Daily Independent Journal from San Rafael, California • Page 28

SIR VING All Of MARIN COUNTY SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, SATURDAY, JULY 8, EDITORIAL PAGE The Cditcr A Vctebcck Taking The Kur' Has Its Moments BAD KISSINGEN When Roman legions pushed northward across Europe in the first century A.D., they discovered a variety of thermal and mineral springs. They quickly found that bathing in these special waters brought relief to their aches and pains. Great spas evolved and many are popular to this day. A comprehensive guidebook for Germany today will list about four dozen spas, including Bad Kissingen, recommended for various maladies, particularly those involving liver and stomach. No matter what ailment afflicts you, one or more of these many spas will be recommended as having special curative powers for your specific complaint.

Bad Kissingen was a favorite 100 years ago of Otto von Bismarck, minister-president of Prussia and architect of German unification. UNLIKE AMERICA, where taking the waters at a spa went out of fashion more than a generation ago, the practice is still in full fashion in Germany. Once you or your doctor decide a visit to a particular spa is indicated, you must first choose a kur-hotel. If it is a major one, it will have its own doctor of medicine in residence, along with a staff of therapy technicians. Your hotel may have its own indoor swimming pool filled from a therapeutic spring.

Various kinds of hydrotherapy equipment may also be available. The hotel dining room probably will be prepared to meet your special diet needs. The doctor will prescribe a rigid schedule. It probably will begin with an early morning bath in the curative waters followed by an early breakfast according to the prescribed diet. YOU UNDOUBTEDLY will be advised to take long walks in the kur-park or on trails in the beautiful countryside nearby.

Depending on the doctor's advice, you could expect to spend the time until mid-day meal in rest and walking. After your prescribed diet lunch, you probably will be advised to go to bed for an hour or an hour- rest. You may be permitted a afternoon coffee break (German style). This would include some very rich cake or pastry. It would then be time for Skunk Repellent? Many Marinites are bothered by skunks.

We are somewhat overstocked in our neighborhood. We have tried renting traps from the Humane Society. With these traps we captured three cats, two raccoons and one skunk almost as troublesome as enduring the skunk perfume about once a week. We procured a bulletin from the county agent, which suggested a certain type of rat poison, but it is against our principles to poison animals unless absolutely necessary, as in the case of poisoning rats to control disease. We tried Another Vtew w(ri, 0 your mid-afternoon glass of mineral water from the spring.

And it would be time for a concert by the kur-orchestra either in the kur-garden or in the kur-hall, depending on the weather. Before the evening diet supper. there would be time for another walk in the kur-park or another bed rest. After diet supper, it may be possible to see a play or an opera at the kur-hall, performed by a visiting big-name company. The performance will start early enough for you to observe the prescribed 9:30 or 10 p.m.

bedtime. Experienced cure-takers say it takes about a week to fully adapt to the spa schedule; another two weeks are usually necessary to achieve the desired benefits. Many cure-takers stay on for a fourth week of plain rest after the three-week schedule is completed. If you want to do the job right, obviously you must devote a month to it. Some affluent Germans do this regularly a year.

Who are the spa patrons? Mostly they are the aged, infirm and well-to-do. Rarely do you see a person under 50. Unlike German youth, cure- takers dress conservatively For the men, coats and ties seem to be in order at all times. The women wear suits or rather drab dresses. MANY HUSBANDS and wives go separately to spas.

When a husband alone at a spa encounters a wife alone at a spa, they sometimes feel a mutual obligation to provide company for each other. They may skip a diet meal at the hotel to sneak away to a colorful wine restaurant. Even the past-60 set may engage in some hand-holding as a means of fulfilling the mutual obligation to avoid loneliness. Because German spa behavior must conform to high standards just as rigidly as must spa dress, we are assured that kur-shadow relationships as they are called have rigid limits. However, it is well known that some kur-shadow couples meet regularly at spas, and who can say what may go on after the prescribed 10 p.m.

curfew? It well may be that the stuffy old Germans who sit around spas aren't as stuffy as they appear. Jack Ctamet putting moth balls in all their possible under-house dens. That was merely trading a constant low-level stink for a once-a- week high-level one. Other Marinites must have had the same problem and have worked out a sane and satisfactory solution. If so, we would like to hear about it.

Drop us a line. Help your fellow man' ALMANAC Today is Saturday, July the 190th day of 1972 with 176 to follow. The moon is approaching its new phase. The morning stars are Venus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer American industrialist John D. Rockefeller was born July 8 1839. On this day in history In 1835 the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia cracked while being rung during the funeral of U.S. Chief Justice John Mar. shall.

In 1969 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam began as 800 infantrymen arrived at McCord Air Force Base in Washington state. Voter Profile Analysis WHAT OUR READERS SAY 'Of Course These People Will Be Rehabilitated' Regarding death penalty: It is very comforting to know that since the omnipotent Supreme Court has decided the death penalty is and unusual such people as the shotgun slayer of a 4-year-old girl, the mass murderer of 25 farm workers, and those of the Manson clan will once again be released into our society after 12 or 14 years. Of course these people will be by then. But even so, one still wonders is so about the Supreme Court0" LEONARD T.

THRALL Petaluma Consumer Protection Needs Higher Priority The remarks of former Deputy Atty. Gen. Neil Gendel, upon resigning from the office of the California attorney general, have struck a responsive chord with Citizens Action Council, an organization which, like Mr. Gendel, is seeking to prevent the many unfair and deceptive business practices that have gone unchecked in recent years. We can appreciate the handicaps facing the attorney office due to budget restrictions that have created severe understaffing, but we cannot help but sympathize with the frustration Mr.

Gendel must have endured, having been charged on the one hand with the responsibility of protecting the investing public, and on the other being compelled to watch helplessly while his already inadequate staff was whittled still further. We would not presume to second guess the judgment of those long experienced in law enforcement, but it certainly would appear that some more effective ordering of priorities could be devised, so that consumer protection, which is one of the major concerns of an aroused public, could be dealt with on a hasis of something more than lip service. BEN GAY San Rafael ART BUCHWALD Convention Scenario Obvious Compromise WASHINGTON Everyone has his own scenario for next 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 here. 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. 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 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 Ixdween 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 all night session, the convention was hopelessly deadlocked The state delegations caucused right on the floor, trying to get people to change their minds. But it was impossible. On NBC, John Chancellor and David Brinkley became short tempered and re fused to talk to each other. Howard 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 compro mise candidate had to be found one who had not already been nominated But who9 The Democratic Party leaders call a recess behind the podium. They Produces Candidate 1 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 convention.

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 how Bobby Fischer, the U.S. chess champion, became the Democratic presidential nominee for 1972. REMEMBER WHEN? 10 YEARS AGO July 8, 1962 An unofficial vote tabulation indicated Cecil Hardesty of San Diego might have nosed out.

Max Rafferty of La Canada to qualify for a runoff against Ralph Richardson of Los Angeles for California superintendent of public instruction powerful nuclear bomb was exploded from a fhor missile above Johnson Mand in the Pacific in the biggest of the United States nuclear Lest series 20 YEARS AGO July K. Re idents of Tiburon and Belvedere launched a campaign to keep their post offices or have them replaced with a single office serving both communities rather than a branch of the Mill Valley Post Office. Home runs by Jackie Robinson and Hank Sauer gave the National League a 3-2 victory over the American League in the all star baseball game. MARQUjSCHILDS Bugging Incident Shows Need For Tight Convention Security WASHINGTON When chairman Lawrence F. of the Democratic National Committee went to Miami Beach to take a thorough look at convention arrangements, he was given a detailed briefing on security.

He was to admit later that it all seemed a bit superfluous in light of his long experience with conventions which, however turbulent, never seemed to threaten life and limb. Then came the famous break in-bugging incident at Democratic headquarters here and understood the very real need for the security precautions being taken at Miami Beach. It will be the most security-conscious national convention ever held, with routines bound to cause friction and resentment. Farcical though it seemed at first, the hugging episode was serious enough in itself. Here was this insidious snooping business carried out by five men with connections, if not with the White House, as has been repeatedly denied, then with the Committee to Re-Elect President Nixon.

Invading the privacy of a political organization with the tools of the snooping trade hardly comes under the heading of a free society. WHAT GIVES the episode a more ominous look and ties it in with the tight security at the convention is the connection of the men caught in the hugging act with the Cuban exile movement in Florida. Three of the five men were born in Cuba. Bernard L. Barker as a CIA operative had a role in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion.

He is said to have been a conduit for money siphoned to the invaders. According to reports in the Miami newspapers, Barker is said to have tried to obtain from the architect, Leonard Glasser, the plans of the convention hall, including details of the air-conditioning ducts and the eat walks. The intimation was that this was for bugging purposes. Yet why try to bug a political convention with radio and television constantly listening in? While the bulk of the more than 200,000 Cuban exiles in and around Miami are law-abiding citizens bent on trying to earn a living in a new land, there is a STROUT IN WASHINGTON hard core of passionate anti-Communist, anti-Castro plotters constantly seeking ways to bring Fidel down Their bitterness over President John Kennedy failure to order air strike to save the invaders trapped on the beaches knew no bounds. They never cease to lobby for support from the government for various schemes to cut down astro strength.

SEN. GEORGE McGOVERN and cer tain of his backers have suggested that it was time to restudy American policy toward Cuba. If the President could make an agreement with Moscow, 7,000 miles away, then it should be possible to get together with Castro looking to a relaxation of the measures that have cut off all relations with the island only 90 miles from the Florida coast. Castro is now in the Soviet Ltnion, presumably seeking to renegotiate the agreements costing the Russians well over $.300 million a year that keep Cuba afloat. In the eyes of the Cuban rebels any suggestion of peace with Castro is treason They will fight it with every means possible.

The nomination of a Democratic candidate for President looking, however far in the future, for normalization of relations with the dictator, as relations are on the way to normalization with China, is a deep affront. will run an orderly and secure convention if anyone can. He is a pro and an extremely able pro. Whatever the ardent young McGovernites may think, it is pros like who have kept the wheels turning over the years. He was the manager of the late Sen.

Robert F. campaign when the senator was struck down in Los Angeles by an bullet. In the course of barnstorming through the south. McGovern made a gratuitous slap at O'Brien. He indicated his intention of replacing him after the convention.

although on another occasion he said he wanted him to stay. along O'Brien has said that he intends to leave when he has finished his stint at Miami Beach. Replacing Brien, who has carried on through the dreary and difficult days of deficits, will not be easy. If McGovern means to dispense with all the pros, he will add to the handicaps he already suffers. Social Security Hike Widens Gap Between Rich And Poor Bv RICHARD L.

STROUT WASHINGTON, C. The gap between the rich and poor in America is widening and it will grow still wider, economists declare, under the enormous new Social Security tax just voted by Congress and reluctantly signed by President Nixon It is the biggest Social Security jump in history. Economists like it, and Mr. Nixon like it, hut for different reasons. Economists explain their aversion to the present Social Security tax, hut few seem to listen and least of all the very people with low incomes who are supposed of the tax.

LAST YEAR a person making $7,800 paid 5 per cent of his income to Social Security. Someone making $30,000 paid slightly more than one per cent. That is the disparity built into a tax structure. Next year, under the new rates just passed by Congress, the burden on the low-income wage earner is going to he greater than ever, and the disparity with the middle income and rich will increase. Economist Milton Friedman angrily calls the Social Security tax distribution poor welfare payment to the middle A study by Brooking institution tax experts calls the payroll tax regressive" (it puts a heavier burden on low incomes than on middle incomes).

That all, experts say. It not only puts a heavier load on the straining mcome wage earner, but it has an unequal effect on people of the same income. For example, says Brookings: family with total earnings of $18,000 earned equally by husband and wife pays twice as much payroll tax as does a family in the same income bracket with one earner Not only is the tax regressive, but it taxes families with equal earnings THE AMOUNT INVOLVED is one of the biggest sums in the entire United States budget. Payroll taxes have been growing steadily while Congress has slashed corporation and personal income faxes three times in recent years Of the $83 billion spent in fiscal 1972 for COlirTRY PARSON understand why husbands and wives are more courteous to strangers than to each cash incorne-support programs (welfare and Social Security payments), $64 billion, or 77 per cent, will be financed from payroll taxes. Both Dr.

Friedman and the Brookings Institution economists note the regressive nature of Social Security taxes. of its says the Brookings report, are strong reasons to believe that reliance on the payroll tax is already too heavy and that future Social Security benefits should be financed more out of general revenues and less out of payroll taxes." Congress listened, however. Other noted tax economists make the same point. These include Charles H. Schultze, former director of the budget, and Joseph A.

Pechman, author of Tax Policy" and director of economic studies at the Brookings institution. ONE ASPECT of the situation is the lack of interest of the trade unions in the consequences of the tax in a field which they are ordinarily extremely sensitive. This is attributed by some to the widespread idea that Social Security is comparable in its actuarial effects to private insurance. A second reason is that half of the tax is applied to the employer, which seems to indicate to the worker that he is getting something for nothing, i.e. the burden is borne 50-50 with his boss.

Economists say, The worker's 5.2 per cent (soon to be 5.5 per cent) is deducted from his payroll check, but the employer often adds his 5.2 per cent to the price of his product or reduces wages by that amount. economists says the new Brookings study, the part paid by the employer is ultimately borne by the the employer did not have to pay the social security tax for PRESIDENT NIXON denounced the big new expansion of Social Security by ongress But not on economic grounds. He asked, in effect, the money coming The federal treasury in three years has about $75 billion in red ink The same Brookings study says that built-in expan sion of federal programs already on the books will exceed federal income by $17 billion in the next three years. Maximum payroll taxes under the new law will jump from $468 this year to around $594 next year, and $660 on 1974 a jolt for the low income workers. What makes the tax regressive is that is is a flat rate imposes the same rate on the charwoman as on the bank president Congress has arranged so that the benefits come first, before the election The higher taxes come after the election, but the higher taxes pay for the increased benefits Why the low income workers object0 The Brookings study says Over the years Congress has raised the tax along with the txmefif levels and has met little opposition per haps because the wage earner sees only half the tax deducted from his paycheck (the other half being paid by the employ er) and considers that deduction a rather than a 1972 I finstuni Science Publishing Society.