Banner Graphic, Greencastle, Putnam County, 16 October 1974 — Page 2

WilMam Safire Good and bad in tardy revelations by hangdog watchdogs

Washington, Oct 13-Last year, we struck down a man elected as VicePresident for being or the take; this year, we are biasing away at a man nominated to be Vice President for being on the glee. Public exposure of the use of Rockefeller wealth in politics came not as a result of a senate committee doing its duty, nor of the prees demanding equal scrutiny, but because some government employe invaded the privacy of income tax returns when it became evident that our watchdog institutions were determined not to watch. Em harassed at having been caught with their double standards showing, both the Senate and the press have belatedly donned their full Watergate regalia to go out and smite the Rockefeller dragon. There is good and bad in these tardy

revelations promised by our hangdog watchdogs. First, the good: It's about time we woke up to the fact that the super-rich politician-whether a Rockefeller, Kennedy, or Karriman-is not to be revered for being “too rich to steal” but la to be watched for being “too rich to run against” Time, too, to recognise that rich men In politics are under enormous pressure to supplement the salaries of good men they bring on the public payroll. That is against the law. By careful timing, Rockefeller may have stayed within the law, but the skill with which rules were circumvented shows that he was well aware that his largesse was against public policy. And it is timely to remind anyone attracted to the service of any candidate that politics involves a choice of wielding

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2A WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1«, 1*74

Letter to the editor Appalled at council meet

To the Editor: For those citizens of Green castle who were unfortunate enough to miss the dty council meeting of Oct 14- be sorry you did. If you had attended you would have been witness to the most uncompre sensible and flagrant breech of government that has taken place In Greencastle lately. The council was totally oblivious to their crowd of peers who came to participate in the so-called meeting. The mayor was not only tactless but rude. If all people of this community were to have attended they would have undoubtly been as appalled, bewildered and angered as the majority of those who did attend. As the wife of a city policeman, I attended this meeting in regard to their

proposed pay hike. Unfortunately, the council never intended to hear anyone out about anything. The mayor ignored or refuaed to even recognise the people in attendance as to what they might have to say on matters pertaining to the pay hike, and barely would take the time to listen to anyone elae on any other matter-such as the proposed dty building. I ss a dtisen and taxpayer of this town was very disturbed by all that took place. I feel that all of us as citizens should look very closely at just who we have placed or elected into office. We should think and vote mud) more wisely next election. How many more decisions will these people make without consulting. Informing or allowing the public to gpeak? Dlaae Ptngletoa Greencastle

Russell Baker ‘Onward, unbuttoned soldiers' is view of

WIN project Washington, Get. 14-At the White House they gave me a button that said “WIN ” “It stands for Whip Inflation Now,” an economist said “Wear it and help beat inflation.” I wore it to the butcher shop and focused its powerful message on the hamburger The price purred and rose immediately. I trimmed the button with wolf's bane and cnidfix, took it downtown and aimed it steadily at the power company. The price of electricity went up again. Back to the White House. “This one doesn’t work. Give me another.” They fitted the new button into my lapel. “Wear it with confidence,” they said. “Think of it as a weapon in the war on inflation ” At the haberdasher I stuck it under the nose of a salesman, and he tried to charge me 970 for a pair of pants At the White House they listened sympathetically. “Well let you talk to a WIN button expert," they said The expert smoked a pipe packed with falling economic indicators. “You are using the button wrong,” he said. “You are supposed to aim it at yourself, not at rising prices. When you see a rising price, aim the WIN button at yourself and - zap!- it will stop you from buying.” Back home I read that the natural-gas people were threatening to raise prices. I turned the lapel up, took a full tap of WIN right between foe eyes and turned down foe thermostat. Almost immediately the gas people said they would have to raise prices because customers were using lets gas. The next day I canceled a flight to Newark because the cost of airline tickets had just risen, and a shot from the WIN button overpowered my desire to sojourn in foe Garden State Almost immediately the airline raised ticket price* again to offset losses created by declining teat sales The White House WIN button expert was reflective. "It's true,” he said. “There are still some bugs that have to be Ironed out of the button.” “You mean it doesn’t work, don't you?’*

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. "The only problem is that it doesn’t stop prices from rising when you aim it at prices, and it doesn’t stop prices from rising when you aim it at yourself.'’ “Then what good is it?” “It’s fun to wear,” he said, “And it gives you a feeling you're doing your bit in the war on inflation.” He looked Intently at the button and suddenly caught a sap in the noodle. “I’ve got it!” he cried. “Yes?” "I’m going to raise your taxes.” I wept. “There, there,” he said. "Don’t cry. The tax rise will help beat inflation by taking spending power out of your pocket, but that’s not foe beauty part.” “Give it to me straight” “The beauty part is that the tax increase will be so small you won’t even notice “So my ^pending power won’t be seriously affected?” "Hardly at all,” he beamed. "Then how will the tax Increase stop the Inflation?” 'Til figure that out later,” he said. “Rome wasn’t built in a day. Thinking up the WIN button took me abnoet three weeks.” In that case, I said, it would take him at least five years to come up with a useful Idea. He was hurt. “Don’t knock foe WIN button,” he said. "It has already struck a heavy blow in foe war on inflation." I gave Mm the graveyard laugh. “Listen,” he said, "not long ago very influential people around here were talking about midcing war on foe Arabs to stop the rise In oil prices. Do you know what that would have meant?’’ “No Mght at the end of the tunnel.” “Inflation,” he aaid. "Inflation like you’ve never seea “Triple-digit inflation. I had a better idea. Mr. President,' I said, make buttons, not war.’ ” You had to give Mm credit, all right At 12 percent

power over making money. Spare us the "sacrifice of pubUc service” folderol: being a bigshot is even more fun than being rich. In accepting over a half-million dollars tax-free, Dr. William Honan tried to have it both ways, and now this pare trembley to Rockefeller’s Richelieu goes down in New York history m the first L ‘eminence Grease.” Surely Rockefeller’s motives were good; certainly he had all these people indebted to him before he gave them money; and granted, he expected nothing from them that he would not otherwise get, because they were all on the same team anyway. But there la a sign on the political wall that reads “No Tipping Allowed”. Well-intentioned, yea; In character for a philanthropist, yes; the appearance of conflict of interest, absolutely. Rockefeller will have to come to grips with that, or foe nomination will fail. He is going to have to see that light and admit the practice is wrong and promise never to do it again. Along with the exposure of Sen. Robert Byrd as a Mt of fraud for his pretension of cross-examining Rockefeller at bis hearings, that is what is good about showing that the “Myth” of the political power of Rockefeller wealth is true. Now here is where it is bad. We are out for Mood. The atmosphere is such that we cannot merely reproach a nominee forwhat we find, listen to Ms remorse on certain episodes, and then judge Ms fitness on the whole. Instead, we are caught up in a total war on reputation, a habit of finding some wrong in a career and then moving in for the kill. Even the victims pass along the savagery, as Abe Fortas denounced Nixon and Thomas Eagleton, sounding like Old Joe McCarthy, lashes out at Peter Flanigan, and the habit of tearing down public men becomes ever more Ingrained. Strangely, the lust is diminishing as the habit perfects itself. Frustration leads to

leak; leak leads to denial, then to charge of coverup; reporter promotes investigator, another paper puts on the heat to compete; Senators see publicity vehicles, Congress and the press manipulate each other; fresh moral standards are applied to label previous practices as “Dirty Tricks” and an im-

perfect but good man is tom to shreds. Is that what we want? Have we become the prisoners of our own moral revolution? Will the only nominees able to pass muster be people who have spent no time in the arena? The Congress should stop its dangerous daily confirmation of Carl Albert as ac-

ting Vice-President, and get on with its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to promptly consider the President’s dioice. Rockefeller should assert he was wrong to supplement salaries, which will help end that practice, and then the Congress should confirm Mm as Vice-President.

William F. Buckley, Jr. Rocky’s money moves extension of personality

I don’t think Rockefeller is in trouble, but the attacks on him are interesting and. up to a point, even a little bracing. Hie principal line of attack is on the matter of his munificence. It should be said about Rockefeller, as it might be said about the telephone company, that both have done a superb job in persuading the public that it is better off letting them alone. In the first place, to remove the Rockefeller fortune would be like removing all the warp from the American financial structure, leaving only woof. Coping with the telephone industry would be a lot easier: but you will have noticed that nobody, with the possible exception of Jane Fonda, proposes to nationalize it. This miracle has occurred by the triumph of management. The Rockefellers, by the same token, very early in their training associated themselves in the public mind withphilanthropy. Their use of the Rockefeller name in connection with that philanthropy was only a little less lavish than the use of the funds themselves. True, they didn’t name it the "Rockefeller Esso, E-s-so, Foundation”, to stimulate the sales of Standard Oil. But it is hard to find a record of anonymous institutional Rockefeller benefactions. Thus the public became used to the idea that the Rockefellers pour a great deal of their money into philanthropy; and, accordingly, there hasn’t been very much resentment of Rockefeller money. That is one reason why, when now it transpires that there is a considerable degree of anonymous Rockefeller philanthropy, after all, there isn’t very much public shock. This has caused great indignation, though mostly in people like Anthtay Lewis, who reach for indignation like plants for chlorophyll. The ‘New York Times’ columnist rages at the lack of public concern ova* the huge, half million dollar, gift by Rockefeller to William Ron an, and demands to know why the same people who foraged the Nixon record for evidences of any unregistered movement of cash, haven’t come down on Rockefeller demanding an explanation. I should think that the principal reason is that no explanation is really necessary. Now it is true that there is a hypothetical conflict of interest. That is to say, William Ron an was nominated by Rockefeller to a position (on the New York Port Authority) whence Ron an might have voted in such a way as to frustrate Governor Kocketeuer. The assumption of the critics of the gift is that that gift makes the giftee eternally dependent. In fact, gifts neither make

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people eternally dependent nor, for the matter, eternally grateful. Almost every politician got his start as the result of the benefaction of a senior politician. This took the form sometimes of cash, other times of preferential treatment. True, there has been loyalty, and sometimes it has been expressed against the public interest, as when the Kennedy brothers nominated a tame Boston judge for an advancement to which he clearly wasn’t entitled. But more often than not, there is a residual independence, and I choose to think in the absence of evidence to the contrary that under certain circumstances Mr. Ron an would vote against Rockefeller in the Port Authority. What Rockefeller does accomplish with his money is a huge extension of his personality. He is a most domineering man, and at times a highly petulant man. When he lost the nomination to Goldwater in 1964, he closed down New York for

Republican presidential activity. When he lost the nomination to Nixon in 1968. he refused to let the Conservative Party put Nixon’s name on their line. By refusing, he literally risked the election. I.e., the Conservative vote might have provided the marginal figure in the marginal state. Rockefeller was born to be the boss. His money makes it easier to have his way. One election back, over six million dollars had been spent on the race for Republican governor of New York. This year, less than one million dollars has been spent. The difference is that last time. Rockefeller was running; this time, Rockefeller’s successor is running. But those who dispair of the system should remember this. There is only one thing Rockefeller has ever truly wanted, and all the king's horses and all the king’s men couldn’t get it for him. So that there is room left over to suppose that Rockefeller has simply been generous with his own money. He has also been

generous with the taxpayers’ money, and I find this datum, net, a point in his favor.

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