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Show r iAisn dst DESERET NEWS, NOVEMBER : man J3 OUR READERS' ACTION Write to Dull Mar., P.O. Cox 1257, LINE Salt Like City. Utah 6x110 Owner refuses to refund By Louis Harris 016 AS DO-I- T on cuts strong, selective 0 25, 1976 Last April I sent a $74 deposit to the owner of an apartment in Provo. This was for my daughter who was going to attend BYU. Instead she got married. The deposit was to be returned in 30 days after receiving a written request. I have tried to get it to no avail. L.G., Salt Lake City. Youll be surprised to learn that the owner. Gene Lamb, figures you owe him for 15 more days rent. But, he isnt going to try to collect it. His explanation is the rent was $49 a month and it was vacant two months. He also said your daughter signed a contract and because this prevented him from renting to someone else no refund. He says he turned away at least 15 prospects after your daughter signed up. He did not replace her until September. Thats where the vacant time comes in. Maam, we dont know what the contract says, so we suggest you have a lawyer look at it. He might find grounds for a small claims court action. Strnsest mandates emerging from the recent election was a deep public aversion to increased federal spending. By percent, a majority of the public favors cutting federal expenditures. However, the publics views on spending are not quite as simple as they seem. Closer examina- shows that the HARRIS tion American people are selective about SURVEY highly where to cut and where to sustain spending. When the same public is asked about cutbacks in spending even if that means cutting back in spending for education, health, jobs for the unemployed, and other social areas, a 8 percent majority oppose such cuts. A recent Harris Survey of 1,532 adults nationwide tested 13 different art as ol federal spending and asked people to choose those they would most like to cut and then those they would least like to cut. The results are revealing: If there is a federal program that can be regarded as untouchable, it is Social Security payments. Only 2 percent of the American people are willing to see cuts made here, and a definitive fij) nproont CSV thic c nnrk4 not take place. Only 3 percent opt for cuts in health care, and a much higher 52 percent feel that this is an area where they would least like to see a decrease in federal expenditure. Federal aid to education also ranks high on the least like to see cut list, with 41 percent singling it out for exemption from the budgetary paring process, compared with the 5 percent who rank it with their leading candidates for the cutting list. Pollution control is another area where the public is unwilling to see a cutback in federal spending. While 7 percent see environmental regulations as a prime target for money-savin- g cuts, a higher 30 percent warn that this area should be left alone. Thus, Social Security, health care, federal aid to education and pollution control can be classified as areas where the overall public thrust for cuts in federal spending are apt to meet with considerable resistance. In contrast, a number of other areas appear to be higMy vulnerable: Foreign military and economic aid lead the list of candidates for cutting, with 55 percent favoring cuts, compared with only 3 percent opposing. 62-2- 3 61-2- ; Order helna reshlon&d I sent a check to Regina Corp., Rahway, N.J. for some vacuum bags I ordered in June and never received. They said they were shipped and would trace them. But they have not replied. Its not much money hut I cant get the proper bags to fit my machine locally. Please help. C.S., Huntington. They are reshipping your order for bags and filters. They apologize and say customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to them. They I have been getting books from Grolier Enterprises, Danbury, Conn. They told me if I paid $13.45 for the last seven books, I could save $2.30. I sent them a check. Then I started getting bills and threats to pay up. Please help me. Mrs. E.D., Salt Lake City. After getting our letter they tried to call you but when they couldnt reach you, wrote us. They got a little mixed up and two of your monthly payments (before you sent your check) were not applied to your account. Your check was then credited against the monthly shipment of books. They have now made an internal adjustment to clear your account of all charges. You have their apology and they are sending you the May and June selections with their compliments. You will then start getting the regular monthly shipments you are entitled to. Watch deal debatable The space program continues to cutting, while only to see it spared. 9 percent would like The food stamp program, recently a source of controversy, was named by 30 percent as their top choice for cutting, while only 17 percent want to see it preserved as much as possible. Five other areas emerge with no clear mandate as to whether spending should be cut or kept about as it is: a I, v (UPI photo) Nov, everyone, say cheese! Back in 1918, a Chicago commercial photographer named Arthur Mole climbed a lower at S- U base at a Sherman, Army training Camp Chillicothe, Ohio. Shouting instructions through a megaphone. Mole had group leaders herd some 21,000 officers and enlisted men together into gh be out of popular favor. Some 47 percent single it out as an area for Although 21 percent of the public place defense spending on a list of priorities for cutbacks, a higher 37 percent want to go slow in this area. This is a turnaround from 1971, when, at the height our Vietnam involvement, 30 percent put defense spending on the prime cutback list, compared with only 16 percent who wanted to go slow in such cuts. By a narrow margin, more people would like to