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Show mm, '. 1 CARTOON CORNER DESERET NEWS t SALT LAKE CUT, i UTAH A Little Surgery On The Cabinet We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As Having Been Divinely Inspired 14 A . EDITORIAL PAGE ? MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1972 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES -- 1 How The Legislature Can Do A Better Job When the Utah Legislature convenes early next month, it wiL find itself in a uniquely advantageous position. With the state enjoying some unaccustomed surpluses by one estimate, $81 million in added revenue the Legislature should have some unaccustomed opportunities for sendee to the state. One of those opportunities, we would hope, is for a tax cut or refund. Some, but not all, of the surplus ought to go back into the pockets of the taxpayers who helped create it. Clearly, any major tax increase is out. Clearly, too, Utahs new affiuence still doesnt mean the state can have everything it wants or needs. Another advantage enjoyed by the 1973 Legislature is that it will be the first permitted to hire its own attorney and auditor under an amendment approved by the voters last fall. LePe'lev This needs The 1971 study, for example, faulted the Utah Legislature for not making the best use of its time both during and before the session. That situation hasnt changed markedly in the past couple of years. rush that produces If they are to avoid the usual need to get down still the lawmakers laws, hasty and to hard work early in the session. It might help to put the sifting committees to work earlier so the Legislature could start concentrating right away on the most important bills. On the basis of long service in the Utah Legislature in positions of leadership, one member has these suggestions for legislative reform that ought to be studied : bills in advance of the session Procedures for should be simplified, clearly defined, and required by law instead of permitted by rule of the Legislature. last-minu- ; pre-filin- g Legislative standing committees should start working right after the elections instead of after the Legislature convenes. The Rules Committee should assume a selection and planning function, providing for the scheduling of legislative work on a daily, weekly, and session basis. Christian Science Monitor Old Truths Of Politics r The present system of presidential primaries is no good. It exhausts the candidates; it drams their and contributors; with crossover vothelter-skelte- ing, as in Wisconsin, it becomes a travesty. We ought to do better in 1976; but we probably wont. The national nominating ' also . demand a thought-- ful look. Four years hence, .the two parties may have to pay some reluctant city to take them. The Democrats unhappily have trapped themselves with their stultifying and ridiculous quota system for choosing convention delegates. It violates the very democratic spirit the Democrats are supposed to defend. But they are stuck with the plan for 1976, and it is a bummer. . The Legislature should control the activities of lobbyists and require them to disclose certain pertinent information. The Legislature should organize an ethics committee and require lawmakers to disclose the kind of information needed to detect any possible conflicts of interest. The House and Senate should reduce their standing mittees to a number that would reflect the involvement of committee members in the joint appropriations subcommittees. com- 197t Considering the many important bills it will ponder, the anawill be This streamlined. too become page Legislature cant between now and the lyzing and commenting on some of those bills session. of the opening We urge Utahns to start studying these legislative issues right away and making their views known to their elected representatives. What the 1973 Legislature does in a few weeks will vitally affect all of us for years to come. A Test For Parkway The Jordan River Parkway concept reaches a crossroads of' sorts next Wednesday when Salt Lake County holds its budget hearing. The hearing, in the Hall of Justice auditorium at 7 p.m., will consider areas of citizen interest in the budget. If parkway backing is conspicuous by its absence, county commissioners could well conclude that the parkway is not sufficiently popular to justify committing county funds for land acquisition and construction. That is not the case, however. A recent Deseret News poll showed that while 45 percent hold no opinion on whether the an indication of lack of knowledge' parkway should be built an opinion overwhelmingly supportwho did voice those about it ed the concept, 47 to 8 percent. Lack of county backing for the project could well jeopardize state plans for the parkway just when the project is getting its first full head of steam. A bill to form a Jordan River Parkway Authority has now been written and will be introduce into the Legislature next month. Governor Rampton has pledged state backing and efforts to secure at least $1 million for the project. One powerful argument for building the parkway now is the continuing pressure of inflation. Its estimated that land and construction costs are currently rising at the rate of one percent a month. In three years, that rate would increase the cost of the upper Jordan project alone by $4,131,000. The parkway should be strongly supported at next Wednesdays budget hearing. What A Waste Inauguration ceremonies for the President of the United Slates on January 20 will cost $3 million. Most of that amount will be funded by the sale of tickets to Republican Party loyalists who will buy seats along the parade route and attend fancy dress balls during the evening. cereBut the stands east of the Capitol, where the swearing-imony has taken place for 150 years, are paid for by an appropriation from Congress, this time $350,000. That is a whopping 60 percent increase over four years ago. n The ceremony will last about 30 minutes and only a few thoustax doland people will be present. Spending that much money few' for to a such is way-ou- t relative mind provide seating you lars, seen can be of reason. Particularly so, when the whole thing much better on television. If the invited guests cant stand for half an hour, somebody of a for a lot less than could rent some folding chairs two-third- million dollars. V N ' s Yoes In Coplev Newspapers Cabinet Post llllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllillllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilNIIIIIIIINIillll Because of these and other improvements that the amendment authorized in the way the lawmakers do business, a Utah Legislature ranked 15th best in the nation by a 1971 study ought to be able to enhance the level of its performance. Despite this high ranking and the opportunity for improving on it, the 1973 Legislature still could stand to reappraise itself with an eye to more in a very careful going over." The election of 1972 saw some old truths of politics made manifest. I trot out a few: (1) The American people are largely indifferent to great issues that do not touch them personally. They were thus indifferent to the war in Vietnam, to the SALT talks, to the imbalance of payments, even to the rapprochement with the Soviet Union and China. None of this counted for much. (2) The political issues that matter JAMES J. KILPATRICK are those of a human scale: Taxes on property, the busing of children, crime m the streets. McGoverns proposed budget for national defense was not on a human scale; no one could comprehend $55 billion. But his early proposal for a $1,000 annual grant to every man, woman and child .was comprehensible indeed; and the trouble, from McGoverns point of view, was that the people understood it all too well. (3) An appeal for social reform, to be successful, must not be cast in terms the people do not want to hear. In theory. the American people reject socialism. This is only in theory. They have been embracing socialism in one form cr another for the past hundred years. This truth is embarrassing, and the people do not want to hear it discussed. The difference between Nixons welfare reform and. McGoverns final plan for welfare reform was a difference largely of degree, but it is a part of Nixons great skill as a politician that he puts his liberalism while conservatively, McGovern appeared to advance his liberalism socialistically. The two philosophers wound up 18 million votes apart. (4) The people cherish certain values of right conduct; a successful politician must respect these. One such value is patriotism, or pride in country. McGov LETTERS TO THE EpiTOR ern is doubtless as patriotic as the next Economic Plan fellow, but he blundered in promising to concessions from Hanoi. Here beg again, the differences are not likely to be substantial between McGovern's ideas for a Vietnam settlement and the settlement that Nixon finally will get; but McGovern came across as a quitter who would give the enemy everything, and Nixon became the patient statesman who would insist upon peace with honor. Americans love their country, even when they feel ashamed of it, but they want the love public and the shame private. They will not buy a candidate who is insensitive to this feeling. Many other axioms, of course, could be cited. On the face of it, ours is an permissive society. The appearance is deceptive. Beneath the surface lies a Calvinist iceberg. The people believe that work is a virtue and idleness a sin; they believe that crime should be punished. With unerring accuracy, McGovern managed to crash into the iceberg every time: Amnesty, abortion, marijuana. In the end, he sank. But let it go. This has been a phenomenal year for a political correspondent: Muskies tears, Humphreys boomof ing laughter, the metamorphosis Spiro Agnew. We call it the quadrennial madness, and it often seems lunatic indeed. But the interplay between politicians and people remains the most exciting drama ever devised for those who love the game. Almost almost one begins to look ahead to 76. On Aug. 7. 1971. . President Nixon declared a of national emergency; but he did not order state all the federal departments and agencies covered in his original Executive Order 11499 to go into emergency action. He did order the Office of Emergency Preparedness to set into motion a plan calling for w hat we now remember as Phase I of federal wage, price and rent controls. By the issuance of Executive Orders he set up the ma- chinery now know n as Phase II of the New Economic Plan. In order to make his economic dictatorship more effective and pave the way for future dictatorial plans, he divided by executive order the whole nation into 10 regions, to be governed from 10 capital cities; Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. easy-goin- The creation of these 10 provinces has received little or no publicity; ner is it generally knowm that if and when the President finds it expedient or necessary, he can invoke Executive Order 11490, convert this republic into' a bureaucratic dictatorship governed absolutely D.C., through these 10 regions and their 10 cities, bypassing and ignoring all state, t county, city and local governments.' JOSEPH MACK BEAN JR. , . Springdale A Look fears for the future of our youth after a recent experience. Six teenagers boys, age 18 (one. our nephew) travelled some distance and arrived at our home unannounced but very welcome. They came, .the Saturday they said, to attend Conference ' ' evening Priesthood session. Why Our Cities Have Decayed By SYDNEY More than 20 years ago, all the "impractical sociologists and city planners were warning the mayors and merchants in most American communities that their downtowns were decaying rapidly and needed some radical rejuvena- -' tion, or they would be lost beyond recovery. None of the practical men believed them. Some of the merchants even opposed such mild revisions as streets, for fear they would hurt business. The thought of creating malls and vehicular traffic positively-appallebarring them. one-wa- y Well, the downtowns are now in the full process of decay all over America. J. those idealists, two