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Show ONE ALTERNATIVE TO GUN CONTROL CONCLUDED ON PAGE 11 A The Independent c.' Dedicated To The Constitution, Liberty, Morality, and Truth Vol. 6, No. 51 25C Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 ERICA PLEA FOR A On October 13, 1975, a telegram was sent from the White House to President Spencer W. Kimball inviting him to a regional forum to review domestic policy. Our country stands at the eve of its birthday. At the time of our great Bicentennial, a physical check-u- p may be in order. We know there are disorders and malfunctionings of various kinds in our body politic and in our economic and social order because of the general symptoms; a few of these are rampant inflation, increased crime, sexual permissiveness, more incidence of broken homes, excessive national and consumer debt, discontent among labor, women, minorities, and disillusionment among our youth. With all the palliatives being advanced as cure-allit seems significant to ask: Are the remedies we are applying directed to conquering the actual disease, or are they merely palliatives to relieve the inconvenience and distress of the symptoms, while the disease, cancer-liktakes us to our destruction? two-hundred- President Kimball asked Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, to represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints at this public forum. The message contained herein, drafted under the direction of President Benson especially for that occasion, was titled "A Statement on Problems Affecting the Domestic Tranquillity of Citizens the United States of America. December 18, 1975 th s, of e, The White House Forum on Domestic Policy was held on October 21, 1975, at the Hilton Hotel in Denver, Colorado. President Benson spoke briefly at the forum and quoted from this statement. Copies of the complete statement were then given to the Vice President of the United States, presiding officer of the forum, and to Cabinet and officers. 0 sub-Cabin- et A 0ie plea for America of the problems that always confronts a physician while a patient who complains of a malady is to between the disease and its symptoms. To treat symptoms without effecting a cure may cause the disease to run its fatal course. i tlements oj Americas health efore we go to our ailments and disorders, it is well to view the elements of our health and strength that we have acquired under our divinely inspired Constitution, the liberties it guarantees, and the free institution it sets up. The facts speak for themselves: No nation on earth eats as well as our nation. No country is so well clothed. No people are so well housed. No individuals on this earth have so many of the conveniences as we do in terms of heating, lighting, plumbing, and other comforts. These are not luxuries Continued on page 6 New Federal Land Use Program new By Paul Scott Washington: The Federal Flood Insurance law is turning out to be a wolf in sheeps clothing for thousands of U.S. communities and millions of Americans. The emergency law, originally designed to be of help to flood victims, is being used to create a major UTAH INDEPENDENT 57 Oakland Avenue Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 Second Clan Postage Paidat Salt late Otv. Utah ' M LI o: 3E national land-us- e program sanctioned by denial of all forms of construction credits and most forms of federal disaster assistance. Approximately 22,000 communities representing 10 percent of the nations homes and businesses are now subject to these penalties unless they agree to adopt land use standards and building codes dictated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), under which the law is being administered. These are some of the startling findings made by Senator Thomas Eagleton (D.Mo.) in a thorough study of the law and its brutal enforcement by HUDs Federal Insurance Administration. The liberal democrat is now circulating his conclusions among Senate colleagues in an effort to get them to join in a major drive to change the law. Once a HUD official circles a region on a map and designates it as having as little as one chance in a hundred of being flooded, Senator Eagleton charges, every homeowner and businessman living in that area must buy flood insurance within one year or suffer the confiscatory penalties provided by law. For thousands of homeowners and businessmen around this country, the federal flood insurance program amounts to virtual confiscation of private property without compensation, without due process, without purpose and without reason," Eagleton warns. It is one of the most stringent land use programs that could possibly have been devised. The alarming part of the Federal Flood Insurance law passed in 1968, according to Senator Eagleton and his backers, n is a amendment that was slipped through Congress in December, 1973 as the weary lawmakers rushed to adjourn for Christmas. The amendment, along with the way HUD officials have administered it, made participation in the flood control program virtually mandatory for communities and persons living in areas which have been flooded within the past 100 years. little-know- USE LAND MEASURES Some of the land measures being imposed use under the Federal Flood Insurance law by HUD and highlighted in Senator Eagletons memorandum to Senate colleagues are as follows: If you own land in an area that might flood even once in 100 years, you need a permit to build any type of structure, including a home, barn, or grain bins or to remodel or enlarge an existing building. Unless you build, the first floor of the structure above the 100 the year flood level or flood-proa building, you can't get permit. If you build without a permit, you of cun be fined. Even if you comply with building regulations, you still must buy flood insurance immediately on new construction, and on other buildings at the time you request additional federal assistance of any kind. If the community or county in which you operate doesnt enforce the federal regulations, you won't be able to borrow money against your property from any federally regulated lending institution. That takes in most banks and savings and loan associations. Also, you can't get emergency aid for damage from floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hail, wind or drought. WASHINGTON CON- TROL Particularly rankling to Senator Eagleton and his supporters is the way flood prone areas throughout the country are being designated by HUD. City and County officials have flooded Eagleton's office with complaints that HUD officials have relied heavily on outdated Army Corps of Engineers data on previous floods. They report that no one has visited their areas and asked for information on flood control dams, topography and other features. We arc seeing entire cities declared flood prone under this new experimental land use program, complains Terry Keeling, Houston, Tex., realtor and the steering committee chairman for Texas Association of Citizens for Local Land Control, which is trying to get the law repealed. In pointing out the vast areas of Texas already designated as flood-pron- e, the Keeling group when fully imcharges that plemented, the federal government, acting through HUD, will have authority to determine the use to which every parcel of land in virtually every community in the U.S. may be put. LIMITED OBJEC-T1V- E While HUD officials admit that the Federal Flood Insurance program definitely involves land use control, they argue that it is on a much more restrictive basis than Senator Eagleton and his supporters claim. There is no land use control of any kind outside of designated flood areas, a HUD official states. As for the flood-pron- e regions, he contends that land use control is necessary to control development in order to cut future flood losses in these areas. Senator Eagletons immediate objective is to get Congress to remove the . mandatory participation requirement of the program. He also wants to cut out the economic sanctions that HUD can now levy against communities and individuals in flood-contrareas. Unless the law is changed by the end of 1976, he notes, more than 5,000 communities which have been designated as flood-probut so far have refused to meet HUD land use standards will be liable to these economic sanctions. ol ne |