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f rovt t-'ir Railroad - It's hard to ask a business to con tinue a service which is losing money. It also is hard for a town to give up > its rail passenger service. That is the quandary caused by Seaboard Coastline Railroad Co.’s re quest that it be allowed to discontinue the pasenger service between Atlan- . ta, Ga., and Richmond, Va. The pas senger train, known as “The Silver Comet”, provides Clinton’s only rail passenger service. • - Seaboard can produce figures which show the passenger service los- i es $900,000 annually. That figure is x given in a booklet in which Seaboard l explains the reasons for its request. The booklet denes not say, however, how much Seaboard is making on ? freight. Judging from the long, long freight trains which intermittently clog Clinton’s interesections, it must be considerable. We have not seen a 1968 annual report from Seaboard but the 1967 report shows a net income of $27.2 million. That compares with net in come of $38.1 million for 1966 but in f.,. their letter to stockholders, John W. : Smith, chairman of the board, and W. Thomas Rice, president, point out “The 1967 results do not represent a normal year’s operations. The last f six months’ earnings were adversely affected by charges incident to merg- : . er . . The letter also says, “The current outlook is for a year of generally good business activity and a growth in Gross National Product, in which your Company should share. Coupled with anticipated benefits from merg er, this should make for an improve ment in earnings in 1968.” While the railroad is one of the town’s lifelines of production and commerce, it also is the source of con siderable inconvenience for local citi zens. It presents major problems for downtown traffic flow. The CN&L Railroad recently leas ed to the city a downtown area which the city is transforming into a badly needed free parking lot. We are ap preciative of that cooperation. How- i ever,, over one year ago, a Seaboard k m official said the company, which con trols CN&L, planned to remove one set of tracks from downtown Clinton. CLEANUP Special emphasis is going to be placed next week on cleaning up Clin ton. The “Clean-Up Week” is sponsor ed by the City Beautification Com mittee in cooperation with local gar den clubs. However, the success of a “Clean-Up Week” depends entirely on individual citizens doing their part to clean up their residences and busi ness places. “Clean-Up” is catching. You clean up your own bailiwick and your neigh bor will follow suit. Who will set the example on your block? It’ll probab ly be the fellow who has the most pride. 3 y r , a. FORTAS QUESTIONS Abe Fortas’ resignation as asso ciate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court may satisfy many Congress men but we don’t think it satisfies concerned citizens of this country. There are too many questions left unanswered and there should be a Congressional investigation to provide some answers. Prior to Fortas’ resignation, a couple of congressmen hinted they had more evidence on Fortas. The public deserves to know just how deep this affair goes. The investigation should not stop with Fortas. It should also probe into the financial involvements of all mem bers of the Supreme Court. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) is particularly anxious to look into the status of Justice William 0. Douglas. The senator referred specifically tio Douglas’ acceptance of $12,000 from the Albert Parvin Foundation which is linked with a Las Vegas gambling casino. These are times of great concern for law and order. That respect must start with the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court must be above any suspicion. Because of in dividual indiscretions, it is not now deserving of respect The only way to restore the court to its rightful place of respect is for the individual books to be thrown open, followed by appropriate actions in ridding the court of those who are not strong enough to serve. Se rvice Now, company officials tell us that promise hangs in the balance of a pro posed merger. If the merger goes through, there is a possibility Sea board not only will not eliminate the set of tracks but will strengthen the tracks so they can carry a heavier freight load. If there’s one thing Clinton does not need now, it’s longer freight trains. Seaboard’s money loss on passen ger service must be weighed against its more profitable services and the inconvenience those services cost mu nicipalities along the line. How much and what type services should a rail road give? Those are the questions which must be answered. Railroads are governed by the In terstate Commerce Commission and it is that commission which must rule