The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 113

-r Sunday Aug 27 1907 THE MIAMI HERALD frO POLITICS IN FLORIDA Ban Pari-Mutuels Hike Taxes? Hah! jam asas-T i By DON BOHNIXG Herald Latin America Editor Still they come Nearly 200 Cuban a day five days a week arriving unnoticed at Miami International Airport By JOHN McDERMOTT Herald Political Writer TALLAHASSEE Suppose pari-mutuel gambling wore outlawed Would tourist economy be wrecked or impaired? For a few fleeting moments the other day the Senate toyed with repealing race track gambling North Florida Sen Bill Bar-row of Crestivew in a desperate effort to sidetrack changing the distribution formula of racing taxes tossed in the abolition plan Surprisingly it got 18 votes even though defeated by 23 votes Of the 18 four were from the Southeast Gold Coast where tourism flourishes at least to some degree because of attractions offered by the tracks and jai-alai frontons So why would those senators Including two from Miami vote for this repeal move? Sens Ralph Poston and Tcwn Spencer said opposition is a matter of principle For Poston it is a religious conviction Yet the votes of Poston and Spencer fly in the face of the political and economic realities connected with the issue This gives rise to the question: Should a legislator represent his personal beliefs or should he represent what he believes the majority view of the people he represents? Tallahassee had bookies you have a chance of getting even money that the legislators will complete the essential elements of their constitution rewriting job by the deadline of next Friday midnight If and the is a big one Gov Claude Kirk gives them another extension after Labor Day chances are it will take from two to four more weeks Even then there is little assur-ances they can come up with a document which the voters will buy REAPPORTIONMENT did much FOR the urban counties but it also did something to them When Dade County Manager Porter Homer County Attorney Tom Brittan and Metro Commissioner Alex Gordon flew to Tallahassee on the alleged confronting Metro in the proposed new constitution they had to talk to all Dade legislators There simply was no leader no spokesman for the entire delegation or even part of it Sen George Hollahan serves as chairman of the nine senators and Rep Carey Matthews and Murray Dubbin are co-chairmen of the 22 House members None however can speak for the delegation head was shaking in puzzlement when they departed kkk 15 through 26 from leaving the island as well as technicians and other types of professional personnel in short supply on the island It is these who account for most of the continuing clandestine escapes by small boat across the Florida Straits 463 in 63 tiny craft since the first of the year kkk ECONOMICALLY the exodus has been a boon to the Cuban government The refugees leave with little more than the clothes on 'their back Their possessions are signed over to the Cuban government Much of the confiscated personal property has later been sold at auction abroad namely Canada for much needed foreign exchange hinted also that in some cases relatives already in exile may be sending dollars through Spain or Canada to help assure airlift priority for loved ones still in Cuba The US has the last word on who is allowed to enter this country although so far only about 600 have been turned back for a variety of reasons including security past criminal records moral character etc Some were subsequently cleared for entry The airlift itself has cost the American taxpayer some $750000 or about $10 per refugee and is included in the annual federal appropriation for the overall Cuban refugee program The appropriation for fiscal $967-68 is slightly over $50 million Although the US foots the airlift bill Castro has steadfastly refused to allow some 900 American citizens and 2000 Cuban family members aboard the flights Nor has he permitted their departure on commercial flights to Mexico or Spain Two specially chartered flights carrying about 200 were allowed to leave via Merida Mexico in late 1966 The flights arranged by the Mexican government were apparently approved by Castro as a pacifier to the one Latin American country which still maintains diplomatic relations with Cuba kkk HELD AS virtual hostages on the island prospects for getting the remainder out appear little better now than when official efforts were first initiated through the Swiss Embassy in Havana about the time the airlift was initiated There have been scattered Congressional demands to no avail that the airlift be suspended unless the American citizens and their families are allowed to leave Neither has Cuba indicated a willingness to release any of the several thousand political prisoners on the island and allow their departure via the airlift The political prisoners were cited among the top priority refugees when President Johnson said the US d-ould welcome all those Cubans who wanted to leave the I More than 77000 men women end children fleeing Cuba aboard 880 freedom flights since the Dec 1 1965 inaugural of the US-financed Cuban refugee airlift There is no end in sight Some Washington estimates before the flights began put at 50000 to 100000 the number of Cubans who might take advantage of the oneway trip from Varadero to Miami They were unrealistic projections In addition to the 77000 already here another 45000 await only a seat on the plane having been cleared for the refugee flights by both the Cuban and US gov-BOHNING enough to keep the airlift going another year at its present pace if further processing were discontinued today Cubans in the US have filed the names of 13 million relatives remaining in Cuba who they would like to get on the airlift If those L3 million one seventh of Cuba's total population all wanted and were permitted to leave the island it would extend the airlift nearly 30 years No one seriously believes the airlift will continue that long but it indicates the enormity of the exodus created by Cuban Premier Fidel impulsive offer Sept 28 1965 Anyone who like the way he was running things was free to leave Castro announced in a marathon speech The response was overwhelming so much so the offer was immediately modified and restrictions put on those eligible to leave kkk THE IMMEDIATE and individual beneficiaries of the airlift are those Cubans who manage to get on it But the consensus is that Castro holds the edge in the game of international politics He calls the tune while the US pays the freight It is the Cuban government which has the last word on who leaves the island It means presumably that the departing Cubans contain a high percentage of the dissident and non-productive within the present Cuban Communist society kkk A percentage breakdown lists 64 per cent of the refugee airlift arrivals as children students and housewives Other classifica- UOTES OF THE EEK Poston admitted frankly that he had not considered any replacement tax nor the damage it might cause to the tourist economy He said he really think the Barrow amendment would pass anyway that the' amendment was in the nature of a grandstand or a spit move aimed at Sen Robert move to remove from the Constitution the present distribution formula of race track funds Spencer is against gambling in any form and believes pari-mutuel wagering hurts the image of Florida For replacement funds a half-cent added to the sales tax could be the answer he said Basically Spencer is convinced Florida would be better off without racing and jai-alai image of Dade County as a place of fast-living and night clubs is one I would hope we could get away Spencer said This corner wonders how many Floridi-ans would be willing to abolish pari-mutuel gambling and pay increased taxes to make up the difference We think the sentiment would be overwhelming kkk STILL OX the subject of wagering: If I 1 EDUCATION This Teacher Finds Teachers Lacking TOUCHING BASES: The Congressional Quarterly lists Gov Claude Kirk among contenders for the Republican vice presidential nomination The account of career reer however is not exactly flattering Ditto the rundown on another Republican Gov Ronald Reagan of California On several occasions legislators have become miffed when new-smen reported they were absent on important roll calls Too often for reasons of their own some legislators have found it convenient to be out of the chamber when hot issues were on the firing line Last Monday Sen Edmond Gong was absent during heated debating on a proposal to shift education financing from the local to state level He was displeased that this account of the outcome made note of his absence For the record Gong returned to the chamber following the roll call and had himself recorded on the issue which has passed 33-8 It is now certain that (Jack) Henderson will run for mayor against High despite the pleadings of his boss Sen Dick Fincher Fincher w'ants Henderson to stay out of politics and manage the Fincher car agency i nothing to help the community solve it "Not only have we adults created chaos but we translate it for the students nor teach them how to bring order into the DR ALLEN puts the blame for this void between "real life and the squarely on the teachers whom he maintains the talent to translate our needs in this He goes as far as declaring that of the teachers should not be in the classroom" The exceptionally intelligent person enter the education profession he claims and the good teacher remain in the profession because the system reward him major problem is that a good teacher cannot be paid more than the clown down the hall Education is the only profession that is not evaluated If a carpenter drive a nail he get a job a bad teacher because of the tenure system can stay in the classroom Dr Allen thinks teachers should be evaluated by students supervisors other teachers and by the results of standardized tests This suggestion be popular with teachers either But the dean thinks it would appeal to the public which he maintains getting back the money it is putting into education reluctance of the public to support education indicates a lack of confidence in the he said I believe the situation improve until the teachers begin improving VIEWPOINT Joe Has Touch John A McCone former head of the CIA and head of a California commission investigating the Watts riots speaking on Negro rioting: feel very deeply that unless we answer this problem it Is going to split our society irretrievably and destroy our kkk By JOE WERXE Hrld Education Writor Criticizing the schools and teachers seems to be a fad these days But a bit startling to hear severe criticism of the education system by a member of the profession When that member is Dr Robert Allen dean of the Division of Education at the University of 'Miami a professor and former high school teacher you take note someone who must know what talking about Dr Allen lamented over coffee in the UM Student Union missed the boat still teaching lessons not inspiring students nor preparing them to live in this chaotic If teachers are looking for a kind word from this professor who teaches human relations by the way they find it in his vocabulary kkk A KID is ready for school really excited about learning But this excitement for learning is pounded out of him by these incredible people we call Such a statement make Dr Allen 'very popular with the education majors on campus but he forged on Education he said must be geared to the problems of real life But what a student learns in the classroom today and what he sees in the world the Vietnam war race riots urban chaos have no bearing on each other Dr Allen claims number one problem in the world is urban he said our schools do McCOXE Rap Brown head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on being released from jail after his bail was reduced from $25000 to $15000: Lyndon Johnson thinks going to pay $25000 to get out of jail crazy He pay that much for Lady BROWN Refugees Debarking in Miami 200 arrive daily tions include: Professional semi-professional and managerial seven per cent Clerical and sales 13 per cent Skilled laborers eight per cent semi-skilled four per cent Service three per cent Farming and Fishing two per cent By age groups 33 per cent are 17 or under 38 per cent from 18 through 45 22 per cent from 46 through 64 and seven per cent 65 or over Seventy three per cent of all arrivals are women and children 17 or under (40 per cent women 33 per cent children) Men account for 27 per cent and presumably almost all are over 26 Cuba has restricted draft age males from By NIXON smiley Herald Staff Writer Not since William Faulkner wrote "As I Lay Dying" has anything come out of Mississippi as earthy and as fundamental as Bobbie new song hit "Ode to Billie Walter Winchell calls it the best blues since the Louis and and This 24-year-old former Mississippi girl pushed all the popular singing groups into the background the Beatles the Monkeys and The Association with her songs for the past two weeks You listen to this ballad and wonder what got that has made it such a terrific hit On casual hearing there seems to be nothing great about the song the lyrics or the rendition And yet it has captivated both the young and the old The disc jockeys have been surprised even flabbergasted sometimes disgusted that this song has become "Number one one one one" as they say WQAM committed to play the top hits at times plays about every 15 minutes One jockey after listing to the song umpteen times in one day blew hot air into the microphone and said: I hear of Billie Joe jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge one more time going to be THE EXPLOSIVE success of Miss Gentry who wrote the song and sings it too has brought out the worst in the word-jockeys trying to create in her the image of country child and sophisticated city jazz queen with hip pop and sex thrown in None of which has any meaning in explaining the success of the song Nobody has come up with a formula by which an outstanding song poem play novel or painting can be detected automatically But Miss song has a quality which is imediately recognizable and that is authenticity If I were a teacher of writing I would have my students study this song Authenticity is a fundamental of art Novelists poets by Brickman SOMETH 1N6 THAT POESN'T A CRACKER Billie Authentic AGRICULTURE Secretary of State Dean Rusk on the creation of a special panel of junior officers who will screen suggestions from embassies throughout the world: must be sure that new policy ideas are not put to one side because of their unorthodox nature or because they are not considered immediately Government Mills Grind RUSK Dr Ashbel Williams president of the American Cancer Society on the Public Health Service report on the hazards of smoking: time is long since past when the public should be facing up to the perils of this health composers reporters artists singers musicians spend much of their lives sweating out authenticity Without it your stuff Is dead You must either come through yourself or the thing you are trying to create must come through The value of your work depends on how well you succeed In her to Billie it Miss Gentry who comes through but the people and the landscape of her native Mississippi Miss Gentry according to her father Robert Streeter of Greenwood began writing songs when she was seven Gentry is a stage name She has written a good many songs all in a ballad folk style that reflect the quality of the Negro spiritual singing she heard as a child But in her songs there is no refrain no repeated words or phrases Each Is a straightforward story reminiscent of the blind poet but in authentic Mississippi language (Capitol Records has just released an album of her songs) IT IS THIS capturing of the people and the places she writes about and sings about that undoubtedly has made to Billie so famous The hot cotton fields and hay fields come to life The earthiness of the landscape come out in the admonition to the children not to forget wipe feet" And what farm boy can hear papa say five more acres in the lower forty that I got to plow" without breaking out in a little imaginative sweat himself? There is a Faulkner quality in the casual way the family accepts the news of Billie tragic death a casualness that may cause many listeners to wonder But this is authentic too because it reflects the countryside of the South which Miss Gentry writes about where toil and love were the only things people knew where tragedy was commonplace You shook your head and said a and went on with your work And if you didn't find love there was only one thing left to jump off a Tallahatchie Bridge Miss Gentry has woven her story Into a picture that forms a perfect setting for the tragedy and the mystery which are the ee-sence of her song got everybody wondering what specific thing caused Biilie Joe jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge gueesing what the was that she and Billie Joe were throwing off that bridge before he took the plunge We talked with her father who owns an electronics business in Greenwood where his daughter frequently attended the County picture show" mentioned in the song story is fictional but the people and the places are all said Streeter highly enthusiastic over his daughter's meteoric success spent her earliest years on a Chickasaw County farm where her grandparents still live Choctaw Ridge and the muddy Tallahatchie River are both part of the Mississippi landscape" Isn't that wdiat we just said? It's all thentic Fan Dancer Sally Rand saying her dance is a form of art: taking clothes off would not require much long practice or i being released each week in a move to eradicate that pest Development of a sterile fly program costs money Dr Richard Baranowski has been working in Homestead on a similar program with a pitifully small state-federal grant He has the key to success but not enough money nor hands to achieve it Comes now the obvious question: how come New Jersey has been able to get federal funds for the development of its fly program while Florida waits in the wings? DR BECKEXBACH top man in Agricultural Experiment Stations which operate under the University of Florida and its Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences admits there have been Halwin Jones director of the Division of Plant Industries under Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner charges that the university research people have been dragging their feet and have failed to exert sufficient and proper to obtain the necessary financing Sen Spessard Holland who knows his way around the agriculture department almost as well as the Senate chambers has asked the USDA for $10000 This is for entomological research on the fly He is also asking for $130000 to complete the program next year Suffering growers can take heart that the wheels are beginning to turn while remembering that top Florida agriculturists are in essence admitting to failure with a strong indication that politics has been played with people as the pawns By FRED SHILLING Herald Farm and Garden Editor The old cliche that the wheels of justice move slowly of course is receiving some substantiation now in the case of the people versus the Caribbean Fruit Fly There is a scattering of evidence that relief from the destructive pest plague to Florida fruit growers for more than two years may one day occur There are rumblings that point in this direction within our own agriculture department and a bit of stirring around by the congressional delega- tion in Washington The fly situation is puzzling in many aspects It has built its own case and the evidence indicates the punishment for its partial to total destruction of at least 35 fruit varieties should be capital Yet the have been painfully lenient The execution they say has been delayed for several reasons chief of which has been lack of state-federal funds to throw the switch THE EMPTY financial larder for agriculture in Florida is understandable The Legislature rather much handcuffed in the money department was able to underwrite something less than necessities for the next two years Washington of course always cries poor- mouth Yet some states seem to feed marvel-ously well even at that empty trough New Jersey is a solid case In point An invasion of fruit flies there has been wrecking tomatoes and fruit trees Now two mil- lion chemically sterilized male fruit flies are the small society 9 £'06 WwhiftfteA Iwr Mtt I.