out leftovers while I’m
Net/er Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion 'Of One Man
_ ____-And He May Be Wrong
No Surprise
The report of the federal flunkies on
the Chicago fiasco outside the Demo
cratic convention comes as no surprise:
These moles base-labored on a mountain
top and birth to the view
that it was all the fault of the Chicago
Police. Which is about Ike blaming San
Francisco for being, in the path of an
earthquake.
Tins filthy mob of hired anarchists had
announced from every garbage pail lid
across the land that they were going
to gather in Chicago to disrupt the
Democratic convention, which richly de
served such disruption by such tattered
bataflioris because the permissive .jsg
headedness of the recent Washington ad
ministration is both mother and father
to such eerie bunches of niHists.
And they kept their word. They went
to Chicago; armed with a plan that is be
yond belief in its crafty filthiness, and
but for the good worfc of the Chicago
police they woqld have done what they
had announced theyl-^ere going to do.
They were contained and a few noses
and heads were bloodied, but not a
single one was critically injured and no
one was lolled in a climate that was pro
voked in the most obscenely vulgar man
ner of any in the long history of anarchy.
And the “Bilie Ribbon” report alleges
and avers that Chicago police with mal
ice aforethought took a few heavy licks
at the “gentlemen of the press”; which
also comes under the heading of what
used to be pitched out of stables every
morning. i
It is the press ... very largely the
television press ... that provokes the
mess we, are in today by goading these
demonstrators into putting on some real
live action khots for the national boob
r. 3%. ■
tube. r
„•% If Jibe press is, a pfirty to mob action,
% itr Cultivates iffre lowest instincts of
the kinds of people it very well deserves
to have a few hard licks on the head.
Because if this irresponsible segment of
the press is not very soon taught a les
son or two all freedom of the press and
of every other land will be ended under
martial law, because martial law is far
better fhan no law at all.
Some
v
The 497-page special report of the
North Carolina Board of Higher Educa
tion is some camel, and it not only has
it’s head stuck under the tent of North
Carolina’s effort in this field, but has
crawled in hide, hair and hoof. In fact it
nearly fills up the whole damned tent
and is rapidly trying to freeze everybody
else out of the program.
What it is, is a -big play for a lot of
loot Sifting the very fine ashes of this
huge report one comes up with ia single
conclusion, which is a singe board that
would have totaT control over every as
ftx- «'icaBrzrtt&K-teiirs > a, 1 irfffarirrlhi
This is not good. No board is so smart.
No ^ne board can even hope to be im
partial To keep higher education viable
competition, not monopoly is needed. If
the American Story is anything it is the
tale of fierce competition, and any facet
flirting with disaster.
Hie continuing merger into evet-en
largening commercial monopolies, the
absurdly wrong notion that an expert
•v
li
As it was, perhaps, in the beginning
it was not so verybad for a very wealthy
man to try to hold onto his money after
death with the gimmick called a founda
tion, Which is a device set up for noble
purposes but to primarily keep the gov
ernment from getting its legal shoe of
such huge estates.
Buck Duke did it for Trinity College,
hospitals, orphanages, retired Methodist
ministers and one or two other higher
education factories in the two Carolines, j
To which trust these has never been a
political taint
But the Ford Foundation, which must
have Old Man Henry spinning in his grave
like the crank of a Model T, is nine parts
political and one very small part chari
table in tip none-too-subtle abuse, of
the tax system and the public.
Although the Duke Foundation is the
nations third largest it is small by com
parison to the Ford Foundation, but its
good works far outshine the political ef
forts of the Ford money.
Duke’s $681,908,000 is able to spend
about $15 million per year for its spe
cific programs. But Ford’s $2,428,550,000
book value permits it to Spend ah aver
age of more than $350 million per year
oh its assorted programs..
If this money were spent for good
works, rather than with specific political
intent in mind its continuation could
very well be justified.
But a randon sampling of the kind of
revolutionary projects sponsored by the
Ford Foundation places the entire fund
under serious suspicion.
Albert Shanker, president of the New
York City teachers’ union, claims that
a very large part of the trouble in that
troubled system can be traced to the
handiwork of Ford Foundation projects.
What justification is there for spend
ing tax exempted money in the amount
of $131,069 which Ford Foundation re
cently contributed to eight aides of the
late Robert Kennedy? How does this
serve the public best interest?
The University of Virginia was refused
a Ford grant after a department head of
that great school has casually admitted
that he still believed in the free enter
prise system. The Ford Foundation, in
refusing the grant to a school with a
“particular point of view” agreed to re
consider if the university would add
some men to its faculty with views moire
nearly socialist, as is the Ford Founda
tion’s.
tion are concerned /with provoking the
student to think, and it is at the college
and university level fha,t he sholiH be
gin thinking and quit memorizing tables
and ancient poetry, ‘,o* - r ;a9<sn.
And even if the current collapse of
so much of the nation’s largest educa
tional monopoly in California were not
freshly before us we ought to realize
from experiences of our own that size
and quality are not an automatic rela
tionship. If so, what happened to the
dinosaurs? .i ii . . : J
And to erect an educational dinosaur
with its >tail in the ocean and its head in
the Great Smokies is to invite collapse
from its own weight. Sven the argu
ments of economy won’t wash, since in
every instance consolidation has proved
more costly.
Finally, the best reason for not ap
is that it would place too many'aca
demicians top far froth the vulgar hot
'breath of the lohely little peasants who
salary.
M |
*#
3mL
I suppose there are'swans good les
sons one might learn from studying
the enormous figures of government,
and some of the most enormous came
In last week from the commerce depart
ment which reported that in fiscal 1966
67 all kinds of government collected in
taxes and other fees 1263.1 billtatt and.
spent $258.5 billion. Collections were up
$27.6 billion, but spending went tip by
,$33.7 billion over the preceding year.
The debt of all governments, state,
city, county, district and federal ambunt
ed to $440.8 at the end of this fiscal
period. Federal debt accounted for
$326.2 of that total — up $8.3'from the
previous year, and state and local-debts
rose by $7-6 billion. 4 •
North Carolina ranked 43ra among tne
50 states in the per capita tax collected
and ranked 46th in per capita debt! The
most heavily taxed people in the notion
live in New Yofk where the pei" Capita
is $457.84 ^9$ all kinds, o£ state taxes.
At the bottom of this state tax poll is
Sunny Alabama where the per capita
state tax bite is only $192.05. In North
Carolina the figure was $223.80.
Strangely enough the heaviest per
capita debt of any state is in Delaware,
something one might have thought the
DuPonts would never have stood for.
But in tiny Delaware the state debt per
person at the end-of fiscal ’66-’67 was
$1,197.76. Thinly populated South
Dakota was the nearest debt free state,
and each of its few citizens was in state
debt for only $148.^1. The Tar Heel
per capita state debt was $323.47.
These are just a few figures I’ve pull*
ed out from the many of this report
from the commerce department, but like
so many figures -they don’t mean a thing
unless one is able to put some other
figures along with them. Such as the
city and county debts. Some state govT
ernments assume more obligations for
governmental services than othefs. Buit
anyway it is sliced, it is fairly apparent
that North Carolinians are pretty well
off insofar as taxes and government debt
are concerned.
Which gives rise to some serious con
siderations that the 1969 session of the
North Carolina General Assembly ought
to have; such as whether it is hot wise
for the state in its excellent financial
condition to loosen up a trifle in some
specified areas in which considerable
chu^s of money are badly needed.
' i Air anil , water pollution ate problems
r that will not grow less uQ$i total effort
is made to correct and control the pol
lution sources. It would bankrupt many
private businesses to be forced to in
stall all of the necessary equipment to
install all of the necessary
equipment to prevent continued pollu
tion of an industrial nature. Long-term
loans, and possible, tax credits for such
companies on a strictly audited basin
are a thought worth consideration. Fur
ther heavy expulsions in the .realm of
community colleges is an investment that
will save huge amounts of money on
the other end of the higher education
rainbow and also make a lasting contri
bution to the overall productivity of