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Show Moutk-To-Mout- ART BUCHV1AE.D Resuscitation h DESERET NEWS SALT LAKE Ol' Buddy Bobby CITY, UTAH Of The United States Wo Stand For The Constitution As Having Been Divinely Inspired 12 A EDITOR, L PAGE WEDNESDAY, As soon as Sen. Eugene McCarthy won 42 percent of the votes in New Hampshire, he received a telephone call from Sen. Robert Kennedy of New MARCH 20, 1968 Yoi k. Can Valley Streamline On Installment Plan? Vie won, Further improvements seem to be on the horizon, however. Federal grants in connection with storm sewers, recreae tion facilities, and programs look like they may open-spac- be pushing Salt Cake Valley communities toward coordination and cooperation on capital improvements. Moreover, theres the decision by the Countv Commission this week to negotiate agreements to provide garbage collection, street lighting, road repair, police, anu nre services to West Jordan, South Jordan and Riverton. These agreements will still leave much to be done in re- solving the double taxation dispute between Salt Lake City and County. Even so, the proposed agreements represent another step toward increasing cooperation and reducing the confusion and duplication created by the 35 different governmental units and 70 different taxing districts in Salt Lake Valley. LBJ Just Might Not Run Again Since it is so widely asserted that it is Impossible to deprive an incumbent President of renomination, why is thefe so much excitement over the challenges of Son. Eugene McCarthy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy? Actually, the case against the possibility of any rival defeating Lyndon Johnson , for the Democratic nomination is not as air tight as it is supposed to be, but in Washington the e Tla e nation lies else-wher- for growing- Britain Tightens Belt Nations, like individuals, must eventually succumb to the simple law of economics that it doesnt pay to continually spend more than one earns. That, in essence, is the lesson of the measures this week by both the U.S. and Britain. Britains Labor government Tuesday proposed wage and price ceilings plus harsh tax hikes to help put its finances in order. The prime British aim is expansion of trade. The whole structure of Britains current austerity program is to in- crease production and make British goods more competitive on the world market. Once that is achieved and Britain is aiming at a three percent rise in the gross national product then the increased prosperity should ease hardby 1969 ships. Britains current troubles stem largely from its socialist economic course during the past 22 years. Spending for the welfare state, combined with a drop in production, labor featherbedding, and other wasteful practices, have combined to put the country in an economic straitjacket. A 1966 study showed that it took 1.41 British steel workers to produce a9 much crude steel as a single German, 2.24 Britons to produce as much transport equipment as a single Belgian, and 1.57 outEnglish workers to match the general manufacturing worker. one French put of The upshot was that Britain found herself importing the very type of products she should have geen exporting semimanufactured and manufactured goods, rather than raw materials. The immediate effect of the new economy measures should be encouraging to the U.S. as it engages in its own The British pound sterling jumped 20 points on the London exchange after the austerity announcement. The British experience also shows, however, that unless the U.S. follows through promptly on is own austerity program of spending cuts and a tax hike, Americans may be in for even more stringent measures, like wage and price controls. g. Aid For Paraguay? No television, no stock exchange, and no income tax may and sound like something out of Utopia to Americans. Yet such a country exists in South Akicrica Paraguay but its far from being paradise. omia-sizecountry is in the j That relatively small, Calif news this week because of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner's visit to Washington Wednesday. Stroessner is president and virtual dictator of Paraguay, and his U.S. visit is presumably to seek foreign aid to help finance his countrys d over-burden- ed d road-buildin- Paraguay has more problems than roads, however. Per capita income for its estimated 2,094,000 inhabitants is only $201 a year, among the lowest in the western world. Its people are 75 percent illiterate, and over half Land-locke- d of them live within 100 miles of Asuncion, the capital. In dealing with dictators like Stroessner, the U.S. faces a dilemma. If we give them aid, it helps maintain them in power. But if we withhold assistance, we also withhold a measure of progress for their people. Since should theres extel no ideal solution to this problem, the U.S. aid to Faraguay only if it's in our own interest. dont want people to say that, either. My people have been reassessing what we could do to help you, and I believe we've come up with a solution. If I Dont thank me. Ethel and I were run in the pumaries as a smoke screen sitting around the living room reassessfor you, I will get all the flack, and at we alwajs reassess on Tuesday, ing the same time if I do well I could turn because thats the nurse's day off and my delegates over to you in Chicago." suddenly Ethel turned to me and said, Gosh, Bobby, you'd do that for me? Why dont you call Gene McCarthy? You Why not? Everyone knows I have no haven't spoken to him in a long time. On in the election except to see that interest she tnat to it me occurred reassessment, the best man gets the job. was right. So I just picked up the phone "But Bobby, I was looking forward to and here I am. in the primaries. It gave me an Its good to talk to you, Bobby, Sen. running excuse to get away from those Senate McCarthy said. Foreign Relations Committee hearings. Not as good as it is to talk to you, "Gene, I'm not forcing you to do anyGene. Tell me what your plans are now. thing you dont want to do. Its not as if I'm begging you to step aside. You can I thought I would run in the prino wnat you please, for ail I care. maries in Wisconsin, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Minnesota. "You dont have to get sore, Bobby. Good idea, Gone. I knew Ethel "as Who's sore? All I say is that if I'm man enough to reassess my position, you wrong. What do you mean, Ethel was should have the decency to reassess yours. wrong? Til reassess it if you want me to, She said you looked very tired, and she thought the strain of the primaries Bobby. But I still want to run. was getting to you. I told her you were in "I told Ethel there was no sense callgreat health for a man of your age, and ing you, Bobby said. I should have reassessed this call in the first place. you wouldnt want to give up now. It was to consolidation of Salt Lake City and County health services, the placing of police and sheriffs officers under one roof, and the formation of the County Council of Governments to coordinate efforts of various communities. hit-or-m- 1 to know Ill never forget the role you played. Gee, thanks, Bobby. you area-wid- e A-- 1 noun-natio- We really gave it to them, Gene, and I want governIf Salt Lake Valley is ever to get the rathat time a a it to it. achieve have step ment it needs, may er than all at once. So far the progress has been slow and limited mainly servIndeed, the countys move to provide municipal-typ- e ices to West Jordan, South Jordan, and Riverton is in line with a recommendation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year for strengthening local governments across the country by enlarging county responsibility for urban services in all or part of its jurisdiction. Certainly local government needs to be strengthened and streamlined in Salt Lake Valley, as elsewhere across the nation. Very few units of local government are large enough in population, area, or taxable resources to apply modem methods in solving current and future problems. Overlapping layers of local government are a source of weakness, since they compete for revenue and often duplicate each others efforts. If problems this big are to be overcome piecemeal, measurable progress will have to be made regularly, not on a basis. This means Salt Lake City and County should set greater cooperation and consol'dation as a major goal, and work at it with all the determination they can muster. said Bobby. S e n. Huh? McCarthy said. probably the television lights that made you look so bad. . a I'm not tired at all. Bobby. I elated. think Im of fact. cm, matter take Johnson at the convention in August. That's nne. Now let's be serious a minute. Gene. If you go after the people are going to accuse you of being opportunistic, ruthless and splitting the party. I don't want people to say things like that about you. the feeling - that the President inay not end up as the nominee. The Mr. Fritchey feeling is based on the capitals highly developed political instinct, which has often proved more reliable than logic. For many months a number of prominent men who know the President well (especially old colleagues in Congress) have privately been saying that Johnson would not run again if he faced certain defeat. The operative word is certain. Now, in the light of the setbacks in Vietnam, in New Hampshire and in the public opinion polls, this surmise has suddenly picked up momentum. Viewed in this light, the seemingly quixotic campaign of Sen. McCarthy and the prospective one of Sen. Kennedy, may be more realistic than they appear at first glance. It is too early to see what the culmination of their candidacies will CLAYTON FRITCHEY be, but it is not at all difficult to see that either singly, or in combination, they could destroy the credibility of Johnson as a successful party standard bearer. In just one primay in one small state, Sen. McCarthy has already dealt a serious blow to the Presidents prestige. If McCarthy does as well, or better, in the bigger primaries just ahead, he may not get the nomination himself, but he could demonstrate for . all to see, including Johnson, that the President would have no chance of even if he succeeded in forcing his own nomination on a reluctant party. The intervention of Sen. Kennedy, no matter how it affects McCarthy, is bound to stimulate the already formidable opposition to Johnson. The critical campaigning of these two senators against the party leader over a period of months will almot inevitably make the nomination worthless to