Page 4 EDITORIAL Starting Place While it’s true that spring has made a pretty dismal showing so far this year, it’s probably equally true that it will arrive. So perhaps it’s not too soon to start thinking about the legislation enacted last month which provides a nifty boon to communities eyeing the time-consuming task of spring clean-up. The new legislation provides for the establish- ment of an ‘‘environmental improvement: com pact’’ between two or more municipalities and would consist of a single board empowered to take over local government environmental functions involving the municipalities. The board’s members would be elected and it would have the power to levy a real estate tax, sue, enter into contracts and possess eminent domain. In short, it could quite neatly relieve overworked township supervisors and borough councilmen of some of the responsibilities which they often have little time to carry out. In addition to serving the environmental needs of the community, the joint board could provide a testing ground for other cooperative community ventures. Joint police and fire fighting service, for example, are still goals toward which certain Back Mountain citizens are working. A successful cooperative environmental board might serve to convince the doubting Thomases that joint municipal services are feasible. z Finally, an environmental improvement com- pact such as the one outlined in the new legislation might be a natural outgrowth of the recently for- med Dallas Area Environmental Group. Com- prised of volunteers from various service organiza- tions throughout the Back Mountain area, the new group is dedicated to improving the quality of our environment. : It seems like a logical starting place, doesn’t it? Loco Weed In attempting to eradicate some of the legal absurdities surrounding the use of marijuana, the National Marijuana Commission failed to come up with an equitable working solution to the question of marijuana use. What the report tried to do was overcome the brutality of making felons out of the millions of avowed users of the weed. In doing so the commis- sion recognized the relative harmlessness of smoking dope, although it did point out that research concerning the psychological and physical effects of cannabis is as yet inconclusive. We agree completely with these two points and therefore find it hard to accept the commission’s ultimate recommendations. By legalizing the private use of pot while maintaining penalties for selling, growing, transporting, etc., we would be accepting a double standard as hypocritically contentious as the stiuation we are trying to over- come. What the commission is saying is that we can smoke pot as long as we don’t acquire it, thus ap- proving of the demand but condemning the supply. When questioned recently about this rather blatant inconsistency one member of the commission could only reply blithely, ‘“That’s your problem,” washing his hands of the dirty dilemna. It is just this dilemna which we must overcome if marijuana is to be dealt with justly. It would come as a surprise to us if, after exhaustive research, marijuana were found to be totally harmless. Most rational people, however, are by now convinced that pot is not the demon spirit our laws were designed to vanquish. Whatever threat there is in marijuana use cannot be worth the criminalization of 24 million people. A law is effective only insofar as it is obeyed and respected by the people it governs. Itis time we admitted the ineffectiveness of marijuana laws as well as their cruelty. Cigarettes cause cancer, but they are perfectly legal. What does marijuana cause that makes it more dangerous than tobacco? We cannot keep putting people in jail because of the undefined possibility of danger. If the weed is more dangerous than cigarettes there must be proof, but in the meantime legalizing some aspects of marijuana requires legalizing all. Changes By Eric Mayer It comes along dependably year after year. Department stores, decked out in’ paper flowers use Mendelssohn’s “spring song’ to help advertise their sales, the same grade schoolers who will soon be cutting out their long competition to see who can be first to show up at school unencumbered by a heavy coat, baseball season begins, summer jackets are dug out of closets or found to have been mysteriously lost. But for all its dependability spring usually manages to show up when it’s least expected. Gray and somber winter with its cross weather has kept everyone in suspense for months. The brief days have been unable to thaw the frozen ground and during the long dark nights, very often, inches of snow have crept down over the countryside. Warm days at the beginning of March proved to be false alarms followed by sleet and cold. Even the bedraggled robin that sat in the leafless bushes in the back yard had obviously passed the winter here and was no omen of relief. But then one morning, when it seems that winter is intending to drag on forever, the front lawn is covered with robins, fat and well off, having wintered in the south, and there can be no doubt that spring has finally arrived. The breeze that rustles last year’s brittle leaves is suddenly warm rather than cold. The snowdrops that pushed up through the ice weeks ago are visited by a honeybee—oddly enough since the only other flower on the lawn is a yellow crocus on the opposite side of the house. In the woods the bees are already active, gathering sap. Leaves covering the forest floor have been bleached. The ground under them is spongy and here and there water, running off the mountain, seeps to the surface forming transistory puddles. Sunlight sparkles whitely, jewel-like from the glossy, normally green tops of laurel leaves. Dead branches, trimmed out by the weight of the snow, litter the ground. The spring, reduced to a trickle in the summer heat, is overflowing. It splashes out of the spring house in a small stream that Washington Goodbye, little Form 1040. Nestle tight, W-2, Copy