European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 02, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes William Safire thursday june 2, 1977 old Soldi Aas re even die inflation rushes Back twice its former size two years ago when the inflation rate roared above 12 per cent fear of financial disaster for tens of millions of fam Ilies enabled a conservative president to restrain congressional year thanks to that Dow hold on budget items and a spate of vetoes. Presi Dent Ford could proudly claim that inflation had been Cut by half Down to 5 percent. This year thanks largely to preside Tcarter s attempts to get along with demo columns comments uralic party leaders inflation has returned with a vengeance consumer Price inflation has doubled Hoover 10 per cent. White House aides explain this away with a mild shrug and a boy did we Ever have a cold Winter worse wholesale prices have risen in the past six months by about 10 per cent double the rate during most of 1976, which Means that the upward pressure on con Sumer prices is Likely to the president aware of the serious Ness of today s double digit inflation i anyone knows the origin of that phrase please Send it in evidently nut until six weeks ago he was plumping hard his inflationary tax rebate in the mistaken notion that the Economy needed stimulus and not last week he confidently told the editors of . News that the rate of inflation will not be nearly that High 10 per cent in the latter part of this to worry says the president to All those living on fixed incomes. Fortunately while Carter fiddles. Bums roams the Federal Reserve has of late been tighten ing Money. Banks have begun to raise in Terest rates. And the Stock Market has declined. From its Peak above 1000, the Dow Jones average has just drifted below900, its lowest in 16 months. The daily auction that is the nation s Stock Market is better reflector of Confidence than any poll and the Sloppy Carter Market i sending its message to All who will hear recession causing inflation is already Withus. And the president does not Sec the Jimmy Carter press Forward with his inflationary Energy proposals an make work Job programs or will he con front the democrats in Congress by veto ing budget busting Bills restraining inflation by restraining spending me tune in again next month. By. The right of the palestinians Mohave a he was wrong Al though the Arab dominated general As Sembly has passed resolutions galore condemning the israelis the Security Council where the . Votes has never said any such thing about homelands or withdrawal to 1967 lines. This was no slip of the lip. Since the president tied it to israeli acceptance of Security Council resolutions As a basis for negotiations. Carter s entire argument was based on a wrong Assumption a White House aides later grudgingly con ceded. The problem is that preside Tcarter is willing to and lib freely about negotiations he does not yet t somebody take him aside and explain that ignorance is no excuse and that the too Active . Middleman role gives the arabs who do not want to negotiate directly with Israel a Victory before the negotiations begin in the reams of coverage of the Nixon Frost debates nobody noticed the most poignant and revealing note of All the former president no longer wears that Little american Flag in his Lapel. George on a Hill overlooking the Bay under the sort of slightly overcast sky that people consider i clemency the University of Sandiego recently conferred upon me the commencement speaker s privilege of dispensing advice to a captive audience. I was tempted to lecture sternly about shoes. Academic gowns focus attention on the shoes that protrude beneath and i tremble for my country when i see sneakers an Semi platform shoes worn to commence ments by the rising generation. Fortunately the other end of the student matters More. And this Small University is properly proportioned to function so students Here have their minds Well tended. Having turned 36, i am entitled to lec Ture the Young i am More than Halfway through my allotted three score and to years and am on life s downward slope. It is traditional to pour upon graduate syrupy talk about the future belonging to them. But it is better to be Able to offer congratulations because the past be Longs to them. A teacher of mine was fond of saying tone i want to make philosophy Genius proof not it was painfully obvious to both of us that i would be no Obsta o4t1uc. T1 godspeed of departing students Csc to the Genius proofing of anything. Buthis Point was this the world has suffered much from the Bright ideas of Cleve people who Are so uninformed about the past that they do not know that they Are addressing old. Wrong questions in old. Wrong , undergraduates have employment on their minds. But the should be protected from the acquisition of merely useful would be a melancholy ceremony if those graduating had devote four years to looking ahead nervously to the next four decades of Necess Itous employment in the workaday world. Rather education should be primarily an Inocula Tion against the disease of our time Winch is disdain for times lamented that College Educa Tion often was a ship made of Rotten Timber or Rotten honeycombed tradition Al Timber without so much As an Inch of new Plank in the but education should produce people Laden with traditional Timber not brimming with new ideas. After All most new knowledge i false. As Princeton s president Woodrow Wilson wrote often and Well about the uni Yale president Kingman brew Stor newly appointed ambassador to Brit Ain bade Farewell to his charges last Weekin a baccalaureate address which included this line i am about to enter a profession whose Public utterances As someone said Are somewhere Between a cliche and because he was too Lazy to do his Homework the new ambassador flubbed the dub. The someone he could t be bothered to credit was Harold Macmillan. Former British prime minister and the Correct statement in april 1956 made about the Post of foreign Secretary was he is forever poised Between cliche and an to bring that up to Date Carter ambassadors Are poised Between a mis quotation and a disavowal. The president blundered last wee when he said resolutions coming from the Security Council spelled out very Clear a Cisily As society s seat an Organ of recollection the transmission of the Best traditions regarded education As a conserving enter prise a Way of making Young people Artif Dally old by steeping them in seek to set them securely for at the Point at which the mind of the has definitely arrived and save them the trouble of attempting the journey again Wilson said. We Are in danger of losing Ourand becoming infantile in every _ lion. We stand dismayed to find ourself growing no older always As Young As i information of our most numerous voter the past is discredited among the envy cause they played no part in choosing people think that such reverence for tradition violates the spirit of Demoncy. Which they think involves nothing to deference to opinions of the Molt i Ous voters. G. K Chesterton knew t tradition is Only democracy l through time. Tradition May be defined i an Extension of the franchise. Traditi Means giving votes to the most obscure Al All classes our ancestors. It is the Tracy of the dead. Tradition submit to the Small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be a about. All democrats object to men disqualified by the Accident of birth ution objects to their being disqualified ithe Accident of death. Democracy tells i not to neglect a Good Man s opinion even iks Ghe is our the class of 77 should live with Jas Crick in its neck figuratively speaking cock in its neck from looking Backman if that May not be a heroic posture but to Tel prudent. And it is the duty of conservator like me to affirm Homey Virtues like Denom at menu Attu tent a t pm i tent i to. Indence at movable feasts like Coralene ments. " so wherever they Are heading i graduates godspeed or such Speed of prudent while looking backward. Try Ooi Mont Iet pro Tot we Max a
