Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 12

WisconsiflState Journal -'H rv-v. PAGE 10, SECTION 1 MONDAY, MAY 8, 1967 Aft EXTEND 'GI BILL' INDEFINITELY ii i av Lottery Draft Plan Appears Fair 4 aii N. X. 'V. fJT MsTl aYC Wi Tf 1 Ml fl 1 "7, 1 i BHOJV JIU 'Mm sr at tr am IM I I urally occur.

But the general plan headed for approval is a vast improvement which has been previously endorsed by this newspaper. Deferments for undergraduate students will apparently continue, and this is the wisest decision. But outside of the draft law, the government can encourage younger men to complete their military obligation early by extending veterans education benefits to all who serve their country. The "GI Bill of Rights" was one of the best investments this nation ever made in its future because it helped make America a better educated land. In the day when the government spends so much money on widening educational opportunities, it would be wise for Congress to extend the "GI Bill" indefinitely.

A Selective Service lottery system which would draft younger men first seems to be headed for congressional approval. Rather than inducting older men first, the new system would take draftees as they become eligible at age 19. Given the congressional go-ahead, President Johnson has indicated he would order the new lottery system to start Jan. 1, 1969. He is also expected to end deferments for graduate students except those In medical or dental schools.

The suggested changes in the system certainly will make it much fairer than under the present system which permits many young men to escape military service via deferment loopholes. When only one out of three eligble young men Is actually needed, inequities nat 'They Won't Get US to the Conference Table Will OliplianVs jPulitzer kilning (Cartoon Jor 1966 SOME SERIOUS STUDENTS AROUND Studyhalls Open 'Til Midnight Winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning is Patrick B. Oliphant, 31, Australian-born artist whose work is a regular part of The Wis Romney Gains Solid Organizational Breakthrough until midnight, folks. And the next day's classes start again at 7:45. It helps illustrate the fact that the high majority of students on every campus is made up of serious, hardworking scholars dedicated to getting the most out of their educational opportunity.

Hear Dem Blasts No firetcorks for Madison? We have them every year. Your lawmakers do put fourth Explosions while they're here. -F. J. C.

consin State Journal's Page of Opinion. One of his outstanding cartoons for i he won the coveted award shows Ho Chi Minn of North Vietnam holding a war victim. The cartoon, printed above, was titled: "They Won't Get US to the Conference Table Will They?" Oliphant has won national ac Too often the majority of university students are wrongly judged by their critical elders by the actions of the unrepresentative "noisy minority" which gets the headlines. Therefore, it is worthy of editorial note that heavy student demand has caused the University of Wisconsin to schedule later closing hours in five major buildings during the windup of the semester in order to provide more study space. The buildings will be kept open AN INDUSTRY SHOWDOWN Aav OLIPilANT Critical Milk Market Hearing mm claim since moving to the United States two years ago because he looks at the world of politics, foreign affairs, social attitudes, and customs in the great tradition of European master humorists while aiming the brilliant drawings squarely at American audiences.

Paul Conrad, The State Journal's other regular cartoonist, is also a Pulitzer Prize winner. Tax Assessment Compromise Gains By JOHN WYNGAARD One of the essentials of the art of politics is the ability to compromise and to recognize the moment when compromise is the only alternative to defeat The state administration is now being condemned by some critics for what appears at a i ROMNEY RENK who was briefly pulled into the Romney camp in Febru casual glance to be premature surrender to the bureaucratic storm early start for Romney there is critical. Likewise, in New Hampshire the first-in-the-nation primary the Boston-based political professional, David Goldberg, and his team have already started organizing at the town level. Hall will soon be 'ready to announce other Roinney-for-President organizations in scattered states. But Hall and Robert J.

(Jack) Mcintosh, his top assistant, are moving with extreme caution. In states with Republican ernors whose feathers might be ruffled, Hall may not surface a Romney team for 'months. Ohio's Gov. James Rhodes, for example, has half an eye on the presidential nomination himself. Minnesota Gov.

Harold LeVander has specifically asked Romney to stay out of Minnesota at least until the fall. The Hall formula of avoiding high-pressure tactics in these states is a calculated risk. The Romney camp is gambling that Romney's standing in the polls will remain high enough to convince moderate Republican governors, as the race for the presidential nomination heats up, to endorse bis campaign far ahead of the primary season, thus outflanking holdouts such as Rhodes. Still an unsolved puzzle is Romney's strategy in the South, where Nixon has his greatest strength. During Romney's visit to Williamsburg, last month, he was viciously attacked in a closed-door huddle with Republican leaders for not having backed Barry Goldwater in 1964.

As yet, the Romney camp has not been able to produce a Southern manager. Elsewhere, the leading Republican presidential contender is making important organizational gains both on his By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK WASHINGTON At 1 last, Gov. George Romney of Michigan is making solid organizational breakthroughs. It is now certain a Dr. William Prendergast, who-was eased out of the top research job at the Republican National Committee when the Goldwater crew took over in August, 1964, will bee Romney's research expert for the 1968 campaign.

After being dumped by Goldwater men in 1964, Dr. Prendergast became director of research for the Republican leadership in the House, a job he still holds. In a private two hour chat with Romney in Lansing 10 days ago, the governor and Dr. Prendergast reached semi-final agreement on size of the research a to work under Prendergast and, not unimportant, on his overall jurisdiction. Romney wants Prendergast to have complete jurisdiction, with specialists in various fields-such as, for example, Jonathan Moore in foreign affairs working under his general supervision.

The arrangement was sealed with a telephone call from Romney on May 3. Prendergast's salary will be about $36,000 a year. The acquisi i of a research specialist who is one of the best in the business is only one sign of the serious, subterranean activity now going on in the Romney camp. Another sip is the effort now underway by old pro Leonard W. Hall to sign up Travis Cross, a capable political professional of the new school, as the governor's top man in dealing with the always difficult and skeptical nati a I press.

Cross was Republican Sen. Mark Hatfield's inside man in Salem during Hatfield's tenure as governor. He's now a free-lance political strategist If all dairy interests involved in the market reorganization for southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois can agree on a new federal milk marketing w.der for the area, the agreement may be more historic than the federal market hearing. As this order is being proposed by the major segments of the dairy business, there are genuine differences in the approach to orderly milk marketing and equitable milk pricing to dairy farmers. So in many respects, this is not a government hearing, it Is an industry showdown.

And there may be no winner. The mood of the industry in this desperate fight for a market and a price is to go to the brink, make a final assessment, and then a decision to go on separately or together. It is as final as that! Only a third of the dairy farmers as represented by their marketing and bargaining associations have to be against this proposal and the whole federal order structure in Wisconsin and neighboring northern Illinois will be terminated. Is this the shakedown the industry needs? We have had some of it for a year now and even though segments of the industry didn't like the existing federal order and terminated it because they could not live with it, the industry also found that they could not live without it. The past year's experience hadn't been encouraging.

The tragedy of it all Is that this business goes on with total disinter est from the consumer, the very person the whole system is set up to serve. Consumers generally condemn government efforts in agriculture as wasteful, paternal, and deceitful. Yet, this system for which they shew no regard has given them such low milk prices in comparison to other products of the economy that they have had no reason to get concerned. The consumer only will get interested when there is a shortage of product. A shortage means crisis and crisis evokes emotion and em-tion prompts action.

The dairy industry had better read these consumer signs as they formulate the future of their marketing and pricing structure. If the individual handler pool is the business answer to dairy farmers, then they must adopt it to the exclusion of some of their own neighbors who cannot possibly hope for a part in the market or a price for their product. If the marketwide pool is the answer, then it must contain such high standards of qualification that the less fortunate dairymen of the north cannot hope to depend on the new market for part of their price. Politically this is bitter. Economically it is sound.

But dairy farmers who survive cannot continue to get less for their milk than their product is worth. The answer is in this current hearing on the new marketing and pricing structure. 1 1 I that arose on its proposal to set up a county-operated s-tem of professional property tax assessment. The plan was designed to serve that vast expanse of Wisconsin where property is being valued for taxation r-poses by men ary to plan the governor's Western tour. If Cross says no to the job of top press relations man (a spot in the Romney presidential crew crying to be filled), he will almost certainly be brought into action in other capacity, possibly to run the Oregon president i a 1 primary election and shepherd the Romney organization in Washington and California.

