European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 stars and stripes sunday february 1986 Anthony Lewis squalor of America s underclass threatens us All open your eyes in the United suites the richest of countries and you know that its Well being is menaced by a profound socioeconomic problem. In the midst of opulence the country has an underclass poor rootless desperate. In America As everywhere we who arc comfortable tend to screen out the unwelcome reality of poverty. But it is never far away. The homeless huddle on fifth ave nue Corners. Drive to Laguardia Airport through the streets or Harlem and look at the abandoned buildings and abandoned human beings. One american in seven lives below the official poverty line. That is 33 million people. The rate is far higher for children. One american child in five is in a poor family. Younger children Are still worse off almost a Quarter of those under 6 live in poverty. We have recently been Given a stunning insight into an important segment of the american underclass Young Black women and their children living without a husband father. Bill Mayers opened our eyes with his lbs documentary the vanishing family crisis in Black  More than half the Black Chil Dren born in the United states Are born out of Wedlock. Like any statistic however shocking that is an abstraction that soon loses its hold on our imagination. Moyers brought it to life by showing us the human beings involved. What hit me hardest in the documentary was the sense of the possible in those Young women. They were paying dearly in stunted lives for their teen age pregnancies. But they had not Given up. They were articulate. They saw their mistakes. They wanted to learn. They wanted to work. How can the Cycle of children having children be broken  confronted by the dimensions of the problem can believe that there is a perfect solution in a set of government programs. Indeed one of the striking things about the reaction to Moy ers program has been the emphasis of Black leaders on the need to change values among teen agers in the ghetto communities. Jesse Jackson talks of morals. The Rev Charles Stith a Boston minister who Heads the organization for a new Equality an economic regeneration group lays the underclass must be led to adopt the Vir James j. Kilpatrick tucs and values of the industriousness that makes one  if there is no magic solution in govern ment if we must look to psychological change government policy is still highly relevant. It sets the framework of incentives. Taxes for example. Government tax policy in recent years has in fact hit hard at the a jump from 4 percent of income t 110 percent. Wasa than 1 the Rich have become Richer the poor poorer. The Center on budget and policy priorities a private Washington research group says that among income groups Only the richest fifth of americans gained in after tax income Between 1980 and 1983, when the big Reagan tax Cut took place. The top fifth of households gained an average of ,480 after taxes. The poorest fifth on average lost $190. The figures show the urgent need for tax Reform. But the importance of Federal policy goes beyond that. Only government can make the commitment needed to include those who have historically been excluded  economic mainstream of american society. Charles Stith puts it it s not enough to change attitudes to teach people to strive you have to see that there is something for them to strive  jobs Are the key jobs that for reasons of race and history have been beyond the Hope of some americans even putting conscious racism aside we All know that most people Are hired through informal networks. So patterns of employment tend to persist unless there is a social commit Rij men to bring new groups in. But what is happening in the Federal government now attorney general Meese is fighting to destroy tl., modest Long existing Effort to bring excluded Blacks into the economic mainstream. The message is we Don t care. President Reagan s budget makes his message Clear. Even the pro. Grams that demonstrably work to uplift the. Poor to make them healthier and give them Hope must be sacrificed so we can build More weapons. Defense spending u going from 23.2pcrcent of the budget in 1981 to a projected 32.6 percent in 1991. But National Security is also threatened by a growing underclass. C new York .1 courts should t be clogged with frivolous suits i wrote a column recently about frivolous Law suits. My observations were touched off by an order of the supreme court in a Case involving attorney John Hyde of Hammond ind. In my column i made two errors of fact. The Case began in 1981 when Victor Lepucki an employee of Inland steel filed a form claiming com plete exemption from withholding of Federal income taxes. The company sent the form to the internal reve nue service and the irs bounced it Back with an order to proceed with the withholding. At about the same time Kenneth Pazdur an employee of Blaw Knox foundry & Mill machinery also challenged Federal authority. Both Lepucki and Pazdur retained Hyde to represent them. The cases wound up in the . District court for the Northern District of Indiana. Hyde sued not Only the companies but also an Inland paymaster an agent of the irs and Secretary of the Treasury Donald Regan. He argued that this nation s monetary and income tax system Are an outrageous fraud upon the  Hyde s principal Contention was that Federal Reserve notes Are not dollars in the constitutional sense. Such notes May be Money but they Are not dollars and cannot be made Legal tender for the payment of  Only Gold and Silver Are truly Legal tender. I said in my column that Hyde regarded the 18th Century Spanish Gold Doubloon As a Standard of value for the founding fathers. This was in error. Hyde s conviction is that the framers of the Constitution had in mind the Spanish milled Dollar of 1786, a Coin con Taining 371.2s grains of Tine Silver. Both  court and the seventh . Circuit dismissed Hyde s contentions out of hand. Hyde was ordered to pay $500 in damages to each company but then sought an Appeal to the supreme court on the grounds that the judgment is for dollars and there Are no lawful dollars now in circulation so that it is not possible for me to comply with the order of the  the supreme court refused to accept this line of reasoning. I said in my column that the High court imposed a Fine of ,000 on Hyde. This was wrong. The court affirmed the award of $1,000 in damages under Rule 49.2, which covers frivolous petitions for review. In his petition to the supreme court Hyde argued earnestly and with Manifest sincerity that questions of constitutional Law must forever be kept open to judicial review. In theory this May be quite True. Hyde s Basic argument is plausible if we believe As Many scholars and jurists do that the Constitution should be interpreted in terms of the intention of the framers what interpretation should we put on the word dollars Hyde argues that the word should mean today whatever a Dollar meant to the people who inserted it into the  yet there comes a time when some questions have to be regarded As absolutely settled and the question of Legal tender has been settled for More than a Hundred years. We might As usefully go to court on the Issue of secession. Were the reconstitution amendments validly ratified citing the doctrines of equal Protection an ingenious litigant might Challenge the system by which even the smallest state has two members of the Senate our overburdened courts simply do not have the time to waste on such litigation. Chief Justice Burger Dweller on this Point in his year end review. He noted that in the past two Yean lower Federal courts have approved nearly a Hundred requests for punitive sanctions. The development he said is Long overdue. No one wishes to suppress hard fought advocacy but a line needs to be drawn Between. Fair blows and fouls zealous representation is our Ideal not dilatory or abusive gamesmanship he wrote. I m sorry i said Hyde was  he was so fined. He was ordered to pay damages for bringing patently frivolous litigation. Such sanctions arc sound in principle. Our courts have better things to do than in Ponder the Spanish milled Dollar of 1786. C Una virus Preu Syndicate