A. May you fall among friends, Line 16 (‘‘Add lines 12, 13c, 14 and 15°’). More: power : to. you, Exemptions (*‘Yourself, Spouse, Dependent Children’). May’ you grow and multiply, Itemized Deductions (‘‘Total cash contributions, carry- over from prior years, miscellaneous deductions for child care, alimony, union dues, casualty losses’). And awe and salutation to the puckish inventor of Part IV instructions (‘ ‘Figure your tax on the amount of Line 50 by using Tax Rate Schedule X, Y or Z, or if applicable, the alternative tax form from Schedule D, income averaging from ‘Schedule G, or maximum tax from Form 4726’). The great income tax flow rises like maple sap in spring. Surely the man who picked April 15 for the tax deadline was a 1040 reflect that Oliver Wendell Holmes called taxes ‘‘the price we pay for civilization.”” And recall Robert Frost— “Never ask of money spent-Where the spender thinks it went. ‘ Nobody was ever meant-To remember or invent-What he did with every cent.” The tide of estimated individual income taxes this year is $93,900,000,000. Your drop may be small but even a few hundred dollars are welcome; it will help buy gasoline, maybe, for that airplane that bombs Viet- nam. We took a naturalist friend to see tax Footnotes by J.R. Freeman In this space two weeks ago we discussed the merits of two proposed House amend- ‘ments to H.R. 11896 which would have strengthened the lower chamber’s version of an already passed Senate bill to curb water pollution in the nation by 1985. Unfortunately, the two amendments were defeated in Congress last week, (both Rep. Joseph McDade (R) of Lackawanna County and Daniel Flood (D) of Luzerne County voted against the amendments) and the weak House bill passed. The matter will now be settled in a Senate-House conference, where undoubtedly the strong Senate version will be weakened. ; The tragedy of the legislation is that it is weaker than existing law when it comes to water pollution control. Concern for the en- vironment has swept the country more liberally, engulfing both young and old alike, with enlistment of support second to no issue. But Congress, it would appear, at least in the lower chamber, has not awakened to this fact. And this point could be turned into a real study of how much in control of the country big business really is. These amendments to H.R. 11896 were strongly supported, for example, by an illustrious list of 24 environmental groups, including Common Cause, Friends of the Earth, The Izaak Walton League, the League of Women Voters of the U.S., the National Consumers Union, National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, Sport Fishing & iN ¢ house. Flowing along its narrow course it hits crystal high notes and hollow low notes as it makes its way over rocks and roots. In the early morning a few dry weeds, hanging down into the water, are weighted with ice. In the flower beds, where last year’s plants lie gray and crushed in a fragile, lace- like matting, green sprouts struggle up into the suddenly mild sunlight. The air is filled with the smell of fresh thawed earth. In the evening, when Venus sits on the horizon like a miniature, blue-white moon, birds sing from distant, darkened trees. How long have they been singing? Have they just arrived or, being unexpected, gone unnoticed? Spring is in the air, they say. You can almost hear the sap flowing. There may be some truth in these cliches. Certainly spring brings with it a kind of electricity, a spark of life after the lifeless monotony of winter. Nature awakes, throws off its cerements of dry, dead leaves and sere and yellow weeds. Trees bring forth millions of new leaves— enough to shadow whole mountains all summer long. Countless flowers grow and bloom, incredibly in a matter of weeks. Endless miles of roots burrow into the loosened soil seeking out its abundant moisture and branches strain toward the sun. What tremendous energy is being unleashed! Every growing thing, each sky reaching pine, each maple, each oak, each shaggy barked apple, every weed, flower, blade of grass is drawing up nourishment from the earth, transforming water and raw materials into cellulose, into wood and bark, into incessant growth. A wonder that the ground doesn’t tremble beneath our feet with such energy; a wonder that the air is not sweltering like the air of a 2 vast factory or filled with a ceaseless clamor. But nature fashions all the life a new year With no more noise than the song of a robin or the murmur of a stream. : But I wonder if all this acggity can go on totally unheeded. Maybe the éxhilaration of spring comes not merely from the joy of hearing a bird sing or the nearly forgotten pleasure of the warm sunlight, but from more powerful though subliminal sensations: Perhaps we somehow feel, through the complex and little understood web of life, the strivings of all the countless living things that surround us. Maybe in a way we do hear the rush of a sap and the creak of growing limbs; Perhaps, in such a manner, spring offers us: an endless source of energy to draw on, a; source of strength and hope at the end of each. long winter. AW NN A headquarters, and some academic joke seemed to convulse him. He rubbed his hands at the surrounding yews and explained that the botanical name for the tree is ‘‘taxus.” The Dictionary added, starkly, ‘The yews, the family taxacedae, ‘all ‘with a poisonous Poisonous or not, what other rite draws the nation closer together? The US income tax ritual is the wonder of the world. The cheapness of collection is a marvel; it costs only 51 cents to collect every $100. European countries fall back on regressive sales taxes (value-added) in part because everybody cheated on income taxes. We still rely on them. Income taxes demand faith. Yes, there is still a belief in America that neighbors are honest and are paying their taxes as you are going to. If that belief disappears (and it is as intangible as gossamer) the whole system collapses. Today it is a question of whether it will last. And what is killing this very precious tradition is not the suspicion of deliberate dishonesty but the belief that the lawmakers have themselves willfully or unwittingly scattered the tax laws with loopholes that make them unfair, and produce an opportunity for widespread, legalized dishonesty. Income taxes were used by both sides in the Civil War, then dropped. President Cleveland tried to revive them in 1893. “Socialism, communism, and devilism!”’ exclaimed Ohio Sen. John (Anti-trust law) Sherman. Another senator saw the thing as the work of ‘‘the professors with their books, Institute, Trout Unlimited, the United Auto Workers, the United Steel Workers, and the Wilderness Society, along with a host of other national organizations. But the amendments were heartedly voted down by members of the House. During the three-day floor fight, several obvious lobbying schemes came out. First, it was clear that the Administration strongly opposed passage of the two strengthening amendments. From the White House came a flood of top echelon attacks, directed mainly through the House Public Works Committee, which drafted the bill initially. Secondly, and more important, was a move by the National Association of Manufacturers which called on the presidents of 20,000 big comapnies to urge Congressmen to stick with the ‘‘more sensible approach’ of the bill without amendments. In passing the House version, Congress eliminated the 1985 clause, and rather set up the mechanic: for a two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, which in the long-run leaves the matter up to a future Congress. The House version which passed also eliminated citizen suits against polluters and against the government to see that water pollution laws are enforced. And what's key in the affair is that the Senate version, which contains these vital clauses, passed the upper the socialists with their schemes, the anar- chists with their bombs.” Democrats went ahead anyway and passed the iniquity in 1894 (with a two percent rate) and the Supreme Court tossed it out. Then after 15 years, a funny thing happened. The opponents told reformers, ‘Sure, go ahead and amend the Constitution and we’ll help you (chuckle)!” They were sure the states wouldn’t ratify. By an ironic twist the adversaries helped launch it, the states ratified it, and it became the 16th Amendment in 1913. Rates: 1 to 7 percent. It helped finance two world wars. Rates soared. Idealists cheered. Here was the in- strument that redistributed income; a noble device. At the peak, the theoretical rates on the rich reached 94 percent. Social historian Frederick Lewis Allen, 20 years ago, voiced the conventional wisdom, “We had brought about a virtually automatic redistribution from the well-to-do to the less well-to-do.” Nonsense. Special interest provisions were added from the start. As early as 1926 came the granddaddy of them all, the per- centage depletion allowance on oil which, as John Brooks writes, lets the owner of a producing well deduct from taxable income 22%, percent. (then 27%) of his gross annual income and keep deducting that much year after year, ‘‘even though he has deducted the cost of the well many times over.” That’s why the giant oil companies pay such light taxes. All of a sudden tax reform is a red-hot issne. Rep. Henry Reuss (D. Wis.) would close loopholes to save $7.25 billion; a McGovern-Humphrey group would save $16 chamber by a whopping 86-0. Additionally, the House-passed version of the proposed legislation weakens the Federal Permit Program of the 1899 Refuse Act. It removes the right of the Environmental Protection Agency from vetoing individual permits for industries issued by states, which as we all know are often unduly influenced by local and powerful industry groups, such as the case of Pennsylvania Gas & Water Co., and its relationship with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Under another clause of the House ver- sion, industries which apply for permits under the Refuse Act (the nation’s first clean billion; Sen. Muskie’s goal i925 billion. Soaking the rich is all right if it means equalizing tax burdens. But it’s no use fooling the public that this will solve the problem. From time to time a brave man comes for: ward toisay what we all know, the dirty little secret, that we need higher @kes. Cities; schools, crime, garbage collection; there’s just one solution; more taxes. We have’ private affluence, public squalor. Can we trust Congress to reform taxes? Frankly, no. At the last session, Congress. scattered more tax gimmicks around, mostly for corporations, calculated to cost the Treasury $100 billion in the next 10 years. Time magazine asked last month: Can a nation go broke on a trillion dollars a year? Sure it can, if it turns tax laws into a sieve! Loopholes have eroded the progressive feature of tax laws. Result: the rich-and-poor gap is widening; the lowest fifth of American families get 3.2 percent of the national in- come; the top fifth 45.8 percnet. public services. The Tax Foundation in 1970 estimated that families earning under $10,000 a year paid 28.6 percent of thegg income in taxes; those of incomes of $1 mi®on or more paid 28.4 percent. So goodbye little Form 1040. And remember as you taxpayers with incomes of $20,000 or more who last year reported no taxable income at all. » < water law) will have prosectuion, thus weakening existing law. Thus the 1972 Federal Water Pollution has developed into nothing more than a sham industrial polluters across the country. To be better off with no water polluf law this year at all. scription, $6. per year. Call 675-5211 for subscriptions. / Editor emeritus: Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks Editor: Doris R. Mallin News editor: Shawn Murphy Advertising: Carolyn Gass = DE Se a pA ou TR] 0 DDT a OD OTIS DO Ss ~~ («1 7/] @ el Pot NL TD ON Hs =O YO I WBS ered bet pe ——
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers