Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 23, 1984 Page: 4 of 48
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PAGE 4A-THE POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE, THURSDAY FEBRUARY 23, 1984
Editorial
Go U.S.
Jack Anderson
USSR keeping its secrets
The sexy new American cars are wooing back
American consumers. Detroit’s 1983 sales rose 25
percent over 1982. Big-car sales were up 70 per-
cent from the previous year. Last year,
American-made cars won a slightly larger share
of the U.S. market than in 1982.
But in the factory towns where laid-off auto
workers live, the resumption of the American peo-
pie’s love affair with American-made
automobiles has come too late. More than 150,000
jobs in the auto industry have been permanently
lost. Employment is never again expected to
reach 1978-79 levels.
Big sales figures and long unemployment lines
don’t seem to go together in the American way. If
Detroit executives and assembly line workers
shared the hard times, why aren’t they sharing
the good times?
These questions have answers, but they are not
^ easy to give to audiences of United Auto Workers
and their families who want jobs, not explana-
tions;
Detroit is recovering because, like its new lean
breed of cars, it has cut down on the fat and waste
in its manufacturing system. It has fired people
and replaced them with robots and better produc-
tion techniques. Workers are understandably
upset. They ask: How can you compete against a
machine?
Impotence breeds anger and anger seeks out an
enemy - a scapegoat.
Times past, the unions and manufacturers
would blame each other for their troubles. But one
of the innovations brought on by the crisis in the
. auto industry was to bring labor and management
closer together, including the membership of
former UAW President Douglas Fraser on the
board of directors of Chrysler.
The tendency now is to blame foreign auto
manufacturers and cheap foreign labor for the
unemployment in the American auto industry.
The Japanese are the prime targets for this
scapegoatism.
If importing foreign cars means exporting U.S.
jobs, the solution is to make foreign manufac-
turers build their cars in America, runs the argu-
ment of the UAW. The union convinced the House
of Representatives to pass a “domestic-content”
bill which would tie foreign auto imports to the
percentage of American-made parts in their cars.
It would work like this: All U.S.-made parts and
U.3.-furnished services, such as advertising and
shipping, would be tallied up and computed as a
percentage of a car’s value. This “domestic con-
tent” percentage would be factored into a com-
plex formula together with the number of cars im-
ported in one year, in order to find the number of
cars permitted in the next year. For example, if
500,000 cars with domestic content of 10 percent
were imported in 1985, only 299,000 cars could be
imported in 1986.
The bill, backed by most of the Democratic can-
didates for president, all but Gary Hart and
Reubin Askew, is now before the Senate. Ford and
Chrysler have given it lukewarm support, but
General Motors opposes it. President Reagan
says he will veto it.
We oppose it on principle as a protectionist
measure. Trade barriers breed trade wars and
trade wars have a history of provoking armed ag-
gression. It is one of the accomplishments of free
trade that Japan’s prewar territorial ambitions
have been redirected to postwar commercial
competition, which has benefited the U.S. con-
sumer and the world economy.
We also oppose the bill on pragmatic grounds.
Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates
analyzed the domestic-content bill and found it
would cause car prices to go up 10 percent by 1990.
The bill would credate 84,000 auto jobs in the
United State at a cost of $18 billion per year for the
American consumer. That comes out to $214,000
per job - an unacceptably high price. What’s
worse, Wharton says more than 400,000 jobs would
be eliminated from other parts of the U.S.
economy because of negative effects of protec-
tionism. The result would be that American con-
sumers would have to pay more to have a more
limited choice of vehicles. The competition which '
made Detroit put oomph back in its autos would
be drastically reduced. The American people
would become the captive buyers of an industry
disengaged from the world market.
That must not happen. Detroit is now competing
hard and winning the hearts of American car
buyers. Its success will ensure the jobs and pro-
sperity of millions of Americans. Unemployed car
workers must be helped directly, by retraining
and by assistance until they find jobs in other in-
dustries. Some lives have been ruined. This is
tragic. Let’s not compound the tragedy by
destroying the competitive spirit of an industry on
the rebound.
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 rabjcct or isue of interest.
Letters which are submlted
must be accompanied by a name
and address and will be subject to
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-
merclalistn.
To submit letters, mall them to
“Letters to the Editor,’’Polk
County Enterprise, P.O. Box
mi, Livingston, Texas 77351.
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence
analysts are scrambling to figure out
What effect the change in Soviet leader-
ship will have on World peace, but they
have been hampered by a lack of infor-
mation about the Kremlin’s activities.
We have studied more than 50 secret
documents assessing the Soviet leader-
ship and can report that U.S. in-
telligence agencies have no pipelines
into the Politburo, no informants who
can tell the analysts what is going on
behind the grim, fortress-like walls of
the Kremlin.
America’s best intelligence sources
did not know whether Yuri Andropov
was dead or alive during his last days.
The United States simply gets no
human intelligence from inside the
Soviet power structure.
But U.S. technological intelligence is
the best in the world. The SXperts are
able to intercept messages, break codes
and photograph Soviet installations.
They are even able to pick up some con-
versations inside the Kremlin.
It was an intercepted message, in
fact, which gave U.S. experts their first
hint that Andropov was seriously ill.
Our sources told us of his sickness last
June and we reported that the CIA was
betting that “Andropov will die within a
year. That’s how bad his health is.”
Those same sources now tell us that
Andropov’s successor, Konstantin
Chernenko, is a master of Kremlin
paper work but he will not be a dynamic
leader. According to one top-secret
analysis, Chernenko will be “responsi-
ble for seeing to it that Politburo deci-
sions are carried out - that is, as the top
civil servant of the Politburo, not as its
master.”
Chernenko’s specialty before he mov-
ed into the Kremlin was propaganda
and agitation, so he will probably con-
tinue the war of words with the United
States. But he is a wary, cautious
1
leader who is not likely to go beyond the
brink.
There is even a chance, says another
top-secret document, that he may “get
detente with the United States back on
track.”
SUGGESTION BOX - The Reagan
White House would like to slash funds
for the poor, the handicapped and the
elderly. We agree that government
spending should be cut, but we have a
^better suggestion how to do it.
The bureaucrats could save billions
simply by eliminating waste. We have
been keeping a watch on waste for
many years and can tell you who
throws away the money. It is the
military brass.
The Pentagon could start saving
money by cutting out the frills. The Ar-
my Corps of Engineers, for example, is
spending millions of dollars to beautif'
a pqwerhouse. You might think tin'
powerhouse sitting on top of a r 1
would be a strictly functional piece of
architecture. But the Army Engineers
appear determined to make a Taj
Mahal out of a powerhouse in Calhoun
Falls, S.C.
First, the Army Engineers hired a
world-famous architect, Marcel
Breuer, to prepare an “architectural
concept” for the powerhouse. He-set to
work with his usual flair and added
refinements that brought the estimated
price tag for the structure up to $60
million.
Some of the refinements promise to
make the building look more like a
Hyatt Hotel than an eletric generating
plant. The plans call for a curved pro-
menade deck covered with glass
panels, an overlook terrace, a circular
ramp leading down to a fishing deck,
and granite flooring blocks with a fish-
scale pattern. The fancy flooring alone
will cost about $776,000 more than plain
old concrete paving blocks.
The purpose of the frills, according to
a Pentagon document, is “to attract
visitors.”
So if you are ever in the neighborhood
of Calhoun Falls, S.C., dFop in for a look
at the Taj Mahal of powerhouses. You
paid for it.
POLITICAL POTPOURRI - Some of
our congressional sources are concern-
ed that the U.S. Synthetic Fuel Corp.
may become a political arm of the
Reagan reelection campaign. Synfuels
board member Howard Wilkins is the
Midwest finance chairman for the cam-
paign, and several other board
members served on the 1980 Reagan
transition team. Our sources are wor-
ried that companies seeking federal
assistance in the search for alternative
fuels may catch wind of the board’s
political leanings and make campaign
contributions in hope of receiving
favorable consideration.
- Presidential hopeful Sen. John
Glenn, D-Ohio, has criticized
Democratic front-runner Walter Mon-
dale for the support he has received
from “special interests.” The truth is
that Glenn has some ties of his own to
big business, labor unions and other
well-heeled political power brokers.
Glenn's financial disclosure reports
reveal that he has received $305,000
from political action committees
organized by bankers, defense contrac-
tors, energy companies and labor
unions. This is twice as much PAC
money as has been taken in by any of
the other candidates who are accepting
such funds.
Copyright, 1984
United Feature* Syndicate, Inc.
-Letters to the editor-
Elderly deserve chance tp extend life by pet ownership
To the editor:
When we as citizens of Livingston
talk about discrimination, the minority,
just where do we “fit” in the elderly?
Yes, there is adequate housing provid-
ed at a fair, rate of exchange, yet there
is discrimination against the elderly.
It has been studied by the Depart-
ment of Health and the Association of
Retired Persons, and their consensus is
that the aged live longer, especially
those who are without a spouse, if they
have a pet. I am well aware that many
do not care to own a pet, but I feel that
more wish to have a small pet than
those who don’t. I have seen in the
newspapers where members of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (SPCA) have gone into the
nursing homes, even here in the Liv-
ingston area, with pets from the
shelter, and to the delight of residents,
if pictures are any testament, then pets
do aid the elderly.
Owners of apartments in the state of
California cannot discriminate against
any tenant if they have a pet, however,
the state has some strict rules regar-
ding pets. One being, when on the daily
morning and evening constitutional, the
pet is on a leash and the owner carries a
small plastic bag with a “pooper
scooper” and cleans after the pet in a
matter that leaves no remains, other
than water, for which I doubt if anyone
can control. As for noise, there is an or-
dinance regarding same, but all must
abide, since I have not heard of many, if
any, court battles over being kept
awake. I feel that no pet can compete
with the noise that one child can make,
and when there are two or more,
bedlam.
In this complex for the elderly,
children are supposed to be visitors, but
at any given time there are several, and
at times they come up on the porch,
walk on the retaining walls, and if they
happen to fall on the plants, sorry, not
their problem. The elderly here have to
endure loud radios that teenagers play
late at night in front of the apartments
where they live with a relative. We
have to look the other way when
children ride their bicycles across the
lawns, whether privately kept or by the
authority. Now I ask you, can any of
this be worse or as bad as the elderly
having a small pet? Some have moved
from here because they are alone, and a
pet is all the company they have.
Hospital needs expansion
To the editor:
My 13-year-old daughter was admit-
ted to Livingston Memorial Hospital
Feb. 13, 1984 with double pneumonia.
She and four others were placed in halls
due to the lack of beds.
I could not have asked for better skill-
ed care from the nurses and all hospital
personnel than she received. Since I
happen to think our doctor, Dr. Michael
Shukan, is the best there is, I was confi-
dent of her speedy recovery.
What does bother me is the fact that
the majority of the population in Polk
County is opposed to building a hospital
large enough to meet the needs of our
ever-expanding community.
We have the skilled nurses, doctors,
technicians. We do not have the ready
availability of adequate bed space
should an epidemic or disaster occur.
It is easy to say one could always go
to Houston, Lufkin or Huntsville, but if
a truly great disaster happened, we
could not get that far.
I, for one, feel it’s time to provide a
hospital large enough to accommodate
the needs of our community and to
acknowledge that we do need a larger
hospital.
Once again, my heartfelt thanks to
the Livingston Memorial Hospital staff
and to my great doctor, Dr. Michael
Shukan.
Wanda L. Hearon
Route 1 Box 100 B
Livingston
End the debt
To the editor:
Something’s wrong when a nation
fails to recognize the true nature of
cause and effect and many things go
wrong.
Why dd we continue to let these
“money changers” collect this interest
and keep on increasing our national
debt? Our government should stay out
of debt.
f- Mrs. Julia N. Henry
P.O. Box 293
Shepherd
Believe me, I find much comfort in a
pet, something I can talk to, love, and
have that love returned.
I sincerely hope that the commis-
sioners of the Housing Authority will
take this to note, and remember... It
has been proven that people live longer
when they have a companion, in this
case a pet. Everyone needs to be loved,
including the many animals in the
shelters, and most of the senior citizens
- those who have already given their
best and all that they ask is to be able to
have a small pet to lavish love on, and
as we are all aware, a pet returns that
love many times over, no questions ask-
ed.
I am happy to be counted among
those who reside in the Hudman addi-
tion, but I want to be counted among
those who love pets, and a neat, orderly
place to live, yet I do wish to live that
measure of life that can be expanded by
having a loving pet.
Jean K. Brown
165 Hudman Drive
Livingston
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, Paul Holley,
Beamon Goodwin, Ricky Taylor
Composition Personnel
Dorothy Wilson, Composition Supervisor
Debbie Gay, Eve Bowen, Valerie Lenox, Sharon Threadgall
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
Felicia Fiscal, Emma Robles
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Linda Dickerson, Ad Manager
Linda Jacobs, Carrolyn Vaughn,
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
of the publisher.
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 1276, Livingston,
Texas 77351.
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White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 23, 1984, newspaper, February 23, 1984; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth810702/m1/4/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.