OCR Text |
Show LETTERS TO THE EDITOR DESERET NEWS tuumttCTttuuumistiitmuuiiiiiiiintmmRnimiinnmnmiiBHitkTtEmiHS SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States Nixon On Welfare As Having Been Diviroiy Inspired Candidate Richard Nixon said to the Nati5tl Alliance of BusLssmen : and welfaiiis As we look through the ages we have found that inevitably when pit new such programs continue and escalate in any society. v.eifare tends to destroy those who have received it and to corrupt those who dispense it Has president Nixon pr.'ved the validity of hi own words in himself becoming corrupted? In the U.S. News and World Report for Aug. 25, we read: If enacted by Congress, the Nixon proposal would more than double the number of people on relief, triple the number of children receiving assistance and add almost S4 billion to the federal costs of welfare in the first year of operation. At 8 A EDITORIAL PAGE DECEMBER WEDNESDAY, 31, 1969 Why U.S. Should Have Faith In The Future As the U.S. prepares to enter the 1970s groping for new directions but still bearing the burdens of the past decade, Americans have seldom been mired in so much criticism and self-doub- side-effect- government aid or 1 out of 9 Americans. . . . Columnist James Reston says of Nixons propos. Nixon has taken a great step forward. als: He has cloaked a remarkably progressive welfare policy in conservative language. . . . From his own words and U.S. News and World Report statistics it seems a Republican President with cloaked conservative rhetoric seeks to become the biggest cum'pter and destrover teis country has known. Has the forgotten American been betrayed again? .. s. -R- A Year To Believe In . . in the sunrise . . . and the Power that put the sun where . . Because you believe . Because you believe in your community, the beauty that surrounds you, die progress that you are a part of. it is. you believe in America and the of the men who wrote its ideals inspiration . into . . . Because . . . Because la-s- you believe in yourself, the good you represent in thought and action, the . . . Because you believe in people, just plain folks who place justice before prejudice, and neighbors before self. example you set for others. Yes, you can believe in the New Year, if youre wi"ing to believe in Tomorrow. Your belief alone can make the coming year a year to believe in. in law and order, safety and security for your family, equal opportunity for all. . . . Because you believe . Sfudenf Power Finds New Cause ar After the government - ordered removal of cydamates from soft drinks becomes effective Thursday, a sweeping reappraisal of all other food additives should follow. When food and drug laws were passed around the turn of the century. Americans began to take it for granted that their food was perhaps the safest on earth. But now, amid increasing use of additives and charges of food adulteration, there is understandable concern over what is being added to food, how safe the additives may be, and how effective the regulatory agencies are in maintaining food standards that are meant to protect the public. For example, a confidential report made by a panel of Food and Drug Administration officials last summer concluded that the FDA was not equipped to cope with the challenge of protecting the public from bad food, bad drugs and had cosmetics. With the rapid advance in food technology, manufacturers are increasingly turning to additives to increase the flavor of So much is this food, to color it. or to lengthen its shelf-lifthe case that additives are now used 50 per cent more than a decade ago. A result of this may be that the public is not being adequately protected irom potentially dangerous substances such as cydamates, which wrere once on the FDAs generally THE DRUMMONDS By ROSCOE and GEOFFREY DRUMMOND . The most significant fact about Student Power in the United States today is this: Student violence is down. Student is up. Berkeley is peaceful, almost placid. on There hasnt been a spray of tear-ga- s the campus for months and the troops havent had to quell a riot since the school year began. There has been no student strike in any of the principal in six months. SDS and other The violence-pron- e extremist groups are losing ground, but the students are not losing their zeal, their zest, their traumatic determination to be heard and heeded. What should be pleasing to the older generation and encouraging to the younger is that during the very period when campus violence was declining, student views were prevailing on two overVietnam and the draft riding issues Student led rising public demand to get out of Vietnam and reform the draft President Nixon is now doing both. Eiuh influenced the other. The state ot public opinion, which tbe students so helped to build, makes it probable that Richard Nixon has no practical alternative but to withdraw from Vietnam. At the same tin e most students have come to agree with Mr. Nixon's plan for staged, rattier than precipitate, withdrawal Thus is evident in a recent opinion poll showing that while most students are not FFSy It is a good one, it is urgent, and the students can render a great public service. pervasive and ij Hie cause: the perilous, mounting pollution of die whole environ- tsnent in which we live. Public opinion is just beginning to be come alarmed about this problem, and the ' students can usefully ring alarm bells at ' a time when it is most needed. 