While these top staff positions are slowly being filled, Hall and his lieutenants in Romney's Washington-based national political headquarters have been fanning out around the country for confidential talks with Romney-leaning Republicans in a dozen states. In addition, Hall is making regular trips back to Lansing to confer with Romney. Slowly, tortuously, a national organization is i stitched together. In Wisconsin, for example, the first Romney-for-President state committee is now operating under the direction of Wilbur Renk. Renk, who is close to Wisconsin Rep.

Mel-vin Laird, the most powerful Republican in the House, ran unsuccessfully against Sen. William Prosmire in 1964. With Romney certain to face Richard Nixon in the Wisconsin primary next spring, an WYNGAARD mail staff and in the field. a broader support for such a system than even its advocates had supposed existed. The voluntary choice proposal now suggested will open the door, so to speak, and provide a test of the idea.

If all goes well, the record will be useful in persuading the legislature at some later date. Perhaps such a demonstration should have been suggested in the first instance, since it has been shown repeatedly that the Legislature is more likely to respond to a roomful of indignant office holders than to the detached testimony of experts, however persuasive and plausible they may seem to those who do not hold elective office. Important to Individual It has always been something of a mystery that the adequacy of the assessment process, in spite of its central importance in fixing the cost of tax bills to the individual, has had so little interest among rank and file citizens. Perhaps the reason is that this section of the tax machine is not really understood. For the average family man of young middle age, in the median income bracket, the property tax is as important a fact of life as is the state income tax.

Yet the merest suggestion of income tax revision will provoke a storm of agitation in political circles. But does that average family man in a mortgaged home and with rising property tax liabilities ever reflect upon the accuracy of his assessment? Does he question the technical competence of the assessor if he lives in a typical suburban or urbanized rural district? Is he concerned about the equality of his valuation as against the more complex assessment upon a motel, or a shopping center, or a factory nearby? Does he ever wonder why he never sees the assessor, in many typical districts, or why the man in charge of making the valuations often doesn't enter the house but merely drives by for a "windshield assessment," in the lingo of the trade? Does he know that in spite of all of the sales taxes, franchise taxes, excise taxes, income taxes, special fees and others, the property tax even today accounts for half of all the money raised for state and local services? Vietnam War Isn't Bipartisan Under President's Operation of questionable, or at least, undemonstrated i cal competence for the task. But it is not entirely a surrender. It is, rather, a strategic retreat. James Morgan, state commissioner of taxation, believes with many of his predecessors in public affairs that in the attempt to reform public service arrangements, half a loaf is preferable to none.

Thus he has offered a mild and probably palatable substitute. He has asked the Senate committee which was apparently dead set against his original bill to replace it with a plan that in effect would be voluntary. Any two local taxing districts, with moderate requirements in total valuation and numbers of taxable property parcels, would be able ask for the services of a county assessment office, which would thereupon be provided. Opening The Door Thus would be provided an opportunity for a demonstration of the value of a professional assessment service that virtually all students of public finance have urged upon Wisconsin for many years. There is a good chance that the Legislature will accept the alternative, first because there is no defensible reason for denying such an option to the people cf any locality, and second, because there is in fact more support for improved assess ment practices than some legislators are prepared to admit publicly.

A survey of municipal officers before the tax department brought in its county-wide assessment proposal with the backing of Gov. Warren Knowles disclosed, in fact, In such a case, President Johnson would receive neither exclusive credit nor exclusive blame for the course of the war. It would cease to be largely a political football, and we could then have responsible and open debate upon the fundamental issues involved. By SYDNEY J. HARRIS One of the great, and dangerous, myths of political life is the belief that "politics stops at the water's edge." Ever since we entered World War II, America has preached what is loosely known as "bipartisan policy" on foreign affairs.

