The La Crosse Tribune from La Crosse, Wisconsin • Page 6

6 Crosse Tribune, Wednesday, July 31, 1974 (Opinion KENNETH 0 Bl-ANCHARD, Publisher Untended U.S. economy in a slide SANDERS HOOK (General Manager ROBERT S. GALLAGHER Editor SANFORD GOLTZ, Opinion Page Editor Who is right? LARGELY BECAUSE it would cost a bundle of money to build and operate. Wisconsin still have a school of veterinary medicine. Young people from our state who want to be veterinarians have to compete for scarce space at out-of-state schools.

More enroll at the University of Minnesota than anywhere else, since the two states have an agreement that assures Wisconsin residents one-fifth of the freshman openings, at resident tuition, on the Minneapolis campus The total from Wisconsin last year was 17. THIS WEEK, Governor Lucey got some advice from Gov. Wendell Anderson during the Midwest Conference: build your own school of veterinary science. Anderson and UM officials said that the estimate of $20 million as a startup cost, made a couple of years ago as part of a special study on the need for more animal doctors, was unrealistic. school plans to spend $21 million just to upgrade its facilities.

ALL THE SAME. Wisconsin remains short of veterinarians, and many would-be vets from our state can't get into school. All the JU S. schools are crowded A recent study showed that, nationally, one out of 2.7 applicants to medical schools is accepted, while at veterinary schools it is one in 7 4 applicants Some of the rejected applicants later were accepted for medical training, so it a matter of low qualifications. IT CERTAINLY IS cheaper for Wisconsin taxpayers to let a few of our young people get veterinary training in other states and take a chance on attracting graduates from other states to fill our needs.

But hardly a good solution for the No. 1 dairying state and one that ranks high in other animal populations. out ONE NAME that can be scratched from the early book of 1976 presidential hopefuls is that of John Connally. After being indicted on several counts in connection with the 1971 milk-support scandals, the big Texan isn't quite what the Republican party will be looking for. The handsome Democrat cut quite a figure in Washington, as he had earlier in Texas politics, when President NLxon called him to his first-term cabinet to head the Treasury department.

He was vocal and aggressive during a period when the dollar was being devalued and wage-price controls were being tested, and proved a good bargainer for interests abroad. When he left the Cabinet, and turned Republican, it was assumed that he had an eye on the presidency. CONNALLY HAD worked his way to the top in Texas politics as governor, and professionally as a wealthy lawyer The fate that put him in President Kennedy's car that day in Dallas gave him some national recognition. He has denied all the charges of accepting bribes and of perjuring himself before a grand jury, and he may be cleared. The puzzle and the tragedy remain, though, of how a wealthv man could find himself implicated in a $10,000 deal.

HOBART ROWKN Washington Post W'ire WASHINGTON The American economy is in serious trouble, despite the Nixon transparent attempts to cover up a recession by calling it a or a And the chances are that things will get worse before they get better, regardless of President Nixon's assurance some weeks ago that worst is behind us. and his rededication Thursday night to the basic laws and forces of the market There are many reasons for the present onerous combination of high inflation and declining national output. But none that Mr. Nixon cited is as important as the vacuum in leadership caused by the President's involvement in the Watergate mess. No one is directing the American economy today.

The public knows it Businessmen know it Foreign governments know it. Neither Congress nor the President will be attending to the main business of the nation so long as Mr. Nixon's future is in doubt. There is a pervasive level of apprehension and concern about the economy. Housing is in full- fledged depression.

Many people with substantial cash down-payments can't get a mortgage loan to buy a house even at 9 or 10 per cent. The Franklin National Bank scandal has led people to wonder openly about the soundness of other banks. One hears fears of a money panic, and doubts about the ability of some major cities to redeem their bonds. Investors, looking to protect the value of their money, seek the relative security of Treasury bills, abandoning higher yields that may be available elsewhere. It all adds up to a vote of declining confidence in government and in many private institutions.

Yet. the only meaning to be drawn from the President's disappointing stand-pat speech of Thursday night is that he intends to be guided for the moment by the highly conservative, laissez-faire thinking of his newly designated Economic Council Chairman. Alan Greenspan. A recent national survey by the Sindlinger organization indicates the No. 1 problem in the country.

And most are bracing themselves for continued (and perhaps higher) rates of inflation. THEIR FEARS will be confirmed within a few days bv a spectacular jump in the wholesale Price Index for July. Therefore, this is a time for strong initiatives. But the President's speech promises only further drift. Price increases keep pouring out of the industrial sector like an angry gusher, assuring wage hikes that will produce a new inflation spiral in 1975.

There is an urgent need to reconsider wage-price controls, despite Mr. Nixon's promise that he would not resort to such discredited patent (Mr. Nixon's most successful economic year followed his prescription of that medicine in August. 1971.) So what is the economic program0 It is to expand supply in the long run and cut demand in the short run. If businessmen, consumers, and local governments really cut spending the way the President suggested, we could have a jolly good economic slide in no time at all.

As for budget-cutting and budget-balancing at 'WITH THE 6KEEK OUT, CftNKlTE CAN STOP M1SPRDH0UNCW6 Readers write us Little League battress Marvelous mime Chicago Tribune LITTLE LEAGUE Baseball. deferring to the social climate (not to mention several court decisions) has made it official: Girls can now play on Little League teams along with boys. Well, it's about time. Having coached a Little League team and having watched some young girls play softball on an adjoining diamond, we've had a feeling that our team might benefit from a few judicious trades AS FOR THE chauvinist male's ego the decision to let girls play on teams excuse us, on teams with boys probably is better than letting the girls have their own teams and beating the boys. From Tribune files TWENTY YEARS AGO 1954 Gordon Feinberg calls committee to formally begin a preliminary study of industrial expansion possibilities Wisconsin's new diagnostic center, one of first in the nation, will receive its first patients, three girls, on Aug.

9. Eighteen-month-old Cynthia Emma Clements, daughter of Mr and Mrs Bernard Clements, drowns in cooling tank at their farm near Bangor Storm lashes southern part of state, breaking power lines and severely damaging buildings THIRTY YEARS AGO 1944 Remnants of eight Nazi divisions being smashed; burst of speed US force in Avranches; break out of the Cherbourg peninsula into France. Thomas F. Lyons, 75. former manager of Inland Printing dies Pvt.

Roy Young killed in France; Pvt. Clifford E. Poehling. missing. War Department notifies Mr.

and Mrs. John Young. 1509 S. 11th and Young's wife, 2204 Cass and Mr and Mrs. John A.

Poehling. 1447 Green Bay St tank battles raging as Yanks advance; B-29 force batters Manchuria FORTY YEARS AGO 1934 County Board faces another financial crisis; discovers $250.000 bond issue recently approved will fall of sum needed to finance government through next March. Burlington railroad buys two new passenger trains; both streamliners to pass through La Crosse on trial runs between the Twin Cities and Chicago. President Roosevelt and party, touring the Midwest, will board the Mayo yacht at Wabasha for Mississippi River cruise. FIFTY YEARS AGO 1924 L.H Pammel, botanist at Iowa State University, calls this area beautiful of in the country; praises recently created Mississippi Valley Fish and Game Refuge, speaking at Riverside Park meeting Governor Blaine favors restricting power of the State Highway Department; would take away Commission authority force excessive road Sirs This morning (July 24) I am feeling sorry for the people of La Crosse.

Why? Because they missed the most astounding performance I have ever had the privilege to see. Last night on the main stage of Viterbo College one man. Dimitri, world famous mime from Switzerland, kept approximately 500 people in laughter and so thoroughly entertained that all they could do was call for more. A mime conveys a thought or idea by actions and expressions; no words are spoken. So good were actions and expressions that not once did I have trouble understanding what he was putting across.

His performance here was made possible by the International Mime Institute and Festival, which is being held at Viterbo College now through Aug. 10. During this time residents of the area will have the opportunity to see 17 more performances by some of the top mime performers the world over. Considering the caliber of the performers that you can see for $3 it will be a shame if they don't fill the auditorium for every performance. I think that is a real bargain when you consider that it costs $2 to get in to see a movie nowadays.

98 per cent of which aren't worth two cents. I hope the people of this area will take advantage of the opportunity placed before them, largely due to the many long, hard hours of Dr. Louis Campbell and Viterbo College, and attend as many of these performances as they can. I am sure they will never be sorry. Edith Phetteplace, Stoddard, Wis.

