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Show Carl T. Rowan 'Salt a k e Sfibuiw cr Saturday Morning, December 27, First Section Press Freedom Glow Flickers Page I 4 1975 Sen. Moss Should Reconsider Federal Code Bill Position Sen. Frank E. Moss, should take time during the holidays to reconsider his sponsorship of Senate Bill 1, a misguided attempt to codify all federal criminal law. S.l is expected to be one of the first orders of business when Congress reconvenes Jan. 19. Sen. Moss should disassociate himself from the bill as a has Sen. Birch Bayh, Democratic presidential aspirant. Sen. Bayh said he sponsored SI so he would be in a position to amend it. Sen. Moss says the same thing. Its time for Utahs senior senator to admit, as Sen. Bayh did after eight months, that the bill is so poorly written it cannot be effectively amended. The Criminal Justice Reform Act of 1975 initially drew impressive bipartisan support, reflecting the need for drastic improvement in the antiquated and confused jumble that is todays federal criminal law. But a reading of the nearly 800 pages of legislation reveals its many faults, including outright repression of Constitutional rights. Among the more objectionable provisions are the expansion of wiretapping authority, restrictions on the right to assemble and severe limitations on free speech. The bill has been called the American version of the British Official Secrets Act. Among its provisions is the threat of a seven year prison term and $100,000 fine for h, D-In- newspaper editors or reporters who gain possession of classified information and fail to deliver it promptly to federal officials. The penalty could be invoked even though the information was not published. Government workers also would become liable to severe prison terms and fines for revealing classified information. SI also contains a provision for the Nuremberg defense whereby public servants cannot be prosecuted for illegal deeds done in the mistaken belief that they were required or authorized by the head of a government agency, such as the President. This clause would have barred prosecution of nearly the entire Watergate cast. The bill was drawn up at the behest of former President Nixon who Image Problem at the FBI Clark F. Brown, a gentleman who admits pridefully and forthrightly to in favor of the being prejudiced Federal Bureau of Investigation, says the possibility is remote that the agency maintains a file on you. Mr. Brown is the FBIs agent in charge of its Salt Lake City office. al committees concerning the FBIs operations involving the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can only cause worry among a good many Americans. Dr. Kings life and work never fell into any of the criteria Mr. Brown listed. Yet, he was investigated, and subjected to nauseating harassment. This and similar revelations of unsavory activities by the FBI is causing many Americans, more than 50 percent of those in Utah, to cast jaundiced looks at the FBI. FBI executive listed three conditions under which a person might get his name into the bureaus files: 1. Membership in an organization that has been labeled subversive by And this is very sad. The FBI is a the U.S. attorney general or Congress. great law enforcement agency still, 2. Violation of a federal law" employing people of impeccable integrity who are skilled, intelligent investigated by the FBI. and resourceful. 3. Sought employment with the Yet, they are now looked upon by federal government in a position fellow Americans with suspitheir regarded as sensitive. cion. And largely because the man Mr. Brown spelled out these who demanded only the best of criteria in a press conference he people, violated the very rules of called in response to publication of a integrity he wrote and required strict public opinion poll indicating more adherance to. than half of all Utahns were conMr. cerned over whether the FBI or ence wasBrown in that press confertaking one of the first steps Central Intelligence Agency is maindown a long road leading toward taining a file on them. He wanted to rebuilding of the FBIs image. It is assure people the FBI is not spying on too bad that and he, many probably law abiding people but is after the of his fellow agents in charge, had to crooks. take on such a noisome task; a job His statements are reassuring, but that would have been avoided had the it is a bit pitiful that he found the late J. Edgar Hoover obeyed the press conference so imperative. How- principles of conduct he demanded of ever, revelations before Congression others. The From Business Week The U S decided more than four years ago not to go ahead with development of a supersonic commercial aircraft because it would make too much noise, create too much pollution, and cost too much money The British and the French pushed on with . Intcrlamli their supersonic Concorde project Now that they have a plane, they have mounted a campaign to get permission to operate it out of Kennedy airport in New York and Dulles outside Washington Transportation Secretary William T. Coleman Jr. has promised a decision by early February The decision should be a flat no for Kennedy and at the most a temporary experiment at Dulles. According to the environmental report of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Concorde is noisier than federal standards allow for new subsonic aircraft On takeoff, it is eight times as loud as a DC-1and four times as loud as a 747. It wastes fuel, and it creates more pollution than subsonic aircraft. British boosters argue that some older U S aircraft are almost as noisy as the Concorde, but this is beside the point. The whole noise control program will come to pieces if the U S. starts making special exceptions to the rules Nor is there any merit in the argument that the U.S. should approve the Concorde for reasons of state. The British and the French have no right to ask the U.S. to lower its standards to accommodate a plane simply because it is theirs There is a question about the accuracy of the FAA data, and so Secretary Coleman could permit