The Times-Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • 12

A r-cZi latarav; tti.t THE SUNDAY TIMES, JULY 9, 1978-SCRANTON, PA. Russell Baker 1 Revitalizing Congress: Cut Air Conditioning vf i (The untiay (Times PuNuhtd The Scnnloa Trnti EDWARD LYNETTJR. GEORGE V. LYNETT WILLIAM LYNETT Co-puMifton EDWARD LYNETT JR Editor LYNETT Editor and Publisher im-1943 WILLIAM LYNETT Editor ind Publisher 1943-1944 ELIZABETH LYNETT Publisher 1944-1969 EDWARD LYNETT Editor and Publisher 1946 1964 FRANK BLEW1TT HARRY MULLEN Crrl MftSH UfSfiH roller WILLIAM Cl'LLEN JR FRANK PARRY AtmrMt 4iitr Sun4t IdiW William F. Bucklev Jr.

I 1 4 gy wastrels. Here is conservatism at its very best. Cutting off the air conditioning takes us back to a time when American statesmen had to organize their business efficiently to save themselves the agony of summer sessions. Had there been air conditioning in 1776; the Declaration of Independence would not have been completed until December and we would now have to celebrate the Fourth of July and Christmas in the same week. Summer was, after all, terribly hot in most of the colonies from which the rebels came.

The temptation to sit out the heat in the air conditioning of Independence Hall would have been overpowering. And who knows what they might have contrived to fill the long summer months and to justify their preference for cool comfort in Philadelphia? An expensive plan for constructing a new Continental Congress Office Building perhaps. Since 1950, three elegant new office buildings have been constructed at the air-conditioned Capitol, although the membership of Congress has increased by only four persons since the building boom began. It is a lesser illustration of what happens to a government whose operators find it more convenient to stay in business year-round than to operate seasonally. The custom of sitting year-round in Washington was begun, not surprisingly, by the Southern bloc that dominated Congress during the 1950s.

Until air conditioning arrived, they had made it a point to schedule business so they could take relief from Washington summers in the shade of the catalpa and the magnolia. With an air-conditioned Capitol, however, the necessity for perspiring into their juleps abruptly ended. Instead of wilting by the swamps, they could now stay crisp as lettuce in the cool splendor of the Capitol. For voters accustomed to seeing them working the home turf during the steam season, of course, they had to offer justifications for remaining in Washington, and the best of all justifications was the pressing duty of toil for the national good. This naturally required that toil be created to keep them bustling in the news.

And so we had more governing. As Parkinsons Law observes, work expands to fill the time available for doing it. With twice as much time at its disposal, Congress created twice as much work, which meant twice as much governing. Lets pull those wires. NEW YORK If I were a conservative, having given the big taxers a taste of the axe, I would now forget the death penalty and the crusade against homosexuals for a while and attack one of the taproots of waste and big government I refer to air conditioning in Washington.

Air conditioning has contributed far more to the decline of the Republic than unexecuted murderers and unorthodox sex. Until it became universal in Washington after World War II, Congress habitually closed shop around the end of June and did not reopen until the following January. Six months of every year, the nation enjoyed a respite from the promulgation of more laws, the depredations of lobbyists, the hatching of new schemes for federal expansion and, of course, the cost of maintaining a government running at full blast. Once air conditioning arrived, Congress had twice as much time to exercise its skill at regulating and plucking the population. The bureaucracy naturally slowed toward an idle after Congress had retreated to the boon-docks.

and even the President often went fishing. As recently as the 1950s, President Eisenhower regularly took two-month vacations in the Rockies. He could afford to, Congress usually cleared out of town by midsummer even then and there was nobody left to hector him about running a limp presidency. Air conditioning at the Capitol ended all that, with the results we see today. After 20 years of year-round activity, what do we have? Grotesque inflation, swelling public payrolls, soaring taxes, library shelves bulging with incomprehensible government regulations, a flabby dollar, dying cities, failing families, too many lawyers, not enough porters and big air-conditioning bills.

A sound conservative solution is to turn off the Capitol air conditioning at midnight every June 30. If Congress insisted on sitting there afterward, fine. They would have to do it without air conditioning, though. After a few days of Washington In its natural July juices, we can be certain, they would not sit there long. By August the rest of the country would be wallowing in relief from fresh ideas for taxation, ingenious schemes for making life more difficult and pressures on the President to exert more muscle in equatorial climes.

longer would we have to sit in tne parlor on summer evenings watching congressmen scold us from air-conditioned television studios at the Capitol for being a nation of ener U.S. Misunderstood in Greece Getting By the Soviet Censor The U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Malcolm Toon, managed to get on Russian television on the Fourth of July. He had been denied permission to address the people of the Soviet Union in this fashion on the same holiday in 1977. What prevented his appearance on that occasion was a strong endorsement of human rights.

