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Show Pare Friday, July THE UTAH STATESMAN 2 18, 1958 Goldfine Case Mof Factual By Rep. William A. Dawson ... SIDE SHOW In the past and in the future, I intend to give my full support to committees exercising the investigating powers of Congress. At the same time, I certainly do not intend to sit silently by when any of these committees, their members or their staffs pursue tactics which not only are unfair to witnesses but also bring discredit on Congress and on our entire form of government. That, in my opinion, is what has been happening in the Goldfine carnival being conducted by the House Committee on Legislative Oversight. HIGH HOPES . . . I had high hopes for this Committee when it first started out. There are approximately two million federal employees and there is bound to be a bad apple or two in a barrel of this The Committees uncovering of undo influence in the awarding of television licenses was commendable. I also feel the people of this country are entitled to know that the Assistant to the President had some mighty sizeable 'hotel Mis paid for by Bernard Goldfine, damaging as that may be to the political party of which I am a member. I am also confident that if the Committee will stick to a factual development of the affair the people will correctly judge whether Sherman Adams was imprudent or something more or something less. LIBEL LICENSE . . . The Committee however is not developing the case factually. It started going size. Statehood Bill. The President signed the bill into law in a ceremony at the 'White House. A plebiscite must be held in Alaska before it officially becomes the 49th and largest state in the Union. STATE: 74 y -- of Utah Owned by By Henry Aldons Dixon An astonishing statistic that few people know is that more than 74 percent of the total land in Utah is owned by the federal government. Of this amazing total, more than 46 percent is under direct control and administration of the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency of the Department of Interior. In order to attract more tourist dollars to our state and improve recreational facilities for our own people, we need to establish a system of state parks. This need was recognized by the last state legislature which created the new Utah State Park and Recreation Commission. A prominent Ogdenite and former regional forester, Chester J. (Chet) Olson was named by Governor Clyde as direction of this new commission. In setting about his task Olson found that most of the sites suitable for preservation were located on land being administered by the Bureau of Land Management, which has no authority or funds to develop recreational or park facilities. I hesitate to name potential locations for fear of . committing the sin of omission (for there are actually dozens of places) but among those sites which come first to mind are the fabulous Dead Horse Point area near Moab, Goblin Valley near Hanksville, Snow Canyon near St George, Grand Gulch and Comb-was- h out of Blanding, San Juan County's Monument Valley, Cathedral Valley in Wayne and Emery Counties, the Pink Sands near Kanab, Sheep Canyon in Daggett and the San Rafael country near Ferron. Chet Olson was in town this week and we made a visit to the Department of Interim: to gain their cooperation in having certain of these areas released to state control where they can be developed and protected. I am pushing for a bill which will allow the federal government to release these areas to our state commission. It was shocking to learn from Chet that some of these areas of scenic grandeur are being desecrated beyond imagination . . . and what is worse, beyond repair. There is one of our southern Utah counties that has a vast petrified forest that is being actually carted off by the truck load. One of the petrified trees there measures seven feet in diameter and is 108 feet long. Chet reports that tons of these petrified trees are being lugged off to Nevada and California by private individuals who sell chunks of them at quite a profit. A week ago a truck load of this stone went through Logan headed out of state for the northwest. ' It is a helpless feeling to know that the state nor the Bureau of Land Management can do anything about it. Furthermore there are many of Utahs ancient Indian petroglyphs (carvings upon stone) and picto-grap(hierogylph or painting upon stone) which are being mutilated. Ignorant persons who are obviously mental pygmies are rubbing them out, shooting them up or inscribing names and dates under them and over them. They have endured centuries of time and weather and now in the enlightened 20th century, some are being deliberately destroyed. Our new State Park and Recreation Commission has more than a man-size- d job before it but Chet Olson is something more than an ordinary type fellow and if the job can be done, he can do it.. SMALL BUSINESS HELP Thursday the House stamped final approval on R. H. 7963, the Small Business Act which establishes the Small Business Administration on a permanent basis; sets BA interest rates at a maximum of 5V2 percent; splits government contracts into smaller units hs so more small businesses can bid for work. Perhaps the most important, provision of the report accompanying the bill was the statement which will, be used as a future policy guide for those passing upon loan applications. The report said, some employees of the SBA have been advising loan applicants THE UTAH STATESMAN A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to Good Government HARRY B. MILLER, Publisher H. V. WRIGHT, Editor Church Street Phone EM Entered as 2nd Class matter at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879 Subscription rate $1.00 per year Published weekly at 421 Church Street Salt Lake City, Utah National Editorial Association 1958 Vol. 12; No. 28 July support. . for business loans that collateral offered to secure their loans must be evaluated on the basis of its value in a forced sale. This practice is contrary to the intent (of Congress) and those administering the Act shall give consideration to the essential import ance to the business of any asset offered as collateral, and shall evaluate such assets on the basis of a going business. The President signed into public law this week a bill establishing a National Outdoor Resources Review Commission and approved the congressional lifting of the 3 percent excise tax on freight, but continuing other excises and corporate tax rates. A bill was introduced by Rep. John F. Baldwin which will promote ethical standards of conduct in Congress and among federal officials. The President asked the House Education Committee to reduce the number of scholarships provided for in a bill calling for 19,000 to 22,000 to aid in training of scientists and other experts. The House approved and sent to (R-Cali- f.) the President for approval a bill authorizing overtime pay for such federal employees as Sent to the Senate for action was a measure permitting trial of income tax cases in the district where the defendant was residing at the time of the offense. fire-fighte- rs. Property Assessed Low Nonfarm residential property during 1956 was assessed at a lower percentage of its actual sales value in Utah than in most of the surrounding states, according to a report just released by Utah Foundation. The Foundation report, which analyzes a recent survey of the U. S. Bureau of Census, snows that the average ratio of assessment to sales price for nonfarm residential property in Utah was 15.6 ($1,560 assessment for each $10,000 actual sales value) during 1956. 421 ... When a witness testifies THE IMMUNITY before a Congressional Committee, he is immune from libel suits by persons he defames. Also, the immunity carries over to newspapers, radio and television stations which report die unsubstantiated charges. It is an open invitation to the vengeful to ruin reputations of any person against whom he has a grudge. Fox made full use of this opportunity. HQTEL BUGS . . . Now a Committee staff member has been caught planting microphones in Mr. Goldfines hotel rooms. This deplorable tactic is a clear indication that the Committee has no factual evidence upon Which to base its continued inquiry of Goldfine. We are treated to the deplorable sight of a Committee of Congress probing around in a citizens private life, reaching back 15 years, in die hopes I guess of finding something wrong. This is definitely not the type of investigation that warrants our Have More Parks! U.S.-L- efs STATE: Nonform sour when it invited a financial manipulator named John Fox to testify in public sessions. The Committee knew that Fox had been picked up on a charge of criminal libel less than a week before he testified. They knew he was under indictment in his home state for failure to meet his employees payroll. Yet the Committee granted him the privilege-a-nd it was a unsubstantiated case this of making privilege in conditions that undo: charges permitted these charges to be broadcast to the world. 18, 1958 This compares with average assessment-sal- es ratios 28.4 of in Colorado; 23.1 in Nevada; 21.5 in New Mexico; 20.9 in Wyoming; and 19.6 in Arizona. Two Mountain States Idaho (11.2) and Montana (8.6) had lower assessment ratios than Utahs. Foundation analysts emphasize that the above ratios reported by the U.S. Census Bureau are statewide averages, and that there may be considerable variation among individual properties and among properties in the different geographic areas of the respective states. The report notes, for example, that a Utah Foundation survey made in 1956 revealed that there was an average variation of plus or minus 18 (approximately 2.8 percentage points) in the assessment of individual properties from the over-a- ll Utah average. Agricultural property was assessed at a considerably lower proportion of its sales value that nonfarm property in most states, including Utah, according to tiie Census Bureau study U. S. Bureau of Census data showed that acreage and other farm property in Utah was assessed at 10.1 of its sales value. This compares with an assessment ratio of 15.6 for nonfarm residential properties and 13.0 for vacant lots reported for 1956. |
