Page 4 18.000 Dead The recent accidental death of a Back Moun- tain young woman brings to mind a statistic from the Insurance Information Institute. That is— young drivers—15 to 24—Kkill and are killed more ‘Among persons in this dangerous age span, highway crashes are the major single cause of death, equalling all other causes combined. The death toll for this 15-24 group in 1969 was 18,000. The injured came to nearly one million. Although constituting less than 20 percent of the driving population, they comprise nearly one-third In addition, it is these young drivers who have the greatest number of citations for excessive speed and violations of laws governing vehicle equipment and registration. But statistics mean nothing unless we can relate to them. So, the question is—why? There is an elusive dark side to this question that may take years of research to reveal. But, certain data are known presently which show the driving behavior of the young may be influenced by the following factors: —The automobile offers the adolescent the only privacy available to him for carrying on a variety of social interactions which he is not permitted to carry on elsewhere. —The car offers him a means of enjoying sym- bolically a number of satisfactions (risk-taking, status enhancement, etc.) which he cannot enjoy elsewhere because he is not yet a self-sufficient, occupation-involved adult. —The car offers a degree of autonomy and social equality which the young person cannot en- joy otherwise because of his sub-adult status. The more severely he is restricted in these respects, the more likely he is to use the automobile as a com- pensation mechanism and an emotional outlet. often this isnot the case. And in the Back Mountain, befits us all to drive with exceeding care. A Crushed Man One aspect of the current Sen. Thomas Eagle- ton controversy that Party regulars can look to with relief is the reaction of Republican leaders to the woes of their rivals. The public statements of men like Richard Nixon, Hugh Scott, and Barry Goldwater have been not only laudatory, but stand also as some of the few sensible statements which have come of this regrettable issue. ! No doubt the Republican leaders realize the political hazards of adding fuel to the Eagleton fire, but even the politically naive should realize that there are more subtle ways to fan a flame than through overt methods. Itis a credit to the Republi- cans that they have, to this point, resisted the temptation of either method. The Republicans have lauded Sen. Eagleton for his honesty and expressed hopes for a quick resolution of this issue and re- sumption of normal campaigning. Had Mr. Eagleton remained on the ticket, the voters would have had to decide whether or not his medical history disqualified him for the post he sought. The decision would not have been easy, due mostly to widespread misunderstanding of the causes and consequences of mental infirmity. As Sen. Barry Goldwater has so correctly pointed out, psychological matters should be judged by experts and avoided by laymen. It is unfortunate that the matter of Thomas Eagleton’s mental health, revealed in such candor, became the involved and messy issue it did. This is not entirely the fault of Mr. Eagleton or Mr. McGovern, whose failure to come to a swift and ir- reversible decision concerning his running mate’s political status unduly deightened the anxiety quo- tient of presidential politics. Regrettably, a good deal of the blame must be laid to the press, whose eagerness for sensationalism has blown the issue out of proportion and precluded the mature and thoughtful handling which such a controversial subject demands. In his book Nixon Agonistes, author Gary Wills recalls the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion, re- counting how Richard Nixon spent nearly an hour on the phone begging Republican leaders not to attack President Kennedy. Why? Because, in Mr. Nixon's words, ‘I just saw a crushed man today. He needs our help.” Once again, sensitivity should triumph over political considerations until the campaign returns to its normal course. By Eric Mayer, The rich, warm sunlight of an August after- noon seeped onto the shaded porch, repeating the arabesque of vine and latticework on wall and door while Matthew waited with his wife, listening as the chime in the short, dim hall behind the door rose and fell along its three note course. Clara touched her hushand’s sleeve lightly and gave him a not quite playful scowl that reiterated the discussion they’d had an hour ago and a week ago and meant: “Really Matthew...I don’t think it would be right... You shouldn’t...” . Matthew pretended not to notice but for once, when his great aunt Maybelle opened her door to greet them, his smile was genuine. Matthew didn’t exactly ‘‘dread’” these in- formal family dinners (he kept telling him- self) but there was no denying that certain aspects had come to irritate him, if only because of their constant repitition. There were always a dozen adults, along with children, all squeezed in amid the dark old furniture that was strewn with the hand sewn doilies and antique dishes, vases and little ceramic what-nots-souvenirs of Maybelle’s 87 years; brittle as her memories which would break off sometimes in the middle of a reminiscence. Once in a while something was broken by an errant elbow or milk. All this irritated Matthew but not nearly as much as the presence of his great grandfather Aaron did. Aaron was Maybelle’s father. As a young woman she nursed him through his last years and maybe that was why she never married. Aaron had died ten years before Matthew’s birth but Maybelle carried his memory with her constantly and his austere, unassailably virtuous presence at every family gathering was only too real. At dinner, after the children had been settled at their own place in front of the kit- chen coal stove, Maybelle would sit at the head of the table listening to the family ex- change news and gossip. Never did a relative suceed so throughly in any endeavor that Aaron couldn’t have done better. Never did Suppose its Inaugural Day and President Nixon is starting his second term. What is in prospect for him, for the nation, and for the world? The Inaugural Address will be modest but eloquent. The lift of a driving dream will get a second burst. He will appeal for patriotic will be standing right behind Mr. Nixon, looking meek. When Mr. Nixon picked him to run again it was obvious the President had decided McGovern was a pushover and he didn’t have to coneiliate anybody. So now the struggle is won, the floats in the triumphal GOP inaugural parade are ready and the XXII Amendment forbids Mr. Nixon to run Kirst the economy. As a middle-road conservative, trying to forge a lasting coalition of the right (as Eisenhower failed to do), he must act vigorously. The budget is a mess. He will wait for his State of the Union and his Economic messages. He will pledge sound finance. Mr. Nixon did that, too, in February, 1970: “I have pledged to the American people that I would submit a balanced budget for 1971. This is particularly necessary because the cost of living has been rising rapidly for the past five years. The budget I send to you today . . . fulfills that pledge.” That was the pledge. But Mr. Nixon has a $23 billion deficit in the fiscal year ending in June, 1971; $23 billion in fiscal 1972; an estimated $30 billion deficit next year; and maybe $40 billion in 1974. This red ink just can’t last. The President knows perfectly well that the demand for Thissa 'n Thatta “by H. H>Null II ‘““Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead.’’ I lead not another attack on the walls of Harfleur by the English forces of King Henry V, but upon the entrenched forces of greed, hiding behind walls of trickery at Harrisburg; in short, I cannot forget or forgive the un- conscionable act of our Pennsylvania Assembly in taking a devious and dishonorable way in an effort to vote them- selves and other state officers a pay raise. It just won’t lie still. I must write about it once again. The more I reflect on it, the more I resent the very apparent opinion the legislators have of my intelligence and that of the average Pennsylvania voter. They must consider us pretty low-grade to think that by devising a scheme whereby they would delegate their right and duty of setting pay scales to an appointed group of men for the very obvious purpose of avoiding a stand-up-and-be- counted vote on it, we would be completely hoodwinked and will eventually pass over such Machiavellian cunning and reinstate them in our minds as worthy of holding office. We may be dumm, but we just aren’t that dumm. There was a miscalculation when that one was approved. I can well understand the pressure on a are successful men who have sought the office as an honor in their declining years, but the average legislator is a man who has been pretty much a failure as a lawver. a businessman, a company employe or whatever and had turned to a state job and brought into shameful comparison with that faultless ancestor. 3 The years wore deeper than the channels of shadow creasing Maybelle’s face; her glasses thickened, her voice quavered, but even as she grew weaker the spirit of Aaron grew stronger. At times she told anecdotes wherein her father was depicted as superior to ‘‘today’s generation’. (Meaning everybody under 60), and woe unto anyone who inadvertantly lit a cigarette... Aaron never smoked. Neither did he swear, or rest his elbows on the dinner table. Most especially Aaron ‘‘was never a drinker’. This, as Matthew put it, was ‘Aunt Maybelle’s favorite club.” She beat the family with it mercilessly. The topic managed to pop up at least once every gathering. Was cousin Jeffrey quarreling with his wife: again? Aunt Maybelle would lean forward, pucker her gray lips and say, in a whisper that mingled pity with disgust, ‘“You don’t suppose he’s been at the ....bottle...? Aaron, you know, God rest his soul, was never a drinker...”” And she’d be off. The same approach could be applied to sit- uations ranging from failed business enter- prises to premature death. It wasn’t pleasant having one’s perfectly human shortcomings held up against the inhuman ideal that was great aunt Maybelle’s Aaron. Matthew intended to end the Aaron myth once and for all. The dinner was well under way. Mary Wyatt, who'd crumpled the fender of her car had been told that “Aaron was 63 before he learned to drive and he n8ver had an acci- dent.” Clark Wyatt, who was complaining about the latest repair bill for his sit-down lawn mower was informed that “Aaron was accustomed to mowing several acres, by hand, until he was 70.” A drought