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Show DESERET NEWS ART DUgtftJAiP The Formerly Good Earth SJU.T CAKE CITY, UTAH Immune To Shock We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As having Been Divinely Inspired 14 A EDITORIAL PAGE MONDAY, JANUARY IS, - WASHINGTON Mrs. Tanner walked into Dr. Federmans office and took a chair. The learned psychiatrist asked her. What seems to be the 1971 trouble, Mrs. How Pollution Curbs Can Save Money Tanner? I dont know to tell you this, Doctor. But nothing seems to me shock any how more. Why The federal government's chie environmental officer lofted a trial balloon the past weekend that should be generally well received. Next month, he disclosed the Nixon administration may tax as its newest weapon to safepropose a guard the environment. The idea is to make it prohibitively expensive for polluters to keep on polluting. Bringing its competitive drive into play, free enterprise should be equal to this challenge as it has surmounted so many others. Ultimately, of course, the cost of pollution control comes out of the consumers pocket in the form of higher prices. That can be a very steep price if estimates made the past weekend at the International Conference on Pollution are anywhere near tha mark: $95 billior io substantially reduce air and water pollution by 1975. E '.t at least one poll indicates that most Americans are willing to pay the price. That attitude makes sense, since ultimately the cost of controlling pollution can be substantially offset by savings that acciue from cleaner surroundings. By one estimate, pollution is ; costing Americans $35 bilion in ill health alone. Moreover, according to the director of the National Institute of Environmental Science, just cleanthe difference ing up the air could save $11 billion a year between an estimated $13.5 billion damage from air pollution and $2.6 billion spent to control it. Industry can cut its costs in curbing pollution by doing more recycling, with its material-savin- g procedures. At present only a few halting steps arc being taken in this direction, like the cooling towers that enable some new industrial plants to use and the same water. With its profits at stake, industry faces the challenge of showing it can move ahead fast to clean up the environment re-us- Federman showed r headline revealing that the cost of living had gore up in the country by 7 per cent. How do you feel about that headline, Mis. Tanner? What She shrugged her shoulders. else is new? Di. Feuerman pushed a button and the next slide to appear on the wail was a photograph of the havoc defoliation had v l eaked on South Vietnam. Does that shock you, Mrs. Tanner? Why should it? she said. I've seen thousands of pictures like it before. Dr. Federman changed the slide. This Pollution Crisis: Now Or Never J Federman asked excited". I thought for a moment I recognized my son, George, in the picture. Dr. Federman pulled back the curtains and sat at his desk. Mrs. Tenner, you are suffering from a very common disorder known in medical terms as shocklessness. Youve lost vour ability to be shocked. What can I do about it? Mrs. Tanner cried. You mu? stop reading the newspapers, listening to radio and watching television and refrain from going to the movies for three months. If you de this, it's pos able some, not all, shock ability will return. Ill try, Doctor, bat I'm not sure it will work. That will be $60, said. Dr. Federman Sixty dollars? Mrs. Tanner screamed. Whj , that's shocking. Dr. Federman smiled. There, you see? Your case isnt hopeless after all. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e Counties' Challenge Drum(This is the first in a five-pamond series, Analysis: The Battle of the Environment. It defines the size of the THE DRUMMONDS rt By ROSCOE and GEOFFREY DRUMMOND Of all forms of local government throughout America, the counties are considered to have beer the most resistant to change.. Its a big challenge, then, that Cache County Commissioner Todd G. Weston took on the past weekend as he became president of the Utah Association of Counties. We congratulate him and other officers of the association on their new responsibilities. Some of the dimensions of the challenge confronting not only Mr. Weston and other association officials but also county officials all over the nation were pinpointed by one widely respected political scientist when he observed: The need for internal reorganization in local government is perhaps most obvious in the case of the county. . . . Probably the most pressing need of county government today is for a single chief executive, elective cr appointed, to exercise over-al- l supervision of county administrative agencies. Another need in many instances is for reorganization of the county governing board. That body should be large enough to serve satisfactorily as the policy - determining body of the county, yet not so large as to be unwieldy. Happily, Utah shows some promise of meeting the chalconsolidation and other reforms. As lenge through Utahns weigh the merits of such changes, they would do well to keep in mind a point made by Dr. Clyde F. Snider of the University of Illinois, who noted: We must abandon the idea that the degree of popular control over local government is directly proportional to the number of local units. Quite to the contrary, a simplification of local government, including the elimination of overlapping areas as far as reasonably possible, should actually foster democratic control and stimulate vigorous participation in local affairs. city-coun- ty An American Lake? United States navai maneuvers begin today in the Caribbean without the Russians looking on from the sidelines. After cruising the area during the fall, Soviet ships have and good riddance. sailed for home Their presence just a few nautical miles away aroused fears that the Soviets might be establishing a nuclear submarine base in Cuba. But President Nixon noted in his Jan. 4 television interview that the Russians had agreed the 1962 missile understanding, worked out by President Kennedy, also prohibits a Soviet base. Past Soviet actions give the United States good reason to watch Russian moves carefully. But since the U.S. jealously guards its right to sail freely in the Mediterranean, Washington is in a poor position to get too upset when Soviet ships as long as it is only for a short visit. come to the Caribbean seem to have concluded that the Russians For now, the is an still American lake. How long it remains such Caribbean could depend not only on how fimi Washington remains toward the Soviets, but also on how util it keeps fences mended. inter-Americ- For Speedy Trials Few things frustrate justice like lengthy delays in bringaccused to trial. the ing Thats why a bill guaranteeing speedy trial deserves close Congressional scrutiny when the 92nd Congress convenes. The bill would require each federal court to set trial dates in criminal cases within 60 days of an indictment or information. It also makes allowances for practical difficulties in putting the new rule into operation. The American Bar Association considers a speedy trial so essential that it recommends outright dismissal of a case where speedy trial is denied. Although the U.S. Constitution and almost all state provide for a speedy trial, the term has never been felearly defined. The speedy trial bill would eliminate that ns Vagueness. i you them. Dr. problem.) N do say that, Mrs. Tanner? I don't know. I was brought up in a middle-clas- s family, went to a fine girls school, attended the church of my choice on Sunday, married a respectable man and I thought I shocked very easily. But lately a numbness has set in and nothing gets to me any more. Well, lets do a few tests, Dr. Federman said. He pulled the curtains in his otfice and went over to a slide projector. Now Im going to show you some slides against the wall, Mrs. Tanner, and I'd like you to tell me your reaction to of Detroit showing chimneys spewing out black smoke, covering the city with a dirty brown blanket. Thats a picture of Detro't, Dr. Federman said, watching Mrs. Tanners reaction. Mrs. Tanner said, I No kidding, thought it was Philadelphia. The next slide consisted of scrawled dirty w'ords on wall. Does that shock you? Dr. Federman asked. Heavens no. Ali McGraw used them in Love Story. The final slide revealed a group of bearded college students sitting around with several coeds in a dormitory, smoking pot. Mrs. Tanner sat up. Why did you react that way? Dr. time it was an aerial photograph 4 WASHINGTON We are at wrar with ourselves, destroying what we cannot live without our environment. That is the heart of the environmental crisis. We must either live in harmony with nature or nature will strike back harder than it is already doing. Nature wont lose. We will. It is not too late to reverse the trend. But it will be before long if we dont and do it better. begin soon to do more Environmental Quality is urging 71 major, actions to arrest the perilous pollution of our air, water and earth. No evidence points to their being done soon. President Nixon says the right things, but action equal to the need lags far behind. Congress talks about meeting crucial domestic problems but devotes most of its time to arguing about the war already ending in Vietnam. Why this delay when every day wasted brings the nation nearer to confrontation with disaster? Well tell you why. One day a stagnant pool of pollution was hanging in the sky all the way from New York to Atlanta and so low you could almost touch it. A friend stopped by our office. She looked out the w'indow', R. Drummond G. Drummond two extremes, what then is the size and urgency of the environmental crisis? We believe the answer is right here: Nothing is more important than for man to stop despoiling his planet and start rescuing it. It can be done. President Nixon does not hesitate to our very survival is ' now affirm, directly related to and affected by the environment in which we live. Those are the key words in measunng the size and utgency of the crisis: dis aster and survival. But Nixon rightly says that this prospect can be avoided. y When must the U.S., hopefully in with other industrial countries, begin the massive measures needed to reverse the tide? On that point the President couldnt be more explicit. His answer: It is literally now or never. It is later than we think. We are so late because for some many centuries man ignored his dangerous and reckless poisoning and eroding nature of its capacity to sustain him. Now nature is furiously fighting back. It is rejecting our wastes, returning the polluted water and giving back the killer eom-pan- pointed her finger imperiously and said: They say its smog. I just dont believe it. Too many dont believe it and this is one reason why the politicians feel they can talk big and act small. Theres another reason. It comes from the doomsdayrs. Some of them preach that its too .ate already, that nothing cawill save .the planet from man-mad- e tastrophe Others argue vehemently that the only way to begin is to throw away entirely our competitive economy, suppress capismog. As that honest and perceptive comic talism and eliminate our nation states. They never say what is to be put in place strip character, Pogo, so rightly says: of whats to be thrown away. We have met the enemy and he is us. both the Theyre both wrong (Next: The hard, basic social and ecoand the doomsday approach. nomic choices necessary to fight The If the truth is not to be found at these Battle of the Environment.) ho-hu- DR. JOYCE BROTHERS Living Tree Is Air Conditioner Hero On The Gridiron Bv SYDNEY J. HARRIS NEW YORK Its not easy to be a heio these dajs. The probing, unrelenting glare of publicity may make for quick celebrity status but it also has a way of exposing those all too human weakdemolishnesses. ing the superhu-raa- n aura we expect from heroes. Marital troubles, a suspect busi- ness deal, a fondness for alcohol these foibles can seriously undermine the elevated status of any popular hero. The successful athlete is certainly not immune from public judgment but his aiena is at least the relatively narrow area of the playing field, with rules and records by which his performance can be judged. Although there is stil! some expectation that the athlete also be the model of dean living, sober, polite and conven-'ona- l. the athlete with a penchant foi fast cars, beautiful women and adventure in general may still retain the publics affection and adulation as long as he continues to perform on the playing field. Football, which seems to be a national passion, if only for the male segment of the population, provides more than its share of popular heroes. The more dangerous and violent the sport, it seems, the more the adulation. Muhammed Alis popularity is certainly an index of this. But why should men who are successful at the most aggressive and violent of sports be heroes? If we think of heroes as- - people who embody or symbolize traits we admire and would like for ourselves, the question is not too difficult. Research indicates that superior athletes tend to be characterized by their unusual a, id their ability to utilize considerable aggressive energy. The successful athlete is very often successful in other areas besides sports. It is unclear whether the athlete's and assertiveness comes fiom his superior physical development or the opposite. Whatever the answer, some studies have found a positive relationship between the possession of a muscular (mesomorphic) build and the need for achievement. In the course of a football game the football player plays out many primary conflicts that are natural human concerns: the conflict between expressing and inhibiting aggressive feelings; the conflict between fear of pain, injury and even disablement and the fear of humiliation; the conflict between discouragement and despair and perseverance. The football hero is the man who manages not to be undone under pres-siuw'ho hides his hurts, and is perennially optimisic. He may botch up his persona life off the playing field, but his courage and tenacity on the playing field can keep him a hero. The irony is that the extreme aggressiveness, physical power and force, and of the football star super may not be really usable in real life. Football is ultimately only a game and the aging football player may sadly discover that he is an anachronism in the world outride the football stadium. GUEST CARTOON The efficiency of your is best measured in BTUs the British Thermal Unit that indicates the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree. The cooling capacity of the average home runs from 5,000 to 7,000 BTUs. Even the larger window units, on a separate circuit, generally give out from 10,000 to 14,000 BTUs. Now look at a large, tree. The daily evaporation from this single tree can produce the effect of more than a miliioi; BTUs. efiect of one Thus, the tiee is equal to a hundred or more if the tree gets an adequate amount of rain. Multiply this by thousands and millions of tres, and you begin to understand the importance of pieeven serving our forests, and tree-lif- e where. well-wate-- It is just not a sentimental, esthetic, nature-lovinattitude that impels ecologists to take such a militant stand for preserving and enhancing our national woodlands system. It is the most practical and sensible attitude one can take. The more we learn about the great chain of life on this planet and we have learned more in the last two decthe ades than in the last 20 centuries more we are forced to recognize that the simple everyday things we have always taken for granted are part of a web of immense complexity and sophistication. As Ray Hoague, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service man up in my neck of the woods, put it not long ago, most of us are familiar with the common uses of trees in manufacturing and production. But we proforget their most important uses tecting the soil from raindrop impact, stabilizing the wuler tables, lowering the peak flows, and their ability to absoib polluted air and emit an richer in or g oxygen Trees are essential to life on our Hoague warns. They have planet, much to do with the moderation of temperature, noise, wind and water. And, of course, their cooling effects that bring Detroit Free Pres millions of visitors to the North Woods every summer. Without Cure For Crime Numerous commission studies have been and are continually being made at gieat cost to dcteimine the causes of crime and to suggest remedies. These studies for the most part have resulted in little good except to those who have made them. Their effect on the public has been very small. It seems very commonplace to say that our problems begin with the birds of each rhild. We rarely realize that learning begins from the very moment of birth and that the environment provided for each child thereafter determines whether he will be saint or sinner. The most important factors in the environment of a child are, in the order of their importance, hi home, his school, his church and his Cjmmumty. Whatever money and effort are spent to strengthen these institutions is the most profitable expenditure that could be made. They are of utmost importance to our nation and should be given the attention and recognition they must have if we as a nation are to fulfill our destiny and avoid national disaster. In the absence of good homes, it would be far more economical and better for the child to be brought up in a good nursery school. In this respect. we might take a leaf from the Russian hook. Tnere is, however, one disadvantage to the urery school idea children are often very successful in bringing up their parents. To say the least, our national life depends on the care and attention we give to these four vital institutions, and no price i; too great to pay for great leaders in these fields PARNELL HINCKLEY 2518 S. 9th East Willing Helpers In spite of the miserable traffic conditions after Wednesdays blizzard, I drove most of the way home with a warm glow' in my heart. On South Temple between about 10th and 12th East, there was a group of boys standing by to help each motorist over the icy spots where their cars were at a standstill. They went from one to another (myself included) and kept the traffic Moving. I dont know if these boys were paper carriers, Scouts or just outstanding young citizens, but I do believe they deserve a hearty vote of thanks from all those they and I so express mine. helped L. VAN KOMEN Right To Live Regarding oveipopulation and abortion: Whethits an ant, a fly or an embryo, life Ls life and cant be changed unless it is destroyed. However, there are human beings who assume to have the authority to determine that human life mainly is no life at all. But since in its beginning stages it isnt dead, either, they seek to destroy it. Still, they dont want to call it destruction. What kind of controversy is that? Since everybody who is around started as an embryo, its status should not be underestimaed. I, for one, am not ashamed of this humble begin, nmg. In fact, Im very grateful to have developed from scratch. I love myself, ard insist on my right to live, and gladly share this right with others embryo or aged. But these abortionists! Since they are so concerned about overpopulation, why dont they volunteer to take leave, and give some one who hasn't had a turn jet. a chance to experience life a bit? After all. they have already chalked up a few scores, whereas the unborn has nothing to er show . CARLA SANSOM Pacific Palisades, Calif. Welfare Series We of the Division of Family Services are appreciative of the recent series covering some of the pressing problems of welfare in Utah which has appealed in the Deseiet New's. The papers unexaggerated, undistorted reporting ot both sides of the story has produced an effective method of erasing many of the public misconception Divi-io- n of about welfare recipients Fanulj Services. and the A better understanding of the social problems of Utah by Utahns is a step toward greater acceptance ot thoe in need as well as public awareness that social problems need the solution and help of not only social workers but the solution and assistance of society. EVAN E. JONES JR. Director, Division of Family Services |