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Show Editorial Page of the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah ft IN OUR OPINION Limited welfare reform is better than none at all When the Nixon administration can't get reforms as sweeping as it would like, it proceeds with more limited improvements that don't require Congressional approval. This pragmatic pattern became clear a few weeks ago when the President created a super-cabinafter Congress had pointedly ignored proposals for consolidation of departments and programs in the executive branch of government. et The outlines of the pattern were etched even more plainly the other day when the administration announced a few changes in welfare regulations. The public has been given 30 days to comment on the proposed rules, after which the government can put them into effect. This move comes less than 60 days after President Nixon formally gave up on his efforts to achieve more sweeping welfare reforms, including the controversial guaranteed annua! wage, on the grounds that Congress would not go along with it. At that lime the President said he would still work diligently to improve the management of the big and often unwieldy welfare program. What he evidently had in mind are the recommendations outlined the past weekend. Among the recommendations are provisions that would: Give states 43 days instead of the 30 to make decisions on welfare current applications. Require welfare applicants to submit written, signed applications for aid. Permit states to verify eligibility through employers, neighbors and other third parties without obtaining the recipients consent Set up a system of local hearings to reduce the backlog of pending hearings at the state level. checks. Predictably, spokesmen for welfare recipients are objecting that the new rules would force some people off the welfare to get those rolls. Rut thats the idea who shouldnt qualify off the rolls a..d to make sure that those who do receive assistance really need it. The proposed rules are said to come in response to the requests of governors who protested when the federal government threatened to cut back $689 million in welfare aid to states because of alleged payments to ineligible recipients. Certainly the rules are in line with the philosophy that welfare is a privilege, not a right. While coming to grips with welfare abuses is to be applauded, how about also coming to grips with welfares shortcomings? Who can be happy v'ith a welfare elprogram that, despite the tightening of still penalizes people igibility procedures, for working, often drives the man of the family out of the house, and results in welfare dependency as a way of life? Until these problems are met head-on- , the administration's approach to welfare will look less humane and d than it should be. even-hande- Flight pay for desk jockeys The railroads dont have a monopoly on featherbedding. Thats clear from the recent report by Rep. Les Aspin of Wisconsin on the extent to which flight pay is given to military men who never fiy. Of some 30,000 military personnel w ho receive flight pay totaling $228 million a year, only 5,000 are involved in flying. The others qualify for flight pay bo nuses of up to $165 merely by passing a physical examination. Flight pay is supposed to compensate for acquiring and maintaining an essential skill and for taking the risks involved. It shouldnt be used to pad the paychecks of pencil pushers and paper shufflers. If Congress is serious about trimming fat from the defense budget, heres a good place to start. Who controls the controllers? It almost sounds too good to be true. We're referring to the news dispatch out of Tel Aviv about the Israeli scientists who have discovered a strain of bacteria that feeds on oil. proper care and feeding, its thought these bacteria could become a solution to the oil slicks created when tankers drop their ballast into the ocean. With If so. its a testimony to natures abilito restore itself and to the triumph of ty natural processes where human technology falls shert. that one of nature's laws beems to be that when one problem is overcome, the solution like oil spills The trouble is itself produces lems. newr ard unforeseen As a case in point, prob- take the saga of the snowshoe hare and the Canada lynx. In some areas the prolific hare becomes so and does so much damage to forage that lynxes are brought in to control the hare population. The Canada lynx does such a good job, h. vever. that before long it's the lynx population that is out of control and doing the damage. Before the Israeli scientists turn those germs loose on all the sludge at sea, one questions: After that sludge is controlled, who or wnat controls the sludge controllers? super-abunda- Farm tractors can kill involving farm Each year accidents tractors take 800 to 1,000 lives in the U.S. Moreover, such accidents inflict disaand bling injuries on tens of thousands, in property lost are dollars of millions Afterthoughts . . . really be said to be force when New Cork City's has 1.400 security guards this ear, at a cost of $11 million, simply to protect tersons and property from attack? Can a school system perating as an education own worm nas niune sense ot your no mpbnted in vnu at an early age, success in later life can compensate lC- k- which is why the internally never rest from their Sisyphean task stones up n-- n ever-steep- ever-bigg- most people resent about a person with high verbal skills is neatly diagnosed by -book. The ,rrof. J. Mitchell Morse, in his new he when points ;i relevant English Teacher. a free about thing most that the galling te mir.d is the unlicensed pleasure What i ari-ula- ' V states to recover overpayments from individuals even if it means taking the money from current assistance Allow ft s 'We may have stumbled onto something' r By James Thats why this page has long advocated that roll bt :s be made mandatory safety equipment on farm tractors. Meanwhile, now that spring is here and farm tractors are out working again, there's no substitute for common sense in operating these vehicles. Utah Stale University has some good advice to pass along: Tractor drivers should stay clear J. Kilpatrick It was a long, gray winter here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a winter in which nothing much ever happened. For the first time in memory, we saw not a single flake of snow. The days slipped by as silently as smoke from kitchen hearths. we Spring, thought, would never come. Now spring tiptoes in. This is not like other years. We have known Aprils when spring bursts upon our hills in one prodigious leap, and all the stage Ls filled at once, whole choruses of tulips, arabesques of golden flowers, a warm wind blowing and the oaks unfurled. This year's spring is shy. It pauses like a grandchild at the door, peeping in, ducking out of sight, in the giggling hallway. Heather!" I want to cry, I know you're there. Come in! In some ways, to be sure, spring tentative is better than spring impetuous. We have a little longer to contemplate the mystery, not of birth, but of rebirth: there is time to search for monumental truths in tiny things. The dogwood bud is a pale inlaid with green chalice, russet markings. Within that perfect cup, a score of clusare tered seeds nestled. Where were these seeds a month ago? The maples do not come forth in green. They are flowering red, soft as slippers, in tassles like a jester's scepter; come October. we will see that red again. The flowering almond is pink, absurdly pink, little-gir- l pink, as pink as peppermint and cream. Two weeks ago this frothy branch was brown as a pretzel stick. It may be venture the it may thought uncertainly be that spring holds greater meaning in the hills than in the city. Granted, April in Paris is something to sing about, and April in Washington is pure delight, but triphammers intrude, and traffic rushes by, and the ear is tuned to city sounds. The fastest thing in sight this here in Rappamorning, hannock County, is a groundhog lumbering across O'Ban-non- s Hill; and when I open the office window, there is only the murmuration of birds.' 1 They, too, are very much a part of spring. Last w eek w e heard quail calling in the fencerow. Bluebirds are nesting by the barn. A robin streaks by the window', trailing a pennant of straw. Our feeding stations are as busy as the piazzas of Florence: Cow birds, hooded as old friars: cardinals in red; peasant sparrows, woodpeckers crimson-capped- , a bluejay It's easy to assume that a labor government would provide an earthly paradise for working people: higher wages, shorter hours, lower prices, earlier retirement, the whole gamut of fringe benefits. But the high hopes of British laborites were dashed to bits and bitterness against the almost inflexible limitations of reality. Chileans too much from the Marxist-socialisof President Salvador Allende. Now recently, victorious Pero-nist- s of Argentina face simithe lar disillusionment. Next May 25 the Peronista takes government Buenos Aires. oxer Hector Jose Campora campaigned on the Campora in govpromise: ernment, Peron in power. The intended implication was that the excilod dictator, Juan Peron. would return in triumph to dictate government policy again. Campora has boon lifted to power on the shoulders of workers. The General Workers Confederation largely financed his campaign and organized the turnout. He won by more than two to one over his closest rival. He promised a floor under salaries, no striker wouid be fired, social security would be extended, new working-clas- s social legislation. During the campaign and workers since, Argentinian have been overheard to say: Now I make 1J pesos per DOUG SDEYD n w'atch an indignant earthworm, suddenly evicted, struggling back to his tunnel kingdom. Thus slowly, a little more each day, the buds open and the leaves unfold. For months our mountains- - have been as silent and as somber as the old widows of Greece, their gnarled faces wrapped in black weeds. Now they come to life again, the swaying willows all in bridesmaid green. The earth wiggles its toes, yawns, reaches for a tulip, finds a dandelion instead and laughs. I am myself not made for preaching sermons, but this I am learning in these hills: An eternal answer to the abiding mystery may lie concealed within the dogwood blossom. All that may be asked, in the end, is that men who understand winter seek also to comprehend spring. sack of sugar; under ra I'll make 20. V. told us, hell Nobody say. We just know it. Crowds of young Socialists, still celebrating in the cefes most of the month after the election, dream an impossible dream. They chant, Peron and Evita for a Socialist Argentina. Evita died in 1952. But next May 25, Campora, with or without Peron, will be in charge. The unpayable bills w ill come due. President Campora recognize that to will have to increase pay without increasing production will further fuel the inflation fire which has cost every Argentine peso 60 percent of its value in the past 12 months! He'll have to face head-othe frustrating inevitability that the foreign investment he hates he needs. n but as president freedom, hell need the OAS more than he'll need Castro. The military, which Peron has called beasts, Campora will include in his cabinet because he fears guerrillas more than he hates uniforms. 1 do not mean this to rep- resent more than a very vague parallel between what labor wants and won there steep slopes. Engage the clutch slowly with a heavy load to avoid backward tip. Set wheels as wide as practical for the job to obtain better stability. "For oil we know, Senator, the White House could be monitoring our private conversation on the Watergcte prob'em right now." with what labor might want and get here. But the experience of so many nations affirms that if Giorge Meany were President he, too, would be treed between the lings and the dogs and we'd not be far from where we now are in anv wBo. , own ;,rt:ui!u( y." f My husband taught social studies and I used to clean my fingernails with razor blades to inflict pain. W'e were naturals to chaperone 24 seniors. According to the tour schedule, we had seven hours to see every government building in Washington, tour the White House, Mt. Vernon, Smithsonian, Annapolis, see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, run to the top of the Washington Monument and wave, and write postcards home. (Youre a senior, what-y- a mean you dont know how to spell coronary?) W'e accounted for 18 seniors when we got home, which I thought was pretty doggone good considering the bus stopped at Annapolis a full six minutes. In the back of my mind, 1 always thought it would be to bring my children back to how r f great V Washington and really take the time to see it properly. Last weeks' spring vacation seemed like the ideal time. I said, opening my notebook, Kids, weve got 12 hours to see Washington so just take your time, ask questions and make notes. I have made a temporary schedule here and if I go too fast, you just let me know. of Eleven hours later as we sped toward the airport, one the children had me look over a letter to his dad. Dear Dad: We are having a neat time. Today, we saw the back of a Marine at Arlington (Mom said no sense hanging around to see the front), the first 30 feet of the Washington Monument, and went on a tour of the Capital. (It was the one leaving then.) French-speakin- g Took half an hour to see Smithsonian. I saw the stripes of the original flag that Francis Scott Key wrote about. My brother looked at the stars so we could save time. We drove by the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and Watergate, but I missed seeing Watergate. 4 (What a time to sneeze.) Saw the parking lot at the Pentagon, a bread truck blocking the church where Washington prayed, a pile of dirt on the street where they are making a subway and 52 shoulder blades jammed in the White House looking at dishes. Campo- Who fold him that? And I never come WASHINGTON to the Capital but I don't remember my original trip here 15 years ago with the graduating class of Centerville, Ohio. that I Our hotel room is neat. It has a phone in the bathroom. He has called the Organia-tmof American States a and "tool of imperialism model of Castro Cuba a of Farm tractors can kill. By treating them accordingly, most tractor accidents can be avoided. But, human nature being what it is. roll bars are still needed. in President-elec- t ditches, embankments, and holes to avoid upsets. Dont permit others to ride keep children off and away. Reduce speed when turning, crossing slopes, on rough, slick, or muddy surfaces. Stay off hills and mate, bossing the finches around. 1 walk to the mailbox, and a pair of startled larks soar in missile arcs against a sky. We have been planting the vegetable garden, and at last at long last the raw red clay of Rappahannock County yields to leaf mold and compost. This year the spading fork turns up a friable rich brown earth. The digging goes slowly: It is more fun to Twixt hogs and dogs Bv Paul Harvey It's been said that if George Meany had any other last name he d by now have been President of the United States. 4 BOmBECK that swaggers bke a bosun's cloud-blow- 4 ERm mystery of spring Th More expected damages, medical costs, lost time from work, and insurance. ft T 4 Your son. 4 Oh well, there was one nice thing about the trip. A total of four of us boarded the plane. Four out of five is pretty doggone good considering one kid insisted on stopping for lunch. X ft. i i ( SYDPIEY HRRRIS X Suppose the following statements had been made 10 years ago. Who do you suppose would have been saying them? Who do you suppose is saying them totla ? The Second American Revolution is upon us now." This revolution is characterized by a dtvotion to human welfare, interest in or concern for man. ft and dedicated leaders who means that methods we must go beyond conventional proolem-solvinto underlying interrelationships and causes, to a reexamination of our institutions and the systems within which they work. We will need d understand that the existence of a revolution g The Declaration of Independence is a radical docuIts basic mesment a revolutionary manifesto sage is that when men are oppressed they have the right to take action against that which afflicts them. Much of what is wrong has roots in our history to the gap between promise and reality, to the shortcomings we have lived with so long . . . One has only to think of the legacy of slavery and of our treatment of the Indians, or of our tendency to engage in foreign adventures much less glorious than those oars that were necessary to creating and preserv ing our freedom. ... ... . . . It (our pioneering spirit) produced a breed of rugged individuals, but also a pattern of life in which competition predominates over compassion, violence is an ugly undercurrent, and exploitation and destruction of nature's bounty are seen as natural. Our economic system is not an unmixed blessing, it is exploitive at times of both resources and people, in that too few people share in ownership, and that along with big government it has produced huge impersonal institutions which can be dehumanizing to the mind and spirit." could go on quoting for the whole 181 pages of a new book tith'd. The Second American Revolution. Its John D. Rockefeller 3rd. lifelong Republican. author rf f.)l,f,, nf t T n r (VI 1 Vi if H |