Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1984 Page: 4 of 56
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Polk County Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Livingston Municipal Library.
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PA *E 4A-THL. POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE, THURSDAY JANUARY 5, 1984
Editorial
Telling blow
Jack Anderson
Timber companies aided
WASHINGTON-The Reagan ad-
ministration let some giant timber cor-
porations weasel out of more than $2
billion worth of contracts with the
federal government. The move will cost
The Federal Bureau of Investigation must be ^~the taxpayers dearly, but it will un-
commended for a job well done in Chicago - con- r1n"htpf1,v hpln thp “resident to a
ducting the biggest courtroom crime probe in U.S.
history.
Three and a half years of hard work by agents
and other crime fighters has resulted in the indict-
ments of 10 persons. The list includes judges,
court officials, attorneys and a police officer on
such charges as conspiracy, racketeering, mail
fraud and extortion. Other indictments are ex-
pected to follow.
The FBI operation against courtroom corrup-
tion was called Greylord. It took place within the
Cook County court system - largest in the nation.
Cook County courts have 333 judges, 21,000 at-
torneys and handle 6 million cases a year.
The indictment charge that bribes and payoffs
from $30 up to $33,000 were made in court cases
ranging from traffic tickets to felony narcotics.
Evidence indicates the graft could run into
millions of dollars.
The investigative stages of the operation are a
success and that’s good. One of the most impor-
tant tasks the FBI can undertake is the uncover-
ing of graft and other illegalities in high places.
Those who are elected to public position and
turn to crime must be brought to justice. If not, it
undermines the moral foundation, of our nation.
They are every bit as evil as the gunman in the
street.
Three years ago, the FBI did an equally fine
undercover job in bringing congressman and
others to justice in the Abscam bribery case.
Agents disguised themselves as businessmen and
Arab sheikhs to sleuth out which nlembers of Con-
gress were on the take, accepting bribes and
gratuities.
Abscam resulted in the arrest of seven
members of Congress and others. Five former
members of the House of Representatives, the
mayor of Camden, N.J., and two Philadelphia
lawyers were sent to prison. Two other con-
gressmen convicted have yet to exhaust their ap-
peals.
The FBI, under the direction of Director
William Webster, has done a fine job of in-
vestigative work in Chicago and in the nation’s
capital. Let them keep up the good work.
Let us hope the Chicago matter goes to trial
quickly and justice is served.
Biased
The Reagan administration has chosen a case
involving the Detroit police department to make
its first argument in court that Affirmative Action
programs which use racial quotas for hiring and
promotion are unconstitutional. The suit brought
by white officers claiming to be victims of
discrimination on the Detroit police force is an
ideal one to elicit a definite ruling on the issue
from the U.S. Supreme Court.
It is ideal because all the parties can agree at,
the outset that there was discrimination against
blacks on the Detroit police force that it needed to
be corrected. The Justice Department has
acknowledged this in its friend-of-the-court brief
on behalf of the white officers. No one is trying to
defend a discriminatory personnel system.
The Detroit police department obviously needed
an Affirmative Action proram when Mayor Col-
eman Young was elected mayor in 1973. The
number of black officers on the force was woefully
out of line with the number of blacks in the city
population, nothing was being done to see that
more of them were hired and earned promotions,
and the force was not responsive to the concerns
of a substantial portion of the city’s population.
It is not at issue that the Detroit police depart-
ment needed to recruit more minorities and to
help its minority officers qualify for promotion. It
can do this in a manner that is fair to everyone.
What is at issue is the way the department has
pursued its Affirmative action goals. It has rigged
its merit system so that a black officer is pro-
moted even if a white officer ranks higher on the
promotion list. This is exactly how Affirmative
Action programs step over the line into “reverse-
riscrimination,” a form of racial bias that is no
less obnoxious because it is designed to help
blacks get into the system rather than keep them
put.
In the Detroit case it is the white officers who
are feeling the injustice of racial quotas, but their
plight is not unusual in the wake of the Affir-
mative Action mania that seized the federal
government a decade ago. In an attempt to do
right by a minority, the government has induced
many employers to pursue personnel practices
that are patently unfair to the majority.
The administration has picked the Detroit
police case to take a forthright stand in court
against reverse discrimination in the name of Af-
firmative Action. We can hope its argument will
help clarify the issue for the Supreme Court and
bring a ruling that reaffirms the principle of equal
opportunity in employment - a principle which
should protect both black and white Americans.
doubtedly help the president to carry
Oregon in November.
Here are the details:
In the late 1970s, the big timber com-
panies badly misread their economic
crystal balls. They decided that both
the housing boom and inflation would
dontinue indefinitely.
So the lumber firms bid up the price
of timber on government-owned land to
more than 400 percent of its appraised
value. Most of the contracts had to be
fulfilled within seven years.
But then the recession hit and the
housing boom went bust. The demand
for lumber practically vanished over-
night, and the price fell drastically. If
the loggers had to pay the high prices
they had promised to pay, they would
have lost millions.
So the big timber wolves howled for
the federal government to let them out
, ,
of the trap they had set for themselves.
They asked for a five-year, interest-
free extension on their timber contracts
last year. They figured that in five
years the demand for lumber - and the
price - would rise again and they would
be saved from the results of their own
greed.
According to White House and
Treasury Department estimates, the
timber bailout will cost taxpayers
about $600 million.
Some observers have argued that the
federal government is doing nothing for
the timber firms that it didn’t do for the
Chrysler Corp,. when it was on the
brink of bankruptcy a few years ago.
But the lumber companies are finan-
cially sound. Indeed, the chief
beneficiaries of the timber bailout
showed profits as high as $60 million for
the first nine months of 1983.
And the Chrysler loan guarantees
have already earned the government
more than $311 million from the sale of
stock warrants that were part of the
deal. The timber industry bailout will
cost the taxpayers, not make money for
them.
Sources told our associate Mike Bins-
tein that the president’s top economic
advisers strongly opposed the timber
industry giveaway at three stormy
Cabinet sessions. But the White House
political strategists carried the day and
the president cut the deal.
Reagan’s political advisers had an in-
terest in the decision because the
timber bailout is immensely popular in
Oregon - a state which the president
carried by a slim margin in 1980. The
political importance of the decision has
also been pointed out by Oregan’s
Republican governor, Victor Atieyh,
and by the man in charge of the na-
tional forests, John Crowell, assistant
secretary of Agriculture for natural
resources and the environment.
Wrote Crowell in an internal
memorandum: “A recent poll in
Oregon showed 53 percent of the per-
sons queried to be in favor of allowing
logging companies to satisfy their con-
tract obligations by paying the lower
current price.” Crowell warned that
there would be what he called "con-
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tinued political agitation” if the con-
cerns of the timber barons were not ad-
dressed. ,
Crowell should know: Before he went
to work for the government, he was
general counsel for Louisiana Pacific,
one of the largest lumber companies in
the world. Louisiana Pacific will make
about $10 million out of the bailout.
POLITICAL PRIMER: Politicians in
search of inspiration and instruction-on
campaign basics will find Disney
World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.,
to be helpful. Indeed, the ‘‘Experimen-
tal Prototype Community of
Tomorrow” has already drawn several
of Washington’s leading movers and
shakers, including President Reagan,
Vice President George Bush and at
least a half dozen senators.
For their money, Epcot visitors get a
sanitized, optimistic view of the world.
The Disney blend of patriotism and
resolute avoidance of unpleasantness is
best demonstrated at the “American
Adventure” show, which features
mechanical caricatures of historical
figures.
The equivocal way it deals with con-
troversial subjects would make a cam-
paign stumper’s mouth water. It covers
the subject of war and peace without a
mention of Vietnam, and its treatment
of the women’s movement is a
"dialogue” between suffragist Susan B.
Anthony and Rosie the Riveter.
Consumer Advisory: The Food and
Drug Administration is studying the
possibility of approving direct-to-
consumer advertising of prescription
drugs. Currently, the drug companies
can advertise their products only with
physicians, but the rules could be
changed as early as this spring.
The FDA’s own surveys show,
however, that the proposition has met
with scant public support. Drug prices
would increase as the companies hike
their advertising budgets. Consumers
could easily be confused or misled, as
the average person is not familiar
enough with medical matters to
evaluate promotional claims. And
patient-doctor relationships would suf-
fer if patients fall for an ad’s "line” and
their physicians disagree.
GOING FIRST CLASS: According to
travel records, executives of the U.S.
Synthetic Fuels Corp. would rather fly
first class at their own expense than sit
in coach at the company’s. In most
cases, Synfuels officials pay the dif-
ference between the two fares out of
their own pockets.
T-Wheeler
Kindness not seasonal
By Alan Miller
Over the years the T-Wheeler has
been a bit of the curmudgeon. A polite
expression of the Franklin Roosevelt
years to describe a crusty ill-tempered
old man. Isn’t that a laugher? The
definition fits the T-Wheeler like a
glove.
On the other hand, the beginning of a
new year is sort of like that new pair of
shoes you wore on the first day of
school. You aren't kicking cans or scuf-
fing them up because you know there
would be hell to pay when you got home.
It would be kind of nice if we all look-
ed at 1984 with the same reference.
A lot of political rhetoric will get in
the way. Most of which we ha,ve all
heard before, from both sides of the
political platform. But somewhere
along the line, some brave soul may yet
come forth and not only point out some
of the problepi areas that have been
with us for decades, or even as long as
pen could scribe, and in the next breath
will offer a solution that all of us can
recognize.
The Christmas season seems to be a
popular time to highlight soup kitchens
and people in need. Well, soup kitchens
are there all year long for people to see.
And needy people are there all year
long who need help.
It isn't that the helpful resources
aren’t there in our view. It’s just that
we have tried to pave the way to their
delivery with money, when a little
marketing and distribution sense would
have probably gotten the job done.
For instance, we have billions of
dollars in dairy goods in warehouses all
across this country. And we paid dairy
farmers to milk the cows in the first
place so they could fill up the
warehouses.
And from our personal experience we
have finally come to the conclusion that
no one in federal government or down
here at home has come up with a simple
way to get those products into needy
hands.
Oh, we make a good show of it occa-
sionally. We rlin a story in the
newspaper that a truckload of butter
and cheese will be in town on a certain
date, and folks can come down and
carry some home. N
Our guess would be that the folks who
probably really need that butter and
cheese aren't regular subscribers to the
newspaper. That seven dollars a month
is being spent in more practical ways.
And we would guess that the needy
folks, if they knew the score, would
wonder why billions of dollars are being
spent for milk that can’t be delivered to
consumers. The government must
know those dairy fanners pretty well to
send them the checks every month.
How come they don’t know the needy
folks so they could at least tell them
where they could pick up the cheese? ,
Sure, a lot of folks think everyone
should stand on their own two feet.
Work hard, save you money and you
won’t need help. Well, it’s also pretty
true that the folks who talk like that are
pretty secure themselves in the first
place, and are probably more concern-
ed about the taxes they pay than
whether somebody is going hungry.
We know there are free loaders.
There are people who steal pencils from
the office and don’t put a nickel in the
parking meter. It just kind of depends
on who’s calling the kettle black.
But we have gone so long with using
tax money to resolve problems instead
of people to resolve problems that we
have forgotten how effective a person-
to-person cooperation can be.
We would guess several million peo-
ple in this country are in pretty dire
straits. No money for heat and rent or
food. Many just can’f compete in the
kind of society we have designed for
ourselves. And they are the folks who
sincerely need our help. There are
countless federal and state programs in
place to assist folks who just can’t get
by. The food stamp and social security
structure has made life a lot easier for
millions of people.
If less bombast were spent on trying
to corral the votes these constituencies
provide, and instead were focused on
those unnumbered, uncounted millions
who have just plain fallen through the
cracks because they can’t be found on
the voter rolls, we just might begin to
heal the wounds that only show up at
the compassionate time of Christmas.
But in a few. months, the spell of
Christmas and cold fronts will have
passed, and spring will replace the
rigors of winter. The destitute will have
been forgotten in the euphoria of a ris-
ing economy.
Just remember, those folks are still
there, even if we’ve politically forgot-
ten them-
Do you have an opinion?
The Polk County Enterprise en-
courages readers to submit let-
ters voicing their views or opi-
nions.
The letters will be published in
the Enterprise’s Letter to the
Editor column in Thursday’s or
Sunday’s paper.
The letter may be written on
any subject or lsue of interest.
Letters which are submlted
must be accompanied by a name
and address and will be subject to
v normal editing such as grammar,
punctuation and spelling. The let-
ters must be written within the
confines of good taste.
The letters will also, be subject
to editing for libelous or
slanderous statements and com-
mercialism.
To submit letters, ntail them to
“Letters to the Editor,”Polk
County Enterprise, P.O. Box
*-1271, Livingston, Texas 77SS1.
POLK COUNTY
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office at Livingston>-
Texas 77351 under the Act of Congress of March 3,1897.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Barbara White, Editor
Grace Holman, Family Editor
Beatrice Hall, Special Correspondent
Van Thomas, Sports Editor
Greg Peak, Area News Editor
Don Hendrix, Special Sections Editor
Linda Farber, Darkroom Technician
Paul Fortney, Reporter
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
Pressroom Personnel
Mike Sims, Production Supervisor,
Adrian Dunn, David Holley, Paul Holley,
Beamon Goodwin, Ricky Taylor
Composition Personnel
Dorothy Wilson, Composition Supervisor
Hilda Sylestine, Debbie Gay, Ollie Wyatt, Eve Bowen
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
Felicia Fiscal,
Emma Robles, Elizabeth Villarreal
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Linda Dickerson, Ad Manager
Linda Jacobs, Carrolyn Vaughn,
Kathy Jordan, Mary Jo Watson, Patty Hankard
BOOKKEEPING DEPARTMENT
Sue Holley, Manager
Diane Holley ,
SUBSCRIPTION RATES -? $13.00 per year, In county, $14.50 per year,
out of county. $15.50 per year, out of state. Published semi-weekly,
Sunday and Thursday at 506 Tyler St. In Livingston, Texas by the Polk
County Publishing Co.
Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or reputation
of any person, firm or corporation which may appear in this
newspaper will be gladly corrected upon being brought to the attention
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Opinions expressed in columns are those of the writer and not
necessarily those of this newspaper.
Opinions expressed in editorials are those of the Enterprise. -
Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to P.O. Box 1271, Livingston,
Texas 77351,
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White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1984, newspaper, January 5, 1984; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth810582/m1/4/?q=hamilton+county: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.