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* . _ I HELP FOR SENIOR CITIZENS ■u-V There's & piece of legislation now under consideration by the South Carolina House of Representatives whfch should be of considerable inter est to persons over 65 years of age. Rep. Isadore L o u r i e of Richland County has introduced an amendment to get sales tax exemption on prescrip tion medicines for the elderly. -.He won the first round last week when the House voted 77-22 against a motion to table the amendment. ; :Lourie said the exemption would cai)Be a $320,000 loss in revenue for th& state but he pointed out that out of approximately 180,000 senior citi zens in South Carolina, 123,000 live belbw the poverty line. He said 60 per ceiit of the senior citizens in the state hive a personal taxable income of $650 or less per year. Rep. Lourie has proposed a sales tax exemption on all prescription medicine for persons over 65. when they have a doctor’s prescription cer tifying their age. To make up the $320,000 loss in revenue, Lourie said that, if neces sary, he may propose a tax on the gross proceeds from sales of vending machine products. We don’t know why Lourie singled out vending fachines and we don’t nec essarily agree with tapping vending machines to make up the loss in reve nue. However, we think Rep. Lourie's proposal deserves serious considera tion. \We believe the state can find a revenue source to make up the deficit. Our senior citizens, who have made so many contributions to our society and to our progress, deserve a tax break. In our inflationary economy, senior citizens are the ones who have been hit hardest by spiraling prices. Many of them live on meager, fixed incomes and their buying power has dropped drastically in recent years. WHAT DID THEY LEARN? U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond will never be accused of lacking courage. Because of his conservative philoso phy, he isn’t a particularly popular person on many college campuses. But thjat apparently doesn’t disturb him. He accepts speaking engagements at colleges when ever possible. And he doesn’t pull any punches in his camp us speeches. Last Sunday, a group of hecklers at Drew University in Madison, N. J., pelted Sen. Thurmond with marshmal lows during an address there. It was the third time the senator from South Carolina has been thusly treated on college campuses. According to the Associated Press report, “A group of students, some wearing sheets and peace pendants and others in Afro-Asian garb, pelted the conservative senator from South Carolina when he said, ‘Judge Hoff man put up with more than anyone in this country ever has while presiding at a court of law’.” He was speaking of the Chicago Conspiracy trial. Later, he was pelted again when he said the Vietnam conflict could have been resolved at some earlier point within 60 to 90 days through the uai of air and sea power. 'iTlm AP article doesn’t say but we CONFLICT OF wonder—was it the same group which pelted the senator both times. If so, why were they still there? Why weren’t they ushered out after their first demonstration of the fact that they are incapable of listening to a viewpoint contrary tx> theirs? One of the marks of an educated person is his or her ability to listen, with an open mind, to opposing view points. Even if you don’t agree with someone, aren’t you interested in the reasons wny he holds such a belief? We also wonder what happens to the unruly students after their out bursts. We have seen no reports of any disciplinary action being taken, other than one report of a college of fering its apologies. If a college has no control over its students, why do they invite speakers who might be received with a total lack of basic courtesy? A college is supposed to be a place of learning. What did the Drew Uni versity students learn from the recent incident? Apparently they learned that if you disagree with someone, you interrupt and try to embarrass him. And if no disciplinary action is taken against the demonstrators, they learned that anarchists ure in control of the university. . : The time-tested and historic meth od of education in the wetsern world has been to acquaint students with the facts and methods of learning with the hope that they will then be better equipped to determine truth. But un less something is done quickly, we will witness a gross perversion of educa tion in the state of New York. The background is this: General Electric was being struck by a coalition otypowerful unions which had the full bilking of the AFL-CIO. The union called upon all memberss of organ ised labor to support the workers who had walked out of G.E. even to the point of sponsoring a nationwide boy- c#tt of G.E. products. V: The United Federation of Teachers ii^ New York City was called on lor its contribution. S i m p I v put, the teachers in the New York City school system were to indoctrinate ojle million students of that city ijrth the union’s line. The UFT was rafailed “lesson plans” to 100 thousand cjf its members to be passed on to the children of New York. The “lesson iflana”, of course, represent the un ion’s view of the universie. It was slant ed in the worst possible way, full