Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / April 7, 1979, edition 1 / Page 5
Part of The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
A POLICY TO REDUCE INFLATION AND UNEMPLOY .t. . 1; MENT SIMULTANEOUSLY ZJ The Subcommittee of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, whose chairman is Representative Parren Mitchell has been holding hearings on the conduct of the United States monetary policy as it relates to the unem ployment and inflation goals of the Humphrey-Hawkins calls for inflation reduction ot three per cent and umemployment to four per cent by 1983. Mr. Mitchell stated in these hearings that theV would review the Federal Reserve's past and planned policy and to ascertain its impact on the current and prospective economic activity. Some people contend that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy has promoted increased in flation and unemployment. Mitchell said that for the third time in the last ten years, the monetary policy has swung from fueling inflation to triggering recession. He said these trends will quite likely cause consumer and investment spending to fall by the end of 1979. Mr. Mitchell stated that the committee is asking the Federal Reserve to grad ually slow down. It is recommending a 6 per cent target growth as both a floor and ceiling for 1979. He stated that goals of Humphrey-Hawkins can be obtained by a direction intiscal policy as well as prudence in monetary policy. He further stated that there is every reason why mm ra OTITE HOUSE IT AlFIEDA L. HADISON SAT., APRIL 7, 1979 THE CAROLINA TIVZS-5 the Federal Reserve is slowing money growth, fiscal policy can be directed to employment for the jobless. One witness stated that the mandates of Humphrey Hawkins are attainable by dismantling the minimum wage. He said corporations would hire the unskilled if they were, put on piece work. With such a method they will not be overpaying for ineffcient production. He also stated, that lowering the social security tax, moving on energy, through more deregulation and a strong national commit ment to lowering consuming and raising greater production. When these are done he said the three per cent inflation tod four per cent unemployment goals could be achieved in from five to seven years. k The witnesses spoke of a need for legislation to stablize the Federal Reserve Policy. They said that the financial community uses clever devices when there is an effort to reduce inflation. They gave as examples, government sub sidizing of Penn Central Rajlroad. Lockheed Company and New York City. These economists predicted that recession seems inevitable. They also think unemployment will increase. These witnesses stated that in the change of na ' tional unemployment, there need to be government pro grams and policies which will require a change in composi tion of DnernploymeTit- At present, the greatest unemploy ment victims are blacks" and Spanish; both In adult and teenage unemployment. The next women, with white males enjoying a below the Humphrey Hawkins unemploy ment rate goal. What Congress is now saying is reduce the fiscal policy and leave unemployment still locked-in. Surely a good reason for this attitude can be attributed to the fact that almost aQ of the members of congress are white males, and of course neither they nor their families are hard hit by unemployment or inflationary prices that are haw for than to pay. Their salaries, phis fringe benefits, and means of making money beyond their congressional sala ries coupled with who they know so their family members can be employed, in reality keep them removed from the economic pinch. It was noted that inflation is a very serious matter since it greatly impairs the economic weO-being of these at the lowest financial level and those on a fixed income. It was also emphasized that the notion of reducing inflation by increasing unemployment is a myth: that is is possible and profitable to raise employment and reduce inflation simultaneously. It was brought out that corporations would have no incentive to increase productivity if the market is low because of lack of money caused by joblessness. Like the champion it has been for nearly three-quarters of a century, the NAACP battles courageously against America's great white hope racism. But alas, for the past decade or so, at the end of each round, the champion, battered but proud, bruised but still determined, goes to its corner to find fewer and fewer of its "seconds" there to administer succor and support. So now our champion suffers with a $750,000 operat ing deficit this year. Soon, NAACP .executive director Benjamin Hooks will announce a national fund raising drive to raise about $2 million a year for the next ten years. The organization that has been in the forefront of every, major civil rights battle since 1909 isn't asking much of us. According to Hooks, the organization wants black folks to pledge to the NAACP $50 a year for the next ten years. The question facing black America is: Will you pay $500 to stay free? Scoff if you dare, but ominous clouds are gathering in America. They've been gathering for some time now, without much fanfare or media attention until it was too late to do anything significant about the problem. In recent years, the NAACP has been on the losing side of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions - rulings that denied the right to public money for abortions, upheld the principle of seniority systems and paved the way for zoning laws that could exclude blacks and other minorities from certain neighborhoods. In the past five years, northern representatives in Con gress have backed what NAACP leaders call "anti-black amendments" that restrict the use of federal money to enforce school desegregation. In the last two years, the civil rights sun has grown even dimmer behind thickening clouds of renewed racism as the Bakke battle wasn't lost, but wasn't clearly won either. Now there's the Weber case, where a white employee con tends a company has no right to take voluntary affirmative action because that might exclude some white men from The Brach a if By MILTON JORDAN jobs, promotions and pay raises. With media and legal help, the concept of "reversed discrimination" has become a problem with which we must seriously contend. The huge Sears chain, America's largest retailer, long a'' friend of civil rights, has filed a suit against the federal government, saying its affirmative action demands are so confusing, convoluted and contentious that they are unabidable. The Klan, taking its cue from the country's obviously conservative mood, has surged into the open, recruiting, marching and reviving the idiotic vestiges of racial hatred. The Nazis apparently want to declare all-out war on all but bona fide White Ango-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). In the face of this resurrection of America's rampant racism, the nation's oldest, largest and most effective civil rights organization seems forced to face the foe unprepared to wage total war against the problems that would deny us the heritage we've earned. Is freedom worth $50 a year to you? The question should be rhetorical, but apparently some black people in this country find it to be a difficult question to answer. J. Parke Gibson, a New York based marketing specialist, notes in his latest book that black America represents a $80 billion annual consumer market. According to Gibson, black America has a larger gross national product than Canada and Autralia. So why is the NAACP hurting for both membership and money? There are any number of reasons, not the least of which is that in the eyes of many of the country's younger blacks there's no need for the organization today. Hooks is quick to concede that over the years the NAACP has lost much of its influence. But even quicker he adds: "We're still fighting and we'll always be in there fighting." The NAACP's loss of influence is largely among younger blacks, most of them born after the black and white signs came down, after the sit-in-the-back-of-the-bus tradition died, after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlaw ing segregated schools. These 20 to 25-year-olds, largely products of integrated schools and a social setting that earns reefers rather than ropes for passes at white girls, seem embarrassed that the NAACP is still around. I've talked with many who say: "Oh, the NAACP, they're old fashioned, they still call themselves colored." "I'm not anti-white, or pro-black. I'm pro-people." "Sure I date whites. They're people too." Such lofty rhetoric would sound good in a different society, in a society that has truly changed. But in today's America it sounds pathetic. While some "arrived" blacks are being "pro-people," millions of other blacks are suffering rampant racism, battling poverty and are still the last hired and the first fired. Oddly enough, the NAACP's support over the years has come from these folks, the downtrodden who remember the signs, who know intimately who Rosa Parks is, who remember four little black girls blown to bits in a Birming ham church. ' Now is the time for you "arrived" folks to put up or shut up. Will you pay $50 a year to continue the good life? In other words, is freedom worth 100 packs of cigar ettes, twenty $5 pints of whiskey, one-tenth of a good stereo system, or a couple of good nights at your favorite disco? Don't tell me your answer. Call up your local NAACP office and tell them with a check or an excuse. There are about thirty million of us in America today, and let's assume that about fifteen million are adults. Just a little less than 90 of us are employed. That means 13.5 million blacks should be willing to pay $50 a year for freedom. If we do that, then our fighter can leap back into the center of the ring rejuvenated, bankrolled with a $675 million kitty that will prove once and for all that we mean to be free and first class in this country. If we do that, we can truly sing loud and clear, "our new day begun." If we don't, we have no one but ourselves to blame when we find ourselves groping in the darkness of racial hatred, waiting for a new messiah with a bright light to give us hope for the future. Next week, IU take a look at the competency test and what it could mean to some of our most cherished institu tions. See you then. William Douglas "Biddy" Page-The Griot of Durham When my brother called to tell me "Biddy" Page was dead, I can't describe the feeling of emptiness wMcli&amf over me. Why as far back as I can remember, there had always been a Page's store with "Biddy" Page, 'Brother Ben', "the Captain" (Waverly), and Mrs. Page (Mrs. Pearl B. Page). The, Pages have always been special to me and my family. And "Biddy", well he was just "Biddy"-a unique and unforgetable character. Ill .'Ail J t'I'll 'Jl't.UI IKl I) '111) llil I III- , (lit. I Jt ... Now ijjack in ,Purhams, heyday, wften Whftted School , was running strong, you just didn't end the day without stopping into Page's for nabs, a soda, candy.etc. There you'd find the old gold plated cash register from years gone by. Lots of community people were always gathered around to chat awhile. The big black truck was a permanent fixture on Fayetteville St., as was the emerald green Olds mobile family car. In the e summer, the kids from Hillside Park or W.D. Hill Recreation Centrer kept a constant flow through Page's Store. Going back even further, I remember when Kroger, A&P, Winn Dixie and other chains stores didn't want to be bothered with black folk's business; but we could always depend on Page's. If there was something that you needed, "Biddy" would order it and if he couldn't get it, he'd tell you why you didn't need it in the first place. But so far, this has been about the store and the Page family, and I want to say something about my most un- SPECTACLES.. A Closer loolt By ADA M. FISHER forgetable character- "Biddy" Page. In Africa the griot was the story teller, the man who told the oral history of a family or a tribe. If Durham had a griot, "Biddy" and my mama were Durham's best. Why there wasn't a family in Durham on this the south side of Pettigrew St. that Biddy or Mrs. Ada V. (Fisher) didn't know. They even got togeth er occasionally to compare notes and keep each other up to date. Biddy had the best vantage point in the store to watch us and our children pass. It never ceased to amaze me that ai times he know more about what was going on in my family than we did. He often saw more of us than we did of each other and I'm sure this was true for other families as well. F us and for others, he was the link that kept us informed, not only about ourselves, but about our friends. If we were getting too "big for our britches" or an over-sized ego, "Biddy" had a way of bringing us back down to earth. He was a sounding board off which ideas could be bounced and a very candid reply expected. Biddy was upfront in what he had to say. But most importantly Biddy was our friend. I can remember times when money was scarce; but 1 can't ever remember a time when credit wasn't available in Page's store. Why Biddy game me my first charge account when he let have that "Snicker" on my promise to bring the money in later. 1 have watched the Page's give credit to the less fortunate. I have ridden on the pick-up truck which was and is always available to carry groceries to those without transportation (the sick and shut-in, the elderly, the needy). And when have the scads of children who've crossed Page's threshold and gone on to bigger and better things which "Biddy" always told us about on the front porch, or in the store. Stopping in to see "Biddy" was always part of coming back to town. 1 can't ever remember a time when there wasn't a Fayetteville St., a Page's store, or a "Biddy" Page, "Biddy" was a unique individual. A man devoted to his mother and family, a man who will long survive in the memory of those of us who have ever passed through Page's grocery start.- Ht look me a long time to get this column together for few deaths shake me as much as this one has. When I think back on my community in Durham, I remember Lincoln Hospital, P&W, Page's, Weaver's Cleaners, the College Inn, the Smiths, the Moores, the Wilsons, the Mills, the Baileys, and others. Weaver's Cleaners expanded and moved up the street, all the old neighbors moved out and now with the death of "Biddy" Page, that old gang of mine is all but gone from Fayetteville St. I have lived to witness the ushering out of the old generation and the coming forth of a new. "Biddy's " death was a final loss in the old guard, the old ways, and the grand traditions of neighbor's as friends. For those of us who experienced that, we were blessed. "Biddy" and the Page's for many were their neighbor's keepers and that as black people is what we should fry to be about. A.M.F. Camp David conference, the President called to his side Louis E. Martin, special assist ant, and assigned him to write letters for his signa ture to Cabinet officers and agency heads regarding the concerns of blacks as ex pressed by the newspaper group. Representing the Black Press were: Robert W. Bogle, Philadelphia Tribune; Sherman Briscoe, NNPA; William H. Lee, Sacramento Observer; Mrs. Ophelia DeVore Mitchell, Columbus, GA., Times; Alfred L. Morris, Philadel phia Tribune; Howard H. Murphy and John H. Mur phy, III, Baltimore Afro-American newspapers; Mrs. Marjorie B. Parham, Cincinnati Herald; John L. Procope, New York Amsterdam News; Mr. Sengstacke, Chicago Daily Defender; Kenneth T. Stanley, Louisville Defend er; Mr. Walker; and