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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1956)
Matter of Fact POLITICS AND THE BUDGET Washington Before Presi dent Eisenhower submitted his budget to Congress, Secretary of the Treasury G e o r,g e M. Hu mphrey and Dr. Ar thur Burns, chairman of The Council of Economic Advisers, had a long running a rgument the budget. Joseph Alsop Burns took the position that some continuing growth in the economy ought to be assumed. He agreed, as all government ec onomists do, that the boom will slow down. But the national economy has been expanding steadily since the war, and Burns argued that some con tinued expan sion in the level of the national in come and the level of cor porate profits must be allow ed for. Stewart Aisop Humphrey, on the other hand, took the ex ceedingly conservative view that the budget should be based ap proximately on the current level of personal income and business profits. In the end, Humphrey had his way. The budget for fis cal 1957 which begins in July of this year is based on the as sumption that business profits in fiscal 1S57 will remain at the 1955 level of $43,000,000,000. It Is also assumed that the national income will be at the level of $312,000,000,000, which is about what it is today. rPHE importance of the Burns - Humphrey debate, which was quite amicable throughout, can be easily illustrated. Suppose that the national income grows by 4 per cent next year, which has been about the postwar av erage. Call the growth $12,000, 000,000. The treasury's take on that $12,000,000,000, judging from past experience, will be in the neighborhood of $3,000,000,000 to $4,000,000,000," plenty to per mit a balanced budget, some re duction of the national debt, and a nice? sweet tax reduction as well. All these pleasant things will be possible, moreover, with out any increase in business profits, which ordinarily in crease along with the national income. j The other side of the coin is less happy. Virtually all econo mists, including the President's advisers, have accepted the thesis that the national economy Watch for It! Wait for It! 0 ss m By Joe and Stewart AIsop has to continue to grow to take care of increases in the labor force and labor productivity. Thus, if Humphrey is right, and the national income remains at todays' level, there is certain to be a sharp increase in unemploy ment. In short, the Humphrey budget in effect assumes a mild slump. OECRETARY of the Treasury Humphrey is a conservative businessman, and conservative businessmen tend to take a cau tious view of the economic fu ture. But the political aspects of the cautious assumptions on which the budget is based are al-. so rather obvious. ' In the first place, the budget neatly boxes in the Democrats. The Humphrey budget, because it is in very close balance, al lows no room for a tax cut. If the Democrats vote a tax cut now at least a tax cut big en ough for the voters to feel in their pockets they will be ac cused of fiscal irresponsibility. This is a charge to which the largely conservative Democratic leadership in both Houses is pe culiarly sensitive. By the same token, the Demo crats are effectively barred from voting any substantial increase in expenditures. The administra tion has achieved the prospect of a balanced budget by cuts in defense and security expendi tures. The Humphrey budget, for example, is actually more than 54,000,000,000 higher in the non-defense category than the last Truman budget, while it is $17,000,000,000 lower in the defense and national security category. "DECAUSE the- administration has shrewdly swiped so much of their programs, the Demo crats are at a loss for a winning issue on the "domestic front. They are obviously inclined to make the defense cuts a major issue. But it is hardly possible to make defense cuts a major issue without demanding Increased de fense expenditures. And here again the Democrats are imped ed by the charge of fiscal irre sponsibility plus of course, the President's reputation a mili tary man. Finally, if the boom continues to hum along, next summer Sec retary Humphrey can take a second look at the economic fu ture. He can then announce proudly that, on second thought, a balanced budget, debt reduc tion, and a nice tax cut will all be possible and only a few months before the presidential election. -All this is - enough to suggest why a good many Demo crats darkly suspect that the cautious assumptions on which the Humphrey budget is based derive as much from political as- o WOW w w m medford rPrRfpi 7 TrnfTn OREGON y I I LI l Y J I i L I A X II I A. I II J Ah i Is That Some clear winter night when you are driving across our south western deserts, turn off the paved highway and follow a winding dirt road through the thorny shrubs and ghostly cacti. Ahead, and down between the wheel tracks you may see a dull ruby-red light, glowing steadily. It winds out no, there it is again. Look sharp and you may get a fleeting look at the tiny galloping ghost of the desert a miniature kangaroo, that looks like a mouse. An incredible crea ture really because it has made a fantastic, triumphant adapta tion to its dry surroundings: from birth to death, even though eating bone-dry seeds, it never takes a drink of water. The fleeting apparition leaves an impression of a large round head, a mouse-like body perched on two stilt-like legs, and a slen der tail. If you were to look at him more closely, nothing about this inveterate teetotaler would give any indication of his incred ible abstention from all pota tions. His fur is silky and long on the back a soft shade of tan or gray, the underparts snow white with black facial markings and a white line around the rump. The ruby light was a reflec tion from his great black eyes as round as an owl's and propor tionately larger proclaiming his nocturnal habits. His crowning glory worn at the pposite end from which most crowning glories are worn is his handsome tail, half again as long as the rest of his six-inch body, with a fur banner at the end. His long hind feet have a brush of stiff, long hairs all over the soles, sand-shoes. Misnamed Kangaroo Rat Like so many animals, he is misnamed kangaroo rat. He has no kangaroo pouch and in ap perance he looks more like a pocket mouse than a rat, with that big terminal tuft which he uses to make sudden turns as he sails out in prodigious leaps. Because, he does not sleep tuteness as economic conserva tism. Copyright 1956, New York Herald Tribune Inc. a A c -f- ensational Values Plus By EUGENE BURNS Ranger-Naturalist through the winter, he stocks his underground home with great caches of food. One alone had stored enough seeds and short lengths of grass to fill 7 gunny sacks. How has this little fellow mas tered this greatest of all desert difficulties, living comfortably without water in the hottest and driest spots of our land? Succu lent food? Not necessarily. Ac tually, as with most things in nature, the harder the question, the more amazing the answer. To see how he accomplishes the impossible, he has been sub jected to seemingly brutal and rigorous experiments: he .has been kept under desert condi tions of heat and oven-dryings for 52 days and fed exclusively on a diet of especially dried bar ley seeds. And he not only "re mained alive but flourished. Of fered water, he refused it. What's more, a post mortem disclosed no lessening of the proportion of water to normal body weight. Of course his desert'habits are good like most desert rodents, he keeps to his cool underground burrow during the heat of the day. When he comes forth, it is in the cool of the night thus he conserves moisture. Also, for him, there is no need for water for body heat regulation either by sweating from the pores of the skin or from the mouth by panting. But unlike the other neighboring animals, he avoids going out when it is moist. He abhors rain: a few drops on his body gives him the jitters. Even a fog will keep him indoors. Manufactures Own Water But is this enough? Indeed not. His secret is that he manu factures his own water from the dry materials present in starchy foods. If you'll remember your high school chemistry, water consists of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen. Now starch is a hydrocarbon and therefore contains hydrogen. Add oxygen, abundant in the air he breathes, and you have H20. And with a most unusual metabolism, our kangaroo rat is able to convert his starchy food, however dry, into water. . Yet this is not enough: to go with it, he has developed what may be the most unusual kidney of any mammal: it permits his kidney fluids to condense to 17 times the density of his blood and therefore, if necessary, he could quench his thirst with "sea water! How could you force him to drink sea water, or any other? By, feeding him a diet so largely protein that he would not get enough hydrocarbon to furnish him with hydrogen. In that un happy state, he will drink water, the nasty stuff! (Copyright, 1956, by Eugene Burns) (Released by McClure News paper Syndicate) Free: By special arrangement At GGLY Listen to KBOY and Watch Your Mail Tribune for Opening Date! Shop This Beautiful ONE STOP SHOPPING CENTER and Thrill to the Pleasure of the Most Modern and Exciting Super - Deluxe Store on the West Coastl Be Smart! Be Thrifty! Be Satisfied! SHOP Piggly Wiggly! Meat Inspection Program Working Into Salem The state pilot meat inspection program will be work ing in the sixth area in the state within another week, J. F. Short, director of the state department of agriculture has reported. ' with the editors of the Encyclo depia Americana, my panel of judges will award each week to the reader who sends me the best true-life nature adventure, the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife, a complete 30-volume set of this world-famous refer ence work in a handsome Seal craft binding. Each week new submissions will be considered. Sorry, I simply can't answer your many friendly letters. Please address your letter to: IS THAT SO! co Medford Mail Tribune, - Box 575, Sausalito, Calif. MODERN PLUMBING & SHEET METAL Co. 613 EAST JACKSON v PHONE 3-5368 THIS WEEK ONLY! Lennox Wesco GE 0 Crane Sawdust ooil 0 Gas Wood P - H ith DOUBLE DUTY LOW, LOW PRICES Bedford's New Super-Styled STEWART AND KING STREET - MEDFORD, OREGON Sunday, January 22, 1958 Sixth Area At the same time, Short an nounced results of inspections and findings in the first four ar eas in which the survey has been conducted. The areas, were Sa lem; Portland suburban and up per coastal; Klamath and Grant counties and central Oregon and Wasco county. The program is ending in Linn county and start ing in Benton county. In the first four operations, 3,882 animals were slaughtered under the compulsory program. The species breakdown was l', 849 cattle, 265 calves, 1,566 swine, 180 sheep and 22 goats. Both ante-mortem and post mortem inspections are made at plants which the program enters. In the first four areas, eight ani mals were condemned during the live inspection. They . included three cows and five sheep. In the post-mortem inspec tions, 36V4 carcasses were con nn Minimum Trade in Allowance FOR YOUR OLD BATH ROOM SET - , Regardless of Age GUTTERS and DOWNSPOUTS feIIISTMEb LET US SOLVE YOUR HEATING PROBLEM FREE ESTIMATES, YOUR HEADQUARTERS For O Heating O Sheet Metal O Our New Location BYTHE demned as unfit- for human con sumption. Two of these were veal, 18 were sheep, 5 were hogs, and 11V4 were beef. Parts of carcasses condemned totaled 929 and included 863 1 i v e r s, ' 49 heads, 1 heart and 16 tongues. Meat food products condemn ed totaled 15,175 pounds, of which 1,807 pounds were fresh and the remainder frozen meats. All frozen meat condemned was withdrawn from trade channels because it had been held too long. Short said that Dr. Rolla Sex auer, field supervisor for the pro gram, reported one plant closed because of unsanitary conditions. Several plants were required, to do considerable cleanup work before reaching . minimal ap proval, while some plants oper ated under virtually ideal sani tation conditions. The pilot program is conduct ed for three weeks in each area. During that period, a special meat shield-shape stamp goes on all carcasses passed. This pro DOLLARS SOON! reen Stamps! MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE gram was authorized by the last legislature to determine whether statewide compulsory meat in spection is desirable and. neces sary, and what such- a program would cost. INVESTIGATE whether you are earmarking your savings to provide security for later life, extra cash income now, or are just starting to accumulate an emergency fund, it will pay you to investigate here. FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASS'N of Medford 27 North Holly An .Institution Dedicated To Those Who Save Always O Plumbing Air Conditioning PARK STEWART AND KIIIG STREET