1 , k 2 E. Drummond G. Drummond politically, 50 per cent now approve his handling of Vietnam. These developments parallel a special poll of students .for Newsweek. It shows a new nonviolent mood on campus. The students are apparently finding that violence doesnt work and that nonpro-Nixo- n violence does. On extremist, violence-minde- d groups, an NYU graduate student summed up a People gathering campus sentiment: are getting tired of their nonsense. A Midwestern undergraduate said: I think people are becoming more militant but less violent." Thats good. The Establishment needs to be shaken but not destroyed. It needs to be jostled to keep it from destroying itself by paralysis. The militant nonviolent students have a rare opportunity. They have already won on Vietnam and the draft, and are turning to a new cause. They plan to do so. And they are quick to perceive that pollution is endangering every element of our environment and that we must find ways soon to stop making the earth, the water, the air and die space we live in the enemy of life rather than its friend. Students jolted a recent conference of civic leaders, public officials and environmental specialists out of their complacency and handled themselves so well that the conference participants ended up acclaiming Student Power. College students are already organizon the environing a series of teach-in- s mental crisis for campuses across the country in April. Fortunately, public concern with pollution is rising at the very moment when student concern is centering on it A poll taken for the American Broadcasting Co. shows that 64 per cent of the people say that more money should be spent by the government to end the pollution peril than on anything else. It w ill take a galvanic public demand to get Congress and state and local government to do what is needed if man is to survive the environmental poison he and his technology are letting loose. Student Power could do it e. regarded as safeMist. . The FUA has promised a review of the additives on its safe list, but tbe department's officials also warn that they lack funds to review the entire list and that the job might take vears, even if sufficient funds were available. Since Americans can't wait years to find out whether the food they are now eating is entirely safe, why not increase funding and step up investigative activities within the FDA? It Depends On You Because the old year seemed to witness uncommon portions of surprise, shock, tragedy, disillusionment and doubt, it is important to look to the present year with firmer re solve to live it 'sore wisely. On the national and state levels there are many resolutions made to deal more effectively with social, economic and political affairs. And on the personal level, Utahns resolutions are bound to have covered a wide gamut, ranging from intended weight loss to living within the family budget. This is typical. As time flows and life continues, men are ever hopeful that the fresh direction that a new year, and especially a new decade offer, will proride some magical im- petus for goal attainment. la a larger sense, however, there is really no ending and beginning, but continuity. Yesterdays problems and trials will often be tomorrows and the next days. And there are no magic formulas for insuring the success of our resolutions, only firm personal discipline to ones newly established ideals. .Evolutions without resolve ajs meaningless. OBERT L. JOHANSEN Kaysville They Were There non-whit- es Are Additives Safe? 1 that time, according to administration estimate?, there will be at least 22.4 million people receiving t. Looking to the recent past, we are told that America is a sick society, soiled with racism, inequality, militarism, hunger, poverty, and urban blight. Looking ahead, we hear almost daily that time Is run-inout to save the country from racial strife and the passions aroused by an unpopular war in Vietnam; to save the cities from crime and decay; to save the nation and the world from pollution; to save the individual from the dehumanizing ills of technology with its unanticipated While such criticism is not unfounded, it is distortion which slights the fact that during the past decade more Americans made more progress than ever before. This progress needs to be more widely understood and appreciated if this nation is to meet the challenges that undeniably lie ahead with vigor and enthusiasm instead of discontentment and despair. By almost any standard, Americans hdve far more cause to cheer than grumble. For example, poverty is declining sharply and gives promise of continuing to do so. Taking into account the rising cost of living, the proportion of Americans living below the official poverty line has declined from 22.21 pet. to 12.81 pet At the same time, disposable income per capita has increased 31 pet. in terms of constant dollars that eliminate the factor of kflation and this increase is twice what it was the previous decade. Minorities made long strides toward catching up. Nonwhite families in America having earned only 52 pet as much money as white families in 1959 earned 63 pet as much in 1968. In I960,, 25 percent of all living in central cities resided in substandard housing. By 1966, when the last study was made, the figure was down to 16 percent' . . , Unemployment during the same period declined from 12.4 percent to 6.2 percent. Indeed, the total numbers of unemployed declined from 4,714,000 to 2,958,000 while the total labor force increased by 11 million. From 61 percent in 1960, the proportion of young Americans completing high school increased to 73 percent by 1968. This at a time when the size of the school population soared because of the post-wbaby boom. This kind of progress couldnt be made if the countrys economic and social system werent basically sound, if our government weren't fundamentally resilient, or if our people werent ingenious, generous, and compassionate. But progress is seldom a series of steady advances, and ther were some setbacks that will carry over into the next decade. The past 10 years saw crime soar 122 percent while the population rose 11 percent Civil disorder took on outsized dimensions. And wav seems to be an eternal verity. TI.cn so, persmism is out of order in a country making as many advances as this one, and Americans should face the 197Ps with strong nerves und S3 the most vital baggage a large measure of sheer faith. -- Nixons Seeking The New Spirit As President NLxon WASHINGTON winds up the year, he seems more personally engrossed with the challenge of the young than his public expressions suggest, lie blks to associates as if he really means to try to raise a banner to which the young and idealistic may rally. It will not be enough to end the war and cap the i n f 1 a tion, Mr. Nixon told his official family in a togetherness session before Christmas. It will net even be enough to feed the hungry, build more houses, and curb pollution. The young need something more, a revival of the American spirit, he conclud- ed. and the administrations leadership w ill fail unless it supplies this need. Mr. NLxon has toyed with this theme for some time. He talked in the same vein to the AP editors and more recently to the Bicentennial Commission. At Williamsburg, Va. during t - 1968 campaign he declared, "The next president will lead this nation in its reach for greatness only if he summons a new a spirit conceived in old spirit of 76 glories, born to speak to its own times, 4 destined to shape a glorious future. CHARLES BARTLETT Now the President is asking his colleagues to tell him how this new spirit may be stimulated. He has not in 11 months alienated the young, except for the militant pacifists, but neither has he managed to arouse any spiritual renaissance. He has appeared most of the time to be more intent on coping with the rebellious generation than on leading it The best help will be the young themselves, particularly the unusual assortment of men and wnmen in their twenties and early thirties who are working already to shape the national life to more idealistic standards. There are bright and committed young citizens, many of them products of the Peace Corps, and they promise to exert significant impact as their influence grows. This influence is already manifest in the Presidents eagerness to be counted on the side of die reformers. He is a cautious reformer and sometimes he seems merely anxious to get ahead of the Democrats but be obviously senses that reform is a key to the new spirit His Secretary of Commerce, Maurice Stans, is pleading with the business community to look beyond its balance sheets in its own self - interests. Stans said recently, American business must become involved in meeting the problem of our times; it must have an impact on change. A second obvious stone is the proclamation of a new set of national goals, an endeavor which the White House plans to key to the bicentennial celebration. Hie Presidents aides are trying to conceive ways to make this statement of goals more buoyant in the national consciousness than the 1959 findings of President Eisenhowers Commission on National Goals, which sank quickly out of sight. Yet the 1959 statement, reread ten years later, holds up well, especially on the domestic side. The nation went wrong in the sixties when it ignored the injunctions to keep pressing for equality and against poverty, urban decay, and pollution. Most of the big issues