A letter from the Kingston Township Board of
Supervisors was read at the recent Harveys Lake
Borough Council meeting. It asked that the borough
consider joining other Back Mountain communities
in the creation of a Back Mountain Water Commis-
sion. The commission would deal with local water
problems and the local water companies.
The Lake council decided to table the letter for
future consideration, with their solicitor, Joseph
Kasper, reminding them that it would mean
“another authority’. Mr. Kasper’s statement was
symbolic of the bitterness that still exists between
council and the Harveys Lake Municipal Authority.
We hope that the bitterness will not stand in the
way of council’s performance of their jobs. We hope
that they will not brush off the Kingston Township
proposal, or any other similar proposals, simply
because those proposals would call for the estab-
lishment of an authority-type set-up.
For them to blame the troubles that have existed
between council and the authority at Harveys Lake
wholly upon the authority system of government
would be foolishly simplistic, and would mean that
they are not ready to share part of the blame for the
borough’s problems.
Their former chairman, Tom Cadwalader, re-
signed acknowledging that he had to accept some of
the blame. And, we remind council, he left with the
hope that his resignation would put a stop to the
bitterness that had existed in that:community.
Past bickerings are history now. They should be
forgotten, so that council can move ahead, open-
minded, with the business at hand.
Those Commercials
We would be the first to kick and scream if we
were deprived of audio-visual pleasure.
But every now and then the ridiculous, inane and
downright corny seem to pile up in sight and sound
over the airways. And, with tongue in cheek, we
feel impelled to note a few that might amuse or vex
you also.
Good for a starter is that potion that mothers and
wives take regularly that makes them ‘‘incredible”’
(this used to be a good word; now it is worn and
frayed from constant usage). In this particular
commercial, the daughter, who looks as old as her
mother, coyly puts her head on mommy’s shoulder
and the little woman shyly asks her husband if he
thinks he’ll keep her.
Those children with one cavity are getting
boring. If they could just have two for a change of
pace it would be helpful. Too, somebody An the
household forgot to do their homework—these
youngsters dash right in and interrupt their papas
at the most crucial moments. od
- That nasal spray that worked such wonders—the
simple ‘‘wow’’ to convey the miracle of easy brea-
thing has got to be the understatement of the year.
Those sexy gals, selling everything from shaving
cream to fuel oil, are a dime a dozen and their
‘eroticism is waning.
The rude woman with the dog food on the elevator
is unpleasant, but we’d rather have her than the
Irish dishwasher and the detergent boys who con-
stantly push their brands upon protesting women.
The vigorous application of the chapstick on the
window washer and horizontal football player are
killing.
And if there’s ever been anything but an ‘“‘otter-
mobile’’ over the airways, we haven’t heard it.
Must the ad men always say ‘““‘carmel’’ (as in the
California seaside resort) when they sell candy
bars? There’s another syllable in there, and that
pronunciation is given first—look in the dictionary
if you don’t believe us.
Those grandmas and grandpas taking laxatives
have got to go too. There’s got to be some better
projection of the medicine, as well as the senior
citizens, than this medium.
But saying all of this, not viciously, but half in
jest, there are still the charming seaside ‘“‘let’s
make tomorrow together’ gems and the soft drink
commercial about the young man in the athletic
park befriending the boy standing on the sidelines
with “more love than anyone I know.”’ And the be-
guiling children in the ‘‘peanut butter eater’s pea-
nut butter.”
We said that right, didn’t we? ¢
alin ee di —=Dottie Beckham
Cop fol Notes
by William Ecenbarger
The overseers of the Pennsylvania I
tery have a problem thal has plagued porno-
graphers for years: To as continuing
success, there must be continuing innova-
lion—yel there are only so many variations
possible on the basic theme.
Since it was launched seme 18 months
ago. there have been four different versions of
the lottery. three of which still are in opera-
tion. In addition, there is a “‘sudden million-
aire’ adjunct to the regular lottery, and now
there is talk of give-aways (0 spur lagging
summer sales.
The goal of the lottery stewards is a
. steady $3 million ‘a week in gross sales—a
figure that has been reached and even. sur-
passed several times, Whenever sales have
dropped significantly below the $3 million
plateau, something new has been added to re-
verse the downward (rend.
Although there was a new (wist added
just last May (the ‘Winner's Choice’’ game),
sales have now sagged to the $2.5 million a
week level. and another major lottery innova-
ition can be expected before fall.
The unbroken trend toward novelly na-
turally raises the question of where the lot-
iery is headed. There are only so many ways
that Arabic numerals can be manipulated in-
ierestingly in the lottery formal.
Most of the western world has had the lot-
iery longer than Pennsylvania, and if foreign
experience is any guide, it won't be too long
before the state will be running public gaming
pools on professional sports.
The pools are immensely popular in
Europe and South America, where most of the
beiting is done on soccer and rugby. In the
United States. almost anyone who wants can
play a weekly pool card on college and profes-
sional football games, bul the beneficiary of
ihe system is organized crime rather than the
government.
A typical pool bet allows the player to
select from three to 20 games from a list, with
TRB
from Washington
If you think food prices are ever coming
down to where they were in the 60's, they
aren't; forget it. That’s because the world is
going through one of the greatest economic
changes in history.
For one thing, the Greal Protein War has
started, and it will last as long as we can see.
It’s filled with ironies: well-fed nations are
scrambling to eat better, and hungry nations
io eal at all. Just as the US discovers that it
mus! import oil or see its cars stall, poorer
nations, with expanding populations, discover
they must import food or starve. When we get
this’sorted out the world will be a different
place.
Right now. probably a third of the 3.6 bil-
lion people on earth go to bed hungry at night.
Population is zooming. And the Protein War
has started. which means stiffer competition
for available food supplies. There is restless-
ness even in well-off countries (the northern
tier of industrial nations in Europe, including
the Soviets, as well as Japan). The United
States is richest, of course, but its lead has
shrunk surprisingly with the devaluation of
the dollar. On some technical counts West
Germany and Sweden suddenly have a higher
wealth per person than the US. They are bid-
ding up world food prices and you see the re-
sult in the supermarket. It will take time to
gel used lo these changed relationships be-
cause political concepts lag a decade or so be-
hind economic realities.
This is terrible news for the have-not na-
tions. Higher world food prices come for some
of them just as their populations go over the
Rustlings
by Russ Williams
I've already had three landlords, and
none have been my favorite people. Now the
shortage of housing due to the flood has
brought out the worst in the one I thought was
the best of a bad trio.
There are four apartments in his build-
ing. When someone moved out recently, he of-
fered it at the same price, $125. He claims to
have had about 80 callers. Needless {0 say he
rented it quickly.
Soon another apartment was vacated. He
upped the price by $25 and again had new ten-
ants before you could say ‘‘voluntary price
controls?’
Now he gives me a lease to sign. We never
had a lease before. It went like this. (Or
something like this.)
“*Whereas there are no places for you to
move if we don’t achieve agreement, and
whereas. even if you could find a place, a
move at this time would be a general pain in
the back side, this indenture is, therefore.
made the first of July, in the year of our Lord,
one tHousand nine hundred and 73.
“It is understood that the true intent and
meaning of this lease is that the second floor,
rear apartment is leased for the term of ten
years. and that neither the condition of the
premises. nor any other excuse, whatsoever,
at all, (and no *‘funnsies’’), shall excuse or re-
lease the tenant from paying the full sum of
$12,000. the whole rent for the term above spe-
cified.
“Ti is hereby covenanted and agreed be-
2 AE
the sizes of the payoff determined by the
number of games picked. The opposing teams
are ‘‘equalized’’ by ‘spreads’
points fo underdogs and take them away from
favorites.
State Revenue Secretary Robert P. Kane
believes Pennsylvania will legalize pool bet-
iing on professional sports in five {0 10 years.
