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Show The Summer Oimnicle. Tuesday, Auguu pane Fickle gas price controls stifle supplies sure little junior doesn't fall off. Even if controls are removed (which will happen automatically unless the House or the Senate disapproves the plan within seven days) the agency will impose a "transitional assignment program" to insure that no gasoline marketer would lose his source of without having adequate time to find a new supplier Nevertheless, even a temporary glance at what is fast becoming an alternative form of production, that is, industry without manditory price and production quotas, will be interesting. But the threat of clamping down the price controls again next time the supply runs short negates any real value decontrol might have. It will choke the dog off just w hen the time would be ripe to let him go. If prices were decontrolled and the supply began to go down, prices would go up and demand would theoretically go down, which would bring down prices. But with high prices for gasoline and a high public demand, the incentive would be there for American industry to develop alternative sources. Artificially keeping the price low may be confortable for the moment, but it won't get us anywhere in a search for new energy. Decontrol of gasoline prices is a step in the right direction, even though the way the FEA is handling it, it will be practically meaningless. Adequate supplies would mean low prices with or without controls; pinching those prices off as they begin to rise naturally with supplies dwindling is just running away from something we're going to have to face eventually anyway. Lifting gasoline price controls while still reinstate if them threatening to supplies run short is like running with a dog on a choke-chai- n and stopping short when the dog is convinced he is free. The Federal Energy Administration (FEA) last week proposed lifting price controls on gasoline November 1 and said the move was prompted by ample supplies in the nation. "There is little question that gasoline allocation and price controls have distorted what at times has been a competitive maiket," FEA Administrator John F. O'Leary said in announcing the proposal. O'Leary said preliminary studies indicate that lifting controls "would have no adverse price or supply effects, and that competition and maiket su-pl- y forces are adequate to protect consumers." Such words sound almost foreign after the energy control spiel we've gotten used to hearing from Washington in the past months. Decontrol of any facet of industry now under intense federal regulation is suprising, almost astonishing w hen the industry in question has something to do with the production of eneigy. However, this short breather from government regualtion is certainly only temporary. If gasoline supplies become tight in 1979, O'Leary said, new controls would be reinstated. He said the new controls wold be better than the ones now in effect, because current controls are based on 1972 maiket conditions. Obviously, the FEA is taking no chances with the gas price decontrol idea. It will still run alongside the bicycle, holding the seat, making 16, 1977 VERBATIM Honest education is dangerous to tyranny and privilege: the systems like the capitalist system, kept in vogue by popular ignorance, churches which depend on it for priestly authority, privileged classes, and ambitious conquerors and cistators who have to instill royalist idolatry and romantic hero-- orship, all use both ignorance and education as underpinings for general faith in themselves as rulers. -- George Bernard Shaw w education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction. -- Adolf Hitler Universal Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. -- Henry Peter Brougham Oh, what have people not expected, what do they not expect still, from education! The majority of progressive men expect everything from it, and it is only in these latter days that some begin to understand that it offers nothing but iIlusions...the organization of the school, far from spreading the ideal which we imagined, has made education the most powerful means of enslavement in the hands of the governing powers today. -- Francisco Ferrer Only the educated are free. Epictetus OFF THE CUFF HCHRQNICLE by Kirk Johnson Fire fighters are obliged to serve citizens the American labor movement doesn't watch out, it's going to be sitting on the wrong side of public opinion, caught somewhere between striking fire fighters and striking teachers. The fire fighters' strike in Dayton, Ohio last week is the latest jab in the public eye from a source that was for a long time considered the good guy in the American economy. According to the Associated Press, 375 fire fighters demanding higher wages and a shorter work week, stood by watching idly from their picket lines as 13 families lost their homes or apartments as three major fires swept through five buildings. And there were reports the striking fire fighters rvere physically stopping a phantom squad of union fire fighters who were disobeying the strike and answering calls to insure that lives were not in danger. There is absolutely no excuse for what went on in Ohio last week. No matter w hat kind of logic you use to explain the fire fighters' motives, or forgive them, there is simply nothing you can say to alter the fact that those families may have lost everything thay had. And just to prove a point! Just to show the city of Dayton that it does indeed need its fire fighters, and that it should pay them more. But it showed us a lot more than just the fact that we need fire fighters. It gave us a glimpse of a pretty terrifying, animalistic side of society that we don't often see, a sort of If kind of attitude. Certainly, as a general rule, fire fighters are underpaid and overworked, and do have a rough job. As a whole America's fire fighters have an amazing record of heroism and dedication. But nothing in the past or the future will erase that blot of stench plopped on the image of every working fire fighter, whether he supported the strike or not. In another sense, the Da ton affair may carry over into the whole labor scene, damaging the image of the union worker in every field. People have already expressed an annoyance at the teacher sti ikes that plague the school system. This latest fire fighters' strike w ill just be another musket ball in attacks of the union movement. It's not a question of "Did they deserve more money and shoiter houts?" It's simply a question of right and wrong. There is a right, no matter how low your wages are and no matter how many hours a day vou woik to get them. If a person can convince himself it is light to let someone's liouse burn clown, he simply has no business being a fire fighter. Those fire fighters participating in last week's disgrace should be prosecuted with everything the law has got. The difference ietween right and wrong should not be blurred. Giving those criminals amnesty from punishment will serve to do just that. Rick Hall Editor-in-Chie- Editorial Editor Molly Fowler Colleen Reichert Entertainment Editors' Joseph Brtxkmeyer Copy Editor Diane Assistant Copy Editor Fotes-Brewto- n Rr PORTERS Mary Corporon. Peg Mtnire, Lmi Borfenichl. Ren Ling, Karen David Marh. Linda Obon. Barters Rattle, Diane My ma Baglev. Mark Mani. Bki Gould, Anita Jenkina. Marilyn Mitchell. Ann Knighien. Sieve Bjeritlie, Bruce Baird. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Chut Kuranki AD REPRESENTATIVES Karen Sperl. Mike NikUaon BACKSHOP FOREMAN Gene Green BACKSHOP ASSISTANTS Stephanie Schorow. Pr, McEntte. Mrrnt Bagley, Beth Singleton DISIRIBl'TION MANAGER Marshall Bninet OFFICE STAFF: Joan LarscJiild The opinions expressed on the editorial pages of the Daily t'uh Chronicle do not necessarily represent the views of the studentbody or the I'nnersity administration. Published daily during tall, winter and spring quarters (not including test week or quarter breaks) by Publications Council of the I'nnrrsity of I'tah. Subscriptions; f20 a year (including summer quarter), $6 an academic quarter. All subscriptions must be prepaid. Two weeks notice for change of address. Forward til subscription correspondence to: Subscription Manager, Daily Vtah Chronicle, Union Building, University of Utah. Letters to the editor must be typed and doublespaced on a 14 space line, letters of 200 words or less will be gwen priority. Address letters to "Vien point". The Chronicle has typewriters available or your use. We reseme the right to edit for libel, propriety and space. WHS, $6 A otv me teem HVV DkMilk) UtMY VtfPTO Trie FrVOATC TO PIMM FOR cm ra? fmrt 100 i 1 Rfc), V VOW 1$ IT&UCcmNti MOOT RICH dU- - that rayrMAkAW' BUT" (JOT RICH Nancy Etheridge New Editor Martha Wickelhaus Assistant Newt Editor Jim Smedley Sports Editor Julie Harmon layout Editor Steve Johnson Advertising Manager Jrrmtn. Eleanor Hart. KO s f Kirk Johnson Jonathan Clark Business Manager CWBomSRS? a. fee a |