Word: coal
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Rockefeller did get some key proposals through the legislature. He streamlined the cumbersome state health department, set up an office of economic and community development, and pleased the state's 54,000 active coal miners by upgrading mine safety regulations. But he was forced to retreat on two campaign promises. First, the legislature would not buy his proposal to eliminate the 3% sales tax on groceries. Says John Fanning, chairman of the senate finance committee: "I saw no reason to give sales tax relief and then have to raise other taxes to make it up." Rockefeller's request...
Ironically enough, the Beyond the Fringe troupe winds up stealing the show in this movie. Perhaps the high point of the film comes when a lanky, ill-dressed chap recounts the many reasons why he would rather be a judge than a coal miner. While in the midst of discussing the routine of a miner's life down in the pits, the deadpanning prole notes the boring conversations that go on in the mines...
...Hullo, I just found a lump of coal...
...doubt about it. This black substance is coal all right...
...Party, President of the State Council, President of the Defense Council, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Supreme Council on Social and Economic Development. Another, more sinister theory: with weaknesses in the tough Rumanian dictatorship showing up in the form of strikes in the coal fields and criticism by dissidents, other members of the regime might be delighted to pin everything that has been going on in the country on their boss...