The Daily Capital News from Jefferson City, Missouri • Page 4

NEWS TRIBUNE COMPANY WILLIAM H. WELDON, Publisher ROBERT BLOSSER, President "We shall not fear to follow wherever truth may lead nor to tolerate error, so long as reason is left free to combat it. Thomas Jefferson A conservative view Editorials' Preparedness The perennial issue of the U.S. defense budget is heating up in Washington. One voice that we think should be heard from on the issue is that of the American Legion, a group that has represented American servicemen from World War I through the war in Vietnam.

The Legion's director of National Security and Foreign Relations, James Wilson, supports a stronger U.S. defense effort. "We saw what the price of unpreparedness was," said Wilson. "It was paid for by the blood, sweat, and tears in World War I and later. We saw this same lesson repeated after World War after World War II, after Korea, and now we're seeing it happen again after Vietnam.

Now, why the people that advocate unilateral disarmament gain such an upper hand, I have no way of knowing." Wilson continued: "We must maintain a viable negotiating position, militarily, from which we can seek the grounds for a continuing and lasting peace with the Soviet Union, which is the principal protaganist in the international community. We know, and we hope the general public knows, that the Soviet Union, despite SALT has continued to develop new weapons systems in prac- tically every area, both strategic and the conventional systems. "The United States must at least keep within reasonable distance. We, as an organization, would urge military The American Legion's position is persuasive. History teaches sorry lessons about the awful price of being militarily unprepared.

The United States will indeed be treading on dangerous soil if we don't, in Wilson's words, keep within "reasonable distance" of the Soviet Union. Do without it If its record so far is any indication, the Postal Rate Commission which Congress set up in 1970 to oversee postal rates is among those federal bureaus which should be abolished. When the U.S. Postal Service proposed an increase in first class postage from six to eight cents, the increase, on a "temporary" basis, had been in effect 13 months before the commission finally approved it. Since then, the rate has gone to 10 cents (as of March 2) also on a "temporary" basis and the commission, to which the proposal was submitted last September, has not yet held a hearing on it.

There are a number of reasons for all this delay, and it would probably be unfair to say that they are entirely the fault of the commission itself. For one thing, whenever a postage rate increase, in any classification, is proposed, the commission is required to give everyone concerned ample chance to be heard: In one case, for example, the commission compiled a hearing record, and then had to wait while the Postal Service, the commission's own lawyers, and 56 big mailer intervenors served a total of 6,300 questionnaires on each other in developing their cases. For another, in setting up the commission, Congress provided that the commission can issue only "recommen- ded" rulings to the "business it regulates the Postal Ser- vice." Further, the commission must draw its annual budget from the service. Said J. Edward Day, a former Postmaster General and now a lawyer representing big mailers: "It's like the ATT overruling the Federal Communications Com- mission.

You have the ludicrous situation of a petitioner the Postal Service having the final word on approving its own petition." Commission Chairman Fred Rhodes, however, staun- chly defends the agency, declaring "we've come through the birth process very well. The commission has a good future." Already, Congress is talking of more legislation to "reform" the commission's status and procedure. If the reform legislation is no better than that which originally established the bureau, it can hardly be called an improvement. A bright future? The commission should live so long! (Springfield, Mo. Leader-Press) Congressional morality By JAMES J.KILPATRICK WASHINGTON, D.C.

Patriotism, said Dr. Johnson, is the last refuge of a scoundrel, and "morality," by the same token, may be the last refuge of those seeking the removal of Mr. Nixon. There is something fishy about this latest out- cry. Let rne walk around it, sniffing.

To avoid misunderstanding: I have several times expressed the dismay, disappointment, and revulsion of many conservatives at the devious attitudes disclosed by the presidential transcripts. The President's own threat to "fix" Edward Bennett Williams, and to create "damnable, damnable problems" for the Post-Newsweek television station, bespeaks an atmosphere in which a John Dean could retire confidently to his office, licking a pencil, there to prepare his enemies lists. Enough said. But it is one thing to express regret, disillusion, and even contempt, and it is quite another thing to argue that Mr. Nixon should be removed from his office for want of "moral leadership." We do not elect a president to serve as our moral leader.