Not the Wild West Sirs Recently I saw perhaps the most insane bumper sticker yet conceived: West was not won with registered One would hope that most citizens would have the intelligence to realize that we no longer live in the Wild West, we are no longer pioneers venturing into the wilderness dependent on our guns for survival. We are more than 200 million highly urbanized and interdependant citizens of the most technologically advanced and affluent nation in history. Guns are no longer the beautiful provider and protector: they are the ugly killer, they are death. The murder of Mrs. King points once again to the obvious need for a national gun control policy.

It is not hysteria or emotionalism that demands gun control, it is 25,000 murders. 1000 suicides, 70,000 assaults, 120 000 robberies a year, all committed with guns. The inescapable fact is that if we want to control violent crimes we will have to control guns. Some assert that criminals will find other weapons if guns are not available. This is absurd It would take a brave soul indeed to rob a well-fortified bank armed only with a knife.

And what would John murderer have used had a gun not been available0 It is often said that the second amendment guarantees everyone the right to own a gun This is not true, and the Supreme Court has made this very clean in five separate cases (the latest being U.S. vs. Miller). The available evidence, not to mention logic, suggests that the fewer death-dealing weapons there are in a society, the fewer deaths there will be Mitchell Yell, 209 S. 10th La Crosse.

Let distillers pay Sirs Private industries that were polluting our environment are now required by law to provide and maintain expensive corrective equipment. Is there any reason why these new alcohol detoxification centers should not be provided and maintained by the booze makers0 This is one pollution cost that rightfully belongs in the price of the product that creates it It does not belong on every taxpayer's bill. Such indirect government subsidies only condone pollution, condone inflation and console its victims, all of us. Ernie Tande, 2601 S. 17th La Crosse.

the federal level, realists in the White House and Budget Office will tell you that for all the talk of $5 billion and $10 billion budget cuts for this fiscal year, we ll be lucky if the $305 billion expenditure figure doesn't expand to $310 or $320 billion. Are there any other answers within the administration to economic problems? Yes, as a matter of fact, there are. At the very time that salaried workers are suffering a 5 to 6 per cent loss in real income because of inflation, Treasury Secretary William E. Simon wants to cut business taxes further Yet. newly revised data on the Gross National Product just released by the Commerce Department show that corporate tax payments are shrinking (not because of reduced profits, but because of wider loopholes).

Examples the investment tax credit provided a $4 billion bonanza for business in 1973. double the 1971 benefit. Also, the introduction of DISCs. a device to stimulate exports, has cost the Treasury another $1 billion a high price to pay for a questionable policy and a dubious result in actual export growth. THE ONLY MEANINGFUL anti-inflation policy weapon being wielded at the moment is the E'ederal Reserve's interest rate and money policy.

This is a devastating tool, a blunderbuss of a weapon Tight money is putting a squeeze on housing and municipal construction, and has affected consumer psychology. It has also caused a serious retrenchment in electric and gas utility expansion. If forced to carry the whole load, E'ed policy could put the economy into a serious tailspin. It is instructive to recall that the administration initially anticipated a mere 2 per cent decline in real GNP for the first quarter, with an upturn in the second quarter and a strong recovery in the final half of the year. The preliminary result announced for the first quarter was a 5.8 per cent drop, shocking enough.

Subsequent revisions (along with upward revisions of the inflation rate) put the drop at 6.3 per cent, and most recently at 7 per cent. Economic Counsellor Kenneth Rush assured me publicly a month ago that there would be no two quarters of successive Now, of course, the administration has been forced to announce a 1.2 per cent GNP decline in the second quarter a six month fall-off in actual GNP. the first time happened since the Eisenhower recession of 1957-58. Nixon managed to avoid totally any mention of this in his speech. It doesn't matter that the administration refused to call this a recession.

What matters is that inside the administration, at working levels, the expectation no longer is for a recovery in the second half. We could well have another drop in the third says a top government economist. As long as inflation and high interest rates continue, with no rein on prices or wages, real growth of the economy will range from zilch to inconsequential, meaning that we face a long- drawn-out period of stagflation before any recovery is in sight. Is Lucey unfair to the women? By ARTHUR L. SRB Associated Press Writer MADISON, Wis.

