The Mail-Journal, Volume 6, Number 28, Milford, Kosciusko County, 13 August 1969 — Page 7

L. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY The Milford Mail (Eet 1888) Syracuee-Wawaeee Journal (Eat 1907) Consolidated Into The Mail-Journal Feb. 15, 1962 DEMOCRATIC • ARCHIBALD E. BAUMGARTNER, Editor and Publisher DELLA BAUMGARTNER, Business Manager Box 8 Syracuse, Ind., — 46567 EDITORIALS

Almost Time For School! Ask any youngster in the area and he can tell you just exactly how many days until the start of school. Ask these same youngsters if they are ready for school and nine out of 10 times you’ll get no! They don’t even hesitate, but then did you? Yes, for tens of millions of the nation’s younger set the official closing of summer, Labor Day, signals the opening of another school year. The student of today, however, is luckier than his parents were. Y hen Mom and Dad were in school they studied the 3 R’s but sis and junior probably can’t even tell you what they are. Sure, they learn to read and to write and to do their “modern math” Your Own Home Town Join us for a minute and imagine that you have just been transferred to a new job in a small town and for the sake of this editorial’s point let’s imagine that job was in the town in which you are now living. What would your first impression be upon arriving in this new town! Are the homes neat and attractive ? Are the streets clean? Do the businesses arouse your interest? Or, are the houses un-kempt with litter strewn up and down the streets? Information, Please It is enlightening to note (under the head of What-Inflation-Does-Tor 7 You) the following information: \ “Your body now is worth $3.50, irn stead of the 98 »cents its chemicals would have brought back in 1936.” That is an increase of 257 per cent. Authority for it is Donald T. Forman, assistant professor of biochemistry of North-

. Know Your Indiana Law - By JOHN J. DILLON Jyflh Attorney at Law This is a public service article explaining provisions of Indiana law in general terms. Debt Pooling

You have undoubtedly had your television set on late at night and have appear before you a very convincing person with a very sirupy voice who assures you that he can relieve you of all your financial worries being pressed upon you by your creditors. He will then be followed by several persons who will give testimonials that they took their credit problems to this company and immediately all of their financial problems were solved. What you have heard is an advertisement from a debt pooling or debt pro-rating company. That is, this is a company that is not formed to loan money but to work out a program whereby the debtor pays on a specific time schedule a certain amount

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but more emphasis is placed on other subjects and today’s high school graduate has a well rounded education. For most people, an education of the past was something you got through “When you were a kid” so that you could get on about the business of making your way in the world. The present school carries a different message to the students — indeed it is a challanger. The store of man’s knowledge is increasing so rapidly that no one can begin to predict what things will be like in another 20 or 30 years. Our educational advantages have increased tremendously and are one of this nation’s greatest assets. What was your first impression of this new town? Since you really aren’t being transferred but have to live here why not do something about the way your home town looks. Start in your own back yard — this will challenge your neighbors to clean their yards and it will soon spread all over town and you’ll be proud of your town. Remember, it is the combined efforts of individuals who determine whether or not litter is to be downgraded and an entire town upgraded. western university. Very, very interesting; but it does raise a question when the time comes to file your income tax return: Do you enter it under capital gains, or must you subtract it from the S6OO personal exemption? — Nashville Banner

of money to each of his creditors. For this service the debt pooling company charges a percentage of the money it handles as a fee. This fee may range from ten to twenty-five per cent of the money handled by the debt pooler: Some debt poolers require that their fee be paid first before any of the money paid in by the debtor is applied to the accounts of the creditors. Many persons feel that an honestly operated debt pooling company can perform a genuine service for persons who are simply unable to manage their own business affairs. However, in many areas the debt poolers have not aided the debtor, but simply compounded his troubles by using large amounts of the money paid in as fees for the debt pooler

rather than to satisfy creditors. In Indiana, it should be pointed out that the debt pooler can only try to restructure the debtor’s payments so that the creditors will be kept satisfied to the extent that they will not enforce their legal remedies, such as garnishment proceedings. It should be pointed out, however, that the creditor is not required to delay or stop garnishment proceedings even if a person goes to a debt pooler and tries to make new arrangements to pay his debt. If the creditor wants to proceed with the garnishment proceedings he can still do so. Thus, the sole service of the debt pooler is to do a better job of managing the debtor’s money. As a result of this, in many states, debt poolers are stringently regulated and in Indiana legislation has been presented to regulate them. Also, in some cities it is suggested that city ordinances be passed to regulate debt poolers. Particularly, these laws require that debt poolers be bonded and make stringent provisions for the turning over of the money given to them to the creditors. Since the essence of the debt pooling business is that the debtor turn over each pay day some portion of his pay to be applied to his debts, the debt pooler merely does what the debtor should be able to do for himself. For this reason the proponents of outlawing debt pooling will probably present their case most strongly, to the next Legislature and debt pooling will either be outlawed or strictly regulated. You And Social Security Q —I am a bachelor and will be 65 in August. I have no social security credits because all my income is from investments. Will I be eligible for Medicare? A— You will be eligible to enroll in the voluntary medical insurance part of Medicare, but you will not be eligible for the hospital insurance. People who reach 65 after 1967 need credit for a certain amount of work covered under social security, or be an eligible dependent, to have the hospital insurance.