We elect a president to execute the laws, to make treaties, to nominate judges of the Supreme Court, and to serve as commander-in-chief. The recent outcries about "moral leadership" have a faint air of desperation: All else having failed, let us try morality. Under the most rudimen- tary rules of due process, it now seems plain that Mr. Nixon has committed no criminal offense. He did not connive in the Watergate bugging; he did not par- ticipate in the cover-up; he did not suborn perjury or obstruct justice or involve himself in misprision of felony.

He did not take bribes from ITT or the milk producers. He committed no criminal fraud in the matter of his income taxes, and he took no graft at San Clemente. If an impeachable offense is to be equated with a criminal offense, or even with a "serious offense against the state," the evidence thus far adduced falls short of the rule of reasonable doubt. But "morality" has a nice ring to it. Coming from members of the Congress, it has a nice hypocritical ring to it.

There are many representatives and senators, of course, who are models of impeccable integrity. There are others who make up the biggest bunch of nickel grafters in town. Periodically some enterprising repor- ter compiles a list of the perquisites that congressmen have voted themselves, ranging all the way from lush pensions, medical care and franking privileges, down to cheap haircuts and reserved parking at the airport. Some of these high-toned fellows are now intent upon voting themselves life tenure in the name of election reform. Many of them have accepted carn- contributions, whether from business or labor, that bear an aroma a sort of eau de garbage dump not to be readily distinguished from the smell that emanated from the Committee for the Re-election of the President.

Some of the lugubrious remonstran- ces from the private sector have little to commend them. We are hearing from political parsons more concerned with defending the terrorists of Angola than with serving their own flocks. We are hearing from great newspapers whose demonstrated concept of morality is to traffic in stolen goods. It is a great dividend, of course, when the country is led by a president who inspires respect, affection, and love. Washington in his first term, Lincoln in the war years, Franklin Roosevelt in the Depression, Eisenhower in the postwar exhaustion one thinks of these, and perhaps there have been others.

Yet it seems to me a mistake to demand of'a president that he serve as a national symbol, like a British monarch, or that he become a spiritual leader, the One Great Scoutmaster of us all. I am as concerned as any man about the amorality of Mr. Nixon. Again, I deplore it. But I would trade ten thousand expletives deleted for one Lewis Powell on the U.S.

Supreme Court. If it is moral leadership the President's critics want, let them first seek to provide it themselves, by the high exam- ple of their own lives. 'Henry, you have such a way with our people I' Another view Trif MONEY HOLDS The mail bag Pornography Dear Sir: As chairman of the Committee to Combat Pornography, I would like to respond to a letter to the editor appearing on May 9,1974. Although this committee has not as yet established its specific goals, guidelines and by-laws, when this is done, its intentions are to pass these on to the general public, hopefully via the news media and at its next general meeting. Until this is accomplished, I cannot speak for the entire committee but I do have some personal views that I would like to voice.

It seems to me that the primary goal of this committee is to establish reasonable standards with the local mer- chants as to what is considered obscene or pornographic, not to impose its stan- dards of morality on the adult public by asking that the material not be made available to them, but to keep it out of Viewpoint the reach and sight of minors. I believe we have the right and responsibility to protect ourselves, our children and other minors from being exposed to material we find offensive in public places. Because of the number of persons who have given us their support, I feel we have the right to request the cooperation of the local merchants. The cooperation we have received thus far is very encouraging. Our most pressing task seems to be informing the public of exactly what our intentions are.

