OCR Text |
Show 'Hang it DESERET NEWS all-do- you know it's FALL V n't LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH iniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiininmimiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuuiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiii We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States No Law Abuse As Having Been Divinely Inspired 10 A EDITORIAL PAGE It your editor to publish a diatribe that Park City is flouting the law and permitting some liquor abuses and lewd dancing because of wide-opein a can we operate alleged belief that manner because we think our town has become a tourist mecca. It would help your editor to iirst investigate the facts. When he states that the sheriff of Summit County conducted recent raids to enforce the law in answer to complaints from residents that local law enforcement officers werent doing their jobs, your editor should check the record. On Dec. 11; 1968, the Park City Council and city police met with the SEPTEMBER 24, 1969 WEDNESDAY, I Tax Reform Bill Needs Stress On Simplicity The current tax reform bill before Congress (HR13270) has been lightly labeled the "Accountants and Tax Lawyers Relief Act of 1969, and for good reason. d The version of the 1989 Reform Bill so complicates preparing an individual tax return that apparently only the experts will be able to understand the intricacies. In fact, says the Research Institute of America, "the complexities of the new provisions will be difficult enough for businessmen and their cccountants to grasp; the arithmetical it calculations could be even worse. The institute is a tax study organization. Many of the major reform proposals apply only over a certain dollar amount of income or deductions, as the case may be. This entails separate computations under both old and new law. In addition, some calculations under the reform provisions could be made as late as five or ten years after the event. That should be reason enough to reject the d bill. But Senate Finance Committee hearings have uncovered a whole spectrum of objections, some that the House bill does not go far enough, and some that it goes too sheriff of Summit County. The Summit County sheriff there justified previous raids he had made into our town on the grounds that he had received complaints from residents that we were not enforcing the law. At this time the city council requested the sheriff to submit all such complaints to us in the tuture so that we could enforce the law if it was being violated. From Dec. 11, 1968, to date hereof, Park City has not received one such complaint from the sher- House-passe- iff. non-prof- House-passe- far. President Ernest L. Wilkinson ox Brigham Young University has testified that the bill would almoct destroy tax incentives for gifts to private colleges and universities. One of the broadest attacks on the bill was the testimony of Philip H. Willkie, son of 1940 Presidential candidate Wendell WUlkie. He declared the bill would create widespread unemployment in the building trades, increase the cost of food, cause a decline in the stock market, depress the real estate market, raise utility rates and "cripple such voluntary organizations as the United Service Organization, the Salvation Army and the United Fund. Whether the bill is that open to error, however, is debatable.- But at least the Senate should probe its ramifications carefully if it is even suspect of such grievous shortcomings. But in addition to a more equitable taxing formula, any tax reform bill should also stress clarity and simplicity. There is little point in adding confoundment to the problems of the taxpayer. . i Parkinson At The U.N. The United Nations is giving a new twist to C. Northcote Parkinsons famous law on how bureaucrats build empires. Parkinson observed that bureaucracy grows when .an overworked functionary seeks to appoint subordinates rather than getting another worker of equal rank to share the load. That way, he figures, the new man wont be a rival to his plans for advancement. g At the U.N., however, works this way: A ofU.N. official with a office gets a fice unon being promoted. One with two windows gets three and so on. In either case, the result is the same: The bureaucracy cxpandi so much that it is always running out of office space. Although the main U.N. building looks like an overgrown greenhouse, promotions have been such that the U.N. has run out of windows and has rented offices in 12 buildings in New .York. Theres even talk of constructing a new U.N. building to handle the overflow. While all this smacks of poor planning, Dr. Parkinson has the last word: A perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse. During a period of exciting discovery or progress there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters. The time for that comes later, when all the important work has been done. Perfection, we know, is finality; and finality is death. Certainly no one would accuse the U.N. of being perfect. empire-buildin- Too Much Negativism At State By ROSCOE and GEOFFREY DRUMMOND WASHINGTON The fact that President Nixon has held up his overhaul of the State Department doesnt mean he is satisfied with Its perform- in connection with the preparations for his recent trip to Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and