on Seaboard’s request. We hope the commission considers the complete picture before it rules on the request. FAMILY REUNIONS Family reunions will play a major role next year during South Carolina’s Tricentennial Celebration. “Operation Reunion” is being initiated this spring by the South Carolina Tricentennial Commission. The goal is to encourage South Caro lina families to contact and invite rela tives home for reunions in the anni versary year of 1970. The commission plans to obtain a statewide list of reunions and invite family association officers to Columbia in early summer for a conference on how “Operation Reunion” can be made a rousing success. Guests will be pro vided Tricentennial background mate rial, calendars of events, and bro chures for use in inviting relatives home. Julian Bolick of Clinton, a mem ber of the S.C. Tricentennial Commis sion, has been charged with the re sponsibility of determining how many reunions are planned for Laurens County in 1970. If your family is interested in participating in “Operation Reunion”, contact Mr. Bolick. a cm ¥A> MSHIP TEST We noted an editorial in the Beck er County Record in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, that we believe is worth duplicating. It included a list of questions that might be found on the test given to immigrants desiring to become naturalized citizens. Here are some of the questions. The answers are below. What is your I.Q.? 1. Our form of government as guaran teed by the Constitution is: a. Democracy, b. Republic, c. Monarchy. 2. What is our national motto? a. In God We Trust, b. E Pluribus Unum. c. Liberty and Justice for All. • 3. When was the Constitution adopted? a. July 4, 1776. b. March 4, 1789. c. June 14, 1777. 4. How' are amendments to the Consti tution ratified? a. By popular vote of the peo ple. b. By state conventions or legislatures, c. By U. S. House and Senate. 5. Article I of the Constitution prohib its a levy of tax on income. How then is the income tax legal? a. It isn’t, b. Constitution was amended, c. Congress pass ed a law making it legal. 6. What is the Bill of Rights? a. The lirst ten amendments to the Constitution, b. A treaty with our allies, c. The Pre amble to the Constitution. 7. U.S. Senators have always been elect ed by the people. a. True b. False. 8. How many Justices on the Supreme Court? a. 9 b. 7 c. 12. 9. How many Senators are there in Congress ? a. 80 b. 100. c. 196. 10. How many Representatives are there in Congress? a. 435. b. 572. c. 280. 11. How many U.S. Senators has each state? a. 1. b. 2. c. 3. 12. A bill passed by both houses of Con gress may become a law without the President’s signature. a. True. b. False. (•otojSuoo Jo aenoq qova ui ajoa spaiq;-0Mj jstoi Xq pwwi h) iq'ii !*’oi iqv«*8 Jq z, Jtrg \ (LAX lueiupuamy) q sJJq * !q‘8 ivz !q*I ***®1 diqsuezijjo sasMsuy "Here's Another One" The Trucking Industry BY BABSON’S REPORTS INC. WELLESLEY HILLS, MASS.- Since the end of World War n, the truckers have made tremen dous progress, outpacing the traffic gains in overall trans portation by a substantial mar gin. This has been accomplished by diversion of traffic primarily from the rails. Today the truck ing industry is one of the nation’s largest, with revenues exceeding $50 billion annually. It provides employment for some 8,000,000 A friend last week, com menting on the hunger prob lem, said: "You know, Sena tor, if they want a job, they can get one. Tell them to go out and work and they will have something to eat.” In terestingly, this has been my approach for the past 20 years. I wanted to make sure of jobs, not handouts. I wanted to make certain that we didn’t destroy incentive by giving something for noth ing. I supported every law to fix responsibility. If there was a man in the house, we denied aid to the child on the basis that we were not going to re ward lazy people lying around having babies. As a member of the State House of Repre sentatives, I sponsored the Uniform Support of Depend ents Act whereby the aban doned mother could be given an award against the run away father, and then, if you could find the father in New York, arrest him and make him pay. No one has been more assiduous in developing jobs for South Carolina. I instituted the Development Board, the Technical Train ing Centers, and travelled end lessly to bring industry and jobs. And, on jobs, we have been successful. I mean to continue to work to fix respon sibility, prevent handouts, create jobs, and cut the rising welfare rolls. But what about the child? When I talk of hunger, children are princi pally what I have in mind. In this fast-moving world, there is not enough time or money to repair the oldster. But we can and should prevent the child from being broken. South Carolina is