Whether this should be so Letters for pubRcatlM should be addressed "Morn-bit Mail, The Wisconsin Statt Journal," at I1J S. Carroll Madison. They should not exceed 20ft words In lenqth. ANONYMOUS LETTERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Names, however, will be withheld tor nod and sufficient reason.

The Stale Journal reserves the ruht tt adit all letters for length and good tasta. East Side Hospital Is Her No. 1 Goal Sirs An unsigned letter is like an unsigned check of no value. However, to clear the records, I shall reply to the "Cherry Volunteer." This writer has served food to the sick at University Hospitals. As a beautician, my work took me to frame constructed nursing homes.

To help console survivors whose loved ones died "enroute" to the hospitals, I have arranged hair on the deceased. Check our coroner's records on the number of such cases from the eastern area. What I saw and learned from these experiences is the reason I pleaded with the Dane County Board to convert Lake View Sanitarium, which is a fine, fireproof building, into a home for the aged. The doctors, however, did not want to send their patients there so it was closed down. The officials of the Board of Health needed support to obtain funds for the Steinle Hospital and Home Survey.

Our East Side hospital group urged th? Ctfy Council and the County Board members to appropriate taxpayers money for this worthy cause. This survey stressed an "immediate need" for our East Side hospital. George Hall stated when the new wing was added to Madison General that any future construction should be an East Side hos- pital. East Side residents, through taxation pay one-half of Madison General's operation costs. Eighty per cent of the patients come from the East Side and its outlying area.

The greatest growth, according to the Plan Department is predicted on the East Side. We have subsidized and complied to the doctors' whims long enough. Taxpayer's money paid for the survey. My entire contribution and not just four per cent shall go for the number one need of this survey a hospital for our East Side. Mrs.

Norman Gref-. sheim, 1210 Williamson St. Memo to Mrs. Boardman on Doing Vietnam Duty Sirs This is written to Mrs. Eugene Board-man and Cassius Clay, two people poured from the same mold.

You mock our judicial system while sup-positiously using the cloth as a scapegoat. To quote from a letter, dated Apr. 23, written by a very good friend stationed in the Delta region of Vietnam: "We're building schools, dispensary, maternity centers, market places, repairing roads and bridges, inaugurated a good animal husbandry program, innoculated the people for cholera and small pox, held election last Sunday with 90 per cent turnout So we're quite pleased. Really the job is interesting. I feel like I'm accomplishing something." If my friend doesn't return, like so many others have not and will not, I look to you two and all others like you as the ones responsble.

He is doing his duty. He will leave this world with a clear conscience. Can you say the same? David R. Schumann, Verona, Wis. WisconslnState Journal A let Newspopar An Independent Newspopar Edited by The Wiicomin Stale Journal Published by Madison Newspapers, Inc.

whether President Johnson is reelected in 1968. If we "win," he will reap the benefit in votes; if we are still bogged down, or make major concessions to the Viet Cong, he may be swept out of office. Naturally, then, there is great political and psychological pressure upon him to establish a glorious "victory" before the 1968 election. But if the conduct of foreign affairs were genuinely a bipartisan policy, then the President would appoint a special commission of both Democrats and Republicans who would be jointly responsible for the course of the conflict, under his chairmanship. The decisions made, and the course taken, would then depend upon many factors political, economic, moral and not be based upon narrow considerations of the President's popularity or chances of reelection.

The war 1 be wholly taken out of the political arena. or not is a topic for another column. What I'd like to point out today is that we don't practice what we preach in this ial matter and that's one reason we're in such trouble. The conflict in Vietnam is Don Anderson I. H.

Fitzpalrick Publisher Managing Editor Robbins Ed itoricrl Page Editor Helen Matheson Asst. Man. Editor City Editor Newt Editor State Editor Sports Editor Sunday Editor Farm Editor William M. Brissee Joseph Capossela H. E.

McClelland Gienn Miller Donald Daviet Robert Bjorlthmd HARRIS not a nonpartisan war, even though both Democrats and Republicans Editorial Board Don Anderson, Chairman H. Fitipotrid, W. Robbint, John Newhouse, Helen Matheson, Fred J. Curron, Robert Bjorklund It is a ven- may support it. ture whose 1 success or fail ure" may easily rmine.