OCR Text |
Show William Raspberry pe j$mi nu &mmt Friday Morning September 7, Page 1973 Nixon, Powell Games Same? i 22 The Washington Post It may be insulting to both WASHINGTON men to say it, but there are some striking similarities between Richard Milhous Nixon and the late Adam Clayton Powell. Inflation Poses Crucial Challenge: Can American System Respond? Not in their politics, to be sure. They believed in very different things. But in their manners and attitudes and to a large degree in Three of the six stones on Page One of wages will trigger another round of increased Thursdays Tribune dealt with inflation. But prices. Industry, reflecting stockholder attinone of them promised relief from spiraling tudes. is unwilling to forego large profits and ah prices back although its executives know pnees the combination of high prices and big that The Nixon administration,' like Us recent will spark demands from labor for predecessors, lias applied first one technique profits higher wages. then another in an effort to reduce the annual rate of inflation to an acceptable level. Yet Congress and the President are unwilling almost five years after he first took office, the to cut government spending across the board President told reporters that he would ioon oven though both are aware that heavy gov- a second Slate of the In ion message calling for action to stem inflation. If the best economic experts the government can find haven't come up with a workable solution, the layman is led to believe that there is no workable solution. We are about at that point. A distinction must be made between solutions" and workable solutions. There is no shortage of the former. Economists, taxicab drivers, congressmen, commentators, housewives, farmers, in fact just about everybody has a theory. But distilling theories into a program that will do the job is another matter. send Congress their morality, they aren't as far apari as you might think. Take tbmr contemptuous attitude toward their politi- Mr Raspberry cal opposition (which, for both men, included the press). For neither man was it enough to win; it was necessary to rub it m. ernment spending is a prime reason for infla-lioPresident Nixon warned Thursday against cutting the huge defense budget though he criticized Congress for what he called "budget busting" expenditures in other areas. The Democrat-controlleCongress, on the other hand, refuses to limit spending to the levels set by the Republican administration. that Richard Nixon flashed at. That peace demonstrations during his California campaign trip, for instance, was pure Adam. Give it back to them and smile at their helplessness lo do more style, of anything about it. Powell li; in his dress, his gestures and h.o course wickedness. He surrounded himself with beautiful women and swinging people while Nixon prefers the company of the drably powerful. Every man to his own esthetic. Tax reform was cited by Mr. Nixon as one major device for curbing inflation. But politically sensitive congressmen are in no mood to face up to the challenge. And so it goes. But if they parted company on the question of taste, they were brothers in their, insistence that they would not permit outsiders to set limits on them. And their common rationalization: prece-den- d l. Since inflation hurts everyone. Democrat Republican, rich and poor, old and Part of the problem is that some of the young. black and white il should be one issue old laws" don't' apply today. Traditionally upon which unified action could be read: the solution to scarcity and excess (L.nancl generated. Returning congressmen report which forces prices up was to produce that inflation is now the top concern of votmore, satisfy demand and bring prices down ers. The President is making it the pivot confiden comeback." And again. But in some areas of production there issue for his to at record rates. are rise isn't much room for expansion anymore. prices continuing Shared by Others and Every excess that Adam Powell was ever accused of was shared by some other member of the Congress. Did he womanize? Well so did some other congressmen. Did he put his wife on the congressional payroll? So do some others. Was he too fond of scotch? Well, what who was always being hauled about old out to Bethesda Naval Hospital to dry out? I iiy tir head, we paid more for ruunin o er goati in North Africa." If. under such conditions Congress and the Another part of the problem is the perfect- administration can't devise a realistic, bipartly human pursuit of looking out for one's ow n isan solution there is something seriously interests first. Labor is unvyilling to forego wrong with the system or the people entrustwage increases when prices are rising al- ed with operating it. The next few1 months though it must be perfectly dear, even to the loom as a crucial test of that harsh assess-nien- l most reactionary labor leader, that increased No Rumor. Yet Editor. Tribune: I have been employed by at the Garfield Smelter since 1969. Shortly alter I hired on. the federal go eminent imposed air pollution standards upon that company. If memory senes me correctly, it was decided the standards could not be mol by the deadline ow ing to the infeasibility of installing equipment not certain to control noxious gases within the required been have aniples duplicated, possibly magniambient air standards. More than two years later fied. oy an equally small number of RepubliI received a letter from the company, as did the cans, it would seem that something has been other smelter employes, with the that glowing in this nation's political system news that devices for measuring the bad gas in needs to be rooted out, turned to the sunlight ambient air were nearly perfected. We were and allowed to die. I suppose, to condone or even applaud expected, this inexcusably tardy development. Instead the In the long run that is likely to be the lasting value of the Senate Select Committee. It employes received this news with the usual cyniwill be the cultivator that the noxious cism that develops after long years of broken Ken-neco- earth-shatterin- g digs As the senator said. "The facts are there; weeds out of Americas political garden, company promises. As far back as 1967. at the completion at' an I cant change them." The facts won't go working equally as hard among Democratic and remodeled smelter, the company enlarged will no carrots as do It be Republican potatoes. changed. away. They won't the union to bear with it while it utilized requested to and dedicated for I As Gen. Weicker said. Up to this point Republicans loyal good time in the effort to dear up the gas and smoke dredge up past examples of unsavory activi- think we've made it clear that the Republi- which by then had increased because of phased-ou- t ties involving Democrats. Doing so is simply can National Committee and the chairman of roasters that once minimized reverberator another way of saying that because others the Republican Party. Bob Dole, certainly gas and new reverbs w ith greater polluting capa- did it, similar actions are to be permitted on were not involved in That being Watergate. the part of Republicans. This is nothing more the ease, it behooves those Republicans, Forum Rules than the end justifying the means. Something those that deplore the actions of the WaterPublic Forum letters must be submitted Mr. Nixon has deplored on several occasions. d Democrats gate few, to join with to The Tribune and bear writer's full exclusively If a few Democrats have been guilty of in fashioning the tools needed to keep corrupname, signature and address. Names must be scurrilous conduct in the past and their ex- - tion and crime out of American polities. printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reasons on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Fnference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writer's true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Cholera Makes A Point The latest outbreak of cholera in Italy cholera epidemic here has been nil. the result demonstrates again how fragile the barri- of a vigorous public health alert. cades against contagious disease can be. Ch'lera is a hardy traveler. It can, and There will never be a time when public health protection can relax. Cholera is one of those lurking menaces that strike when proper water treatment and safe food handling are ignored. It is a miserable sickness, a relentless attack of vomiting and diarrhea that, in untreated cases, is 40 to W) percent fatal and when treated can still cause death 10 to 20 percent of the time. Better than that, medical science has proved it can be prevented. The last confirmed cholera case occurring spontaneously in the U.S. was recorded in 1911. Two people contracted the disease from a laboratory, accident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1905, and a man is suspected oi being successfully treated for a cholera-typ- e illness last week in Texas. How62 ever, for years, the danger from a possible historically has. leaped swiftly from country to country. The U.S. encountered the disease on a national scale during the usuto this day. ally through Europe, which, wards off the threat from Asia. India and the Midale East. Inoculation, immigration proc-- . essing, water purification, sewage treatment and high food handling standards all contributed to this country's triumph over cholera. mid-lSSU- Still, there's uttle reason for complacency. Italy's outbreak was originally centered in Naples, from where one case was traced to Northern Italy and another to Germany. Modern travel can spread the communicable diseases faster than ever before. Quick communication and improved medical facilities can even the contest, but the utilmate answer is prevention. Population growth, along with uninterrupted urbanization, has put severe strains on water delivery and waste disposal systems. The demands on a sound public health policy are greater because of the potential for epidemics. not less because such outbreaks are infrequent or more easily contained. Pollution must be fought not for its unsightliness alone, but for its disease threat as well. Programs must assure adequately expanded :wage treatment and water purification. Maintaining supervision over raw food handling has never been more important. Cholera and similar vicious killers are waiting to strike. They neednt be given the chance. There was precedent for every single excess. But Powell committed them all. The Public Forum Some Bipartisan W eedings Due Then all of a sudden this matter (Watergate) is going to come to the Republican bosom when it wasn't there to begin with. was proSen. Lowell P. Weicker. jecting a forecast that should be taken very seriously by those staunch Republicans who have increasingly demonstrated a tendency toward lashing blindly at a variety of ima gined foes. cities. The suspicions of the employes were ultimately fulfilled nothing was done the old flues got older and developed newer and larger leaks, the acid plants, hilariously called smog controllers. belched fumes as noxious as the reverbs and converters. And now there is no special hurry. One unsuccessful time extension leads to another, and so on. ad infinitum. as through the plant in a daze through smoke and gas that angs like dirty fog, your body, which is infinitely superior to any other device calculated to measure the effects of poisoned atmosphere, reacts in the same old way. You cough violently, a legitimate protest from muscle and tissue, and pollution experts frown and casually mention that perhaps there is something injurious in the air. AstonNow. you trudge ishing Usually rumors spread like wildfire. In lour years I have not heard a single rumor about the construction on the plant of smog control equipment. I was wondering if the air pollution agencies have heard anything. BILL POWERS And so it is with the Most Tooeleuns feel that some individual youths (anglo and chicano) are using a race issue" to raise hell." It s time that parents of all ethnic groups make a more determir and reto them. effort stop sponsible KARL G. SWAN Thinks They're Great Editor. Tribune: My faith in humanity has been restored once again, thanks lo Mayor Jake Garn and Ogden City Manager Richard Larsen. The Tribune. Aug. 36. quotes Mayor Garn. We just aren't going to have the federal government come in and tell us what we re going to do about parking cars. We jusl won't accept it even if it's dictated upon us." Bully for Juke! And. it's too bad we don't have mure men of his calibre in government. .Disagreements with Jake have had m the past, and will probably have again, but. by the ered tower of jello large. Jake is not a chicken-Hand this fact alone places him a mile above our politicians. It is truly joyful to see someone stand up with some character for a change, instead of rolling over like so many Casper Milquetoasts. People who follow the line of least resistance are a dime a dozen, and whether the people of this area fully appreciate Mayor Gam or not, I can only say he is a total credit to the office he holds. 1 v Then there is Ogden CTy Manager Richard Larsen who is no luy fat cat luxuriously lounging Mr. on the city payroll. Larsen's thorough research of laborious material in order to compile enlightening data pertinent to EPA problems in tins area is something to behold. I am much beholden to Mr. Larsen for his magnificent research. It is one thing to spout off in regard to me unconstitutionality of the EPA powers, but it is another thing to be able to place one's finger on the specific page and paragraph. BILL ROBIS Higher Frices. Higher Taxes Editor, Tribune: A couple of weeks ago. an amendment to the Agriculture Act (HR 8860) was proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The amendment would have prohibited the use of Commodity Credit Corp. funds to underwrite future grain sales to Russia or Red China. Wayne Owens and Gunn McKay, wandering in the fever swamps of liberalism, voted against the His Friend's a Chicano Editor, Tribune: Mana Cardova. m her sincere concern for what is happening in Christian America" (Forum. Sept. 1). confirms a feeling here that the news media have painted a picture ol motivation in the killing of a Tooele man which may be far from accurate. I would urge everyone in Tooele, and in the state, to wait until the slaying case is tried in a court of law before predetermining either the motivation for the shooting or the degree oi guilt of a Tooele teen-age- mentality to which she anglo would pose this question: r If the under indictment did in fact in for chicano, black or Inhis hatred heart carry dian simply because of race, why vvs one of the companions in his car (and a good friend) of Spanish or Mexican descent? This young boy has Ihe same dark hair and the same dark complexion as Alfonzo Suazo, the slain young man. Obviously, there are factors to consider that have nothing to do w ith race. As refers, to the smog The one alleviating factor of August was deAU those organizastroyed by tions, clubs and committees continu'd to meet. measure. Now. this amendment, quite simply, would have required the communists to pay cash for grain rather than have the taxpayers subsidize the credit arrangements. The next effects of the amendment's defeat vv ill be, of course, higher food prices and higher taxes. Simultaneously, it represents another abdication of power by the congressional branch to the executive branch of government. Nice goug, fellows. STEPHEN TROTTER South Ogden 1 Let it be known at; a fact that the majority of No New Thing man. been going on for years! He's that's lley. picking up a little real estate here and there and getting the government to fix it up? Well, what about JFK and LBJ and maybe even DDE? Has any President left office less well off financially than when he came in? rights. Utah State Senate Tooele Stranglehold Editor, Tribune: Your Labor Day editorial (Sept. 3) is an honest appraisal of a meaningless farce. Paying tribute to unscrupulous law s, incompetent vultures for incessant demands: higher efwages, greater benefits, fewer work hours, and ficiency be damned condones a crippling stranglehold on economics of business and industry. MARGARET BURTON President. So he taped a few conversations. Well President Kennedy had the capability" of taping conversations. He turned the IRS on his political enemies? the people in Tooele judge others by basic human qualities, not by color of skin. It is tragic that this community with a long history of cooperation between ethnic minorities and the anglo" culture should be judged by many as being prejudiced and insensitive lo minority concerns and teen-age- An American expedition fails to find the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Meanwhile, back home, a lot of our own towns are sinking beneath garbage and n ' A major element of the President's Watergate defense, in fact, is that he didn't invent dirty politics and spying and cheating and lying. He didn't. Every single item connected with Watergate had some sort of historical precedent. But Nixon did them all. And not just did them, but, like Powell, improved on them. What some of his colleagues sneaked around and did. Powell did openly and more grandly. Nixon, seizing on the precedent of some of hisi predecessors spending a little government money to make home a little more comfortable, goes all the way and winds up with outlays approaching $10 million on real estate holdings his income couldn't begin to justify. Up to Constituency For both of them, morality is defined as what And what you can get you can get away wit away with in politics depends on the nature of your constituency. It's the difference between their constituencies, in fact, that makes these two very similar men seem so different. Nixon's people would never countenance his chasing around with women; Powell's wouldn't have let him get away with accepting financial favors from rich industrialists. But none of that has anything to do with morality. don't mean to say that immorality is all that Richard Nixon and Adam Powell are about. Obviously neither man could have formed such a loyal constituency just on the basis of being bad No. they both paid their dues. Nixon by being faithful to the conservative c; ;sc and attacking the conservative's enemies: Powell by being in the front ranks of the early civil rights movement and being sassy with powerful white people. Their efforts on behalf of their respective constituencies n won them both loyalty and great admiration. in this they have something in common. 1 But-eve- It's easy to find people willing to declare their admiration for either man. But it's awfully tough to find someone who'll say: That's the kind of man I want my son lo be. Our parents used to tell us to do If sometning what's good for you. Nowadays, we dont have to know what's good for us; the government has experts to let us know. you know |