Aiken Standard from Aiken, South Carolina • Page 4

1972 by Tht Chicago Tribuna Atkrtt Since 1867 SAMUEL A. COTHRAN President and Editor ROBERT D. CATHCART Executive Editor Aiken, S.C. Wednesday, March 29,1972 Page4A Here's Rufus Classic Illustration A classic illustration explaining why so much bad legislation is enacted in Columbia is the pending House bill to raise the gasoline tax a penny and award about $500,000 of the resulting 13.5 million in new revenue to oil jobbers as a collection fee increase. The $500,000 apparently was the oil men's price for consenting to support the gas tax increase instead of lobbying to defeat it.

Officially, however, the rationale is that the present $100 a month limit on the collection fee is the lowest in the Southeast and that raising the ceiling to $500 would simply correct an inequity. That appears to be a dubious proposition on two First, have seen figures from other-statcsHwnicfrdOfnot square with the argument that a serious collection fee inequity actually exists, Second, we cannot persuade ourselves that any more or less record-keeping by the oil men will be required if the gasoline tax is raised from seven to eight The 19' Still Growing Freedom continues to provide the basic underpinnings for the economic growth rate experienced by the 19 Right to Work states, whose economies continue to lead the nation. Only five states doubled their per capita income between the years 1960 and 1970 all of them Right to Work states. And the 19 Right to Work states created more new jobs (1,362,000) in the same period than the other 31 states combined The annual compilation and anaylsis of the latest statistics from the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor show that the 19 states once again led the nation in overall rate of economic growth, cents a gallon or to any other figure, for that matter.

What does come through clearly is the indication that the oil jobbers have exerted what amounts to blackmail pressure on House sponsors of the bill to drain off for themselves a substantial amount of the prospective additional gas tax revenue.With rural county legislators planning even move ambitious attempts to dip into the $13.5 million, the gas tax increase thus stands in double jeopardy of being raided. All of this is the more deplorable in light of the fact that the $13.5 million is hardly adequate to do what is necessary, even if it goes to the State Highway Department intact, that is rid' 55 about $6 million a year would have to go for right-of-way purchases, and much of the remainder will simply cover debt service on forthcoming bond issues. That leaves precious little for construction and maintenance. in the creation of new jobs and in producing new income. The figure on new jobs is of particular interest.

Both in absolute and percentage terms (43.2 per cent gain between 196070 for Right to Work states; 26.9 per cent for others), states protecting their workers against compulsory unionism are supplying the new jobs. The issue, of course, is basically one of freedom for the worker to choose whether or not to join or pay dues to a union. But the figures can't be disputed freedom does help nurture the economy. (Rocky Mount (N.C.) Telegram) Only Half Right Ben Franklin's observation that early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise holds good on- ly if some useful work and 'frugality are sandwiched in between getting up and going to bed. -(Greenville (S.C.) News) By RUFUS W.

GOSNELL A good therapy for "battle fatigue" in business was learned through experience in WW n. Psychiatrists observed then, that the best therapy was to take a man out of the battlefield for three or four days and then send him back to it. The worst therapy was to take him out of it altogether. Most executives take too little time off, psychiatrists say, but many are such compulsive workers that they find inactivity a worse strain than a heavy work load. Consequently, vacations of a few days at a time are often most effective.

BEWARE. Statistics indicate that women make more careful drivers than men. They also make some men more careful drivers! JACK ROSS of the Jack A Classic says the time for giving grows shorter with each sunset. THE PREACHER was describing Day of Judgment. "Lightning will crackle," he said, "thunder will boom, rivers will overflow.

Flames will shoot down from the heavens. The earth will quake violently, darkness will fall over the world." Whereupon a small boy in the front pew piped up to ask his daddy, "Do you think they'll let school out early?" OUCH! After giving what he considered a stirring, fact-filled campaign speech, the candidate looked out at his audience, and confidently asked: "Now, are there any questions?" "Yes," came a voice from the rear. "Who else is running?" SAD CASE, indeed. Listed under "cause of on a death certificate filed in the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Tallahassee, Fla: "Don't know. Died without the aid of a physician," HAL SCHUMAN reports OH the dad who told his son he walked five miles to school as a youngster, all uphill, both ways.

'Now what else can we do to big business? By PAUL HARVEY This is a preview. What I'm about to relate is "news before the fact," a happening before it has happened. Maybe you can prevent it. CALIFORNIA'S Supreme Court has decreed that the death penalty is unconstitutional. The U.S.

Supreme Court is considering the question. If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with the California State Supreme Court, then the death penalty becomes illegal in all states. No more hanging, no more gas chamber, no more electric chair, no more killers will be killed. Understand, most Western nations have abolished the death penalty and our next generation would like to.

