OCR Text |
Show s DESERET NEWS : SALT LAKE CITT, UTAH' " CARTOON ' CORNER f We Stand For The Constitution Of The'United States ; As Having Been Divinefy Inspired ! " ; 6A EDITORIAL PAGE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER The Last 27, 1972 Waltz " '"'J 1'"" .LEGISLATIVE ISSUES- -7 For Harry 9. :i! ; Utah Should Improve Parks System Now While there may be differences of opinion on emphasis, there is little question of the need for the proposed $20 million Utah recreational bonding bill to improve the states parks. While it but development-poor- . At present, Utah is park-ric- h of state parks and recreation areas, many of has an abundance d or undevelop' J at a time when either are these and growing leisure time are putting heavier increasing population on outdoor recreation. pressure At the same time, improvement costs are going up rapidly. Some experts estimate construction costs are increasing at the rate of one percent a month. So money put into improvements now ; means an actual savings in cost rather than waiting to build the same facihties later. under-develope- ' state parks bonding bill is bound to run into varying A inter- pretations among the legislators about where the emphasis should be placed. Since state parks are located in several areas of Utah, most legislators will have their own pet projects to back, perhaps ; at the expense of those in other parts of the state. Thais one reason the Great Salt Lake State Park on Antelop: ' Island has had tough sledding. Last May, the Legislative Council proposed skipping that park altogether in the bond proposal after it was recommended for $5 million in the joint $14 million bond for parks and wildlife proposed in the last budget session of the Legis7 I Steps To Remember The Buck Stops Here lature. Funding for the park, said some members of the council, was pourmg money down a rat hole. However, the park is recomh over mended for $5.5 billion in the present proposal of the total bond proposal. one-fourt- Money provided by the bond would be used to develop a water system, sewer, parking area, campgrounds and restrooms, a marina, visitors center, and exhibits. All these are musts if the north end of the island is to become a viable state park. to raise and What may raise some eyebrows is the price-ta- g stabilize the causeway to the island, which also must be done to eliminate periodic washouts and expensive repairs. The causeway alone may cost well over $2 million. But without it, there can be no Great Salt Lake State Park. Balanced against that crucial decision is the fact that parks located near cent ms of population are enjoying a high priority now with the Bureau of Outdoors Recreation, which provides federal funding for such areas. So the final decision on whether to proceed or abandon the Great Salt Lake State Park may hinge on what federal monies are generated by the proposed bond issue. Other major projects included in the bonding bill are $5 million for Pioneer Trails State Park, $1 million each for Bonneville Salt Flats State Reserve and Starvation Lake Beach, and $1.07 million for Wasatch Mountain State Park. Every park in the state system except two is scheduled for a share of the improvements money. Some years ago, Utah bonded to build several badly-neede- d buildings for the state and its universities. The wisdom of that move is more apparent each year. The state parks system now finds itself at a similar juncture today. TV Vs. Government The strength of a democracy lies in enduring minor annoyances to protect a greater principle. In the matter of free speech, this principle was perhaps most ably enunciated by Voltaire in his Essay on Tolerance: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Maverick Presidential Electors ivuger l,. iviaccnae, oi unanoues ville, Va., won himself a footnote in his tory the other day. Ther stand forever, ach Adlai Stevenson: down in the fine type with Samuel Miles, William Preston Plumer, A free people, if it is to make responsible decisions, must be not just on what the administration may wish fully informed on announced, but opposing viewpoints as well. That is the very democratic of basis government. he cast his Ala- bama electral vote for Judge Walter E. Jones. In 1960, an Oklahoma elector, Henry P. Irwin, chosen as a Republican, tried to get an revolution going in the electoral college; his effr-- t failed, but he stubbornly cast one vote from Oklahoma for Harry F. Byrd. Dr. y W. F. TurnP. er, Henry and Dr. Irwin, Lloyd W. Bailey. Never heard of them9 The.se are the maverick presidential electors of American politic history. In their own eyes, they put pri ciple above party. In another view, th dishonored a public trust. Having be placed on the ballot in the clear understanding that, if elected, they would vote for Candidate A, they voted instead for Candidate B. MacBride, a Republican elector, cast his vote not for Republican Richard Nixon, but for Libertarian John Hospers. It is a wonder, considering our wide-ope- n constitutional situation, that so few mavericks have leaped the fences of understanding and expectation. Miles, a Pennsylvania Federalist, refused to vote in 1796 for Adams; he voted for Jefferson. Plumer, a New Hampshire elector, refused in 1820 to vote for Monroe; he voted for John Quincy Adams instead. Then a long time elapsed. It wasnt until 1948 that the problem arose anew when Parks, a Tennessee Democrat, cast his vote for Thurmond instead of Truman. In 1956, Turner could not stom- - Parks, That idea is endangered by legislation recently prepared by the administration to hold local television affiliates accountable for the content of all news, entertainment, and commercials they broadcast including network