see federal snenrtin? for mass transportation cut than would like to see it sustained. The question of farm subsidies with just about turns up as a stand-ofas many people opting for cutbacks as , f, those who do not. On aid to cities, a similar stand-of- f is evident. While 16 percent put it on their list for high priority cutbacks, almost as many, 14 percent, say they would "least like to see cuts in federal aid to cities. But this is a turnaround against the cities, for five years ago, three times as many people put federal aid to cities on their dont cutback as those assigning it to their high priority cutback list. This will not come as good news to the beleaguered mayors of the nations big cities who only a few weeks ago made an urgent plea to Carter to jpeoming President-elec- t come to their rescue. (01976, The Chicago Tribune French diver sets a record Isle of PORTOGERRAIO, Frenchman Elba, Italy (UPI) Jacques Mayol has set a world depth record of 328 feet for diving without a breathing apparatus. Mayol set the record with a dive into the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy. He spent 3 minutes and 40 seconds under record water to break the set in 1974 by his rival, Italys Enzo Majorca. 285-foo- got a little mixed up 1 : Next on the list is federal welfare spending, with 59 percent supporting cuts and only 9 percent feeling that cutbacks in this area of expenditure should have a low priority. 4 I bought a watch about a year ago. In June It was I broken. I had to send it back to General Time Service, LaSalle, HI., with $2 for handling. I then got a bill saying it was fixed and to send them $26 for repairs. I did this and a month later got a watch but not mine. It wouldnt run either. Then they wrote and said mine was not repairable and thats why they sent the other one. If this is so why did they bill me? Help. Mrs. M.J., Ogden. They say the watch they sent is just the same quality as yours was only a different make. Send it back and theyll repair it At no cost, of course. If you dont like their deal, ask for your money and old watch back. Do-I-t Man attempts to solve problems, set answers. Investigate complaints and cut red tape. Write. You must sign your name and give your address and telephone number. assigned places on the ground, where Mole had staked out patterns. When the men had all marched into place, they formed the familiar profile of President Woodrow Wilson. The photograph is reproduced in this month's American Heritage Magazine. Cities expect Carter's heip L Worsnop Editorial Research Reports By Richard Here's the place to air your gripes A dangerous estrangeWASHINGTON ment has grown up between the citizenry and their government. A majority now believe that our institutions do not hear us. do not serve us and do not want to serve us. So that the voice of the individual might be heard again in Washington, we established a National Su- ggestion Box six months ago. Its purpose is to receive your ideas for the solution of national problems and the righting of governmental wrongs. The response was JACK greater than we had anticipated. More than 15,000 Americans, with good ideas and valuable perspectives, sent in their suggestions. There were many excellent proposals far more than our staff could handle. We have remained silent about the National Suggestion Box, therefore, until we could get better organized. Now we have a dozen specialists, processing the, suggestions and contacting government agencies, under the auspices of the Copernicus Society of America. One of the nations most efficient businessmen, Edward Piszek, has taken ovei the chairmanship of the National Suggestion Box. RESPONSE: Most federal programs prohibit home care for the elderly. We suspect the nursing home lobby may be behind this policy. rrtnet Affinals v4uvt,a ,0.4w4vul .w- -4 ILi ui u .u rfrH rAl'ifnl agreed that the cldeily, would be better off in a home environment. The only argument they raised against the proposal was that some families would keep the subsidy for themselves rather than spend it on the elderly family member. In our view, nursing homes are more likely to rip off the government than are the patient's own relatives. A home care program in Texas, meanwhile, has been highly successful. SUGGESTION: Ben Owen of Columbus, Miss., asked why unleaded gasoline should cost more than regular fuel, which is not leaded and 4 AflDERSOn It is now ready to handle regular suggestions from everyday citizens. From time to time, we will publicize ideas of special merit and urge their adoption. We cannot demand that your proposals be accepted; we can merely urge that they be considered. Here are a few of them : SUGGESTION: We heard from several elderly people who need assistance to get around. The government will help take care of them if hey move into a nursing home. But they would prefer to live at home with their loved ones, who also want them at home. Mrs. Roma Lowe of Nyack, N Y., for example, urged: in preference to placing our elderly m nursing homes or homes for the aged, a program should be established . . . where a family would be subsidized for maintaining a family member in an approved home-lik- e atmosphere. Then he learned of a job opening at his local Social Security office and he applied for the position. Yet the very people who had refused him disability benefits turned him down on the grounds that he was disabled. RESPONSE: The employment rights of the handicapped are protected primarily by the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, which was passed in 1973. The law is woefully inadequate, however, in several important ways. On the federal level, government agencies are required to submit affirmative action plans, which commit them to hire and promote the handicapped. But the law lacks any enforcement provisions. The federal agencies, The National Suggestion Box, Box 2009, Washington, D.C., 2001 3 therefore, should be cheaper to produce. Unleaded gasoline prices, he suggested, are a rip-off.