the young est state in the nation. With an age average of slightly under 21, South Carolina is a state of young power. Ac cording to the 1960 census, South Carolina had 142,000 families with an income of less than $2,000 a year. The same census points up that there are 206,638 children be tween the ages of 5 and 17 whose families make less than than $2,000 a year. What about the children under five years of age, whose families make less than $1,000? The best estimate I can find is 30,000. Think about that— 30,000 kids coming along— many without parents and in a household that receives less than $100 a month. I saw them in my travels to every section of the state. The friend who admonishes jobs, not handouts, is thinking persons and is a major consumer of goods and services. JOINING FORCES This is not a centralized in dustry. It is highly fractiona lized, involving more than 15,000 companies with only about 50 being publicly owned. Many pri vately held firms are still con trolled by the founding families or original owners. But, in re cent years there has been an in creasing trend toward consolida- about adults who are able to work What I am thinking about are these wretched kids, without sufficient food, without sufficient clothing, and without sufficient guid ance, who we blindly deny because we want to punish the parents. Once again, I, like you, have been trying to get at those parents for 20 years. But the children keep coming along, and our insist ing on ignoring them merely amounts to a punishing of ourselves. Dr. Charles P. Lowe, president of the Ameri can Society of Nutrition, testi fied before the Senate that the brain cells of the human being are formulated during the first four years of life. He said that there is as much as 20% less brain cell develop ment in many children be cause of the lack of nutrition. In our refusal to feed the hungry child because we oppose handouts, we inflict a lack of incentive and compe tence at birth and then later complain that they are in competent, that they are lazy. Blighted at birth, we complain later because they can’t hold a job. On top of this dilemma, there now comes militancy. If public officials, business leaders, and members of the chamber of commerce con tinue to ignore the hungry children, crying jobs, not handouts, while the militants recognize the problem of the hungry and offer help, what shall come from the ghetto? A Stokely Carmichael or an Abraham Lincoln? I agree the problem is more than food. The child must be given train ing with a day-care center or kindergarten program, in struction in personal hygiene, and other assistance. We can’t afford some 50,000 mili tant and hostile teenagers roaming the streets of South Carolina 10 years from now just because we insisted on trying to make the irrespon sible parent responsible, while all along the hungry child was ignored. The job can be dond— without raising taxes. It’s being done today in Beaufort and Jasper. The local partici pation and leadership of these two counties have been recog nized nationally, and this is the ingredient that is neces sary for the success of any program. We hope to spread this program soon to every county, but, In the meantime, let us not fool ourselves by responding to hungry children with the cry . . . jobs, not handouts. tion or merger. There seems little doubt that this trend will continue as the participants strive to extend their operating authorities and acquire estab lished and professional manage ment teams. OTHER GROWTH ELEMENTS Mergers and consolidations are not the only factors respon sible for the industry’s growth. Our population has moved to su burbia, away from the traditional rail centers. Decentralization of industrial production has also led to plants being built away from rail centers; and simultaneously our federal highway system, which is well along toward com pletion, has enabled other truck ers to serve far-reaching mar kets. OVERHEAD PRESSURES At the same time that revenues have grown, expenses have also increased, thereby resulting in a steady pressure on profit mar gins. The truckers’ biggest ex pense is labor; wages and fringe benefits amount to some two- thirds of operating costs in com parison with 50% for railroads and 40% for airlines. Since 1963, the trucking industry has been ab sorbing increases in labor ex pense of about 5% a year. Through technological advances, it has been able to absorb these by use of larger equipment and tan dem trailers. TURNAROUND The trucking industry has shown good profit improvement and, barring any unforeseen de velopments, the year as a whole should be very favorable. Aiding this year’s results has been the rate relief granted by the ICC, which will more than offset the wage boosts. This, plus