The Star Press from Muncie, Indiana • Page 4

Public Letter Box The Muncie Star EDITORIALS and COMMENT EUGEVE C. PULUAM (1859-19751 Puishar 1 944-1 JAMES QUAYLE, rs.tar 1975-1971 mom 00 WtaiAM A DYER JR, Prasktort ROBERT 1X13.04. Manager MICHAEL f. GRIMES, Aflvrtsmg Director ChET 0. hENSON, Circulation Director EUGENE PUU.1AM, PjNsher WILEY W.

SPURSEON JR, lxC Editor LARRY L. SHORES. Etor LARRY S. LOUGH. Managing E4W mtikztg -Tbert the Spirit of the Lord Then liberty" II Corinthian 3il7 FRIDAY.

MAY 26. 1989 PAGE 4 2 will not leave you comfortless will come to you." John 14:13. Minimum Sense China's Chances for Change George Will The battle over a new federal minimum wage is on its way to a final showdown. The Senate has approved a Democrat-sponsored bill to raise the minimum from the current $3.35 per hour to $4 55 over 3 years. President George Bush, who has his own plan, has pledged to veto the bill The House also ignored the veto threat in aa earlier vote, splitting mostly on party lines to approve the measure 247-172 and making it clear that Democrats have chosen the issue as the first major domestic policy clash between Congress and the new administration.

The Bush plan is for a raise to $4 25 an hour coupled with a 6-month training wage for new hires equal to 85 percent of the current minimum. Politically, a new minimum wage is a hot ticket Its proponents sincerely believe that it would help low-income workers support their families. So it is an opportunity to give the appearance of helping the poor while pleasing many others, including labor unions. Higher wages are always popular even when the consequences are not well understood. Economically a sound case can be made for not raising the minimum wage at alL A higher wage may actually hurt the people it is intended to help, including young marginally employable workers and a certain number of minimum wage workers who do head households.

The current proposal would require several new studies on the effects of the minimum wage. But many studies by private economists have already concluded that raises in the minumum wage generally cause employers to cut back on the number of their employees. In testimony before the House Committee on Small Business, Marvin Rosters, director of economic policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, said that 93 percent of minimum wage workers are not heads of households and most are part-time workers. According to Citizens for a Sound Economy, nearly 60 percent of today's minimum wage earners are under 25 yean and many work in entry level jobs which they will soon leave for better ones. If the minimum wage were increased by 35 percent, as in the current proposal, CSE estimates that as many as 700,000 jobs could be lost "Companies will look for fewer, better skilled, and more educated workers who are very productive, rather than take a chance on less educated and less skilled even though they might have the potential to do the jobs," says CSE "to other words, companies will raise their qualifications when hiring employees.

Therefore, many less skilled, less educated employees currently working at minimum wage will likely lose their jobs." It may be impossible to measure the effect that a stable minimum wage has had on the high employment and job creation rates of the 1980s. It is worth noting that the present minimum wage was set in 1981 and that the 1980s, unlike the 1970s, when the minimum was raised five times, was a historic decade of job creation and low unemployment A big minimum wage increase now would make minimum sense. Appearances to the contrary, it would not be an act of compassion. The year 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the codification of the American Revolution may be commemorated in 2089.

That year may be the centennial of a regime-toppling echo of Occidental revolutions in the Orient Chinese protesters speak Jefferson's, Lincoln's and Thoreau's words, and have built a small replica of the Statue of Liberty, underscoring the relative sterility of the French Revolution as a source of vocabulary and symbols. (Robespierre's rhetoric? A replica of a guillotine? Please, no.) America is still the fuse that ignites the world, by 18th-century moral ideas and 20th-century material example. But Western analogies are perilous. One reason for skepticism about the transforming power of China's protests is the memory of Paris, 1968. Remember Daniel Cohn-Bendit the sandbox Lenin of the student That bubble arose from the boredom and vanity of privileged, badly educated and overpraised students who believed democracy should mean juvenocracy.

It offered feckless prattle about the "oppressive tolerance" of the West's open societies; then the bubble burst leaving no institutional traces. In China, the oppression occasioning the protests is reaL That paradoxically, enlarges the chances for change. But the chances are limited precisely because the stakes are so large. China's protesters have studied America's civil-rights movement Here again, differences, not similarities, are most instructive. And they are not encouraging.

