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Show "Good News, DESERET NEWS SALT vVe LAKE CITY, UTAH Stand For The Cons .u: .on Of The United As Having Been D v re'v !nsoired 14 A EDITORIAL PAGE ERMA BOMBECK Government Says Next Year It'll Be Going Higher Slower " Dear-T- he ' Playing Garage Sale $ces Have you seen the new game for adults called Garage Sale? Well, you g.e each Haver a garage that Is being WtDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1969 conde ir.ned by Ralph Nader, a Sat-- u r d a y afternoon and a couple of homemade signs. The object of the game is to sell the Tax Bill: A Reform Or Just Conciliation? contents. The The delicate task of carving out an effective tax reform law that will not add to inflation is one that requins prodigious amounts of patience and fortitude against special interest groups. On the one hand, the Nixon administration is foresworn to oppose any further inflationary measures. This sometimes puts the administration in the embanassing position of oplike posing measures which ordinarily make good sense the proposed 15 per cent increase in Social Security benefits with a $100 minimum (from the present $5b) for single persons and $150 for married persons (up from $82.50). The President has threatened to veto the tax bill if it reaches his desk with that provision in its present form. Obviously such a measure would be inflationary, but that reasoning isnt very impressive to a retired couple living on a fixed income already caught m the inflationary spiral and eking out a marginal existence. At issue, too, are widely varying differences in the House and Senate versions of the tax bill. The Senate, for instance, has voted to permit workers s of tinder Social Security to retire at age 60 with the benefits they would have received had they waited until age 65. It also would allow handicapped persons up to S600 a year deduction on travel to and from work; would require reporting to federal tax collectors all Medicare and Medicaid payments totaling more than $600 a year made to doctors by private insurance earners; and would restore full medical deduction privileges of persons 65 and over, which they lost four years ago. None of these provisions is included in the House bilL On several other points, the two bills differ only in amounts or methods of permissible deductions. On the matter of oil and mineral depletion, for instance, the House would cut oil and gas depletion allowance from 27) 2 to 20 per cent, and most other minerals by the same proportion. The Senate bill calls for a cut to 23 per cent in the oil and gas allowance, would raise molybdenum from 15 to 23 per cent, and leave others undisturbed. The prospects of reconciling all this before the hoped-fo- r Christmas adjournment are slim indeed. Certainly the orospects of a veto should keep Congress from going over-aoain areas in which it might tend to become far too generous. player who is the firt to get his car in the garage wins. Why dont we play Garage Sale? I a'ked my husband. It sounds like a blast." dont "You mean Junk Roulette, All right, be rate. But you dont have to Usten to the jibes and jeers in the supermarket. Do you know what they're saying about us? Theyre saying we can't even get our garage door open! They're right, he said. It wouldnt have to be that way. You remember Maybelle Fip? Site got $1.50 e for an empty can and 75 cents for an ice cube tray with a hole in the anti-freez- bottom. .Mk ' - ' : -- jf.fr , . - . - . - . '. .v - . - v - I tell you we could clean up. It would be nice having the car in the garage. he smiled wistfully. Okay, bow do we play? First, we get rid of all this junk in the garage. You can't have strangers coming for the first time and seeing how we really live. Get the kids and we'll give all this stuff the to'-s-. Have one of them run over to that Garage Sale on Hysteria Drive and pick up some good looking bargains for the end - of - the - driveway teasers. Some of you get Daddy's new drill and our new power mower just to hold 'em once they get in. I'll toss in my iw hair dryer and If toy weapons teach children to tolerate violence as should follow the has been claimed, U.S. toy manufacturers example of their British counterparts and completely remove 3uch items from the market At the recent British toy manufacturers preview of Christmas items, there were no such toys to be found. Toy rifles and even rockets and missiles were missing from the collection. Apparently, the manufacturers took the initiative vithout regard to what the demand for such items might be rom customers, and it may not be known for several more Christmases whether the purchasing public concurs. But in America, there seems little question about the lubiic's attitudes toward toys of violence. For example, the oy manager of a large Cheyenne department store recently explained a sharp decrease in such items. This store used to carry 60 to 70 different types of rifles and pistols, but this war we have only a few Western rifles and pistols and only .wo actual war type guns. The children want them, but the tarents, especially the young ones, say no. In Salt Lake City, moreover, the toy manager of a major department store said there were fewer violence toys offered this year by manufacturers and fewer demands from the public for such toys. We cant even sell a battery operated Ank, he explained. d There are two schools of thought concerning adOn one violence hand of are claims there that toys joys. affect On behavior of the other children. future are versely daims that youthful war games with such toys are merely a larmless way to get rid of aggressions. According to the National Commission on The Causes and Tevention of Violence, violence on TV tends to create instead of releasing them. This finding seems to bolster contention that toy weapons have a similar effect. In any case there is no doubt about guns or any other "toy weapon being out of tune with the spirit of Christmas. -- war-relate- hos-iliti- es ie Limit Credit Cards Abuses of credit cards, disclosed this week before the Senates Financial Institutions Subcommittee, demonstrate in urgent need for controlling unsolicited credit cards. Unchecked use of such cards may not only help increase die interest banks charge for loans and add measurably to nflation, but also aid organized crime which already has put a $100 black market price on stolen credit cards. In testimony submitted to the Eugene Sold, district attorney for Brooklyn, N.Y., said a price of $500 has been placed on forged identification kits for those seeking ;o use lost or stolen credit cards. In addition, he explained, organized crime has used stolen credit cards as a means of covering its movement from city to city and state to state. Credit card thefts are, moreover, responsible for more financial losses than any other type of crime, I i R. Overton, a retired FBI agent and now vice president and director of security for Western States Bankard Association of San Francisco, explained recently. If this were not convincing enough, Post Office officials indicate that mass mailing of credit cards has caused a 700 per cent increase in mail fraud cases in recent years. As the National Federation of Independent Business, Ine., pointed out earlier this year, the practice of mailing unsolicited credit cards to virtually every household, a technique used by many businesses throughout the country, is an open invitation to credit abuse and should be sharply restricted. the house and get your electric razor. HOLD IT! shouted my husband. "I thought the reason for the whole game was to sell all the junk from the garage. You told me yourself how some idiot bought Ma belle Fip's empty can for S1.50 and an ice cube tray with a hole in it for 75 cents. You're right! I said. Kids, get that e can and ice cube tray empty witn the hole in it out of the trash. Mark 'em high. It would serve Maybelle right if she bought 'em back again. And that, children, is how the Garage Sale game is played. anti-freez- e anti-freez- ntiiniiiiiiiiiniiiiiimiimniiminmimitinimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiuin What Are Lessons Of Vietnam? LETTERS - TO THE EDITOR tiiiiiiiiinimiiiiiiiiiiiiifflimiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiimniiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiHimiiiiiiiHiii'Hiiiii hotly-contest- ed Ban 'Weapon' Toys n you? two-third- rd some other goodies from the house." We can sell all that crazy stuff your mother gave us when she cleaned out the barn. chimed hutby. Dont get smnrt. You know my motner saved those heirlooms just for me. We can't sell them. Heirlooms. Your mother gathered all that stuff out of the attic and when the garbage man wouldn't take it, she pawned if off on us." My grandfather bought all that stuff fur my grandmother." He must have been a sucker for every salesman that knocked on the door. Those are rare antiques. Now run in By ROSCOE and THE DRUMMONDS misstatements to the contrary have been asserted so often and unchallenged so long that they have come to be more widely accepted than the truth. GEOFFREY DRUMMOND WASHINGTON There is a heavy layer of fuzzy thinking around the catch phrase no more Vietnams. Nobody wants any more Vietnams or military. Dove or not But we will need to draw the lessons from Vietnam very lucidly, if we are to succed. Some are already beginning to draw the iessons loosely. One high Nixon AdWe have ministration official avows: learned one lesson and that is that we are net going to fight any major war on the mainland of Asia. President Nixon hasn't said that. On his Pacific trip he told the Asian nations that they must rclv firs! on their own that collective defense with their neighbors is urgently needed and that only as these conditions are brought into being would the U.S. bo likely to extend assistance. The intention is to a right one avoid imprudent involvement, but no President can determine that under no circumstances in the future would American security dictate that the United States would never come to the aid of an Asian nation which was a victim of aggression. Take another example of dangerous misstatement. An administration spokesman said on television recently: We are not going to send American troops to Asia. We don't want to; we dont intend to; we hope not to. But can we be sure of what the future may require, and isn't such a flat prediction the kind that starts a credibility gap? civ llian Prison Report Raps Conditions By SYDNEY The United States Is committed under a security treaty to defend Japan if it is attacked. After World War II we wanted to keep Japan militarily weak, so today that country is without adequate forces to defend itself. If Red China attacked Japan improbable but not impossible can we be sure that we wouldnt send American troops to Asia to defeat the attack at its source? We couldnt be sure, and officials should not talk as if they were. It misleads our friends, our adversaries and ourselves. It is an invitation to aggression. It is all to the good to have Secretary of State William Rogers affirming that we will not slide into foreign commitments without seeking the consent of the Senate and that the Administration will not send troops to Asia unless we have the American public and Congress behind us. The assumption is that we slid into the Vietnamese war without congressional approvaL Congress did approve. But There are about Fj million offenders in our correctional programs, and each year cur correctional institutions handle about 2F million admissions. If we could return mot of these men to society as responsible and productive citizens, our crime rate would drop considerably but most of them become repeaters. Our present institutions do not correct; they corrupt Even this cautious and official report concludes that the conditions under which many offenders are handled, particularly in institutions, are oftpn a positive detriment to rehabilitation. We must begin with the youth offenders, who too often are turned into criminals in the wry juvenile detention homes that are supposed to "reform them. We mutt get the communities, the schools and colleges to take part in rehabilitation programs. We must have arai more flexible probation and parole policies. We rr.ut get better personnel, better trained, better paid, and better motivated than the present political hacks. Otherwise, all we shall get is better" crime by men whose only ambition is retaliation. work-furloug- President Truman's handling of our entry into the Korean war is often cited as a model of procedure as compared to President Johnson's alleged misuse of presidential power in Vietnam. The comparison is invalid. Lyndon Johnson sought and got congressional approvaL Harry Truman never did. There are many questions still to be answered. The three central ones are: Was it wrong in principle for the United States to go to the defense of South Vietnam? If right in principle, did we make the mistake of assuming that the war could be won easily and quickly using limited military force? In retrospect, were the rewards of defending South Vietnam worth the ulti- mate cost? Only when we answer these questions will we be starting to learn the lessons of Vietnam. ERNEST CUNEO Russ Pressure In J. HARRIS Possibly not o as American in 10.000 has ever so much as looked at a government report called The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, which was published nearly three years ago by the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. In this report, leading experts in the field of penology recommend vast and sweeping changes in the way we run our changes that would prison system benefit not only the inmates themselves, but that would also reduce the cost to society of maintaining huge penal structures that only intensify the problem of crime. With specific reference to Vietnam, the Southeast Asia Resolution, passed overwhelmingly Aug. 7, 1964, states that Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression. The resolution authorized the President to take all necessary steps including the use of armed force to carry out the stated objections of the resolution which includes the maintenance of peace and security in Southeast Asia. - WASHINGTON (NANA) Russia is piling up Middle East pressure with a climax expected within the next few months. Russia is waging war against Israel in precisely the same way she is waging war against South Vietnam. The .Arab guerrillas are armed with the identical weapons used by the Viet Cong. Peking, not to be outdone, furnishes excellent mortars. The Arab guerrillas are Russian-traineFurther, the Egyptian Suez artillery is for all practical purposes commanded by Red Army artillerymen, with Russian pilots coordinating the fire from the air. Damage is heavy. Many accusations have been hurled at the Reds, but no one denies that they are second to none in the use of field guns. d. A Red supply line runs through the Dardanelles to Alexandria, precisely as one runs to Haiphong. In the Middle East, as in Vietnam, the cost ia Russian blood is miniscule. Mid-Ea- st stroyed. What did the Communists do? While the wrecked Arab airfields were still burning, Russian replacement started. While the U.S. literally begged for a Middle East disarmament agreement, the the Communists completely Arab armies. Within two years after the annihilation of the Arab armies. Radio Cairo was again screaming that every man, woman and child in Israel must and will die. I endorse Vice President Agnews criticism of the news media. During World War II, my husband was in the South Pacific and there was strict cen- sorship in news media, and even in the mail from servicemen. We over here didnt know what was r going on, but neither did the enemy. I wonder if we would have won World War II if the news media had had the same privileges they enjoy now. If the Viet Cong did not know any more about our military plans than the Japanese or Germans did. our progress in Vietnam would have been considerably stepped up. The war might ever, have been won before now. Many times I have wondered why the military leaders' allow such vital information to be made public as we view on TV and read in the newspapers. It would be great if our pepie could be informed without informing the enemy. But, in modern vernacular, There's no wav! So why prolong the fighting by notifying our enemy what our plans are, thus giving them the time and opportunity to thwart them? I vote for strict censorship of all information that could be damaging to our war efforts. --MRS. E. V. JENSEN 2575 E. 4430 South - Applauds Entertainment I feel that the YWMIA should be complimented; for the fabulous entertainment which was pre- sented by this organization recently at the Salt' GUEST CARTOON From a Russian standpoint, the situation in Vietnam couldn't be better. So good is it, in fact, that far from seeking peace, they are accelerating another war in the Middle East Nozzle On Both Ends Chn$?itR Se me Moret w . Palace. There was something for every taste: variety show, floor show, dancing for both the elder folks and the young, even the organ playing, weaving on the spinning -- heel and the musical saw. all were wonderful, interesting and enjoyable. Everything., moved along so smoothly, which must have taken a lot of planning and cooperation. The decorations . ' were lovely, and one cannot imagine the many hours it took to do this work. I enjoyed most of all, I believe, the fact that among those hundreds of people there was not one LILLIAN M. JACOBSON 278 W. 2nd South Mrs. O'Hair Rebuffed Hurray for the federal judges of Austin. Tex., ' for their rejection of Madalyn Murray O'Hair in her suit to prohibit the prayers oi the U.S. astro- nauts from being broadcast around the world. How she beguiled our pinheaded Supreme Court to ban prayer in public schools is still beyond respect ard comprehension! Since she has avowed herself an enemy to God and mankind, let us all (seriously) apply God s holy word and render Mis. O'Hair a prayer. Ln't it our Christian duty to pray for our enemies? Not only pray for Mrs! O'Hair, but let's include all the other rejectors who (in spite) continue to tenant this fair land: America, love it or leave it. FRANK GENTRY Richfield In Vie tram, as far as the Kremlin is concerned, for every ruble expended in supplying Hanoi the United States must expend thousands of dollars. The truth is the Communists are past masters at psychological war, while the U.S. is but a fumbling amateur. Compare, for example, the Tet offensive of the Viet Cong with the June 1967. war of Israel and the Arabs. The Tet offensive was a sharp temporary action, but an utter failure, militarily, in Vietnam. In the U.S.. however, it won a major psychological victory lor Hanoi. Censor War News cigarette. By contrast, the psychological victory created from catastrophe in the Middle East by the Communist psychological-wa- r machine is a marveL Unlike the U.S. military, which has never been defeated, the Arab armies were de- - Preserve Chapel Unless more thoughtful people come to the rescue and register protests, we are going to witness demolition of one pf our chapels. The space will be converted into a parking lot May we ask, is not the assumption that suitable commodious quarters cannot possibly be realized unless and until the old structure is dismembered irreverently presumptuous, to say the least? Would it not be more noble and more forthright to admit how in reality tlwre indeed exists not only one way but definitely a number of commendatory ways wherein the new building can be built around the old sacred structure so as to perfectly blend into a magnificent and beautiful newr one and unite it intimately with harmonious effect and thus the old be made to complement the new? To attempt to build the new without preserving the old, would net the new be idealogically incomplete? And would it not then reflect unfavorably and irreverently upon the ingenuity of our be- -t local participants? -C- ULBERT BOWEN 619 First Ave. ' |