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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 31, 1970     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 31, 1970
 
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The advent of a new year is a time for optimism. It's a time to remember that every cloud has a silver lining, what goes up must come down, it's a long lane that has no turning, and it's always darkest before the dawn. This column has had its pessimistic moments during 1970. We have concluded that this was due to the fact that we stressed the negative rather than the positive side of the year's events. For instance, we complained about the immorality of war in Vietnam when we should have been pointing out the sunny side of that conflict - the spread of Christian charity to the heathen nation of Cambodia, the economic boost given the munitions industry by the resumption of saturation bombing, the educational opportunity afforded thousands of young American men through free travel abroad plus a bargain rate of seven cents apiece for marijuana cigarettes. We deplored the slaughter of four students at Kent State when we should have realized that this was one chance in a million for National Guard troops to practice on real live people, not unexciting targets on a practice range. The experience will be invaluable when Ohio declares war on Indiana. We questioned the manufacture, storage and transportation of nerve gas when our humanitarian instincts should have told us that this substance provides probably the most humane method ever divised to kill billions of people in a short time. We concentrated on the nerve gas itself instead of the merciful thought behind it. o O We questioned the tax laws which allow an oil man with an income of $1,600,000 to pay less income tax than a mill worker earning $8,000, ignoring the fact that without tax loopholes our political system would collapse for lack of campaign funds and bribery kitties. And, above all, we wrote lots of bad words about that political system and the hacks and scoundrels who have perverted a basically-sound plan for government, converting it into a quagmire of inaction, self-serving obfuscation, and legalized pocket-lining. "We've got to make another trip. I forgot the SST's for Senators Jackson and Magnuson." hO ,0 It took a patriotic reader to point out to us that "'although it has its faults, our political system is the best there is and to attack it is to serve our enemies." He suggested that we write an editorial supporting our leaders before someone - in the interests of good government and law and order - heaved a bomb through our window. tte convinced us. To start out the new year, therfore, we present the thrilling climax to the heartwarming success story of" a great American who worked within the system. Representative John W. McCormack, who will leave office in January, was given the office retirement party to end all office retirement parties last week. His colleagues didn't hold one of those cheapskate affairs which are prevalent in the business community; they didn't take up a collection and present him with a crummy watch and a set of second-rate golf dubS. No, sir, they went first class. They gave him $76,000 of the taxpayers" money $38,000 for each of the next two years, distributed as follows: $100 per month for office expenses, $100 per month for telephone and $3,500 per year for stationery; an administrative assistant and a secretary at annual pay of $10,929 each. He was also given free office space in the Old Boston Federal Building. McCormack will also receive a Congressional pension of $44,000 per year. The going-away present of $76,000 was, according to the committee which sponsored the resolution authorizing it. "tangible evidence and embodiment" of the respect and regard in which McCormack is held by the House. During debate on the resolution, Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio, floor manager for the resolution, said he did not "'see anything wrong with this measure." He added that cabinet officers and bureaucrats "spend a lot more each year." How right he is. And how fortunate we are to have representatives in Congress who realize that the United States has a government "of the government, by the government and for the government," with a democratic sharing of the rewards of public service by all elected and appointed officials. Representative Hays was issuring a plea for fairness within the system, a brave call for justice. This is a perfect example of one of the excellent features of the system; the ability to take care of its own. When the Representatives have respect and regard for one of their colleagues, they are able to reach down into the full trough from which they all feed and pull out a $76,000 morsel for him. Where but in this marvelous system would it be possible to pay an administrative assistant for a man who has nothing to administer? The merits of the system boggle the mind. Who would want to change it? How could it possibly be improved? Only a pawn of our enemies would consider changing a system that provides a $76,000 office and staff for a 79-year-old retired politician. God bless the system. Founded 1886 by Grant C. Angle Maaing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wa. 98584 Phone 426-4412 Published at $helton, Mason County, Washington, weekly, except two issues during week of Thanksgiving. Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office, Shetton, Wa. EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ...................... Henry G. Gay By: ROBERT C. CUMMINGS Governor Dan Evans' decision to send a seacoast management bill to the Legislature means the law-makers will have at least three on their hands - including one with which they probably are stuck. The Governor's bill was first conceived on the assumption that the Washington Environmental Council would fail to get the signatures needed to certify Initiative 43 to the Legislature. But it now appears the environmentalists' own bill will make it. Another measure on the subject will be brought in by the Legislature's Committee on Governmental Cooperation. But the law-makers will have a tough time getting rid of Initiative 43. Almost Inviolate If the Legislature wants to amend the initiative, or substitute a similar measure in its place, it will have to muster a two-thirds majority in each house. To do this, they will have to come up with a bill on which 33 Senators and 66 ttouse members can agree. It isn't easy. It only has happened once. and that was on a legislative redistricting measure which, if approved, would have redistricted a lot of members right out of the Legislature. It was a matter of survival. The seacoast management issue doesn't carry that nruch import ; at least not yet. Other Alternatives Legislators don't make any secret of the fact that most of them don't like the initiative, but One thing property owners can be assured of is that their property taxes won't be raised any more in the ilnmediate future unless they vote them for themselves in the form of special levies or bond issues. Certification of Initiative 44 to the Legislature, which obtained more than 200,000 signatures in less than two months, automatically freezes the property tax limit at 21 mills at unless they can musteg..the necessary two-thirds ma~'rity, le~}tuntilthe.next,electL,on. . The 21-mill lir~it '~wa~,,enacted they are stuck with it.'~(0, by the special" 1970 session. They don't have to pass it, but if they don't, they will have to submit it to the voters in the following election. They can, however, also submit an alternative measure to the voters along with the initiative. That is exactly what the members of the Committee of Governmental Cooperation had in mind when they drafted their bill. But the Governor's bill could muddy the waters. In order to be submitted to the voters, an alternate measure must first get at least a simple majority vote in each house. The more bills that are introduced on the subject, the harder it will be to reach agreement on any single measure. The initiative would lower the limit to 20 mills, and nobody can conceive of anybody trying to get a two-thirds vote to amend that measure. The legislature may decide to enact the measure into law immediately, Records Fall Sponsors of Initiative 44 broke two records when they qualified the measure for certification. The previous record for signatures gathered was 185,000, gathered by sponsors of Initiative 256, the bottle-refund bill which was defeated in the last election. Sponsors of Initiative 44 also obtained their signatures in record Social values and images based on pioneering concepts of man pitted against nature in a struggle to subdue and exploit a foreboding wilderness lie at the root of America's current environmental problems, David G. Barry, Vice President and Provost of The Evergreen State College at Olympia, said recently. Addressing the Fall Graduation Convocation at the University of Oregon, Barry said, "Our technological society and its related economy are linked with a 19th Century theory based on unlimited exploitation of nature and which we have as yet to adequately modify or adjust to serve us in the face of our new circumstances." These circumstances, Barry said, "Tell us clearly that man is a part of all natural cycles and not a creature privileged and apart. He is part of the closed system we call the planet Earth." "We have run out of free land, air, water, and soil," Barry continued. "We have nowhere else to go. We know that growth in population is our central problem and that growth without control - perhaps any growth - is no longer automatically consistent with what we consider to be the quality of life." "We know that the Gross National Product is no longer an adequate measure of where our ., technological society is going unlessjit is balanced against our Gross National Effluent. "The Gross National Effluent is the recognition of the fact that we are part of a closed system, a statistical estimate of the cost of all those negative feedback consequences of the GNP of unlimited production, the cost of the additional travel we do to escape dirly environments, the additional cleaning costs for our clothing, the additional medical services, the good prematurely replaced because of soiling or corrosion, the cost of the oil slicks, the algae-clogged lakes and rivers, the choking haze of smog, and the cost of pollution monitoring and conlrol equipmenl." "And, perhaps most important of all, Ihi~ disillusionment of many young people their Iossof hope for a future." Barry told the Oregon graduates that America faces a period of threatened shortage of resources, coupled with "a burgeoning human population whose growth will increase demands for material goods and services whose production wilt create increased energy demands." "The whole of the processes of growth. production, and consumption will contribute so many pollutants into our environment that life itself may be threatened," he added. "What we are sure of was well described by Aldous Huxley in the Politics of Ecology: 'Thanks to our rapidly advancing science and technology we have very little time at our disposal. The river of change flows ever faster, and somewhere downstream, perhaps only a few years ahead, we shall come to the rapids, shall hear, louder and ever louder, the roaring of a cataract.'" He said the country still is in transition from the old pioneer, exploitative ethic "to a newer one oased on ecology and responslOflHy tot chmce in stewardship over our environment" and that "Congress is adjusting to the need for transition about as fast as American thought in ~eneral is adjusting to the new environmental imperatives." "Ecology as a view of nature is a personal matter," Barry remarked. "It will be expressed best in how we ~anage our daily lives as well as how we manage our industries, our technology and our society. Personal choice is the key to solulion of the problems -- whether it be in reduction of population or the rejection of those aspecls of technological society which dissipate our resources and which produce needless pollution." Barry concluded, "The environ|nent of the future, the legacy which our decisions will pass on to our children, will reflect the images and the understandings which we translale inlo our political action systems. As individuals, each of us must Work to persuade olhers to the proper course of aclion. Each one, convince one.'" Page 4 - She!ton-Mason County Jou,nal - Thursday, December 31, 1970 "W time. They didn't even file the measure until after the Novelnber 3 election. Then they had to wait to have a ballot title written before they could get their petitions printed. Still another record is being broken. Never before since the initiative process was established has more than one initiative to the Legislature been certified in any one year. This year there will be at least two, prgbably three, and possibly as many as five. Eary Bird Besides Initiative 44 will be Initiative 40, the "litter control bill" which got off to an early start and had nrore than enough signaturesto qualify it before election before Initiative 44 had even started. Assuming that Initiative 43 also will have enough signatures, that adds up to five. Also scheduled to come in under the wire are the two dog-racing initiatives, No.'s 38 and 39. Initiative 39, which is identical to one which failed to get enough signatures to make the ballot earlier this year, also got off to an early start, and was running all summer. Solicitors worked virtually every county fair in the state in the quest of signatures. Sponsors of Initiative 38, a rival dog-racing bill, were slower getting away from the starting gale, but were endowed with more professional know-how, which was valuable in the home stretch. Another Record? The only question remaining is whether the dog-racing signatures are sufficient to withstand excessive mortalities. These types of measures usually lose more signatures during the official validity check than others. If both are certified, it is certain that the Legislature will avoid taking any action on either of them, which means that both would go to the ballot in the next election. If this happens, another record will be established. There never has been two initiatives on the same subject on the ballot before. If both should pass, the courts would have a problem, because the two measures conflict in numerous respects. The constitufion makes provisions for the eventuality of an initiative to the Legislature and a legislative alternative both being approved by the voters. But it doesn't provide for conflicting initiatives being approved in the same election. EET NO man be sorry he has done good, because others have done evil! If a man has acted right, he has done well, though ahme; if wrong, the sanction of all manl