DEC. 27, 1974 4-A 'STOP WORRYING ILL THINK OF SOMETHING THE TIMES RECORDER Listening Post Editorial Aiken 'Confession' n' SENATOR GEORGE AIKEN of Vermont, during reputation the 34 for years "telling of his it tenure. is." has earneent farewell address to Congress contains some nuggets of wisdom that are worth pondering. First, if confession truly is good for the soul, the soul of the 82-year-old dean of the Senate is now in fine shape. "I have voted for measures which I felt were wrong, comforting myself with the excuse that the House Representatives, the conference committee or, if necessary, the occupant of the White House would make the proper corrections," said Aiken.
have noted for measures with which I did not agree the purpose of preventing the approval of other measures which I felt would be worse," he continues. "I have approved the expansion of committee staffs when I knew that an increase was unnecessary and Although those sentiments which no doubt could be repeated by the large Members of Congress received emmajority.st attention in the press, the Vermont Republican proceeded to suggest some changes in the way the government operates. While not necessarily agreeing with them all, at' we believe they are worthy of open debate a minimum. I believe the time has come when should stop talking about raising the salaries of highest paid Government officials," he said. "If the President wants the public to listen and cooperate (with anti-inflation measures), he will set example by recommending a reasonable reduction in his own salary and the salaries of other top officials in Government, including the judiciary, the Cabinet, and the Members of The Senator also suggested constitutional amendments limiting the President to a single six-year term and prohibiting Members of Congress from becoming candidates for President or Vice President until they have been out of the legislature for at least two years.
Senator Aiken ended with this bit with which we unequivocally reevisaome United States will survive the current period, but the price we will have to pay is up to us. Healthy Skepticism Pays THE FEDERAL TRADE Commission is properly alert to misrepresentations that can cost the unwary a bundle of money. Sadly, their warnings too late for some. A recent FTC complaint was issued against a Fort Worth talent agency that advertised and conducted auditions around country, inducing respondents to sign contracts and pay large sums of money on the premise that most clients became recording stars. The FTC claimed that services offered were virtually nil, refunds were denied and few clients became In Wisconsin, inventors have been against signing contracts with a Hammond, promotion firm, one of whose principals is under indictment in Chicago for mail fraud.
It may be inevitable that for every person with a talent, skill or product to offer, there is someone eager to take advantage. If people refused to trust others, all the wheels of the world would soon stop. Yet the best base for building trust appears to be a healthy skepticism. Merry-Go- Round by Jack Anderson The Middle Class WASHINGTON In an effort to translate the economic news into human terms, we have reported on the plight of the poor the faceless men and women and their anonymous children in the migrant camps and derelict neighborhoods of America. Today, we turn our attention to the middle class, the submissive majority, who pay most of the bills and make the sacrifices as they The revenue structured so that the struggle in the economic, quicksand.
rich can escape and the poor are excused from paying a full tax. The heaviest burden falls upon the middle-income families. As nearly as we can interpret the complex statistics, every five working taxpayers carry two of their neighbors on their backs one a government employe, the other a welfare recipient. The rich and don't shoulder their fair share of super financial load. We have discovered millionaires, even billionaires, who often pay no federal income taxes at all.
We'll identify them in future columns. Families caught in the middle and we've been talking to them up and down the land are feeling the bite of recession. They are tightening their purse strings in anticipation of even harder times. There is a gnawing fear in the pit of their stomachs that they may lose the affluence the have struggled so hard to achieve. Already, many have lost the overtime pay and part-time jobs, which paid for their extra luxuries.
All too often, they bought the luxuries on credit, counting upon the extra income to keep up the payments. This has caught several in a credit squeeze. They have fallen behind in their payments. Most creditors are still accepting, delayed payments. But some, who in their own economic bind, are foreclosing.
Middleincome workers are winding up in bankruptcy court. Our spot checks across middle America have uncovered the same uneasiness everywhere. Here are a few typical vignettes: A Seattle engineer inflation had reduced his purchasing power 25 per cent. His wife is now looking for work so they can hang on to their home and car. In the northwest timber country, a lumberjack was flipped into the air by a timber rig.
When he got out of the hospital a few days later his job was gone. A Bethesda, tradesman put off dental work because he couldn't afford it. He summed up his situation sucinctly: "More sweat, less play." A retired Army officer, who moved to Delta Junction, Alaska, to enjoy the outdoors, is preparing to return to a city job. He can no longer afford to feed his family at the prevailing grocery prices. Newlyweds from Orem, Utah, spread the word that they wanted food as wedding gifts.
