Milford chronicle., 1962-04-20

DEPENDS UPON OUR SPIRIT


The permanent and profitable develop
ment of any community, including Milford
depends upon the spirit of its citizens and
the utilization Of local resources of money
materials and intelligence.
Contrary to much present. day thought,
our development does not depend upon the
amount of state money spent IN our vicinity
or the amount of Federal cash that can be
sucked in. These funds may provide squirt,
but in their acceptance involves surrender
of local spirit, the final plight of the munici-
pality may be worse than before the money
arrived. We are not saying that we should
forego all of the advantages that come from
outside sources. We suggest, however, that
very often, the time and energy expended in
seeking outside aid could effect substantial
development. Moreover, a city or town
grows through the initiative and ability of
it's people and no temporary advantage is
worth sacrificing these attributes.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING CRISIS
And now the Administration wants S57
billion to meet what it calls our public school
systems "crisis.'
AS an old hand at juggling crises 0ind-
ing typographical errors, selling ads, meet
ing headlines, getting out this newspaper and
supporting the "givernmento, we sort Of
sympathized with the Federal aid to edu-
cation idea until we looked around for this
crisis.
Couldn't find it. This is what we did
find:
President Kennedy claimed that a total
of 100000 clasSrooms must be constructed
during this decade"
But he overlooked the fact that at the
current rate of classroom construction,
States and localities will have built almost
100000 classrooms in that time-without
government aid.
Further, the President said that unless
States and localities get Federal assistance
for teacher pay increases, then we cannot
hope to succeed in our efforts to improve
the quality of our children's instruction and
to meet the need for more teachers"
But since the turn of the century pupil
teacher ratios have been cut from 356 pu-
pills -per-teacher to 24.4. In the past 80 years,
employment in public education has increas-
ed by 140 per cent as compared to 45 per
cent in private industry. Teachers have re-
ceived salary increases Tin constant dollars)
of 106 per cent over the same period, as
compared with a 81 per cent for all other
persons receiving wages or salaries And IN
the past five years, teachers salaries have
increased by some $1,250 per year.
Crisis?
Guess we'd better turn this one over to
Perry Mason
MORE ABOUT THIS LAND OF OURS
Whatever happened to the tried and true
economic laws of supply and demand?
A great many people in this fair country
of ours would like to see those laws reap
piled to solving the problems of what we all
recognize as THE LAND. To that end, one
organization, the National Association of
Manufacturers, is commanding attention for
its published stand, to wit:
THE nations agricultural problems can
best be solved through the operation of the
free market-and not through Federal con-
trolls and SUBSIDIES
The NAM is not seeking to win the top
popularity award on how to win friends and
influence farmers But it is urging the
government to spend more time advising
the farmer on how to gain a decent liveli-
hood within the framework of free enter
priSe-rather than have Uncle Sam try to
guarantee him income through control and
subsidies.
The various steps advocated by the NAM
on how to keep 'em happy down on the farm
without subsidies is now on the desks of
Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman and
members of the Agriculture Committees of
the Senate and House.
We trust this statement gets repeat
reading:
''The effort to erect an economic umbrel-
la over all users of rural land to protect
them from economic forces is no more justi-
fable than law to protect all users of ur-
ban land from economic forces.
''The most efficient use of our resources
can come about through competition and
the operation of the economic laws of sup
ply and demand"
<Ng0|
NIXON'S RACE
Former Vice President Richard Nixon
is in what most observers now agree is a
real hOrCa 90 of hat