Romania and during it. ance. When anything venturesome was proHe isnt He is dissatisfied. He is dis- posed, he found the State Department people were mostly against it They pleased. want him to go to Romania; it In his campaign Richard Nixon said didnt the boat with the Russians, rock might again and again he intended to turn the They didnt want him ho go to Vietnam. State Department upside down, shake out didnt want him to expound his the dull and the mediocre and put more They evolving policy in his long venturesome minds at work. briefing to the press at Guam. The PresiHe hasnt. He passed up his first, best dent couldnt see that he was getting any opportunity during the weeks immediateoriginal creative thinking on foreign polily after taking office. Perhaps he thought cy from where it should come.. it might not be necessary or that what This is why he made no effort to was needed would follow the appointment cover up his adverse reaction after he of his trusted intimate, William Rogers, returned from his overseas travels. as secretary of state. Indeed, far from covering it up, he let it There is no evidence that any signifiemerge deliberately in the hope that cant overhaul or stimulation of State De- awareness of his dissatisfaction would partment talent has followed. Just about stir things up at State, the same people are doing the same II it has, its not visible, and now things the same way they always have. Nixon is right back where he started, There are just too many morticians facing the task cf shaking up and shakp minds shuffling through the past competo bottom at ing out from tently finding reasons why nothing should the State Department and feeling an be changed. increasing need to do it. The password is No. The failure of the State Department to Thats what the President concludrespond according to presidential expeced and, he was not amused. The negatations is nothing new. FDR found that in tive approach of State Department pro- order to get things done he had to go fessionals impressed Mr. Nixon painfully over the head of State Secretary Cordell near-the-to- Hull and deal directly with Undersecretary Sumner Welles. President Kennedy built a little state department into the White House under McGeorge Bundy and President Johnson did the same thing with Walt Rostow at his elbow. Influence in the creation of foreign policy will inevitably come from where the best brains art located. As assistant to the President for Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger and his staff have talent unmatched by the State Department, and when theres a vacuum at State it is bound to be filled by others. It is being filled by Kissinger and his people today and Mr. Nixon isnt resisting it. It is better to have an abundance of creativity among the Presidents foreign policy" staff in the White House when there is a dearth of creativity in the State Department When Mr. Nixon in going to Romania rejected the negative advice of the State Department, he did one of the best things on his trip. He demonstrated that if Moscow wants better relations with the United States, it cant expect to be free to cultivate its contacts with the nations and veto the United States from having closer contacts with the Communist nations. If President Nixon wants to get more creative push from the State Department, along with fewer overcautious negatives, he cant leave things as they are. That long promised shakeup seems . more needed than ever. Give Generously By contributing generously to the United Fund, whose annual crusade was started this week, Utahns have an excellent opportunity to demonstrate a concern for their fellow men. Creative Genius And Short Lives By SYDNEY J. HARRIS Reading an essay on Mozart the other evening, I ran across the familiar plaint that he died before his time. I wonder if this is true in Mozarts case, or in the case of other great creative geniuses whose lives havj been cut short. I wonder if a personality which generates so much force does not have a pattern and a rhythm of its own. Mozarts whole life reminds us of a speeded-u- p he accomplished in a year camera what took decades for less talented men. His death at 35, Schuberts at 29, Keats at 26, and scores of others there seems something inevitable in these truncated lives, as if these men worked feverishly to produce supreme work early, because somehow they knew that time was working against them. Fund-memb- 1.3 million. As drive chairman W. Mack Lawrence observed during camoaign kickoff, the knowledge that donations help relieve misery as well as build stronger communities should be impetus enough for a short and successful campaign. . . . On the conscious level. Santayana was correct in saying that Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it;" but on the unconscious level, it is truer to say that those who cannot forget the past are condemned to repeat it, and keep making the same old mistakes over again until they die. There is little difference among many reducing diets: they are equally effective or equally futile; the whole difference is in the dictf rs, in the will and not in the way. Americans simply have no conception of the amount of destructive power at our command; as Prof. Mario Salvadori has graphically said, if we had begun dropping a Hiroshima-typ- e bomb the day Christ was born, and we had continued dropping a bomb a day, every day of the week, every week of the year, from the year zero to the present, ve would still have a lot of megatons left over and each c these bombs can kiliTOOjOOO people. It is extremely doubtful whether Keats could have written any greater poetry, or Mozart any greater music, than they had already given the world. In a sense, the most important part of their lives was finished: Keats Ode to and Mozarts G Minor a Nightingale Quintet touched the ultimate of their powers. Einstein tells us that time is a relative matter in the universe; perhaps it is also a relative matter within the personality. I sripect that more men have outlived their time than have been cut down before it. A genius, of course, can die by accident, like Shelley in a sailboat, or Marlowe in a tavern brawl but, even then, if one examines the tempestuous characters of these men, their dramatic deaths were almost by invitation. Byron caught a fever and died at 36 while fighting in the Greek war of independence; but his contemporary, Wordsworth, lived until 80 because he would not go to fight anywhere. that even probable It is possible Mozart and Schubert would have lived longer if they had not had to struggle so bitterly for subsistence; and society cannot escape a sense of guilt for its harsh treatment of its finest talents. In mitigation of our callousness, however, it must be suggested that even under the most favorable circumstances, such men tend to bum themselves out at ' an early age. It may not be true that an artist thrives under hardships (many have been crushed by it), but it is at least true that a youthful genius may be ready for death long before we dull plodders have begun to live. Coach Nixon Looks At His Team WASHINGTON With each gift, which is actually many gifts in one, donors help sustain a variety of agencies and organizations which provide health, educational, recreational, planning and other services to needy children, parents, senior citizens and the community in general. The Fund, furthermore, fills a need through volunteer givwhich otherwise would cause additional financial burdens ing on cities and towns. This year. $1,400,13 is needed to meet projected agencies, and there are only 30 programs of all days in which to raise the amount. Last year, donors gave ' No Atomic Tests The underground nuclear explosion which took place Sept 16 at Pahute Mesa, Nevada should be viewed with great concern. That man would deliberately generate an earthquake is beyond comprehension, regardless of the reason and notwithstanding his protestations that all safety precautions have been taken. The fact of the matter is that man stands powerless before earthquakes and he cannot know when one of cataclysmic propoiticoj will be triggered by underground nuclear detonations. . In this connection I call your attention to the Atomic Energy Commissions own report of April, 1969, in which they state that underground nuclear detonations cause earthquakes. You will observe the aforesaid explosion caused a shock which swayed buildings 350 miles away in Salt Lake City and was rated on the Richter seimograph scale as very close to a major earthquake. I also call your attention to a statement by the AEC that even larger tests are scheduled this fall at the Nevada site and at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands. Both of these tests are expected to be of two megaton size equivalent to the stupendous force of two million tons of TNT. It is now quite clear something must be done' by the Congress as soon as possible either to entirely ban all underground and underwater nuclear explosion or place a very low yield limit on the size of these detonations. -D- REW L. SMITH New Orleans, La. Quit Moralizing two-windo- w one-windo- w AftertFo",hts THE DRUMMONDS And as to the editor drawing the conclusion that we are tolerating lewd dancing, in the trial of a local dancer conducted last month in Coalville, a jury composed of citizens gathered from our farming-type county at large failed tc agree that she was guilty of lewdness as she was --MARY C. LEHMER Park City attorney ART BUCHWALD Coach Nixon, now that the professional football season has started, could you give me some idea of team how your looks? Id like to thing make one perfectly clear. I believe Ive got a good team, a team and a team that could win another hard-workin- g championship in 1972. Youve got some tough opposition. How do you think youll do against the Inflation Rockets?" No problem. Its just a question of everyone holding the line. If we tackle hard we can lick them." What will your overall strategy be when you take on Inflation?" I dont believe its the coach's job to get into things like strategy. Obviously, I dont want Inflation to run away with the game, but I dont think I should call the signals from the bench. I prefer to give David Kennedy the ball and let him run with it. What about your game with the Segregation Boosters? The scouting reports indicate theyre tough this year. I naturally would like to beat Segregation as much as anybody. But I differ with the Monday-mornin- g quarterbacks on how we can do it. Im against rushing, and I dont believe we should try to score against them every time weve got the ball. I'm satisfied with a first down every