Be It Resolved . . .

Be It Resolved . . . Californians, who last November voted the nation's costliest old-ae pensions, last week reconsidered their budget-busting generosity. By a 400,000 majority, they slapped down demagogic George McLain's Citizens' Committee for Old Age Pensions (TIME, Sept. 5) despite support of the plan by politically ambitious Jimmy Roosevelt. The new law will leave pensions at the increased level (average: $70.63 a month) which McLain pushed through a year ago, but will shave $65 million off the $200 million annual cost by boosting the retirement age from 63 back to 65. It will also make relatives who can afford it responsible for the old folks once more.

P: Voters in Virginia and Texas put another dent in the rusty Southern argument that civil rights could best be guaranteed by letting the states do their own housecleaning. Virginia's proposal to repeal the poll tax was defeated by a majority of nearly four to one. But many organizations which wanted to abolish the tax--including church, labor, Negro and veterans' groups--fought the Byrd machine's proposal as complicated and dishonest. They feared that the blank-check authority it granted the Byrd-controlled legislature to set up new voting requirements might prove more harmful to their cause than the present $1.so-a-year poll tax. P:In Texas, a straight anti-poll-tax 2 amendment went down by a 24,000-vote margin. P:Campaign strategists for Senator Robert Taft got off to a flying start in the 1950 elections by steering through an amendment eliminating straight-ticket voting from the Ohio ballot and substituting the "Masachusetts ballot," which lists all candidates alphabetically by office and without regard to party. Taft supporters, who feared the drawing power of popular Democratic Governor Frank Lausche at the top of a straight-ticket ballot, figured the change was worth 100,000 votes to the Republicans next fall. Democrats prepared to challenge its legality. P:Pennsylvania became the 18th state to approve (and New Jersey the 27th state to reject) a bonus for World War II veterans. Pennsylvania will start passing out its $500 million bonus (maximum payment: $500) within the next 90 days.

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