of f; innuendo, half-truths and distortions. It is part of the American Way that all parties have the right to dis seminate their views to t h e public. But, it is obvious that the classroom, the citadel cf free and unbiased learn ing, is not the place to do it. To foist upon these young minds the preju dices of organized labor is without question an invasion of the education al process. What is even more galling is the fact that a labor union feels it can usurp the power to determine the cur riculum which will be taught in the nation’s schools. This right is specifi cally delegated to local school lioards. Most educators in this country have fought long and hard to preserve freedom in the schools, fighting against attempts at indoctrination by special interest groups and political extrem ists. In fact, just recently the UFT expressed its outrage at an attempt to introduce highly politicalized les sons on Black Power to t h e class rooms. The juxtaposition of this com mendable action with their current ef fort only shows the hypocracy involv ed. MATTER OF | Noting the brazen attempt of a $eachers union” (the United Federa- o# Teachers in New York City) the school children with union-prepared material di- against the General Electric , we are somewhat intrigued similar misdirected attempt by to “educate” our school chil- in the art of sex techniques. It to os that such proposals are what our school children we find some pro in the field who agree. H. Kalish in PRIORITIES though the school budgets of Chicago have nearly doubled in the last ten years, reading tests in the Chicago schools have shown a steady down ward trend. The same, he said, is true in the New York schools where the school costs have doubled in the last six years. Furthermore, in the Mont gomery County area adjacent to Washngton, where costs have skyrock eted from $680.00 per pupil to ova* $1,000 per pupil since 1966, reading, writing and comprehension skills have Professor Kalish suggests that, Mid» from the moral questions raised, tiMMito have been pressuring school to introdacsL jpourses in would be * :•« Leapfrog Parson Jones Says Jesus Didn't Call Media Dear Mr. Publisher: I reckon you saw where our congregation made the headlines this past week. The local news paper had a story about one of our good deeds. A fella’s house burned to the ground in our neigh borhood and our congregation voted to help him build it back. We decided to make this move at a deacons meeting. Hezekiah pointed out that this family had lost their house and needed some help. Right away Big Slim said we oughta help ’em re-build it. Brother George objected and swore we didn’t have that kind of money. But Big Slim showed how such a project would be good publicity for the church, and good publicity is just like money in the hand. Well sir, everybodies ear perked up when Slim said that. “How’s folks gonna knowa- bout this project?” asked Brother George. That was a good question and Slim had the answer. He showed how we could call in the News Media and they would take it from there. Shucks, there’d be pictures, interviews, and everything. The deacons agreed - and that’s what happened. Ever since that meeting the news folks have been right with us. They’ll follow us from the money col lection, the the hammering, to the painting, to the moving in. So - we’re following Jesus - helping others. Only thing is, I have a hard time seeing Jesus calling in the News Media to cover the feeding of the 5,000; or the healing of the lepers; or the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Can you imagine Jesus callingthe local paper and saying, “Would you send down a reporter? I’m gcona feed a bunch of hungry folks". I can’t. Fact is, he always told people, "don’t tell anybody what I did." One thing Jesus didn’t do - toot his own horn. And he said what we do to help others oughta be done in secret. Excuse me, Mr. Publisher, but I gotta stop now. A reporter is on my front porch. He’s come to get a picture of me in over alls. Parson Jones * * * STRICTLY FRESH Be perfectly honest with yourself if you want to have a most depressing experi ence. • • • Never be late for an ap pointment and you’ll spend an awful lot of time waiting for the other party to show. * t * There are over 700 tor nadoes annually in this country—not counting the big winds encountered at • • Papa Doc BY LENNART PEARSON Head Librarian Presbyterian College Papa Doc; the Truth about Haiti Today. By Bernard Diederich and A1 Burt. Introduction by Graham Greene. 393 pages. McGraw-Hill. 1969. To most Americans, Haiti is little more than a name—one of the so-called “banana republics” somewhere in the Caribbean. In fact, Haiti, with a French-speaking population of dE, million blacks and mulattoes, shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, and is located just to the east of Cuba. Its president, Dr. Francois Duvalier, “Papa Doc”, is the subject of this chilling book by two journalists who know Haiti too well, having been expelled in 1963. Duvalier, a medical doctor, got his start as as sistant administrator of a program for controlling the spread of yaws, a crippling tropical disease. Becoming national Director of Public Health in 1948, he was able from this position to learn by observation all about palace intrigues, and finally to leap to the presidency in 1957 in the best tradi tion of Haitian political treachery. The new regime got off to a shaky start, but Duvalier moved quickly to eliminate opposition by means of the usual measures: emergency powers voted by a packed legislature, destruction of news paper officers, secret police round-ups of prominent citizens—all explained, of course, as necessary for “national security”. Within seven months, Haiti had become a dictatorship. Market-place bomb ings, gang-style killings, public executions, purges - and deportations, were indications of how primitive and bloody it would all become. With amazing skill, Duvalier used the United States fc-r his own purposes. U. S. Marines were invited to train his military officers, an arrange ment which gave a public impression of U. S. sup port for his regime. Dollars given and loaned for domestic programs were cynically siphoned off for palace pockets while Haitians were relentlessly pressured for contributions to welfare programs which never materialized. At present, “one of every five Haitian babies dies before it reaches three months; life expec tancy is forty; 80% of pre-school and school chil dren suffer from malnutrition; 95% of children receive less than a sixth-grade education; agricul tural production continues to fall.” \\Trile U. S. support for Haiti has cooled, American tourism is a valuable source of revenue for Duvalier, and Haiti’s vote in the OAS and the UN is still useful. From time to time, insurgents attempt to overthrow “Papa Doc”, but fail as much for reasons of disagreement among themselves as for lack of material. Meanwhile, the country con tinues its steady regress. Overwhelmed by rhet oric, captive to the mystique voudou (which flour ishes in Haiti), and terrified by the Tenton Ma- coutes— Papa Doc’s private terror organization— the citizens in 1964 made Duvalier president for life! LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN U.S. J250,977 DISEASES OF HEART & BLOOD VESSELS 310.983 CANCER ACCIDENTS | 56,892 PNEUMONIA & 119,469 INFLUENZA DIABETES" 65 (frtttnn of utortftf 1/ 492 M DEATHS AT All ASES ! i DEATHS HEED* 85 TEAIS sotmo LATEST AVAILABLE FIGURES <l>*.7> LROM NATIONAL OEUIL Of VITAL STATISTICS CHART ■aderscores magnitude of health problem asso ciated with the heart aad blood vessel diseases, which, at all ages, are responsible for more than 1,000,000 deaths yearly la the United States, or more than all other causes combined. * 2-B—THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C., Feb. 26, 1970 Racial Balance In Industry? BY THURMAN SENSING Executive Vice President Southern States Industrial Council The requirement of racial ba lance being imposed on selected school districts in the nation is, most probably, only the entering wedge of a profoundly disruptive concept. If public schools are forced to accept racial balance formulas, how long will it be before every business and indus try in the nation is required to accept the same thing? Some people may think that such a requirement would never be imposed on business organi zations because of the patent absurdity involved. Only a few years ago, Americans should re call, the idea of racial balance in a public school would have seemed too ridiculous to consid er. In Atlanta, however, the courts have decreed that teaching staffs, including coaches, must be 57 per cent black. A simi lar requirement is being made in other cities and regions. the very opposite of what the federal courts have said they sought to achieve, namely an ab sence of discrimination. Students and teachers now are to be singl ed out on a basis of race for assignment to specific schools. Thus, almost 16 years after the 1954 school integration ruling, the courts have come almost full circle. Overly zealous appli cation of the integration goal -- the substitution of integration per se for traditional educational ob jectives -- have led the courts up a blind alley. Americans, irrespective of race, creed or color, are deep ly dismayed at the racial balance orders of the courts. In several cities, black students have pro tested assignment to schools with large white majorities. Black parents have protested the busing of their children to achieve racial balance. White students and par ents likewise are objecting. Many teachers may decide to seek other careers rather than try to teach in schools where there is pro found unhappiness and discontent. The so-called Philadelphia Plan represents the first move towards racial balance in indus try. Contractors in that city -- and a number of other cities -- will be required to hire workers on a racial quota basis. The con struction unions are furious -- and, for once, they are right. Quo tas in schools or industry make no sense whatsoever. Vice PresidentSpiroT. Agnew, speaking m Chicago in mid- February, condemned the qu 4a notion, even though the Nixon administration subscribes to it in backing the Philadelphia Plan. As Mr. Agnew pointed out, no one would want to have a doctor who was accepted at a melical college because of a quota sys tem instead of merit. 7 he federal courts and the De partment of Health, Education and Welfare have stirred up a hor nets’ nest in trying to impose racial balance on the schools and in devising attendance formu las that involve busing. Los Angeles, the West Coast metropolis, is ooe of the cities currently under court order to apportion students and teachers •n a racial balanceformula.Gov. Ronald Reagan has termed the plan an absurdity. The taxpayers of Los Angeles will have to spend millions of dollars to implement the plan. The racial balance concept is The tragedy is the Supreme Court, the White House and the Congress have not recognized and accepted the fact that freedom of choice school attendance plans meet every possible fairness test and should be the law of the land. In those school districts where freedom of choice plans were in effect last year, there was a clearly discernible move towards stabilization. Both racial groups in the country were recognizing that freedom of choice plans off ered a reasonable approach to a solution of the protracted school crisis in the nation. The Supreme Court chose, mstead, to listen to the strident voices of militants and to the extremists in Con gress, HEW and the media -- and moved to strike down freed om of choice and demand unitary school districts based on racial balancing and busing. S > the stage has been set for mu:h great unhappiness and di- visiveness. This time, the un happiness and division apparent ly won’t be confined to the South ern states but will be experienced in other parts of the country. The courts thus are threafebfeg the Republic with a pe*Mrt.rif great stress and strife. The Supreme Court, Congress and HEW simply must come to their senses if the United States is to retain domestic tranquility and if the educational system is not to collapse. Minding Your Business Depreciation BY JOHN J, SUTHERLAND Certified Public Accountant Depreciation is the art of di viding the cost of a tangible as set into accounting periods so that its cost may be deducted as an expense over the useful life of the asset. Depreciation should not be con fused with obsolescence which is the reduction in economic value of an asset because of techno logical improvements. Obsoles cence may give rise to a deduc tion through sale at a loss or abandonment Depreciation should not be confused with a- mortizatlon which is the expira tion of the cost of an intangible asset A tangible asset is one that can be physically touched. An intangible asset has no phy sical being but nevertheless has some future value. Some exam ples are prepaid insurance, pre paid franchise rights, intangible drilling costs and product devel opment costs. There are four principal me thods of depreciation recognized by the tax authorities, all of which can produce substantially different tax deductions in any given year, but, of course, over the useful life produce the same total deductions. The simplest and easiest me thod is the straight line (Si. L) which is to divide the cost by the useful life and deduct this amount each year. There fore, each year the same amount of depreciation would be claim ed. Two other methods called ac celerated methods are recogniz ed. As the term implies, the earlier years you can claim more depreciation which diminishes in each later year until in the lat ter years the depreciation de duction is not very large at all. One of the accelerated methods is called Doable Declining Balance DDB), which is to say that the first year the percent age allowed is doubted, but each year the depreciation claimed is deducted from cost and the per centage applied to this reduced figure. Under this method the depreciation expense is reduced very quickly and soon becomes less than vould be allowed under the St L method. The tax authori ties will allow a taxpayer to switch from DDB to SLL at any time, so many businesses start off with DDB and switch to St L for maximum tax benefits. Another accelerated method is the Sum of the Years Digits (SYD). This is a rather complicated me thod which involves adding up all of the years of the useful life. For instance, from one to 10 equals 55 and then a fraction is created by inverting the years-- for example, 10/55 the first year, 9/55 the second year, 8/55 the third year and so on down to 1/55 the last year. All of these frac tions are applied to the cost of the asset There is no provision for switching to St.L without IRS’ permission. However, a mathematician may note that after the first year the depre ciation is generally greater than would be allowed under DDB. The fourth method recognized is lumped under the heading, “Any other method which can be shown to provide a reasonable allow ance when consistently applied." This would seem to leave an opportunity for such methods as a per mite basis on trucks and autos, or a machine-hour basis on equipment and such other fancy methods as a taxpayer may envi sion. However, the burden of proving the reasonableness would be unon the user. The method elected is the tax payer’s choice on each and every asset during the first year that depreciation is allowed. As will be noted, the choice made will affect subsequent tax years and one should be careful in making the choice. in*