of the decade, from reform of Congress to Medicare, were anticipated by the Eisenhow- er Commission. Above all, the 1959 statement concluded, Americans must demonstrate in every aspect of their lives the fallacy of a purely selfish attitude the materialistic ethic. Indifference to poverty and disease is inexcusable in a society dedicated to the dignity of the individual; so also is indifference to values other than material comfort and national power. This is really what the constructive young are talking about and this is the mood to which the President must play more closely if he really means to revive their spirit Senators McGovern, Edward Kennedy, Frank Moss. Frank Church, and Eugene McCarthy were there when our nation was plurged into the unholy war in Vietnam. They voted for and supported President Johnson's escalation involving thousands of our finest young men in that war. They were war. willing to have them fight a Now, for political expediency, they are willing to write off the over 40.000 lives lost, the millions maimed, and the billions of dollars spent. If there was a cause w hen they voted n send our men to no-wi- n Vietnam, there is still a cause, and for them to undermine the President's attempt to end the conflict, without destroying the South Vietnamese people completely, is unconscionable. Couldnt they have waited just a little longer to start their campaigning? --MRS. H. D. BARKER Murray Signs Inadequate I would like to make a comment on the accidents hi Parleys Canyon. Everybody seems to blame the drivers, but there are no signs warning that you are going down more or less a block end road. I have been here a year from England and I've noticed that most of Utahs signs are just for local people who know the area. Im sure better signs could have been erected in the canyon. Most of the signs there now were there before the canyon was closed. Drivers must get so used to passing unnecessary road work signs you can't really expect them to respond to the feeble signs in the canyon. Why not have a stop sign for trucks at tiie Emigration turnoff and have warning signs mile for mile or so before that? every MRS. G. BELLENGER 566 - 6th Ave. - Keep Yule Spirit Cant we please concentrate in getting the weekend preceding Christmas next year freed from football games, comics, sports of all kinds, and any other broadcasts, on radio and television? Surely this prime time could br used to air and televise something more in the interest of this blessed time of year. How about at least one television station making a tradition of putting on A Christmas Caro by Dickens? I have looked in vain for this wonderful story this year. After all, some of the old thing are best Some will never be topped by anyone else. 1 hope that some of the media will take note of this. I am sure I speak for the "silent majority' in this. --MARTIN L. PECK 614 E. 4S00 South i'4 Bad Advice An article in the Dec. 22 issue of the Deseret News indicates that three women are being consid- ered for the vacancy in the Supreme Court. I thought womans irrationality was forever proved when she took dietary information from a talking snake. --KEN DILLON Midvale ? 1 2 Sides To Massacre::: Now that we have tried and convicted Lt William Calley for the supposed My Lai massacre, we ought really to get the news media to break open the old World War H files and try the whole U.S. Air Force for the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. CBS News had a disgusting special program the other night about the massacre. Mike Wallace, whom I have always suspected of being slightly pink around the ears, certainly now comes out much redder on color TV. Is it not amazing that the information CBS had, came from a fellow by the name of Ron Ridenhour. who supposedly has intimate connections with the other side? We have been told that the Viet Cong butchered over 6.000 civilians during their Tet offensive last year. The special report used 31? minutes talking about that. . . Isnt that a little on the slanted side? -F- ELIX E. JENSEN 2060 Brewer Ave. No Thanks For U.S. n I have heard a lecturer and have read several articles that all indicate that if the U.S. had cut off foreign aid to Russia they would have folded many years ago. The Russian people, by virture of economic deprivation, would have risen up and overthrown the Communist Party. We pour millions of dollars into countries whifh are either on the verge of being Communistic or they are already Cmmunistic. Did these countries appreciate these handouts? We all know the answer. A lot of our foreign aid is shot back at our well-know- boys in Vietnam. If the U.S. stops or cuts down on aid to these fifth rate powers, what do they do? Hiey show further appreciation for everything the U.S. has done by ganging up on the poor old U.S. 1 say that we in this country should stop supporting these dead-bea- t countries and start taking care of our own people. RICHARD K. HOWARD i 7461 S.V700 East - |