a limited experiment at Dulles, where the population density is low. It is clear that the SST could provide useful service on very long overwater routes, and it should not be banned arbitrarily. But the U.S. should lay down a firm rule Any plane that lands at U.S. airports must conform to U.S. standards e 0 ic.iu Veto, r - the Godfather 1 99 The Public Forum Ahead of Their Time Editor, Tribune. The neglect and erosion of South Temple set in many years ago. People construcwere sleeping to let the hodge-podg- e tion and destruction take place The situation is not irreversible, although the city seems to be playing brinksmanship with this unique street. It is not unusual for a city to care New Orleans (lovingly) disallows places of business and private dwellings to change their facades Historical societies are not musty, antiquated organizations In fact, the people on these boards are ahead of their time and are wise enough to take a glance backward as well as forward M. CLEMENS Strange Ideas Editor, Tribune What ever happened to the idea that school is important? One of the PTA officers of a school in Granite School District complained that his children had to go to school on Dec. 22 and 23 Have we come so far that we wish the school year shortened? W'hat about the recent concern over national tests showmg lower scores? Does the school catch it when scores go down? Then, who Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reasons on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to the Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84110. take the blame for low scores aie advised to boycott school? should if children Those who boycott school are only boycotting their own learning How strange it would seem to those m the past, who made great personal sacrifices to get an education, to hear students talk of boycotting school PHIL HERBERT Both Concerned Edwin Hold Firm on U.S. Plane Noise Limit r "Everything costs so much, Fm glad Fin broke. The letters from Mrs MRAU Board, and Allen Editor, Tribune Another Viewpoint I m-a- so-call- ignored the recommendations of a seven year study of the subject by a commission appointed by President Johnspn. Constitutional experts have submitted nearly 1,000 amendments they consider necessary to reform the reform bill but it is unusual for Congress to act on as many as 50 amendments to a given bill. Codification of federal criminal law is still a worthy objective. But SI is the wrong way to go about it. The bill should be withdrawn and rewritten to eliminate its many objectionable features. Sen. Moss, as one of 11 original sponsors, is obligated to take a lead in this important effort. Field Newspaper Syndicate ' WASHINGTON Freedom of the press is a commodity in this world of , political madnesses. In places like the Soviet Union, Spain, Eastern Europe it has not existed for so long that no one imagines it ought to, or ever will. In Chile, Brazil, Cuba and far too many countries of Latin America, the iron rule of the the e caudillo has press a mere echo of the dictator of the hour. In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is using emergency powers to ensure that long after the crisis, the government can suppress publication of political criticism. Even in Great Britain, the chains of the press are made to look like bunting, or popcorn strings on a Christmas tree, but they are shackles nonetheless. Few Still Free Only we in the United States and those in a handful of other countries have prevented a serious erosion of press freedom, and we are in grave danger. Three years ago the threat came from an unsurprising source, Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon. And with good reason. More even than Mrs. Gandhi has now, they had reason to want to shut off political criticism. They had enmes to hide which might never have been uncovered but for a vigilant, even arrogant, press. I am convinced that the American public, itself distrustful of and angered by a press which has many weaknesses and fallibilities, would have gone along with every restriction on the press that Nixon and Agnew would have instituted had they not fell into disgrace before they could get their shackles into place. But now comes a threat far greater than anything represented by Nixon and Agnew. We have a justice of the Supreme Court saying that a tnal judge may forbid the press to report what happens in open court. This is more ominous than those Agnew tirades for the simple reason that there was an appeal from Agnews nonsense. But to whom does either the press or the public appeal if the Supreme Court itself decides to run roughshod over the First Amendment? In every country that has stifled a free press, the original muzzlings were cloaked m noble justifications. The Communists say it is to The frustrate rationale in this country is that youve got to gag the press on occasion to ensure a free triai for those accused of enmes. g This was dismissed as mostly the palaver of defense counsel until last October when courts in Nebraska prohibited the press from reporting anything but the bare facts of a case in which six members of a family in Sutherland, Neb , were murdered Incredible Action Incredible, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun sustained the notion that courts may impose prior restraints upon the press, that is, if Erwin Charles Simants confesses in court that he murdered those six people, the press may not report it if the judge says, Dont report it The matter is now before the entire Supreme Court and while some readers may think it ' pertains only to the liberty and license of a bunch of uppity newspapermen, it goes to the very heart of our system of justice, of checks and balances in government, of restraints on tyrannical power The Nebraska judges and Justice Blackmun accept the notion that a gag on the press ensures defendant Simants a fair trial But thousands of defendants in our history got a fair trial only because there was no gag on the press Note, for example, that the prosecutor in the current case of Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel wanted to gag the press on grounds that defendant Mandel would use his access to the press in a way to put the prosecution at a disadvantage Advised Free Flow Judge Herbert F. Murray rejected this, arguing that there should be as free a flow of information as possible consonant with a fair trial Lets face it most defendants feel jeopardized by publicity, but in many cases publicity is unavoidable For Patricia Hearst or Lynette Fromme to ask for freedom on the grounds of pretrial publicity is akin to a kid who kills both parents asking for mercy on grounds that he is an orphan And let us not be too timid to say that some judges are great men, others brutal Some are wise, courageous, psychopaths compassionate; others are dolts, steeped in racism or snobbery, too cowardly to stand against the mob We cannot afford to permit Judge X to muzzle the press any more than we could permit Agnew, or Wilbur Mills, or anybody else m this society, however popular or powerful Well learn a lot about this Supreme Court when we see whether it understands that the First Amendment was never meant to protect reporters and editors; it is there to protect the American people, including defendants like Mandel, who want publicity, and those who dont like Simants Moore, McElravy, director of Social Services at Beatrice State School, Nebraska, on Dec 11, indicate their lack ot understanding of Utah and National Association for Retarded Citizens goals and policies It is not our policy to work for the elimination of the Training School at American Fork U A R C. is seeking appropriate programs and services for Utahs 33,04)0 mentally retarded children and adults including the 850 in American Fork. Our record exemplifies our support for the training school Recently we supported the Mental Retardation Assn of Utah Executive Director Elaine Sharps sugmore money be provided for the gestions that following- Appropriate education services for all school-age- d residents; expansion of the demonstration programs for the severely retarded in Wing B, help for the school to meet accreditation standards Our parent organization, National Association for Retarded Citizens, has also taken many positive steps to improve services at training facilities. They include, helping to establish and direct the Accreditation Council for Facilities for the Mentally Retarded, legislative efforts to improve the facilities, legislative programs to establish the institution as a habilitation facility, activities to reduce the medical experimentation with mentally retarded subjects, as well as parent training programs to increase volunteer effectiveness in improving institution programs It is interesting that the immediate past president of N A R C., Marion Smith of Florida, and the present N A R C. Director, Phil Roos of Texas, both have children m state institutions and Dr. Roos was formerly a superintendent of an institution. The U.A R C. goal and policy is to advocate for the mentally retarded person and hisher family and attempt to obtain services from other sources, rather than provide direct services. We may sponsor a demonstration program such as Project T.U.R.N. (Teaching Utahs Retarded Normalization) to facilitate the establishment of a service However, we eventually spin off the demonstration to its own body as we did in September with T U R N , so that we are better able to advocate for all mentally retarded people, not just those for whom we provide a service. In the future, we hope to see new facilities in the community that are designed to stimulate and care for severely and profoundly retarded persons. In other states and nations, communities care for their own, close to the handicapped persons family, and often the results have been astounding If there seems to be evidence that some aspects of the training school or any service to the mentally retarded needs change, then we advocate that change. Also, if there have been misleading or inaccurate statements concerning the service to the mentally retarded, we need to seek correction of that misinformation. In Utah we have two groups working for improved services and opportunities for the mentally retarded. Is this any different from the fact that we have two or more political parties, veteran groups, Chicano organizations, associations for senior citizens, or religious groups? The U.A R.C. and the MRAU. will agree on some issues and not on others but both groups serve the mentally retarded people as they see the need. Let us appreciate and recognize the efforts of both. ROBERT J. HUNT Executive Director Utah Assn. forRetarded Citizens Possible Compromise Editor, Tribune: Ernest Linfords Alfred on the Kaiparowits coal slurry comments pipeline (Tribune, Dec 15) are not too ridiculous It may well be more economical to mine the Kaiparowits coal, slurry it at the mine site and pump it to Southern California and Arizona where the power is destined. After mining, crushing and perhaps washing the coal, it could be slurried with some of the Colorado River water already owned by Arizona and California The slurry line might lead westerly from Kaiparowits into the Virgin River course, then southwesterly along the river and west of the Virgin Arm of Lake Mead, then southerly to that vast open area between Searchlite and Needles, California, which could serve as the power plant site Total distance maybe 400 miles, mostly downhill This site is better served by existing rail lines, highways, sources of supply, housing etc , would have shorter power lines to the users, better lines of communication, and oi course, not polutc Utah Water wrung from the coal at its destination could be used for cooling, or dumped back into the Colorado and reused by its owners downstream There is nothing new in these ideas. It may be a method of compromise with those Utahns and others who oppose the power plant installation but not the coal mimng operation at Kaiparow its. KEN McGRIFFIN counter-revolutionari- (Copyright) Stayhkal Today state-operate- d 4 Here are your assignments: Jones, France; Smith, Algiers; Baaas, Angola! |
