Springfield Reporter from Springfield, Vermont • 24

SPRINGFIELD REPORTER SPRINGFIELD VT WEDNESDAY MAY 2 1962 C2 Insurmountable Bunker STATE and NATIONAL EDITORIALS Sen Aiken Gets Well-Deserved Tribute Senator Winston Prouty: who has been in Washington for any length of time knows the influence of George Congressman Robert Stafford: know whether running for office or not If he walking quite fast I hope so because America needs Senator Aiken whose quiet but firm way of getting things done was never at better advantage than recently when he led a revolt against unrestricted use of $100000-000 in bonds to help the United Nations out of a financial hole spoke about the early days of his career The senator said: see a continuation in the years ahead in a tight race between education and technology But the future will be in good hands with the people I see here As long as Vermont sends men to Washington like George David Aiken of whom Winham and Windsor counties are particularly proud our business will be in good hands Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine expressed the opinion of the people who know him when she said that her colleague from Putney Vermont Senator George Aiken the rare knack of disagreeing differing and opposing without making others angry with Mrs Smith spoke to about 1000 persons at a banquet in Barre recently which was in the nature of a Washington county to George Said the senator from Maine a member of the moderately liberal group of Republicans in the Senate as is Aiken best way I can characterize his achievements of personal service to the people of Vermont is to say he is the living personification of the very best of the old saying George Do Some other tributes from state Republican leaders: Gov Ray Keyser: sir have shown that people in public office can be Lt Gov Ralph A Foote: Aiken is a man of no Wise-Cracking Poet May Seek High Office boiled flown Into a thick brown syrup coating the meat He had never tasted anything so delicious "So after licking the cooking dish clean he spread the word among his tribe that the Great Spirit had taught his squaw how to make a wonderful new food by boiling the juice of the maple The word spread far and wide among tne Indian tribes Then and there a new American industry was born the production of maple syrup" If that Indian squaw were to visit a Vermont sugar bush this spring Martinetti says "she would recognize every step of the process she accidentally originated" And indeed she would Her primitive methods have changed gradually to the present sanitary methods but the actual process is the same Dining this "sugaring season" everyone should take the opportunity of visiting a Vermont Buger bush It is an old industry which refuses to become outmoded and it probably still will be going strong after another 500 years Burlington Free Press TIME OBSTRUCTS GOOD GOVERNMENT Secretary of State Armstrong has ruled that this special legislative session (if held) will be an extension of the 1961 General Assembly This means that constitutional amendments may be introduced at the session This will be the last chance before 1971 to consider such amendments as Section 88 of Chapter of the Vermont Constitution prescribes that no proposals for amendments be made except at 10-year intervals This "time serves as a severe restraint on constitutional change Even without the lock" there would exist sufficient restraint to protect the public against ill-considered change In either case both houses would have to accept a constitutional amendment and then it would be "laid for two years Then both houses would vote on the amendment again and if approved the second time it would be sent to the people of Vermont for ratification in the next town meeting In other words with the "time it takes a minimum of IS years to accept a constitutional amendment Without the "time it would take a minimum of three years Thus the most Immediate amendment which could be proposed at this special session would be one which does away with the "time There is no reason why constitutional amendments should not be proposed at any legislative session If a change is not in the best interest of the state certainly it would not be approved by both the Senate and the House at two separate sessions and then ratified by the people of Vermont On the other hand if a change is' desirable the people and their legislators should have a reasonable opportunity to accept it The may have served a purpose in the state's early history Now it is an obstruction to good government We hope the Legislature this summer votes to do away with the lock" Then we hope that the 1963 Legislature will confirm the decision and that the people of Vermont will ratify it at the 1964 town meeting If this job Is accomplished we then can consider other constitutional amendments at any future session Otherwise we will have to wait until at least 1974 for an anqendment to become effective The cause of good government have to wait so Burlington Free Press Vermonters Are to speak at Williams (also in a politically critical vein) to meet other Democrats and to make appearances in county towns and have similar themes and use many of the same facts with a dfference Hoff is serious has some good points to make and is making them as an announced candidate Smith is playing his speech for laughs Filled with half-truths and humorous allusions to aspects of Vermont most susceptible to humorous treatment attacks on Vermont have been as revealing of Smith as of Vermont Behind the comedy Smith is probably serious The Banner goes on to report that Smith has said he plan to run for lieutenant governor but thinks he might if properly persuaded giving the Democratic party a lawyer from the and a poet from the a geographically sound ticket That would be of course the only thing sound about the ticket Hoff has enough handicaps right now within his own party without adding a wise-cracking poet to the menagerie A poet from Williams College William Jay Smith of Pownal whom the people of Powmal misguidedly sent up to the House of Representatives for the last session is now repaying them and the state of Vermont with a series of lectures outside Vermont about the inadequacies of the state Even the Bennington Banner friendly to Poet Smith has some qualms about his recent performance Said the Banner Saturday: Rep William Jay Smith of Pownal who has been stumping the boondocks of Massachusetts and Illinois as well as Bennington County with a speech about the inadequacies of Vermont sounds like a man who might like to run for a higher state office He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket with Rep Philip Hoff of Burlington who is running for governor poet in residence at Williams College and Hoff Williams class of 1948 have actually been considered as running mates Hoff has been in this area frequently of late for one reason or another to call a session Bernard O'Shea in Swanton Courier OPPORTUNITY MISSED 2 YEARS AGO Twenty-five years ago Vermont had four per cent of the nation's tourist business the Vermont Trav el Council was told last week while today the state has only four tenths of one per cent It happens that 28 years ago this month Vermont slammed the door on an opportunity which would Have given the state a larger share of the tourist business to this very day The deal involved $500000 from the State of Vermont for land and $18 million from the federal government for construction of a 220-mile parkway along the ridge of the Green Mountains Boosters dug up supporting facts and testimony with gusto including a convincing statement from George Perry then governor of Virginia Sixty-four miles of Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway had been completed with gratifying results Leading Vermonters lent their Influence The Burlington Free Press published a pictorial supplement Five northwestern counties approved Chittenden Grand Isle Franklin Lamoille and Washington But the project was defeated because all the other counties voted against it This ranks as one of the greatest Vermont blunders of the century It is not even necessary to imagine what the Green Mountain Parkway would have been like One need only drive down the backbones of Virginia find North Carolina to find out The Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway are worth a trip from Vermont especially in the spring and fall Since the southern counties of Vermont contributed so generously to the 1936 blunder it is fitting tnat chambers of commerce and development organizations there revive the proposal The northern counties which favored the project 26 years ago undoubtedly have not changed their minds With agitation for a national park in Vermont this would be a good time to go alter the Green Mountain Parkway It is a project worthy of Vermont imagination Burlington Free Press TIIE MILK SITUATION Secretary of Agriculture Freeman wants to see some changes in the administration of our dairy economy But milk producers are not about to give him the authority he wants The result is a stalemate The 29c drop in price for manufactured milk to $311 per hundredweight (leas than 6o quart) is another step for Vermont farmers in sweating it out Either they and the government have to find a way of distributing the growing milk surplus or they must cut back on their production Lowering the dairy support priee Is designed to cut back production We do not think it will work Under the previous Administration milk production rose as price was lowered The theory that farmers will produce less when offered less for their product does not work out in practice What happens is the opposite To meet fixed overhead farmers tend to produce more milk so they keep up their income despite the lowered unit price The present answer to this dilemma is a proposed production quota system The majority of Vermont farmers ap-pear to be opposed to this The only other alternative is selling surplus to mouths that need it President Food for-Feace Program under the direction of former Congressman Cebrge McGovern is one step Expansion of the Schools Hot Lunch programs is another More advertising and promotion is another The wav our farmers continue increasing production even while fewer and fewer farm units stay in production a combination of both production regulation and further expansion of milk markets are probably needed Vermont's economy based so importantly on milk production and marketing cannot afford to turn away from this dilemma The pressure is on us On the prosperity of dairy farming rests much of immediate future For Vermonters to refuse to consider the advantages of the milk quota plan nor the advantages of an international dairy aid program is to experience a further sweating it out Let us cease this wishful thinking about a return to a supply-and-de-mand milk economy that has not really existed in Vermont for a generation Let us tackle the economic realities instead and see what this partnership between individual milk producers their cooperatives and the government can produce for all of us We have to sweat this one out if we will use our heads instead Swan-ton Courier GAL 2 WHAT OTHER EDS NKC MAPLE INDUSTRY STILL GOING STRONG About 2000 Vermonters now are engaged in the annual maple harvest continuing a tradition and an industry which began some 500 years ago This is one of the very few industries whose production methods have not changed radically over the years Except for new types of tools and receptacles maple syrup and sugar are produced today i much the same way that they were produced 500 years ago Siegfried Martinetti farm placement supervisor of the Vermont Department of Employment Security tells how (he maple industry may have started: "According to Indian legend an exposed mot on a maple tree was broken and Indian children discovered that the leaking maple sap was sweet The Indians liked the taste and began boiling their venison in the which they obtained by scarring the maple trees "An Indian squaw so the legend goes while her brave was absent on a hunting trip boiled a piece of moose meat in the sweet liquid in preparation for his return While the meat was boiling she busied herself making a pair of mocea-ilns and became so engrossed In her work that she forgot about the cooking meat "When tile brave returned he found that the water had Covered Bridge Expert Gets Grant CHALLENGE OF STABILITY The rather widespread strikes and threats of strikes that are currently disturbing the labor-management picture in Vermont are symptomatic of a condition that is not limited to this state The condition is the fact that labor unions have come to expect substantial improvements in wages and fringe benefits every time a union contract expires That has been the pattern for the last 25 years or so but can it continue indefinitely? That is to say can it do so without a continuing creeping Inflation of prices and concomitant shrinking of the real value of the dollar? We see how it can This year marks the 25th of the Wagner Labor Relations act that gave a labor union exclusive bargaining rights in any plant or industry where it could obtain a majority of the rkers The law contained and stUl does substantial safeguards of union security which go far beyond a mere guarantee of the right to organize Under the law industry wide bargaining enables an entrenched labor union to tie up a whole industry not merely an individual plant And the unions are not subject to the anit-trust provisions of Federal law which apply to their corporate employers The result has been a real imbalance of power created by Government policy since 1937 -that give a strong labor union blackjack power over an industry to enforce its periodic demands for large wage increases that add by so much to the company's operating costs As long as the country was recovering from the deflated conditions of the great depression and during the wai years when production had to be obtained at any price for national survival the country was able perhaps or at least willing to absorb the continued increases in wages paid and prices paid by consumers to support them What has happened to the prices of goods and services in the last quarter-century despite spectacular gains in productivity resulting from new processes and better machines is the measure of the price the consumer has paid for the wage-escalator created by Federal labor policy This however is not 1937 and it is not 1942 when one enemey had blown up our Pacific fleet at Hawaii and another had all but secured his conquest of Western Europe and the strategic Middle East It is not wen or 1947 when tnere was Europe to rebuild and a huge backlog of unfilled consumer wants to satisfy after the deprivations of the war years If it is ever to be stopped the time has come to end the inflation of the last 25 years Another urgent consideration is the effective competition in quality and price now being offered to United States exports by competing industries in other countries of the Common Market for example The basic problem now facing tmion members union leaders and management is to adjust to the necessities of a stable currency and a highly competitive inter national trade That adjustment cannot help but involve a more modest level of wage increases every time a imion contract expires than it has in most industries since 1937 Not to pick on the union at the Jones Lamson plant in Spring-field one of major and vitally important industries -with average wage cost including fringe benefits of $852 an hour how much higher can Its workers push its wage costs without damaging verhu ps permanently the industry that employs thorn? O-tainly such an industry can be either slowly by im-' v-ing a cost structure that makes it progressively non-competitive or quickly by strike or slowdown that forces the industry to close its doors at great cost to the community as well as the stockholders who have provided the capital to build Its plants and machines What happened to the Rutland railroad could happen to Jones Lamson Vermont has a good record in the faithfulness of its employes and in the responsibility of its union leadership But in the present situation in a number of important industries in the state that record is being put to a new test Can Vermont Labor Vermont unions and Vermont industry adjust to the necessities of a relatively stable but highly competitive sit- The quaint old covered bridges of rural America have been accorded the status of important examples of civil engineering genius by the Guggenheim Foundation Richard Sanders Allen author and bridge expert has announced Mr Allen was listed yesterday as being awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for historical and engineering studies of the covered bridges of the American south and midwest He said that the grant will enable him to complete his series of books describing and locating the more than 1000 roofed wooden bridges still standing in the United States It was on the basis of the first two volumes Covered Bridges of the Northeast and Covered Bridges of the Middle Atlantic States both published by The Stephen Greene Press that the grant was made he added design of our roofed wooden bridges of the created the transition to modern bridges of iron and Mr Allen said Guggenheim fellowship for continuing research in this field the first such grant that I know of emphasizes the contribution that 19th-century Americans made to civil engineering all over the Mr Allen 45 lives in Round Lake He is one of the organizers of the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges The many lovers of old covered bridges in both Vermont and New Hampshire will be happy to hear that through the Guggenheim grant the survey of all these interesting wooden roofed structures can be com-: pleted And Steve Greene of The Stephen Greene Press may take a bow for helping bring out the two volumes that brought work to the attention of the Guggenheim foundation GEM nation White River Valley Herald Randolph NOT BECOME There are 16 redevelopment areas in New England which have taken advantage of last "depressed legislation notes the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston More than a million dollars in loans have been made to industries in these areas AI90 grants have been made for research and retraining programs have been set up for 1100 unemployed workers This is not much considering the fact that the areas include Providence Pawtucket I and Lowell Mass Great local effort will be required to really help these areas with or without federal aid Thus these areas have gained the stigma of being officially "de pressed" but they seem to have gained little else by looking to the federal government for assistance in solving their own problems The Reserve Bank makes this revealing comment: "New Hampshire and Vermont do not have any labor market areas which meet tne statistical criteria of the act and have not yet chosen to take advantage of I an administrative ruling which permits designation of at least one redevelopment area in each state" New Hampshire and Vermont can take satisfaction from that fact It is to our credit that we don't want the stigma of a "depressed area" in this state Let's keep it that way and solve our local problems ourselves whenever and wherever we Burlington Free Press VERMONT LEGISLATURE "ON TRIAL With the courts of Vermont and of the United States in effect putting state legislative representation on trial there will henceforth be no putting to rest this "public litigation" between the two branches of our government until and unless changes are brought about by the legislators themselves The checks and balances of our American system of government includes inherent conflict as well as cooperation between the three branches legislative judicial and executive We are now witnessing a historic conflict and those favoring legislative change are cheering our courts while those opposed see the courts usurping powers never intended for them to exercise In Vermont the battle between counties where Sen Asa Bloomer and others in Rutland will try to prevent loss of a Senator to Chittenden delegation will take place in the courts as well as the legislature There is little doubt that the legislature is headed for a sometimes agonizing reappraisal of itself Many "formulas" for new representation have been proposed already and morft are coming Former Welfare Commissioner candidate for Governor and now for a House seat representing his hometown Lyndonvllle Arthur Simpson makes a proposal in this newspaper Other acute observers of our Vermont scene will have other ideas The Vermont House today can be controlled by a majority representing less than 12' of our population The legislature is constituted as it was in 1793 so today the vote of a citizen in our smaller towns is 1000 times groater than in our largest city The power of the chief executive may be the most vital in these coming changes The growing power of the executive in Montpelier ns well as in Washington places the Governor in a crucial position Hie sharp conflict between Governor Keyser and Senator Bloomer over fiscal policies was one of the more significant developments of the last session Governor decision to call a special session presents him with further decisions on what he will ask from the legislators If there is little or no action from the legislature in a special session public reaction will be registered at the polls in November What could realistically come out of a special session is a Redistricting Commission to study and recommend to the next legislature Anything more than this would be surprising Unless there is a breakthrough and the stalemate of the past session was not broken it could prove as fruitless to rail a session as not WEEKLY CROSSWORD PUZZLE the Answer Stinging Insect Security Notebook By WILLIAM WAITE The market looked pretty sick at the close of last week and one cannot escape the thought that the patient may have some rough days ahead before recovering Hie 22-point fall of the Dow Jones Industrials during the week and the weakness displayed by the rails have given a bear market signal according to the Dow Theorists Only the passage of time will prove their accuracy but it is the opinion of this column that now is not the time to consider selling sound holdings The news that certairt segments of the steel industry were being indicted for alleged price-fixing hit right in the middle of a moderate recovery The knowledge that this was not a direct result of the recent row between steel and the White House known to the general public until after the market closed All the news doesn't present a gloomy picture Corporate reports are making good reading for the most part the international situation has continued to ease slightly and to date there has been no indication of any massive flight of capital leaving semi speculative bonds and seeking only high grade situations On the other side of the coin however there is acute apprehension in Industry as to what new edict might be forthcoming from the administration that will further ham-string the profit motive Also some of the indicators that forecast future economic conditions have turned down indicating the possibility of a recession in making Whether this is just a temporary pause before resumption of the upswing or whether the indicators reflect a change in fortunes of the economy is at present tile subject of debate We suspect that the administration will increase its pressure for the passage of the proposed investment tax credit for business as the need for more capital investment makes itself felt The confidence the administration has that this will solve the problem is not shared completely with all economists The dissenters are plugging for direct tax relief We believe that as the picture unfolds lt will become accepted knowledge that something has to be done to keep the financial backbone of basic Industry from being broken If the country as a whole is going to do wHt 4 Negative reply 5 Otherwise 6 Bugle call 7 Withered 8 Always 9 Virginia (ab) 10 Paradise 11 Mourn 12 Revised 17 is a social insect HORIZONTAL 1 Depicted insect 7 It has a very sting 13 Interstice 14 Eluded 15 Fasteners 16 Steeple 18 On (prefix) 19 Cooking vessel 20 Natural fat 25 Above 21 Insect egg 26 Ripped 22 Hebrew deity 27 Individual 36 Attribute 37 Rested 41 College official 42 Encourage 43 Simple 44 home 45 Vend 46 Case for toiletries 47 Crack 52 Tantalum (symbol) 54 Nova Scotia (ab) We Received More The Federal balance sheet for Vermont prepared annually for Senator George Aiken by the Library of Congress shows increased Federal tax collections reflecting substantially higher incomes in the State during Fiscal 1961 The actual increase over Fiscal 1960 is more than $7 million a rise from $88709-000 in Fiscal 1960 to $95841000 in Fiscal 1961 The report also shows that in 1961 Federal expenditures in Vermont totalled $136879408 or a of Federal expenditures over Federal tax collection of $41038408 In actual dollar totals Federal expenditures in the Green Mountain State in Fiscal 1961 were down $158919 from the 1960 total of $137038327 you analyze the figures you see that Vermont is receiving a return entirely in keeping with its place in the roll of the Senator Aiken said In most departments of the Federal government expenditures in Vermont were higher in Fiscal 1961 than in Fiscal 1960 the report to the Senator show's Welfare agencies within the Department of Health Education and Welfare allotted $1225491 more to essential sendees in Vermont in Fiscal 1961 At the same time HEW payments to individuals in Vermont rose from $915385 to $1298574 an over-all HEW increase in expenditures of $1608880 The total HEW outlay in Vermont in Fiscal 1961 was $9308362 The largest single decrease was in expenditures bv the Armv Corps of Engineers from $10155000 to $5807000 The reason for this was the completion of work on several large flood control dams These Than We Paid In are non-recurring construction outlays On the other hand Federal expenditures on the new Interstate Highway and its contributions to the State highway building program rose from $16530635 to $16965-812 One of the largest changes in the report percentagewise was the item for Federal Aviation expenditures in Vermont on the Federal airport program This item fell from $131889 to $33636 Old Age Survivors Insurance benefits rose from $275 million to $298 million Veterans Administration compensation and benefit payments went up a million dollars from $138 million to $148 million Price support payments to farmers rose from $13 million to $17 million the civilian payroll in Vermont stayed at $16 million and military wages and salaries dropped from $8 million to $6 million The complex character of the federal government is such that it is impossible to obtain exact returns from each agency on a single basis lending itself to exact comparisons Reporting techniques differ from agency to agency and the nature of some services rendered is such that reports from the field are later coming in to Washington than field reports from other agencies The Library of Congress therefore worked out a basic pattern for Senator Aiken that gives a fairly accurate general picture of money flowing in and out of Vermont One extremely important point Aiken explained is that it is impossible to ascertain the total of excise payments made by Vermonters and Vermont firms It is equally impossible to trace the large volume of Defense subcontracts Washington experts say hidden excise taxes are offset by Defense subcontracting 28 Similar 33 Knocked 34 Philippine seaport 23 Northeast (ab) 24 Tidy 27 Employed 29 Toward 30 Greek letter 31 Correlative of either 32 Of (suflix) 33 Mature 35 Demonstrative 38 nickname 39 Pronoun 40 Seed vessel 42 Entertain 47 Health resort 48 Pastry 49 French enp 50 Woody fruit 51 Click beetle 63 Crescent shaped 55 Give C6 Spoke Imperfectly VERTICAL 1 Occur 2 Bird- 3 Tear.