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Bayh-Linesk FROM WASHINGTON

Introduce Legislation To Reduce Number Os Military Personnel

WASHINGTON, D. C„ August 6!—Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) and Senator Marlow Cook (RKy.j introduced legislation today to reduce active duty in military manpower by the number of troops removed from Viet Nam. Under the Bayh-Cook Amendment, the President’s recent decision to withdraw 25,000 troops from Viet Nam would automatically produce a troop reduction of 25,000 men from the present overall level of 3.5 million. Bayh expressed concern that a reduction of 25,000 troops in Viet Nam might simply result in

Special Report from Washington

WASHINGTON — The Senate bill to protect children from dangerous toys — games that blind, toy ovens that produce 660-degree temperatures, rattles that come apart, exposing sharp daggers-has run into a roadblock in the House. The toy manufacturers, who have been, careless about hazardous toy designs if they cut costs, and have been getting fiway with it, abandoned their New York lawyer and looked around for a Washington attorney with influence in Congress. Like many big-money clients before them, they sought out the prestigious, politically potent law firm of Clark Clifford. Clifford’s law partner, Thomas D. Finney, Jr., who managed Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign last year, accepted the case. He slipped . around to see members of the House Commerce Committee about pulling the stinger out of the Senate bill. Finney succeeded, ’ with the help of committee aide Bill Dixon, in encumbering the bill with impossible bureaucratic procedures. The language Finney has tacked onto the bill would require the government to go through a prolonged process of notice, hearings and bureaucratic maneuvering before a dangerous toy could be banned « from the market. Finney . could use these procedures to delay for years action against toy companies that manufacture hazardous playthings. In the meantime, children could continue to be unwarned and injured. The no-nonsense Senate bill was the work of Sen. Frank Moss, D-Utah, who acted upon

their re-deployment in another area. “President Nixon’s recent statement that ‘we will stand proudly with Thailand against those who might threaten it from abroad or within,’ gives us all reason to be alarmed that a reduction of troops in Viet Nam might merely mean a re-deployment elsewhere.” The Indiana Senator said, “It is time our troop commitments correspond with our foreign policy rather than the way it is now with our troop commitment often dictating our foreign policy.”

evidence produced by the National Commission on Product Safety. Toys that should be a source of fun, he found, often cause injury and death. Every year 500,000 children are injured from swings, 200,000 from slides, 50,000 from seesaws. Toxic, corrosive, flammable goods abound on the toy counters. A blowgun caused serious injuries when the darts were inadvertently inhaled and embedded in the lungs. One “sonic blaster” emitted such a blast that it endangered children’s eardrums. Manufacturers are making more hazardous bicycles with righ-rise handlebars. There are S-hooked swings, skateboards and lead-painted toys. Some baby teethers contain water contaminated with coliform bacteria. Chemistry sets were found with inadequate or non-existent caution labels. Highly flammable cloth was wrapped around the metal hoops of a toy tunnel. In a plastic doll manufactured for toddlers, • a hair ribbon can be easily pulled out exposing a dangerous pinlike protrusion. With the aid of the influential Finney, however, the toy industry appears to have sabotaged the needed reforms. OPEN SECRETS Two stern rules have been hammered into the heads of the striped-pants set down at the State Department. They have been admonished to utilize every scrap of the taxpayers’ paper and to protect with their lives, if necessary, the nation’s secrets. In their eagerness not to waste paper, alas, they divulged some classified information the other

“We say we are trying to relieve world tension by working toward arms control talks yet we are keeping a standing army of 3,500,000 and are maintaining 429 major military installations and 2,972 minor installations throughout the world.” Bayh pointed out that a reduction of American troops would not leave the door open to Communist aggression. He noted specifically that the Amendment would not apply during any national emergency. He also called attention to the fact that if aggression did occur, America had the capability of airlifting large numbers of fighting men to the trouble spot within hours. “The idea that the United States must continue to keep gigantic standing armies throughout the world is not only ridiculous with our modern transportation abilities, but is expensive as well. Our troops just in Western Europe, for example, are costing American taxpayers over 2% billion every year.” Bayh pointed out that the presence of U. S. troops in Europe

day. They used some paper, already printed on one side, in the mimeograph room. On the back of at least one mimeographed sheet, listing the highlights of July 16 on Capitol Hill, appeared a confidential document. The congressional summary was available for anyone to read whatever his standing with the FBI. Yet the back of page 2 contained a classified discussion of Fiji politics, clearly stamped “Confidential —No Forn,” which means it was never supposed to be seen by foreigners. There is no telling how many non-American eyes have now beheld it. The document describes the political rivalry between the Indians and the Fijians in the British crown colony of Fiji. The Indians were brought to Fiji by the British to work in the sugar cane fields. Spies and foreigners can now learn from the confidential backside of the congressional summary that “the NFP (National Federation Party) appeared shaky and uncertain of its course.” “This change in morale,” the document declares learnedly “probably reflects in part the fact that Ratu Mara (head of the Alliance party) believes he has shored up his support among the Fijians through such gimmicks as a hard-hitting magazine. One article on ‘Fijian Power’ was particularly crass and offensive to Indians, but it appealed to the Fijians. “The NFP by contrast is dis- . couraged by its failure to attract Fijians to its cause, and statements by S. M. Koya (an influential NFP member) recognize that continued failure on this point probably means a perpetual minority pblitical status.