A recent campus opinion poll in the United States shows 67 per cent of college students would abolish the death penalty. Most quote a moralistic concept, insisting that "Thou shalt not kill" should apply to society as well as to individuals. California makes 15 states which have done away with the death penalty. Actually, nobody's been executed in any -of the United States in years 697 men and women wait for the Supreme Court to decide. Our Supreme Court has acted repeatedly in related cases, but what the court is considering right now is of transcendant significance: the constitutional question, "Does capital punishment constitute cruel and unusual punishment?" That's what California's Supreme Court says; that it's "unconstitutional" because our Constitution's Eighth Amendment specifically prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment." WHEN THAT amendment was adopted in 1791, its authors were concerned with the abolition of torture thumbscrews, mutilation, castration, drawing-and-quartering, the rack, burning alive.

That's what they meant then. Only recently has "humane execution" been construed as "inhumane." The Supreme Court may again duck a "yes or no" decree, may equivocate, may judge the specific cases before it without ruling on the "constitutionality" ques- MY ANSWER By BILLY GRAHAM There are many references to fasting in the Bible. You once quoted a Bible passage but omitted the last two words, "and fasting." Does this mean that you do not believe in fasting? H.N. ON THE CONTRARY, I do believe in fasting. If for no other reason, because it is clearly taught by the Bible.

Gluttony is one of the vices of an affluent society. Most of us overeat, and are overweight- setting ourselves up for coronary attacks (the nation's number one killer) and other diseases. The New Testament seems to indicate that God desires health for the whole man. Such Scriptures as: "I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus underscore this trath- (idea). Fasting, we now know, is not harmful, but helpful, to the health of the body.

Certainly to forego food and the pleas- ares of eating, should be a valuable discipline for our souls. But, most of all, we should practice fasting because our Lord said, "This kind goeth out only by prayer and fasting." ABOUT LETTERS The Stutftrd wel- ctnes letters to the editor for pvblfcatMB. Letters mnt be slpetf urf must bear the writer's oufltag AMHJIMS cm- amfcttiws wffl Mt be cwsUeretf. Pet umes are Mt permittee Letters rant be legible, preferably type- writtei. AH letters are sib- jeet to eitttog for eoni- fcratioM of space, clarity, taste mi iftri.

There is limit at sabjcct matter. two. Because? And hear this, please, because it must not be misled by contemporary semantics, nor should we be. Let's assume that the Supreme Court finds that killing a criminal constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment Now, traditionally, Americans have held certain things to be more precious even than life itself: honor, virtue, "liberty." Patrick Henry said, "Give me 'liberty' or death." Thousands of thousands have died in war to defend their and others' "liberty." The Declaration of Independence promises us the right to WHAT IS TO prevent the next petition to our Supreme Court alleging that anything less than "liberty" is an- American? Then all the prisons must be unlocked; then everybody goes free. IT'LL NEVER REPLACE THE Outwitting The Government By ARTHUR HOPPE Hats off today to the President's Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse.

Taking a forthright, clear- cut stand, the Commission said that smoking marijuana in the privacy of your home should be perfectly legal as long as no one gave it to you, sold it to you and you didn't grow it yourself. NOW THIS IS the kind of legislation that enables the Government to do for us what it does for us best. What the Government does for us best is to tax our ingenuity. Look at our building codes, our draft laws, our income tax regulations. Look at the inspired search that goes on day and night for variations, dodges and loopholes.

Probably at no time in history have the citizens of a nation devoted more waking hours to trying to outwit their own government. For years, those who've succeeded in outwitting the Government have gone out to fame, fortune and positions of leadership in the cpTnmvmitjjkp.Those failed nave gone to jail. It's a wmplex maze to weed out the stupider rats. Consequently, thanks to this process of natural selection, Americans today are the sharpest-witted, most creative and downright ingenious people (with the possible exception of the French) on earth. It's what makes America great.

But there is some question that the Commission's proposed new marijuana legislation may have gone too far. There you are, sitting in your easy chair, puffing contentedly on a joint of Acapulco Gold, when, thanks to the new No-Knock Law, your frontdoor falls off its hinges. It's the narcs. "Okay, Mac," says the Chief Narc, "what do you think you're doing?" "I am legally smoking less than an ounce of marijuana in the privacy of my own home," you say, thus passing easily through the first door of the maze. "Where," he says, turning the screw, "did you get it?" NOW HERE'S where the paths start getting complex.

Saying you grew it, bought it or received it as a birth-; day present are all, i dead ends. "I found it!" you cry triumphantly. For, through some oversight, there is ab- lutely nothing in the proposed legislation that forbids you from finding marijuana. But. actually, that's a trap.

"Where did you find it?" says the narc with a sly smile. "On the corner of. say Third and Elm? In broad daylight?" "Ahah! The moment you picked it up, you were guilty of possessing marijuana in public. Hand it over, Mac!" "Come to think of it," you say.perspiring a little. "I found it behind the couch.

I guess the previous owner left it there." "When you bought the house, you bought the pot. Now if you'll just come "Wait, I remember!" you cry, as the walls close in. "It rained. Only last Tuesday it rained pot. As my wife said at the time, it sure was unusual, "Where," says the narc, looking grimly, "is the hole in your roof?" So because you forgot to cut a hole in your roof, the Government's got you again.

THUS THIS legislation may be going too far. You happens to rats Juble maze: I drives them ty- What frustrates me is thinking about the level of intelligence of those who propose our laws. How come it's so difficult to outwit our Government? Do Something, Mr. Meany! By HOLMES ALEXANDER Lazy guys finish last, Mr. Meany.

If it isn't asking too much to interrupt American Labor at its coffee break, or to wake up the working man from his on-the-job snooze, how about taking a look at the international productivity marathon? There are 11 entrants, the world's major industrial nations, and who's that laggard in last place? That's the USA, Mr. Meany, running llth in an 11-nation field on the matter of productivity, or man-hour output, growth. As the nation's First Lord of Labor, you ought to shake the ashes off your cigar and hang your head. YOU HAVE walked off the President's Wage Board, grumbling like a thunderhead, unwilling to help control work contracts where the worker gets more and more money for less and less work, the formula for inflation. You ought to cross the corridor from the Wage Board to the Price Commission, where I'm researching this piece, and take notice of how Labor non-productivity has provided the U.S.

economy in its long-distance race with a pair of leaden shoes. For five straight years we've been dead last in the race. In the past four years every large American industry has had a fall-off in man-hour creativity. And no wonder, Mr. Meany.

Between 1965-70 your overpaid, underworked Labor force increased ontput-per- man-hour by only 2.1 per cent, whfle the hourly wage leaped by 6 per cent and the unit cost of Labor by 4 per cent. So, where does the blame for inflation lie? As you've several times noted, we're changing from a manufacturing nation to a service nation, torning ont fewer goods and performing more deeds of convenience as the leisure classes in America become the leisure masses. The service sector of Labor (about the total work force in the nation) would rather not hear of productivity, and only 5 per cent in this service sector have any man-hour system. As far as the Price Commission economists can figure it out, the service sector productivity growth rate is worse by half the growth rate of creative industry. THERE WILL BE improvement only if Labor leaders speak roughly to the working man.

Nobody else dares. The President only grins and waves. None of the Democratic candidates, not even the plainspoken Wallace, will do anything except flatter and fawn for Labor votes this year. C. Jackson Grayson, the forthright Price Commission chairman, recently snapped the head off a cabinet member, Butz of Agriculture, for talking up the price of beef; but Grayson turns mealy-mouthed Labor must do its part, then fixing the blame for non-productivity.

Grayson prefers to accentuate the positive side of what-might-be. He says that an increase of one-tenth of 1 per cent in American productivity growth rate for the next 10 years would add 960-biHion to the Gross National Product. New wealth to the extent of $600- bfflion would fall into our laps if productivity grew by a mere 1 per cent in the coming decade. BUT SOME OF that freedom to strike, to fatten contracts, to choose soft jobs in the service sector and live on imported manufactures, can be taken away by Acts of Congress and possibly by executive order. Do something, Mr.

Meany, before something is done by the iron hand of government. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Aikcn's Potential To the editor: The most refreshing reading was the approach the six young girls of the Aiken Day School have started with their presentation of a "Downtown Mall." It has been in my mind for a good number of years and I had mentioned it eight years ago as a great potential. To think they care enough and have the enthusiasm to do more than dream! We are endowed with so much natural beauy and charm all through Aiken; homes, parks, history. I was brought up in an era when one used creativity and imagination, not just threw everything out as useless. One need only visit St.

Armands at Saratoga or Worth at Palm Beach, or the restoration of Winston-Salem, N.C. or Wflliamsburg, to know we have one of the greatest opportunities to enhance our city with some innova tions in a downtown Mall. Is downtown Aiken going to be a ghost town? Oar city just another repetition of any new city started from acreage or are we going to emphasize our "Part of Aiken's Heritage?" MRS. HAROLD w. TOMPKINS 114 Donbarton Circle Aiken, South Carolina 3M01.