4
Wednesday, February 21, 1973
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Tight Controls Needed
Devaluation of the dollar has been greeted with enthusiasm by governments throughout the world. Germany and Japan were particularly elated because the move precluded increasing the value of the mark and the yen, temporarily at least.
Increasing the value of a country's currency means that the cost of that country's products will increase proportionally in foreign markets. As it stands now, the costs of German and Japanese products will increase owing to the United States, one of these country will send 10 per cent more dollars abroad when they purchase foreign products.
This devaluation would not be so alarming if it weren't the second in a little over a year. In December 1971, world monetary leaders met at the Smithsonian Institute and assigned new values to the currencies. The dollar was devalued and the mark and the yen were revalued upward. It was agreed that Germany would assigned values by keeping the value of the dollar 3.15 marks. This was to be accomplished by buying excess dollars, which Germany has done to the tune of $6 billion this month.
Where were these dollars coming from? From the United States, where irresponsible import-export policies have been draining the country's economy. It is said that U.S. exports and imports each amount to only 4.5 per cent of the Gross National Product, so foreign trade and the overseas dollar are insignificant. However, multinational corporations have invested over $85 billion in the book value of factories and equipment overseas. The true value of these holdings is estimated to be $250 million. Multinational corporations do bring money
back into the country, though
Those countries in which American troops are stationed are free to channel resources which would normally go for defense into the production of consumer goods. This is one of the countries most likely to produce goods less expensively than the United States.
Among the larger drains through which American dollars flow overseas are American troops stationed abroad and American tourists, including participants in foreign study programs.
Sending American tourists and students overseas without placing a limit on the amount of money these tourists with them is nothing short of idocy.
The Nixon administration is now in the process of negotiating troop reductions. This is definitely a step in the right direction and the President should be congruent with local leaders. A similar action has yet to be taken to limit the number of dollars flowing overseas with American tourists.
Import quotas should be renegotiated to allow the United States a fair balance of trade.
The economy is not on the brink of collapse. Latest figures for 12-month changes in the inflation rate show the United States' rate at 3.4 per cent. This is lower than any major global economic output and real growth of the economy are also outpacing our European competitors.
But the devaluation does indicate a serious weakness in our economy; one that must be dealt with immediately by making a determined policy to counter inflation, and shift the balance of payments in our favor.
—John P. Bailey
Death for Committee on Crime Would Be Congressional Folly
WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives will make a regrettable mistake if it carries out the death sentence now proposed for its Select Committee on Crime. The idea is to abolish the court system and transfer its work to Judiciary
James J. Kilpatrick
instead. Those who have followed the crime committee's excellent advice will hope the idea is scrapped.
From a purely political point of view, the scheme doubtless has advantages for a few members. As various public opinion polls indicate, it would be a domestic concern of the American people. Investigations of crime are bound to have popular appeal and Judicary's new chairman, Peter Rodino of New York, would like a little of the limelight.
The proposal has no other merit. Under the vigorous leadership of one of the most remarkable men in Congress, Mr. Obama, a crime committee has an excellent record. Its investigations have been marked consistently by fairness, balance and careful scrutiny. The investigators have reflected no trace of extremism in any direction.
All this is a tribute to the 72-year-old chairman—a tribute few observers might have anticipated 35 years ago. The ebullient "Red Pepper" of the Thirteens has been a constant stateman. Now in his sixth term in the House, after serving 14 years in the Senate, Pepper has earned respect by hard work. He has made the crime committee his principal labor, but he hasn't been a solo performer. His five Democratic colleagues and the members have worked as a team, sometimes disagreeing but never getting disagreeable.
Most committees, for good reasons, stay in Washington. Pepper's crime committee, created at once in Boston and in Boston, New York and San Francisco on the problems of narcotic addiction. It went to Florida for hearings on organized crime. It went to the Midwest in Omaha and Lincoln, and at crime in the South
in Columbia, S.C. Last year the committee explored the sickening picture of drug use in our schools.
Out of these investigations, the committee has produced first-rate reports on marijuana and heroin. The marijuana report, a comprehensive and well-attained a sensible recommendation that the mere possession of marijuana be treated not as a felony, but as a misdemeanor, is one of the sentences of no more than seven days. The heroin report put forward 21 hard-hitting recommendations for a worldwide attack on the problem. A number of these have been enacted.
Another effective study had to do with amphetamines. The committee discovered that between six and eight billion amphetamines were being manufactured annually. At least a third of them—perhaps half—were winding up in the black market because of the misuse of the mittee's work, the number has been cut to some 400 million and much tighter controls have been imposed.
From its inception, the crime
committee has concentrated on the juvenile offender: More than half of all persons arrested for serious crime are under 25. Some 40 per cent are under 21, and 28 per cent are under 25 alarming, the trends grow worse. Between 1965 and 1971, while total arrests increased by 26 per cent, arrests of persons under 18 increased by 40 per cent. If the committee survives, it plans to make much of its work in this field.
Because of the nature of its work, the crime committee's investigations encroach upon the turf of other committees—not only Judiciary, but also Commerce, Education and even Foreign Affairs. A part of its effectiveness is that there it has to go. It would be a cruel disservice to disband the committee, break up its experienced staff and lose the momentum already gained. Speaker Carl Albert, who has his own reputation to build, will do nothing to enhance that agency or the agency of the House that is working solely on the nation's number one concern.
(C) The Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Nicholas von Hoffman
IRS Prosecutes 'San Diego 10'
LOS ANGELES - Hank Hostenstein isn't your ordinary garden-variety felon. Still, on March 6, he's going to drive down to San Diego and get himself sentenced by a federal judge for conspiring to kill two children, that he's a former major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve or that he's active in the Boy Scouts of the Rotary and
although he has continued to pay his taxes since he got into difficulty.
If Heck had been a distressed major corporation or a big-time millionaire, the IRS undoubtedly would have let him pay off the debt in installments, or, more likely, they would have forgiven him half of it. Instead the IRS seize Heck's office equipment
sane situation the authorities would have charged the people with nothing more than disturbance or may be disorderly conduct.
Today, Nicholas von Hoffmann tells of the peculiar woes of 10 San Diego taxpayers who protested a decree of a businessman property.
But not the IRS. Armin Moths, another one of the San Diego 10, was arrested, indicted and sent to prison, and attempting to rescue seized property. Moths is a 48-year-old building contractor, a Harvard graduate, class of 45, a father of four children, John Birch Society, as well as being a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve and a post candidate for Congress on an American Independent Party ticket.
what to do about it. Writing Congress and the President is difficult, but we may work, but Mobs has found out, as the Left did before him, that it can lead to police officers who are about to be about you on the witness stand.
If he and his fellow convicts were driven to a picket line, it was, as he says, "because people are being robbed but we don't know being robbed but we don't know
It also can lead to the political use of the Conspiracy Act, probably the worst law in the U.S. It can be used for coercion and they include several plumbers and a couple of chiropractors as well, can be convicted is that they attended various parties, and can prove that protest was planned, and thus they can be prosecuted if somebody they don't know—possibly a police provocation—has hit the ticket line and throws a punch.
suggests that the tax revolt may be more widespread than we have guessed. Johnnie Walker, commissioner of the city flew into San Diego last month to make a speech calling for prison for all tax evaders. So perhaps the man who kept people out here tell all kinds of stories about folks banding together to fight the revoeners.
"There's quite a grass-roots movement growing," says Mohs, "here in Utah, Oregon, California." I don't know about the East."
lords for Tots, or that he writes poetry, or even that he runs a successful real estate investment business. In the eyes of the middle class in nine co-capitalis are a bunch of buddy-waddy criminals.
That the IRS would go after them with such brainless energy
Hank was done in by the Internal Revenue Service. No, he didn't litter it any money. He pays his taxes in full. Hank's crime is the IRS treated another businessman, a stranger whom Hank didn't know until last May 9, the day of "the over act," as the prosecutors put it when they under the Conspiracy Act.
If there isn't a movement, the ISG is going to create one. It may have wanted to make an example of it but it has made martys stead.
It was Hank's indignation about what the IRS was doing to John Heck, owner of a small moving company in San Diego, that got him into trouble. Heck had a nice business going there until he had some minor domestic difficulties a few years ago, and fell about $5,000 behind in his taxes. His tax account hasn't danced up with the money; so that last year, what with interest and penalties, Heck owed the government about $8,400.
(C)
Washington Post-King Features Syndicate
"I made efforts to borrow money to pay the taxes," says Heck. "I tried to borrow money from the bank."
But he couldn't come up with the cash in one lump sum,
and his moving trucks.
they just came in and seized the property," he recalls, referring to the fact that the IRS doesn't need a court order to grab what it wants. "But if I owe you money, you don't just take my car. You have to go to court, with them a civil service clerk can sign a paper, walk in, and close my hip on the floor. The law can do it to anybody, but our founding fathers didn't throw out King George of England to have the IRS do worse."
The protest went routinely until Heck took a stone and broke a window in order to enter his room, but he couldn't premise. The IRS didn't honor him by legally seizing his building until the next day. A minor scuffle with a few of the pickets followed, and there were more scuffles. The hurt was Heck who cut his finger breaking his own window. In any
It was this absence of due process that convinced Hohenstein and some other businessmen to associate with the Radical Left. They picketed Heck's warehouse where a bunch of FBI agents had installed themselves. They carried signs that said such outrageous things as "Stop ISPs" and "Illegal Seizure of Property."
Brand Xposed
By JAY SHARBUTT
Associated Press Writer
But now they're frequently specifying which competitions, thanks to a little push of encouragement that came from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about a year ago.
NEW YORK—Television commercials may be heading toward a new, improved series of claims. Many still say their products are better than those of the leading competitors.
The agency then persuaded the ABC and CBS networks to temporarily lift their restrictions against comparative advertising that specifically named competing products.
NBC lifted its ban against such advertising eight years ago.
The two other networks agreed to air compular ads for a one-year trial period. ABC now says it is extending the trial for an as yet unspecified length of time. CBS says it is studying whether to continue running such advertising.
Comparative advertising may give the networks-and publishers-a massive beadache, but it benefits the consumer, says Evan Tracy of the FTC's consumer protection bureau.
"The FTC believes it is pro-competitive, pro-consumer to name competing brands in comparative advertising," he said. "This of course must be subject to the same kind of adequate substantiation and standards of truth required in other advertising."
"But we believe it's more meaningful to consumers if they know exactly what products..."
are being compared to the advertised products."
He says comparative advertising has increased, though not dramatically, in the past year: "It hasn't been as great as we would like it to be."
But comparative advertising is starting to catch on, according to N伦曼 Nelson, director of the Google office.
A classic and controversial comparative ad campaign was begun last October by Schick, Inc. The company said independent tests proved its Flexamatic electric ranger gave closer shaves than those of Norcelo, Barrionnung, Schick commissioned the Tests.
Schick's president, James Badgett, last month offered to make the test data available to 'responsible parties' who sought it. He said in an interview two weeks ago that he meant to define those parties as broadcasters, publishers and consumer groups.
"We didn't submit the data because they were threatening us with a lawsuit and we felt that we wanted the data to be tried in court and not by them or by the press," Badgett said.
But right after Badgett's speech, North American Philips, which makes the Norelco shaver, asked for the test data. The company didn't get it.
Wallace Collins, North American Philips' chief lawyer, said his company had complained formally to Schick about the ad campaign, but decided yet if it would take the matter to court.
Jack Anderson
Politics Should Disqualify Gray
WASHINGTON-L. Patrick Gray, with his bullet head and pugnacious jaw, has the look of an FBI director. It is now clear that he lacks the qualifications. His credentials were less than impressive when he was appointed acting director in May, but after that he lacked whatsoever in law enforcement. As an attorney, he had specialized in taxes and trusts and paper shuffling.
He was selected, insiders knew, because of his complete devotion to Richard Nixon. Gray had joined Nixon's personal staff in 1900 and had established himself as a loyal team member. There is no higher qualification than loyalty to the team.
Gray's main mission was to make the FBI responsive to the President's will and, thereby, to
He was away from Washington so much that he became know around BFI headquarters as "Two-Day Gray." When he was in the Army, he re-election the re-election of the President, he was usually splashing in his
assure that the FBI, like Gray himself, became part of the team. In short, Gray was chosen for his political reliability to fill a position the Senate has decreed should be kept out of partisan politics
He immediately started roaring around the country, ostensibly to inspect FBI field offices. Almost everywhere he went, however, he took the occasion to say something that would annoy Grey's travels had the earmacks of a political campaign tour, yet he flew in Air Force planes at the taxpayer's expense.
" YOU KNOW WHAT, FATSO? I'M THROUGH TAKING ORDERS FROM YOU! "
But most serious of all, Gray has used the FBI as a political police force. He denied to newsmen last May that the FBI kept dossiers on politicians, newspapers, movie stars, black celebrities and "American"s. "None of you guys are going to believe this," he said, "... but there are no dossiers or secret files."
We promptly furnished him with excerpts from the files of a number of notables, who had been abducted and unlikely to commit any crimes. Yet the files showed they were under active FBI surveillance. To help Gray locate the hidden files, we provided the FBI file numbers.
swimming pool at his summer home in Stonington, Conn.
Six months later, FBI agents were caught actually checking on a democratic congressional candidate in Ohio. This flushed out objection to the governor's gathering information on both congressmen and candidates.
An embarrassed Gray pleaded that the practice had "just come to my attention" and said that he had ordered it stopped. All that had been collected, he insisted, was "biographical data on major figures of the period." Representatives and the Senate from newspapers, magazines, campaign literature and various reference publications."
Once again, we published details from the files of several congressmen, in House Speaker Carl Albert and House Republican Leader Gerald Ford, to prove that a nuclear drop trap information, surveillance reports and gossip from informants.
We can now cite a more personal abuse of police power. On Jan. 31, eight FAI members were arrested as Winston Lehman while he was reporting on the return of stolen Indian documents. The agents tore his notes out of his hands, snapped on the handcuffs and threw him into a fire.
in poetry.
We made a painstaking investigation to find out how this violation of Whiten's constitutional rights could have been committed by agents sworn to uphold the Constitution. We learned that the White House had passed down the word to the FBI to make a case against, us, for wrongdoing, enough to迎面 newmen who might try to dig too deeply.
Loyal old Pat Gray sent his agents into action against Whiten, although the FBI knew that he had been offered theft or possession of the stolen documents. The FBI knew, indeed, that the documents were about to be returned to Whiten. Whiten was on hand to write the story.
We have detailed, documentary proof that the FBI not only knew no crime was being conducted but that the FBI deliberately withheld this information from the Justice Department. Its top
prosecutions found themselves gleaning crucial bits of evidence, not from FBI reports, but from the newspapers.
Nevertheless, the prosecutors allowed Pat Gray's boys to present the best case they could to the grand jury. It is rare for a grand jury to refuse to let a case go to trial when the FBI wants it prosecuting. The judge decided the FBI's case, the grand jury decided that the FBI had no case and, therefore, refused to indict Whitten.
The President now wants to make Gray, as a reward for his loyalty, the permanent FBI chief. In our view, this would turn the nation's most formidable law enforcement political police force. We hope the Senate will refuse to confirm him.
Copyright, 1973 by United Feature Syndicate, Inc
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