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Show mm i mp IT'.- DESERET NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH We MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1973 A 5 stand for the Constitution of the United States as having been divinely inspired. I Cure for double taxation: merger still looks best ; Theres room for quarreling with the That subsidy, on the basis of the Utah precise figures issued by the Utah Tax-- j Taxpayers Association figures, comes to payers Association the other day on the $3.7 million in Salt Lake Valley in 1973. amount of double taxation in Salt Lake Thats up from nearly $2.5 million in 1968, Valley. The association itself concedes as $1.5 million in 1963. In five years the burmuch, den increased 51 percent. In 10 years it But there can be no reasonable doubt increased 145 percent. that double taxation exists, that its Theres more than one way of coming to grips with double taxation. For exunfair, and that it must be eliminated. That, of course, is one of the big rea- - ample, the city and county could go their sons the Salt Lake County Local Govern-- I separate ways, but that step has little ment Modernization Committee is at work support except as a desperate resort after on a new form of government for the val- - all' else fails. Special service districts can ley. More streamlined and more economi-- I be created to provide services and tax but cal local government should also be the those receiving benefits from them kind of government in which all taxpayers that would add to the confusing prolifera-tioof overlapping units of government pull their own weight and there are no when less duplication and clearer lines of free rides. are whats needed. Double taxation is also one of the rea- - authority Duplicate efforts could be consolidated sons that, if an election were held tomor--; but such piecemeal most voters in the valley would row, too long. As for legislation take mergers favor consolidation.Thats what a poll showed a few weeks ago, and to prohibit the county from levving taxes tax problems were frequently mentioned on city residents for duplicate services, the sharply limited success of the efforts by those favoring the merger. that have been made so far along this line By double taxation, we mean the way is anything but encouraging. city residents are taxed twice for certain By the process of elimination, government services like garbage collec-- ; consolidation still looks best not and and street tion, police protection, from the viewpoint of those seeking maintenance service. City residents pay only relief from double taxation, but also from once for the services they receive them-- I the viewpoint of those who want better selves. Then they pay again for part of government for their money grassroots services they dont receive but are en- of whether or not it results in joyed by residents of unincorporated regardless immediate savings. areas. I I j ! I f f j j 5 i n j j I service-by-servic- city-count- I I I J - y city-coun- ty ; , I . e, j ; ; Why secrecy system should be reformed If the only result of the asserted Watergate scandals is to educate the American people about the abuse of the term national security by government officials, then the nation will have scored an important gain. Few things are more alien to the basic design of the United States government than the attempt to officials to use national security as a How safe are youth camps? eight million youngsters are going to a camp of one sort or other this summer. The question is: how safe will they be? If there is water around, will there be safety regulations? If children are driven to and fro, will the driver be trained, li-- ! censed and insured? If there is an accident, will thne be proper first aid facili- ties and experienced persons to handle the mishap? There are only a few privately oper-- I unlike some other ated camps in Utah parts of the country where they abound, Most young persons going to camp in Utah will spend their time in an institu-- j such as the Boy Scouts of tional camp or at a church sponsored America camp lasting only a few days. I j : ' ' j j consequences Institutional camps, of course, meet health and safety standards set by the state and counties in which they are located. In most cases, such camps exceed local standards. Church sponsored campouts usually occur in public campgrounds where health and safety standards are set. Some private camps are accredited by the American Camping Association, but not all. Congress has twice failed to pass regulations for privately operated camps. So until such regulations are implemented for private camps, parents would do well to screen carefully any camping program to which they may be sending their children. Utah must plan ahead What will Utah be like five years from now? Or 10 years, 25, 50? i i i I 1 One thing is cerin: It will be different and some adjustments' must be made that wont always be easy. Another thing is for sure: If Utahns are to feel comfortable about the shape of whats to come, the changes usually must be carefully involving growth managed. An Urban Growth Policy for Utah has now been written after more than a years study by a blue ribbon committee of community leaders. The statement deserves wide dissemination and its conclu-- . sions should be studied, challenged, and debated. Sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the University of Utah Division of Economic and Community Research Services, the study concludes that Utah must develop some thoughtful plans for managof ing inevitable growth if the high quality enhanced. and to be is life here preserved One particularly sensible decision is that the formulators of the policy statement will meet twice a year to review the progress being made, make further rec- Afterthoughts i i i . - - The same men who are so practical in economics are so utopian in ecology I they warn us that in economic matters I everything has to be Nothing is free matters they j paid for, but in ecological can if we ceaselessly exploit still act as the earths resources without paying a heavy rocial cost. Most characters are like a thermometer: you have to hold it at one particular how high the angle before you can tell mercury goes; at all other angles there is only refraction but no measurement. It is only when we begin to be perour suaded by arguments that go against that we can be reasonably sure that the mind is in control of the around. passions, and not the other way - self-intere- st device for protecting themselves against the convenient As many as experts" to Thailand, Laos and South Vietnam as part of By Norman Cousins L.A. Times Syndicate ommendatiens, update the statement, and even initiate or stimulate action. Thats wise in view of the way some parts of the proposed blueprint for Utahs future have already become outdated and others look questionable. In calling for a constitutional amendment to allow greater flexibility in forms of government, the report calls for what Utahns have already done regarding county government. Then theres the recommendation that Utah actively seek defense and governof a permanent mental installations nature. But when it comes to federal undertakings, who can' be certain what's permanent? Few federal activities looked more firmly established than the Forest Service operations in Ogden, which have now become caught up in some governmental reshuffling. g as But in any report as this one, its easy to find something with which to take issue. And in this case theres also plenty to be applauded. Like land-us- e the call for a state-wid- e plan to make sure commercial, residential, and recreational developments can coexist compatibly and without abusing the environment. As the report wisely observes, a quality environment attracts quality wide-rangin- enterprises. Or like a more united industrial promotion effort through the establishment of a central clearinghouse for ideas and infor- of their our foreign aid program. The real question here is not whether the United States was justified in trying to disguise our true policy in the in- ternational arena or whether the American government was justified in trying to fool its own people. Under the rationale of national security, the Congress of the United States was deprived of its constitutional role in the formulation of war policy, and the American people were deprived of the right to know about commitments made in their name. It was thus only a matter of natural progression before we became fully involved in Indochina. wrongdoing. This practice, lei it be said, did not originate with Richard M. Nixon. Ever since the end of World War II, national seThe step beyond special curity has . been invoked to and experts was advisers all sorts of facts from prevent token forces of our own in facts that, coming to light it now develops, had less to the area Finally, we were fielding a full army in a full do with the safety of the nawar without benefit of contion than with the desire of ofstitutional sanction. There was ficials to avoid being held aca corresponding escalation in countable for their misdeeds. the deceit culminating in what The use of government seturned out to be a manufaccrecy to circumvent the retured incident in the Gulf of quirements of constitutional Tonkin, or. the basis of which government was how the United States got involved in Viet- Congress was persuaded to nam in the first place. Under authorize responsive action by the terms of the Geneva the U.S. military. Agreements of 1954, all outMeanwhile, the habit of conside nations were to keep cealment led to a contempt by their military influence out of the executive branch of govthe area of Indochina. The ernment for the decisions of of which way the United States got Congress the around this provision was to Nixon Administrations disresend in special advisers. and gard of congressional repeal - ! 5 BOfTlBGCK By Paul Harvey L.A. Times Syndicate Sen. Tom Eagleton, since he was rescued from the path of the landslide in 1972, has not been able to do anything wrong. Tom Eagleton is the Democrat who won. Have you been paying attention to the public utterances and the personal of Missouris Sen. tending-to-busine- Eagleton? The man Sen. George McGovern dumped because his emotional stability was in has demonstrated question every symptom of superb mental health: poise under stress, serene forgiveness and a gentle, natural sense of humor. An insecure person in his position might be expected to divert criticism to others; on the contrary, Eagleton shows no such inclination. At Akron University, asked about high food prices, he Its been a dreadful said, crop season for our farmers; prices will moderate when the weather gets better. Asked about Watergate, he All poli'ical parties replied, spy on one another; the Republicans got caught at it. Asked about President Nixons resumption of bombing in Indochina, Eagleton called it disappointing. And asked about his own personal political prospects, he laughingly replied that whenever any party official telephones from now on he, Eagleton, will begin the conversation with First, have DOUG SflEYD riAlffifcS , HOME COOKW The between connection these events and the Watergate scandals is not as remote as may be supposed. The habit of concealment in foreign policy is readily transposed to the domestic scene. It becomes all too easy to use the term national security to prevent disclosure of embarrassing activities by the White House. The President apparently takes the view that anything done by the White House including attempts to can tamper with the courts be blocked from investigation and public scrutiny simply by claiming national security. Whether or not the President will be successful in this effort, the American people now understand how spurious and indeed counterfeit the national security argument has become. Every nation has genuine secrets to protect. The United States is no exception. But the arbitrary use of national security has now created a clear conflict with the national interest. The time has come, therefore, to overhaul the entire system of classification. When secrecy becomes a device to subvert the institutions and values of the American people, then it is a fraud and must be treated as such. you heard about my mental health? The fact is that his mental health is now such a lifeless issue that nobody in either party shows any inclination to run against him for senator in 1974. The man who was propelled from obscurity to fame by a kick in the britches less than one year ago now receives 10 times more requests for personal appearances than he can fill. More significant than todays applause is the fact that Tom Eagleton was hospitalized three times, in the 1960s for nervous exhaustion and fatigue what we used to call a nervous breakdown and has overcome. The senator has to know Americans that the now in mental hospitals are of his the benefactors one-in-te- n triumph. It takes purposeful remembering to realize that just 15 years ago we did not even speak on radio such words as or breast surretarded gery or even cancer." Courts of law associated with criminals insanity and any mental sickness was a family shame. During 15 days in July of the attic windows were flung open. And in the months since, the attitude important public most toward humankinds common malady has been so altered that the new issue of tee AMAs "Archives of Gen1972 eral "It was a disappointing dinner. A bit too much like home cookin' for my tastes." Child psychology books call it the Age of Independence . . . that time in a childs life when he or she is of parents and their ideas. .. super-critic- of the. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is the most recent example. The Democrat who won mation on new business opportunities. not to exhaust the list like the Or development of a statewide natural resources policy for recommendation to the Legislature. This proposed and highly tentative blueprint for Utahs future is certainly not the last word on the subject and is open to considerable refinement and debate. Whats beyond debate is that, as the policy statement puts it: No enlightened community should sit back and wait for the future to happen, or to wait for federal action or inaction to control its future. ERfTlfl Psychiatry reports: Most former mental hospital patients now find their jobs waiting, their family relationships improved, the old stigma is no more. it thq Jane Fonda syndrome. They wake up negative. They go to bed negative. And if a parent is smart he wont turn his back on them. You get the feeling if you asked them what they wanted to be if I call you allowed them to grow up theyd pick orphan. Its hard to pin down the exact moment when mother, a warm, plump symbol of apple pie and Geritol, wakes up one morning and discovers she is the Viet Cong In white anklets. But from that moment on, you cant do or say anything right. In one day alone last week I racked up the following sins: front of my friends. You think you know everything because you watch You spoke to me in J, Jeopardy. You dont like my friend, Malcolm, because he goes barefoot in the winter. If you gave me the bike, I have every right to sell it. You think because hes- little, hes perfect." - You used my deodorant and its personal." Boy, you dont even know how to shrink jeans yet. The sins I could absorb. Its the constant contradictions and interruptions that plague me. As I reported the other morning at breakfast, I saw an amusing thing at the super- market . . . You always say amusing, whined a voice. Isnt anything just plain funny anymore? Anyway, I started again, I saw the fattest man ever weighed about 300 pounds. ... - . . The fattest man according to record weighed 568 pounds and was buried in a piano box, said the interruption. . i Anyway, he got stuck in the turnstile. Im sure, said the voice belligerently. . . Are you saying Im not telling the truth? Im saying if he saw the turnstile and weighed 300 pounds he wouldnt have been stupid enough to go into it in the first place. Look, I said heatedly, I am sick and tired of having you disagree everytime I open my mouth. You contradict me with every sentence, protest every remark and dispute my every word. You wouldnt believe me if I told you ; Wednesday followed Tuesday ! Where did you hear that? he asked, cocking his head. i - SYDflEY HARRIS I dont know why the researchers were so surprised, at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, when their failed to yield one of the study of human crowding expected results. As reported in the magazine, Human Behavior, the researchers first monitored the free play of 60 average youngsters aged 4 and 5 divided into groups of six children each. First, the kids were placed in a large play area; later they were squeezed into a space not much bigger than a bathroom, with plenty of aggressive toys scattered about. It turned out contrary to expectations that there were fewer aggressive acts committed in the smaller space than in the larger. This finding runs counter to the way many animals behave when they are crowded: they almost invariably attack one another, become rude, irritable, possessive and aggressive. Of course, such a random experiment is inconclusive but it does tend to cast doubt on those cocksure ethologists who prate about territoriality and aggression among species, and throw the human race in along with all the others. I have long insisted that 'you can no more predict what a person will do from what a rat does than you can tell which humans will desert a sinking ship and which will try to save it. Character and intelligence make all the difference. Animals obviously interpret crowding as being some other animals fault; people can recognize that it may be no ones fault, and thus adapt to the new situation without fiercely protecting their turf. We can see the difference most clearly in those two crowded islands of human habitation, Japan and England. Here, where the people have for centuries lived in increasing density, with no continuous land mass to escape to, the most elaborate systems of politeness have been evolved and enforced not by law but by common consent. . . The civility of the British, and the courtesy of the Japanese, do not imply any inherent virtues in them, but simply the tacit acknowledgement that they have to live together .in a small space, and the most sensible way is by lining up in queues, by refraining from shoving and pushing and getting ahead of somebody else. They recognize that the dense population is a force beyond their individual control, and have adopted a code of public behavior that lubricates the social frictions of so many individuals rubbing up against one another In a limited space. 1? |