Page 4 EDITORIAL Punxsatawney Phil Tomorrow morning, Punxsatawney Phil will slowly make his way out of his subterranean homestead to bear the tidings—either glad or sad, depending on one’s point of view—concerning the demise of Winter, 1973. Groundhog Day, we have learned only recently, is a great day indeed in two Pennsylvania towns: Punxsatawney, which is located out west, just 80 miles from Pittsburgh; and Quarryville, situated in the heart of the ‘Dutch country’ near Lancaster. In both little towns the festivities are grandiose and Groundhog Day is something akin to a scaled-down Fourth of July in February. In Punxsatawney, at Gobbler’s Knob, the gentlemen members of the Punxsatawney Groundhog Club await the ap- pearance of the world’s best-known weatherman in top hats and tails, a tradition instituted almost 100 years ago. According to the state’s Bureau of Travel Development, fellows of the Slumbering Groun- dhog Lodge in Quarryville are no less serious in their observance of Groundhog Day, when they will hike to Puddleduck Creek bedecked in white nightshirts and top hats. The Quarryville groun- dhog, incidentally, wakes up to the music of lodge members playing violins, cymbals, and drums. The Puddleduck Creek vigil, as Punxsatawney devotees point out with smug satisfaction, is new to the groundhog business, having been initiated as ‘recently as 1909. We have little to say about the scientific accuracy of either groundhog’s predictions, although both clubs claim near perfect records for their furry friends. As early as Feb. 2, however, we think it safe to assume that there are at least six more weeks of winter’s wrath ahead of this. This year, considering the mild temperatures we enjoyed for so long before Sunday night’s snowfall, we wouldn’t be surprised if our four-legged seers have bad news for us come Friday morning. Put another log on the fire, readers; the worst is yet to come. Improving Man is developing such a guilt complex over his ruinous use of the earth that it is almost a shock to read a kind word for the two-legged pest. His much-needed friend is Rene Dubos, scientist and Pultizer Prize winner. He contends that ~ although the race of man is threatening the earth with impervious plastics, undegradable pesticides and nuclear disasters, it also has done much to improve on nature. “The natural solution is not necessarily the best or the most interesting solution,” says Dr. Dubos, who has been writing and speaking on his favorite thesis, “Humanizing the Earth.” While man’s intel ventions have sometimes been catastrophic, he also adds ‘human order and fantasy to the ecological determinism of nature.” It is man, Dr. Dubos says, who has “created most of the ‘nature’ celebrated by artists and poets.” An ecologist and medical microbiologist, Dr. Dubos is author of ‘So Human An Animal.” He comes from a part of the world that has been under continuous cultivation for 2,000 years or more: The province of Ile de France, farmed since Neolithic ~ settlers began to clear the primeval forest. Itis a land of “humanized charm which transcends its natural environment.” Man may be a warrior and destroyer, but he also recognizes an older role, underlined by his religion: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”’ Dr. Dubos is concerned with strengthening this aspect of man as the maker who manages forest and farmland, cultivates, irrigates and fertilizes--for profit as well as for love. “Now that the whole earth has been explored and occupied,” he says, ‘the new problem is to manage its resources.” We hope he is right in believing that man will pay ‘more attention now to cultivating his garden and enjoying it, without destroying all the wilderness that still evokes our sense of wonder. We might bear in mind for our own Back Mountain area that Earth Week this spring will be a good time to take stock of the area and see what needs to be done. Thissa 'n Thatta by H. H. Null, IN It’s a long time since I read ‘Hamlet, but if I remember correctly, in his soliloquy he made some interesting remarks about the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes. Well sir, things have not changed since that and if the Bard of Avon were talking about the insolence of the union of Pennsylvania state employes and the spurns handed to the taxpayers he wouldn’t be at all out of the way today. This union, the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employes, has presented a list of demands to the Shapp Chap, which it is esti- mated will cost the people of this state who million dollars and give each of the union members a $1000 a year raise during the con- tract. Additionally, the extortionate condi- tions call for so-called cost-of-living increases applied to the raises as they are given semi- annually in $500 increments. Also a two per cent increase for each employe to be granted for every five years of service. This is called a longevity increase. Also free college education for children of state employes at any state institution of higher learning. Also, full dental care for each, to be paid by the state. Also, state-paid life insurance. Also, if an employe is sick and runs out of regular sick leave time, he or she is to be paid, anyhow. Also free legal service for covering the legal fees a union member might incur such as mortgages, adoptions or divorces. Also mileage for the use of personal cars to be increased from 12 cents a mile to 15 cents a mile. Also a major medical plan covering all hospital, physician and surgeons fees up to $25,000 for each member. Also, the state is to contribute to a trust fund for unioners to provide even more health or welfare benefits to each member and-or his family members. Also, full maternity benefits, including the whole works such as emergency care, full diagnostic, X-ray, pathology and so on. Also, an $1.50 per hour premium for hazardous or unpleasant work. TRB from Washington There’s a winding stone stairway in the Capitol, between walls three feet thick, where you meet the most extraordinary people. Hardly anybody uses it anymore but report- ers and Senate pages. I was coming up it last week, thinking about the Inaugural, and about the war we used to call ‘“Johnson’s war’’—maybe coming to an end, and about how Mr. Nixon’s budget is hitting the Great Society like a wrecker’s ball, and how LBJ himself picked this theatrical moment to die. But then, he always loved his dramatic ef- fects and never allowed anybody to upstage him. And bless me, down the circular steps came a familiar figure, looking eight feet tall, with big arms and hands and that squint, and that shrewd, crafty grin, and those sharp eyes that never seemed to laugh even when the mouth laughed. “Oh,” he said, looking at me without any great pleasure, ‘it’s you-all.” I stammered something: ‘‘You—uh—you are getting some wonderful notices,” I said at last. His big face—with jutting jaw and big ears—broke into a grin. “Now it just so happens,” he said, plunging his hand into his baggy pocket, “I have some of those clippings right hyere. That New York Times, now— they’ve come to their senses at last.” “Yes, I read it,” I said, hoping to escape what I knew was coming. He gave one of those overwhelming, well: “A man who, once in office, aspired only to educate the nation’s young, feed its hungry, lift up its poor, promote equality and end the war among the brothers of this earth,” he | Guest Edit by Ben Ezzell Pre-election jokes about preparations for “the coronation of King Richard the First” may yet turn out to be a sick sort of humor, and the comics who lampoon Richard Nixon’s familiar phrasing. ‘Now let me make one thing perfectly clear—I am the President’ may yet discover, along with the rest of the American people, that their punch line packs more punch than they’ve realized. The President has already arrogated to himself more absolute power than any of his predecessors, which is quite a lot, and there are indications that we haven’t seen anything yet. The Congress, which may already have lost control over the power to make war (and peace) which was once delegated to it by the Constitution, and which has long since defaulted its role in the Constitutional system of checks and balances where foreign policy is concerned, may soon wake up to the realization that it has also lost all control over domestic affairs as well. President Nixon’s latest move to con- solidate absolute powers in the White House comes inthe guise of promoting economy and _ efficiency in the federal bureaucracy; and Also, pension contributions by members should be reduced from 5 percent to 3 percent of their salaries. Also, retirement rights with full pension after 20 years, no matter how young or old the pensioner. There were also a few other sly provi- sions, each of which, if granted, would in- crease the costs to the Commonwealth, but I omit them because they are minor when com- pared to the brazen and impossible stipula- tions already noted. To my view, and I would think to any- body’s who is not a beneficiary of this poten- tial, hi-jacking of public money, this is down- right, sheer, brazen, arrogance and an out- standing example of the insolence of office. Certainly I am aware of the old bargain- ing concept that if one demands 10 or 12 times she will get more in the long run than would be the case if the fair bargain were proposed in the first place. It probably is true, but it isn’t really honorable. The honorable way would be to settle on a reasonable plan that would not hit the taxpayers too hard; present the plan and make it clear that it is a rock bottom proposition. If assured of sincerity, the Shapp Chap or his satraps who are doing the bargaining, might just agree instantly and avoid the ex- pensive struggle that is bound to come if the above extortionate demands are insisted on. After all, the state, county and municipal employes are servants of the people and not bandits who have thrown all ethics aside and are plotting to take the people’s money from their pocket by extortion. They are supposed to be decent and honest people who have en- gaged in a necessary duty for the purpose of getting public work faithfully and efficiently performed at a rate of pay the public can afford. If they don’t want to do this, they are at liberty to leave public service and find work elsewhere. To be sure, not many want to leave. Public service has always been a haven for politically minded workers who couldn’t hold down a job anywhere else. Now, (HE want to entrench themselves in their job®%and root happily in the public trough, ever after. It is going to be a great test for the Shapp Chap. He has recently been blowing that he can cut the rate of the income tax (he made it too high in the first place) which he cannot do if he agrees to even part of the demands I out- lined above. So we will soon find out whether he is a man or a mouse. Is he going to take the part of the taxpayers, regardless of the displeasure of the state employes’ union or is he going to give in to the union? It’s going to be an interesting situation. O77 TRE (DS ANEELS TIMES SVAAFS THE DENVER RET %; NOU QUID STS GR SE Bie ASCOME quoted. Then suddenly his face became un- naturally meek and humble. “Of course, I know I don’t deserve it. I’m just a poor country boy from the Pedernales.” : 1 couldn’t help myself. “Now, sir, I know that Pedernales bit! You know right well you're as smart or smarter -than those guys you inherited from JFK; only you never could quite believe it.” “They thought I was uncouth,” he ex- plained. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t have let you fellows see my gall bladder scar.” His mobile face was registering penitence. “Lady-bird bawled me out,” he said. “You have to admit that not every Pre- sident would hoist his shirttail, peel back his undershirt, and let the cameramen snap the incision for the front pages.” He chuckled. ‘They were always talking about Jack’s ‘grace’ and ‘elegance,’ he said. “Hell, some people have it, and some don’t.” Yes, but do you have to carry bravado so far? Did you have to call you-know-who, from the Eastern Establishment, for a conference while you were in the bathroom, astride the executive commode?’ : He changed the subject abruptly by reaching for some more clippings. “This edi- torial calls me the greatest parliamentary genius America ever had,” he said modestly. “You were, sir! It was magnificent the way you engineered that roll call to censure Joe McCarthy, 67 to 22; you knew where every vote was. I can see you in that huge office of yours, the majority leader’s, like the Sistine Chapel with allegorical nymphs floating all around.” : Yup, that Eyetalian artist, Brumidi, his name was: when he didn’t know what else to fill a spot with, he painted a nymph.” ‘‘And you fitted right in, sir, bigger than life. You knew where the power was, and you held the levers. That desk of yours, it had so “many buzzers, and speakers, and tele- you sat, pressing buttons, using intercoms, shouting for papers, always complaining they were keeping you waiting. You told me once you wouldn’t be treated like a ‘motherless child’ and, by golly, in a second you were pacing the floor, rocking an imaginary baby “are the histories going to say?’’ Now he was solemn, with no make-believe; the great im- perious man who had to be loved. “Think they’ll read my clippings, eh?’’ he pleaded. “You can bet on it! They’ll read about you, and won't believe it. That vice president- ial election train, for instance. Remember ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ at every town? We called it ‘The Cornpone Special.” And that final shout you gave from the rear platform, as the train started to move, ‘What has Nixon ever done for Culpepper?’ “Hah, Nixon! Him. You know why Sam Rayburn made me run as vice president with Jack? Stew Alsop wrote the story. Jack couldn’t win without me. ‘Rayburn’s instinet- ive fear of a Catholic candidate was out- weighed by the visceral horror of a Nixon pre- sidency.’ I like that visceral horror.” ‘Well, we got the Presidency. Mr. Nixon says that the nation can’t afford the Great Society.” : It sounded like teeth grinding. There was a pause. “I won’t say another word about another president,” he said quietly, at length. “And what do you think?” “I'll say this—when you saw the war was a dud you tried to call it off; you called off bombing, and politics (including your second term) and you started negotiating.” “I wanted peace more than anything else,” he said simply. He was the same mixture—cantankerous, vain, humble, crafty, brutal, sentimental, towering, the same figure I watched rom the when he addressed the joint session. It was the watershed voting rights bill. H&@pgan, “I speak tonight for the dignity of mah and the destiny of democracy.” I could hear him again, ‘I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause. To right wrong, to do justice, to serve man....The issue of equal rights for American Negroes...There must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no compromise. We can- not, we must not, refuse...” It came from the heart; powerful, sledge- hammer eloquence: ‘‘Outside this chamber,’ he said, “is the outraged conscience of a na- tion.” The members were applauding now— every sentence, almost; 40 times altogether. And he went on, ‘Their cause must be our cause, too. And we shall overcome.” What a roar! “These are the @emies— poverty, ignorance and disease. *ot our fellow men, not our neighbor. We shall overcome.” They passed it—the Senate 77—19; the House, 333—85; the most comprehensive civil rights law in 90 years. And then there was medicare, and housing, and education and all the rest. I looked up the stairway, but it was empty. A hard man to love, maybe. And yet, and yet...From the great stone wall there was still a murmur, ‘We shall overcome.” criticizing those who would promote economy and efficiency is much like being against God, Home and Mother. The Presidential directive has created a sort of ‘‘inner Cabinet” giving four Cabinet members (whose loyalty to the President is unquestioned) sweeping powers to cut across traditional (and Constitutional) departmental boundaries. The chosen four are Treasury Secretary George Schultz, who will have wide responsibility for foreign and domestic economic affairs; Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz who will be in charge of all natural resources; HEW Secretary-designate Caspar Weinberger, whose area of authority is all natural resources; and HUD Secretary- designate James T. Lynn, who is to have authority over all community development. All of them are to be answerable directly to the President; and together with Presidential Assistants John Ehrilichman (domestic af- fairs), Henry Kissinger (foreign affairs), Management and Budget Director Roy Ash (executive management), and H. R. Haldeman (administration of the White House office) they form a Palace Guard of unprecedented power in American govern- ment. : Such a concentration of power in a few hands, and in a direct line of control from the office of the President himself, can un- doubtedly promote greater efficiency in the management of the vast bureaucracy which is our federal government, and the announced intention of the President to bring efficiency to the government will undoubtedly be greeted with enthusiasm by many of his subjects. Perhaps the next logical step in this progression will be to eliminate the source of much of the inefficiency and of a very sub- stantial amount of the costs of the govern- ment: the Congress itself. The Congress, after all, has already been relieved of much of its control over government policies, and it does cost a lot to operate it. It has long been recognized by economists and students of government alike that the most efficient form of government yet devised by man is an absolute monarchy. If efficiency is what we want most, it may very well be what we are going to get the most of. per year. Call 675-5211 for subscriptions. Editor Emeritus: Mrs. T. M. B. Hicks Editor: Doris R. Mallin J Advertising Manager: Dan Koze /
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers