Page 4 EDITORIAL The Best Time What better time of year is there than spring to quit smoking? The fragrance of apple blossoms, the pungent scent of freshly mowed grass, the sun-soaked zephyrs which brush against one’s cheek like a kiss—how glorious to be alive! Any smoker ‘who is honest will admit that at “least half of spring’s glories are lost on him. He simply cannot smell what spring is all about. The statistics are alarming, certainly. More cigarettes are smoked than ever before (198 packs © per person per year). Teenage smoking is up sharply (11.9 percent of teenage girls smoke, «compared with 8.4 percent in 1968; 18.5 percent of teenage boys smoke, compared with 14.7 percent three years ago). Smoking-caused fires cost Americans $130 million last year . . . and medical treatment for lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, chronic _ bronchitis and other conditions which the surgeon ‘ general says are smoking related costs us $960 _ million. : And the federal government is caught ‘talking out of both sides of its (smoking) mouth’’ by paying on one hand $68 million a year to provide price supports to tobacco farmers and by paying $4% roy million on the other hand to warn Americans about the danger of smoking. But statistics ultimately tell us so little. How can a figure, a percentage or a price tag tell us what it is to miss that fragant aroma of apple blossoms on a warm spring night or that pungent scent of freshly mowed grass? Today—right now—is the best time to quit smoking. Town Meetings concept change in endless variations. sides of the proposition and then cast their vote in a truly democratic manner. commissions and other civic bodies concerned. True, sofar as generating any responsive reaction. But that, too, was yesterday, before such an- noyances as sewage disposal, zoning and similar areas of wide-open controversy lined up like silent crows in a shooting gallery. Today town meetings are not held on the ¢‘‘village green.” Instead, hundreds of irate citizens crowd into small meeting rooms. Filled to the bursting point with pent up feelings of injustice and persecution, they give vent to their emotions with colorful and vituperative language. Patience is utterly lacking, politeness is entirely absent and the willingness to hear the other fellow’s point of view is not even entertained. Civic-minded citizens who conduct the meetings ‘prepare briefs and spend time and effort in research, usually without remuneration, are frequently subjected to torrents of abuse from a scapegoat. It is true that the sewer problem in some com- munities spector of almost in- surmountable debt, that zoning is frought with headaches, that school boards are faced with many delicate and touchy problems; but it would seem that a return to the calmness of our forefathers would not go amiss as we endeavor to overcome these obstacles. If ‘50 million Frenchman can’t be raises the on a given issue has the greatest chance of being the right one—a majority opinion arrived at with a modicum of composure, for goodness sake! By Eric Mayer Changes Elm Street: about a mile from the center of town at the point where the street, leaving behind its rows of white houses and well tended lawns for shaggy fields and an occa- sional red barn, starts to act-for all its win- dings—like a country road. Brand new Dulles High, is the pride of Village Green. The school board, which considers iteslf enlightened and sensibly progressive as well as community minded, passed a resolution requiring that all history classes at the new school take time out every year to study the history of the town that has made their ‘unsurpassed educational facilities’ possible. This resolution, along with several hundred copies of the locally printed A Brief Account of the History of Village Green and the Life and Times of Its People was passed on to the history department. Unfortunately the most noble and well-meaning schemes of bureaucracy often fall into the clutches of practicality. Most of the teachers involved preferred to save this part of their course for last, and since they invariably fell behind schedule, fighting the war of 1812 well into May when it was high time for World War I, the local history ended up jammed into the last week-by which time no one cared anyway. Faced with the age-old problem of teaching something during this last nervous week, teachers resorted to an age-old solution; they threatened to give quizzes. But the students failed to take the threat seriously and so, remained largely ignorant of their heritage. A Brief Account . . . despite its paper cover, wore remarkably well. The school board was pleased that it didn’t have to replace the book every year, although the author, Mr. Plager, who had borne the weight of publishing costs was disappointed. But assume for a moment that some diligent student has studied the material in question. Suppose you asked him to tell you about the history of Village Green. ‘What would he say? Probably he’d tell you that the town was founded in 1810. He'd mention that Dulles On Capitol Hill, where the humor is often as esoteric as the tax laws, one of the more popular and current inside jokes goes like this: “The top priority on the agenda when the 93rd Congress convenes in 1973 is reserved for prison reform—because that’s where we’ll all be if the new campaign finance law is en- forced.” The jokes about the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1972 fall into the category of “gallows humor’’ because members of Congress, particularly those in the House, have belatedly discovered that they really didn’t know what they were doing when they passed a law that requires comprehensive public disclosure of all campaign income and expenses on the part of all candidates for federal office—and that just happens to in- clude members of Congress who are seeking reelection. Which is not to say that the lawmakers knew any less about this particular piece of they approved under a system in which (a) the committee staff writes most of the bill and summarizes its features for any committee member who might be interested, (b) the committee chairman presents selected high- lights of