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Show r" 1)" 'VW-- yiir V-a- ' DESERET NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1977 A w- - 'r- S 5 We stand for the Constitution of the United States with its three departments of field. each government, fully independent in its own Why voters should know who pays campaign costs It's important to know where a candidate has received his financial support. Not unreasonably, he may be expected to pay heed to those interests, once hes in office. Last January, the Utah Legislature approved a measure making it mandatory for successful candidates in first and second class cities to publish election and campaign expenses and a list of persons making campaign contributions. That action must be taken within 30 days after winners take the oath of office. That gets at part of the problem. It provides citizens with the basic information to determine what special interests an may be expected to champion. But why not have such helpful information available before voters go to the polls, instead of after? That way, the data can have a greater influence on w hich candidate wins. office-hold- er Thats the aim of a campaign fund disclosure proposal suggested this week to the Salt Lake City Commission by Common Cause President Peter W. Billings Jr. The proposed ordinance would require disclosure of all donations over $15, but would apply to candidates not in the only in the general election primaries. Its far more specific than the present law, which requires only the names of campaign contributors. In addition, the proposal would pro- - hibit cash donations of more than $50, but would not limit contributions by check or documentable sources. The idea is to make sure the source of all donations can be identified. But what's to prevent a single donor from sending in $50 contributions in several allotments? That deficiency needs to be addressed. Despite that defect, the general philosophy of the proposal is so reasonable that all candidates for Salt Lake City Commission seats have agreed voluntarily to abide by the suggested rules. Reasonable as it may be, there are at least two drawbacks in trying to apply such an ordinance to Salt Lake City at this stage of the election race : Its patently unfair to change the rules in the middle of an election .drive. The time to set the rules is before sign-up- s and campaigning begin. Some candidates might do things differently if they knew they were required to make disclosures of contributions. Such an ordinance should be applied not just to one city, but Theres some doubt, in fact, if Salt the legal authority to pass Lake City has such an ordinance. That field may have been by the Legislature. In any event, the disclosure proposal is an idea that should be considered by the Legislature. Theres clearly room fur improving the law thats now on the books. pre-empte- d The price of vandalism The Utah Department of Transportation offers a $200 reward for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of vandals who destroy highway signs and other road facilities. Unfortunately, that doesnt have much impact on the kind of people who are so thoughtless and indifferent as to destroy public property. Neither does the fact that the high cost of vandalism comes out of everyone's pockets, including those of the vandals themselves when they as taxpayers or their parents must foot the bill for this destructiveness. But maybe whats happening to two young Kearns men will have some deterrent effect on highway vandalism once the word gets around. This week the two were charged with manslaughter in connection with a September 25 traffic death caused by vandalism of a stop sign. A sign at an J intersection was bent out of place. The collision in which one result: A two-ca- r motorist was killed and another injured. Conviction of a serious offense can rule out a career in the military or in government and make it harder to get a job in the private sector. The vandalism of highway signs becomes particularly acute during the deer hunting season, when too many Utahns test their marksmanship at the signs. So the next time you think of shooting or otherwise damaging a road sign, remember the possible plight of the tw'o up young men in Kearns being confronted with manslaughter charges. Better yet, remember the death and injury that resulted when a stop sign was vandalized. Why risk bearing that heavy a burden on your conscience for the rest of your life? Bootlegging in cigarettes Whats in a lowly cigarette that attracts bootleggers and mobsters? In simple terms, this: You can buy cigarettes in North Carolina with a 2c per pack tax. You can sell them in New I York City, where the tax is now 23c, for a fat profit. But you have to bypass city and state tax collectors, which is clearly illegal. The result is that states like New York and New Jersey, with high cigarette taxes, are losing millions of dollars a year in tax revenue. It is now estimated that in New York City, one out of every two packs is sold by bootleggers. The New York Times estimates that in the last years New Jersey has lost about $119 million in taxes, Pennsylvania $176 million, and Connecticut $86 million. No wonder the Senate is looking into the matter. Its Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures , opened hearings today on legislation to ; eliminate cigarette racketeering. 10 , I Since cigarette consumption is now estimated at over 4,060 cigarettes a year for every American over age 18, the profits from such mob operations are huge. So great, in fact, that evidence Abounds of Mafia involvement. Inves- - i tigators say more than a dozen cigarette bootleggers have been murdered, some , to eliminate competition. The problem is further exacerbated because cigarettes are easy to handle, bootlegging is difficult to detect, and penalties are generally light. Cigarette bootlegging isnt even under the jurisdiction of federal interstate commerce laws, contributing to enforcement problems. Bootlegging has been confined mostly to the Northeast, but theres evidence operations are being expanded into the Midwest and Southwest. The Intermountain states, including Utah, have largely escaped the problem because tax disparities between states are not high enough to create a lucrative market. The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Affairs has proposed a federal tax incentive to reduce existing disparities. That sounds too much like a federal tax A better way might be tough law enforcement aimed at lootleggers. Legislation is now pending in Congress which would set up such an operation. Clearly, the problem isnt going to disappear overnight. But its time to crack down on cigarette crooks. gangland-style- give-awa- y. Oil embargo insurance An editorial from the Cleveland Press Almost four years after the start of the 1973-7- 4 Arab oil embargo, the federal government finally has begun to fill, its strategic oil reserve, designed to insure the nation against any future embargo. While the move should have been made long ago, it is still good news. Evp ry barrel of oil that this country places in its storage program makes it that much better prepared to resist economic or political blackmail by the U.S. duplicity has eroded public trust oil exporters. The program got under way when a shipment of 412,000 barrels of crude began to be pumped into a salt mine near Lake Charles, La. More salt domes, which do not allow oil to seep out, will be filled along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the country. Current plans call for 250 million barrels in storage by the end of 1978, 500 million in 1980 and one billion by 1985. The latter figure equals about a years supply of oil imports and would permit the U.S. economy to withstand a quite lengthy embargo. one-ha- lf Deseret News political editor The needlessly-complicate- d Panama Canal issue is another example of the terrible mischief done by presidential duplicity during the Vietnam and Watergate eras. There once was a time in U.S. public affairs when a matter such as the secret cable disclosure regarding the Panama Canal treaties would have created no great flap. The American people, once prone to trust their elected representatives, would have accepted assurances that U.S. interests were fully Citizens would have underthe explanations that delicate diplomacy cannot be conducted in a goldfish bowl. No more. d The controversy over handing control of the waterway to Panama has been further inflamed by public suspicion that its government is proceeding in an underhanded manner. This cancer was planted by Sen. Robert Doles disclosure of a confidential diplomatic cable indicating there is, indeed, a genuine difference between Panama and the United States over the U.S. right to intervene to protect the canal. The right of the U.S. to intervene militarily after the year 2,000 to protect the canal and also to on joy head-ot-th- e line privileges lor passage of its warships through the canal may have to be nailed down by specific language before the treaty will be ratified. Having mourned this loss of trust in government, I believe it must be said that the people are not to be blamed for their skepticism. Its hardly necessary to elaborate on the deception practiced by President Richard Nixon and his minions over the Watergate incident and the devastating effect of that behavior upon the peoples regard for their government. "Vs SO stood ritr. vJ already-complicate- Richard Nixon Likewise, most Americans are aware of the slippery behavior of President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam war, particularly the phony justification used to obtain congressional passage of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. That resolution was used, of course, as a vehicle to escalate the war. The canal treaty issue is tough enough for the American people to digest under the best of circumstances. It cer- - ART BUCHWALD Q If there is anything that really WASHINGTON bugs me it is watching a pro football game with a foreigner. I had the experience last week. My friend tainly didnt need the poisonwas visiting from London with his wife, and they both ous effects of public suspicion to needlessly complicate it seemed very excited about seeing their first American football game on television. There are compelling arguIt happened to be the Redskin-Dalla- s game, and ments on both sides of the for a Redskin fan I knew it wasnt going to be much issue. fun. The game started out all right, but before long it got rather bloody. This is when they both started waterGiving control of the asking questions. way to a questionable govern"Is the object of the game to injure as many ment like Panama certainly players on the other team as possible? the husband entails risks to the best interests of this nation, if not asked. outright peril to its security. No, that is NOT the object of the game, I said. The wife said, "Do you get more points for But failure to transfer the breaking a mans leg or his neck? canal to Panama contains the You dont get points for breaking either his leg risk of crippling sabotage, or his neck. You get penalized for it. and seriously alienating friendly Latin American Oh, said the husband. What is the penalty?" nations. Your team is penalized 15 yards. A key question is whether "Do you mean to say that if you break an the U.S. government has the opponents leg, you only get 15 yards against you? determination guts, if What do you think he should get? I said, trying to apply Russian-styl- e you will to hold my temper. to quell military force In England I believe its three years in prison," an uprising or attack by the wife replied. Panama on the Canal Zone in the event the treaty is Its a game!" I said. "The men who play expect to have their legs broken. Thats what makes it so exciting. Opponents of the treaty, Of course, said the husband. "One must expect including Utah Sens. Jake Gam and Orrin Hatch have injuries." been somewhat vague on this A few minutes later the referee walked off 10 point. yards against the Redskins. There appears to be a good I didn't see anyone get hurt, the wife said. argument for giving up the Why is there a penalty? canal, provided this can be. Because one of our men was holding one of their accomplished without any men." real damage to the U.S What is the penalty for that?" except perhaps to its pride. Ten yards." This is a big IP, howDo you mean to say, if you hold a man the team ever, and critics of the treaty can be excused for their loses 10 yards, but if you break his leg you are opposition. penalized ONLY 15 yards? the wife asked. of in context the I was beginning to lose my patience. However, That is the debate, the We built it; correct. In football, holding is almost as serious as we paid for it, were going to breaking someones leg. keep it argument appears to Of course, the husband said. It does make have no more validity in sense when you explain it." todays world than do the In the second quarter the wife turned to me. Did whalebone corset stays and you notice one of their chaps hit one of your chaps buggy whips of the 1898 Big with his fist?" Stick era Thats not permitted, I said. Then why doesnt someone do something about Pull out of the ILO was, really - WASHINGTON The Soviet Union recently dispatched to the United States several agents of what the AFL-CIproperly calls the Soviet system of labor control." Officials of several unions, including the United Auto Workers and United Mine Workers, received these agents as fellow trade unionists, undeterred by the fact that the Soviet Union, which denies workers the right freely to organize and strike, has no trade unions in any meaningful sense. By collaborating for too long with the institutionalized cynicism of the International Labor Organization, the U.S. government has contributed to such poisoning of language and action. It is time to stop. By Nov. 5, President Carter must tell the ILO whether the United States will remain a member, enjoying the privilege of paying about $20 million a year (approximateof the ILO ly budget) to finance aggression against this nations one-quart- er The ILO, now part of the United Nations, is a relic of the League of Nations. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, helped draft the ILO constitution at the Paris old tripartite bringing gether representatives to- In 1974, the ILO suspended its due processes in order to condemn Israel without proper investigation, on the usual charges of racism, etc. In 1975, the ILO granted observer status to a of workers, employers and government from each nation. For several decades the ILO was moderately useful as a technical assistance organ- ization, supervising compliance with labor standards and conventions. But the ILO has become a mirror of the shift of political forces against the democracies. Most of the member nations have authoritarian regimes which choose the representatives of workers and employers. The ILOs great purpose was to defend the rights of workers, especially the right to organize and strike. But in many ILO nations common basic rights are fictions. In November, 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave the requisite two years notice of the U.S. intention to withdraw. He cited ILO meddling with extraneous political issues, and disregard for due process. Kissinger noted: Tne constitution of the ILO is predicated on the existence within member states of relatively independent and reasonably and self-defin- worker and employer This premise is groups. anachronistic in an increasingly statist world. Most na- tions are new nations, and it? many new nations, like many nations, have at least partially socialized labor and capital, treating both as commodities to be manipulated at the pleasure of the state. Peace Conference in 1919. The ILO was the first and only League organization the United States joined (in 1934). The ILOs basic principle is representation, The gentle sport terrorist ganization (the Palestine eration Organization). or- Lib- The Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIworlds largest democratic labor movement are united in favor of withdrawal from the ILO, even if the government decides to stay. But President Carters senior foreign policy advisors want the U.S. to stay. "No one saw it," I replied Everyone on television must have seen it, she said. "The referee didn't see it. If he had, he would have called a personal fold. Which means the player would be thrown out of the game? the husband asked Of course not. You dont get thrown out of the game for slugging another player. If that happened you wouldnt lx1 able to have a pro football game. The thrill of football for a player is to hit an opponent and not get caught doing it. One of the Redskins was stretched out on the field, groaning in agony. "How long is he permitted to lie on the field, the husband asked, without being penalized?" As long as he wants to. When a man is seriously injured, we even permit a doctor to treat him " "How civilized, the wife said. I couldn't keep my temper in any longer "What do you think we are barbarians7 Quite," the husband said DOUG SflGYD y It is said that if the U.S. leaves, the ILO will be dominated by hostile elements. But they dominate it already. It is said that a majority of ILO members have given assurances that they will sin no more. But since the U.S. announced its intention to withdraw, the ILOs extremist majority has sinned vigor' ously. If the U.S. backs down on withdrawal, the ILO, and the watching world, will know that it is safe to call this nations bluff. rsa On. EL Withdrawal will be a warning shot across the bow of the United Na- tions, another ship of fools" from which, eventually, the U S may want to disembark - . 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