He sees it as the ultimate lottery innovation
because it allows direct participation by the
betior.
x
“With pools you inject the element of let-
ing the player attempt to outwit the system
with his own ability,” says Kane. ‘He may
say to himself, ‘I know the Steelers can beat
the Kagles by more than two touchdowns’ and
bel aceordingly. You don’t have thal latitude
with the lottery. The player is at the mercy of
the compuler.
Kane says’ the newest lollery game,
“Winner's Choice,” is a step toward betting
pools because for the first time it provides for
a degree of direct participation by the beltor.
He ciles recent studies showing that for
every dollar the government can make with a
lottery, seven can be made with gaming
pools.
Pennsylvania, never a Ua in gamb-
ling matters, probably will ii Be the first
slate to legalize gaming pools. Up in New
Hampshire, where the lottery was reborn as a
state enterprise in 1964, the establishment of a
pool already is under active consideration.
Give
critical point; when a failed monsoon may
turn hunger to famine. Lester R. Brown, -of
the Overseas Development Council, an
authority on food, says the level of world re-
serves in comparison to demand is now far
for protein is under way. It comes now in
meal or soy beans. People can live on starchy
foods for a while, they can survive on
bananas. But ultimately they need protein.
ient lo handle the situation now developing, or
whether they have any concept of it. You
would think they would guess right once in a
while but they never seem (0. Here are ex-
amples.
Last January President Nixon issued his
annual economic report and his advisers of-
fered this extraordinary boast (page 63): “By
the end of 1972 the American anti-inflation
policy had become the marvel of the rest of
the world. Largely because of this change the
rest of the world is willing to hold increasing
amounts of dollars.” Six months later the
“marvel” of the ‘‘anti-inflationary” dollar
has produced a world crisis.
Here is another example. Russia last
year had a bad harvest and the US grain sur-
plus was the only one in the world. Moscow
was in and out of the American market with a
purchase of 16 million tons of our wheat and
feed grains before the bumbling Department
of Agriculture could wink (though the big
grain exporters knew what was happening).
We actually paid export subsidies to help
Moscow grab one-quarter of our entire wheat
crop off cheap; the best example of the US
playing Santa Claus since the Marshall plan.
Of course it kept US farmer happy for Mr.
Nixon's re-election. We held the price of
wheal for the Russian at about $1.65 a busHel
and it has since risen in the US to about $3.
You can see the result in the supermarket.
Americans like to get their protein in the
form of a sizzling steak. The cattle are fatten-
ed on grain; in meat, milk and eggs we con-
year: The have-nol countries can’t afford that
luxury; they rarely, get meat at all, and use
grain directly, around 400 pounds per person:
per year. As (he Protein War goes on the US
will probably eat less meat too.
This reporter has a romantic feeling
about farming; somebody should write a
poem to that black, rich humus in Towa that
goes down 10 feel or more. (On my grand-
father’s farm in New Hampshire, the topsoil
in places went down about an inch before you
hit granite.) Well, the US will export $10 bil-
lion worth of wheat, corn, soybean and other
foods this year from that soil. It is one of the
‘few places where the US has a big competi-
live advantage. The administration slapped a
lemporary embargo on export of crops, lo
curb food prices al home but it hardly seems
possible that restrictions can last: food ex-
ports are needed to meet the balance-of-pay-
ments deficit.
Will the US donate enough food to keep
the teaming have-not masses alive if a famine
comes in the Protein War? Of course not. It
probably lacks the power even if it wanted to.
\
wheal and rice seems about played out:
America’s 50 million acres of reserve crop-
land are now pretty largely in production and
the world of table-grade fish, according to
some marine biologists is close to the maxi-
mum sustainable limit, which is why mari-
, lime countries are rushing (o extend off shore
boundaries. Of course new sources of protein
may be discovered, or new ly opened up,
but just at present the outloo®is grim.
Studies in Congress show'(igat the United
States has a lot of hungry pe®¥le within its
own borders. Some 24.5 million are officially
designated ‘‘poor” (i.e. ‘‘yearly income less
than three times the cost of minimal diet”).
They could use more protein, too. Income dis-
tribution in America is violently unequal. A
CBS documentary on the social security sys-
tem last month contrasted one aspect of this
with the situation in Germany; in Germany,
for example, people get the equivalent of 100
percent free health compared to only about 42
percent in America. Mr. Nixon and HEW sec-
retary Casper Weinberger think the Ameri-
can ratio is too high and should be cut back to
save the dollar.
The odd thing is that it’s the dollar that’s
in trouble in the world, and it’s the German
mark, supporting all the Ger, social wel-
fare programs, that is the § any-
where. Something is screwy here, some-
where.
mises or any part thereof, or in any way wig-
gle out of the full payment of ten years rent,
even if the building should burn down, fall
down. be knocked down for a highway or
parking lot, or otherwise be made uninhabit-
able. The lessee shall -neither wiggle nor
wrangle his way oul of full payment if he
should (1) be required to move away from the
area; (2) be hit by a truck and die; (3) be-
come unemployed; (4) go crazy; (5) come up
with any other excuse, feeble or otherwise.
“If payments are even a day late, the les-
sor has the right to enter the lessee’s premis-
es and repossess and enjoy il as his estate.
And said partly of the second part hereby
waives and relinquishes all rights and claims
to any of the few laws that do exist to aid the
renter from the unfair practices of landlords.
“Said lessee also agrees. keeping in mind
thal life on the streets can he hard, and that
winter is around the corner. that should legal
action be necessary to collect from him, he
waives the right of appeal and will pay all
court costs and attorney fees of the lessor. win
or lose: and further waives the right to any
defense whatsoever.
“And it is further agreed, that the pre-
mises above specified are rented in their pre-
sent condition, with the distinct understand-
ing that the lessor shall not be put to any ex-
pense for repairs. even if the water pipes,
heating units, and electrical systems, which
the lessee probably knows nothing about.
should prove to be totally lacking and-or
faulty. :
“If the lessee shall become embarrassed.
!
{
a sheriff's sale becomes necessary, then the
rent for the balance of the term shiall at once
become due and payable. and shal be the
first thing paid from the proceeds of the
sheriff's sale; any law. usage or custom to the
contrary be damned. j
“It is further agreed that the lessor is not
responsible for any harm done to the lessee on
the premises or off. even if the harm Was due
to his neglect, with the possible exéeption,
under certain circumstances. maybe), when
the landlord willfully inflicts harm by! unpro- 3
voked shotgun blast. ¢
“In witness whereof, the lessee dpes lay
down all his belongings, pride, security, and
everything that might belong to a mi{an, be-
sides his carcass (which the lessee is fully re-
sponsible for disposing of should he die'on the
the lessor's property). everything in the
hands of the lessor. as above mentioned in
THE
Pa: 18612. Entered as second class matter at the po’
per year. Call 675-5211 for subscriptions.
The officers of Greenstreet News Co. are Edward!
president; and Doris Mallin, secretary-treasurery,
Mrs. T. M. B. Hicks, editor Emeritus
J. R. Freeman, managing editor / &
Doris R. Mallin, editor .
Dan Koze, advertising manager
Sylvia Cutler, advertising sales
ihis document.”
And then, below all that, I'm supposed to
sign my name. The indenture papers pro-
bably read something like my lease!
I confess that the term of my lease was
only one year, and that I exaggerated in some
other areas as well. But I really feel that I did
an excellent job of capturing the general drift
and basic meaning of the document.
I won't sign it.
Yes. I will. If he'll sign my simple little
lease, written in the style of hisgsile-minded
lawyer: : §
“IL. the lessor, party of the first part,
agree 10 accept payment a month in ad-
vance.,as before, and acknowledge the
lessee’s signing of my duly submitted lease,
by waiving all rights and resources that that
ridiculous document lays claim to.”
p.
oa he RE