programs. Granted, television news has not always lived up to the ideas or of fair, unbiased reporting that the White House may wish matter. for that other group, any But that is not sufficient reason to strengthen the govern-ment- s hand in denying licenses to stations which happen to disadministration. the please JAMES J. KILPATRICK Bailey, a North Carolina Republican, in 1968 abandoned his implied commitment, and wrote in the name of Wallace. The list is not long, in terms of the thousands of electors who have served. None of the mavericks ever cast a decisive vote. All the same, it is sobering to observe that in five of the past seven presidential elections, individual electors have played a potentially dangerous game. The mavericks cannot be criticized in one respect: They have played by the rules. If they have been morally wrong, they have been constitutionally right. Neal R. Peirce, whose The Peeple s President remains the most readable book in this field, has made it clear that under the Constitution, the elector remains a free agent and, if he chooses, can vote in any way he likes. Thomas Hart Benton, the great Missourian, warned of these evils a century ago. An elector, he said, may give or sell his vote to the adverse candidate, in violation of all the pledges that have been taken of him. The crime is easily committed, for he votes by ballot; detection difficult, because he does not sign What motorist wouldn't like to get miles to the gallon? That feat was accomplished recently by two oil company laboratory workers who drove 14 miles on five ounces of fuel. At that rate, they theoretically could have driven from coast to coast on a tankful of gasoline. 297.73 Their performance ought to strike terror into the heart of the petroleum industry. But if the giants of gasoline refining don't seem particularly worried, mas be its because there's a joker in the deck. It was no ordinary .car with which this feat of petroleum was performed but one that was highly modified. penny-pinchin- g Their formula: Take a small 1959 car, move the engine tow ard the center, use special lubricants, eliminate the springs, and equip the vehicle with aircraft tires inflated to 180 pounds. Are you paying attention, Detroit? We sincerely hope so cause what can be donp in the laboratory can be done on the assembly line. That being the case, the automotive gimmick of today can be the standard passenger car of tomorrow. be- Meanwhile, motorists, eat your hearts out. They ought to make a sad sequel to and call it The Last Picture Show, The Last Soda Fountain. For that of my south is also merry trysting-plac- e melting away into the mists of the past. a melancholy coincidence, the same day my column appeared about the decline of ice cream quality in American life, the county-sea- t paper in Wisconsm I subscribe to reported the By closing of its last home-tow- n drug-stor- e Here are 6,500 lost souls and twice as many on Saturdays, when everyone comes in from the country tow ns and not a place left to get a banana split, a black cow, or an orange float. This desolate pattern is being repeated in town after town, state after state; while the alcoholics can find two bars in eer . . There is auite a difference between "liking to win and hating to lose those w ho like to win know how to lose gracetully, but those who merely hate to lose are graceless winners. d In my own view, three amendments are needed: (1) The electors, as such, should be abolished. (2) The contingent arrangement also should be scrapped by which the choice of a President can be thrown into the House, with each State casting a single vote. (3) We should revise the present scheme of winner-take-al-l. The third point is the main one. The direct national election of a President, by popular vote, is a bad idea: It would violate our whole federal scheme. A wise alternative to direct election can be found in a plan that would award a States electoral vote according to the vote for each candidate. Thus in Virginfor Nixon, the 12 ia, which went electoral votes might have been divided 8.4 for Nxon, 3.6 for McGovern. Thanks to the rebel MacBride, Virginias vote officially was cast as Nixon, It; 70-3- 0 Hospers, 1. It was a mockery of our democratic process. But thanks to the rebel MacBride, interest may yet be revived in changing our basic law. are driven block, we to those hideously antiseptic Dairy Queen spots on the edge of town, where a mechanized concoction passes for refreshment. Its purely economic, of course. It simply doesn't pay for the average to w aste so much space on drug-stor- e a which could otherwise be taken up by items five times as profitas ble. Sincp began selling everything but auto tires and tractors, the has steadily gone the way of the bison and the great auk. milk-and-a- ir soda-fountai- drug-store- I wonder if there's some dim correlation some sinister inverse ratio the decline of the and the nse of juvenile delinquency. When I was a kid, Harold Teen was the epitome of our social life, and his hang-outhe Sugar Bowl, was the soda-fountai- n t, The whole family chipped in and bought a new word for my daughter for Christmas. gross and every experience anyone shared grossed her out. I sensed then it would only be a matter of time before I was picking lint off the refrigerator and losing control over We got the idea about a week ago when she came home from co- Hows llege. school? we asked at the airport. my saliva. One night before dinner I drew my husband aside. Do you have a feeling Gross. What do you think of your our daughter has a Gross. The gross one. On one-wor- d ocabu-lary- ? Mrs. Bombeck Which luggage is yours? gross, ERMA BOMBECK are chic now tucked away into esoteric little alcoves in Greenwich Village or Old Town, and costing four times as much as my whole weekly allowance used to be. Most kids cant afford them; they are inhibited by wistful middle-ageand nostalgic couples trying vainly to recapture the heady aroma of puberty. d Never thought last Id live to see the day soda-fountai- the way home, the traffic was the movies gross, the weather You do her a gross injustice with your gross exaggeration, he said. See, youre doing it too! By Christmas E'e, we were all climbing the walls. I summoned the famHow about getting your ily together. sister a new w ord fur Christmas. Lets get her a whole gross of them, said her brother. There should be at least one word that we can put in a box to replace the one she has. How The current rush of the electorate federal, to increase their own salaries, county and city with its resultant effect on inflation, is nothing short of an abomination. It is reported that the Salt Lake County Commissioners allotted only two minutes to group leaders to present their protests. If this be true, it represents contempt. It is also reported that County Attorney Carl Nemelka advised them that if their proposed salary increase violated the guidelines of the stabilization board, this could be abridged by depositing them in escrow and then collecting them later. 1 submit that this is also contempt. It is also reported that Senator Bullen plans to present a bill to the upcoming legislature that would prevent said electorate from raising their own salaries during tneir term of office. Every citizen should vigorously support this bill. All elected officials are not callous to the voice of the people whether that voice is expressed en masse or by a single person speaking as one. Mayor Perry of Logan is such a leader. Since the last election of Mayor Chambers to the office, the wage of the mayor and of one commissioner in 300 percent Logan was raised approximately (Commissioner Nielson refused the last raise) after the Herald Journal published these inflated salaries and protested the increases in Letters to the Editor columns; and followed this with a senes of correspondence with Mayor Perry by mail. It has now developed that Commissioner Fjeldsted never presented his request for a salary increase to the council for a vote but simply included it in a budget that originated in his department. I submit that the legality of such a movement is in grave doubt, and I concur with President Theodore Roosevelt's proclamation that no man is above or below the law. meeting Commissioner Fjeld-ste- d reverted his salary back to its original amount. Be the question that cries for an answer archetype of a heaven to come later. Where can a youngster hang out today after school, or on Saturday mornings, with nothing more ominous in front of him than a peach sundae with marshmallow and all the trimmings? By the time you got through one ot those, you were too sated to get into any kind of mischief. Of the Public Official Salaries At a subsequent A New Word For Christmas brothers hair? Afterthought. adequate. It is immaterial that MacBrides wild-carvote a few days ago had no effect on Nixon's landslide. In so vital an area as a presidential election, our law ought to be made secure. The archaic machinery of the electoral college should be junked and these mischievous footnotes be banished hereafter. - soda-founta- Car Of Tomorrow? it; prevention is impossible, for he cannot he coerced; the injury irreparable, for the vote cannot be vacated; legal punishment is unknown, and would be in- The Last Soda Fountain By SIDNEY J. HARRIS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR about crummy? asked my husband. This is Cnristmas. We can do better than that. Okay, theres uncouth, odious, repulsive, unsightly, unseemly, coarse, boorish, flagrant, indecorous, unpolished, unkempt and uncultivated. Why dont we wrap all of them up and she can take her pick. This morning, rhe came into (he You kitchen, looked at me and said, look flagrant m that old bathrobe. Shes just trying to gross me out! now is, was this a twinge of conscience oi were the hounds getting too close to his heels? NEWELL J. OLSEN Logan Lost Painting Has anyone spen this long-los- t picture? It was painted in oils by DeCost Smith, who spent his summers at my parents primitive Idaho ranch. The painting he gave my parents was about 16 x 18 inches of an Indian going home to his tepee oil his pony and trailing a travois behind. After my parents and DeCost Smith died, and I had had the picture I loaned it to a neighbor artist in our West 11th Ward to clean. This very fine artist had been commissioned to paint some murals for the Manti Temple. He died unexpectedly before finishing the murals or cleaning the DeCost Smith Indian painting. gold-frame- His lovely wife never found the picture. We called other artists to see if any might have been asked to clean it for our neighbor artist who was very busy before he died. I loved the artist because we both loved Indians. MRS. PHILLIP T. LINES 730 Emerson Ave. Seeks Lost Kin I wonder if any of your readers would remema Louis Sturm who in 1922 was working as a cook m Salt Lake City? He was married and had a family, but the names of his wife and children are not yet known to me. His brother Roy Sturm Jr., and his father Roy Sr., had been of Davenport, Iowa in 1915, and Louis some time in the late 1920s visited some of his Iowa relatives, but they lost track of him after that. ber As Im preparing to publish a history will include information of his which moiner, Mary Jane (Adams) Sturm. I'm anxious to get in touch with te Louis children, and will any help your readers may be able to give me to put me in touch with the family. MRS. HAROLD L. ADAMS RFD, Fox Creek Road Victor, Idaho anr-ecia- |