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Show ' V I he Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday. March 11. 1973 27 An Editor's Notebook Doctor Scarcity, Inflation Knotty QuestionsAnd Possible Solutions Herman Gilbert, Akron, Ohio, it, a and disturbed man who wants to knoW what has pone wrong with this country. "We pnde writes pou'selves." ' "on Mr , Gilbert, N having the best systeuv yet it is sput- f tci mg badly. Would um help me and 7 d - 'V f the public at large bv answering a few questions? T f) j ' Why cannot Mr. Knight this country, with its abundant re sources, produce enough doctors? Or enough food to not have to pay eat so that we do prices? Why must inflation persist at an abnormally high rate? Why must we tolerate a level of unemployment? Are these problems insoluble, or do our leaders lack the wisdom, the resolve or the gold-rus- h concern for the general public as against the special interests? Sage Individuals "As a disturbed citizen," continues 1 Mr Gilbert. would welcome your views Editors are supposed to be sage individuals who have the answers to the world's problems der drugs" that are so are not adverse to making house calls But, by and large. American medicine and the care of patients is acknowledged to be the best in the world commonplace today. Miracles of Penicillin I I suspect that Mr Gilbert may hae been putting me on with his reference to the sagacity of editors, since too many of us are more facile with the answers than the solutions. But Ill give it a try. We can and we will produce enough doctors. Medical advances may have overshadowed the family physician on whom we once wholly relied, but that kind of doctor Is as necessary today as ever. I have been reading an excellent book on the era immediately preceding the Civil War when epidemics of typhoid and yellow fever ravaged the South, and all for the lack of the medicines and "won Scientific advances in medicines are among the most notable accomplishments of modern civilization As examples, think of the miracles of penicillin. discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, and what Dr Jonas Salk and Dr Albert Sabin have accomplished in the control of that dread disease, poliomyelitis 1 The problem with food. Mr Gilbert is not that we are unable to pioduce enough but that our system of farm ecowith nomics is sadly discombobulated subsidies, payments for not growing crops and the bieakdown of a free market for agricultural products We can ship millions of tons ot gram to Russia, but can't hold down the price of bread. The little farms have all but When Mr Gilbert speaks of enough doctors, it must also be kept in mind that demands for medical attention have vastly increased with the advent of Medicare, Medicaid, and private and company hospitalization plans. The number of medical schools is constantly growing, but doctors, surgeons and dentists cannot be like tires and automobiles. -- d In this era of specialization the crying need is for more generalists, the doctors who know the family and its needs and disappeared. Fanning has become big business. The problem lies not with food production, but m our inability to pay the farmer a fair price for his products, reward the middleman, permit the superand still not market to earn money squeeze the consumer with intolerable prices. Better men than I have studied this problem but to my knowledge, no one has come forth with a workable solution. The reduction in farm subsidies which have economists have their theories, but I think it all starts with farm subsidies Act the political climate is such that no man gets elected to national office fiom an agncultuial state vuthout making e- Iravaganl pi onuses lo the fai meis vost more than $40 billion I '' f quo the net income of Kroger dropped moie than 50 percent, A. &. P, the nation's hugest chain, reported a loss of some $M) million for the first six months of 1972; Kroger profits declined from 1 31 percent of sales in 1965 to 0 S6, in the year 1972 Why must inflation persist at an abnormal! high rate? Actually. Mr. Giloert, the current rate of inflation is lower than it was and is considerably less than m most other nations. 1 In lleie again as with the President's othei recommendations for holding down the eost of government, we see the continuing battle between the administration and the politicians who hold a wet finger to the winds of public opinion, and then vote fearlessly in their own t. 1972, So why Bipartisan Effort are we paying Mon fisNTA IksT) v new-foun- d gold-rush- " - prices for food- My answer, Mr. Gilbert, is that we must make a beginning with a ... Man acquires many strange infections from wild and domestic animals Swine in Australia, mice in Japanese rice paddies, and rats in the United States sometimes transmit the same microbe to humans. One of these odd diseases was rerecently ported in Morbidity s and Mortality. Two New York dairy j f farm workers de- 'an een veloped leptospiro- is worldwide which and sis, primarily a disease of wild rodents and . domestic animals Both men developed recurrent fever along with headache. Antibiotics did not help so they w'ere hospitalized. Special blood tests finally established the diagnosis. As a rule, the symptoms of leptospiral infection in man may be so mild that they scarcely attract the victims atten-r- - AimA w. fwocuvAiuto.!! James Reston New' York Times Service WASHINGTON Vice President talks presidential politics these days if courtesy demands it, but he thinks Agnew all this talk about him and John y in 1976 is meaningless at this early date. he Personally, says, he is staying flexible and uncommitted. He is concCon-nall- out last year, "and personally, Id be happy if John Connally gets 75 percent of the political speculation in the next couple of years. Depending on events that cannot now be foreseen, the vice president says Connally, if he switches to the Republican party, or Gov. Ronald Reagan of California or Gov. Nelson Rockefeller could be in a strong position, and so could I. It is possible to imagine a situation in which the present leading regular Republican candidates could get into an deadlock at the convention, he observes, and then, while it is very difficult to switch parties, Connally could be mso-luab- entrating on mastering the problems that come before him in order to be prepared for any President may want to give him, but he is rejecting all suggestions that he engage in any political organization on his own behalf. that this position troubles many of the supporters. Fnends at the periphery of politics, he observes, always leel more comfortable when they are avowed supporters of an announced candidate, and theyre always afraid a waiting candidate may "get left at the He concedes a possible compromise. Nevertheless, the vice president, while he says he could support Connally, Reagan or Rockefeller, regards the present speculation as both ridiculous and unavoidable though he is conscious of his own chances, and thinks they will depend largely on how he does his present job. He asked to be relieved of his job as the administrations liaison with the states and municipalities, for he feared this might put him in a position of seeming to be the advocate of some policies favored by the states and thus lead to station. speculation of a rift between him and the 1974 Time to Think President. This he is clearly determined But 1974 will be time enough to think to avoid. For the time being he is hoping to about such things, he insists. The hardest continue his expenence in the field of spot to maintain, he believes, is the frontrunners, as Sen. Edmund Muskie found foreign affairs and in other domestic awviM Bv C. H. Goren Both vulnerable, as South you hold: 4K96 tfQ953 OQS7Z 8 The bidding has proceeded: North East South West 1 NT ? What do you bid? l 16 Q. 2 East-Wes- North 1 Q. 5 Both Pass 7 South you hold: 6KQ10743 ?Q103 East South West Pass Pass I 6 Pass The bidding has proceeded: North East South West 1 NT 1 4 Pass Pass 4 Pass '? Both vulnerable, as South, the dealer, you hold: Q. 3 VTQJI0 3 OA7 4AQ4 What ir your opening bid Q. 4 As South, vulnerable, you hold' AKJ3 T8 7 4 OKJ 3 Jl0 9 The bidding has proceeded. 1 T NT What do you bid now? Q. What do you bid now? 49843 Ralph Dunagiii 0452 1 4 Breaks in Skin n JOHN S. KNIGHT Editorial Chairman Knight Newspapers courts, a putting gieen, and the freedom from yard work to enjoy them, you may be in for a very pleasant surprise. Watergate. Watergate is a family condominium by the people who staited the family condominium idea in Utah. And ever since Three Fountains the prices have been going up. Until now. Watergate two bedroom models begin at $23,600.00. The man who owns his own pays himself, not a landlord. Watergate is independence with equity. You're cordially invited to see our scale model and consider the choice of plans today. By late Spring well have display models. But the best locations are going now. Neither vulnerable, as South you hold' 47 4Q10 976 3 ?KJ10 5 The bidding has proceeded: South West North East 4 4 Dble. I 4 5 NT 5 4 Pass 4 02 WATERGATE iV Pass ed by rat unne. Statistics reveal that about 2.5 million Amencans are unemployable, the minimum wage has caused small employers to cut down on hires, and, of course, some people are simply allergic to work even when jobs are available. Do Mr. Gilberts final question is: our leaders lack the wisdom, the resolve or the concern for the general public as against special interests? In many instances, they share the concern but are often sadly lacking in the wisdom and the resolve to truly represent the general public. The term special interests includes not only business, industry and labor but the special interest groups which are so assiduously promoting their own ideas of how America should be reshaped in their images, and never mind the cost. Key W ord: Greed Greed is the key word In this section of our discussion. Nearly every group is out to get whatever the traffic will bear, and then some. Sacrifice in the public even during the Vietnam war good is virtually unknown. The compelling motivation today is, Whats in it for me?" Mr. Gilbert, unless this country can rededicate itself to a higher standard of principles, morals and political courage than has been generally observed in recent years, this nation is not prepared to fulfill its true destiny. pool, - The bidding has proceeded: North ployed person on the federal payroll. In rate was considother days, a ered acceptable. President Franklin D. was Roosevelt, despite his concern, never able to bring unemployment to this level until World War II. tninic, you.cant afford you a swimmin Dunagins People By 410 vQltf2 CKJ8842 475 Why must we tolerate a level of unemployment? Well, the problem of unemployment can never be totally solved unless we put every unem- Leptospira agents usually are found in the urine of wild rodents and domestic animals. When rodents are