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VENIN U
By Quimby Melton
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And In The Words
of Tiny Tim
Who In Dicken’s
Christmas Carol
Said
“God Bless Us
Everyone!**
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Bombs will stop
during Christmas
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (UPI)
— President Nixon will order a
temporary halt in the bombing
of North Vietnam during a
Christmas cease-fire, adminis
tration officials said today.
But the officials also made it
clear Nixon will continue the
intensive air raids, after a brief
holiday pause, until Hanoi
returns to the peace table with
a “constructive attitude,” and
the prisoners of war are
released.
They said the United States
traditionally has abided by a
holiday truce in Vietnam. Both
North Vietnam and the Viet
Cong have announced a cease
fire for Christinas.
The officials said that North
Vietnam “welched” on an
agreement to release the POWs
within 60 days of a peace
settlement and tried to attach
conditions tying freedom to the
release of some 40,000 political
prisoners held by Saigon. They
said the change in position by
Hanoi’s negotiators led to a
deadlock in the Paris peace
negotiations and were “totally
Everybody benefits
from S.S. increases
WASHINGTON — NEA —
This will give you some idea
what it means to change the
Social Security-Medicare
system in important ways,
as has just been done in two
stages during 1972:
Providing a 20 per cent
across-the-board increase in
cash benefits affected the
whole spectrum of 28.1 mil
lion Social Security benefi
ciaries.
They, and the millions sure
to be added to the rolls in the
years ahead, are also
touched seriously by the
changes which tie future
benefits to rising living costs,
and the maximum tax base
to gains in the general earn
ings level.
When the President on Oct.
30 signed the more compre
hensive 1972 law, it promised
early gains for 3.8 million
widows, 1.7 million disabled
persons who may become
eligible for Medicare though
under 65, 1.6 million persons
who want to go on earning
some money though drawing
retirement benefits, 500,000
who just wish to keep work
ing past 65 and find now they
will get higher benefits when
they do retire, 150,000 low
wage workers whose special
minimum payments under
Social Security can here
after be raised, at least 3.3
million people (needy aged,
blind, disabled) who actually
are welfare beneficiaries but
whose payments will be sim
plified and standardized at
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
unacceptable” to Nixon.
Prisoners “Non-Negotiable”
They said Nixon considers the
prisoners a “non-negotiable
matter,” and insist that he will
not “tolerate the babaric type
of conduct in which the
prisoners are used as a
negotiating ploy.”
They warned that the United
States “presence” in Vietnam
will remain as long as POWs
are held and the missing in
action are not accounted for.
There were indications that
the administration was feeling
the sting of charges by Hanoi
that the U.S. warplanes hit a
POW camp in Hanoi Wednes
day and Thursday. The Penta
gon has branded the charges
“incorrect.”
While the POWs were an
important issue in the negotia
tions, it also was clear that the
refusal of Hanoi to accept the
U.S. position that there are two
Vietnams — rather than one
country—was the main stum
bling block that led to a
breakdown in the negotiations.
Nixon conferred Friday with
better levels under Social
Security management start
ing in 1974.
More than a fourth of the
nation’s working population
of 90-million-plus is affected
by action upping the 1973 So
cial Security tax base (the
amount of yearly earnings
from which payroll taxes
are taken) to SIO,BOO. All
workers and self-employed
will feel the impact of a new
high tax rate of 5.85 per cent.
Now, except for the post
man who may ring daily
and the Internal Revenue
Service whose tax men ex
pect you to file returns either
once a year or quarterly, no
agent of government touches
so many millions so frequent
ly as does Social Security-
Medicare. And nobody, cer
tainly not the tax man,
matches Social Security for
the complexity of its almost
continuous dealings with
such large numbers.
There is a wide consensus
among scholars, govern
ment-watchers, people in
government itself, members
of Congress, and many plain,
ordinary observers that the
Social Security administra
tion generally performs its
endless, varied duties with
the greatest skill of any arm
of government here or any
where on earth.
Obviously, not every citi
zen would agree. This is an
agency with some 54,000 em
ployes, 18,000 in its huge cen
tral core on Baltimore’s out
skirts, the rest scattered
5-Star Weekend Edition
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday, December 23, 1'72
Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Haig
Jr. on his mission to Southeast
Asia for meetings with Presi
dent Nguyen Van Thieu and the
leaders of Cambodia, Laos and
Thailand. Haig brought with
him a reply to Nixon’s personal
message, but Ziegler declined
to disclose the details.
Nixon is reported to have
warned Thieu that Congress
Truman
slips again
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) -
Former President Harry S
Truman, 88, slipped into critical
condition early today when his
heart again began to beat
irregularly.
Wayne Conery, a spokesman
for Kansas City’s Research
Hospital, said that “as of 6:45
a.m. doctors described former
President Harry S Truman as
critical.” Conery said the
reason for the change in
classification of Truman’s con
dition was “mainly because of
his heart condition.”
through 900 district offices
all over the country. Inevit
ably, there are lost files, de
lays, confusion, irritating
confrontations between SSA
workers and some of the
many millions who get help
either from Social Security
or Medicare.
But, at a time when Amer
ican productivity generally
(including mostly industrial)
has gone through a dam
aging period at low ebb, and
specialists are saying gov
ernment is partly to blame
because it just can’t improve
very fast, Social Security has
been leaping upward.
Owning or using the great
est computer complex under
one roof and with improved
manpower utilization, it has
increased its productivity
(efficiency) by 52 per cent
since 1965. With that year as
base, it is today doing two
and a half times as much
work with just one and a half
times as many people.
Indeed, it is just about the
only place on the vast fed
eral government scene
where the eye can detect the
great bureaucratic glacier
moving. It offers impressive
proof that bigness CAN
work.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 60,
low today 45, high yesterday 58,
low yesterday 50; sunrise
tomorrow 7:43, sunset
tomorrow 5:33.
will cut off his military and
economic aid unless he signs an
agreement the United States
finds acceptable.
Christmas
worship
planned
Churches throughout the
Griffin area are expected to be
packed tomorrow as families
gather here to worship the
Christ Child on Christmas eve.
Pastors have prepared
special Christmas messages for
the Holiday season.
Some churches plan special
communion services while
others will include Christmas
singing and seasonal plays as
part of the morning and evening
services.
The shopping areas of Griffin
were packed today as throngs
made last minutes purchases of
gifts.
The community shopping
areas yesterday reported brisk
business throughout the day as
the annual Holiday buying
spree moved to a climax.
Most businesses will be closed
Monday for the Christmas Day
holiday and will resume regular
operations Tuesday.
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FORT ORD, Calif. — Carmen Lopez, 6, seems amazed by
Santa’s flowing hairdo, but her sister, Paula, 3, is more
intrigued by his huge beard. Youngsters were among the
Vol. 100 No. 301
Whalen
was not
overruled
The Georgia Supreme Court
has granted a supersedeas to an
injunction prohibiting the
collection of property taxes in
Fayette County.
There has been confusion as
to what a supersedeas does.
It merely suspends operation
of the order.
Judge Andrew Whalen, Jr.,
had granted a temporary in
junction against the collection
of the taxes and this was ap
pealed to the State Supreme
Court. The court agreed to hear
the appeal and granted the
supersedeas until the hearing.
It did not overrule Judge
Whalen’s order.
Judge Whalen amended the
injunction at the request of
attorneys for both the county
and the taxpayers who had
brought the suit. The amend
ment allows voluntary payment
of taxes with stipulation that if
there are overpayments after
final disposition of the case, the
county will refund them.
The Supreme Court’s order
did not deal with payment of the
taxes by any specific date.
No paper
Monday
The Griffin Daily News will
observe a Christmas Day
holiday Monday and will not
publish on that day.
Regular publication will be
resumed Tuesday.
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Boy, 7, dies
in log mishap
Senoia Police Chief J. O.
Hanners rushed to save the life
of an injured seven-year-old boy
yesterday. He arrived moments
too late.
A shortcut through a down
town pulp wood yard had ended
in death for Michael Bell, as his
unidentified younger brother
looked on.
“The boys had decided to
climb over a pile of logs with
Michael’s leading the way, but
when he got on top, he must
have tripped and brought the
top log down on him,” Chief
Hanners said.
The younger boy’s cries for
help brought Chief Hanners to
the scene, where he found a
guests at Christmas party held by Company “C”, 4th
Battalion, for underprivileged children of nearby areas.
(UPI)
large log across the older boy’s
neck.
“At first, I thought that the
boy was still alive, but when I
got the log off of his neck, I
could tell he was dead,” Chief
Hannes added.
The body was taken im
mediately to Coweta General
Hospital and pronounced dead
on arrival.
The accident victim was the
son of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Bell of
Senoia.
His father is employed by the
.people who are cutting the logs
that are piled in the pulpwood
yard where the young boy was
killed.