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Show MONDAY, MAY 1. 1972 THE DAILY RECORD PAGE NINE The Law: Two Sides To The Coin Volume Reviews Supreme Justice 1. Alan Crockett seat of the law is a throne of pure justice Its crowning glory is a wreath of truth." This encomium to the law finds echoes in a kindred statement that: To give perfect justice is an attribute of the divine nature; to do so to the best of one's ability is one of the highest aspirations of man." It would be pleasant indeed if our observance of Law Day we could say with assurance that those ideal Is tic expressions represent the actual quality of our law. But alas! The facts of life must give us pause. Though it may be less pleasant and reassuring, it undoubtedly will be more productive of good to focus attention upon the criticism of the law reflected in the ancient rhyme: The law locks up both man and woman That steals a goose from off the common But turns the greater felon loose That steals the common from the goose." We should neither delude our selves nor try to hide from others the fact that because of human failties, in its practical operation our system falls short of the ideal of equal justice under law. It is altogether too evident that in certain parts of society there is a great deal of dissastisfaction and rebellion against what is now called "the establishment and the law which sustains it. This is going beyond mere criticism and disagreement and manifesting itself not only in individual defiance and disobedience to the law, but in organized demonstrations and violence. Cure Becomes Evil There is an interesting paradox therein in that the rebellion and violence against our institutions are permitted to exist only because of the freedoms assured by the very institutions they attack; and a further paradox in that when those in authority resort to force to suppress disagreement and dissention the result is to destroy the liberties they are seeking to protect and preserve. If no better treatment of rebellion can be found than a resort to violence, then the cure itself becomes the evil, and the remedy has fsilcd Both experience and logic teach that violence is neither a very effective nor a very lasting cure for violence. The suppression of dissension and rebellion by violence Always Faults While it is true that we should be seriously concerned, there is no need for discouragement or despair. There have always been and perhaps always will be faults and shortcomings in any human system. The wholesome and hopeful thing about our system is the redeeming virtue that through its democratic processes it can continue to discover and to remedy its own defects. It would be of no credit to our age to be the time when change ceased and progress stopped. ' In a dissertation on our government, written while he was on the faculty of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson stated: "No more vital truth was ever uttered than that freedom and free institutions cannot long be maintained by any people who do not understand the nature of their own government and participate in its functions." On this Law Day, and in fact on every day, we should reflect that no nation has ever been better than its system of law; and no people have ever been of better character than as reflected in their respect for law and justice. Our resolve should be to so forge our links in the chain of history that it may be found a worthy addition to those which have gone before, and make the light of freedom shine more brightly in the world. By. The Hon. J. Alan Crockett Justice, Utah Supreme Court is usually merely the smothering of a fire, and the embers of its cause are likely to smolder until it can break out again, with defeat and frustration added to the bitterness of its original motivation. That is one of the reasons why one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law is that solutions must be sought through peaceable means basal on reason and justice. Face the Reality The problems which underlie the unrest in our country will not be solved by recriminatory resentment and condemnation, nor by ignoring them and hoping they will go away. Painful and frustrating as it may be, it is necessary to face the reality that substantial criticism and resentment do exist; and that they must be confronted and dealt with. This involves recognition of the fact that attitudes and conduct result from causation; that they can be conditioned and motivated; and that a prerequisite to the correction of any shortcoming is an attempt to discover its causes and then to apply the remedy. This does not suggest any lessening of individual responsibility for one's conduct It suggests just the opposite: that the effort should be to increase everyones awareness of file values and benefits for each one personally, and for society generally that each individual be responsible for his own conduct within file law in order to assure the enjoyment of the greatest possible degree of individual liberty consistent with according the same rights to others, and of keeping a fair and reasonable balance between the rights assured individuals and the protection of the public. Tax Load Now Put At $4,530 Per Household 2, American household, says Tax Foundation, Inc. In the same period, total government spending' increased by 93 percent on a per household basis. The tax totals for fiscal 1972 represent a 6.5 percent increase over the last (1971) fiscal year when the tax lake was $277 billion, or $4,330 per household, notes the Foundation. The increase over fiscal 1971 is expected despite some income tax reductions at the Federal level. It is due largely to increases in social security taxes and state-loctaxes," said Alfred Parker, Executive Director of the Founal Public Fraud Complaint By Daniel K. Cunningham Daily Record Columnist SALT LAKE CITY Utah Atty. Gen. Vernon B. Romney has been talking for some time about the need for a tougher stand 'against consumer fraud. And he means it His office recently filed suit against Williams Sewing Machine Co. and Williams Stereo Center of Salt Lake City. The attorney general wants to do more than just shut the business down be wants Mr. Cunningham a $10,000 judgment for punitive damages and he wants rescinded every consumer contract involving Williams. Grant S. Kesler, assistant attorney general, filed the complaint, which lists State of Utah; State of Utah, by and through W. Smoot Brimhall, commissioner, Department of Financial Institutions, as the plaintiffs. The complaint alleges that Williams, doing business at 1635 S. State, mailed out sweepstakes cards to Utah citizens, bearing a number under a seal. The sweep-stake- s number was actually nothing more than an inducement to lure consumers into making a credit to purchase by entitling the bearer a free sewing machine supposedly worth $24" the complaint stated. But defendants "falsely represent that the consumer is receiving a free gift for in reality, to receive said free gift, the consumer must of sign a contract in the amount a be to which purports $169.50 prepaid service and instruction policy. Worth $90 Retail The complaint then charges that the $249 sewing machine is only worth $90 retail, based on statements issued by Leland B. Wakefield, a Provo merchant To support its contention, the complaint included an affidavit from Lloyd K. Bell, Provo, who said he paid Williams $176 for a sewing machine that Wakefield said "normally sells for $90." Sold Stereos Too Williams has used a similar ploy to induce the sale of stereophonic phonograph systems and coupled the sale of a stereophonic phonograph system with a contract for the purchase of a specified number of record albums. In a deposition, Kenneth M. Mon-so2879 W. 7550 South, West Jordan, said he received a sweep-stakletter from Williams Stereo in May 1969. Under a Lucky Pull Tab" was found a winning number which qualified the holder to receive at no cost" a stereo console, provided he purchase 35 record albums over the next two years. Monson then entered into a consumer contract to buy 60 stereo albums for $384 and he received a console stereo. The contract was paid in full by Monson, but he never received any of the promised records. n, es "Fraudulently Induced" The complaint concludes: "Due to file exorbitant price paid for the records, plus the listing of the stereo console on the installment contract as the items being sold, affiant has reason to believe he was fraudulently induced to purchase the stereo console, not receive it free of cost as represented by said company." dation. In fiscal 1962, total tax receipts were $139 billion, or $2,552 per household. In fiscal 1972, receipts ora astimotad to total 295 hillion. or $4,530 per household. Asserts States to Act DR I On Insurance MILWAUKEE (ACCN) The task of assessing automobile insurance problems and enacting effective legislative reform is one belter left to the individual stales than to the federal governdifficult ment. This is the editorial position taken by the Defense Research Institute (DRI) of Milwaukee, Wis., in tKe current issue of its monthly newsletter, For the Defense. The editorial asserts that the individual states can and will act to accomplish insurance reform when a problem has been shown to exist. It states in part: (ACCN)-T- jeopardy clause to the states. In all, more than 300 cases are reviewed, with attention being drawn to earlier cases overruled or distinguished and to the views of he Criminal Law Revolution and Its Aftermath: by the editors of The Criminal Law Reporter, an information service of the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA), has appeared in a third edition (356 pp.; hardbound; $10.00; BNA Books, Washington, D.C.; 1960-1971- ," dissenting justices. Common Market Body Critical Of Wine Quality 1972). The new edition, predecessors, is a like its term-by-ter- review of decisions of the Supreme Court in the area of By Richard C. Longworth criminal law. It spans the years The BRUSSELS (UPI) that is, the last nine years were of winemakers told, Europe of the Warren Court and the first two their that U, April vintages too often years of the Burger Court. and tainted by fraud. are cheap, bad The Warren Court wrought a The accusation was no sour grapes revolution in the administration, from a competitior but a enforcement, and practice of with graphs and criminal law in its last nine years by report, laced drawn statistics, up by the European extending to the states almost all of Common Markets executive the federal constitutional guarancommission. Among the Markets tees provided by the Fourth, Fifth, six members are France, Italy and Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. West Germany three of the world's The work of the Burger Court in the nations. first two terms of the Seventies leading The report said that European clearly signals that the revolution is vintners, in a burst of commercial over and the aftermath at hand. zeal, turned out a bumper producHowever, new or tion of 4.065 billion gallons of wine in challenges to institutions and social 1970-7overflowing the market and concepts seem likely to generate down both price and quality. further controversy and change, and driving More than 2 per cent of this output to provide fertile ground for still went unsold, it said. More immore landmark decisions in the field portant, The share of quality wines of criminal law. less than 25 per cent of The new volume places in represents total common market production historical context landmark cases an abnormal situation in a comlike Mapp v. Ohio (banning illegally which includes member obtained evidence from state munity with states such old prosecutions), Gideon v. Wain-wrig- traditions." (which made the right to In this situation, high market counsel binding on the states in prices set to keep production down noncapital cases), Escobedo v. while protecting the vintners have Illinois (extending the right to been undercut, often by the counsel to suspects undergoing commercial Italian dynamic interrogations), Miranda v. members of the profession." Arizona (laying down a series of The Commissions report hinted at definitive rides to prevent police considerable fraud in the labeling of inabuse in station-hous- e wine the practice of putting high--' terrogations), and Benton v. flown labels on the most ordinary of Maryland the last decision of the vin ordinaire and the hiding of a Warren Court" era, applying yet wines origin, to imply a nobler title another Bill of Rights double than it deserves. case-by-ca- 1960-197- se - 1, 38-pa- ge wine-produci-ng long-ignor- ed 1, wine-produci-ng - State Files Important WASHINGTON ht In the ten NEW YORK (ACCN) total government years tax receipts (Federal, state and local) increased by 77.5 percent per 1962-197- Court Criminal Cases The current clamor in Congress calls for federal auto insurance legislation because the states will not act, and even if they do, the result will be a patchwork of inefficient and conflicting plans. . . Seven states and Puerto Rico have enacted automobile accident reparations legislation in the belief that it met the particular needs of the citizens of the enacting state. Auto reparations legislation has been introduced in almost all of the thirty state legislatures in session during 1972. It is abundantly clear that the states can and will act in the area of insurance reform when a problem exists which needs correcting." dy A properly drawn will can save your family money! Thats why it is so imperative that you see YOUR ATTORNEY now to take advantage of all deductions that current Federal and State laws permit. Remember, too, First Security Bank is qualified to act as Executor of your estate. Trust Department First Security Bank First Security Bank of Utah, N.A. Member of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation |