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Show DESERET NEWS EsCfefnm ea peg SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH We Stand For The Cons, itution Of The United States As By ARNOLD SAVUSLAK Uniied Press International Having Been Divinely Inspired naWASHINGTON The tional housing goal of a decent place to live for every American family by 1978 is troubling the new Republican administration. In his outgoing budget message this ypar, President Lyndon B. Johnson reminded Congress that the housing acts of both 1P49 and 1968 had committed the nation to eliminate substandard housing. This national commitment will require the construction or rehabilitation of 26 million homes or apartments during the period , including 6 million decent homes and apartments at prices or rents that families with low or moderate incomes can afford, Johnson said. twice-pledge- 14 A EDITORIAL 19, 1969 SATURDAY, APRIL PAGE 'Flying Pueblo' Shows U.S. Power Is Limited Three lessons were driven home firmly Friday during President NixonB press conference on the shooting down of a U.S. reconnaissance plane off North Korea. First, by resuming such flights and providing them with armed protection, the President made it clear that the U.S. Isn't about to be intimidated. There had been suggestions that the U.S. abandon such flights and rely instead on orbiting satellites for the information we need about North Korea ant. other hostile nations. But intelligence gathering satellites arent as reliable and dont provide the detailed information available from reconnaissance planes, which carry six tons of electronic equipment that cant be jammed into a satellite. Second, the United States and the United Nations are still at war with North Korea and have been since 1950, something we tend to forget until theres some humiliating provocation like the seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo or the shooting down of the plane. The armistice with North Korea falls far short of the permanent peace that is needed. Third, although Mr. Nixon left the door open to further U.S. steps against North Korea beyond the slap on the wrist we are seeking to apply through the U.N. and other diplomatic channels, this episode emphasizes how sharply Americas power is limited. Of course, America could retaliate in kind by shooting down a North Korean plane or seizing a North Korean naval vessel. Or we could drop bombs on North Korea. But such actions and counteractions tend to escalate into war. As long as the U.S. is bogged down in Vietnam, it cant afford to get pulled into another major conflict. No doubt further provocations can be expected until the North Koreans and others learn that such actions gain them little or nothing. EC-12- 1 all-o- ut Students Come First Remember how the Utah Education Assn, ran a number of advertisements a couple of months ago appealing to the Legislature for more funds for schools as well as teachers? Remember how those ads were signed A message on behalf of Utahs children from the 13,400 members of the Utah Education Assn.? Remember how the UEA complained that education services in Utah were already too low, that students do not get proper counseling, that adequate funds are not available for good libraries, technical equipment, teaching materials, and extended summer programs ? The UEA itself ought to jog its memory now that its executive secretary, Dr. John C. Evans Jr., is insisting the Utah school districts can grant teachers a $1,000 pay raise even though State Superintendent of Public Instruction T. H. Bell reports such a raise would involve sacrificing essential school services and supplies. As the UEA examines the split in its ranks that led to Dr. Evans tendering his resignation, the organization should also its stand on pay increases. If more funds can be found for teacher salaries without curtailing services, fine. But in most school districts the salaries and benefits of teachers and other employes already take more than 89 per cent of the budget. Under the school financing arrangements worked out by the last Legislature, teachers can expect to receive raises of around $800 in most districts, $600 in others. The difference between those figures and what the UEA is demanding just isnt worth throwing Utahs educational system into an uproar. Not when half of Utahs schools lack a librarian, when teachers can't do an adequate job unless they get enough supplies, and when teachers can look to future legislatures for further pay raises. The welfare of the students snould come first. On behalf of Utahs children, we urge the UEA to act accordingly. Speak Up For Decency Three week gn 35 000 tensgers in Miami launched a crusade designed to get America away from the trend toward lowdness in the entertainment media and bark to the nations fundamental moral decency, Happily, the movement is spreading. Salt Lake Citys teenagers, who already had planned their D For Decency Week before the Miami rally, will campaign for moral Baltimore and Cincinnati youth stage uprightness May decency rallies Sunday, sad at least eight other cities, including Austin, Birmingham, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis, plan to follow suit. Nor is the movement confined to teenagers. The Junior Clubwomen of the Indiana Federation of Clubs will actively support the Indianapolis rally. In fact. HUD Secretary George Romney, voted Churchman of the Year this year, has urged a national womens crusade against obscenity. Which community will be the next to speak up for decency? He also said the 1969 and 1970 federal budgets carried the funds to meet the governments responsibility to build or subsidize 700,000 housing units for poor and middle income families in the first two program. years of the But two weeks later, George Romney, President Nixons secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), got on the record with some doubts about the means he had been provided with to meet these goals. "In terms of need, Roinney said, the 26 million goal appears as sound statistically as any you can develop. Now, I dont think the programs that we have at the present time will achieve these goals. I think the talk has been much bigger than the performance. Romney added that one of the first tasks he was giving himself was to figure out how much housing actually could be provided with the available resources and what would be needed to meet the goals. WKen these and similar statements were interpreted as meaning that Romney was preparing to