in exports and farmers prices and furth increase the reserve.

Bad weath- could mean a vriieat harvest 20 per cent small- than last year, with larger exports and a sharp cut in those stocks as livestodi ranchers start using

them more for feed.

A shortage of irrigation water in California means smaller rice productkm this year, whatever tbe weath, the board noted. It also increased from 64.6 million hundredweight to 67.6 mUlion hundredweight tbe ^amount expected Uiis year from the old crm>.

Even with good weather, the rice carryover stocks from 1977 are likely to be down for the firrt time in three years and production will drop by 14 P cent.

Soybean stocks will be down to a two-week supply by Sq>t. 1, tbe board said. Because prices are bi^i, the forecast is for a 1977 crop of 1.3 to 1.6 bilUon bushels mid continued tight mqipU^-

Tight applies also were forecast for the very uncertain cotton crop, with stocks falling shaipiy.