If we can get our ideas across, I am convinced we will have the support of the majority of local resi- dents. We solicit the continued coverage by the news media and we ask that all interested persons write or call and plan to attend our general meetings, which we will announce. Allen Templeton Rt.2 Jefferson City, Missouri Compulsory education By DR. MAX RAFFERTY As a teacher of would-be teachers, I have an attention-getting device almost as effective as the mule skinner's famous 2-by-4. I trade places with the shyest gal in my class and ask her to pretend I'm one of her future high school students: a 6-foot-2, 200-pound, hulking, hairy slob, complete with black leather jacket and motorcycle boots.

I then reassume my role as professor and ask flustered Miss Guggenslocker how she's going to deal with this kind of Neanderthal response to her gentle ministrations. Usually she says she'll try to reason with Junior Jukes, but even as she says it she knows it won't work; Junior's been reasoned with by experts. We throw the problem to the class. Someone suggests finding out what Junior is interested in and structuring his high school course to fit. In exasperation one of the male trainees says, "Lay the wood to him." No way.

Junior is bigger, stronger, meaner and better armed than the teacher. "Send him to the principal?" Sooner or later, the principal will send him back to you, stilldefiant. Finally the ultimate solution is proposed: "Expel him." But this is what Junior Then and only then do we consider the whole knotty question of compulsory education beyond eighth grade. Believe me, confronted with the probability of meeting Junior somewhere up ahead, people who have taken compulsory education for granted can develop a brand-new perspective almost over- night. More and more, pressure is building up eliminate the element of com- pulsion from high school education.

In 1972, 842,000 youngsters dropped out. School simply didn't have any meaning for them. They joined the ranks of the unemployed in record numbers; The National Commission on the Reform of Secondary Education, taking note of this horrendous dropout rate, came out flatly in favor of letting Junior go his own way after his 14th birthday. "The nation does not need laws that force adolescents to go to school," its 1972 report stated. "It needs schools and programs that make adolescents wish to come." I'm going to have to reluctantly agree.

But there are some pretty big "ifs" involved. For example, if we let Junior go his not-so-merry way, what's going to happen to him in the years ahead? The commission put its finger on the real need: a change in the laws "to provide those leaving school with real alternatives for employment as an alter- native mode of Alternatives like what? Well, like occupational education programs to permit on-the-job training for every employed adolescent, at least up to the age which now is the minimum for leaving school. Like a provision for each citizen to receive 14 years of tuition-free schooling, with only the first eight compulsory and the last six available any time later in 1-fe. And like academic credit for accom- plishments outside the school and for learning that occurs on the job. It may not work, but something like it simply has to be tried.

The multitude of Juniors is having the same hand grenade effect on today's schools which the Marx Brothers used to have on the Metropolitan Opera House. Trouble looming at Thailand bases By HENRY J.TAYLOR WASHINGTON The State Depart- ment sees trouble looming for our Thailand bases. We face the prospect of our Southeast Asia military position collapsing like a house of cards. Saigon, Vietnam, is no longer the U.S. Southeast Asia military headquarters.

The headquarters was moved last year to Nakhon, Phanom, Thailand, 30 miles from Bangkok. And the hub of our net- work of American bases is the Udorn Air Force Base in Northeast Thailand. These bases are a strategic imperative. They are indispensable. Even presidential campaigner George McGovern's insistence en "immediate withdrawal from Vietnam" became "I would leave residual forces in Thailand" when cornered on his proposal.

Thailand had 11,000 Thai troops fighting at our side in Vietnam. The last were withdrawn in 1972. The United States began withdrawing some forces from Thailand in August 1973. But today a total 45,000 Americans, mostly airmen, still are stationed in Thailand on our bases network. The country is about the size of France.

It extends down most of the tapering Malay Peninsula that wanders off toward Singapore. The Siamese call their country Muang Thai. The name Siam is a foreign corruption as unin- telligible to Thais as "China" is to the Chinese in China. Muang Thai means "Land of the Free People" and this country has always been fiercely independent. In fact, Thailand is the only nation in the area that never has been ruled, by a foreign power.

King Phumiphol Aduldet, 46, ruling as Rama IX, is Chief-of-State. But the bureaucracy is glaringly corrupt. When Premier Sarit Thauarat died his estate was estimated at $131 million, nearly a third of Thailand's national debt. Thanom Kittikachorn succeeded him and then in November 1971 Thanon seized full power at the end of a military-civilian junta. In December 1972 the king appointed a 299-member National Assembly and 28-member Cabinet and again named Thanom Premier.

But on Oct. 14, 1973, violent student protests, including bloody clashes with the king's troops, forced Thanom to resign. The king immediately replaced him with Sanya Dharmasakti, 67, rector of Bangkok's Thammasat University, the hot-bed of the students' protest activity. Then the students took complete con- trol of Bangkok. Thanom himself and strongmen Mar- shal Praphas Charusathien and Col.

Narong Kittikachorn left Thailand. Students expressed their thanks to the king on national television and promised cooperation with the new government. Then Sanya, a perennial resigner, resig- ned May 21. On top of the deep corruption, Thailand is overloaded with inefficiency and rides a 20 per cent annual inflation rate. Rice is the chief crop: the people's staple.

Recently 1,000 farmers marched into Bangkok demanding higher rice prices. But rice accounts for 17 per cent of Thailand's foreign exchange and, chiefly due to poor planning and excessive exports, there is even a food shortage. With all this, a Red insurgency in the north grows. Thailand borders on Burma which, in turn, has a wild, mountainous frontier a third as long as our Canadian border with Red China. And for years the Thai Army has tried to intercept armed Red infiltrators crossing into Thailand's Sisaket and Surin Provinces, 250 miles northeast of Bangkok.

About "irregulars," finan- ced by the United States, were still in Laos last year and, exclusive of these, the king lists an impressive number of "divisions" that elastic military measurement so often quoted in self-deception. However, our State Department intelligence knows that, actually, the Thai Army has only 160,000 men to protect our vital U.S. bases and stop this armed, organized Red infiltration. The basic tactic- is to break contact, whenever superior Thai forces are com- mitted to go away. This leaves the Thai forces moving in mass from one place to another without destroying the Red enemy in being as we experienced in Vietnam.

Thus it is the combination of the student challenge to the Thai govern- ment, the deep corruption and the Red insurgency that threatens our vital U.S. bases. The Red Star looms over Thailand the worried State Department's notice of Soviet leader.Leonid I. Brezhnev's and Red China leader Mao Tse-tung's super- i i a conciliatory attitude not- withstanding. Capital City memories 10 Yea rs Ago May 30,1964 Miss Mary Wilson, 311 Clay and Miss Teresa Schmitz, 1801 Ellis are members of the graduating class of the Sisters of Charity School of Nursing at Kansas City, Kan.

The Sav-Mor Food Store was promoting a cook-out for Memorial Day with pork steaks at 35 cents a pound, quartered fryers at 19 cents a pound, all meat wieners 29 cents a pound and quality ground beef at 39 cents a pound. 25 Yean Ago--May 30,1949 Chris Raithel, 725 Houchin caught nine wolf pups yesterday while squirrel hunting near Taos. Miss Faye Herman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Herman, 1107 Vineyard Square, will graduate from Stephens College today.

40 Years Age--May 30,1934 The Blaser Universal Auto Service at 309 Adams St. announced a new low price for the Terraplane Challenger Six While Leo Volkmer was visiting his mother at 805 Jackson yesterday, his parked car was entered and fishing sup- plies valued at $40 were stolen. 50 Years Ago--May 30,1924 City golfers again proved their superiority at Columbia yesterday by annexing three out of the four prizes offered in the invitational tournament. The Capital City was in the match by T. L.

Price, Jack Lindley, Guy Sone and Dr. W.A. Clark. Otto Schultz has been in the shoe business in Jefferson City for years, and because of the efficient and honest man- ner in which he conducts his establish- ment, he now enjoys one of the largest trades in the city. The Schultz store is located next to the Tolson Drug Store on High Street..