retreat on the national housing goals, he said no such thing was true. He said the problem was "organization of the available resources and it was his firm intention to do that, as his Democratic predecessors had not. to meet the goals. But Romneys first statements evoked some rumblings from Capitol Hill and they seem likely to continue at least until he spells out his own approach in more detail. The first response came from Sen. WiDemocratic lliam Proxmire, member of the Senate Banking Committee and its housing subcommittee. "I hope that the Nixon Administration will not adopt a policy of despair or permit a defeatist attitude to v oaken the national commitment to better housing, the Wisconsin senator wrote Romney. He reminded the secretary that HUD itself submitted detailed statistics to Congress last year concluding that the housing goals written into the 1968 law were feasible, and that at least three studies by outside groups had endorsed HUDs findings. Proxmire followed up with another letter to Romney urging a series of meetings with governors, mayors, builders, labor leaders and investors seeking to solve the problems, and a quick survey of the cities to pinpoint the areas of priority need. A Light Goes Out two-third- six-ye- A Simple pro-Sovi- et t y The best thing about "in words that they generally warn that a bit profound nonthink is about to appear. Various subsidy programs, aimed at investors as well as low income renters and homebuyers, are supposed to provide the remainder of the 233,000 unit total in the current fiscal year which ends June 30 and the 503.000 units projected for fiscal 1970. lion units, the publicly assisted housing Matter Of Relevance JENKIN LLOYD JONES "The appropriate concepts of cost and gain depend upon the level of optimization, and the alternative policies that are admissible. This appropriate level of optimization and the alternatives that should be compared depend in part on the search for a suitable criterion. vancy, or "It is deficient in meaningfulness, people will think you belong to the upper classes. Talking through your hat and talking through your mortarboard are essentially the same thing, but the techniques are s different. The may simply "talk ard the middle-brow- s "converse. But double domes are engaged in "meaningful dialogs." This wistful and very human desire to be thought an intellectual giant, even on those days when the brain is stuck in low gear, is endemic in academic and governmental societies. Not long ago a release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated: "Temperature is a most important factor in y. d According to a HUD projection, the num- symploT,.' But usually they mask an attempt to put a top hat and tails on a wisp of utter vapor. If you say, It dont mean nothin, you are obviously from the wrong side of the tracks; but if you say, "It lacks rele- providing small appropriations for housing, especially for the poor. Rent supplements, which were supposed to help ease the sho lage of publicly-ownehousing for the poor and middle income families, is one prime example. Congress authorized $108 million for the program in fiscal 1969. Of this amount the Johnson Administration asked for only $65 million for the year, but then Congress came across with only $30 million. Model cities had authorization for $1 bil ber of new and rehabilitated "publicly assisted housing units should rise to 600.000 in 1973 and peak at 800,000 in 1976. By 1978, the target date for the goal of 6 mil- This meant, "If its too hot or too cold, crops have a bad time." An interoffice memo in the Department of Interior recently said: in America "meaningful year later? For one thing, Romney can cite the congressional history of setting big goals and 51,000 public housing units produced in the 1968 fiscal year. "relevant." are and "innest two last year. Are such increases in housing production a planner's pipe dream? Just last year, In an analysis prepared for the Senate Bank. .the ing Committee, HUD said goals, while not easy to achieve, represent realistic, attainable goals. HUD touched on each of the key elements involved in meeting the goals money, manpower and materials. It said a study of the mortgage market indicated the required funds "probably would be available; thal the construction manpower needs, which would nearly double by the end of the decade, could be met by new workers coming into the market; and that building materials "should prove to be no problem in seeking the housing goals. The Kaiser commission reviewed HUD's findings and reported: "Considering all factors, we firmly believe that the costs of meeting the Presidents housing goals are well within the productive and economic capacities of the nation. If HUD and the outside experts were saying "can do in 19G8, how can Romney support a contrary conclusion less than a ar like Occasionally, and "implement "finalize, they do accompany a valid thought and thus words 2.8 million units in 1978. By comparison, private housing starts hil about 1.5 million for roadbuilders. Public housing, as well as the fistful of other new subsidy programs intended to stimulate private investment in housing for the poor, must compete with hundreds of other government programs for money from the Treasurys general fund. In his budget, Johnson outlined a program for the 1969 and 1970 fiscal years that is supposed to produce 736,000 new rehabilitated units of low and middle income housing. The two-yeoutlay would be just over $2 billion. The program includes 75,000 units of low rent public housing in the 1969 fiscal year that ends June 30, and 130,000 units in the following 12 months. In contrast, there were determining the ecological optimum and limits of crop growth, and therefore th agricultural exploitation of our water and soil resources." the starts will have settled back to 700,000 units a year. While the government is doing all this, private enterprise is supposed to be producing 20 million new and renovated homes. According to HUD's projectors, this will rise from a 1.7 million unit level in 1970 to The Presidents Committee on Urban Housing, headed by industrialist Edgar Kaiser, offered one explanation for the governments public housing flop since 1949: "Generalized expressions of the nation's good intentions, addressed to no particular responsible agency and including no specific goals for specific dates, have a way of being overlooked, forgotten (and) unfulfilled. If this conclusion was news to housing experts, it obvioasly was apparent to highway builders. When the government set out to build a 41,000-mil- e superhighway system ir. 1956, it set specific goals and, more significantly, provided all but airtight financing to meet them. In 1968, HUD also was given some detailed targets, but not the assurances of money that the highway trust fund provides At the moment ent applied for) the minor sin of The gradual attrition of Czech freedoms, despite the steady resistance of that courageous people, has taken one more unhappy step with the forced resignation of Alexander Dubcek. That popular leader, who more than any other has been Identified writh the Czech liberalization movement, was replaced this week as Communist party chief Dy a stooge, Gustav Husak. Thus, apparently, dies an era in which Czech freedom reached its fullest flowering in more than 50 years of Communism; an era so fondly remembered by the Czechs that they movement and which was refer to it as the crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion last August. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are taken for granted by Americans. But, as the Czechs well know, they may have to be purch .sc I at a very clear price. With the forced resignation of Dubcck, a light has been a symbol representing the quest for freedom. extinguished But since the Communists could not kill the human spirits desire to be free during the past 50 years, what makes them think they can annihilate it in the next 50? post-Janvar- g "I hope you will exhaust every means at your disposal to carry out the intent of Congress, Proxmire wrote. Only if such an effort fails can the goals be termed unrealistic. In the context of the Nixon Administrations unspoken but clearly apparent policy Romof trying to avoid a promise gap, neys theme is understandable. And in view of the federal governments past record in the low income housing field under Democratic as well as Republican the HUD secretary administrations might be regarded as no more than sensibly realistic. The National Commission on Urban Problems, which worked for two years under former Sen. Paul Douglas to determine housing and other needs of the cities, stated the record this way: "Congress in the housing act of 1949 agreed that the country required 135,000 new public housing units a year for the next six years, or a total of 810.000 units. We have not produced that much in 30 years of public housing. Since proclaiming that goal in 1949, we have ptoduced only s of about 500.000 units, or about the goal in 20 years! 18-2- er d 1969-78- second-rankin- 32,000-memb- m Tills didnt mean anything. Benjamin Franklin opposed the drive by the Federalists to limit the right to vote to people of property. In support of Bens position, some of his friends issued a manifesto that began: cannot be adhered to with any reasonable degree of intellectual or moral certainty that the inalienable right man possesses to exercise his political and so on for several preferences . . hundred words. Ben Franklin rewrote it as follows: To require property of voiers leads us to this dilemma: I own a jackass; I can vote. The jackass dies;' I cannot vote. Therefore, the vote represents not me but the jackass. John OHayre in his delightful little ft Hr, lion in 1969 and thats what the administration sought. It got $625 million. Only the conventional public housing program fared relatively well in Congress last year. It suffered only an $8 million cut from its $358 million authorization. Besides the usual problems with getting money out of Congress, Romney also may be looking at some ominous signs in the private sector. Mortgage rates, for example, have gone beyond the point that some states had established as the line between permissible interest. and usury. Builders are complaining bitterly that the price of raw mated rials, including such key Items as and lumber, are moving out of sight even in the current market. As for manpower, the HUD study notwithstanding, the statistics show that the building trades will need 2 8 million new skilled workers by 1975 simply to add 700,000 to the present 3.8 million man work force and fill the places left by retirements and deaths. Romneys recent chilly interview with ALF-CIPresident George Meany on the need to get more workers, especially Negroes, into the building trades, cannot have filled him with hope. Nor can a review of union work rules or building code restrictions give anyone realistic hope that some unforeseen technological breakthrough will suddenly allow the modernization of the building industry to the point where houses can be turned out like automobiles. But Romney does not say the housing job cannot be done, and in fact predicts that the reconstruction of the nations cities will be where most of its people live the principal economic thrust in the 30 years left of the 20th Century. The Douglas commission says commitment is more important than resources at this point: "We are a wealthy nation, so it is not really a matter of whether we can afford to do such things as we recommend. It is simplv a matter of whether we still have faith in freedom, in equality, in justice, enough to make sacrifices in their cause. wall-boar- GUEST CARTOON treatise, Gobbledegook Has Gotta Go, recalls an air raid instruction issued to government workers in Washington during World War II: Such preparations will be made as will completely obscure all federal buildings and nonfederal buildings occupied by the federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination. Such obscuration may be obtained either by blackout construction or by termination of the illumination. Franklin D. Roosevelt seized a pen and wrote: Where the work cant be shut down, cover the windows. Where it can, turn out the lights ! The business of trying to pass off obscurantism as deep thought is a hoary human foible, but it seems to be growing worse in this modern age as more and more people are becoming educated above their brains. The disease is even getting Into the e edito newspaper business. Most rial writer; were reporters, am while their huffing and putfing lacke mellifluous elegance, they left you in r a doubt that and the 40 Thieve were Eagle Scouts compared to th mayor and the city council. But now many of the new recruits in the great newspaper are fresh out of graduate school and you cant read em without a thesaurus. Ttiere is much to be learned on the police beat about the power of plain English. old-tim- e think-tank- t 3 v Easy does it ChrlilUn kln Monitor ' |