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Show tigi IMi HH 0 Tour directive on streamlining the government? I think in the red tape DESERET NEWS it got lost 't!iiiii!iiniiiiiiiiiiii!:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii!iiiii!iiiiiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii;i lll!lllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!l!llllllllll!!!l!llll!l!llllll1lllllllill,HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIil,!ll We Stand For the Constitution Of The United States Don't Ignore Ski Bonanza As Having Been Divinely Inspired 2, 1971 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY Must Airline Fares Go Up, Up And Away? As the Senate Aviation Subcommittee opens hearings today into the airlines deteriorating financial condition, the question seems to be not whether there will be a fare increase but how much and how soon it will come. Without a domestic fare increase, the Air Transport Association expects the nations 12 major airlines to lose a combined total of $192 million in 1971 and $279 million in 1972, If there is a general fare increase this year, it will come over the strong protest of consumer groups which believe the airlines already charge too much. Only last fall the Civil Aeronautics Board awarded a series of selective increases after having approved one general fare increase of 3.5 pet. in February 1969 and another of 6.4 pet. in October of that year. This raises the question of how much further increases can really help and how much they will prompt air passengers to switch to cheaper forms of transportation or stay home md transact their business by telephone. In his column on this page today, Sydney J Harris suggests that fare cuts, not hikes, are what the aiImcs need to attract more passengers. To this criticism the airlines reply that they ordered costly new jets three years ago when economic forecasts and growth projections seemed to justify the purchases. Then came a drop in the rate of economic growth and a rise in inflation. In response to this bad news the airlines not only sought fare increases but also made extensive cutbacks in service. Last year some 7,000 airline employees were laid off, and in December there were fi.58 fewpr domestic fli edits than a vear earlier. Moreover, wage increases, higher airport fees, continued hijackings, and ruinous competition on many routes ate deeply into the airlines profits. Clearly, the airlines problems cannot be solved quickly or easily. A fare increase can further erode the growth of passenger traffic. While cutbacks in the number of flights can help profit, it would do so at the expense of more unemployment. f Some observers say the ideal solution would be a series of mergers of tne 11 trunk airlines into five or oix. Such reorganization, according to one writer, could reduce wher wasteful but it counts, strengthen competition competition and its accompanying congestion, and enable plant and equipment to be used more intensively. With the CAB, the President, and the airlines responsive to the arguments in favor of mergers, this may be a next step for the air transport industry. wide-bod- y Join T raffic Staffs The importance of merging this function is obvious in Salt Lake City and County. It can easily be accomplished, since the county now has no department as such, but only one man in the sheriffs office handling traffic engineering duties. Organization of a joint traffic engineering department was urged again last week by City Streets Commissioner George Catmull and County Commission Chairman William E. Dunn, who supervises county highways. Actually, both commissions agreed 16 months ago to the merger plan, but the move was delayed because the county did not have $40,000 in its 1970 budget to help share the cost. The proposal makes sense. Roads, like crime and fires, dont stop at the city limits. What affects one governmental unit often vitally affects another in devising d traffic routes, standard signs, and other safety measures. Although lack of financing has delayed organization of a county department, that step seems inevitable because of the growing complexity of the county road system. Its reasonable to start out right with a consolidated department where coordination and planning are at an optimum, rather than with two separate departments for the city and county. Under the circumstances, a joint traffic engineering unit might effect little savings, but that i3 not the only reason for mergers. Coordination and cooperation can be just as impohigh-spee- jam-packe- d Constitutional Crisis Ahead? North Carolinas Sen. Sam Ervin is performing another great service just now in his effort to get prompt action on a hill fixing the ground rules for a con stitutional convention. Tile senator is a wise old owl, possessed of perfect In a tangled underbrush of law, he sees a crisis creeping up. Few others have paid much attention. Ariel ail, the COUii- - Mr KHpatrirk try hasn't seen a constitutional convention since 1787: it is widely supposed that such a political animal is extinct. Eut unvision. and he less Ervin is sorely mistaken the next few isn't mistaken often months are likely to see the Congress eyeball to eyeball with Article V of the Constitution. That widely forgotten provision says flatly, in words that would seem to defy misunderstanding, that on the applicaof tions of the legislatures of the states, tne Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution. Such amendments, if s of subsequently ratified by the states, would become valid additions to our fundamental law. During the first hundied years of our republics history, according to a study hy Fred Graham in 1963, only ten such applications were filed by the states with the Congress. Between 1893 and 1911, however, petitions came on with a rush; 31 state Legislatures sought a con two-thir- three-fourth- city-coun- The challenge facing higher education today is perhaps more critical than at any other period in history. Critics complain that education is far too expensive, that schools must be made more responsible for their product. enrollments are taxing facilities and faculties alike. Militant teachers and activist students are not only causing trouble for administrators but are drying up funds from philanthropic individuals and organizations. While Ricks College is fortunate in escaping most of these problems thus far, no college is entirely immune from the tides and undercurrents sweeping through American higher education. That challenge now is being handed to Dr. Ilenry B. Eyr-inwho takes over July 1 from retiring president John L. Clarke. Ricks, like Erigham Young University, has shown phe nomenal growth during a period of expanding worldwide Church membership. In President Clarkes own tenure, it has grown from 250 students to 5,000. Dr. Eyring comes particularly for his new assignment. Though still a young man. he has a broad background in both the teaching and administrative aspects of education at Stanford University, Harvard, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked extensively with business leaders, and is a man with deep religious convictions. These traits will help him as he takes up the task of building a stronger Ricks College where President Clarke leaves off. We wish him well in his new responsibilities, and congratulate President Clarke on job well done. Ever-mounti- Tg g, 27-ye- ar well-equipp- vention to propose an amendment for the direct election of U.3. senators, and tiiough they didnt get the convention, tiiey did get the 17th Amendment. Over the past 60 years, the tide has ebbed and flowed: world government, the prohibition of polygamy, wages and e ashours, the Townsend Plan of sistance. It wasnt until 1967, four years ago this spring, that members of Congress gave such appb'cations a second glance. At that time, it appeared that 32 state Legislatures had applied for a convention to propose a consiitutional old-ag- amendment overturning the Supreme Courts rule of one man, one vote for apportioning legislative seats. We heard a good deal of discussion then of the legal complexifies. The late Sen. Everett Dirksen fulminated gloriously for a while; law professors came and went; newspaper editors, all of whom are thwarted constitutional lawyers, delivered themselves of advisory opinions. Eventually the uproar subsided. Now its back again. This time the an target is federal revenue sharing idea with enormous appeal to state Legislatures across the land. Five states (New Hampshire, Florida, Louisiana, California and New Jersey) already have filed formal applications with Congress to call a constitutional convention for such an amendment. At least fourteen other Legislatures, now in session, are known to be considering such resolutions. Ideas are contagious. This idea could get epidemic. Unlike other convention movements of recent years, revenue sharing arouses few objections of philosophy or principle. The purpose is far removed from reapportionment, state control of obscenity, prayer in the si'hools, or a new Supreme Court of the Union. State Legislatures are hungry for money with no strings attached. If they can't get it any other way, how about amending the Constitution? Ervin is asking his colleagues to suppose that 34 states file Article V applications. What then? One belligerent response is to say that no power can compel the Congress to carry out the constitutional commandment that Congress shall call a convention. But member are sworn to uphold the Constitution; we have to assume they would perform their dutv. How? Ervin's bill would establish a permanent, orderly plan. If 34 states, within a seven-yea- r period, should ask for a convention on a given issue, Congress would schedule a convention that would be strictly limited to consideration of that issue alone. Each state would elect one delegate from each congressional district, plus two at large. When the convention had finished its business. Congress would transmit the proposed amendment back to the states for ratification. This is a wise and prudent bill. It ought to be taken up now, in tranquility, before the predictable spring day when crisis arrives on the Hill with the postman bearing application 34. Business Bad ? Cut , Don't Raise, Fares By SYDNEY HARRIS Call me an will, but there derstand about omy. Let me economic illiterate if you are things I just dont unthe workings of our econgive you a simple After a weekend in Los Angeles, I checked out of my hotel and hopped into a cab, directing the driver to the airline terminal. I was going to take an airport limosine from the terminal, because it would cost only $2.50 for the whole trip, whereas a cab from hotel to airport would cost something around $7. After we had gone a few blocks, the cabbie said, Tell you what Ill do. I'll take you straight to the airport for a flat $3, and no tip. How about it? I agreed, and he went on, You know, business is so rotten that I could wait an hour at the airport and not pick up a decent fare. People just wont pay $7 to get downtown when they can save $5 on a limo. My plane was one of the new jumbo an elk in the There were more stewardesses aboard than there were