European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Through a spokesman John a cipher or. That in was Iho ranch s Genera policy nor to cooperate on articles in pub ical ens. Or films in i he no cml interest Media " but a to ugh picture at the  s Silva lion was pieced together from former Ami conent employees and outsiders Intihar Wilh is operations As Well As court and Las records the picture is one of a deeply divided intensely private family Enterprise coping with the hard times brought on by depressed cattle crop and Oil prices and by obligations to buy out dissident family members the company is privately held and therefore docs not have 0 disclose profits or losses but indirect indicators give a glimpse of the troubles according to a 1904 publication of the kegs Villa chamber of Commerce the ranch then employed 700 people today it has 300. King ranch Oil and Gas inc. Inc Energy subsidiary saw the taxable value of ils Oil and Gas leases in Kleberg county drop from $67 6 million in 1983 to $40.3 million in 19b6, Overall royales from King Energy operations All Over the Southwest which once exceeded $100 million a year Are believed to have been Cut to a third of thai. While these royalties now go mostly to Amily stockholders directly and not to the ranch the severely reduced Oil income has put intense pressure on the management to Shore up chronically unprofitable cattle and arming operations still the King ranch which covers our Large parcels of land looks very prosperous. Visitors see fat Santa Gertrudi Seattle grazing and cowboys breaking Broncos in the corrals the ruling family s tiered Mediterranean style main House at the Headquarters looms Tike a Palace Over the kingdom. The ranch raises Callao registered Quarter horses and crops such As sorghum Collon and wheat and runs a 15.000-head feedlot and wide foreign operations. The ranch is run by a quartet of family elders Clement Armstrong Stephen Tio Kleberg and . Yarborough who runs the Oil company in Midland Tex. This  Eien is viewed with ambivalence Here at once admired As hard working and generous to local schools hospitals and Parks but resented As excessively private and protective of its land it has disputed with state and Federal governments the right to build highways across ils preserves because they opened up ils kingdom it patrols its fences guards ils Gates regulates All who enter upon ils sacred private grounds writes . Fehribach. The historian in his Book seven keys to Texas. To is a Myslic and mysterious Empire while Al the same time a worldwide business Enterprise. Vet it is and has usually been a Good neighbor giving much and asking Only that it be left  the ranch has been by felled by turmoil in the dozen years since Robert j. Kleberg or. Uncle Bob died after ruling with an Iron hand for More than halt a Century. Two of the largest shareholders. Robert Shelton and his half brother Belton Kleberg Johnson soon became disa flecked and had to be bought out at great Cost and with ensuing lawsuits. The ranch sold off its branches in Pennsylvania and other slates pulled out of Venezuela Spain and Argentina and greatly Cut Back its holdings in Australia. The management is particularly quiet about its foray into shrimp Acqua culture. Last year its first year of operation there were two major die offs and the ranch Tost Hall the shrimp crop. The Hope was that the ranch s thousands of swampy but useless acres along Baffin Bay would be Ideal Lor cultivating shrimp in Ponds. Some family members have told friends that the pos larval shrimp they purchased irom Texas asm University were genetically defective. There have also been problems Wilh the ranch s most famed commodity the Santa Gertrudis Breed it developed the Reddish Breed has problems with Fertility and weight gain and has not been favored by commercial ranchers. The ranch is trying Cross Breeding so Hereford and simmental bulls and is using artificial insemination to boost Fertility h is also trying to mount a branded beef program much the Way Perdue and Holly farms Market chickens but this involves a costly investment in slaughterhouses and National marketing in addition. The ranch is considering in the face of deep opposition irom traditional minded family members opening is land to commercial development the Gap widens g  living Bellow the poverty tevet. In percent 1 40� 1973 1986 poverty rate dips As median family income in . Rises by Robert Pear new York times he proportion of americans living in poverty dropped a Bil last year to 13,6 percent the lowest level since president Reagan took office while median family income grew faster than inflation. The report by the census Bureau demonstrated that sustained non inflationary growth is the government s single Beal tool for fighting poverty and building a better life or our nation s families said the president. But a census Bureau official. Gordon w. Green jr., acknowledged that there has been an increase in income inequality in the United Stales during the last decade and a  Green who is assistant chief of the Bureau s population division held that the increase in inequality was not very targe in View of the enormous demographic social and economic changes in the same period. There has been an increase in households headed by women which lend to have relatively Low incomes and a simultaneous increase in two earner married couples which tend to have higher incomes Green said an interview. In addition since 1970. Large numbers of people irom the baby Boom generation have entered the labor Force and they often Start off in relatively Low paying  Green s acknowledgement thai inequality is greater represents the first such statement by a census Bureau official on an Issue Wilh vast political implications. The administration has emphatically denied thai its policies contributed to any increase in the inequality of incomes but democrats insisted they did. The National poverty rate was higher in 1986 than in any year trom 1969 through 1986 than in any year from 1969 through 1980. The Rale reached a Peak of 15.2 percent in 19b3, just after the task recession and has declined each year since then. The rate last year was four tenths of a percentage Point lower than in either 1985 or 1981. The poverty rate is the proportion of the population  below the government s official poverty level which i adjusted each year to Lake account of inflation in 1986. Alam Lyol four was classified As poor in it had Cash income of less lhan$11.203. The total number of poor people in the United states declined io324 million last year from 33.1 Millen in 1985, the Bureau reported the median income Lor families Rose a 2 percent in 1986. After adjust log for increases in consumer prices the Bureau said this was the fourth consecutive annual increase in real family income and one of the largest gains in 15 years. After and using for in Lalion. The Bureau said median family income Rose 10.7 percent from 1982 to 1986 this is the longest period of sustained income growth that we have had since the Halcyon Days of the 1960s" Green said. The number of families with income above the median $29.458 in 1986, is the same As the number below it. The census Bureau said that the share of total income received by the most affluent fifth of All households Rose to 46.1 percent in 1986, from 43 3 percent in 1970, while the share received by the Middle three fifths of the population., the Middle class declined to 50.2 percent in 1986, from 52.7 percent in 1980. The share received by the poorest filth dipped to 38 percent from 4.1 percent according to the report poverty declined last year among families with both husband and wife living in the household but in increased among families headed by women Wilh no husband present in the household the Bureau reported in 1986, apparently for the first time families headed by women accounted for More than half of All poor families altogether there were 7 million poor families last year in the United slates. The number o female headed families in poverty Rose by 139,000, to 3 6 million. The number of married couple families living in poverty dropped to 3.1 million in 1986, from 3-4 million in 1985. It appears that female Heads of household Aro More difficult to reach through economic growth and Job creation especially when they have family responsibilities and children Al Home Green said. From 1935 to 1986, the poverty rate declined slightly for Blacks Whites and hispanic people but for each group it is higher last year than in 1978. The poverty Rale for Blacks dipped to 31.1 percent last year irom 31.3 percent in 1985. But was slightly higher than the 1978 Rale of 30.6 percent. The poverty rate Lor whiles declined to 11 percent last year from 11.4 percent in 1978. For hispanic people the poverty rate declined to 27.3 percent in 1986, from 29 percent in 1985, bul was Well above the 1978 Rale of 21.6 percent. The poverty data were based on interviews Wilh 60.500 households chosen to be representative of the entire population. Tie official poverty measurement which is adjusted each year to reflect changes in the consumer Price Index oils the value of no Cash benefits such As Lood Stamps medicaid and housing subsidies. In its annual report on income and poverty the census Bureau also reported these findings per capita income which is computed by dividing total aggregate Cash income by the total population was s11.670 last year ii has grown by 30 percent alter adjustment for inflation since 1970. Since 1982. Median family income has grown by 10 2 percent for Whites. 14 percent for Blacks and 8 s percent for hispanic people after adjusting for in la lion poverty Rales for children declined slightly fast year but there were no dramatic changes Twenty two percent of All children under 6 years old were living in poverty last year for Blacks under 6, the Sovei by Rale was 45.6 percent the comparable figure for hispanic children was 40.7 percent. For while it was 177 percent. In addition the poverty Rale Lor people 65 years old and Over was 12 4 percent last year. Down from 12 6 percent in 1. A. Sunday August 23, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 17