decades ago and more, told the practical men this was going to happen if their downtowns weren't made more not for offices and instituhabitable tions, but for people. All The next morning, at 4 a.m.. they arose from sleeping bags cast on our front room carpet, quie.tr ly (like a herd of elephants in full flight but they thought they were being quiet!) and this time, accompanied by our son, left to stand-iline to be sure to get a seat for the 10 a.m. session of the Conference on Temple Square. I am full of admiration for these young men who, by careful parental and outside guidance over the years, voluntarily, with no hint of prod: ding by any older person, travelled these miles and sought wisdom from the Establishment, entirely on their own. There are many others of their quality, I am sure, both within and without the Church. HARRIS What has been done to save them has been too little and too late. New skyscrapers have been erected, some civic centers put up, and a few trees planted but the shops and restaurants keep moving out to the suburbs, the tax base diminishes, and squalor sets in right alongside that proud new edifice of stone and steel and glass. fuzzy-heade- d They pointed out that a downtown district cannot close at 5 p.m. That it must be a center, where and people could stroll and window-shosnack and be entertained. That putting up immense new buildings was not the answer; indeed, this only complicated the problem, by congesting the area in the daytime and vacating it at night. p But the practical men shook their heads at such Utopian proposals. When they began to get worried, a few years later, they made a few attempts to humanize the downtown, but it was already too late. Their downtowns were either deserted by dusk or, in the larger cities, were infested by the least savory elements of the population. Yes, there are kooks and wierdos, blit also there are the youth who still have their values straight and their principles clear. Let's be proud of them. d DON F. ASHWORTH 3681 S. 20th East Soles Tax Inequity Recently a ma,i from the tax commission spent some time where I work. He commented that anv man paying $50 for an old car must pay $2.25 sales tax, but a rich man buying a $5,000 boat or airplane can escape sales tax altogether. Before raising the sales tax any more, lets get rid of this inequity. FRANCIS KIPPERS On Packing Clean Socks - Most of the airWASHINGTON lines are now searching carry-oluggage in order to thwart hijackings. This is a very commendable but it practice, leads to some emn barrassing situa- tions. In the past you never had to give much thought to what you packed in your hand suitcase. Eut now that strangers can plow through your personal effects, you have to change your whole style of traveling. Some people don't care what an airline employee or federal marshal thinks when he zips open your luggage. But Im not one cf them. I get nervous as soon as my flight is announced. For one thing, I get terribly embarrassed about anyone seeing dirty laun-- ' dry in my bag. Ill stay over at a hotel an extra day and have my laundry done just so I wont be humiliated at the check-i- n gate. While this takes up a lot of extra time, several federal marshals have complimented me on the whiteness of my shirts and the neatness of my socks. I spent a lot of time thinking about ART BUCHWALD she's never sure I live in deathly fear that some federal marshal is going to find a copy of Candy in my personal effects and yell out, Hey, Harry, we got a poyvert on this flight! So now I limit all the reading matter in my baggage to the Speech of George Romney and old copies of the Readers Digest. if it contained the right things. If I have what books to carry in my bags in the rules past. Before the new went into effect, I would always buy a Mickey Spillane paperback with a sexy cover at the airport. But now I have to think about what books and magazines the marshals would approve of. any objection to being searched at the airport, it is the sonal way its being Box 1084 imper- Franchise System done. Usually the marshals search your bag and then wave you through. I think it would add much more zest and fun to it if they would each carry a piece of chalk and grade you on the outside of your bag on your packing. Those who got A would be given the first choice F of seats. Those who received an would have tc repack and take the next Hits Coke Column, (Nov. 30) w:as a misleading title and should be corrected. I criticized jack Anderson for knowing so little about this business and asked that he be a bottler for a while so hed see more clearly what the truth is. I'd like to explain further, the franchise system is set up as a means of guaranteeing the customer the same product while it further guarantees all others a fair living and reliable delivery service. Without the franchise system, there would be no assurance that deliveries would be regular, no assurance that all drinks within a Coca-Colspecific flavor range for example would taste identical, no assurance that it would, all be the freshest product available. Without these assurances, Coca-Col- a would suf-fer and this would go on down the line to where nd one would buy the product. Its my feeling, therf; that all these things and many others should be1 studied before anyone draws conclusions about a business that quenches the thirsts of so manv all over the free world everyday. These all are' factors that have contributed for over 80 years to th& economy of this world in which we live, high-qualit- y plane. GUEST CARTOON I am even nervous about my toilet articles, particularly if a woman is inspecting. I never know if Im using the right deodorant of carrying the right after-shav- e lotion. Its amazing how innocent people feel guilty when someone goes through their luggage. This is particularly true of women who have to open up their handbags. It takes my wife two hours to get her handbag just right when shes going on an airplane trip. Then afterward u At Youth I have fewer J-tnn- . te; Im glad to be a of that wqrjd, LOUIS RICHmB part Manti -- A, |