hit, backyard gardener was regaled with a story concerning Aaron’s green thumb and the biggest squash prize at the 1905 county fair. Matthew had lost track of the conversation when he heard Maybelle saying, in the over- bearing tones she reserved for the announce- ment, “Of course my father was never a drinker...” OEE OIE pe Matthew interrupted, his voice cheerful but firm. ‘Really now Aunt Maybelle. You know that just isn’t true.” Maybelle frowned at him in annoyance. He felt eyes turning his way, thought he heard his wife sigh, disapprovingly. He hurried on, smiling as if he were telling a humogous tale. “The other week I went down t ners, down by the old farm. They're tearing down what used to be the grocery and I thought I might be able to find some of those old fashioned display cases...You remember White’s Country Store don’t you Aunt Maybelle?” Matthew felt uncomfortable. He made a bad story teller, he knew. : “Well anyway, I found some old account books from back in the 1800’s. The store- keeper kept a regular record of all of his transactions. A lot of barter went on then. And right there in the books, written out in pencil, sort of faded but clear enough, was great grandfather’s name.” Maybelle glared at him. Matther fy k a sip of coffee, wetting his lips, then stufitdled on. “Yep. Quite a few entries...Aaron Wyatt it said...So many pounds of potatoes or so many dozen ears of corn or whatever, in the column, such and such number of-a-bottles, Matthew had intended to say something about old Aaron not being able to use that much whiskey for medical purposes; or something about the truth being unarguable or something...He couldn’t remember what exactly. 2. His discovery wasn’t having tno ect he’d expected. It wasn’t having any effect. He caught a few of the diners casting embar- rassed glances at one or another or apologetic glances at Maybelle. : “Now, who’ll have seconds?’’ asked Aunt Maybelle, unruffled. even in the face of the truth,” thought Mat- thew, miserably. He realized he’d brought it social services won’t be halted. It could be halted, perhaps, if the poor got more money, has not diminished and, in absolute terms, has grown wider. There are 25 million below the official poverty line. Slashing welfare would bring a revolution, so there seems no alternative but higher taxes under the overall economic policies the Administration has followed—big tax concessions to cor- porations, a reduction in the graduated in- come tax for the affluent, and a reluctance to close loopholes. Second term, Mr. Nixon must raise taxes. We assume this will come fairly promptly, will take the form of a nearly invisible value- added (sales) tax, and will go through a grudging Congress. The most explosive domestic problem in America is race. Mr. Nixon knows that he can’t run again and will be tempted to do something magnanimous for blacks that will get into the history books. But what? His political problem is to forge a lasting coalition of blue collar ethnics, old guard con- servatives, and white suburbs. Almost anything he does for the central ghettoes will alienate his allies. Besides, the big majority of the blacks voted for McGovern. We see danger in this situation. We assume Mr. Nixon will offer tax subsidies to industries that will build plants in central cities, some aid for black enterprises, and boasts about The drive for law and order may be Court. There are five Warren court judges left on the tribunal whose average age at the end of the President’s second term will be 68. Justice Douglas is 75 this October. We think Mr. Nixon will make two more appointments. His transformation of the court is his single most important act. The Supreme Court allowed the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers by a 6 to 3 vote. With two more Nixon ap- pointees he could swing the Court, 5 to 4, the other way. A fundamental alteration of values is evident, in the Court and in the Ad- ministration. The Court voted, 5 to 4, that journalists don’t have a constitutional right to protect their confidential sources. The President vetoed funds for public television. Daniel Ellsberg is on trial in Los Angeles. There has been a coordinated campaign to disparage the press and to rein in dissenters and unorthodox expressions. There is greater government countenance to repression. In- cidentally, Mr. Nixon has all but ended White House press conferences. Would Mr. Nixon be less aloof in his second term? Having finally won victory he might relax a bit. We wonder. Just the other day Administration guns were unlimbered on McGovern. At Miami Beach a mob of furious young dissenters demanded to see McGovern and he came down to parley with them. They went away quietly. ‘For shame!’’ shouted the Agnews. They felt McGovern had demeaned the office. The proper role, they implied, was that adopted by President Nixon, when nearly half a million people came to Washington to protest the war. This reporter walked over to the White House. City buses had been lined up bumper to bumper in a barricade around the executive mansion. It was like a fort. Inside Mr. Nixon watched a football game on tele- vision. He did not demean the office. The difference of attitude forecasts the mood of the second term. We imagine there will be 1Qpr trouble almost at once. Big trade union contracts come up for negotiation in 1973. We think Mr. Nixon’s political alliance with George Meany, the Teamsters, and others is too uneasy to last. He pardoned ex-president Jimmy Hoffa from jail and dropped his proposed #gi-strike legislation which he had urgently pressed for 2% years. Once Mr. Nixon is reelected, however, there’s not much that labor can do to him. That leaves foreign affairs. Here we see Mr. Nixon victorious. He will not go down in history as the first American President to lose a war. Bombing will proceed. Simultaneously America’s upward productivity trend (21% percent a year) will continue, and outlets must be aggressively sought abroad in lieu of selling the surplus goods to the poor and the blacks at home. We assume the present ex- traordinary concentration of industry will continue and will flow into multi-national corporations, whose private foreign policies must be protected by a big US defense budget. Mr. Nixon’s big victory will come, we assume, in Vietnam. With McGovern defeated, he will be able to save America’s honor on the field of battle. It will be like the South Vietnamese recovery of Quang Tri last week. It was a great victory and (gang Tri was destroyed. x politics as a last resort. He is under pressure from his wife and his friends to provide money for keeping up a front and preparing the way for his reelection and so must find money, or else. Naturally, the public pocketbook is at hand and he has little trouble persuading himself that he is worth every dime of the time he spends riding to and from Harrisburg, sitting among the trappings of power and casting an occasional vote, by which our hard-earned money is dissipated into the murky air of Penn’s Woods. So, when a trickster comes along and provides a scheme whereby all that he need do is sit tight and let the recommendations of a hand-picked board, sure to offer big pay raises; take effect without even any discussion and with the added attraction that it also raises the pay of the state’s judges, who will therefore be expected to rule favorably if the scheme is taken to court, what can a needy man do but vote favorably on the plan? So this is what happened and the reaction is what any intelligent person would expect. That little trick of including the judges who will rule on the legality of the grab escaped my eye at first, but it was pointed out to me by an astute acquaintence and it adds a note of disillusion to my early thinking that smart men were also men of integrity—at least when they had passed public scrutiny long enough to stand high in public life. There is no integrity in this situation— only slippery thinking and slippery approval. If by chance there is one of my readers who is not familiar with the legislative action, I can tell them briefly: For some years now, there has been a semi-annual attempt to raise all of the salaries in the state, but particularly legislative salaries. There has been. con- siderable success. Legislators now get $7200 a year in salary; also some thousands in ex- penses they do not have to account for. For this, they work about two days a week, when the legislature is in session. But they are far from satisfied, so somebody contrived a plan whereby the legislature would approve a which would take effect in 60 days unless voted down by the legislature. These pay raises provided a raise from $72000 a year to $19,200 a year! So far, there has been no move to call a meeting of the assembly to even talk about the raises. Recently, there has been some talk that the Shapp' Chap, our ‘‘businessman’’ governor, is about to call a legislative meeting and it may be that public pressure on him and the legislature will bring it about. Perhaps there will be some scaling down of the salary recommendations, then the beneficiaries will get more money, the public will be lulled into thinking it had some effect on official effrontery and the whole thing will die down for another term, after which a new grab will be introduced. Be it should be remembered thay Shapp is reelected (and I'm sure he plans t% be), his pay will jump from $45,000 to $60,000, so don’t thing for one minute that he is on the side of the taxpayer in this matter. What I would like to know is which shyster lawyers drew up this scheme? Who appointed - the salary commission? Who served on this commission and why the commission went so high in its recom- mendations? Could it be that the commission WAN- TED to enbarrass the legislature? That is a possibility, but a remote one, because it is apparent that the general impression of the public is so low that it would have been nor- mal to predict only a mild reaction, which would die down by the time the pay grab became law. N\ Well, it hasn’t worked out that wut all. As it stands now, the beneficiaries will get their raises and the people who must pay for it will get corresponding pay cuts. scripiion, $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 Brennan Ch The St tration I checks were av Barre o Tower E St., Will Effort through phone h Those Vv should « Disaste: possible Allen Brown, ge, Jo Clarke Willian Mary Judy; Joseph and M and Le Eleano Elizab Charle Elizab Gonz Donalc Elmer and M Auduk Josepk Ann; There: Wynet Lew Magag Magui Maku Moha Josep! Palatz Reilly Stella . Taylo Tenc: Gust: Thom Ba Dmu Herr and Stan Elizz Stell Al Bari { ju
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers