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Show Page 8 The Utah Independent July 8f 1976 TETON DAM HORRORS L.E.A.A. Wants Control James A. McClure United States Senate, difficult to put into words my staff members are at each of the It is the horrors which have occurred to four established disaster centers to many Idaho residents these past take those problems which cannot days as the result of the failure of be solved through regular means. the Teton Dam. Already hundreds We have had a few unusual reof pages have been written, and quests. too. For instance, on the thousands of photographs and first day after the dam broke, a television film clips have been used woman came to us with a baby who to show the damage and devas- needed goats milk. Within a short time we not only had several tation which occurred. The failure of the Teton Dam gallons of goats milk available to is really something of a precedent her, but two live goats as well. Most of the problems are To my setting development. a has been not nlore serious, however. We were knowledge there disaster of this type before. To be extremely concerned that sure there was no act of God which irrigation canals and facilities, descaused the dam to fail. I am sure troyed by the flood, be repaired the investigations will continue for before crops in other parts of the some months, or even years as to valley burned for lack of water. After calls to various agency heads the exact cause of the failure. There is no debate that this in Washington, the order came was a federal project, federally from the Assistant Secretary of owned, federally constructed, and Interior ordering the Bureau of federally operated; therefore it Reclamation to begin immediate stands to reason that the Federal work on irrigation facilities. Government is responsible for any Within a short time four private damages caused by its failure. I contractors and the Army Corps of think we have finally gotten that Engineers were at work. Most importantly, however, is point across to the Congress and the direct help to the people hurt by the President. I had been in contact with this disaster. Nothing will compenPresident Ford and his staff at the sate for the loss of life and personal White House since viewing the property accumulated through the disaster during its worst. I was years. I would be less than honest if understandably pleased when he I said everything will be ok. It will made the decision to seek a sup- not be exactly the same as it was. I plemental appropriation to am sure many people will be discompensate the victims of the satisfied with the loans that are disaster. As a back-uhowever, available through the 'Federal AdSenator Church and I introduced,, Disaster Assistance and will, keep active, another bill ministration and other agencies. I which would also provide for total can understand their feelings of and complete compensation of the frustration in having to secure a damages from the Teton Dam loan to rebuild something which was taken away from them through flooding. As soon as President Ford no fault of their own. It is vital; first declared portions of E&st however, that those affected by the Idaho as disaster areas federal disaster take advantage teams from the Disaster Assistance immediately of all the Federal asAdministration moved in. To sistance they can. It will take time those. who were affected by the to move the total compensation flooding, the federal assistance measures through Congress and it probably seemed slow in coming. will take time to settle the final Yes, it was slow, but I believe as- claims and receive total compensistance came as fast as possible. sation. Make no mistake, rebuilding To make sure, two staff members After Works the Teton Dam disaster will from the Senate Public Committee, at my request were dis- not be easy. Many of the problems patched to Eastern Idaho. These have just begun. At the same time, two individuals are knowledgeable however, there are many who are of the Federal Disaster Assistance ready to help, and knowing the Administration and its workings. tough texture and inner strength of They report back to me at least the residents of East Idaho we will once each day on the operation of rebuild. the Federal disaster teams. As a result of these daily reports I was R-Ida- ho by John F, McManus Belmont, Massachusetts An increasingly healthy develop- ment being noted across our country is a growing awareness of the baited hook called federal aid. Americans opposed to the forced busing of their children now recognize that federal aid to education carried a very high price tag. Federal highway funds, which paved the way for federally mandated speed limits, are now being cited as justification for federally imposed lane restrictions too. And so it has been with all federal funding. Where Uncle Sam pays the bills, Uncle Sam eventually controls the program. Augusta Chief Okays Aid Federal aid to local police departments is no exception. Nevertheless, some short-sighte- d police chiefs appear unable or unwilling to admit the obvious. Augusta (Georgia) Police Chief James G. Beck is one who is proud of supping at the federal trough. He insists that L.E.A.A. (Law Enforcement Assistance Administration) funds come with no strings attached, and has accepted such funding for radio equipment, a mobile crime lab, and some other items. It has never been possible for local taxpayers to afford this equipment, said Chief Beck. Thats why I defend L.E.A.A. funding. Ive tried to get every dime I could. Beyond the ques- tionable morality of having someone else taxed to foot the bills for equipment that Augusta citizens wont pay for themselves, Chief Beck is actually surrendering the independence of Augustas police force to the federal government. No amount of aid can justify that. L.A. Chief Scores L.E.A.A. Three thousand miles away, Los Angeles Police Chief Edward M. Davis and the Los Angeles City Council were resisting the control that always follows federal aid. Charging the L.E.A.A. with forcing hiring Then there was the said to the ..who elephant. lion, I never forget a face but I dont remember your mane.' John Hancock: shall...free ourselves those unmannerly from pillagers who impudently tell us that they are licensed by an act of Parliament to thrust their dirty hands into of every the pockets American. We quotas for women and minorities, the council unanimously voted to consider a legal suit to challenge the agencys power, and then ordered the police department to initiate steps toward ending all L.E.A.A. relationships and programs. Chief Davis accused the L.E.A.A. area director, Richard Velde, of threatening federal retaliation if he refused to accept the new hiring quotas. The Chief said that Velde told me that if you dump us and send the money back . . . well have the general revenue-sharin- g people from the Treasury Department down on you. And if that doesnt go, well get the Office of Civil Rights Compliance of the Department of Justice on you. Federal bureaucrats, it seems, will have their control no matter what. Of L.E.A.A., Chief Davis concluded: For one per cent of your budget, they become your personnel department and run your organization. L.E.A.A. probably has reached the position where it should be abolished. Are you listening, Chief Beck? Keep Police Independent ' For years, knowledgeable Americans have warned of the sinister nature of federal funding for police departments. A nation with 40,000 independent police forces can never be converted into a police-stat- e tyranny. But let a central government gain control over them through seemingly helpful programs such as those L.E.A.A. has begun, and the day is not far off when all that power will reside in just a few hands. Can you. think of anyone who would not abuse it? Chief Davis and the L.A. City Council are right. The L.E.A.A. ought to be done away with. And Chief Beck in Augusta, along with police chiefs everywhere who have fallen for the L.E.A.A. bait, ought to do some more homework. Keeping police forces independent of federal control is vital to keeping America free. 1976 The John Birch Society Features It could possibly matter whose names are on the CIA, FBI.ATFD lists, but it does matter whose names are listed in Gods Book of Life. We cannot avoid that when feeling theyve pulled out so many of our plugs; letting the value drain out of going-down-the-dr- ain our dollars, letting Patriotism drain out of our people, letting government rulings replace our freedoms of choice. p, able to make contacts in Washington to get things moving faster. I also immediately assigned half of my Washington and Idaho staff members to devote their full energies to the disaster. In Idaho Peace has many faces. There is the morning peace of the grave, for those who during the night have died of hunger and despair; the evening peace of the slaughter house, when the days slaughtering is done; and the timeless peace of the escapeless prison, aftert a hopeless revolt has been subdued. The Communist peace (the Cold Peace to which the Cold War leads) is compounded of all three. And the conspirators now expect, after a few more rounds of fraternizing visits and one or two more summit conferences, to be able to impose that peace on the rest of a rapidly surrendering world. - Robert Welch (1960) ... PROBLEMS Too high taxes are a problem for all of us, and tax rebates seem like a solution. and safety requirements have priced cars out of reach, and so a delay in applying added requirements has appeal. Government spending is high and rising, but even postponing new spending programs cannot do much when already enacted programs have massive spending increasers built in. Then theres energy and balance of payments problems, inflation, recession, unemployment, crime; and somehow things seem to be going wrong, sometimes more slowly and sometimes more rapidly, as if The Problem wasnt As if we weren't really clear. looking for the real problem. If we looked we would see government doing an ever increasing share of all our spending, moving to almost monopolize our spending, leaving us ever less to live on; and we could see that government was making our choices for us and denying us our freedom of choices; that under controls we have been losing our freedoms to work out our own problems: Thats The Problem!!! Anti-polluti- on HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS IN BRIBES EXPOSED Corporate bribery is so petty compared with the bribes offered by politicians to buy the votes they need to win office. Politicians promising to fund this or that know it can only be done by taking the money away from all of us in taxes and inflation, so in effect they are making us all pay for the bribes government hands out to win votes for them. You can stop it by unelecting the handout artists who use your money to buy them votes. JJK The only thing worse than an active conscience is one thats retroactive. -- Harold Coffin DO IQU KNOW? 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