European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 i kit the stars and stripes May columns comments George will Kempton finally gets Well deserved pulitzer prize time out the usual business of this column issuing edicts to a world too naughty to obey is today suspended so i can celebrate the prize at Long to columnist Murray the class of our in 1957 a watched Edward Bennett the defend Jimmy and Kempton wrote to watch Williams and then to watch a department of Justice lawyer contend ing with him is to understand the essential superiority of free Enterprise to government the superiority of Kempton to the rest of us is a pleasure to the Man who it is hard for a Man who has enjoyed both the taste of our Beer and the flavor of our politics to say which of these National glories has gone flatter in his has Given contemporary journal ism some of its Thomas Jefferson said All men arc created equal but Jefferson never read an unequalled producer of pearls like this one reason Why the garment unions have so sedulously promoted the slogan that Man cannot live by bread alone May be that they would prefer not to limit judgment of their wealth to their Success at providing bread when in 1958 i came out of the Illinois wilderness to reconnoitre the wary of exotic metropolitan gingerly opened a new York Post and discovered in the 1950s he was writing sentences like this one about an Eisenhower Campaign trip in he walked carefully by the harsher speaking some 20 feet from an Airport drinking Fountain labelled coloured and saying that the condition it rep resented was More amenable to solution by the hearts of men than by and complimenting Florida As typical today of what is Best in a verdict which might seem to some contingent on finding out what happened to veil Start by ukr info mens Mauries to their Home fac its a but some Max has 10 do James Kilpatrick the negro snatched from the Wildwood jail a 75word sinewy and ironic and demand is something newspaper readers rarely and they rarely see he has been hard to Syndicate be cause he has written so much about new York City which Are an acquired he cannot get the hang of having after Willie Mays and Adlai the list of persons enjoying Kemp tons unalloyed approval and the list of approved causes is even it has been said that to his every Man is hence the popularity of to no cause is As pure As every cause considers the difficulty of making Kempton As popular As he deserves to and then there is Kemp tons prose it is part of the and a National Many people now flinch from a prose More elaborate than that spoken on but the Eye is Superior to the ear As a recipient of in part because a Reader can some Kempton sen climbing a winding path up a pillar of must be read twice to be properly but Why complain about a second sip of Vintage Claret Kempton is a direct descendant of George author of the Virginia Bill of a nicer piece of work than that of Kemp tons who wrote the fugitive slave act of 1850 and later was Confederate ambassador to born in Mencken Baltimore in the year this re Public tumbled into modern and he has cast a cold Eye on the modern history being made around there May be a better Book on the 1930s than Kemp tons part of our but i doubt in it he wrote of ideological writers on the left it seems to me to have been one of the tragedies of the thirties that so Many people substituted an exterior for an Interior and nowhere is this pro Cess More damaging than to one reason Kemp tons columns Rise to the rank of literature is that although he knows that news is necessarily about the surface of also wants to Tell the stories of persons who Are not All and wants to save the Republic from those who one reason i became a columnist is Long before i i had in my minds Eye a role that is a phrase sometimes used by people too embarrassed to use the word i am not i know How Good a Journeyman Pitcher in the mid1960s must have Felt just knowing that Sandy Koufax was a Pitcher and a it is deeply satisfying to be Able to say i am in a Craft adorned by Murray c Washington Post writers group Amtrak is at the end of fhe Fine the future of Amtrak is not one of those cosmic in a class with Star wars and social on which the Fate of nations and politicians May relatively the Cost of maintaining passenger rail service is Small even the debate Over Amtrak offers a Fine example of the prob lems that Congress must face in cutting our Federal on april an array of impressive wit Nesses appeared before a Senate commit All but one of budget director David pleaded Amtrak let me try to sum up both these Are among the arguments advanced by Amtrak proponents All forms of commercial transportation Are federally subsidized in some the president has said that the taxpayers have to Jungle up a subsidy of for every Amtrak ticket that is but if the Cost of maintaining airports and air traffic controllers were similarly App or the per passenger subsidy for am Trak would not be out of Amtrak trains serve at least 29 communities that have no outlets by bus or Amtrak trains serve 19 million passengers a including a Day Between Washington and new chaotic conditions would be created in the whole Northeast corridor if Amtrak is still to let Amtrak go into bankruptcy would be to toss billion in rolling Stock onto a cessation would trigger enormous running into the to cover contracts with the rail the savings claimed by the office of management and budget would be More than offset by these Liabis Amer ass ratio of revenues to costs is while passenger service never can be wholly the Mere existence of passenger cars could have great value if the nation again had to move great numbers of troops within the United to these arguments Stockman responds the overarching Issue has to do with reducing the Federal deficit As a that need is so urgent that Only the most necessary governmental outlays should be Amtrak is not Nee in a budget that must be pared Back it ranks near the Bottom of the program priority As for subsidies to other commercial car at least bus and air travellers pay special taxes rail passengers pay Amtrak agreement with the rail unions an agreement imposed by labor Secretary James Hodgson 13 years ago that if Amtrak goes every worker with at least six years seniority must receive full pay for six but this contingent liability is not the governments billion liability it is Amtrak billion in any Amtrak is not without scalable Canada might buy some of the rolling in our total transportation am Traks role is on a Given air ports in Atlanta and Chicago each will Board As Many passengers As the entire Amtrak system Only 14 of Amtrak 500 stations Board More than 500 passengers a average daily boardings number Only 39 in five in 87 in 69 in Cincinnati and 59 in these passengers Are carried at exorbitant Cost to the taxpayers if such expenses As interest and depreciation were properly in the per ticket subsidy would not be it would be closer to the time has after 12 years of losses and billion in to give c 1985 Universal press Syndicate