Soviet officials banned him from the airwaves after studying an advance text of his proposed speech. This year Ambassador Toon got the same message across but in a much subtler fashion. His 1977 text had contained this portion: But we recognize, more than those who watch us from afar, that we are not perfect We recognize as well that a man cannot live up to his ideals, however, if he ignores them. Americans will continue to state publicly their belief in human rights 1 and their hope that violations of these rights, wherever they may occur, will end. The version he presented to the Russian people on this years Fourth of July read, in part: Much has changed in the world since that time when British, colonies in North America banded.

together to defend their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But one thing has remained constant: The recognition by the American people that only in conditions of peace and mutual respect can the inhabitants of this globe enjoy the fruits of their labor and develop their full potential. Any Soviet citizen who could read between the lines could see that full potential referred inescapably to the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, another way of saying human rights. The softer phraseology got the message past the censor. Ambassador Toon did what he had to do, he accommodated his wording to the reality of the Soviet absolutist state.

Yet he did not sacrifice meaning or principle in the process. This predicament serves as a timely reminder that the freedom of expression we Americans take so much for granted is a rare quality under the hammer and sickle. Welfare Liens Worthwhile? Although bills which would abolish the practice of placing liens on real estate owned by welfare recipients have been routinely introduced in the state legislature, the first vote on this controversial issue was taken only last month in the House. The measure was defeated. Sponsors plan another try when the lawmakers reconvene in September.

Only Pennsylvania and New York adhere to the policy of imposing liens as a device for gaining part or full repayment of welfare grants. It seems a reasonable method until it is considered that renters on welfare have no similar obligation to pay back the benefits they receive. Experience has shown that the liens also lead to deterioration and sometimes abandonment of properties, causing a new community problem and reducing the states cash return. The practice may be doing more harm than good and ought to be considered in that light. cultivating for years.

On a television program in the United States in 1973 he averred that he had documentary material providing that the CIA had ushered in the generals. Asked to fur- nish that documentary material, he lapsed into vague promises about how one of these days he would do exactly that, putting one in mind, regretfully, of Spiro Agnews promise that one of these days ne would present documents that would establish his innocence. But Papandrepu is a finished demagogue, who nothing at all about such bourgeois questions as the truth, or documentation. Constantin Caramanlis, the prime minister of Greece, on several occasions spoke from the floor of the parliament making a very simple point. If the United States was backing the colonels, how explain that the moment the colonels took over, the United States clapped an embargo on further aid to Greece? The only answer to that observation is that the right hand of the United States often doesnt know what the left hand of the United States is doing, ask Andy Young.

But for most people, that would be a sufficient answer. When Caramanlis was reminded that in due course the United States did send aid to the government run by the colonels, Caramanlis made the obvious answer: There are 10 parliamentary democracies in the world out of 150 countries. Is the United States supposed to suspend relations with 131 countries? As for overthrowing Makarios, it is really quite preposterous to suggest that the United States initiated anything so clearly destabilizing. Makarios even in Greek eyes was something less of the hero his death has made him. Even so, the Cyprus question was asleep, at least fitfully when the whole wretched business happened.

What does one learn from all this? Americans in Greece tell you that there is a fatalistic United States position in these matters. Oh, yes, the Voice of America could step forward with a radio broadcast or two in which these charges were denied over the years. In Greece this is hurting; though not the tourist business. 1978 Washington Star Syndicate ATHENS Myths die hard over here, which is one up for Homer, but at the moment, something of a disadvantage to the United States. The Greeks are absolutely convinced of several things which happen not to be true.

The first is that the United States, through CIA, installed the colonels in 1967. The second is that the United States, also in 1967, intervened to prevent the I Greeks from successful-1 ly pressing their claims I against Turkey in Cyp- rus. Then they believe that the United States overthrew Makarios in 1975, bringing on the chaos that caused the Turks to sieze the grea- ter part of the island. Finally, they believe that the United States easily disposed of the military power to prevent the Turks from acting as they did, but declined to use that power. Now, why do they believe all this? Let us begin with the most preposterous explanation.

It is that in all matters between Greece and Turkey, Henry Kissinger favored Turkey because of a longstanding personal relationship, with the premier, Ecevit, who has been a student of Henry Kissinger back in those old seminars taught at Harvard. The fact of the matter is that the United States is a longstanding client, friend and student of Henry Kissinger, and that all his moves as secretary of State in the Greek-Turkish dispute are clearly explicable in terms of the desire to continue them both as friends of NATO. Congress reacted strongly against Turkey by imposing an embargo in punishment for the use of American arms for aggressive purposes. Kissinger opposed that embargo on the grounds that we stood to lose much more from it and the impoverishment of Turkey as an ally of the West, than from the satisfaction of the Greek lobby in the United States. Kissingers opposition to the embargo is backed by a great many Americans of diplomatic and political eminence who were not teachers of Ecevit at Harvard.

As to putting in the colonels, that is a myth Andreas Papandreou has been 1978 N.Y. Times News Service FI aimer Same Old Gripes Stir Children's Table Talk i Proposition 13 'Not the Answer' City Hall 'Nepotism' Property owners need immediate relief from inequitable assessments. The value of real estate is not an indication of a real estate owner's ability to pay. A widow living on a pension does not necessarily have the ability to pay taxes measured by the beauty of the family property. Real estate assessments do not keep abreast of economic -times.

Values rise and fall and inflation comes and goes but the real estate assessment does not respond to these economic realities. During a period of real estate inflation, new buildings are given greater value, for tax purposes than their equivalent constructed a short time before. New property owners are penalized by paying higher taxes on present assess ments than the older property even though the respective homes could be nearly identical in value. The elderly are being forced from their homes into public housing because of the inequities of assessments, thereby impsoing a further burden on the remaining taxpayers and property owners. proposition 12 or 13 Se- nate Bills 889, 890, 891 and 1271 are not the answer to our problem in the City of Scranton.

We must first equalize the assessments of all proper, ties on the tax rolls land and improvements. Second, we must work towards the Henry George theory equitable site (land) tax. MRS. FRANCIS GROCHOWSKI Scored Editor Times: As a former reserve policeman who never made it to patrolman, I am concerned over the last group of patrolmen hired, particularly Jim Dohertys son and the son of our former mayor, Eugene Peters. I dont know about Mr.

Peters son, but Jim Dohertys son is working full-time as a reserve patrolman without ever taking the 40-hour police schooling requirement which is supposed to be the law before a reserve cop is put to work. What bothers me, is a couple of my close friends, who are now reserve patrolmen and were hired with Peters and Dohertys sons, havent yet worked one hour of pay because they were told they havent completed the 40-hour police school. Why cant the hours be divided evenly among the reserve patrolmen? Many of them are married and need the money too. One week one group coujd work a full week and then laid off for a week while the other group works a full week. This would at least be fair to everybody.

In any case, isnt this hiring of city officials sons a violation of the city nepotism code? Where is the City Council when you need them? -ONE WHO KNOWS (Some things never change, said Columnist Flannery as he decided to rerun one of his columns of a few years ago while on vacation last week. Among the things that never change, he said, is the conversation at his familys dinner table. Editors note.) Following is a typical conversation around the supper table of a family that includes six children, a wife and a newspaper columnist: Whats for supper? Steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. I hate green beans. I dont like gooey mashed potatoes.

I hate steak Why cant we ever have anything good like hot dogs? Yuck, I hate hot I make a peanut butter sandwich? No, youre going to eat whats on the table. How come I get more beans than anyone else? Like heck you do. I got two more than you did. She just put some beans back when she thought no one was looking. Please swallow what you have in your mouth.

May I be excused? Not until you clean your plate. But thats not meat its just fat. Theres more meat there than fat and I want you to eat it because there are kids in the wofld who I know, they are hungry. But its not going to make them feel any better if I eat all that dumb stuff. Eat it or sit there all night What these kids need is a good Depression to make them appreciate good food.

-We forgot to say grace. Great. Well, lets say it now. (Many voices) Bless us, Oh Lord, and these Thy gifts which we about to receive through the bounty of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

No, we should say, which we have received because Im finished. No, youre not Not until you eat all your meat But that's all fat. Im on a diet Do I have to eat my potatoes? Yes, you do. If youre on a diet, give up your dessert. What's for dessert? Nothing fancy.

Just pudding and cookies. I dont like pudding. Well, dont eat it. But thats not fair. Everyone else is getting dessert except me.

I should get something else. You might very well get something else if you keep it up. These beans are cold. They were hot when you got them an hour ago. Boy, does Dad exaggerate.

Were just sitting down here a few minutes. Long enough for your beans to get cold. If you ate them at the start, theyd be warm. But I hate them. 1 This dessert is good.

Something is actually good. I think Im going to faint. Why cant we ever get through one meal without some one spilling a glass of milk? Its all over my pants. May we be excused before we get milk in our laps? Yes. You change those pants.

You get a sponge to clean up the booth. Someone should feed the dog and someone else should do the dishes. Hey. Where did everyone go? Never mind. Let them go.

Its so nice and quiet here. Lets enjoy this moment. Candy, quit looking at me like that Ill feed you now. At least she likes whats on the rnenu. Thoughts for Today Rejoice, young man, in your youtn, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.

But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment EccL 11:9. He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young. Joseph Addison, English essayist Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are Gods." And they were amazed at him. Mark 12:17. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars and unto God the things which are Gods.

One would like to add: Give unto man things which are mans; give man his freedom and personality, his rights and religion.1 Pope Pius XH. which serve not only the citizens of the city or borough in question but all those who live nearby. There is an urgent need for a more equitable sharing of the burden imposed by the growing proportion of tax exempt real estate. Tax exempt properties required for the most part the same Services, protection and in some cases more. As a result, the remaining property owners must bear a proportionately higher tax bill.

We can no longer afford to subsidize these organizations through property tax exemptions. Exempt valuations are increasing faster than the taxable base. There are serious questions regarding the capability to finance adequate services and cope with continuing emerging governmental problems, a handicap plaguing tnany municipalities in their efforts to meet the financial demands placed upon them in having their tax bases, many of which are already inadequate, further eroded by the exemptions of certain types of property from taxation. The state of Pennsylvania does not exempt charitable properties from taxation by constitutional mandate. It leaves the matter (within limits) to the General Assembly.

So the General Assembly can not escape the ultimate responsibility for the situation which now exists. If the legislature wants to exempt certain institutions then why not name them? Should not exemptions be allowed by a state agency and the local jurisdiction reimbursed from state funds? This would cause' and encourage legislative ac tion in clarifying exemption laws. Editor Times: The purpose of government is to serve and be responsive to the changing needs of the people. Our government is not responding or functioning as it should. Our government is not working.

Ougovernment is becoming the master rather than the servant of the people. Senate Bills 889, 890 891 and 1271 Proposition 13 in my opinion are not the answer. However, I am happy the proponents of Proposition 13 roused the public to the inequities. Real estate taxes are the largest single source of revenue of local government. It is therefore critically important, both to the taxpayer and local government, that they be fairly administred.

The rimary concern of the courts as been that property assessments should be made in such a way that every owner of taxable property would pay his proportionate share of the cost of government. We must stop the rhetoric and start in the direction of rectifying the inequities. There is also an urgent need for public education of the assessment process. It is essential to gain the cooperation of the local news media to tell the story, the true story without sensationalism, in terms of rectifying the inequities. A point of which I have very strong convictions is tax exempt properties.

The distribution of exempt property is very uneven. Some areas have considerable exempt property while others have very little. The highest proportion of exempt property is found in cities and the larger boroughs which serve as the economical and cultural capitol of their respective regions, be it hospitals, col-Wes museums, libraries, This Date in the Past July 9, 1948: Dr. Simeon Guterman, professor of history at East Stroudsburg State Teachers' College, will address Young Israel of Scranton Tomorrow. Col.

T. Linus Hooan, tms city, commander of the 109th Infantry Regiment, will be among the guests at the national convention of the Society of the 28th Division, which opens July 15 in Wilkes-Barre. Jacob Eckersley, secretary of Scranton School District, last night confirmed reports that property owners in Scranton may face a boost of 5H mills in their school tax rate for the 1949-50 fiscal year. July 9, 1983: Bernard C. Hogan, Morrestown, N.

former Car-bondale resident, has joined the Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, as vice president in the opera-' tions division. Miss Katherine B. Scbadt, this city, recently observed her 45th anniversary as an agent for New York Life Insurance Co. -Jesse H. Landenberger, Clarks Summit, Lackawanna County farm agent the past 20 years, known for his work in the field of soil conservation, died today.

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