The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 4

4 Sattma Jovrul Sunday, July 9,1972 The Journal's Page of Opinion Share whose wealth? President's power prime issue The If you have been reading all the scare stones on George McGovern's tax proposals, you may quit now. What he says after the Democratic convention provided he's nominated probably will differ from what he said before. He already is modifying some of his proposals. Others are in such vague form they can have no meaning until they are fleshed out. And while it is the Editor's i who poses, it is the Congress Opinion that disposes.

McGovern's generalizations about closing the loopholes, ending special treatment for capital gains, cutting depreciation allowances, eliminating improvement incentives, taxing inheritances rather than estates and "so on, have scared the bejabbers out of not only the fat cats but also middle class earners and investors. But McGovern's tax planks do not scare me more than some of the proposals to come from the present administration, such as the added value tax, revenue sharing and the like. When I was in Europe last month, I discovered I was paying an added value tax as high as 11 percent on hotel bills, food and drink and the odd junk that a tourist buys. The natives pay it, too. The added value tax is figured right into your bills and, unless you read the fine print, you are unaware of it except that you know the costs are going up and prices are approaching the outrageous.

The added value tax makes the Kansas sales tax appear sissy stuff. Nor can I see revenue sharing with states and cities as more than an extension of the present federal give-aways which tend to promote fancy and unnecessary local spending rather than reduce local tax burdens. Government at all levels is becoming a luxury behemoth. Our public servants travel first class while the rest of us are crowded into the economy section. It is whipped cream on the jest that the Pentagon objects to its traveling troopers paying a $2 airport tax at Philadelphia while demanding umpteen billions from the rest of us for new-fang- led engines of our destruction.

i a a McGovern does have a point. Many of the ultra-rich aren't paying their fair share. A relatively few of them are not paying at all. We need a more equitable system of tax collection. The problem, of course, is how to tax without destroying the incentive to in-vest and to make money.

Reasonable profits are essential if commerce and industry are to grow, to keep up with the times and to provide jobs for our increasing population. The goose that lays the golden eggs must be coddled to some extent. The questions are what are reasonable profits and reasonable taxes, how much redistribution of wealth is reasonable to end involuntary poverty and increase the general standard of living. These questions would be much easier to answer did not so many of the proposals involve taking away from private workers to gild the lot of public paper shufflers. By John i Well, I see by the calendar another Fourth of July has come and gone.

As has become unfortunate custom, it passed nearly unnoticed inSalina. Many private homes flew the flag in our neighborhood and I saw a flag flying at the Water department, but the fellows who are supposed to put out Old Glory in downtown Salina must have been on holiday like everyone else. At least, Santa Fe was flagless in the morning hours. Of course, it looked a bit like rain. My point is that 1976 approaches.

The 200th birthday of the Nation should not be allowed to pass, here or elsewhere, without proper recognition from the citizens. It's not too early to begin planning. The Mayor should, forthwith, organize a group to examine the possibilities of Salina's observance of the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence. And we ought to start thinking big. If reports are to be believed, the Bicentennial commission created by Congress is making a mess of things in planning some national observance, scattering shots hither and yon in an action which makes the Battle of Lexington look like a classic military op- By Car! T.

Rowan WASHINGTON It is exciting and titillating to watch the Democrats let blood as the people who adore George McGovern grapple with the people who like Hubert H. Humphrey while the people who are not fond of either stand in the wings flicking their poisoned darts, AFL-CIO President George Meany fears McGovern, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley now abhors him; two-score pro-McGovern delegates from Illinois resent Daley's "imperious rule" in past conventions, and umpteen delegates loathe Meany. Somehow these personal passions are supposed to dominate the selection of a Democratic nominee. And these little individual prejudices and idiosyncrasies are supposed to work their magic again in November when we choose a President.

The politics-by-personalities syndrome is not about to disappear, but there is a compelling responsibility to remind everyone that a lot more is at stake than whether Humphrey talks too much, McGovern seems too bland, or Nixon is in Florida and California too often. Dictatorial power The simple truth is that the executive branch of government has taken on virtual dictatorial powers in this country, and the power of the President grows almost daily. What we are doing this year; then, is one of two things: 1. We are choosing a President who will reverse the trend toward an overwhelming dominance of the White House, or 2. We are accepting the fact that this dominance will continue and choosing a President who will exercise his vast powers most benevolently and un-tyrannically.