E'ew appointees named to high state posts by Gov Patrick J. Lucey have triggered as much criticism as that of Madison attorney Roland B. Day. a Wisconsin Supreme Court nominee. Why an outcry9 Primarily because many women's groups were anticipating that Lucey might use the opportunity to appoint the court's first woman, attorney Shirley Abrahamson of Madison.

Women's lib spokesmen lost no time in letting Lucey and his aides know of their displeasure. The governor was told by the Madison Chapter of the National Organization of Women that his selection of Day fits the archaic pattern of arbitrarily prohibiting some persons from holding major office on grounds of religion or sex Are these women seriously suggesting that Lucey would discriminate against Mrs. Abrahamson either because she is Jewish or because she is a woman0 Eighteen months ago. Lucey selected Virginia Hart of Madison as secretary of regulation and licensing, making her the first woman cabinet member in the state 126-year history. He appointed Mrs Vel Phillips of Milwaukee as the first black judge in Wisconsin history, naming her to the Milwaukee bench in 1971 Lucey has selected Jews to serve on both the Board of Regents and in his cabinet When Day appointment to the court drew protests from women groups.

Lucey news secretary. W. Jeffrey Smoller, produced statistics showing the governor has appointed 120 women and minority group members to state boards and commissions during the past year. That, he said, constituted 40 per cent of all appointees in that period Perhaps the women who complain should talk with John Patzer, 43, a Madison man who attempted to get a job with the University of Wisconsin but couldn't because he is a white male. Why should that stop him from getting the job? State agency heads have been directed to give preference to women and minority group members in hiring to make up for years in which they were systematically excluded from some kinds of work.

Who issued the directive0 Lucev. Quotable quote Allen Wallis, chancellor of the University of Rochester, in commencement remarks at that school, as quoted in the' Freeman magazine: It is a striking paradox that the more people distrust the government, the more powers and responsibilities they heap upon it. many of the new powers being designed to counterbalance other powers that the government already has The appropriate remedy for excessive governmental powers, for abuses of governmental powers, for ruthlessness and corruption in gaining control of governmental powers is not to create new governmental powers but to dismantle those that now exist Art Buchwald No wonder Ron Ziegler believes the President WASHINGTON The big question everyone in Washington is asking is. If for some reason President Nixon has to leave office, will Ron Ziegler be able to get his job back at The consensus among most Ziegler-watchers is that he will. One watcher who asked not to be mentioned by name because he still has relatives in Orange County.

told me, been watching Ziegler now for five years, and as far as I'm concerned he never left Disneyland. Ron is a born believer in fantasy and he knows how to treat everyone like children. The very vitrues that made him one of the best guides at Disneyland are now paying off for him as spokesman for the President of the United States But wouldn't the Disney people be hesitant about rehiring someone who worked in the White The Ziegler-watcher shook his head. Ron was never involved with Watergate. He's clean as a tooth.

You want to know Lsaid. Because they didn't trust him. They were afraid if they told him anything, spill it. EJveryone else in the White House apparently knew what the hell was going on except Ziegler. They treated him like a dum-dum and now they're all going to jail, and Ron has the last laugh the small society eiticz.

He S9N CAti1 make hat ki NP of WAMT6 TP OfZ Sthmfton I've never seen Ron I said. It was just a figure of my friend replied Do you realize that next to A1 Haig, the President depends more on Ziegler than any other person in his Administration?" is "Because Ron still believes everything the President tells ME2AN ZIEGLER'S not putting us on when he says now that we have all the facts the only conclusion we can arrive at is that the President knew nothing about the his heart he really believes How could I asked Because he worked at Disneyland. Anyone who believes in Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Donald Duck is going to believe Mr. story. You can say what you want to about Ron.

but he does have a lot of Does he believe in the Easter don't think the Easter bunny was a Walt Disney he replied. You know, sometimes when I watch Ziegler on television, I get the feeling he isn't telling the whole truth that he's making things sound better than they really 1 said. And where do you think he learned my friend asked. Where else? Disney created a world of make-believe and illusion. When Ron moved to Washington he just took that world with him SEEJM TO HAVE a grudging admiration for Ziegler, I said.

do. When Ron first started in his job he know very much, and he said whatever they told him to. But now adding his own fantasies to Watergate and they are as good as any being put out in this country. you think that no matter what happens to President Nixon, Ziegler have to worry about a job. know my friend replied can you be so No one knows this, but Ziegler never quit his job at Disneyland He just took a leave of.