Congressional Comer: • John Brademas Reports From Washington Vital Issues: Tax Reform And Safeguard ABM System

Congress acted on two issues of vital importance last week: Tax reform and the Safeguard AntiBallistic Missile System. TAX REFORM The House of Representatives approved by an overwhelming majority the most comprehensive tax reform program in the nation’s history. The bill does two things: First, it closes many of the loopholes which wealthy individuals and corporations have traditionally used to avoid paying taxes. A total of $6.8 billion will be added to Federal revues through loop-hole-plugging. Under ths House-passed tax reform measure, this money will be returned to the taxpayer in the form of tax relief. The bill as originally reported by the Houss Ways and Means Committee ignored a taxpayers-homeowners with incomes between $7,500 and $lB,000 —who would have received none of the benefits of tax relief. I was glad to have worked with the Democratic Study Group in a successful attempt to achieve a last minute amendment of the bill. Now people in all income categories will have their Federal taxes reduced, but the reatest share of the benefit will go to those in the lower and middle income brackets. THE ABM While the House was debating tax reform, the Senate was making an important decision on deployment of the Safeguard An-ti-Ballistic Missile System, the ABM. r The ABM is a system designed to protect American missile bases from enemy attack by intercepting incoming enemy missiles. In a vote on two amendments which would have postponed deployment of the ABM while peris a symbol. “That symbol would serve the same purpose if only a relative handful of troops remain. To retain this symbol at such an inflated level has proven too costly.” Bayh concluded, “I would hope this resolution would help us to reassess our military commitments in light of today’s needs and seek to match those commitments with adequate manpower levels.”

By DREW PEARSON And JACK ANDERSON “The new Indian consul, A P. Venkateswaran, has utilized his good offices in trying to moderate the NFP leaders’ extreme political positions.” This confidential assessment of Fiji finagling is now out of the bag, thanks to carelessness in the State Department’s mimeograph room. The repercussions upon Fiji American relations are yet to be measured. STINGY CONGRESSMEN As their own private contribution to inflation, members of Congress boosted their own pay earlier this year from $30,000 to $42,500. They also raised the salaries of their office help. Forgotten in all this largesse with the taxpayers’ money, however, were the most underpaid employees on Capitol Hill — the waiters, buss boys and kitchen help in the congressional restaurants. By almost an unwritten law, tipping is tightly restricted in Capitol restaurants, even though tips are the source of a substantial part of every waiter’s income. In downtown restaurants, where the lobbyists entertain lavishly on their expense accounts and the tabs run high, Senators and Congressmen generally are regarded as stingy; they seem to feel they’re doing the restaurant—and the waiters—a favor by patronizing them. But many are downright cheap in their restaurants at the Capitol. They will leave as little as a dime on the table. As a result, some waiters on Capitol Hill make no more than $95 a week, counting tips, in take home wages, scarcely half what most waiters make in the plush commercial restaurants downtown.

mitting further research, a conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats, by the narrow margins of 51-50 and 51-49, supported the position of the Nixon Administration and decided to allow deployment. A bipartisan coalition of 36 Democrats and 13 Republicans voted against the ABM, while 21 Democrats and 30 Republicans voted for it. I believe this decision to deploy the ABM was a mistake. The ABM will require enormous expenditures at a time when government funds are in short supply. We will be paying billions of dollars for what nearly half the Senate and many scientists believe will be at best a very small increase in national security. At worst the ABM will almost surely initiate a whole new cycle in the arms race with the Soviet Union which can deminish the security of us all. It is worth noting that four of the science advisors who served the past three Presidents — Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson—have all come out against the ABM. Perhaps most significant about the vote on the ABM is not that the Nixon Administration won a razor-thin victory, but. that never in our history has a proposal for a new weapons system encountered such strong opposition in Congress. This opposition symbolized ei new attitude in Congress toward military spending. The day has now passed when the military can get what it wants from Congress simply by asking for it. In the future, military requests will be subjected to much closer scrutiny by Congress. The vote on the ABM, taken in connection with last week's House vote to increase funds for education programs by $1 billion, indicates a growing concern in Congress that our country must undertake a searching reappraisal of our national priorities, and invest our tax dollars accordingly. OTHER NOTES I attended a special State Department briefing for Congressmen at which Under Secretary of State Elliot Richardson evaluated the impact of President Nixon’s Asian trip.