responsible, the disease is transmitted to man by food or water that has been contaminat- In other forms of the disease the organisms are communicated to man either directly or indirectly by way of water of soil. The spirochetes presumably enter the body through small breaks-ithe skin. Pass 278-282- 8 v- ? What do you b.d now? Loo k jor ansmsrs Monday 5700 South Van Winkle Expressway Open daily from 10 a.m. til 7 p.m. Telephone "Hanoi is concerned about our dollar aid. They want it In jen! s A . U.S. Employment Jlf vulnerable, as able, as South you hold: 3 In the military field, he observes, this could be a danger, for in the second round of the strategic arms talks with the Soviet Union, some people here still seem to think that we can afford to give the other side an edge on the assumption that we still have a dependable scientific and technological advantage. These are the things the vice president believes he has to keep his mind on rather than the politics of 1976. The battle between the authority of the Congress and the authority of the President has now been joined, he observes, and it will probably continue for years. West South I NT What do you bid now? vulner- t 2 2 East Pass Pass Dairy Workers The jobs of these men who were fulltime milkers at the same dairy farm included washing the cows udders, attaching milking machines, and cleaning the milking parlor with water sprays. The 1,500 head herd had been vaccinated against leptospirosis. Many of these had positive reactions to the disease, revealing immunity. What was the source of the infection among the dairy farmers? supporters in their districts, regardless of w hether those programs work. Every program on the books created and usually, the more valuable the proHealth investigators trapped several gram, the smaller the lobby, and vice wild animals such as woodchucks and versa. It will be a long time before we foxes on the farm but the blood tests can get control of this. were negative. Oddly, two rats were capAlso, he concludes, it is not going to tured and were negative. The cattle still be easy for the Democrats to go back to are suspect but the investigation will the center after the McGovern cam- continue. By now, we can assume that paign. They are divided, with a strong the farmers are well. central faction and a strong spending faction, and this is the political battle A man gets an idea of the generation He is not concerned, he says, about that now has to be fought. when younger friends talk of dreamgap the soundness of the dollar, attributing about Joey Heatherton while he is ing to is be there would last the "I the present situation mainly to speculasay of Toby Wing. still dreaming tors and manipulators, but he is con- much rationality to politics, so nobody out. come cerned that other industrial countries are knows now how this will all A militant lady of our acquaintance now able to produce and merchandise But we have enough to do now without says that if it werent for men, there would be no need to dust the tops of thinking about 1976. equally efficient and sophisticated products, and that the United States has not (Copyright) yet fully learned this lesson. concerns, such as taxes. Like the President, he is insisting on keeping taxes down, and carries with him a table showing how taxes have already risen to the pomt where they could, he fears, threaten the free economy: Recognize Need . The leaders of the Congress, he said, recognize the need for fiscal responsibility, for getting up revenues equal to the expenditures they vote, but many of the younger members think they can go on voting for programs which have powerful Weekly Bridge Quiz Q. damental cause has been political indulgence of the theory that most social and economic problems can be solved bv quick and large expenditures of federal monies The result has been that we have hastily piled one social program on another, so that they literally number in the hundreds and defy understanding The relaxations from Phase II agreed upon by the President and AFL-CIPiesident George Meany will certainly refuel the fires of inflation. tion Or serious enough to disable the individual with chills, fever, headache severe aching m the lower legs, and jaundice from hver involvement. In cleaning the bams, the farmers could have come into contact with urine from infected rodents or from the cows. The risk of developing the disease in the barn is not as great as among sewer and mine workers, soldiers in trench warfare, bathers, or workers in cane and nee fields. Agnew Pressing Job at Hand, Not 'Running - Goal President Nixon's goal is a rate of 2 5 percent this year, It is my opinion that the flexibility in Phase III will doom his expectations. As Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur F. Burns has said "The single most important need at the present time is to curb the explosive growth that has marked federthe funal spending in recent years Wild, Domestic Animals Put A 'Medical Hex on Workers '' v II everything else fails agree with George Meany that food pi ices should be bi ought under government controls At the same time it is unfan to place all of the blame on your family's favoule as many have shown a record low in profits of less than a penny on every dollar of sales. Dr. T. R, Van Dellen '' over the last Ppexident Nixon has ad- mated cutting these subsidies by $1 2 biB lion, but there is a strong bipartisan effort in Congress to maintain the status quarter-centur- - j |