Johnson. There is also the possibility of the President's position being further eroded by new setbacks in Vietnam, the renewal of rioting in U.S. cities, attacks on the dollar, and inflation, followed by further drops in the public opinion polls. In the face of all this, what would Lyndon Johnson do? He s a very proud man ( some would say a very vain one). He won in 1964 by the greatest majority of any president. If LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Biiiiniiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiji he faced certain and humiliating defeat in 1968, would he go to the post? No one, possibly including the President himself, knows for sure, but there are some veteran politicians (friends as well as critics of the President) who are willing to bet that he wont run under such circumstances. Both McCarthy and Kennedy are, of course, well aware of this possibility. They are also aware that if they succeed in subjecting the President to a series of defeats in many parts of the country, they may convert a possibility into a proba-bilt- y. VICTOR RIESEL high-crim- slum-ridde- n bombed while performing their jobs. unhappy Theyre because they don't want their recent series of unpubli-cize- d lone worker" strategy held conferences, here and in otlier inner city" districts, to be misinterpreted as insinuating criticism of any race, color, creed or ethnic origin. But there have been several murders of drivers, almost a thousand robberies, and the planting of a bomb, not to .non-tie- n the heavog of Molotov cocktails. So rough did it all become for the members of at least 14 unions that Communications Workers of America President Joe Beirne called a conference of affected national unions at his headquai ters in Washington on Feb. 19. They met and compared the grim statistics. When Mr. Beirne, who also i;: a vice president, later national AFL-CIdiscussed the conference with this coi respondent. he said dolefully: "There was a frank discussion on what is developing in the streets. And, man, there really are rough spots. We realized we all have a large problem wluih niut not be drawn into the racial issue. Tnis happens regardless of race or color. So we agreed to seek solutions and meet again shortly." One of the unions represented at Die parley was the American Federation of Teachers, many of whose members are women who often walk to the nearest transit facilities in groups. This citys United Federation of Teachers finds the going grimmest in the low income districts. On record in the union's headquarters here is the case of one female teacher in a school Bedlord-Stuyvesa- who was approached by a neighborhood s pervisory committee. They told ' her that they wanted her to resign her librarian job since they had someone else for the spot. She refused. Two weeks later she sat down at the wheel of her car, and turned on the ignition. A bomb exploded. It was a botched job and she was not seriously Injured. Union officials say that her persistence is unusual. Generally the teachers just drift away without making formal complaints. Most vulnerable to physical attack and robberies are the bus and service di ivers. In the first 11 months of 67, the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen's (BRT) Los Angeles bus drivers were hit by such violence including one murder and 343 robberies that the BRT threatself-style- d ened to cut off service to Southeast Los Angeles abruptly if some protective system was not worked out. radios were installed. rode some of the buses and other protective measures were put into effect. The violence was cut down sharplTwo-wa- y y- this time of a was committed in Detroit. the Wayne There, County AFL-CICouncil worked out a joint action system. Drivers watch each other's routes and report incidents or signs of trouble. Here, where more than hall the nation's narcotics addicts live, the Transport Workers Unions members have run into unprecedented violence. murder dany tiuck driver Another I attended a most informative and dignified meeting last week, a citizens protest meeting regarding the sewer tax, urban renewal, and other pertinent matters. I was very surprised to learn the sewer tax or nuisance tax, as it was called, was principally added to our water bill to pay for the maintenance of our new treatment plant. Yet it was brought out that less than of the money from the sewer tax was being used for the treatment plant. Where does the remaining go? Your guess is as good as mine. It was also disclosed that the treatment plant was not doing what it was supposed to do. in other words, it looked good on paper, but actual performance was something else. It was said, Here is another million-dolla- r mistake. How many of these million dollar mistakes can we afford? one-thir- d two-thir- It is not likely that Kennedys new move was inspired by the conviction that McCarthy was going to roll up more convention votes than Johnson. What he has perceived is that the McCarthy challenge is exposing the Presidents vulnerability so dramatically that the President, for his party's sake as well as his own, may follow the precedent set by other chief executives who inherited the office and were later Like Truman, and Teddy Roosevelt, he may choose not to run again. It is that eventuality that prompted some of Kennedys advisers to urge the senator to put himself into contention. Coo-lidg- e, Otherwise, if Johnson suddenly withdrew at the last moment, the nomination might just drop into McCarthys lap. The Kennedy men also know that the Senators entry will enhance both the possib-lit- y of a withdrawal and the chances of actually denying the nomination to Johnson if he persists in seeking it in the face of popular repudiation. Lone Workers' Ask Protection NEW YORK In many central cities across the land many labor leaders e and their followers have the area jitters and blues. They're jittery because their members, working in crowded, narcotics-ladeghettos, are being mugged, robbed, assaulted, threatened, m u r d ered and Blasts Sewer Tax We have the same problem In cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco and said Transport Workers elsewhere, President Matthew Guinan the other day. In New York we ease things with two-waradios, and screens to protect the drivers from being mugged from behind. The drivers are sitting ducks at the end of their runs in lonely areas. So they rendezvous with police cars. Its working out fine. y The meeting also disclosed that the sewer tax was one of many nuisance taxes that could be passed in the future, because property tax is as high as the state will allow. So in order to run our government to obtain additional money, they must either raise taxes or create new ones. All this can be done while the property owners sit idly by and let it happen. LORRAINE SPENCER 1461 W. 8th South St. - Strengthen Economy Now that Congress has removed the gold cover from our reserves, the nation seemingly falls back on production capacity alone as the source of our economic strength. Our productive capabilities are great but could production turn out not to be invincible? What would happen if low profits, a growing economic nationalism, high interest rates, a setback in the stock market or any number of things should adversely affect our economy? Extreme economic planners who have been in large numbers since 1961 have often theorized that nationalization of some companies would be a wise step. If the hard core unemployment problem proves to have no solution or the need of the government to get additional revenue becomes acute, would some advocate nationalization of public companies? The voters should get the views of the candidates on this question. I do not favor nationalization under any circumstances. It is Joe Beimes Communication Workers union which first dragged the issue out front. One of his New York City members, attempting to service telephones in a big Brooklyn project, got a gun in his ribs, was taken to the roof, stripped of his trousers, and robbed. There were other Incidents. Finally some 40,000 telephone workers struck 'cross the state. The anion demanded protection for its lone servicemen. Th issue went to an arbitration panel consisting of James McFadden, former New York City Labor Commissioner, Gerry Ryan, president of the Uniform Firemens Association and Vincent Mora-vec- , vice president of Bethlehem Steel Corp. They ruled that in designated high crime areas in New York, Syracuse and Buffalo, the service worker was entitled to protection on request. In districts he could request protection. If the foreman rejects the demand, the supervisor could do the job himself or send in another man. All disputes are to be arbitrated. This went into effect midnight March 17. This is not a war between two worlds. This is a war between local gangs and hopped-umuggers on one side, and the white and rank and file of unions black on the other. p teachers, bus drivers, Servicemen, delivery men, letter carriers, electricians, et al., continue their daily rounds. not run or But they want to walk out be carried. -E- DWARD C. SHARP JR. Lake Junaluska, N.C. Defends Wallace A recent letter accused presidential candidate George Wallace of being a racist and indicating he is not politically a conservative. Because he feels all people must conduct themselves according to just principles and laws does not mean he is a racist. George Wallace is a strong believer in constitutional government and unfortunately this is more than can be said for the remaining presidential candidates at this time. Governor Wallace might not be as conservative as a Barry Goldwatcr, but in contrast to the otlier presidential candidates Governor excluding Reagan, George Wallace has to rank number one in the conservative camp. He supports many of toe conservative programs, such as repeal of the personal income tax. He is for maintaining local control of the schools and keeping the federal government out of this business. He maintains our local police forces are the best and only way to restore law and order in our society and he encourages us to support them. He is against foreign aid to our enemies. George Wallace is the only candidate for president who says we should stop all aid and trading with Communist countries. He advocates a military victory in Vietnam and that it should be at the hands of military experts. It is my opinion of the six men now showing interest in the pret.Jential race, Wallace is the best candidate. -J-OHN H. WILSON 2346 Sundown Ave. |