passengers, and section looked as if the first-clas-s Typhoid Mary had just passed that way. Anybody would be crazy not to take coach, because each coach passenger had enough room around him to swing a lariat. Now, the taxi companies are petitiond ing for fare raises, and just got a hire in New York City. The airlines are crying about their losses, and mumbling about the possibility of fare increases, because profits were low or neg747s. You could have shot aisle. good-size- ative ir. 1970. But nobody seems to think of reducing fares when times are bad, only of raising them. This isn't only true of private enterprise, but of public corporations as well. Every time the Chicago Transit Authority meets in executive session, it boosts bus and subway fares another dime. All that these fare increases do is chop off another segment of potential customers, and so a smaller number of total passengers has to pay a higher rate. This seems like suicidal economics to me. In New York, for example, where taxi fares have been relatively modest, and cabs hve been plentiful, a driver could do very well indeed. In Chicago, by contrast, where fares have been much high- er, drivers make considerably less. In New York, even people take cabs everywhere; in Chicago, they simply cant afford to. Likewise, if the airlines cut their fares in half, or somewhere near it, Im convinced that millions of people would take to the skies who never flew before. When I took my family to Florida fer a week last winter, it cost as much to fly there and back as to live there a whole week. Theres got to be something wrong with the economics of that. low-inco- ' Mr. Nixons Super Vocabulary ty Challenge At Ricks JAMES J. KILPATRICK llars. JEAN RUSSELL Salt Lake City Cut Government Salaries If our elected men want to stop inflation, they should cut their wages instead of raising them, starting with the president and on down, and also the governor. Every time their wages are raised it is taken away from something else, or poor taxpayers musi get their taxes raised. Our national government and state governments know about how' much taxes there is coming in, and they should manage with what comes in and no more raises in taxes. The wage earner must live on what he makes, and the government should too. If they cant manage, everthing should be cut a little, roads, schools, welfare, etc. I know several people working that do not have as much as people on welfare. Many workers children need their teeth fixed, but do not have the money. Our government and all the other elected men do not need a raise. The poor taxpayer is the one that needs some help, the people in lower wage brackets. I think $60,000 is too much of a pension for ex President Johnson. When Nixon was elected, I thought we would have a President that wanted to help the low wage people, but first thing he does is raise his own wages and have three White Houses for the taxpayers to keep up. He is no different from most elected men. He is all for himself. VIOLATE NIELSEN Lehi The Lurking Hubcap Thief rtant Piecemeal mergers are a time - consuming method of making government more efficient. By all means, let's consolidate traffic engineering but the prime need still is consolidation, and the legislative process is the fastest means of accomplishing that goal. The state of Utah is blessed with one of the industries in this country, greatest and yet nothing is done to really support this industry except a mouthful of words that mean nothing. Gov. Rampton has said that uhat Utah must industries. The state has have is them in five major ski areas, and in probably one of the most famous, Alta. Yet, the highway patrol, the road commission, and the county seem to be doing everything in their power to hinder the operation of ski resorts. Incorrect information on road conditions is given, roads are closed, a film answer or even an estimate on opening is refused, and the road commission pulls out equipment. It takes cooperation for success. In the state of Colorado they realize the great tourist potential of the ski industry. Everyone beneoutfits gas stations, ski shops, laundries, fond lets, food wholesalers, the telephone company, tax doelectrical companies and the llars With Alta we have one of the most famous ski areas in the world with some of the most consistently fabulous snow. If Alta were in Coloraall year long, not only do, it would be with skiers, but with local skiers who also turn back their earned dollars into their ovn state economy. Why ooesnt this state wise up and be as smart and progressive as Wyoming and Colorado and get behind one of the biggest tourist bonanzas this country has ever had? Believe me, it isn't a walk through the temple grounds. A walk through the temple grounds is a walk out of the state. A trip to Alta is several days, and several hundreds of do- ... is Traffic engineering like police and fire protection another area where artificial government boundaries make little or no sense. ' i LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 10 EDITORIAL PAGE ! i - The President, WASHINGTON whether he likes it or not, is the trendsetter in this country, and speaks in superla- lives it is no sur- prise that everyone starts picking up the habit. I imagine the first time we knew we had a President who pulls out all stops was after our astronauts landed on the moon. The Presi- - It was the most magnificent contest ever Mr. Buchwald dent was quoted as saying: "Tins is the greatest week in the histo-- n of tiie world since the creation. Then last week, before he gave his State of the Union speech, the President called it The most comprehensive, the most the most bold program in the domestic field ever presented to an American Congress. This kind of talk cannot but affect all American families. For example, the other night, just as our family sat down to dinner, my wife announced, I hope everyone has washed his hands, because I have cooked the greatest meal ever served in the Western HemL-pher- e. That's goad,' I said, because I've had the hardest day anyone has ever had since Gutenberg invented the printing press." My 15- - ear-oldaughter said, We had the worst test in school today since the Spanish Inquisition. How did your football game go? 1 d askeimy ART BUCHWALD son. W'aged in intramural sport, he re- plied. I made two of the most unbelievable catches in the history of the game. My wife served the pot roast I hope everyone likes it, because its the most exnensive pot roast any butcher has ever sold. It is truly delicious, I said. And it explains why we have the highest food of bills anyone on the Eastern Seaboard. My wife took this as a personal criticism. I can't help it if were living in the highest inflationary period in modern times. My son saved the day by asking, Can I have the car tonight? What for? I asked. Im going to the greatest movie ever made. Whats the name of it? sides, I hate to hear fighting during the most momentous banquet I have ever attended in this dining room. My wife said, After the most delicious apple pie anyone has ever, tasted, I want everyone to help me with the largest pile of dirty dishes Ive ever seen. There were the loudest screams of protests ever uttered by an American family, but na one could escape. Then we all went into the living room to watch President Nixon give his State of the Union speech which Atty. Gen. John Mitchell described as the most important document since they wrote the Constitution. GUEST CARTOON The culprit exists in front of 2809 South cn 20th East. It s a gaping chuckhole that swallows your front tire for a few seconds, prying loose your hubroadside. cap and sending it sprawling along the We lost ours that way, and returned to the scene of the crime the following day to look for it. We never found ours, but we did find six others. The neighbors stacked up eight hubcaps the previous thief. Sunday from the handiwork of that same d Our hubcaps need a car. Do they belong to you? Check at 2726 Parleys Way. new-foun- M. WALKOWSKI 2726 Parleys Way Wiy Oppose Decalogue? to Recently, a group of dissidents took exception the monument the Eagles presented to Salt Lake and that now graces the north lawn of the Salt Lake Metropolitan Hall of Justice. The dissidents argue that the inscription of the Ten Commandments does not mean to an American Buddhist, for example, what it may mean to an. American, who is, say, a Christian or a Jew. Therefore, they argue, separation of church and state is not served, and, as taxpayers, they have the right to request its removal. The Decalogue for some 3,200 years served as the basis for law, order, and social standards for many nations. If some groups have ascribed to it religious significance, that was, and is, their right. As for the Decalogue violating the constitutional rights of American Buddhists, or similar groups, the dissidents certainly never studied Buddhism. If they had, they would have discovered that all the great teachers of the past taught that right living was the basic waj of life. Path of Life led to his Buddhas Eight-Fol- d Stages of Progress Toward Enlightenment, which consisted of: (1) Loving Kindness; (2) Compassion; (3) Joyous sympathy in others well being; (4) Equanimity, or virtues exemplified: (5) Abstaining from taking the life of any living being; (6) Abstaining from falsehood; (9) Getting rid of slander; (10) Being established in virtue, by fulfillCity-Count- ing virtue. Buddha also taught: (1) A child should minister to his parents; (2) Parents should minister to their children, and show their love for them, restrain them from vice, exhort them to virtue, and train them for a profession. What teaching of ihe Decalogue could not a Buddhist, other religionist or an atheist, accept as a civilized way of life? Or what teaching of Buddha, as given above, would any American, regardless of belief or disbelief, abhor? CALEB A. SHREEVE SR. Ogden vice-vers- Commends Article I forget, Some- My daughter said, one has to drive me to Jodys birthday party. Its supposed to be the grandest party ever given in the nations capital. daughter said, Then My how come you were invited? My daughter said. Thats the most insulting thing anyone has ever said to me. You can take off my best blouse right now. Shut up, my wife said, and eat your Brussels sprouts. I'm sick and tired of preparing the most fantastic meals ever served in this country, and having vegetables left on the plates. lYour mother is right, I said. Be a. Tne other afternoon as I was reading your staff article on No One Likes To Think About Dying, . was greatly surprised and pleasantly pleased at the magnitude and scope of the articles. Without a doubt, this is the finest article of this nature thatl have ever seen presented in a newspaper. I am sure that it has and will continue to he a very appreciated service to your readers. I particularly am appreciative of your insigiit into our interview. Your quotations and observations showed a great deal of attention to detail and a keen awareness of tire subject matter. y-- "You sure you're not on American?" Jy 4 v i 5 I s i 1 1 n ?i 1 1 j i I i RICHARD MYERS N i President, y Utah State Funerei Directors Assn. Cooley Newspaper ' ' Pk -- |