Anyone who doubts the gravity of the electoral decision this year need only look at the Supreme Court and the term just ended, and at the Congress and the term that is moving toward a close. Both these branches of government have revealed themselves' to be increasingly less potent forces in restraining executive power. There is one other force in this society -the Fourth Estate that historically has put the brakes on executive branches that tended to become dictatorial, but the last year produced some disturbing developments that could hamper gravely the ability of the press to continue this role. President Nixon has shown that the judicial branch can be transformed from a restraining co-equal into an ally, even tool, of the executive branch through the President's powers of appointment to the court. Vote as a bloc Mr.

Nixon's four appointees to the court Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist voted as a bloc in 54 of the 67 cases on which they sat. With a swing vote But no tight britches, please eration. The commission was created in 1966 the Saturday Review says the members all would have been Tories in the American Revolution and the campaign in 6 years has come to naught. I doubt if it gets better. Okay, let's do our own thing.

And for the sake of the patriot's dream, let's do something besides wearing those tight knickers and funny hats of George Washington's day. Good Old Days Tbe Journal July 9,1952 CHICAGO A surprise strategy move by Sen. Taft today cut the firepower of Gen. Eisenhower's delegate-scandal charges in their GOP nomination battle. The a dominated credentials committee voted to scat a pro-Eisenhower delegation from Louisiana, punching a hole in a 3-state lineup that the general's backers wanted to take to the convention floor.

CHICAGO The Republican resolutions committee today approved a farm plank that "toned down" a Midwest Farm council proposal to put federal farm aid programs under a non-partisan farm board. Buchwald from either Justice Byron White or Justice Potter Stewart, they produced numerous 5 to 4 decisions that moved the court and the country on a conservative trend. Some of these decisions had the disturbing effect of increasing the powers of the executive branch while reducing the freedom and power of the press and Congress. By vetoing funds for Public Broadcasting, the President has illustrated that he has the power to halt or reduce non-commercial programming that he dislikes. By claiming repeated access to commercial stations in prime time, he has shown that he can use and manipulate commercial TV and radio to his advantage.

That still leaves the headache of newsmen digging out secrets and revealing information and actions that cause the public to be wary, even distrustful, of the promises and explanations of the people in power. Now an accommodating Supreme Court, with Mr. Nixon's four appointees joined by Justice White, has given the executive branch a new club to hold over the press. It said that the First Amendment does not give newsmen a privilege against testifying before grand juries in criminal cases about their sources of information. This Administration has been throwing scores of subpoenas at newspapermen, TV networks, TV station employes.

It has demanded notes, unused film and other data that would force newsmen to become unwitting allies of prosecutors. Now there will be more subpoenas. Shut off sources The obvious effect will be to shut off confidential jources for newsmen, creating a climate of deeper secrecy in which the trappings of executive tyranny take rapid root. The Congress has not been much of a bulwark against executive dictatorship for many years. It suffers from pathetically weak leadership.

Nevertheless, that same accommodating court has given the Administration a bludgeon with which to intimidate those individuals in Congress who leak and publish information that disturbs the executive branch. The court said, in effect, that when a Congressman gives classified information to a reporter, the act of giving might be a cr jme, and in that case the Congressman and his aides have no immunity from grand jury questions as to where they got the information. What it adds up to is that the executive branch can cloak misfeasance, malfeasance, crookedness and corruption in secrecy stamps, a bit more certain now that neither the Congress nor the press will find it easy to get the data or be eager to use it. The one major barrier to executive tyranny thrown up by Mr. Nixon's Supreme Court was the rejection of the government's claim that the President and Attorney General have a Constitutional right to bug or wiretap, without court supervision, anyone they regard as a domestic threat.

But in this case the claim was so absurd, the danger to political dissent so acute, that even the Nixon appointees were compelled to retch. Despite this one restraint, the specter of overweening executive power remains. And what to do about it is the single most important issue before the American electorate in 1972. Is this what Democrats will do? WASHINGTON Everyone has his own scenario for this week's Democratic National Convention. The way things have been going with the party, one scenario has as much validity as the next.

This is the one that I have written and if it comes true, remember, you read it It is the fourth day of the convention and the Democrats have been unable to decide on a presidential candidate. The fight to seat delegations has taken up three days and those people who were ruled ineligible have refused to give up their seats to those who were officially designated as delegates to the convention. Almost every state delegation has two people sitting in every chair. No one dares leave the floor for fear that someone will grab his seat. Meany mean to McGovern By Jack Anderson MIAMI AFL-CIO chief George Meany, the angry man behind, the Stop McGovern drive, has made kindling of every olive branch the McGovern forces have offered him.

The durable old despot has been cordial enough to George McGovern in person and even gave his blunt blessing to a McGovern speech at the AFL-CIO convention. Privately, however, the old curmudgeon breathes fire at the mention of McGovern's name, calls him "the candidate of amnesty, acid and appeasement" and threatens to withhold AFL-CIO support if he's nominated. What's more, Meany apparently won't be mollified. He's accustomed to settling Democratic presidential politics in the smoke-filled backrooms, with his own stogie predominant. And he's too old and stubborn to let party reforms change the political habits of a lifetime.

Some intimates say he turned sour on McGovern during the Senate battle over Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1966. The AFL-CIO sought to repeal this section, which permits states to adopt right-to-work laws that weaken labor unions. The move was defeated by a filibuster, which pro-labor senators tried in vain to shut On the first roll call, McGovern voted to stop the filibuster. This was unpopular in McGovern's native South Dakota, which has a right-to-work law. He, therefore, notified two top labor lobbyists the AFL-CIO's Andy Biemiller and the Retail Clerks' Charles Lipsen that he would like to change his vote.

He asked for their agreement, promising he would stick with them if they really needed his vote. Biemiller agreed to give McGovern a "pass," that is, to release him from his labor commitment unless his vote should be needed in the clutch. On the next roll call, McGovern's vote wasn't decisive, so he switched in favor of the filibuster. He was the only one who changed his vote. Meany was so angry that the lobbyists i dare tell him they had okayed McGovern's reversal.

The old labor lord was attending a shindig at Miami's Americana Hotel when he learned they had lost a vote on the second roll call. When someone tries to speak he is hooted down by. the opposition faction. Larry O'Brien, the chairman of the party, has the podium ringed with the National Guard so no one can grab the microphone. The nomination speeches have not been heard, but the candidates have been nominated McGovern, Humphrey.

Wallace, Chisholm, Jackson and Muskie. No demonstrations There have been no demonstrations for the candidates in the hall because everyone is afraid if he gets up and marches they won't let him back in his section again. On the first ballot McGovern picked up 1,234 votes, well shy of the 1,509 he needed. The rest were split between the other candidates with the uncommitted refusing to vote for anyone. The second and third ballot found no one budging.

By the tenth ballot of Wednesday's all-night session, the i was hopelessly deadlocked. The state delegations caucused right on the to get people to change their minds. But it was impossible. On NBC, John Chancellor and David Brinkley became short-tempered and refused to talk to each other. Howard K.

Smith and Harry Reasoner on ABC were also not speaking to each other, and on CBS, Walter Cronkite wasn't talking to himself. It was obvious to everyone in and out of the convention hall that a compromise candidate had to be found one who had not already been nominated. Compromise But who? The Democratic Party leaders call a recess behind the podium. They argue and thrash it out for several hours. The only man whose name is proposed as the compromise candidate is a very famous, but controversial, figure on the American scene.

He has announced many times that he is not a candidate for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency, and has said under no conditions would he accept a draft. Yet, the leaders argue he is the one person who can save the party. This young man, whose name had been associated with a very embarrassing incident, is a household word now. Because of the deadlock at the convention, he is the only one who can possibly beat Nixon in November. The compromise candidate is not at the He has purposely stayed away so people would believe he was not interested in the nomination.

O'Brien puts in a call to him. Everyone, in turn, gets on the phone and tells him he has to be the candidate. The compromise candidate speaks to George McGovern, Humphrey, Muskie and Wallace. They urge him to run. The candidate finally agrees to a draft, and says he will take the next plane to.