a gener ally stronger economy, labor ac cord, and increased freight movement, are all contributing factors to this year’s earnings improvement for the truckers. The success of the truckers is dependent on a healthy economy. Should there be a slackening, the trucking industry’s growth rate would level off. But, should such a- slowdown occur, the Babson staff feels it would be only a temporary situation. . .not per manently damaging to this in dustry. On the whole, we feel the truck ing industry is in a favorable position, and we are optimistic concerning both its near- and long-term outlook. As more and more companies merge, the sur viving firms should be in much stronger positions and better able to cope with the narrow profit margins of this cyclical busi ness. Also, unlike the situation in the rails, the Interstate Com merce Commission is not like ly to become a roadblock to future combinations. ADVICE Presently, Babson’s Reports is maintaining “hold” advices on the better quality issues In the group which have shown good earnings growth over the years and whose management Is highly regarded In the industry. These include: Mc Lean Trucking, Pacific Inter mountain Express, National City Lines, Cooper Jarrett, and Ryder System, Inc. Several of these have been recommended by us during recent years. Currently, we favor the purchase the com mon stock of Consolidated Frieghtways near 33. UNITED STATES SENATOR ERNEST F. HOUINGS REPORTS TO SOUTH CAROLINA Children 2-B—THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C. f May 22, 1969 SENATOR STROM l THURMOND REPORTS TO THE PEOPLE THE FORTAS AFFAIR Mr. ForUa haa betrayed the public truat and reaignation is the appropriate response. Noth ing ao befits his tenure on the Court as his leaving it. Member ship on the Supreme Court should require the highest stand ards of professional and per sonal conduct. Given his career prior to his elevation to the Court, Mr. Fortas should never have been appointed in the first place. NOT ISOLATED As became evident during last year’s hearings on the nom ination of Mr. Fortas to be Chief Justice of the United States, the Wolfson incident was not an isolated case. Rather, it fits in with the pattern devel oped in those hearings, a pat tern which so shocked the Sen ate that his nomination for Chief Justice was withdrawn. Although all public servants ought to have a finely-tuned sensitivity to questions of pro priety, the standards required of a judge are more rigorous than those required of other men. The canons of judicial eth ics require judges to be free not only from impropriety, but also from the appearance of impro priety. Any additional obliga tions s judge takes must neither interfere nor appear to interfere with his duty. In the rarified atmosphere of judicial objectiv ity, appearances are as definitive as deeds. The Wolfson-Fortas affair has resulted in a fresh shock. Those who defended Mr. Fortas last year through a series of com promising revelations no doubt did so because they were stand ing their ground in a political battle. With each revelation, many thought that the ultimate had been reached. Since no hint of the Wolfson relationship sur faced at that time, its exposure two weeks ago has greatly un dermined confidence that the end has been reached. Significantly, no member of Congress today speaks up in defense of Justice Fortas. CHRONOLOGY The chronology of events, as detailed in Life magazine, is crucial to a proper perspective. The following points appear to be critical: 1. The $20,000 fee was ten dered and received three months after Mr. Fortas had ascended to the high court bench, and fif teen months after the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an investigation into Wolfson’s dealings. 2. The fee was a large per centage of the Foundation’s dis bursements. 3. Mr. Fortas continued his relationship with the Wolfson Family Foundation more than six months after the SEC inves tigation of Wolfson had become public knowledge, including s personal visit to a meeting of the Foundation trustees. 4. Mr. Fortas continued his relationship with the Wolfson Family Foundation more than three months after Wolfson was indicted in two separate cases on stock dealings which realized $7.5 million for the participants. 