Independent from Long Beach, California • Page 322

HUME'S SPECIAL EDITED by LLOYD SHEARER INTELLIGENCE REPORT BECAUSE OF VOLUME Of MAIL RECEIVED. PARADE REGRETS IT CANNOT ANSWER OUERIFS ABOUT THIS COLUMN. LOOK Since 1961 the U.S. has had five ambassadors to South Vietnam: Elbridge Durbrow, Frederick Nolting Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Henry Lodge (two terms), and Ellsworth Bunker.

Of those five, none of whom could speak Vietnamese, Ellsworth Bunker, 74, is considered by the South Vietnamese to be far and away the most effective. The Vietnamese venerate age and BUNKER equate it with wisdom. They also like Bunker's soft voice, his conservative mien, his equable temperament, his genteel modesty, his preference to persuade rather to pressure. South Vietnamese journalists claim their people trust and respect Bunker far more than they did Gen. Maxwell Taylor, whom they blame for the American troop buildup, and Henry Cabot Lodge whom they regard as an enemy of the Buddhists.

DOCTOR'S medic ino a profession or a business? Is the average U.S. physician more noble, more high-minded, less commercial than his fellow citizen? Are physicians entitled to mix their practice with their private investments? Does the public resent the high earnings of physicians? In 1961 their average not income after all expenses was $25,000. In 1966 it was $28,000. Last year, thanks to Medicare and Medicaid payments, it zoomed to The public admires physicians, realizes they work hard, in most cases deserve what they earn. What the public strongly resents the handful of minority, for example, who sign a commercial laboratory to do all their tests on the outside for or $100 a month, then make fabulous profits by charging patients outrageous sums for such lab tests as blood count, urine analysis, sedimentation rate, blood sugar, and all the other tests considered necessary for a thorough physical exam.

In New York State several legislators, shocked by physician profiteering in lab tests--evidence shows in some cases their markups have ranged from 1000 to sponsored legislation making it illegal for doctors to bill patients for lab tests not performed in the doctors' offices. In California the state legislature decided that physicians should not be allowed to own prescription pharmacies after 1967. Several of them had been sending their patients into their pharmacies to buy overpriced or unneeded drugs or drugs in which they held a proprietary interest. The courts have now ruled, however, that while California physicians may no longer own pharmacies, it is perfectly legal if they form a corporation and the corporation owns the pharmacy, which, of course, violates the intent of the original law. Physicians in the U.S.

have effective lobbies in state capitals as well as Washington, D.C., and 'the moment doctors are criticized, the lobbyists go to work. It may well be that in this day and age, physicians are no more noble than the rest of- us. Is there any reason that they should be? They are after all subject to the same pressures, desires, status symbols, and total environment. POEM A DAY The Architectural League of Now York has set up a "dial-a-poem" service in New York City. It's available to anyone who's willing to pay for a call to (212) 628-0400.

Poet John Giorno arranged for several poets to cut tapes of their own works. His first selections included Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Taylor Mead, and others. Right away the six phones rang with about 4000 calls each 24 hours. Since then the league has added four more phones to handle 60,000 calls per week. The League and Giorno believe that poems have a beneficial effect on people and will continue the dial-a-poem service until funds run out.

Three years ago the Justice Department ordered the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company to divest itself of Burgermeister and its interest in John Labatt, a Canadian brewing company. Schlitz, determined to overtake Anheuser-Busch, number one in the brewing industry, was naturally disappointed. The disappointment, however, was domestic. Sohlitz is doing great overseas. It not only owns the Puerto Rico Brewing Company, and interests in three Spanish breweries, but, it has recently moved into the Belgian market, acquiring control of S.A.

Brasserie de Ghlin, third largest beer outfit in Belgium. Belgians have a tremendous capacity for beer. They consume 32.4 gallons per capita compared to the U.S. consumption of 16.7. PARADE APRIL 77,1969.