Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current, April 03, 1963, Image 6

Herald and news., April 03, 1963, Page 6, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 6-A HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls. Or. Wednesday, April S, 196 EDSON IN WASHINGTON . . . - McNamara Seeks To There's Still a Little Snow in Washington SW J 4 Unify. Armed Forces i A lot more howling probably will arise over proposed regulations on what's allow able in the way of business expenses for trav el, entertainment and gifts as income tax deductions. If so, this is something of an anticlimax. General content of the new regulations just issued by Internal Revenue Service has been known for some time. Public hearings will be held for 30 days or more, during which anyone who doesn't like the new rules can protest. Some further modifications may be made. The regulations in final form, will be is sued by Internal Revenue Commissioner Mor timer M. Caplin sometime in May. And that will be that. The regulations will apply to all business expense deductions claimed for the full calendar year 1963 and reported on in come tax returns filed before April 15, 1964. Prospects are slim for revision of the In ternal Revenue Act of 1962, approved by Con gress last October. It was intended to end some of the worst abuses of "expense account living" which Congress had been trying to correct for 10 years. Hotel, restaurant, night club, vacation resort, credit card and gift shoppe represen tatives have been claiming this law cut their business way down in January and February. Even the waiters' unions claim that tips have been reduced. They all blame in particular the regula tions issued by IRS last Dec. 28, specifying what accounting records must be kept tq sup port claims for business expense tax deduc tions. Sen. George A. Smathers, D-FIa., and a few other congressmen have introduced bills to put the law back the way it was and allow more generous deductions. Smathers, a mem ber of the Senate Finance Committee which approved the 1962 revisions, now admits he doesn't know how the changes got into the new law. But members of Congress now are being rudely exposed for putting their wives, chil dren and other relatives on government pay rolls and taking junkets abroad at (he tax payers' expense. They don't set too good an example for business types who pad their ex- IN WASHINGTON . By RALPH dc TOLEDANO Every item of information filter ing out of the Soviet Union Indi cates that Nikila Khrushchev is up to his boady little eyes in trou ble at home and that a policy of continued toughness by the United States would have tumbled him nit of power during the Cuba Crisis. This would have set off chain reaction within the Krem lin as competing groups and in dividuals attempted to seize the reins of power. Those most expert in Soviet af fairs are convinced that America's tolerance of large Soviet troop deployments In Cuba and t h e forthcoming removal of U.S. mis sile bases in Turkey and Italy havo given Comrade Khrushchev a new lease on lite and permitted him to come to terms with the 6oviet military a fate far worse t than death, the State Department told us in explaining its policy o( ''patience" in Cuba, and one which lack of American aggres siveness would presumably lore stall. It is known today that Khrush chev's Cuban adventure was not only designed to flank U S. de fenses but also to demonstrate to his worried generals that he could outmaneuver the West mili tarily even though he held none of l lie high cards. i From Soviet military docu ments now in the U.S., we know ili.it the Red high command be lieves that it will take at leal a decade of intensive cltoit for it td catch up to the U.S. in arms, and that the Soviet economy must b$ geared for this Immediately.! president Kennedy's ultimatum tq the Soviets on tlie removal of IK MM and MRBM bases in Cuba shook the Kremlin. Tlw generals told Comrade Khrushchev that it would lie suicide to light. His planners told him that tlie Sovi et Union's economy could not sus tain any kind of w ar, conventional or nuclear. For 48 hours. It was touch-and-go for Nikita Khrushchev. Then the. U.S. began moderating its toughness. Privately, representa tives of the President let the fHii know that the U.S. was w oner some Kina ot quia- Closing The Loopholes pense accounts Khrushchev In Trouble pro-quo for a Soviet missile with drawal in Cuba. From the eag erness of the White House to come to some agreement, it seemed to the Communists that Amrica's show of force had frightened the President far more than it had them. i There were some losses to mark up, among them a slightly bat tored prestige. But the gains for the Kremlin wero there, and ev ery day's news seemed to bring some evidence of a policy of "creeping disarmament" by the United Slates. This saved Khru shchev's neck, but the Soviet mili tary moved into the ascendant. The signs of this new Kremlin balance of power are both major and minor. Of tremendous importance whs the appointment of Dmitri F. Us tinov to a newly created post of "economic czar." Comrade Usti nov is tlie military's man. and his thinking Is geared not to eco nomic measures but to tlie in crease in Soviet military power. Under Ustinov. Soviet military spending, which had been slowly declining, wilt be sharply in creased. Also of great importance is Khrushchev's abandonment of his policy ot "decentralization" in the control ot production. Tlie reason advanced is 'that it was incfli cient and bred corruption. But corruption and embezzlement have been rampant in (Ik- Soviet Un ion for decades. It goes with the system. Decentralization of t h e . economy, however, favors t h c consumer industries. Delense in dustries require a high degree ot central control. Preliminary ligmcs on project ed Soviet production indicate that since tlw Cuban adventure, the consumer goods field has lieen cut back, and heavy industry, which has alwajs held the lion's share, tipped even fuillier. At tho same time, tlie Kremlin has be gun a re-examination of lis for eign aid program. Though Soviet aid has been tiny compared with the $100 billion spent by tlie U.S. since ltm, It is a drain on the Communist bloc. It has, more over, been opposed by the milita ry, which feels that little is gained because it has been- -up to now deductible. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service are standing pat. Only about 10 per cent of the taxpayers, mostly corporations, can report entertainment costs as business expense de ductions. The other 90 per cent of the taxpayers are glad to see the loopholes closed, shutting off a tax revenue loss estimated at $100 mil lion a year. The loss came largely from charg ing off as business expenses what were really personal pleasures. Internal Revenue Service thinks it is being reasonable and practical in its regula tions interpreting the law and the intent of Congress. IRS recognizes that entertainment to promote sales is a legitimate practice of the free enterprise system. It is here to stay. But there are limits. Gifts of any value still may be given to customers or prospects, but only $25 of the cost is deductible for tax purposes. Where travel away from home is for long er than a week and the nonbusiness part of the trip is more than 25 per cent of the time, only expenses allocated to business can be deducted. Expenses for a secretary taken to a busi ness convention might be deductible. But ex penses for a wife taken on such a trip would not be deductible unless it can be shown that she works at being more than a social decora tion. The president of a corporation, working on big shot prospects, would be allowed high er entertainment expenses than his salesmen. It is not anticipated there will be many court cases to test provisions of the new law and related IRS regulations. After the con fusion of familiarization with the new routines is over, it may all settle into an accepted rou tine. In the meantime, few people are shedding tears over high-priced eating places losing a little business and being forced to cut rates. Also, it's pretty hard to make a case that the night spots and resort centers should be subsidized by expense account living. abroad and much lost in pos sible capital outlays at home by lied foreign aid. Systematic demobilization of the vast Soviet military establish ment, which the Khrushchevian economic planners urged, has been halted. And on the minor side, the Soviet propaganda ma chine has suddenly rehabilitate! the late Marshal Tukhachcvsky. one of the great military minds ot the 20th Century, who was exe cuted by Stalin as a pro-Nazi and a traitor. His death, and the purging of thousands of Soviet officers, has never been forgot ten by the Ucd army. Now we are being told that the charges against Tukhachcvsky were based on forged Nazi documents which Stalin, of course, was too stupid lo nee through. Al manac By United Press International Today is Wednesday. April 3. the 93rd day of IW with 272 to follow. The moon is approaching full phase. The morning stars are Venus ami Saturn. The evening star is Mars. Those born today include the creator of the immortal Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving, in 1783. On this day in history: In I77ti. Harvard gave an honor ary degree of doctor ot laws to lien. George Washington. In IRiUi, the Pony Express Post al Service began when riders lelt St. Joseph. Mo , and Sacramento. Calit., at the same time. In IBIQ, the famed outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed by a member ot Ins gang. Robert Ford. In 1936, Bruno H.uiptinann was elect rocutod ill Trenton, N J , for tlie kidnaping and murder of the son of Charles Lindbergh. A thought for the day English novelist Samuel Butler said: "The man who lets himself be bored is even more contempt ible than the boor." . ' mkr& A - & . By SYDNEY J. HARRIS When Chesterton was once asked that tircsomely familiar question, "What book would you choose' to have with you on a desert island?", he quite sensibly replied, "James' volume on 'Prac tical Shipbuilding." " He was doing more than giv ing a flip dismissal to this trite question. He was pointing out the absurdity of taking a situation out of context. Most of us would answer, with spiritual solemnity, tlie Bible or Shakespeare; but Chesterton, who was both a deep ly religious and a widely culti vated man, saw through these pretensions. On a desert island, of course. we would want a book that would help us survive and escape, if possible. For a man alone is no good to himself, even with the Bible and Shakespeare for com pany. Robinson Crusoe was going crazy until he came upon Friday. ' Books of a spiritual or cultural quality must be a supplement to life; they cannot be a substitute for it. If the average man makes the disastrous mistake of substi tuting action for thought (which always ends in violence, t h c thoughtful man often makes the contrary mistake of substituting books for life (which always ends in sterility). Indeed, perhaps the central task of any human life consists in achieving the proper balance, the correct tension, between the con templative and the practical as pects. For both the man who thinks too much and the man w ho thinks too little tends lo take the wrong action in a crisis. The consideration of subtle mor al, psychological and social val Medley ACROSS 1 Canine animal 4 Masculine fl Young heep 12 Poem 13 Wolfhound 14 Tropical plant 15 Fastener lit Saviors 18 Srotfrrl 'JO Paoses l!l Klasmobrincli fish '2"2 Unci ot love '24 Roast 26 Hundredth o( i rij:M anglo uiuth I 27 Pollack 30 t'anarv .12 Infirm M Affirm .1.-. Redacted 36 Napoleonic marshal 17 Kilo, I, s ;i! Nunilwr ipl I 40 Creek letter 41 Hrtlionie sea Rod 42 Masts 4.t tiucssinfi name 411 Residence and grounds SI Pasture !i2 Charles ltmh S3 llaelic M Permit S.i Act SK Viper 57 Perunls of tunc lab i IHIWV 1 Piainond. culler s cups C Norse cod .1 1 siully 4 W V.I f Nautical term f riimhint: device 7 Marinei s direction o Cnpples FF1 I4 I5 I6 P I F I9 I10 111 12 13 Ti 15 Fe 17 18 Id lilli " 51 Jl r32 J3 52 -53 4, Sii: W-r';'4XCll5SSSltov' " STRICTLY PERSONAL ues can immobilize a man from taking action with courage and dispatch; and, contrariwise, the ignoring ol such considerations can plunge us into deeds whose consequences are quite the oppo site of what we intended. Life is so hard to anticipate precisely liccause each event is an equa tion in which one term is hidden from us the mysterious "x" that lies so deep within our own na ture that we cannot sec it. What expert bridge players call "the feel of the table" knowing intuitively when to pass and when to bid is as important in living as in playing. The reflec tive man will nearly always pass, and the impulsive man will near ly always bid; but true expertise consists in cutting across t h e grain of one's nature when the situation seems to call for it. It might almost be said that only if we learn how and when to violate the natural bent of our temperament can we cope with the unpredictability and perver sity of human affairs. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q What docs the Jewish festi val of Hanukkah comnienorate? A It is an eight-day festival commemorating the great battle for religious liberty in IBS B.C., resulting in the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple to the worship of the true God. The festival is also known as the Feast of Lights. Q Which was the first cent issued under the authority of the United States? A The "Fugio" cent in 1787. Answer to Previous Puizle 1 Brews lOThinlycar s.i I mon 1 1 Mrs Truman 17 Kalen way Hi Hint of proy ,VlHollhPS Son of I.Iyr Jr Prarna part 'JH Mighty 17 Word by w ord Jtt lied tffMT Ji Ctitu-hi'S .11 Kil 3:t Chemical MiMame .Tft Horses of a kind 40 Baker's product tl Bails 4- harm e-utlmtMing 43 Measure 44 French girl friend 4fi kein of yarn 47 Forest erealurt 48 Consumes Mi Beverage ISlAig A ISiHLEI IP. I lE.DI 1 IflHET TEtrsjl IeIOSIeI Irja jsjmJAiUsLiATC' tiai iafe N HejRjTtilts l Sek" LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Music It seems strange indeed that in this day and age, with music so much a part of our daily lives, that there are those who consider it a non-essential and look upon our school music and oilier art courses as some kind ot "fringe" subjects. Now aside from developing an ability which enables him to give enjoyment to others, thereby en riching his own life, does the pro ficient music student and partici pant derive any other benefits? Dr. Charles Eliot, former presi dent of Harvard University, said, "Music is the best mind trainer on our list." Now if anyone doubts that the musician must develop quickness of mind, coordinated with instant action and split second timing, consider the violinist who plays, for example, the Paganini "Per petual Motion" at a rate of 12 notes per second with detached bow strokes and shifts from one position to another with nothing to guide the placement of the fingers. This and many other examples would prove to anyone that the coordination necessary to play any instrument well and a rapid tempo would make the coordination necessary in any other line of endeavor mere child's play. Now are there any other bene fits resulting from the study of music'.' The National Child Welfare As sociation has this to say: "Through music, a child enters into a world of beauty; expresses his innermost self; tastes the joys of creating; widens his sym pathies; develops his m i n d; soothes and retines his spirit and adds grace to his body." Calvin Coolidge writes, "Music is the art directly representative of democracy." And to those who would belittle the study of music, tins from Woodrow Wilson,. "The man who disparages music as a luxury and non-essential is doing tlie nation an injury. Music now more than ever is a national need." Although music is in itself an exact science, existing as a def inite reality in the realm of the real in distinction to those things which are purely man conceived, we can sec from the following its close relationship to another sci ence. In an article which appeared in tlie Kotarian. Donald H. Andrews. prolcsMir of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in sub stance, ithat' if we could blow up an atom to the size of a football held and could stand inside, one would hear the most beautiful music like the rolling chords of an organ. In other words, the atom snip. Thus, the "music of the spheres" is no mere poetic fancy but an established scientific fact. Are we Uien to consider as a non-essential a thing ot which our universe is made? "Into the dreary rounds of ma teria! living, the arts come as a brcalh from heaven." Sam On Request Thoughts The American colonics of Con necticut. Massachusetts, and Vir ginia held land grants extending their territories to the Pacitic Ocean. By PETER EDSON' Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. WASHINGTON (NEAi-Deiense Secretary Robert Strange McNa mara today occupies one of the strangest positions in tlie capital. A Republican who was for Kennedy in 1U60 he is regarded by many administration lead ers as the ablest man in the cabi net, enjoying the President's complete coniidence. Nevertheless, he has been men tioned as a dark horse possibility for the GOP presidential nomina tion in 14 or '68. By other Republicans and some Democrats he is regarded as a civilian chief of stalf, a man on horseback, a ruthless administra tor, a spendthrift with a budget that is far too big, a potential dictator, a man to be watched and feared. To other Democrats, McNamara is simply doing a job that has needed to be done for a long time, cracking together the heads of admirals and generals to make them support real unification in stead of fighting their old service rivalries. No one man can be all these things at once, yet McNa mara seems to be. That is the paradox of his position. His hassle with Congress over award of the $6.5 billion TFX tactical fighter contract to Gen eral Dynamics, instead of to Boe ing, is expected to simmer down after his testimony before Sen. John L. McClellan's Government Operations subcommittee. But it could boil up into some thing hotter if the Congress should move to create a joint, by-partisan group lo watchdog defense contracts. McNamara takes full and sole responsibility for the decision to build only one fighter for both Air Force and Navy use, in stead of the two tlie services wanted. The justification is that this saves the government $1 bil lion. While McNamara has raised defense expenditures from $41 bil lion in l'Jfil to an estimated $31 billion for 1964, the latter figure is a $16 billion cut from what the services wanted. The secretary's goal, after modernizing conventional forces, is to level off the defense budg et. He is said to consider this By FULTON LEWIS JR. It is nowhere to be found in the 1.3-14 pages of the latest Sears Roebuck catalogue, but the American farmer may soon wear an economic straitjacket three buttoned, natural shoulder cut, of course. It is the solution advocated by many to the ever-present, ever vexing "farm problem." It is the solution put forward by Secre tary of Agriculture Orville Free man, who last year proposed jail sentences for those farmers who violate federal orders and "plant too much." If Secretary Freeman and (he Harvard economists who help shape his policies would take a figurative look 90 miles off the Florida coast, they would see file latest example of what happens when government steps in and tries to run agriculture. This is a point now made by the articulate Robert Liebenow, 40-ycar-old president of the world's largest commodities ex change, the Chicago Board of Trade. He refers, of course, lo Cuba. Speaking in Topeka. Kan.. Lie benow pointed out that Cuban farm production, before Fidel Castro came to power, amounted to more than a third of the is land's national income. The Cuh.m people were among the world's best fed. On a per capita basis. Cuba produced more meat than any other country in the hemisphere, the U.S. not ex cluded. Soon after Castro rode trium phantly into Havana, the Cuban farmer found his hands securely tied by bureaucratic red tape. The National Agia.ian Reform Institute began to "plan" to im plement tlie directiies of Com rade Castro, and said: "It is first necessary for the larmer lo learn w hat we want him lo learn. He must be taught the spirit of cooperation. He must lose what individualism he has and also his stupid passion for private property. Hunger will be the midwite attending the birth of a socialist stale in Cuba." Says l.icbennw: "One of the first things Castro did alter win ning power was to start nation alizing farm properties. Initial ly he organized them as produc tion 'cooperatives' owned and op erated by the go eminent. In he began setting them up as 'people's farms.' which in many respects are simply Cu necessary in the face of demands for tax cuts. Kennedy's budget message even plugged McNamara as an economizer, pointing to his pro gram for reducing logistic or ation costs by $3 billion in five years. This, however, isn't enough to offset the $5 billion defense budg et increase during his first two years in Washington. Tlie real explanation given for McNamara's present predicament is that the job of being secre , tary of defense is far different from what it started out to be. When the (irst secretary of de fense, the late James V. For restal, fathered the National Se curity Act of 1947 which "uni fied" tlie armed services, the plan was to -keep his operation small. He was to be a mere civilian overseer, referee and budget cutter. The act gave him one under secretary and only three assist ant secretaries. His staff and of fice space were small. The real concern in unification was over . creation of a Joint Chiefs of Staff with a single chairman who, it was feared, might become too powerful and a military despot. . The late Secretary of Defense Charles K. Wilson changed all that by installing a General Mo tors organization with over 20 "vice presidents" as. assistant secretaries. Then came the Defense Re organization Act amendments of 1958, which gave the secretary of defense broad new powers. But nobody ever used them all until McNamara came along. In the light of nuclear, missile and space developments, the evolution of his job is considered essen tial by the Pentagon bureaucra cy. His office now has 1,800 em ployes. The three service secretaries have been down-graded to such an extent that most people have to think twice to remember who they are Vance of Army, Korth of Navy and Zuckert of Air Force. There are now only seven assist ant secretaries of defense, who are equally hard to name. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiels of Staff, General Maxwell Taylor, seems to offer no threat of mili tary domination of the republic. It's "Sec. Def." who raises the suspicions now. WASHINGTON REPORT . . . Agrarian 'Reforms' Cut Cuba Potential ban version of collectivized farms in Russia and China. "Today 'food is critically short in Cuba and all the important types of food once in abundant supply are rationed. And the ra tions are so small as to cause substantial discomfort and discon tent." Castro "planners" slaughtered prize breeding animals, snipping their frozen carcasses to Russia. Now the herds are gone and agricultural production is one-fifth of what it was. Sugar produc tion, which reached 7.5 million tons during 1959, has fallen under 4 million tons. Liebenow speaks frequently before farm and business groups throughout the country as a good will ambassador to explain the functions and objectives of the Chicago Board of Trade. More importantly, he view's every speech as an opportunity to tell ol the amazing development ot American agriculture, and to em phasize thai this progress is di rectly traceable to free enterprise and the personal profit incentive. "Our greatest industry," says Liebenuw of American agricul ture. To a recent Michigan (arm management banquet at Michigan State University, lor example, he conceded that we do have a farm problem in this country, but said: "Ours is a problem of over abundance, of such amazing technological improvements and efficiency that our American farmer can produce far, (ar mure than we can consume." "It's the kind of problem." he added, "the Communist world probably would give away Khru shchev, or Mao. or both, to have. "It's a problem which arises from the fact that today an American farmer produces in one hour what it took a farmer a little more than two' hours to pro duce as recently as the late 1940's. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest farm group, proposes that prob lems of over-production be eased through a massive land retire ment program. Undoubtedly such program would be costly and would raise other serious objections, but on balance, large-scale land retire ment in some form or other ap peals to many to be the only logical solution to our problems of over-abundance if fte are to have the free enterprise, (roe market agriculture we need.