once in a while in contrast to those who are always demanding touchdowns. Theres some question as to who will be calling the signals against Segregation. Some say that so far Strom Thurmond has been calling them. Dont believe everything you read in the sports pages- - Strom was on my team from the beginning and I have the highest respect for him, but that doesnt mean that Im going to put him in the game. Ive got two great backs in John Mitchell and Bob Finch and if they hant defeat the Segregation Boosters, nobody can. Are you planning to play Mel Laird against the Congressional Agitators? I certainly am. Hes the best defense man Ive got. We beat the Agitators in the ABM Bowl and well beat them in the on breaking through our line. Some of the writers say that your two halfbacks, Thieu and Ky, are playing their own game, and refuse to be coached. Does this lxtiher you? I feel that Thieu and Ky are first-rat- e players. I inherited them from the former coach, and while there have been differences in the locker room, we still get along on the field. Besides, its too late to drop them, even if I wanted io. Coach, one last thing. I notice youve done away with the cheer leaders. Yes. Ive asked the crowds to lower their voices. GUEST CARTOON If no railroad existed, who would be obligated to furnish railway passenger service to the public? t should be obvious to a fourth grader that no obligation exists. Since this is true, it is equally true that an existing railroad has no obligation to furnish i any kind of sciyice to anyone. The owners and management are the only ones Involved in deciding what kind of service they will offer. In spite of this obvious fact, politicians, local and national, are trying to force certain railroads to continue a service which is no longer profitable to the railroads. Since passenger service is net profitable, the deficit would have to be paid by someone. If the politicians force the railroads into continuing an unprofitable business, they will force the railroads to increase the price of the other services they offer in order to survive. If the railroads refuse to operate on this basis, the politicians will probably offer a subsidy which will be taken from you and nfe in the form of taxes. Both alternatives result L". a loss of freedom to the public instead of serving the public Interest as the politicians claim. -L-ARRY WILCOX Roy You deserve the plaudits of the public for revealing the outrageously high salaries Utah senators, especially the senior senator, pay staff members. I realize that pay is not the exact word. The senators are just passing on to their hired help a part of the loot they extract from the U.S. N4 aim treasury. I admit that senators need office staffs. But where in private business are so many rich plums passed around? And where In private business does an office manager, or administrative assistant, receive $28,000 per year or a secretary $18,000 per year? I'll bet the senior senator was never that lavish when he ran an automobile agency. Furthermore, Ill bet such salaries werent known in the ning to doubt it. I didnt say I could win it. I said Id be willing to settle for a tie. At this stage Id even be willing to call the game off. But Hanoi wants to beat us. They play dirty and I have no choice but to use what I've got We still have a better aerial game than they have, and their are 10 to our one, yet they insist injuries No Railroad Obligation Raps High Salaries playoffs. Youve been u&mg Spiro Agnew sparingly so far. Is this because you dont want him to get hurt? No, it isnt. Spiro had no experience when he came on the team,- and hes just learning the plays. Im very pleased with his progress. And its a great comfort for me to know hes suited up and sitting on the bench. Now, about the big game with the Hanoi Tigers. You said at the beginning of the season that you knew how to win this one. Some sports writers are begin- Your newspaper is chock full of moralizing from the elder generation about to the eternal returning verities and the laws of religion and order. It would be refreshing, just once, to see your newspaper state a fact of life on realistic terms and realistic terminology. It would also be refreshing if you would print one article suggesting in which smug, bullheaded, bigoted, euphemistic ways in particular the elder generation shaped and caused the problem-yout- h they deplore. It would be refreshing and helpful, I believe, if just once your newspaper could state a problem in real-lif- e terms, and begin to weed out the tags, labels, pigeon holes and colossally empty . euphemisms and platitudes. Euphemism ane platitude is a habit of the elder generation which makes no impression on the young. If you wish to teach a moral principle, then teach it artistically, realistically -bget with it ecause stock phrases and stylized pap no longer impress young people. -K- EITH MOORE 309 S. 13th East S0& "On the other hand, do we have to climb the mountain just because ifs there? L Christian Science Monitor junior senators law office. The intolerable fact is that Congress has gotten so fat out of hand that its members make Li secret of the immense amounts of federal largesse they -, pass around. Or maybe they never expect suen information to appear in print in a Utah newspaper; R, S. ROTHSCHAIJ "X 824 E. 1st Sou ' |