That movement was essentially conservative, in this sense: Just as the American Revolution was a conservative claim of ancient liberties, the civil-rights movement criticized American society for not living up to its professed values. Once segregation was stigmatized as contradictory of America's public philosophy, it was doomed. The civil-rights movement challenged the performance, not the fundamental legitimacy, of America's political arrangements. China's protesters, although polite and aspiring to prudence, cannot help but be radical, striking at the roots of the regime. The protesters' moral and material desires are inextricably entwined.

They want freedom and progress; they understand that the latter presupposes the former. But both, then, presuppose the overthrow of the core institution of a communist society, the party. A Communist Party exists for two reasons, one ostensibly elevated, the other obviously mundane. The elevated purpose is to administer a monopoly of interpretation of morals, art, the unfolding of history, everything. The party's mundane purpose is to serve as a substitute for a price mechanism, administering the allocation of wealth and Reader at Tie Star arc wmied te end owoora oa aMMtoaa a( pablx totereat la the Petal Utter Bo Urttm akoald wnttea oa one tide oalf of a Meet of paper.

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The Downtown DALE TZENG Scalar at Barn Uaoraurjr Scbaal The diminishing of the American middle class has been a subject of debate for the past several yean as Democrats accuse Republicans of creating a society consisting of the upper and the lower class. Perhaps no place is this accusation more obvious than in downtown Muncie. In recent years Mayor James Carey has given the community his rhetoric about how the "revitalization of downtown" is at the top of his agenda. Well, walking in the area of Walnut Plaza, it is quite clear that the stores and shops cater to those members of the upper socioeconomic status. From the flower shops, the clothing boutiques, and the many jewelry stores, it is clear that the revitalization of downtown operates on the "trickle down theory." Is Mayor Carey sincere about bringing more customers to the downtown area or does he simply want downtown to serve a specific elite group of individuals? Although the middle class is "diminishing" as we speak today, it still includes the group that contributes to 62 percent of all revenue generated in taxes.

So it does not take a genius to figure out that for the downtown area to attract business and be competitive, it must serve and cater to more needs of the middle class. Whenever there is excessive wealth existing and concentrated in one area, there is also excessive poverty. Where the sun shines brightest, the shade is deepest I challenge the city of Muncie, and especially the mayor, to take a good look at downtown. And don't forget to look behind the boarded-up alley that hides the poverty in Muncie. Unfair UNDA L.

FAVORS Ealoa, lad. Why is it that the people who can afford it least get gouged in the pocketbook the most? I am referring to the occupants of the Eaton Mobile Home Park. Recently, many residents received notices from owner Bill Frazier that they must install vinyl skirting around their trailers and were given 30 days to comply. I am not a resident of the mobile home park (my son is) but we will survive the cost by painting a few more cars. However, I am voicing my concern and objection to the treatment of many who simply cannot afford to have this done at an estimated cost of $400 to $800, depending on size of trailer and whether or not you hire the skirting installed.

Many trailers are not even appraised for taxes at this amount! For the residents who are on a fixed income, where are they supposed to manufacture this kind of money in 30 days or less? My husband and I looked at several trailers and most all of them had skirting in good condition, but they are being forced to buy vinyl Some trailers have been there even before they were using vinyl skirting! It causes one to question Mr. Frazier's motives, since he sells vinyl skirting. Perhaps the raise in rent for these residents in January simply did not cover his expenses for the coming year. Editor's note: William G. Frazier, owner of the Eaton Mobile Home Community, says: "Several homes in the park need routine maintenance.

Others are in need of skirting repair or replacement We have put off notifying opportunity and energies by fiat rather than economic rationality. Furthermore, a Communist Party administering an economy is holding a wolf by the ears. Letting go is dangerous because all prices having been subsidized, freedom's first fruit is inflation. While watching China, remember Panama. Noriega knows something: Brutality works.

Not always and never forever, but often long enough for the brute's purposes. Fifteen months ago, Ambassador Juan Sosa, the mild man who pretends to represent Panama, but not Noriega, in Washington, was asked how Panama's opposition could prevail when all force is on the other side. Sosa replied, "The force of reason is on our side, and we can win with that" Abundant Eages of history, not least of China, refute that sweet beral theory of life. It is too soon to say if China's public has done what Panama's has not if it has generated a critical mass of insurgency. The survival of all nonconsensual governments depends on inertia.