5. Mr. Fortas did not return the $20,000 fee until December 22, 1966, only one week before the deadline for eliminating the transaction from taxable income for that year. This chronology gives the appearance that the desire to eliminate the transac tion from tax records was s stronger motivation than the desire to avoid impropriety. The press further reports that Wolf son told the FBI that the $20,- 000 fee was to be paid annually. NOT ALONE Nor is Mr. Fortas alone in the flexibility of his personal ethics. Since 1966, Justice William O. Douglas has been accepting $12,000 annually from the Par vin Foundation, whose assets are based upon stock in gam bling casinos. It must not pass without no tice that the tax lawyer who advised the Parvin Foundation was none other than Justice Fortas’ wife, Carolyn Agger Fortas. In a larger sense this episode reflects not merely on the repu tation of one man but upon a concept of the role of the Su preme Court in American gov ernment. In recent years the Court has increasingly become a political rather than a judi cial body. The result has been that as certain justices have abandoned traditional 'principles*' of Constitutional law, they have, also abandoned the traditional isolation expected of a justice and the high standards of ethics associated with service on the Court. (not prepared or printed at government empeneeI Medical BY THURMAN SENSING Executive Vice President Southern States Industrial Council Until very recently, the U.S. public assumed that the only sig nificant threat to quality medical care for the Arnerican people was increased federal v control of medicine. Many people in this country are mindful of how Bri tish medicine has deteriorated since the advent of the Welfare State under the Labor Party. But an even more direct and serious threat is emerging in the form of a ruthless unionization drive to enlist hospital workers and to beat private and public hospitals to their knees. A strike that should receive national attention, on account of the threat it poses to American medical care, is the stike called by the Drug and Hospital Work ers Union against the Medical College of South Carolina. It is not a commonplace strike by any means, for it involves a joint offensive with the South ern Christian Leadership Con ference (SCLC), headed by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy—the pro test leader who conducted the no torious Poor People’s Campaign in the nation’s capital last sum mer. SCLC has been conducting a civil disobedience campaign In the streets of Charleston, S. C., where the Medical College is lo cated, in an attempt to force the State of South Carolina to enter into collective bargaining with the union. The National Labor Relations Act and its amendments exempt state and local government from its requirements. Thus South Carolina is under no obligation to negotiate with the union, which has notoriously leftwing leader ship. Gov. Robert E. McNair has refused to deal with the union, and the South Carolina Legisla ture has backed him up in a spe cial resolution. The Governor has rightly pointed out that recogni tion of and negotiation with a pub lic employe union would disrupt every department and agency of the state and plunge South Carolina into debt And now Walter Renther, head Threat of the United Automobile Work ers, has got in the act. In a fiery speech before the strik ers, he presented them with a check for $10,000--and promised more if they needed it. Every state has a vital stake in the outcome of the dispute. The union and SCLC believe that if they crack South Carolina, they will be able to crack other sfetes. The union aims at nothing less than an iron grip on U.S. hos pitals. “This campaign,* syndi cated columnistVictorRieselhas said, “will shake many of the cit ies in which are virtually all of the land’s 7,200 hospitals.* If America’s hospitals become a union domain, it is clear what will happen to American medi cal care; it will deteriorate to an almost unthinkable leveL A hos pital is like a ship. It has to be run by professionals and operat ed on a taut, disciplined basis. Hospitals have to move fast on orders issued by doctors and ad ministrators so as to accomplish life-saving functions. If the Drug and Hospital Work ers Union gets control of the na tion’s medical centers, it will have a whip hand over doctors and hospital administrators. Doctors would have no assurance that orders would be carried out promptly, if at all. Indeed the country should understand that the likelihood is that patients would be left unattended at times of critical need. What thoughtful citizen wants to be treated in a hospital where the decisions are made by union bosses, not by medical profess ionals? Yet unless the public speaks out and condemns union ization of hospitals, ruthless union leaders may have their way. If it is necessary to have long, expensive confrontations with the agitators of SCLC and the Drug and Hospital Workers Union, the public must not back down. Sur render to agitators, surrender to the lawlessness of civil dis obedience campaigners, would live to haunt the nation and play havoc with the quality medical care that has been developed in the United States in the 20th cen tury.