The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 6

The Battle Against Inflation ftfexmtoria Bnila mn tEall. Established on March 17, 1883 Nicholas Von Hoffman Monday Evening, November 5, 1979 Counting the Votes The predicament Jimmy Fitzmorris found himself in last Friday emphasizes the need for change in Louisiana's election code. Mr. Fitzmorris, with an unofficial verdict of running third by a slim margin behind Louis Lambert in the Oct. 27 gubernatorial primary, had until 5 p.m.

Friday to file a legal challenge to the primary but had no official results on which to base a decision. The election code stipulates that a vote challenge must be filed within five days after an election, Sundays and holidays not included. The code also provides that any charges of fraud or irregularities must be proved by the candidate filing the contest within 10 days after the election. Another seven days are set aside for any appeals. A court can throw out any votes it finds illegal or fraudulent or can add votes it determines were wrongfully, excluded from the totals.

The court can also declare an election void if it is impossible to determine the outcome or if it finds the number of qualified voters denied the right to vote by election officials was sufficient to change the outcome or if the number of unqualified voters participating was enough to change the outcome. The problem with the above is that the secretary of state has until 15 days after an election to make vote totals official in other words, any election challenge under the state code must be made and resolved at the district court level before the secretary of state is obligated to reach an official verdict on the election's outcome as was the case with Mr. Fitzmorris on Friday. It can be argued that speed is of the essence in challenging a primary because of the short time bo- tween it and the general election. But it seems to us that the necessity for due speed is in the of the official results.

The legislature should attend to correcting this flaw at its next session. i Campaigns Elsewhere Louisiana political strategists, gearing for what is expected to be a spirited general election campaign between Republican and Democratic nominees, are awaiting the outcome of elections Tuesday in Missis-i sippi and Kentucky with more than the usual interest. The reason is that Republicans in both those states I have waged strong campaigns for the governorship I and are given good shots at winning a situation very similar to that of Louisiana. Mississippi, like Louisiana, hasn't had a Republican governor since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. In Mississippi, GOP candidate Gil Carmichael is in his third bid for statewide office since 1972, and he has improved his showing each time.

This year, he ex-l pects to benefit from the bitter Democratic fight be-; tween winner William Winter and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy. The Republican has stuck to moderate posi- tions during his campaign and has actively courted I the state's large black population. In Kentucky, Republican Louie B.

Nunn is trying to recapture the office seat he held In 1967-71. He has been trying to convince voters to view objectively a I sales tax he supported during his first term of office and may benefit from division among the state's Dem-Z ocratic Party leaders in regard to the Democratic nnmiiipp Y. Krown Jr. who has Dlentv of jr. coo' The Readers Write Life in the Post-Profit Era In the walnut-walled board room of the lower Manhattan offices of Peril, Squinch, Sinner Fiend, the mood of the elegantly turned out gentlemen, cheeks shaven close without skin blemish or irritation, the same way highly placed males never have creases in their trousers, is one of crashing depression.

These rich gentlemen of gloomy mien and despairing expression haven't been brought low by the recent downward swoop in the Dow Jones Industrials. They are used to such fluctuations. What has them dispirited to the point of silence is the flow of announcements in The Wall Street Journal: Exxon up 118 percent, Mobil up 131 percent, Sohio profits up nearly 200 percent. "This is worse than the time we did those hippopotamus commercials," says Fiend, alluding to an incident the others around the table would have preferred to forget. As stockbrokers, they had not chosen their advertising agency well and had consented to the creation of a company logo which depicted the Peril Squinch, Sinner and Fiend mascot hippo with two tons of silage in its huge, distended mouth above the slogan, "Wide Open, America." "There is one bright bit of news," says Squinch 'Polaroid lost $23 million the last quarter." "I know," Peril acknowledges.

"But Polaroid has always been a progress-oriented corporation, pioneering new things. They're years ahead of their time and so, naturally, they understand the way to stay in business today is to lose money." In a New Age "Now see here, Algernon Peril," Sinner objects 'I may be old-fashioned I guess I am but deuce it, must we do without profits altogether to survive?" "Sinner, I've told you again," Peril answers, were in a new age; this isn't the post-W6rld War II bull market, this isn't even the post-industrial society; this, my friend, is the post-profit age, a time for struggle, guile and heavy lobbying." Squinch, who is far and away the cleverest of the partners, butts in to declare, "I couldn't disagree more. It's a matter of public relations. We have to get our big corporations to stop making quarterly announcements. The trick is not to let the numbers pile up so we don't have those devastating jumps.

We can get around 191 percent increases by announcing profits daily. A 191 percent quarterly increase is only two and a half percent a day. With an inflation running at 13 percent, anybody literate enough to read The Wall Street Journal can figure out that we're losing 1 1 percent a day, which should qualify us for a federal loan guarantee." "But what do we need a loan for when we've got all those profits?" asks Fiend, who, despite his moniker, is the honest one. Keep Theirs, Use Ours "Companies intelligent enough to lose money the right way keep their profits to themselves and use the government's money for a new investment," Peril explains in a supercilious, kindergarten teacher manner. Fiend wants to know, "Is that honest?" "No, but it's the public part of private enterprise in the post-profit era." "Oh, hippo dung," exclaims Squinch.

"If we can't hide the profits we have to explain them. The best thing we can do is to say we got the money off foreigners. From now on, we have no more consolidated profit announcements. What we say is domestic profits went up 11 percent always keep it below inflation and foreign profits went up 234 percent. We can intimate that most of this money was not skimmed from white men, or, if they had a caucasoid look about them, they were communists." "No," objected Peril.

"Let's drop some of the profits into a foundation which can call a national conference of theologians, moralists, futurists, human po-tentialists, social critics and anybody else who knows how to talk long but not well. We'll ask them how much profit is the right amount of profit. One of those union bosses said the oil profits weren't obscene; they were pornographic. We don't want X-rated profits. Just let 'em agree on how much is the right amount and we'll promise that any executive who produces profits of an immoral amplitude will be fired on the spot.

We'll tell the man, 'Jones, you're making too much money for this "I don't like the sound of that," says Sinner. "What's wrong with money." "Sinner," Squinch replies. "It's the root of all evil. Go feed the hippopotamus." No Mention of Graft and Corruption money and a pretty wife, but no public office experience. Louisiana voters can be sure that no matter which way the vote goes in these two states, we will be reminded of it by one side or the other several times before we go to the polls on Dec.

8. 25 JjJcar3 go tm Perhaps it is because these stories are true, but the "Alice in Wonderland" fairy tales such as "Freedom Road" attract minority viewers. Shows that show God being old fashioned, whites being evil and ignorant and American ideals being outdated are becoming a dime a dozen. People throw up the founding fathers, the constitution and Abraham Lincoln when upholding desegregation and. race mixing but nothing could be further' from the truth.

We in the Ku Klux Klan feel the white public is being bombarded and brain-washed by such propaganda as NBC's "Freedom The NBC race mixers must really be getting scared of the Klan's tremendous growth because they showed two weeks of Anti-Klan propaganda With the KKK" last week and "Freedom Road" this week) Gregory Aymond, Giant, Province of Rapides, Realm of Louisiana, Knights of The Ku Klux Klan Editor, Town Talk: Well. NBC tried to surpass ABC's "Roots" (or as we call it) by showing an even bigger anti-white show, "Freedom It showed attacks by savage and evil whites, for no just reason, upon hard-working "civilized" blacks. With as many people as shown being killed in this show, it would have gone down as one of the major battles in American history if it can be taken as fact. The black and radical Reconstruction government was shown to be the true salvation for America, but there was no mention of its graft and corruption, the stealing of the white people's land for not paying the high taxes forced upon them or the fact that it was the Southern whites who could not vote or hold office, following the War Between the States. Nor did it show the numerous Carpetbaggers who descended in its darkest hours to take advantage of the white Southerners.

Yes, there was a great one-sided distortion presented by NBC. Why aren't there any movies on Nat Turner's rebellion, where a band of blacks killed and butchered white women and children or the black violent crimes that are taking place in real life today? News highlights of Nov. 5, 195 1: Pineville City Council passed an ordinance setting up punishment for convicted "peeping Toms" in the city. Fritz Mondale's Blitz United Fund of Alexandria-Pineville marched on in its 1954-55 campaign with a total of 76.3 percent of the goal of $171,001) already reached. Published Monday through Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday morning, except Christmas Day by McCormick and Company, Inc.

Main at Washington St. Telephone 487-6397 P.O. Box 7538, Alexandria, Louisiana 71 300 Jane Wiljon Smith Chairman ol the Board Joe D. Smith, Jr President and Publisher Thomai Jarreau O'Ouin Vice-President Tom Jarreau Hardin Secretary-Treasurer, General Manager lorry D. Smith Assistant General Manager Jim Butler Managing Editor WASHINGTON In this phony war phase of the presidential election, Vice President Mondale has the hardest job of all.

He is by general agreement one of the most decent and certainly one of the most liberal leaders of the Democratic Party, but he has been assigned the task of cutting up his old liberal ally, Senator Kennedy, in an effort to rescue and re-elect President Carter and himself. Mondale has been a rather special vice president. Unlike most presidents, Carter has brought Mondale into the most critical issues of domestic and foreign policy, and trained him for the ultimate responsibility of the presidency, if that became necessary. But now Carter has given Mondale the different task of taking Kennedy out of the play in the 1980 presidential election. Accordingly, Fritz is now involved in a political blitz.

He is working, three days a week, in a major at- Thit it a pool Offer journal of. City of Alexandria City of toe RoptdWt Porith Police Jury Town of tayto taprfti Portth Schawl ftoord Waterwortu Oiitricf Number Three Red River, Atchofotaya and ftayou ooewf leva Chttvict Baron Roug Bureau 504.341-3445 P.O. Roi 44336 Capitol Station aton Rouge, La. 70604 SUBSCRIPTION RATIS Carrier Ont Month $4 30 Three Month (3 50 Sti Month. 27.00 Oe Year 54.00 By Mail One Month $6 00 Three Monthl 11.00 Sii Monthl 36 00 One Year 72.00 Second cfcm pottage paid at Alexandria, Uwiigna 7 1 306 "IdMoriol opinion" prttd in the cofvnnt obov it tHot of fHt oditoc ond eubhihw of Th Town To.

"Edrtonol common!" in ttgrwd column on thu pog Hi viewpoint of tho write, with which It ooSlor ond publithor do not nocoimily ogrM but which thoy fool warrant) pubkohon. Roadn who with to disagrM, or moroty to common), or mvitod, ovon Ufgtd, to tpru moir own oomioni in writing Addreii latteri to Tho Roodan Writ, O. 6oi 7558, AIHondno, la. 71306 wiH attempt to pubiith ofl ntownabt bmm ond ipotiolry Ihow prilling conrrotrtng opmwm and potntt of viow. Tho contonft of othor pogai in mil nowipapor havo boon writtort, oditod and arranged to bt tactual, informohvo, fair ond obtoctiv.

Whan wo arr wo wiH bo glad to rnoho a correction. MEMBER OP THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tho Aiioctated Pre it li eicluttvely nH-Had to the ue tor publication of aM newt dipotchei credited to it or not otherwite credited to thit paper and otto the local newt publiihed herein. Al rtghtt of republication of tpeciat du-ofchet herein ore alto retonred. James Reston Mondale's answer is that the problems of inflation, energy and unemployment are unavoidable and that Kennedy has no remedies that are really different from Carter's. On the critical inflation issue, Mondale argues, Kennedy has offered little but "oratory" and really hasn't thought deeply about the inflation issue at all.

What is going on here at this phase of the election campaign is a kind of psychological warfare, in which Mondale is deeply involved. He's not really playing the role of vice president, dealing along with Carter on the major issues of domestic or foreign policy, but trying to pick up delegates or votes in the forthcoming state primaries and political caucuses. The candidates are concentrating on the support of Mayor Jane Byrne in Chicago, and the political "leaders," if that's the right' name, in New Hampshire, Iowa, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other key states. This is Mondale's new assignment. He is running interference for Carter in these major states that will send delegates to the Democratic nominating convention.

He has a new job. He is not concerned primarily with the policies of the Republic, but with the challenge and defeat of Kennedy, and everything these days is now going to the organization of political tern to achieve this end. It is almost startling to hear what Mondale says in this struggle for votes and support. He defends policies as vice president which, when he was representing Minnesota as a liberal senator, he opposed. Carter is doing the same thing, only worse.

For he came into the White House proclaiming the moral virtues of the American people, and is now playing politics and using federal money to revive his political fortunes. Carter and Mondale have no monopoly on this political game. Kennedy is also adjusting his liberal principles to the political realities of inflation, but Mondale has the hardest task of all. He is obviously not happy in this role, but he is playing it to the hilt, out on the hustings three days a week. It is not an unusual story.

The corruption of politics has been defined for ages. Paul Valery defined the problem many years ago: Politicians, he said, "deny, in order to survive, what they promised in order to get a start They oblige us to say emphatically what we could not possibly think, to promise the impossible, to speculate on credulity to reckon with fools, to flatter people who repel us, to deprecate the man we esteem all this for the sake of winning or keeping power, whose possession in every imaginable case will be an experience of helplessness In this preliminary phony war of the presidential campaign of 19S0, we are going through this exercise of illusion and even good men like Fritz Mondale, are being corrupted by the political struggle in the Www Direct Dial Telephone Numbers: To Report News Items Story and Picture Ideas News Eliiabeth Robert! 487-6381 Picture Ideas Ron Gront 487-6375 tack on Kennedy, and his theme, wherever he goes, is as follows: Kennedy has no answers to the major problems of our time certainly nothing different from Carter's but is motivated primarily by personal ambition. Kennedy has launched a campaign against Carter that will be "so bitter" and also "so poisonous" that it will divide the Democratic Party and hand the presidency to the Republicans. Therefore. Mondale argues.

Kennedy should withdraw and leave the 1980 presidential election campaign to Carter against Reagan. Connally, or any other Republican nominee. Kennedy thinks this theme is sort of funny. Like the rest of his clan, he has an Irish sense of humor. He likes a fight, and thinks it may be useful, even if he loses.

He remembers that Jimmy Carter challenged everybody for the presidency years before the nominating conventions of 1976. and wonders why Kennedy shouldn't do the same. Mondale has trouble with these questions, as he goes around the country. Why is it divisive to challenge Carter for the presidential nomination now, when Carter came from nowhere in 1976 and won the nomination and the presidency? Sports News Bill Carter 487-6351 Business News Cecil Willioms 4874384 Focus News, Wedding Calendar Alice Thomas 487-6341' To Advertise Classified Advertising 487-6363 Display Advertising 487-6391 If You Hove A Complaint News Comploints, Jim Butler 487-6370 Advertising Complaints, Eldon Nichols 487-6407 Delivery Service Problems 487-6421 Persistent Delivery Service Problems Gary McKay, Circulation Manager 487-6426 Walter Mondale: Leading the political blitz..