The totalitarian enterprise has been to produce inertia by atomizing the masses, allowing no independent intermediary institutions between individuals and the state. But the result of that is social enervation. And if enough people surge into enough streets for long enough, even if for no precisely defined purpose, the regime is reduced to impotence and hence is demoralized. Will China's protesters produce a Madison a constitutionalist, a codifer of liberty before there emerges a Napoleon whose riposte to philosophy is artillery? Probably not But a 20th-century Chinese thinker said when asked the significance of the French Revolution, "Too soon to telL" Looking back on 1989 from, say 2005, as Wordsworth looked back on 1789 from 1805, many Chinese, young no more, will surely think, "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven!" However, many may then feel as Wordsworth did about the long gone "hour of universal ferment" when "the soil of commmon life (was) too hot to tread upon." They may say as he did, "Now do I feel how I have been deceived." George Will is a columnist for the Washington Post Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood Say It Without a Smile he price of luxury goods is now so high that salespeople are unable to keep a straight Ruth Hillman Art Buchwald dent Whether due to boredom, or a desire to do what "everyone else was doing," or a streak of rare daring to disobey, the freshman student sailed a paper wad across the room in assembly. His movement was quick but his teacher's eye was qucker and off he was sent to the principal's office.

Mortified, embarrassed, and full of sorrow for disappointing his teacher, young Leo faced the music. As he sat waiting to take his punishment from the principal he made a vow to himself that he would never again do anything that might put him in such an embarrassing position. "And I never did," said Hauptman, some 66 years later. His advice to today's high school freshmen is: "Always go to class. Be prepared.

Do more than the teacher asks. Read, read, read. Do your best" Leo Hauptman received an A.B. degree from Peru State Teachers College in Nebraska on May 27, 1932. On Aug.

5, 1933, he received his MA degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where he also received his Ph.D. degree Aug. 1, 1941. In the years he was in Nebraska, Hauptman was superintendent of three Nebraska school systems, was on the staff of Nebraska State Teachers Association, and was in-service director at the University of Nebraska. From 1941 through '45, he held various education-related positions in Nebraska, Michigan and LaPorte, Ind.

In 1946, Leo Hauptman came to Muncie to be registrar at Ball State Teachers College. There he stayed until his retirement in 1974. Lest anyone think that Hauptman's forte lies only in educational matters, he should be reminded of his long list of Methodist Church achievements since his baptism nearly 70 years ago in Julian, Neb. Probably the most significant is his 21-year tenure as teacher of the Wesleyan Class at High Street United Methodist Church. Attendance ranged from 80 to 146.

"I very MUCH enjoyed teaching that class," said Hauptman. He is a member of the Torch Gub and was its president in 1970. He was the first president of the lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints in the sands of time. THESE LINES from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem A Psalm of Life relate well to a highly respected Muncie man. It was an honor to sit in Leo Martin Hauptman's "Inspiration and Meditation" hour for eight sessions during the Update Learning Program this spring at High Street United Methodist Church.

Each Monday morning in the chapel, there he stood straight and prepared with an ample assortment of wise sayings, meditative memos, lines of poetry, and sometimes a few quips. His supply never ran dry. If he had taught the class each consecutive day of a whole year, he would not have exhausted his sources. Hauptman began collecting these bits and pieces of verbal wisdom when he was a boy, a mere Related picture on page 5. teenager.

He still clips article and lines that appeal to him. These gleanings are then transferred to 3-by-5 note cards, a collection that now numbers more than 2,000. Leo Hauptman, born June 3, 1909, in Julian, was an only child. He attended school less than a block from home. Before his son entered third grade, Lee W.

Hauptman moved his family to a farm in southeast Nebraska and there Leo attended a one-room county school through grade 8. He rode his small black and white Iceland pony, and as he grew older, rode horseback to reach Harmony District 53 School, more than 2 miles from home He did quite well scholasticaHy at Harmony School, which is still in good repair and is used for classrooms. Upon graduation from eighth grade, young Leo ranked highest in a county-wide examination covering 14 subjects. Hauptman looks back on his childhood and his farm background with fond memories. He considers the time a happy interval in his life.

He went to high school in Nebraska City and here it is that we learn of an out-of-character inci face when they quote the cost of these items. Consequently, Angus Yates has started a school to train them bow to handle this situation without breaking up. In his school Angus has a studio that resembles a section of a department store. Employees, whose tuition is paid by retail establishments, sign up for 6 weeks. I was permitted to attend one of these classes.