Miami. And that's how Bobby Fischer, the U.S.' chess champion, became the Democratic presidential nominee for 1972. Can Irish find peace at the last? By C. L. Sulzberger (C) New York Times LONDON Nobody here wants Ireland to feature at the center of British politics, as it has had a habit of doing for more than a century.

Much hope was therefore placed in the uneasy truce established in the north and now perhaps crumbling. The dream persists that despite violations and bluster, the tragic situation will simmer down and that sinister figure, the gunman, will move off-stage. Unfortunately the Irish tend to concentrate more on the past than on the future. Annually there are public parades for the Protestant victory at the Boyne in 1690, apprentice boy marches honoring the Londonderry Protestant revolt of 1688, Catholic celebrations of the 1916 Dublin Easter uprising. Ireland, which is one geographical entity although often a political anarchy, embraces many historical trends.

Today it is an ugly hangover of Europe's 17th century religious wars. It is also a clan war between the indigenous Catholics and Scottish Puritan immigrants long established in the north. It is the only war in NATO's area since Algeria. Communism teaches that Ireland's is the first "national liberation movement." Lowest living standard The mixture of these forces, when applied to the vigorous Irish, has produced a long history of trouble punctuated by catas- trophy. One result has been that Northern Ireland has the lowest living standards in the United Kingdom, while Southern Ireland's are still lower.

When, a half century ago, Lloyd George tried to end Britain's explosive Irish question, partition resulted and in some senses things became worse. During their 50 years of responsibility for Northern Ireland alone, the British saturated the place with legislation, but neither equality nor happiness was achieved. The autonomous local government installed at Belfast's Stormont castle and including a prime minister, cabinet and parliament, proved incapable and unreal. The Protestant majority established what became permanent one-party government and decreed second-class citizenship for the Catholic minority. Discontent encouraged the gunners.

For 3 years there has been a mini civil-war which one still prays is nearing its end. London found its only recourse was to install, with parliament's approval, what is tantamount to benevolent dictatorship in the north in order to stop the rot. Its direct administration accelerated antidiscrimination reforms designed to give Catholics political, social and economic equality. Three months ago the Stormont apparatus Was suspended for a year and there is little thought that it will ever be recreated. The complex of prime minister, cabinet and parliament for Northern Ireland proved unworkable for a population of only 1.5 million dominated by a Protestant political monolith.

Home rule The pattern of British official thought now discernable favors some interim arrangement that might administer local needs for an extended period prior to an ultimate solution approved by the people of both Irelands. There is already a tendency to grant more local responsibility in other parts of the United Kingdom, like Scotland. If the population of the north finally decides that murder and burning are not acceptable forms of political expression, a receptive situation may develop. Some mothers of I.R.A. fighters, some of the I.E.A.

prisoners released from internment, and some parish priests have recently sought to tranquilize things and divide the Catholic masses from the extremists. But Protestant bully boys wax. CITIZEN SMITH One long-range belief is that when both Britain and the Irish Republic join the Common Market early next year, the two Irelands will draw closer together. Southern living standards would slowly rise toward the northern level and, once this is accomplished, the fear of a saner political relationship to succeed partition might subside. But there is a long, long road to travel.

Britain has learned over the decades how slowly events move in Ireland. There has always been talk here on the day still far off when there might be a United Ireland with a national parliament in Dublin, a provincial parliament in Belfast, guarantees to the Protestant minority of such a state and secularization of the constitution. Yet at this jittery stage, when in the wake of wholesale violence, murders resume and daily television pictures still show masked thugs parading the streets of the north, or raising new barricades, no one wishes to make predictions on the date or shape of permanent settlement. The prior necessity is to get Ireland off the front pages and out of politics. Britain desperately needs to turn to quintessential problems like; the Pound or Europe.

Meditations from Upper Room The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. (John 14:26) PRAYER: 0 Lord, give us peace in our hearts and guide us by thy Holy Spirit that today we may be instruments of Thy peace. Amen. By Dave Gerard FT. "I'm sorry.

I was busy reading your bumper i.