that summary for the benefit of the remaining 400-plus House members during a floor debate which almost nobody attends, and (c) the members’ votes on the final pack- age are based on favors owed to colleagues, unquestioning faith in the wisdom of the aforementioned committee chairman, terse instructions from a party leader on the floor and a variety of other extraneous considera- tions. The difference here is that in the case of al- most all other legislation, some other special interest group’—corporations, unions, foun- dations or whatever—is on the receiving end [The Bread is Rising by Marie McCandless Much has been said, and still unsaid, media bombard us with words and pictures proving its effect; the country’s leaders conduct an off-year election campaign, capitalizing on public paranoia, seizing the issue of law and order as a sacred cow; the Archie Bunkers install alarm systems in their homes and buy German Shepherds and pistols to ward off the attackers evidently lurking just around the next corner. But something vital remains unspoken, namely a specific solution, a way to prevent violence. Just as it is difficult to convey the awful realization that we may never disen- tangle ourselves from the Vietnam war, it is terribly frustrating, possibly futile, to ap- proach the broader subject of violence as an American way of life. Yet it has come to that. George Wallace is the most recent living proof of it. In a way it was not unexpected, that old shake-my-hand-governor trick in the Maryland shopping center. The last two presidential campaigns were conducted under the shadow of grief. But after Bobby Kennedy was gunned down in that California hotel and I couldn’t cast my very first that the country was learning a lesson. In- High had succeeded McKinley High which had replaced the James G. Blaine Memorial School, built in 1887 to house grades one through twelve. He would explain how the construction of roads, first to Ashton then to more distant communities, had taken Village Green out of the wilderness; how early set- tlers, mostly farmers who lived by barter and had no money to speak of, worked weeks on those roads to pay off their taxes. He’d most likely list the early grist mills, the later fac- tories, the new shopping centers. His would be a story about people building a town, wren- ching it from the forests and swamps with their axes and oxen, improving it with relentless bulldozers. But there would be something missing in his account. No one can deny that people shape their environment. Early settlers cleared away trees to start their farms, decided to put a road here or there in order to haul timber to a nearby saw mill. Today school boards sitting around long meeting tables decide to build a school on a couple of acres of swampy ground, and in a few years the school rears itself up just as planned. But in more subtle ways, unnoticed ways, a town affects its residents. For instance, on the corner of Elm Street and Orchard Road stands an old home separated from its neigh- bor by a row of tall pine trees. These trees were planted by the builder of the house, crotchety old Cyrus Woods, a man who valued his privacy above all else. Mr. Woods died before the trees grew enough to suit him, but today, standing as they do on the eastern side of the house, they effectively shade the windows of the master bedroom from the early morning sunlight. This might explain why the tenants of the house have all been notorious oversleepers. Philip Mason, a store clerk who owned the home during the 1920’s, —— HEA ~~ pany - Dead > = ‘OK, REAL C NA ili ILL ets before property taxes went up, was actually fired from his job on account of his habitual tardiness. Mr. Williams, the present owner, who has a taste for the late show and a bad memory when it comes to setting alarm clocks, finally took to sleeping in one of the smaller rooms on the opposite sidezaf the house. w Who can say what other such influences the town of Village Green exercises over its inhabitants. Does it matter that the forsythia blooms earlier toward the center of town? Do the trilling peepers in the swamp behind Orchard Manor impress themselves in some small way on the lives of people who live there, and will it matter if their summer song gives way to that proposed chain store? What difference does it make that every fall, the first tree to change colors is the big maple across from the Johnsons’ old place? Such questions will go unanswered. They are not the realm of history. History deals with facts. Tv I vir pl 2S A IMMUNE NN of the law and thus bears the responsibility for seeking repeal, modifying amendments or an enforcement policy so weak that the act is, in effect, annulled. But now we are faced with the spectacle of the Congress itself attempting to perform that function. Notwithstanding the joke about pri- son reform, word already is circulating in the House that atop the 1973 agenda will be an effort to emasculate the campaign reform law, which has been in effect for less than two months, and to return to the halcyon days when the disclosure of politicians’ campaign finances was governed by a federal statute which President Johnson described as “more loophole than law.” The House would really like to do the job this year, before the public gets spoiled by the notion that it rightfully deserves access to the fund-raising data of its elected representa- tives. But congressmen have notoriously weak stomachs for ‘‘tough issues’ in the months immediately preceding election day. In addition, all the smart politicians—most scores of House and Senate members— worked hard to pump uncounted millions of dollars into their campaign treasuries prior to April 7, the day the new reporting law went into effect. The Congress stepped into this particular quagmire because when the House and Senate were considering the legislation, al- most all attention was focused on the sections of law which would limit, for the first time, expenditures for radio and television time, while little interest was displayed in the new reporting requirements. Those requirements now emerge as a parti- cular problem for the incumbents because it is they who are the recipients of potentially embarrassing donations from interest groups stead, as last Monday’s shooting of Governor Wallace indicates, violence remains the most expedient way for Americans to express dissent, resolve disputes, or silence op- ponents. Even worse than the dreary statistics of homicide rates is the war casualty rate, worse because it is so neatly justified in the name of honor. There is an imaginary fine line after which ‘necessary’ Killing in the name of an ‘honorable peace” becomes murder. The line is arbitrary and somewhat meaningless. As long as American soldiers are trained to kill the North Vietnamese, why bother to imprison the murderer at home? More to the point, why try a Lieutenant Calley? It is inconsistent to force a man to learn to kill the ‘enemy’, then turn around and lament the lack of respect for human life on this side of the world. It is a classic case of meeting the enemy and discovering that “they is us.” We had a great suppertime debate on gun control laws as a possible solution recently, and concluded that anything approaching total prohibition of handguns would be unenforceable, for the same reasons that prohibition of alcoholic beverages failed. An outright ban on handguns could be cir- seeking to influence the course of legislation. As a rule, the dispensers of that ‘‘smart money’’ don’t like to deal with a challenger because they don’t know what committee as- signments he will receive, how ‘cooperative’ he will be in promoting their cause and how long it will take him to rise to a position of in- fluence in Congress. Besides, most challengers lose anyhow, and the money is wasted. : So the problem is what to do about obscur- ing all of those sizeable donations to in- cumbents during the five months between now and election day—and the man in charge of that effort is Rep. Wayne L. Hays, a 12- term Ohio Democrat whose position as chair- man of the House Administration Committee gives him control over his colleagues’ fringe benefits ranging from the price of their ham- burgers in the House restaurants to the num- ber of free telephone calls they can make from their offices. In late February, after the new act had been signed into law but before it went into effect, House Clerk W. Pat Jennings came before Hays’ committe to request about 40 additional permanent staff members and a substantial annual budget increase. Hays, known to enjoy throwing his weight around, sought to intimidate Jennings, but the House Clerk decided to fight it out. What ensued, according to congressmen who were present at the closed meeting, was an acrimonious shouting match that included name-calling and threats. Jennings was authorized to hire only 12 additional staff members. Hays’ next move was to suggest that an ob- scure amendment be tacked onto some bill this year which would transfer from the Committee the statutary designation of saw off the barrel of a shotgun, or contact the local Mafia gun-runner. Is there an alternative solution? People are so used to fighting back instead of turning the other cheek that a blanket reversal of that reflex action is impossible. Our leaders set no good example either in the war or the actions of the National Guard and police forces in dealing with social protests. The death tolls at Kent State, Jackson State and the Attica prison attest to that. Violence begets itself single man cannot halt the cycle; witness Martin Luther in the black struggle for civil rights. 0 5 Could the answer be as basic, as scription, $6. per year. Call 675-5211 for subscripfions. Editor emeritus: Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks Editor: Doris R. Mallin News editor: Shawn Murphy Advertising: Carolyn Gass filed by candidates for House seats. Under the law, the supervisory officer is charged with I checking all reports which are filed, deter- mining which candidates have not filed and partment, for investigation and posgjible pro- secution, all alleged violations. ¢ Such a transfer of authority would place House members in the position of judging the legality of their own and their colleagues’ fi- nancial reports (Jennings, a paid employee of the House, is hardly an independent agent, but he is at least one step removed) ” when John W. Gardner, chairman of Common Cause, wrote to House Speaker Carl Albert and House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford to complain about the impropriety of Hays’ pro- posal, the two leaders defended the scheme. There’s more. Rep. Samuel L. Devine, an Ohio Republican who is the ranking minority member of the House Administration Com- mittee, already has introduced a bill to repeal the new reporting law. And Hays is talking about reducing the number of required elec- tion-year financial reports from six to three, fewer than under the old law. In addition, Hays wants to eliminate the requirement that donors list their occupation, thus avoiding future embarrassment for corporation execu- tives. The latest episode began with Gardner’s disclosure, at a press conference in Colum- bus, that Hays had failed to comply with the law’s requirement that House candidates file a financial statement with their secretary of state as well as with the House Cl retaliated by increasing, from ten ¢:ts to one dollar, the per-page cost of copying reports in Jennings’ office. Gardner went to court to challenge that decision, and Hays backed down. But the struggle to preserve full finan- cial disclosure is only now getting underway. 4 1 for life on on individual and governmental level? If each American sought a non-violent approach to life, used systematic discipline instead of mindlessly spanking his children for wrongdoing, let the road hog drive on by instead of being provoked into driving recklessly himself, really attempted un- derstanding instead of reflex anger in family disputes, responded with tolerance instead of outrage at lifestyles vastly different from his own, would it help? If the Pentagon exerted its considerable influence to end # war instead of prolong it, would it rot help Americans in their search for a better way to solve problems? I like to think it might.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers