Thursday, May 9, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Attach $6 billion spend cut
House, Senate agree on surtax
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—House and Senate negotiators agreed Wednesday to President Johnson's 10 per cent surtax but tied it to the $6 billion spending cut which he had characterized as "blackmail."
Rep. Wilbur D. Mills, D-Ark., chairman of the House - Senate Conference Committee named to work out a compromise, said the group accepted a tax increase to produce $10 billion over a 12-month period. He said it would become effective retroactive to April 1 for individuals and Jan. 1 for corporations.
The $6 billion spending cut pleased House conservatives and assured Republican support for the package. But it was certain to displease liberals and could jeopardize the bill's final passage if Johnson opposes it on the grounds the $6 billion spending cut was excessive.
Strong language
Using his strongest language in discussing the $6 billion cut, the President said Friday at a news conference that any cut in spending above the $4 billion he had reluctantly agreed to would be "some phony paper cut."
"Don't hold up a tax bill until you can blackmail someone into getting your own personal view-point over on reductions," the
President said, addressing his words to Congress.
The tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee had come around to the Johnson viewpoint last week and voted for a tax increase tied to a $4 billion cut in spending, but the conferees agreed to the Senate's $6 billion version—a sharp defeat for the President.
Treasury Secretary Henry H. Fowler, who had pressed the President's case, stalked from the conference room where the negotiators had met and gave newsmen a terse "no comment."
Sen. Russell B. Long, D-La., explained why.
"I think the White House will be happy with the tax increase but they'll be very unhappy about the spending cuts," he said.
Johnson opposed the $6 billion cut on the grounds it would wreck his domestic program. He insisted on the necessity of a tax increase to cool off the economy, lower the deficit, lessen the threat of inflation and show America's trading partners that it intended to back up its words about the solidarity of the dollar.
How it works
If the tax increase is adopted by Congress and accepted by the President, it will work this way:
Taxpayers would figure out their income taxes next April based on existing rates. After
figuring whatever tax was due, the taxpayer would pay an extra 7.5 per cent on top of that sum. The full 10 per cent surcharge would not apply, since the extra tax for individuals would go into effect retroactive to April 1.
But for persons whose income taxes are withheld by their employers, 7.5 per cent more would be withheld starting 15 days after the measure is signed into law.
Under the agreement, the tax would expire on June 30, 1969.
For corporations, the full 10 per cent would have to be paid.
Over its 18-month life, the plan would increase government revenues by an estimated $11.8 billion, with $9.8 billion coming in the first 12 months.
Mills said the conferences put a ceiling of $180.1 billion on Johnson's estimated spending budget of $186.1 billion for the fiscal year which starts July 1.
The Senate had approved generally what the House and Senate conferees had agreed to. The Senate attached its provisions to a House-passed bill, extending the 10 per cent telephone and 7 per cent excise taxes.
If there are no further hitches in the long-stalled income tax proposal, the package—once the conferences finish work on other Senate riders—could take effect within a week.
PR worker gives profession 'good press'
Public relations is legitimate journalism, Helen Simms, the head of the University of Kansas Medical Center information service, told members of the KU chapter of Theta Sigma Phi Wednesday night at the annual Matrix dinner.
Theta Sigma Phi is a professional honorary fraternity for women in journalism Miss Simms is a past president of the Kansas City professional chapter and is now a member of the board.
Trial set for Clay Shaw case
NEW ORLEANS—(UPI)—Dist.
Atty. Jim Garrison Wednesday set
June 11 for the trial of Clay L.
Shaw on charges of conspiring to
assassinate President John F.
Kennedy.
Under Louisiana law, district attorneys rather than judges set trial dates after all pre-trial legal maneuvers have been exhausted.
But Shaw's attorneys Tuesday had announced they would enter Federal Court in order to get the trial moved out of New Orleans. Attorneys for the 55-year-old former businessman have been trying for weeks for a change of venue.
Shaw, the former managing director of the New Orleans International Trade Mart, was arrested in March 1967 and has been free on $10,000 bond since then.
In a 1967 preliminary hearing, an insurance agent from Baton Rouge, La., Perry Raymond Russo, testified that he saw Shaw conspire with the late David W. Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald in September of 1963 to assassinate President Kennedy.
Shaw has denied knowing either Oswald or Ferrie, who died shortly after Garrison's investigation of the assassination became public.
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Miss Simms, who comes from a Missouri newspaper family, said her father treated all news releases in the same way—they were thrown away. When she told him she planned to work in public relations, he couldn't understand why she wanted to "write drivel that was to be thrown away."
In her work for the medical center, Miss Simms said the most difficult job is releasing news about the patient. "This involves judgment about the patient," Miss Simms said, "and concern for the patient's welfare."
"Public relations has improved greatly in the past few years,"
Miss Simms said. The occasional clashes that occur between the news side and the medical side are due to misunderstandings by both about the other's occupations, she said.
The press must recognize the ethics by which physicians are bound and the medical profession must recognize the rights of journalists, she said.
"Both sides," Miss Simms said, "should be able to take constructive criticism."
about the Treasures for Mother
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(across from the Granada)
Student demonstrations need 'stronger reactions'
A partial solution to the current student uprisings in Germany and the rest of the world would be for universities to adopt stronger constitutions, Friedrich Strusch, chief consul of the West German consulate in Kansas City, Mo., said Wednesday night at the German department honors convocation in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
Strusch, who spoke in German on "Student Demonstrations in Germany," said when universities give in to students' demands in order to "quiet them down" then it would seem these universities are unsure of their leadership and are not sure in what direction they are heading—more liberal or more conservative.
After Strusch's talk, 31 students received scholarships and awards for outstanding achievement in the German language.
Scholarships awarded and recipients were:
Paris-Follet German Prize: Diana Pike, Wichita freshman.
Frances Schlegel - Carruth Scholarship: Kathryn M. Binns, Lawrence sophomore; Ellen Meisels, Lawrence sophomore; Edwina Price, Lawrence freshman; and Martha Williams, Lawrence freshman.
Cora and Elmer Engel Memorial Scholarship; James Coker, Deco Sophomore; Ruth E. Kolarik. Caldwell junior; Kenneth Larson. Caldwell sophomore; Rita Matousek, Cuba, Kan., sophomore; Barbara Reed, Tulsa, Okla., freshman; and Judith Worl. Geneseo senior.
Erdmuthe von Unwerth Scholarship: Ruth Ann Dick, Newton freshman; and Carolyn Wharton, Kingman freshman.
Federal German Government Dankstipendium: Norman Fahrer, Detroit, Mich., senior.
Germanistic Society of America Travel Fellowship: George Hurt, Cicero, Ill., graduate student.
Graduate School Honors Fellowship: Alfred W. Gross, Loyola University, Chicago, Ill., graduate.
Nancy Pennington A poetic idea belongs in a Cole.
803 Mass.