The students were lined against one wall and Angus was sitting in a director's chair, holding a megaphone, i "RoU'em," he yelled. A student playing the role of a customer, walked over to a counter and said to the salesman, "How much is this sweater?" The student salesman looked at the tag and replied, "Eight hundred dollars." This was followed by an uncontrollable burst of laughter. Angus threw down his megaphone. He screamed at the salesman, "What are you laughing at dummy?" 1 "This sweater, sir. It's marked to $800.

Have you ever seen so ridiculous in your life?" "It's not your job to make judgments. All you are supposed to do is close the sale. Eight hundred dollars may be amusing to you, but it is not funny to the man who pays the store rent Now, pick it up from the sweater part," he nodded to the student customer. The customer walked over to a sports jacket "Is this really a $1,400 jacket?" he asked. The student salesman bit his nails, "Yes, it is." "Don't bite your nails," Angus told him.

"The customer will think you're frightened." "I am frightened. I know that Tm committing a crime if I take $1,400 for that sports jacket" "You're not Fourteen hundred dollars is no longer a lot of money for a jacket But you're the one who has to convince the customer that he deserves such a jacket because he's earned it" "How do I do that?" "By being blase and pretending that you sell 3 dozen of them a day. Mention the price the same way you would the cost of as order of tenants or the state of disrepair of their skirting, hoping they would take care of it on their own. Some have done so, but the fact is that there are still a few who need to take care of this problem, for their benefit as well as that of their neighbors. We have given 30-day notices to some, and will certainly work with those who have a plan and are making the effort" Frazier says vinyl skirting is the best type to use and costs (200 to $300, depending on the amount needed He says it can be purchased at several stores, and, if needed, be can recommend installers.

In addition, Frazier says other spring clean-up efforts are underway, at no cost to tenants. These include hauling away of trash and street light repairs. Delaware Kiwanis Gub, and has had perfect attendance since 1956. He served as lieutenant governor in 1963 and state governor in 1964. Professional affiliations include Sigma Tau Delta, English honorary; Pi Gamma Mu, social science honorary, and Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Delta Kappa, education honor-aries.

Hauptman and his gracious wife, Marie, met while they were sophomores at Peru State College in Nebraska. "We belonged to the same organization and I was the treasurer," he says. "Her job was to turn in the bills to me to pay and I like to say she has let me pay the bills ever since." Their home is filled with mementos and awards, flowers growing under special lights, pictures, paintings, tasteful souvenirs and, of course, those accumulated note cards. This vast storehouse comes in handy as reference material when Hauptman is asked to speak, as he very often is. He spoke approximately 100 times a year for 25 years and before many different types of groups.

He is dramatic and enjoys holding the attention of an audience. His voice rises and falls in the right places. He knows how to use the pause. His hands gesture. On his right pinky finger is a turquoise and silver ring, on his left ring finger is a wedding band which soon will have been worn for 59 years.

His appearance is always meticulous. His back is straight and his eyes twinkle. We thank you, Leo M. Hauptman, for your words of wisdom and for your fine example, a worthy one for anyone to attempt to follow. Ruth Hillman is a contributing writer to Our Neighborhood.

French fries at McDonald's. You want your customer to believe that he has touched a sports jacket the likes of which he will never see again. Let's give it one more try at the jewelry counter." The customer goes over to the jewelry counter and picks up a gold and diamond necklace. "How much?" The student salesman looks at the price and then tries to talk. He cant speak.

Angus jumps up. "Tell him how much it is!" The salesman says hoarsely, "You're not going to believe this, but the necklace costs $43,000." "Why dont I believe it?" "No necklace is worth $43,000." "You don't know that" Angus screams. "This is your last chance. I want you to tell that nice gentleman how much the jewelry costs and why he should buy it all with a straight face." The salesman made another attempt "Sir, this necklace is a serious matter. Notice that I did not laugh when I picked it up, nor did the color drain from my face.

I am happy to tell you, without smiling, that you can have it for $43,000, which is what my wife and I give to the church every Sunday." Angus shouted, "You're overdoing it Just repeat the price with contempt in your voice. Hint that the customer could afford it if he wasn't so cheap." "If he doesnt buy the necklace, what then?" "Go back to the clothing counter. After the jewelry, the $800 sweater will look like a steal" Art Bucbwild's column is provided by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. if r. i hope, when we get there, they don't believe in abortion.".