In many cities, couples are banding together in co-ops to fruits and vegetables directly from the produce market at prices. A Washington, D.C., tradesman, living has stopped going to Washington Redskin football games. His wife has given up bingo. A Bowling Green, shopkeeper, who has managed to stay in business for 27 years, is slowly going broke. A teen-age girl from Bellevue, short of gas, siphoned some from a neighbor's car.
She sucked gasoline into her lungs and died at the curbside. These anecdotes, multiplied by the millions across the country, are pushing the economy ever deeper into recession. ch This has created a recession psychology, causing nearly everyone to tighten up. And the less people spend, of course, the more buisness declines and the steeper becomes the economic slide. The harassed taxpayers in the middle income brackets, meanwhile, are tired of subsidizing so many government workers and welfare recipients.
The number people on federal, state and local government payrolls is close to 20 million. An even larger number, according to the best estimates, are receiving handouts or payments from the government. The federal payroll alone now stands at $50 billion annually. Add to this another $6.5 billion, which goes each year for pensions. Both figures are soaring out of control.
A far more staggering $142 billion will be spent this fiscal year on welfare and security programs. That's $62 billion more than the defense budget. And welfare system is even more chaotic than the expanding government payroll. The General Accounting Office reports, dismayingly, that federal salaries have risen faster lately than private pay and that the formula for these pay increases is being rigged illegally by the federal employes who figure it. Perhaps we should have seen a cloud on the horizon the size of man's hand back in 1960 when President Eisenhower, after almost eight years without ever having had a veto overriden, saw his veto of the federal pay raise overturned that year by a Congress suddenly roused to its hind feet.
Over the Nixon-Ford years, the largest outpouring of mail to be received at the White House on any issue was not Vietnam, Watergate, crime, abortion, inflation, depression, detente, impeachment or the oil scarcity. It concerned the 1969 pay raise for postal workers. Federal employes are becoming the most powerful self-interest lobby in the country and their demands are being squeezed chiefly out of the middle class. (United Feature Syndicate) In Years Gone By Down Memory Lane TEN YEARS AGO Tom Ryan, Zanesville's phenomenal 17-year-old bowler, set a' world's record for junior bowlers when he posted a three-game total of 750, breaking the old of 737 favorites to The defeat Baltimore the Cleveland Colts were Browns seven for point National Football League championship West Berliners crossed the Communist wall for holiday visits with relatives Mrs. John Kennedy and her children, Carolyn and John, arrived in Denver for a holiday vacation in the mountains A tornado spawned by unseasonably warm weather raked central Georgia.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Robert J. Merry was sworn in as judge of the Municipal Court, to take office on Jan. 1. Common Pleas Judge Clarence J. Crossland administered the oath.
Merry succeeded Judge Homer E. Walters who had held the post for eight years Hundreds of youngsters were guests of Charles Cunningham of Central Realty Co. and the management of Variety Theater at a party at the theater showing "State Twicemarried movie star Cary Grant married Betsy Drake, a young film actress at a private home in the desert near Phoenix, Ariz. They were flown to and from the site by multi-millionaire master -of-secrecy, Howard Hughes Carl Ray Spencer, city engineer, 70, of 149 Fox avenue, died of a heart ailment Green Top and Yellow Cab companies of Zanesville reported they had made 154 free trips to carry more than 300 persons to church on Christmas morning. THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Herbert U.
Smith, district census supervisor, set up offices in the Schultz building on North Fifth street Ohio's holiday death toll had reached 35. including a head-on crash near Circleville which claimed three lives Florien F. Frazier, Zanesville attorney, was reelected trustee of Muskingum County Law Library Association Joe Louis was picked "fighter of the year" over Billy Conn by "'The Ring" magazine and for the third time in four years was given its annual merit award State Highway Department was preparing to readvertise for bids on the Stovertown road improvement originally estimated at $207,569.08 Zanesville buttoned up its galoshes and battled through the season's heaviest snow which had already caused several accidents as streets and highways became slick. FIFTY YEARS AGO Charles R. Marshall of Pleasant Valley was notified he ranked fifth in the 100 bushel to the acre corn club for the state of Ohio.
His yield was 89.9 bushels to the acre. Plans were announced to start a new Perry County, weekly newspaper. It was the Crooksville "Advance" Hannah Ramsey, 88, of Sharon, near Caldwell burned to death when her clothing caught fire from an open grate. The temperature registered 10 below zero and the cold was to be made more unbearable with a brisk wind Edward Lynch, 48, of New Straitsville died of injuries sustained when he fell 25 feet over an embankment into a creek. 1 tA Julie Still Bitter By HELEN THOMAS UPI White House Reporter WASHINGTON (UPI) Backstairs at the White House: Julie Nixon Eisenhower continues to assert that her father is innocent in the Watergate affair and did "nothing wrong," her friends say.
The former president's daughter blames "all the king's men and not the king" for the tragedy that engulfed her father and forced him to resign. "She has bitterness in her heart," said one friend. Washington Post reporter and author Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate scandal with his colleague Bob Woodward, ran into Julie on the shuttle flight to New York recently and asked for an interview in with a new book the two reporters connection, based on Nixon's last 100 days in the White House. Informants said Julie told Bernstein "you are prejudiced in one way and I prejudiced in another" and declined to be interviewed. But other Nixon administration staffers are talking to the two authors as they piece together the scenario and emotional moments that led to Nixon's resignation.
OUT IN San Clemente, there are conflicting reports on Nixon's convalescence after a near-fatal bout with phlebitis. "He's still sick and making only slow progress, according to one family friend. But a White House aide who talked to Nixon recently said his voice was strong and he seemed "in better spirits." There will be a general exodus of Nixon's staff on Feb. 9 when the transition is officially over. His press secretary, Ron Ziegler, has told friends he will be going into private industry.
Ziegler also probably could write a book on the former president's physical and mental state during his last months in office, but it is not certain he would at this time. Marine Maj. Jack Brennan also will probably leave the San Clemente compound where he has been Nixon's right hand man. NIXON'S personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, continues to work in Nixon's old "'hideaway" office in the Executive Office Building next door to the White House on material which may never come into the former president's hands. Nixon was expected to fight the intention the federal government to maintain custody of all of his papers and documents.
The agreement he had with President Ford to gain sole jurisdiction over his papers and to be able to dispose of them at own desire within 10 years has been superceded by Congressional legislation giving the government permanent custody. Woods has been sorting out the papers, both classified and unclassified, and has kept a low profile in Washington. But there is a guard outside the door of the hideaway office to assure that the papers are not removed from the White House compouund. Also impounded are the records of gifts given to the Nixon family, a list the Nixons kept at the White House. Traditionally, records of gifts, mainly from heads of state, were kept by tthe protocol division of the State Department.
Some of Pat Nixon's records, and letters and contributions resulting from Rabbi Baruch Korff's campaign to help the Nixons, also have been held up a at the White House, according to friends. SANFORD Fox, the White House's expert calligrapher who has charge of all the engraved invitations, place cards and other items which require his fine handwriting, has decided to quit. Fox, who has been at the White House for 20 is not getting along with some members of years, the First Lady's staff, according to sources. Other members of the household staff are that they seem to be serving Mrs. "two First complaining Ladies," reference to aides to Ford who are giving orders in her name.
DONALD Rumsfeld, White House chief of staff, insists he has no intention of becoming another "doorkeeper" to the Oval Office in the tradition of H. R. Haldeman. He insists that many of Ford's advisers will have "peek in" entree to Ford's office when Ford's accessability to members of they need to see the cabinet and to his advisers will be viewed as a plus for giving him a wide range in which to make his decisions. it is Ford will be short on advice front the female side of the country.
He has only two women of any real advisory stature on his They are Pam Lindh, who has been staffed his assistant on women's activities, and Gwen Anderson, who worked as a deputy to outgoing political adviser Dean Burch. Miss Anderson, a former Washington state Republican committeewoman, has some clout but not on the level of Ford's other top nine advisers. Rumsfeld insists women will be considered as new top job openings come along. The lack of women in the top strata became glaringly apparent when the White House put out its staff reorganization chart showing pecking scheme order. Women just were not in the of things, which is, just about where they have always been the White House.
THE WHITE House shakeup is expected to give Ford's top aides more time to spend "exhausted." with the families so won'g be according to Rumsfeld. said that as now structured the aides will be able to find out what their neighbors are thinking and go shopping with their wives. Thus they will be able to bring to the White House the view of the world around theem and even to tell Ford the prices at the supermarket to keep him from becoming Nixon too isolated, which most observers believe was. RECESSION THE BODY POLITIC Gripes And (Contributions to Gripes and Kudos should be addressed to the Editor, The Times Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio. All letters must be signed and only those with bona fide signatures will be used.
Please limit to 60 words.) taus dan Distributed by L.A. Times Syndicate GRIPES TO the quasi-governmental postal service at the busy corner of Putnam avenue and Harrison streets. Only one collection is scheduled each weekday and one on Sunday with the nearest other collection more than two miles away at the main post office at 900 McIntire avenue, according to the marking on the box. H. P.M.
Paul Harvey News by Paul Harvey People Pay Taxes This needs to be said: Oil companies don't pay ANY taxes. Some fledgling congressmen are headed for Washington pledged to tax the oil companies more. They can't. Oil companies don't pay any taxes. Some Arab states recently reduced their asking price for oil but they increased taxes and royalties to where we may be worse off.
Oil companies don't pay taxes; people pay taxes. If you increase the taxes on oil or any industry the amount of the increase is immediately passed along to consumers in higher prices. Only people pay taxes. Presently, some freshman congressmen are headed for Washington with the notion that they can do us all a favor by phasing out the oil depletion allowance. This is allowed to oil companies to help them pay for the assets they are using and to finance the long-shot gamble necessary to week and find more oil.
Take that tax advantage away from the oil companies and they'll simply increase prices for oil and gasoline enough to pay for high-risk exploration. I suspect that most oil companies have already increased prices in anticipation of this congressional move. High profits 65 per cent higher this year suggest that the companies are building a cushion to fall back on. Some politicians got a lot of mileage out of a campaign promise to raise the taxes on big business. If you hold them to that promise, the big businesses will not pay the increased taxes but will merely pass them along in higher consumer product prices to you.
Only people pay taxes. (Copyright 1974, Gen. Fea. Corp.) Capital Nuggets WASHINGTON Another citizens group has taken a look at the way the $30 billion Federal Revenue Sharing program is working and found it wanting. The study conducted jointly by the League of Women Voters, the National Urban Coalition, the Center for Community Change and the Center for National Policy Review.
When Congress approved revenue sharing three years ago, it said state and local governments could use their share of the funds any way they desired. In practice, according to the findings of the new study, this has meant that the vast majority of revenue sharing funds are going for routine local government operations, such as police and fire, and little is being spent on social programs. The survey found that only two per cent of the revenue sharing money had gone into social programs to help the poor, the aged and the disadvantaged. Revenue sharing money amounts to about five per cent of the average city budget, and Congress had hoped that this infusion of money would insure greater public participation in the drafting local government spending plans. In fact, according to the study, there has been no increase in the involvement of the general public in helping put together local city and county budgets.
DUNAGIN'S PEOPLE WAGE I PRICE COMM. 12.27. 1974 Sentinel Star Publishers Hall Syndicate "'WE EITHER HAVE TO GET THE PRICE OF SUGAR BACK DOWN OR START SUBSIDIZING THE DENTISTS, THE PENTAGON spokesman designate Joseph Laitin and his brilliant wife Christine had much to do with astronaut Frank Borman's reading of the lines from Genesis when he circled the moon on Christmas Eve a few years ago. Laitin, a former newspaperman who is known for his wit and savvy, was asked by a friend to assist Borman with "something to say" when he made his historic lunar trip. Laitin recalls, working at his typewriter late into the night and the early morning hours trying to avoid getting too involved in the Vietnam question when calling for "peace on earth" as Borman had requested.
He said no matter how he wrote it, he came out with the war. Then suddenly he decided to go to Bible and began looking up the New Testament. His wife Christine came down the stairs and found him buried in the book. "You're reading the Bible?" she asked. "What's wrong?" When he told her what he was up to, Chirstine said, "The kind of language you want is in the Old Testament." "Where shall I begin?" he asked.
"Why don't you begin with the beginning?" she replied, and he turned to the chapter on Genesis. From that evolved Borman's words. "Good night, God bless you and a Merry Christmas to all of you on the good earth." After the mission, Borman called Laitin and thanked him. The astronaut told Laitin that when he and his comrades got way out in space, one of them said, "I don't know who your friend is, but let's break out the Man On The Go by Jim Bishop Old Scenes Replayed Sometimes, in my head, I replay old scenes. I am in Havana.
The sun is white and hot. The umbrella trees droop. The crowd makes a frenzied river bank for the tanks. The saviour sticks his head up. He is pelted with flowers and the head disappears.
The saviour says, "My fate is to suffer." Later in the day, he will suffer in the luxury of the Havana Hilton on the entire 24th floor, surrounded by shapely Cubanas who hope to apply balm to his wounds. am a cynic. An asthmatic taxi takes me to Camp Columbia. On the high ground is a new white statue of Jesus. A captain tells me how he made a tank out of a truck and some steel facing from a sugar refinery.
The Argentinian speaks good English. He has two arms around two girls. The trials, he says, will come soon enough. There will be public people's courts. "Many will be shot here." He points to a parade ground.
Laughter and Death The girls laugh at everything. Che needs the laughter. He has been up in the Sierra Maestra a long time. He needs the killing, too. My question about his Communism brings a shrug.
Are Fidel and Raul Communists? He kisses each of the girls. The cab makes it along the empty road to Coquine. The dictator, Fulgencio Batista, lived there until Christmas. His generals sold out to Fidel, and there was no battle. The reward of the generals is already set: Each will be allowed to wear a blindfold and may not even hear shots.
A Barbudo studies my press card. I think he cannot read. He waves me in. There is a nice statue to a dead dachshund on the lawn. The house is marble.
There are no backs to the circular stairs. On the second floor, an Ampex record player spins silently. I stop it. The Red Seal record says, "Blue Danube Waltz." The dictator left in a hurry. the ground floor are 16 suitcases.
I open them. They are loaded with solid silver service. Too heavy for the airplane. On the way out, the Barbudo tells my cab driver to tell me that Castro came to the house. He had no pass.
The guard had a rifle. He turned the saviour away. The taxi goes to the old Iglesia de Cerra. The stone is gray. The neighborhood is poor.
Boys play "beisbol" with seven outfielders. A little man, pale as porcelain, stands in the doorway. He is Alfredo Monsignor Muller, auxiliary bishop of Havana. "He that coverth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." Proverbs 17:9. Many times the the greatest contribution that we can make in the life of another is to pray and say nothing.
"As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them likewise." He is 58. His English limps on crutches. A rooster struts around the hem of his cerise cassock. Bishop Muller is a happy man. He grew up in this poor section, and now he is back as bishop.
Secondly, the sons of his old friends, the Castros, are assuming power. The bishop is overly polite. He insists that I take the stuffed chair. We speak of revolution. A servant brings small cups of thick coffee.
It is important, he says, that I explain the truth of the revolution to the Americans. For example, the execution of Batista officers "is necessary." He cannot explain why, but it must be done. He reshuffles the words. "I did not say 'is The Church Catolica is not for capital crime." His mind thinks Spanish and translates into English. "Sometimes bad man must go away until he die.
No libertad." I ask if the new government will be Communist. 'Never' Isn't Forever "You," the bishop says, "should know that in Cooba Communism can never preponderance. The people will never be ready for Communism. No Communist problem here. think that Castro is a Red.
The writers in my country think he is not. He has promised free election. "Is he a Leftist?" "No, no. Liberal democratica, yes. No left.
No left." He said he on the Dastro finca. "No Communism there. You must write this." "Batista said you were his friend." The pale porcelain face droops. "I marry heem maybe 12 year ago. He not very good man for Cooba.
Is not good Catolica too. Senora Batista, yes. Castro is better man." I stand. He gives me a medal and a rosary. "You not hurt by this?" I "no" and drop them into a pocket.
the door, he calls to the shouting boys. They stop play and come running. "The church," he says softly, "always pardone. You will please to do me the favor to say a prayer for "Sure," I say. "Sure." Many years have passed.
I read a lot about the bearded saviour who suffers. I have never read a word about what happened to the little bishop in the flaming red cassock (King Features Syndicate, 1974) At The Times Recorder Established as The Ohio Signal in 1864 AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Published Seven Mornings A Week Second Class Postage Paid at 34 S. 4th Zanesville, Ohio 43701 TELEPHONE 452-4561 JACK W. POWELL Publisher and General Manager BUD HARSH Editor.