- " RESPONSE: Unleaded gasoline prices, it's true, have skyrocketed above normal lev:!:,. Over the summer months, unleaded gasoline prices rose 2.5 cents per gallon. The Federal Energy Administration has ruled that the priee for unleadc-- gasoline should be no more than one cent per gallon higher than the priee for regular gasoline. Even the extra penny will cost the consumers an estimated $1 billion each year. The FEA contends that unleaded gasoline does cost more to produce. Therefore, the one ! cent differ nlial was allowed. But industry and gasoline i eiuiiers have ignored the one-celimit. SUGGESTION: V, I.loyd Allen of Warren, Minn., charged that he had been discriminated against because he is physically handicapped. 1 became disabled and applied lor Social Security disability benefits," he wrote. I was denied at every level. d action plans as often as they wish without fear of reprisal. In private commerce, the law can be invoked only against businesses that hold federal contracts in excess of $2,500. The contracts can be withdrawn if a business discriminates against the handicapped. Since the law was written, 650 complaints of the cases have have been filed, and been resolved in favor of the handicapped persons. Yet none of the guilty firms lost their government contracts. The Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped has assured the National Suggestion Box that employment of the handicapped will be an issue in the next session of Congress. Many Americans, meanwhile, feel they have no place to go with their ideas, for the government has a special talent for resisting outside suggestions and giving people the runaround. So if you have an idea, send it to the National Suggestion Box, Box 2009, Washington, two-thir- DC. 20013. We have a line of daily communication with readers in close to 1,000 newspapers, a line of communication that can be used to 50 million combat the individual citizens despairing belief that no one in government is listening. SOUTHERN AFRICAN AGENT; Two prominent congressmen recently took up the cause of South Africa on the House floor without mentioning that part of their speeches were written word for vrord by a South African agent. One congressmen didnt even know it. Rod. who is considered one of the Philip Crane, blightest members of the House said he thought the speech came from the conservative Republican Study Committee. The committee got the speech, however, from Outlaid deKieiier, a registered foreign agent for South Africa. The committee pawned off the speech on Crane without saying where it came from. The second congressman, John Dent, admitted he knew deKicffer had prepared the speech. Dent explained that he was rushed and 'wanted to get whatever canned heat 1 could get into the debate i WASHINGTON The support of the nations big cities was crucial to Jimmy Carters presidential election. Of the nations 22 largest metropolitan are in plus the District of Columbia areas, 15 states carried by Carter. Four of the remaining six are irom a single Ford state, California. The other two cities are Chicago and Detroit (The National League of Cities will hold its annual convention in Denver next week. Presidentelect Carter declined an invitation to address the meeting.) Naturally enough, officials of the hardest-presse- d cities expect the Carter administration to return the favor by attacking urban problems more vigorously than the Ford administration did. Those problems include crimn,community development and housing, welfare, Malth care and urban decay, among others. After a two-da- y emergency meeting in Chicago, the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Nov. 8 proposed that Carter formulate a new national urban investment policy. Such a policy, the mayors said, would call for (1) creation of more jobs in central cities and consolidation of federal programs; (2) an d emergency program for cities; (3) establishment of an urban development bank similar to the World Bank. Above all, the mayors wanted assurances that they will have access to the Carter White House. Kenneth A. Gibson, mayor of Neark, N.J., and president of the conference, recently wrote that1 What the cities need is the kind of presidential commitment and attention that President Johnson gave to civil rights legislation in the hard-presse- mid-1960- s. Carters views on urban policy already are known in broad outline. In addition to economic programs that would reduce urban unemployment, he has proposed assistance to deal with the fiscal needs of cities hard hit by recession, and a five-yeextension of federal revenue sharing with an increase in the annual funding level. He also has proposed funds directly to the sending all revenue-sharincities and amending the distribution formula to help areas of great need. All of these points are mentioned in the Democratic Party platform adopted at the national convention last July. The platform, moreover, supports direct federal subsidies and loans for construction of low- - and middle- - income housing as well as prohibitions against mortgagelending practices that discriminate against neighborhoods. Carter has made it dear that he exoects the cities As i struggle to to reciprocate his support. reorganize the federal government, he said in an address to the U S. Conference of Mayors annual convention on June 29, I would expect you to reorganize your own governments, to root out inefficiency and waste, to deal with administrative problems in a courageous wav. A numher of mayors have made the point that the cities must do more to help themselves. ar g m |
