Newspaper Page Text
Economy
Heller thinks Ford’s
economic views narrow
WASHINGTON (UPI) —
Economist Walter W. Heller
looked across the massive table
and told the President his
economic ideas were narrow,
old fashioned, perhaps naive.
Around the table, 48 others
looked on. Television cameras
caught the scene, photogra
phers took pictures, reporters
took notes.
Heller said President Ford
was looking only at inflation —
“Public Enemy No. 1” —and
not at the simultaneous ache of
economic stagnation.
The government would have
to do more than simply cut its
budget and tighten its belt, he
said. “We can’t let inflation fill
the whole field of our vision.”
He looked Ford in the eye.
“This may go against your
free market grain, Mr. Presi
dent,” he said, and continued
the lecture —the Wage-Price
Stabilization Council “needs
clout,” Ford must use "the club
in the closet” to control
business and labor appetites.
Ford could not let the budget
bear the entire burden of
coping with an inflation caused
by other factors —food shor
tages, an oil cartel, and two
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devaluations of the dollar.
Ford should cut payroll taxes
for workers, tax auto horsepow
er to save gasoline, increase
taxes on the rich, Heller said.
“If we just declare a total
war on inflation without taking
care of the casualties, we’re
going to feel a backlash,” he
said.
He said as a Democrat he
was almost reluctant to give
such advice —it would elect
Ford in 1976. If Ford ignores
the advice, he said, the
economists would be called
back next year “for the second
annual economic conference. ”
Ford listened without com
ment, and without flinching. He
called on George P. Shultz,
former treasury secretary.
Shultz disagreed with most of
what Heller had said.
He offered another prescrip
tion. “I’m distressed to see the
wage-price controls head stick
up again,” he said. “I thought
we learned that lesson.”
Before Washington starts
telling businessmen when they
cannot raise prices and workers
when to forego raises, he said
perhaps it should confer with
businessmen and workers.
There was no anger in the
moment, no tension. It was a
frank, open disagreement over
what course the government
should take to cope with the
worst peacetime rate of infla
tion in U.S. history.
Ford showed no impatience
with the conflicting advice,
promising to read the tran
script of that part of the
discussions he missed in the
daylong meeting in the East
Room.
It was a White House scene
the nation never had seen
before. If aides disagree with
the chief executive, they do so
privately. Here were advisers
openly, bluntly talking to a
President’ disagreeing among
themselves.
The clash of ideas occurred
at the first of 12 presummit
meetings to be held here and in
seven other cities over the next
three weeks, climaxing Sept.
27-28 at the national summit
conference on inflation.
Businessmen, farm leaders,
homebuilders, bankers are to
attend the future sessions. This
one was for economists.
Ford said he wanted results,
not just talk. “What we want
are some right answers,” he
said. “We can’t waste time
stating and restating the
problems. The problems are
obvious, painful and perplex
ing."
If the economists succeed, he
said, “I can promise you there
will be statues of each of you in
every city park.
“Economics will never again
be called a dismal science, nor
will politicians, if we succeed,
ever dare again to hide behind
the old alibi that the people just
don’t understand economics.
“The people understand eco
nomics very well and
they are sick and tired of
having politics played with
their pocketbooks.”
In their long day of debate
that followed, the economists
reached some agreement more
so on the outlook than on
solutions.
They generally agreed that
the double-digit inflation rate is
likely to decline next year but
not by much, perhaps to a high,
single digit rate —7, 8 or 9 per
cent —but only at a price of
continued national doldrums.
Unemployment, now 5.2 per
cent, they said, would creep
upward to more than 6 per
cent. That could mean nearly a
million more people out of work
this time next year.
As for solutions, little
agreement. Conservatives
stayed with their answers,
liberals with theirs. Conserva
tive Milton Friedman of the
University of Chicago argued
for less government interven
tion in the economy.
“The American citizen is not
getting his money’s worth for
the roughly 40 per cent of his
money that is being spent for
him by state, local and federal
governments,” he told Ford.
Arthur Okun of the Brookings
Institution summarized the
meeting for Ford. Most of those
present agreed the Federal
Reserve Board —whose chair
man, Arthur Bums, skipped
most of the day’s debate —
should ease up on money
controls, allowing banks to lend
more, allowing interest rates to
fall, so as to get the home
building industry out of its
depression.
Some felt banks should be
compelled to lend a portion of
their funds to home buyers,
even if they could earn more by
lending elsewhere.
As for cutting the federal
budget, Okun summarized, the
group mostly doubted Ford’s
projected $5.5 million cut would
achieve much.
The stress was “on discipline,
realism, long-range control” of
the budget, and away from
“accounting gimmicks” which
claim nonexistent savings.
Inflation must be attacked on
all fronts simultanousely, Okun
said.
But at the same time,
“painkillers” were needed for
its worst victims —beefed up
welfare and food stamps
programs, longer unemploy
ment benefits, the creation of
maybe 800,000 jobs for local
government paying $5,000 a
year for those thrown out of
work as the number of new
workers increases and the
number of jobs stays stagnant.
Okun said there was wide
agreement that the government
“unwittingly” created inflation.
It raises costs. Quotas keep
low-price steel and cheese out
of the market. Freight regula
tions prohibit price competition,
adding to high shipping costs.
Agriculture marketing orders
keep some perfectly good
Arizona .oranges out of the
market, boosting the price of
oranges needlessly and ar
tifically, Shultz complaine.
Okun said the group agreed
the government could help
industry expand, boosting out
put and thus lowering prices.
Some of the economists
proposed tax laws to encourage
investment.
Antitrust enforcement could
spur greater competition. Hen
drik Houthakker of Harvard,
former Nixon administration
economist, suggested breaking
up the Big Three auto
companies to create more
competiton.
He also urged election cam
paign reform to make members
of Congress less dependent on
contributions from industries
which then come looking for
subsidies or protection.
Okun said the consensus saw
a threat that workers would see
their buying power diminish
and demand big, inflationary
“catch up” raises.
The AFL-ClO’s Nat Goldfin
ger said today’s wage earner
had the same buying power he
had in 1965, “nine long years
ago.”
But with unemployment ri
sing, opportunities to win wage
increases will vanish, frustrat
ing workers, Okun said.
One solution that was ad
vanced called for striking a
bargain with labor: if workers
would forego big wage sett
lements, the government in
turn would cut payroll taxes for
those earning under $15,000
(making up the lost revenue
with a tax hike for those over
$15,000).
Shultz, who served the Nixon
administration for more than
five years, told Ford the
country liked its new President.
“Out there, I get the sense
that you trust the country,” he
said. “I think the feeling is
reciprocated.”
Heller said he liked the new
mood, too. “It’s refreshing to
be in a White House that’s once
again open to a little laughter,
a little dissent, and open to the
unvarnished, unpleasant facts
about the recession we’re in.”
Who’s At Bat?
Bat Masterson, Indian
sigher, scout, gambler and
U.S. marshall in western
frontier towns of the late 19th
century, spent his last 20
years as a sports writer for
the New York Morning Tele
graph. He died in 1921 and
was buried in Woodlawn
Cemetery, The Bronx.
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Participating in groundbreaking ceremonies to signal the
start of construction on an SBO,OOO gym at Griffin
Academy were (1-r) Russ Spangler, Frank Harris, S. W.
Lee, contractor, Betty Gaissert, Taylor Manley, Dumas
Town gets a doctor
SILVERTON, Tex. (UPI) -
Jack Robertson’s S3O advertis
ing campaign has paid off and
the town may get the doctor it
needs.
For S3O, Robertson printed a
stack of red, white and blue
bumper stickers which said,
“We need a doctor —Silverton,
Texas.”
The town doctor broadened
his work load early this year
and in April set up practice
several hundred miles away,
leaving the 1,000 residents of
the town and 3,000 residents of
Briscoe County unprotected.
“There isn’t a person who
leaves town now, on vacation or
to go see some relatives, who
doesn’t have one of these
stickers on his car,” Robertson
said.
“They’re seen all over the
country. How else are we going
to advertise across the nation?
Pretty soon the right guy is
going to hear about it.”
Indirectly, the campaign wor
ked. United Press International
carried a story on the bumper
stickers Aug. 1. One of the
newspapers that published it
was in Houston, some 600 miles
away.
“A young doctor read your
story in the Houston paper and
sat right down and wrote me a
letter,” Robertson said.
“He addressed it just like the
story said: ‘Jack Robertson,
Jack’s Pharmacy, downtown
Silverton,’ and the letter came
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Page 5
Groundbreaking
right to me.
“I wrote him back and then
we took up a collection to fly
him and his wife up here to
look over the town. He liked it
and he’s going to go to work
here when he passes his
ECFMG examination.”
That’s the Educational Coun
cil for Foreign Medical Gradu
ates examination, a
requirement for practicing in
the state.
“If he makes it through that
examination —and we’ll know
next month —we have our
selves a new doctor, and maybe
two because he’s got a buddy
and they are considering
practicing together,” Robertson
said.
The 34-year-old doctor is from
the Philippines.
“His wife is a registered
nurse, and they both want to
live in a small rural com
munity, ' which we are,” the
druggist said.
“We all felt that if we hired
this man, we would have a
doctor we have a chance to
keep, as opposed to someone
who would move away in a few
years. American doctors don’t
seem to be too satisfied with
small towns.
“So, I’m not going to call his
name. For instance, I had a
call from a man over in Denver
City, and he wanted me to send
him my leftovers. That’s why I
want to protect his name and
where he’s at. There’s too
— Griffin Daily News Friday, September 6,1974
Ponder, Doug Bell, Dr. Ralph Hajosy, Bob Forio, Walter
Welch and Laverne Hinson. Construction is expected to be
completed by December.
many people that would try to
shoot me out of the saddle.”
The town completed a $76,000
clinic at about the time the
former doctor left.
It can accomodate two
doctors and has a waiting
room, two consultation rooms,
four examining rooms, a
laboratory, an emergency
Sobhi and Jeri Sue Malek
are Assemblies of God
missionaries on their way to
North Africa. Sobhi was born
in Egypt and Arabic is his
mother tongue, but he also
speaks English and French
fluently. Jeri Sue, his wife,
was born and brought up in
the United States and also
speaks French fluently.
After 10 years as a
pharmacist, Dr. Malek knew
definitely that the Lord
wanted him in full-time
ministry and missionary
service. Following Bible school preparation, he and his
wife had the privilege of serving as teachers and resident
faculty for three years at Continental Bible College in
Brussels, Belgium.
Hear the personal testimony of the Maleks on September
5,6 and Bat 7:30 P.M. at the
First Assembly of God Church
; 1411 Atlanta Road
; W. Thurman Fountain is pastor
room. X-ray room and dark
room and various restrooms
and closets.
“We haven’t bought the
equipment for it yet, but we
have the money set aside,”
Robertson said. “We’re waiting
for the doctor to move down
here and tell us what he needs.
That’s not such a bad proposi
tion, is it?”
/ r
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