Page 4 EDITORIAL Get Rich Quick Nine times out of 10, the ‘something for nothing’ gimmick is just that—a gimmick. Un- witting consumers are frequently bilked out of hundreds of dollars when they answer ‘‘blind’’ ads promising them unbelievable bargains for un- believably low prices. The bargains are rarely that, and the prices are usually astronomical. Promoting these schemes are generally con artists who take advantage of that very human desire to get something for nothing. What most people fail to remember, the State lottery ad- vertising slogans to the contrary, is that very little of anything—except, maybe, trouble—is ever gotten for nothing. Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Consumer Protection was established in part to prevent the flim-flam men who seem to abound from making a killing off of unsuspecting, trusting souls. Of in- terest locally is the case of the notorious Wig Man order from selling wigs anywhere in Pennsylvania, is currently plying his hairy trade via classified ads in newspapers throughout the State. Like most too-good-to-be-true deals, his is. The “natural or artifical hair wigs’’ which ‘‘cost only $1”’ come zinging to unsuspecting, trusting souls by return mail C.0.D., with ‘handling charges’’ totalling $8.95. The Wig Man manages, without apparent trouble, to keep one step ahead of the Law (and the post office, which has prohibited his using the U.S. mails following conviction on a mail fraud charge some years ago). There is, of course, one sure way to outsmart him. If all of us were to become just a trifle less trusting, a bit more suspicious—a bit less eager to getting something for nothing—why, the Wig Man and others of his ilk would be broke in no time at all. We won’t hold our breath, however. Arrogance As we go to press it is being reported that the Commonwealth Compensation Commission will recommend pay: raises for.,various government officials, including what amounts to an $8,900 pay hike for state legislators. Unfortunately for com- monwealth taxpayers, the commission’s recom- mendations will go automatically into effect within 60 days after the report is formally submitted, thus circumventing the necessity for public debate by our elected representatives. State senators and representatives are currently paid (including expenses) $15,600 per annum. We are not willing to say that this is adequate com- pensation for the job, but we feel that raising this figure to a total of $24,500 at this time is both unfair and ill-timed. When the Shapp administration took office our state government was close to bankruptcy. The price of setting things straight again was a state income tax. Before this tax was passed Gov. Shapp had to agree to a raise in salaries for members of the legislature, who, in turn, tried their best to hide their pay raises behind an embarassing set of back room maneuvers that almost succeeded. (It might be added that while the lawmakers were bargaining for more money from our bankrup state, wage and price controls were being instituted nationally.) It is no wonder that the people of this Com- monwealth, whose taxed incomes will allow the state a comfortable surplus, are angry at Harrisburg’s fiscal mismanagement. Now it seems we will be asked to pay a higher price for this inefficiency. Despite arguments to the contrary, higher salaries doth not better legislators make. At least not automatically. There is much to be said for attracting better men to government by offering greater compensation, but this alone is not a panacea. If we are to pay more dearly to be governed, the least we have the right to expect is increased efficiency. A good place to start would be by cutting drastically the number of represen- tatives in Harrisburg to a total of approximately 150. A constitutional amendment currently being considered would cut that current total of 253 to 200, but this number, in our opinion, is still un- necessarily high. The essential point to be made, however, is that the citizens of Pennsylvania have the right to ex- pect a change in the arrogance displayed by their pocketbooks especially at a time when the fiscal demands of state government are so exacting. y Eric Mayer Despite the short distance that separated Dulles High School Stadium from her Brookside Manor home, Mildred arrived late at the graduation and had to climb nearly to the top of the bleachers, tottering on her high heels and wheezing theatrically, before find- ing a seat. Pausing dramatically for breath several times, she glared at nearby young- sters as if to say, ‘Where are your manners? Didn’t your parents ever teach you to offer your seat to a lady ?’’ Truthfully, no seat those youngsters could have offered would have been wide enough to accomodate Mildred. She was a bulky woman; stout even in the lexicon of polite society. For this occasion she wore an expensive dress of shiny black, cheap-looking material, and a necklace of enormous plastic baubles that bore a vague resemblance to pearls. She had applied a wealth of rouge and lipstick, perhaps in a vain attempt to bring out the pretty face that fat women are supposed to have. By the time she sat down she was in a bad mood. Though she loved commencements as sure she approved of holding them outdoors. The solemnity of the ceremonies seemed to disperse in the fresh air and sunlight leaving only the incongruous spectacle of bleachers filled with ties, suits and Sunday dresses. To her way of thinking, a proper graduation de- manded a certain amount of gloom. Never- theless, the procession of robed students to the accompaniment of Elgar’s familiar music, brought a tear to Mildred’s eye. She had almost decided that she was going to en- joy her outing after all, when the class presi- dent (whose hair, Mildred noticed im- mediately, all but covered his ears) ruined the mood with a speech condemning confor- mity. She found herself exchanging sym- pathetic glances (grimaces actually) with her neighbor, Mrs. Pleasance. ‘‘Some people are just ungrateful’ observ- ed Mrs. Pleasance “You give them the best schooling money can buy and all they do is from Washington, We are having lunch six miles up—sky full of popcorn clouds. ‘Red or white?’ asks the pretty Malaysian hostess in a stunning Orien- tal dress. We left the Singapore Hilton at 6 a.m. and will end in Honolulu at some incom- prehensible hour, for with this International Date Line you never know whether it is yes- terday, today or tomorrow. The captain’s voice over the intercom says casually, “On our left the Mekong Delta.” The sea is deep blue and some of the beaches of Vietnam below us are yellow sand. Those may be toy airplanes on the matchbox “Passing on the left the city of Vinh Long,” look down from our pressurized jet. At 500 m.p.h. the tortured land is soon passed. The lunch is abalone with minced pork, wine, “Savarin aux fruits.” We are fighting a depersonalized war down there, to save our national honor. Mr. Nixon has said he isn’t going to be the first President to lose a war. The Harris poll says 79 percent want a US pullout but, on the other hand, 45 percent (to 38 percent) would oppose peace by accepting a coalition government that in- cluded Communists. So we must fight. We can’t let our President down. Any day now the Communists may throw in the sponge and let us end this senseless slaughter. For our boys, fortunately, the actual killing has become increasingly re- mote. In the bombers, anyway, the soldier is separated from the consequence of his action. The difficulty is that a seismic detector can’t always differentiate between a truck load of arms and a school bus. But that’s the hazard of war, isn’t it? We can be complacent, for our Guest Edit Reprinted from Matrix, a column published in the Harrisburg Independent Press by R. C. Filburn The Governor's Review of Government, Inc. is in the news again. In March, when Governor Shapp’s team of 85 businessmen presented him with a 232 page report on potential savings in state government, the media had a field day. Cost-cutting actions ranging from the purchase of a bus for Racoon Creek Forestry Camp to a revamping of liquor control board inventory procedures were touted as just around the corner, with an expected harvest of up to 711 millions tax dollars a year. Now Community Affairs Secretary William H. Wilcox has ridiculed the report, suggesting it might be suitable for more ‘‘mechanical’ departments, but has no validity for his human service agency. Wilcox’s blast at the Review came during his defense of a proposed $29 million budget for his department before the Senate Ap- propriation Committee. Several weeks ago, Chairman Benjamin R. Donolow (D- Philadelphia) invited key Review members to testify, and has encouraged them to attend each departmental hearing. Wilcox noted that the examination of his operation was superficial at best, and pointed out that the reviewers failed even to stop for an exit interview to discuss their findings with him. 3 So much for the $1,963,5000 a year scheduled to be saved in Wilcox’s department. When the report first appeared, Matrix Na complain. Really, its just childish; they’ll think differently when they have a home to worry about.” Mrs. Pleasance believed that people’s opinions were only as valuable as the property they had to protect. Following the distasteful speech Mildred, annoyed by what she took to be over enthu- siastic applause, shifted like a minor earth- quake, to see the high school aged boy sitting behind her. His blonde hair fell nearly to his shoulders. Mildred sniffed in disgust. She re- membered now; Mike Thompson, a real troublemaker, had somehow been elected class president. His younger brother, Richard, the blonde haired boy, was even worse. “What these brats need,” she said loudly to her neighbor, ‘‘is some discipline. You can’t tell anymore whether they’re boys or girls.” The two women talked in a polite whisper through the boring commencement speech. Mrs. Pleasance’s eldest son James, a fine stu- dent and a model youngster, was graduating with honors. “James has never been anything but a source of pride to his father and me. It’s a pity Mr. Pleasance had to be out of town today but aman in his position has to make sacrifices.” When James accepted his award for aca- demic achievement, Mildred, still aware of should thank the good lord that, what with all these hippies running around, you've been blessed with such a fine son.” Mrs. Pleasance agreed. ‘Yes, I can’t help but think of Flannery Davies. What a heart- ache Kenneth has been to her. Why last year he was even arrested for having those funny cigarettes. She actually had to go down to the police station after him. Why I think I would have died.” Mildred wagged her chins understandingly. “I don’t know what this world’s coming to. You read about these hippies in the papers, how all they do is smoke that awful stuff, and how they're filthy and have lice...but who ever would have thought we’d have them here?’ INTHEREZ/ | CF BED il (Tet | ASV The women lapsed into somber meditation for a few moments. Mrs. Pleasance, watching James leave the stage with his award, felt she had just barely avoided some unspeakable tragedy. She signed and silently thanked God for the fine family he had granted her and the comfortable home. “I've waited for this moment for 12 years,” she toldgMildred, “I feel so lucky that it hasn’t been ¥#ined for me like it has been ruined for so many other mothers.” It was time for the presentation of dip- lomas. Mildred, scrutinizing each student with her squinty little eyes, was shocked by. the amount of hair she saw. Her outing totally devastated, she muttered and mumbled through the entire ceremony, perfectly aware that the Thompson boy was listening. “What is that?...Why I wouldn’t let such a looking thing graduate..disgusting! How could parents allow it?...Now that is where I would draw the line...Well, did you ever see anything like that?” At the end of the commencement Mildred struggled to her feet and stoo#&alking to Mrs. Pleasance, waiting for the ble##hers to clear. “I think it’s really a crime’ she said, “letting these hippies graduate with the other young men and women. It’s not fair.” * At that moment Rich Thompson, who was passing by on his way down, shook his hair out of his eyes, looked at Mildred and said, quite distinctly. “You old bag. Why don’t you keep your mouth shut and mind your own business.” Mildred turned an unhealthy white. For a few seconds she seemed unable to speak. Finally she shook her head in disbelief and said, “Nowadays these brats, ’t even have any respect for their elders.” 45% strangled sound. All the way home Mildred could be seen shaking her head and repeating, over and over, “They just don’t have a bit of respect anymore...not a bit.” side is free from the fear of retaliation. The fields of Vietnam are being scientifical- ly cratered. It’s a small country but even at that Mr. Laird says it will cost us $3 to $5 billion more to do the job. Between 1965 and 1971 bombing dug some 26 million craters with an average depth of 25 feet and diameter of 40 feet. Along with that herbicide spraying killed perhaps half the hardwood forest west and north of Saigon, and may be half of all the mangrove forests. We stopped that a year ago after devastating around 5.5 million acres largely because foreign nations were saying nasty things about us. Some of the countries at'the Stockholm conference, for example, re- jected the US as savior of the environment ‘while practicing ecocide in Indochina. There has been a price for this at home, of course, of helplessness and frustration, of dejection and despair. Worse still, probably, is the loss of confidence of many people in the institutions and their government. A lot of people have avoided this simply by closing their minds to the war; tuning it out. You can numb your mind if you set about it properly, but itis an art and some people are better at it than others. On the other hand there is always this uncomfortable question, whether killing women and children in villages is as bad as not caring about killing women and children| in villages? America is in this fix, I think, partly be- cause of our odd form of government. More and more we have been getting away from shared responsibility in Washington, and massing power at the top, largely in the Pre- sident. The abdication of authority by Con- gress has been the most conspicuous change of government in Washington in 50 years. Congress has been found an unnecessary element in carrying on this war, and so has the press, and so finally has the public. They all oppose the war but it goes on. The import- ant factors are the Pentagon and the Presi- dent. They are goning to save our national honor and they are going to preserve Mr. Nixon from being the. first President, etc. Curiously enough, the original theory of our government was that the Chief Executive would be subordinate to the legislature, but things developed in precisely the opposite direction. Rexford Tugwell wrote about this in 1960, “The Enlargement of the Presi- dency,” and even then saw. that the legisla- ture, under the pressure of a high-energy economy, was ‘‘gradually being reduced to argumentation, to investigation and to ac- quiescence.” This reporter sat with majority leader Mike Mansfield at a breakfast the other day, a gentle, likeable man, who frankly bemoaned Congressional passivity on Viet- nam. Well, he is not the type to sound a tocsin. The record of Congress on the war has been contemptible, and the White House has treated it with contempt. Everybody lies to Congress. Congress banned use of funds to subsidize foreign troops in Laos, but the Administration flagrantly violates the ban. Congress ap- proved $10 million in humanitarian aid for the Pakistani government which the General Ac- counting Office now finds was diverted into fortifications: a senior official at the time assured senators that there was “no evidence’ of such irregularities. The army lies, and Congress is the last to Hersh just revealed the suppressed secret noted that ‘‘as might be expected, the Review concentrates on the principles of good management-the ways in which the cor- poration makes a profit-at the expense of the social concern.” We commented then that “two prisons, four mental hospitals, and eight general hospitals should be closed or given to the community, says the report, with no mention of possible disposition of patients, relocation of women from Muncy, or con- tinuation of medical care in the communities now served by state facilities.” We were skeptical of the social value of the recom- mended mandatory retirement at 65 (because many of the 5 percent of state employes over 65 ‘could be replaced with younger and lower- paid personnel’) and the proposed reduction in staffing of the Human Relations Com- mission. Nothing since has brightened that picture. On June 20, the Environmental Quality Board will hold a public hearing on increased camping fees in state parks. The Governor’s Review prompted the hearing, with the recommendation: “Increase the fees for overnight camping, boat launching, and mooring at state parks. ‘‘Based on national statistics, fees charged for state park facilities rarely approach the cost of operation and maintenance. However, revenues from the Pennsylvania State Park system approximate only 13 percent of such costs as compared with a national average of 36 percent. Rates should be raised and reviewed periodically.” For the low-income, inner-city resident who might benefit most from a camping experience in rural Penn- sylvania, the price may, if the Review has its way, now be prohibitive. \ seized upon the Review recommendations as the blueprint for campaign success in 1972. House Republican leader Kenneth Lee (R- Sullivan) appointed a task force of his own, to check up on the administration’s progress in implementing the Review recommendations. Already the committee, chaired by Rep. Richard Schulze (R-Chester), has introduced 15 bills designed to force some of the smaller savings upon Shapp. The larger hunks of money will undoubtedly be claimed as budget cuts when the Republicans go to work on Shapp’s proposed spending for 1972-3. The objectivity of the minority legislators is open to question. Sen. George Wade (R- Cumberland) is the chairman of the ‘Senate Minority Appropriations Committee’--the senior Republican on the Senate Ap- propriations body. When he ran for his party’s nomination last month, his radio spots ended with “Paid for by the Wade for Senate Committee, Al Gery, Treasurer.” army report about the 1968 Mylai massacre; the report found that the cover-up was ‘‘made at every level” from bottom to top. You remember the photos of Mylai? They were ul- timately exposed by the press—a pile of women and old men shot down in cold blood, with the buttocks of one slain baby showing in the foreground....Well, national honor, you know. When Mr. Nixon was in W{#icow Comrade Brezhnev must have envied him his power. Comrade Brezhnev doesn’t go through our things with others. The American President can order an invasion of Cambodia on his Alec Home, the latter would still have his powerful seat in the Commons. If Mr. Nixon fired Kissinger he would just have to go back to Harvard. Mr. Nixon is boss. Franklin Roosevelt had two press confer- ences a week; Mr. Nixon held his last formal one June 1, 1971; yes, over a year ago. Jeer if you want at the press, but it is a safeguard of democracy; it links the President with reality. The Nixon administration has de- liberately set out to downgrade it. Mr. Nixon is the most isolated President since Hoover. That is the trouble with our system of elected monarchy, particularly where you have a man who is reclusive and introspective, lack- ing warm and easy relationship with the public. The problem goes deeper than Mr. Nixon, though. We have elevated the sym- bolic office of the Presidency so that we feel it must not be tarnished; it must not be face. $ Al Gery--Alton P. Gery--wag,a member of the Governor’s Review or Management, Inc. 0 Wilcox was right when he spurned the report as just another offering to the great god Business. “Shapp, when he ran for Governor, was fond of referring to his industry background and pledging to run Pennsylvania in a “businesslike” fashion. And Pennsylvania’s taxpayers seemed to have carved a special niche in government credibility for the worship of “Business” and businesslike administration. But for the most part, the state is not in the business of selling sprockets or building ships. Instead, the Commonwealth agencies must administer life-sustaining services--hospitals, public assistance, or renal dialysis--or serve people through such Youth Corps, or local health caters. The god Business, when he takes on the human services, has feet of clay. Editor emeritus: Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks Editor: Doris R. Mallin News editor: Shawn Murphy . Advertising: Carolyn Brennan An , ad wD op Boe 0p TR na pag Lim Pe DCN A TH NTH " brd pdt 7A bed +g
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers