Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

... 1 Home Rule' Bill Is Forward Step Our congratulations to Reps. Paul Culbertson and David Taylor on their introduction last week of “home rule” legislation for Laurens Countv. This piece of legislation would put the county on a county council method of operation. It would eventually take the handling of county matters from the legislative delegation and place P with the county council. Actually, the county commisson now has the authority, on paper, to do many of the things which are to be entrusted to the county council. However, in real ity, the legislative delegation runs the county because it controls the purse strings. With the coming of reapportionment, the county is no longer assured of hav ing a resident senator and therefore transfer of local power to some other body is mandatory. The proposed bill has it which bears watching Although the countv be given the authority t\ one se> tlon in council would r drafting the supply bill inov\ done by the legislative Ml would have ’ould veto it. This power in the hands One Billion delegation! the deleg the final say and leaves the econorn; of the delegation. However. Rep. Taylor explained. "After the council is functioning, then I would be for repealing the veto provis ion. It's a safeguard to the taxpayers of Laurens bounty." Taylor didn’t say so but what the delegation is driving at is this: voters are going to have to select highly quali- f:ed individuals for the county council. If qualified people are elected to the county council, then there would be no reason for the delegation to continue to hold on to the purse strings. If they do. they would be defeating the purpose of the "home rule” legislation. Putting two and two together, each followed by a lung string of zeroes, has made it possible for us to arrive at a computation which gives the meaning of a billion dollars. Our arithmetical summation is $40 million. If you will follow us step by step we will demonstrate how this developed. Several Congressmen have stated that the interest on our funded na tional debt is in excess of $14 billion a year. That is what the interest on money borrowed by the government to meet the deficits incurred by the compulsive spenders who have headed the government for the past 35 years amounts to. Since some of the early bond issues bear interest rates of less than 4 percent, it is ob vious that current rates for borrow ing exceed 4 percent. For demon stration purposes, w^e have taken the lower figures. The funded national debt passed the $352.5 billion mark on March 1 of this year. At 4 percent, the an nual interest requirement would be $14.1 billion. That’s the tidy sum the taxpayers must assume respon sibility for—each year. For th« current year, the lowest claim that we have seen is for a defi cit of $8 billion. Comparing pre vious estimates with results, a $10 billion deficit seems more realistic, and probably an understatement. On this basis, and using an inter est rate of only 4 percent, the gov ernment is going to add another $400 million, year after year, to the $14.1 billion we are already paying, nterest, each year. It was at this point that we Lad a :ept of the real significance of a on dollars. It’s a sum of money ch Washington spends, even jgh it doesn’t have it, and pays million a year on, because it sn’t have the money to repay it, er. That spacious but dishonest m that “we owe it to ourselves,” nds reassuring, except that Con- 58 extracts billions of dollars ti the taxpayers to pay the in- ist to somebody. And beginning y 1, it will have to make the ex- ction more painful because the ‘rest total is going to be $14.5 ion—give or take a few paltry lions — each year until some- Iv pays the debt. In other words, a billion dollars “eally another $40 million in taxes to be paid. Ambassador Ball President Johnson’s appointment of George W Ball as Ambasador to the l nited Nations won the approval of the U. S. Senate on May 13, by one vote. And that was cast by the presiding officer of the moment, Senator Cannon of Nevada. Actually, when the nomination was put to a voice vote, there were exactly four Senators on the floor. Two voted for confirmation. Two voted against. It was thereupon necessary for the presiding officer to break the tie, or the nomination would have to go back to committee. The fact that 95 Senators absent ed themselves speaks volumes as to the low estate to which the UN has fallen in the eyes of the Senate, which is mindful that it has proved useless in resolving the Vietnam war and the Israeli-Arab conflict. But the narrow vote was also a re flection of the Senate’s opinion of Mr. George \V. Ball. The two Sen ators who voted against confirma tion were John J. Williams, of Dela ware, and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Here, in part, is what the forth right Senator Thurmond told his constituents: . . Mr. Ball was the No. 2 man in the State Department in 1963 when three of his subordi nates testified before the Senate In ternal Security Subcommittee about wiretapping in the Otto Otepka case, and gave testimony which was sub sequently shown to be false. Secre tary Rusk put Mr. Ball in charge of handling the affair. Under Mr. Ball’s orders, the three witnesses sent in written retractions which al so were shown to be false. Called in a third time, at least one of them lied again. “Either Mr. Ball knew the state ments were false, or he didn’t. How ever, he had the duty to find out the facts in the case. Either he condon ed lying, or he failed in his duty to learn the facts. “W T hen Mr. Ball went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month, he denied the very exist ence of the State Department’s elec tronics laboratory, the facility w r hich was used to tap Mr. Otepka’s telephone. He denied the existence of a facility for which the State De partment seeks appropriations every year, and whose blueprints are lock ed in Senate files. ...” Working Diligently For Their Degree- The Third Degree... "Vive Le General, Vive Le General l ! ,, 'Stump Meetings' Draw Sparse Crowds BY THE CHRONICLE’S Capitol News Bureau COLUMBIA - The demise of the traditional stump meeting may mean more than a lack of citizen interest or be due to the television flare of immediate communication whether it is in South Carolina with its barbecue or Massachusetts with its clam bake. The Democrat district three stump meeting in Greenwood was an excellent example of what might be a tragic political hap pening in the U.S. With a population of some 4 5,000 people in Greenwood coun ty alone, some 125 people turned out May 22 to hear the only statewide race contenders speak in the clean comfort of a brand new- court house. The contest is for the democrat nomination for Uniter States Senate. Both candidates talked mainly for the press--announced by one official as being the largest press contingent ever to turn out for a stump meeting in Greenwood County. F ar from the piney woods and early summer heat, the audience listeners sat and heard the candi dates. No one knew how 125 people could tell the thousands of others what was going on. It is said stump meetings are on the way out. . .the people don’t want them anymore. Then people com plain about ‘that man we sent to Washington,* the Vietnam War, the 10 per cent surcharge. The cost of a statewide tele vision appearance, even if watched, runs4nto thousands of dollars. It is used so voters can see a candidate, hear him, so he can get his message across.’ The man who can personally afford a television appearance is fortunate--nay, rich. The man who cannot afford it and still does it owes somebody something. The somebody he owes is either rich or expending the money for a reason known only to himself and his candidate. Not too long ago South Caro lina’s Democrat party ran 46 stumps for major office, one in every county. Interest flagged as candidates made few changes in their speeches or approach. HI—THK ( HRONK LK. ( linion. S. ( ., May 30, 1968 Reuther Plans Mini Federation BABSON PARK, MASS. - Wal ter Reuther, dynamic leader 1 the United Auto Workers, has long been planning to withdraw from the AFL-CIO and take him memttership with him. N >w he has done it, by the simple strat egy of refusing to pay the UAW monthly dues into the Federa tion’s coffers. The AFL-CTo’s constitution provides for suspen sion of any affiliate falling m re than three months ttehind -- and the UAW stopped payment early this year. FFUD BROUGHT SCHISM The break hasbeeninthei ards for a long w'hile. Thirteen vears ago Reuther aided Meany in bringing together the long-sep arated Federation and the t in to formulate the AFI.-CIO. Rou- ther hoped that his powerful p si- tion as President of the UAW would eventually lead him int the line of succession for leador of the union movement when Meany stepped down. But this never came about. Nor did Mean) ever encourage his ambiti uis lieutenant at all in thisdirecthui. Fundamentally, the tw. haw always t>een irreconcilable ri vals. The UAW head has leaned strongly to the left and ha- eagerly urged liberal reforms f« r the Federation. Ho as termed Meany’s leadership “stagnant” and “undemocratic.* Actually, Meany’s views have always t)een more conservative, and he has shown reluctance to alter his more moderate pattern of action in organizing, negotiating, and running his establishment. These ideological differences became more intense with the passage f time until frustration drove Reu ther to his plan for splitting off from the AFL-CIO. The intentions of the UAW chieftain are undoubtedly more impressive than may tie immedi ately apparent. By leaving the Federation he has brought out of the Meany fold more than a mil lion and a half members and better than $1 million annually in dues. According to insiders, however, this is only Step One for the aspiring “renegade”. His aim is said to lie the construc tion of a federation of his own, and a number of union officials within the AFL-CIO may well be interested in seeing whether he has more to offer than they might attain by staying with Meany. Mentioned among those at least intet'wted in Reuther’s siren call are the Rubier Workers,Chemi cal W rkers, Woodworkers,A- me; Lun Federation of Govern- n ■ nt W rkers, and the Teachers Fni n. It all of these groups should pull ut, it would add close t 6.111,1)1)0 m re members to the ■ inenuiu' separate house of lab r. And, J course, it would na an a substantial addition to the me me fr an dues. Bruited about, als , have been reports that io-uthei a . iiId welcome the enor- m us and wealthy Teamsters Fni n int his organization. This divisfm f unionism has been iudep- ndeiit since it was cast out n the l e.ieration some years ago f i - rrupt practices andRedin- filtrati 'ii : MPF< >YFRS’ TROUBLE , H fat. ah'aild smile onReuther ai.: m st f these prospective ups aetuallv join up with him, it ■ miM have a smashing impact n l it i relations. For one thing, tFuv a uld be enough money ii an lues to implement Reu- tM r' plans to rev up organizing and bargaining tactics. Should he 1'.. niecessful with a smoothly streamlines approach, some of the , unger leaders of AFL-CIO segnn nG might decide later to thr a' m their lots with the new mini-federation. I-ivalry between the AFL-CIO and its pugnacious offshoot could bring serious woes to employers m the affected fields. Competi tion for the unorganized might easilv become as rambunctious as it was in the old days when the CI<) and the AFL were sepa rate and hostile. There would inevitably develop the old system of piratifij; members fromestab- lished locals. Once such rough and tumble moves liegin, the bit terness would increase and invite m re violent charges and coun tercharges. Employers in some lines must expect that growing antagonism between the two fac tions will make labor relations a real problem. With Reuther's dynamism and the anger genera ted by it in many AFL-CIO quar ters, things will surely pop be fore 1968 is much older. Everyday Counselor BY DR. HERBERT SPAUGH Marriage may be likened to a heavy duty motor truck which is equipped to carry large loads. Such trucks have four speeds for ward and one reverse. By shift ing the gears they are able to negotiate the steep grades, pull through difficult roads, and make the most of smooth highways. All will admit that love is essential to a happy marriage, but most of us do not understand the full meaning of love. The an cient Greek language in which the Bible was written was much more flexible than the English lang uage. It has four different words for love, each expressing a dif ferent meaning. A successful marriage must use all four. The first word indicates a phy sical affection. It is the first gear in marriage. Without it marriage would never start at all, and it is Invaluable through out married life. Its proper use keeps the home going. But mar riage cannot run continually in low gear withoutoverlvating, any more than a truck can. The second word indicates the love of friendship and compan ionship. Here many marriages fail. A man and woman can find themselves in the strange condi tion of loving one another while they do not like one another. They do not like to do the same things, and make no effort to find common ground. Here many marriages fail, and, as a result, overheat. The third word expresses the love of family life, parents to ward children and children to ward parents. This is the third gear of marriage. Children com ing into the home usually alter the marriage picture, give It breadth and depth, overcome the selfish desires of parents as they seek the welfare of the children. The fourth word indicates spiritual love. It is the word used In the Bible to describe the love of God toward man, the love we are to have for Him. It is the word used by Jesus when He said, “A new commendment I give unto you, That ye love one another.* This is the fourth gear in marriage, the one we common ly call “high gear.* It is only when spiritual love comes into a home that the mar riage runs smoothly and easily. Jesus used this word when He said, “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’ Happy is the home and success ful the marriage which under stands and wisely uses these four “loves.* Like the four- geared truck, it never “stalls." Such a marriage can successfully negotiate all the circumstances of life down to old age, and to the end of life’s journey, the Father’s House. FEDERAL AUSTERITY—In ' speaking about austerity, Rep. H. R. Gross (R.-Iowa), said, "Take the Bureau of Mines in the Interior Department. There, $20,188.07 has been spent for fresh paint, rugs, drapes, furniture and lighting for the director’s office. In cluded in this is $1,500 for the services of an interior decora tor. Although the director’s of fice was already equipped with six expensive oriental rugs, wall-to-wall carpeting had to be installed and now the ori ental rugs will be laid right on top of the new carpeting. Rug- on-rug is said to be the latest fashion in Washington these days and of course, no govern ment executive could be ex pected to settle for less even though the federal treasury is busted, and even though this is the glorious year of ‘Austerity.’ ” So the stumps began the long decline from 46 to one in each congressional district. From the number attending the opening stump in Greenwood, it would appear that less than 1,000 people in a state with a popu lation exceeding 2-1/2 million will have heard the Democrat nominee who will run against the Republican for the U.S. Senate. * * * Wish I’d Said That "Open-minded or empty- headed—it depends on whether you’re defining yourself or someone else. ”—Wm. Chaffee, The Walnut (Iowa) Bureau. “In the search for knowl edge, you usually find how little you have.”—Bob Pearcy, The Danville (Tnd.) Gazette. “Life has its disappoint ments but there is no reason to be one of them."—Joseph M. Shaw, Jr., Cherokee County (Ala.) Herald. "A reckless driver is one who passes you in spite of all your car can do.”—Dale Hold- ridge, Langford (S. Dak.) Bugle. I and the Father are one.— (John 10:30). God is life, and we are alive with His Life. His life is our life, so we shine forth in re newed health and wholeness. God is power. The very power to be and to do all that we are potentially capable of being and doing has been given us. Jellyfish have no head or back bone and consist of 95 percent or more water. Salts and other organic material, mostly protein, make up the remainder of the body elements, reports Marineland of Florida. The Importance Of Law BY RICHARD GANTT Attorney Presbyterian College When you think about law, often you probably consider it as a mass of detailed rules regulating conduct. These rules are found in decisions, constitutions and acts of legislatures. “The Law" is much more. It is an established way of thinking and acting which results in a society as we knou it. In our communities, univci- sally approved ideas and r n- trolled behavior are the alter natives to chaos. Rules called laws are the means by which an ordered society is obtained. Modes of conduct are ob ligatory either by universal con sent or because non-compliance with specific rules will bring sanctions into operation by the enforcing machinery of the city and state. Each member of our society has the right to expect that every other member of so ciety will conduct himself in com pliance with law. The law is an atmosphere or climate. It affects us in all of our activities: home, religion, travel, work, business. Law pro- „ tects us in our homes. It gives us assurance that we will have undisturbed occupation of our re sidences. While driving to tfork, we are aware of prescribed traffic patterns. Failure to fol low these rules can result in fines and imprisonment. Consider a baseball game. In order to produce a desired re sult, the game Is controlled by predetermined rules. Could you imagine a situation where each team had its own rules? There would be no meaningful reason for the teams to meet. Any sporting activity is a regulated spectacle, the conduct of which may be re lied upon and predicted. The pit cher knows he only need throw three strikes to retire a batter, not four or seven. Upon catching a fly ball, the center fielder doesn’t then throw the ball out of the park. Such conduct would not produce a ball game, only chaos. On a greater scale our daily actlvites are controlled by law operating under rules. While a team cannot appeal an unwelcome iLcismn to a state court, each ' itizen knows the courts await redress of his grievances. As we become more civilized and society more organized and complex, there will be more rules of law, We cannot know all the rules, but we can know the reason for law and its purpose. The end result is an ordered society, a l>etter place for you and your family to live. WORTH ABOUT "Our nation is based on in dividual liberty and the free enterprise system. We who benefit from this way of life, I believe, have an obligation to reciprocate. .Supporting Pay roll Savings is a practical ex pression of patriotism, for employer and employee alike. I am greatly impressed by the very high percentage of the men and women in our armed forces who have signed up for Payroll Savings. If they buy Bonds where they work, even in a combat zone, then every one here at home should do the same.” —William P. Gwinn President United Aircraft Corp. ife Old “Some people’s minds are like concrete—all mixed up and jset.”