Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 7

Phoenix, Dec. 19 1971 The Arizona Republic A-7 Joneph Alsop ALL EDITIONS Where aie we today? On brink of the abyss, that's where! 'I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'( attributed to Voltaire) As these words are written, we are having a splendidly bizarre demonstration of where we are now. On the brink of a precipice that we do not see that we obstinately refuse to fMink of the hungry overseas already ho more than twice the Arab short-term deposits in London. All this year, in the British have been covering the vast monthly deficit in their balance of payments with the monthly inflow of Arab short-term deposits. Hence their persistently large reserves! THUS, WITHDRAWAL of the Arab short-term deposits can bankrupt Britain overnight.

Mere cessation of the Arab short-term deposits, now plainly signaled by the Saudi decision, can easily bankrupt Britain in a matter of months. If the worst happens in Britain, the worldwide feedback will be hard to In short, the Saudi decision just may be the start of a great worldwide financial crisis. Before these words appear, all of the foregoing may have been loudly announced from many a housetop. Or all sorts of central bankers' fire brigades and rescue parties may have contained, or at least deferred, the serious danger now in the open. The potential consequences of the Saudi Arabian decision merely prove the existence of the precipice along which we have been blindly wandering.

The singularly inattentive reception of the news of this Saudi decision proves our wandering is still blind. proud of the minor part that I played in that strange time. It was hard slogging, every inch of the way. FURTHERMORE, THE great American foreign correspondents who were the earliest to ring the tocsin, and the reporters here in Washington who followed along as I did, played only a most minor role in the upshot. The intellectual community, the litical community, the financial community, the religious community all these different limbs of the strange creature known as public opinion had to focus their attention on the dangers abroad before anything solid' could be accomplished.

The aspects of our situation that most alarm me today are not the obvious ones that I have stressed. The horrifying decline of the United States in the world balance of power, the precipice that we Americans are skirting, with war and world depression in the precipice's depths neither of these seems to me impossible for the United States to survive. But I do not think we can survive and I mean this literally continuing national inattention to the grim existence of this precipice, which can only be skirted by great national efforts. The Saudi decision's disclosure was the biggest world event of the day in question. Yet on the relevant day, it was initially greeted as a nonevent except for followers of the intricacies of the financial pages.

Some blame for this may attach to the newspaper business. Yet massive national inattention to -our real situation is something that newspapers alone can never overcome. Consider, for instance, England in the '30s. I remember once asking the late Randolph Churchill how he thought his father would have been remembered if Sir Winston had died, say, in the year he conveyed his anguished private warning about German rearmament to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. Randolph answered, in effect, that he feared his giant of a father would then have been remembered as a man who drank too much and had outlived his time.

An overwhelming majority of Englishmen, in those days, were wholly unwilling to listen to their future savior. I remember, too, the strange time after Munich, when this country first began to examine the real dangers of Japanese aggression in the Pacific and, above all, the dangers of Hitler's march to world power in Europe. I am Editor, The Arizona Republic Christmas is approaching, and we are planning our Christmas dinner menus and are doing our annual shopping for gifts. During these shopping expeditions we often wonder what on earth to give to that relative who has everything, or what item to hint for when our family tnembers are in a listening mood. But is this really what Christmas is all about? Surely He who initiated the idea of Christmas with the most generous Gift of all would prefer us to -donate our gifts to those who are truly "in need, rather than to those from whom we will receive gifts ourselves.

QlMTcmet flint nra oontlv infnrm thnca see, in fact is probably the best description. The demonstration in question took the form of a decision by the Saudi Arabians to cease accepting British pounds in payment for Saudi crude oil. THIS KNOCKED the tar out of the pallid remains of the London stock market. It also caused a steep drop in the pound's value on the world's exchanges despite heavy expenditures from the British reserves to keep the pound stable. This Saudi decision, at that time still concealed, was the true cause of those advance tremors of deep trouble for Britain that I recently reported.

And no wonder! Two months ago, the British reserves of just under 8 billion pounds were belief that large percentages of money donated to some hunger relieving agencies do not actually reach the starving individuals in the form of food. A worthy agency, however, which provides food to the hungry here in America, as well as overseas, is the Salvation Army. Their World Service Division uses 100 per cent of the money it receives for the purpose of feeding the hunger stricken overseas. Their address is: The Salvation Army World Services 101 Valencia St. San Francisco, Ca.

94103 A gift of food to our fellow human beings who are constantly hounded by the sensation of hunger and the threat of starvation, will be appreciated more than we can ever imagine. MRS. RENEE SILVEY Mesa DO vww our trift list, that thev will nnt receive a gift from us this Christmas, (except perhaps the children) because we, are donating the money we would have spent to feed the hungry. Then invite them to do the same. There seems In Iw 9 oeneralired 'Whewl Ever spend four months in a The kind of maverick we need Charles Bartlett Ford resisting blind urge to 6do something' Ill Sfe-ri 1 I 1" -V.

'I i iM mmmmu article in The Arizona Republic "stated that the Maricopa County Board wt -4- of Supervisors might bypass County Supervisor Eldon Rudd for the of the board because of mm w-i tv mm displeases Bob Stark, Bob Corbin and Henry Haws or not. I think the voting taxpayers should remember this and elect economy minded supervisors when their terms expire. There is an old saying that a penny saved is a penny earned. MELVIN McRAE JETT SR. Scottsdale -mavencK actions considered to fellow Republican supervisors." If Rudd's "maverick actions" are hot Via nnnnczf4 trm tmmtr'c mianf iMm mm million budget as too high; questioned the practice of supervisors tiirnincr in tfioiT pniintv-fnrnichoH turn.

President Ford does not mean to lightly drop his struggle with but his course is complicated by consumer's inclination to sulk like Achilles in his tent. I kiln? xfraT" vSW rWSV'l ih "year-old luxury cars for new models; and consistently opposed automatic pay praises for the county's upper-salary "executives, then it is good we have ft'iisl am 41 lnwnoiTrt' rti Art tirli rtiYt (IP auuu xtu mc iaA.yayTzi a oiw wucuici Overbloivn inflation Fitting penalty I am writing in response to Dale Wheeler's letter on the death penalty. I agree with him all the way, people who commit such serious crimes should be put away for good instead of being sent to prison for so many years then being let out to go and do the same thing over again. I know they aren't the kind of people I want around and I pity the children who are having to grow up in this kind of environment. PATTY KELTGEN Cortez High School t'f'Most people in the United States believe that inflation is the most important problem at this time.

In my if people did not get so upset this, it would not have blown up as hadly as it has today. "srAiost people's philosophy is that if "flVeV hoai iha faintoot hint ahut a mm SIMPSON, Th Tulsa Tribuna shortage of anything they will start buying great quantities of that item. Xivholns Von Half man reopie near bdoui many employes from big firms getting laid, off from their jobs; they panic. They say to Taxpaying private enterprise vs. Postal Service memseives, wnai i iosi my In this manner thev panic.

They won't anything but the bare necessities, in order to save their monev. Confidence will lure him out, they say, but no one has a strategy for imparting confidence to wary private citizens whose faith in the future and the government has, been badly dented. Optimism within government that this recession's shape and duration will follow the transitory pattern of its predecessors will not spread far until the facts clearly begin to fulfill the prophecies. THE PRESIDENT has been damaged by resentments that he has not seemed to take the recession seriously enough. He tried last week to correct this impression with a series of meetings.

But he is shying away from activist leadership because he does not want to stimulate the Democrats into doing a lot of the wrong things. The "do something" mood, rampant among the legislators, can lead to sweeping initiatives like wage price controls or massive pump priming, steps which may mollify the immediate pains at the price of future anguish. But when solid' Republicans like Sen. Robert Taft Jr. join Democrats pressing for "urgent action," the President is like a sea anchor holding uneasily against fast currents.

Ford says he means to stick to his course. But the pressures of recession are causing him to abandon his fight for the surtax, curtail his zeal for budget balancing, contemplate broad tax reductions, and fatten the allocations for public employment. He faces a necessity to propose a stupendous fiscal deficit to Congress in January. On the other hand, in order to stay jn. business, big companies must eigher lav off npnnlft frnm their iohs.

or raise Lack responsibility Reg Manning's cartoon of Dec. 13 was certainly apropos. For one, I am getting very sick and tired of Supervisor Bob Stark's and others' vilification of Supervisor Eldon Rudd's suggestions to save money. There is definitely a lack of moral responsibility on the part of many of our elected officials from the national to the local level. WILLIAM LENIHAN Mesa "'the prices of their products.

Inflation all starts in the average political economy has been unable to discover a useful function. Naturally the Postal Service is opposing UPS' application. It is a testimony to the postal monopoly's monumental incapacity that, with its economic leverage, it can't knock UPS out. It's been trying by underpricing parcel post and overcharging first-class mail users, raising their rates 67 per cent in two years. A typical monopoly market strategy.

home. If people would not opt sn frantin ahnut. these thines that No part of the nation is safe from having the devastating benefits of the newly reformed United States Postal Disservice visited on it. Word reaches me from the minuscule village of i thev. hear, inflation would not be as bad, and the United States would be in a much better financial shape.

DAVID R. YEATON JR. Age it Scottsdale Manning excellent I would like to compliment Reg Manning for his excellent political cartoons. He is ahead of any others I have ever seen. WILLIAM KELSCH That's all they're good for too.

commemorating the dead. They certainly won't get a letter delivered. To its continuing chagrin, however, there is one free enterprise loophole which affords unwanted competition the United Parcel Service. Last year, without subsidies and while paying taxes, UPS delivered almost 800 million packages and made a profit of $57 million for its shareholders, all of whom are past or present managerial and supervisory employes. UPS, as everyone knows who's ever used it, delivers faster, cheaper and with far less breakage or damage than its nontaxpaying rival.

It will also attempt to make delivery three times. Compare that with the Postal Service, which increasingly attempts no deliveries at all. You can be sitting inside your house, and they won't even ring the doorbell. They just stick a note in your mailbox informing you that you are not home as you watch them through the living room window. Then you have to traipse off to claim your package at a post office that has been cleverly located to provide the least feasible convenience to those who use it.

UPS operates its chocolate-brown trucks in 40 states. It would like to operate fully in eight more, but to do so it must secure permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission, another government appendix for which OF COURSE, THE Postal Service is a monopoly unlike even what's alleged about the oil companies, IBM or But these firms can't declare their competition illegal and have them arrested. The Postal Service can do something very like that, as it did last September when it outlawed private carriers delivering intra- but not intercompany mail. Lest you be deceived into thinking the Post Office does no good whatsoever, its average employe has received pay increases totaling 22 per cent over the past 15 months. Its suppliers and contractors probably did better.

If you did as well, you have enough money to buy presents this holiday season and defy their orders to mail early. You can ship UPS. It not only delivers, but for a small extra charge ft'll come to your house and pick up in time for Christmas as well. Do they ivant this? If, the various Indian tribes continue to insist that they are a sovereign nation, it becomes incumbent on the United States government to immediately discontinue its trust obligations to these tribes; the taxpayers should no longer shoulder these burdens for another nation, i.e., education, health care, welfare, grants of every description, roads, power and all other services. j.

aA- sovereign nation has the power to goyern, tax and provide for the common, good of its people. "'No one seems to know the source of this thinking but under the present course of sovereignity and self-determination it can lead to only one conclusion, and that is self-inflicted termination. JOHNCATHCART Rockport, Maine, that, against the will of the community, its post office is being moved from its traditional place across the street from the general store to somewhere out in the country. Until now most of the post office's 420 patrons could walk over to get their mail, exchange gossip and drink coffee in the store, an essential round of activities during the long Maine winters. WHEN THE post office, which isn't needed and which nobody wants, is built, they will have to get in their cars and drive to it.

Or maybe the Department of Transportation will give them a subway, seeing as how mass transit is in fashion, and we do want to conserve gasoline, don't we? A spokesperson for the postal authorities says that this small center of community life must be rubbed out because the present facilities are inadequate for the office's four employes. Four employes? That's a ratio of one payroller to every 105 mailing addresses. That'll give you an idea of where those mail-system deficits come from- THE VILLAGE'S notables have protested, but the nearby Camden Herald Rockport is too small to have a paper of its own says the postal hierarchy has warned that, "if too much 'local interference is presented, we will remove the post office from Rockport Village entirely." The newspaper editorially described these threats as "strong-arm tactics." It is also classic monopoly behavior. That's the way monopolies handle customer complaints. They throw them and the customers out the door and make up for the lost business by charging everybody else more.

As with other monopolies, the Postal Service's response to its own incompetence is to step up the advertising budget. You can't turn on a television set these days without being assaulted by a sales pitch to buy commemorative stamps. Yuma l.r!ii:i!is!i'iiB:'!i5:iipfi-i!(i:JJiii?;ia Capitol Quips By PHIL DESSAUER it THIS MAY AT LEAST soften Democratic charges that the Republicans are forcing an unacceptable austerity upon the land. Democrats contend Republican policy unfairly places the burden of fighting inflation on the little people, and yet their policies have narrowed the options. A big government with non con-tractable programs makes it nearly impossible to turn to fiscal policy.

The job has to be done by squeezing the economy because it is no longer possible to squeeze the budget. Some able economists have long espoused a device that would bring the tax weapon swiftly into- play against swings in the economy. They want the President to have power to raise and lower taxes within narrow parameters without the long delay required for action by Congress. But Democratic leaders have blocked this reform with political objections' against any surrender of the taxing power. SOME DEMOCRATS are also inconsistent on the issue of controls.

Some are urging a huge freeze held in place by a huge Meanwhile they have not voted the insignificant $1 million which Albert Rees, newly named head of the Wage Price Council, needs to launch his efforts to monitor the economy. He is doing what he can with borrowed staff but Congress has not armed him with the subpoena and rollback powers he needs to be really effective. The great virtue of Ford's posture is that he is trying to see if something can be done. It is hard to see how the Democrats will restore confidence by proving that inflation is inevitable. A step backwards Mary M.

Meyer writes that she attended a hearing recently concerning a proposed abortion clinic and that she is against abortion, suggesting that women with problem pregnancies turn to Birthright. It is known that Birthright counseling does not include a discussion of all possible alternatives. They do not consider abortion. They would encourage a 13-year-old rape victim, a pregnant welfare mother of seven, a single secretary, or a divorced mother of three teen-agers to go ahead and have the baby. For those women the abor-tion should carry less emotional trauma.

For some the desire to abort used to take them to back alley abortionists where they risked infection and even death. Some of these desperate women even tried to abort the fetus themselves. So what did society do for these desperate women? Society legalized abortion and in so doing made it cleaner and less risky and a more certain alternative for so many more women. Now Ms. Meyer wants us to take a step backwards into the dark ages and I say no thank you.

An egg is not a chicken, a tadpole is not a frog, an acorn is not an oak and a fetus is not a baby, so let's not have talk of killing babies when we speak of abortion. Let's leave phony emotionalism out of the matter and leave the decision of abortion as it is and as it should be: a private matter between a woman and her physician. CAROLYN B. ROCKLIN Two years ago George McGovern In a couple of weeks Americans said it was wrong to allow an execu will be able to buy gold bars. But some states still won't allow drinks to be sold over them.

tive to charge off a $20 martini luncheon. There's something else wrong with it now it costs $40. Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter announces for president. His Southern strategy is to out-youall George Wallace.

Charity drives in Detroit used to sell chances on a new car. Now the winning ticket is for the whole assembly plant. Who can ask more? I umbrage whenever even a very small minority criticizes the brilliant work of my favorite columnist Paul Dean. the great majority, including Gov; Williams, seem to feel as I do. enjoy and appreciate the superiot talent and excellent literary quality of Mr.

Dean's column. His work is perceptive, homespun, sophisticated, serious; humorous, often written with great pathos, often written with tongue-in-cheek always vastly interesting, witty, provocative and original. would like to add that Mr. Dean's columns give me a lift, a laugh, and food for thought. Who could ask tor more? PATRICIA BANNER The universe was created 16 billion years ago instead of 10 billion as some people thought.

See it took longer than you thought to get in this shape. Alexander Solzhenitsyn finally got his Nobel Prize in Sweden, but Communists boycotted the ceremony. To the Russians it's still a no-Nobel. Don't get alarmed when President Ford comes out in favor of controls. He'll be talking about controls on Fighting inflation is a little like playing poker but do the sugar people have to keep sweetening the pot? Congress..