Mrs. Jane Woods, St. Louis Sen tinel. . Tfae Black Side of W.GjAlngltoEi BY SHERMAN BRISCOE NNPA i fji I V ':lfcUfljltt Pullman cars get their name from their designer, George Pullman. Black Scapegoat With youth unemploy ment still rising, and general joblessness static of rising, a scapegoat is needed. It could turn out to hardworking Ernest Green, assistant secretary of Labor for employment and training, who is the black graduate of Little Rock's Central High which President Esienhower in tegrated with the 113th Airborne Division 20 years ago. However, all the blame for high unemployment should not be placed at Labor's door, but rather at the closed gates of factories that are now doing much of their manufacturing in seat shops overseas, making everything from umbrellas to tv sets and automobiles. Brooke Stabbed in Back Last week, along after the November elections was over over, the Senate Ethics Committee, headed by Sen. Adlai Stevenosn, III, issued a seven-page nit picking report that grudgingly clears former Sen. Edwarding W. Brooke of wrongdoing. But . tluj report barely conceals the dagger that brought him down. While the committee ' last fall sat on the in vestigation of the allegations against Brooke, Senator Kennedy took to the cam paign trail to aid the black Senator's opposition. NAACP Washington Bureau Chief Althea Simmons said,' after seeing the report, Sen. Brooke was a victim ofl cir cumstance and innuendo. And National Urban League Vice President Roanld Brown called the action of the committee, "Despicable." Black Preti and Carter Upon his triumphant return from the Middle East, our tired President Carter was anxious to get to Camp David for a rest. He cancelled all his appoint ments Thursday, except the one with the National News paper Publishers Associa tion - Black Press of Ameri ca - led by John H. Seng stacke of the Chicago Daily Defender. Conference was arranged by influential Louis Martin, special assist at to Carter. William O. Walker, editor-publisher, Cleveland Call & Post and dean of the Black Press, was the spokesman. He criticized the President for high youth unemployment, and his failure to appoint more blacks to the Federal Bench. Also he rasied questions about black problems gen erally, and called on Carter to hold a Camp David meet ing to deal with the many problems facing blacks. President Carter reacted positively to the criticism and the requests, and im mediately assigned Martin to draft letters for his signature to Cabinet officers to begin dealing with some of the problems. Klansman Rides Again? "60 minutes," the pop ular TV magazine, stooped pretty low Sunday a week ago, scooping p racism in the fashion of Thomas Dixon, whose "Klansman" seduced D.W. Griffith to produce the hated "Birth of a Nation." The "60 Minute" seg ment dealt with violence in the schools of America, but only white teachers and black students were shown, implying J oiv white teachers are being attacked, and only black students are attackers. Are we back to "Birth of a Nation" on national television? You don't have to borrow vour neighbor's copv of THE CAROLINA TIMES Call Today 682-2913 H 1rmVJ TVR7T1 MJVV VVil no OTltl J 0 (Bu Carolina race (USPS 091-380) L. E. AU9TM Edtttx-fuMith, 1037, 1971 Published every Thursday (dated Saturday) at Durham, N.C. by United Publishers, Incorporated Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C, ,27702. Office located at 923 Fayetteville Street' Durham, N. C. 27701. Second Class Postage paid at Durham, North Carolina 27702. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE CAROLINA TIMES P.O. Box 3825, Durham. N.C. 27702. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, $8.50 (plus $0.34 sales tax for North Carolina residents). Single copy $0.20. Postal regulations REQUIRE advanced payment on subscriptions. Address all communica tions and make all checks and money orders payable to: THE CAROLINA TIMES. NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., 45 West 45th Street New York, New York 10036. Member: United Press International Photo Service, National Newspaper Publishers Association, North Carolina Black Publishers Association. Opinions expressed by columnists In this news paper do not necessarily represent the policy of this newspaper. This newspaper WILL NOT be responsible for the return of unsolicited pictures. jiiRcwinieivOTffe flow tt step It's hard to imagine being old. And wanting to quit work. Or not being able to work. By the time most people face this problem, it s too late to do anything about it. Right now, 8 out of 10 Americans over the age of 65 are barely able to get by. Young people today are spending at an unprecedented rate and saving very little. "Social Security is not enough by itself. And it s rxrtkeeping pace with inflation. Company retirement plans can help, but many are being curtailed or eliminated. If you want to be financially independent after you ve quit working it s really up to you. 1 Its time to get serious about sating. -- - w John B. Mickk, Vice President The Northwestern Bank, Durham
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 7, 1979, edition 1
5
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75