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Show Sun Chronicle Thursday, April 3, iyo 3 "B ijAu F Editors Note: The following news items have been compiled from releases sent directly to us from Utah's congressmen to keep our readers informed about what is going on in Washington D We THE mum encourage our readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters must be printed or typewritten and signed, including address and phone number for verification C. purposes. Deadline for submitting letters each week will be Mondays at 5 p.m. Moss's response on energy question In conjunction with Consumer Subcommittee hearings held to explore the impact of energy proposals on the conlast month asked sumer, Senator Frank E. Moss, six Utah colleges and universities to voice their energy problems and concerns. Senator Moss is chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumers. Perhaps the most hard pressed consumer under any institution. Nonenergy proposal will be the not the do have institutions advantages of tax profit rebates or revenue sharing, yet they will have to share in the additional burdens of increased energy cost, Sen. Moss commented in his letters to University ol Utah, Utah State University, Weber State College, College of Eastern Utah, Southern Utah State College and Brigham Young University. Each responding institution asserted that drastic energy cost increases have put a strain on college budgets. For instance, Fuel oil heating costs for Southern Utah to $200,000 in the State College rose from $55,000 in 1973-7past year, an increase of 264 percent. Sun Chronicle non-prof- it The Sun Chronicle is published weekly at Roy, Utah, 5388 S. 1900 VV. Mailing address, P.O. Box 207, Roy, Utah 84007. Telephone 825-166- 6. All news and photographs for Thursdays paper must be in the news office before Monday at 5 p.m. Pictures may be included without charge, either taken in the office or submitted by you. 4 J. Howard Stahle Nursing home authority U.S. Senator Jake Garn says he strongly objects to HEW plans to transfer some authority governing nursing homes from the states to the secretary of HEW. Garn said the agency plans to transfer the power to "Any ideas, Jerry, on how to recycle 4 tons of melted down WIN buttons ? Care Facilities and Skilled Nursing from the individual states to the HEW secretary. He said HEW claims the move would assure national uniformity for nursing home facilities. "This is another case of the Federal Government sticking its nose where it doesnt belong, Garn said. A bureaucrat in Washington cant possibly have enough understanding of a local climate to know what standards should be applied to individual nursing facilities. Even if he could, this is a responsibility that should remain with the states. The Federal Government is already too much involved in local affairs. The Utah Republican has written a letter to HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger, asking that the agency reconsider the proposed change because it increases inordinate concentration of Medicaid program authority in HEW and is a diminution and breach of states rights. Sen. Garn said the proposed change affects 50 nursing facilities and about 1,500 beds in Utah. Facilities Moss's bill for Uinta Wilderness area A bill to designate a High Uintas Wilderness Area was and is idenintroduced by Sen. Frank E. Moss, tical to his bill on this matter introcuded in the 93rd Congress. It would include 319,538 acres of land encompassing portions of both the Wasatch National Forest and the Ashle National Forest a region of supreme beauty and great natural worth, the Senator noted. Lead shot ban Jake Garn says that he will legislation to prohibit the Department of Interior from banning the use of lead shot in waterfowl hunting until at U.S. Senator least 1980. Garn said the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife wants to ban the use of lead because of some waterfowl poisoning caused by ingestion of lead pellets. He said he is opposed to the prohibition because it would affect areas which have no problem with poisoning, and because, by its own admission, the Bureau doesnt know the magnitude or extend of the problem. I can see where there may be some concern in some areas, Garn said, but there is no need for such a drastic measure as a total ban of lead shot. It is suggested without a viable alternative for sportsmen, and has been proposed without a firm basis of fact. Sponsors of the bill are calling for alternative solutions to the poisoning problem to be worked out between the states and the Federal Government. Housing challenge Jake Gam, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, today challenged the National Association of Realtors to come up with some concrete proposals for solving the country's housing ills. Association president Art S. Leitch testified before the Subcommittee during hearings on emergency housing and housingenergy legislation. He told Subcommittee members that tools needed to bolster the housing industry include some kind of restructuring of the financial system and many other promising ideas." Senator Garn responded by saying that during his three months in the Senate he has heard much rhetoric and comment about housing policy and goals, and that most of it has been vague. He said the country does not have a housing policy and that he is not sure anyone is capable of developing one. Nerve gas shipments lawful Senator Frank E. Moss has been informed by the Department of Defense that shipments of nerve gas material, all in small research quantities, were made from Tooele in the past year and in accordance with DOD statutes. According to DOD, only two of fourteen shipments from Tooele Army Depot definitely contained nerve gas; four others contained substances suspected of nerve gas contamination ; the rest of the shipments were of World War II chemical identification kits which do not contain nerve gas. An amendment to the DOD appropriation act of 1972 requires prior notice on hipments of nerve gas from existing stockpiles but exempts such notice when the materials are being used tor research. I have been assured that all transports of research chemicals have been made under the supervision of experts, Moss said. J Advertising Mgr. Editor Managing Editor Assistant Assistant 825-664- Ilammon, April 3 200 YEARS AGO ac- A Philadelphia group cused Dutch merchants of purchasing East India goods in London for eventual resale to American traders. (National Park Service CNS) April 4 200 YEARS AGO Information that royal authorities contemplated economic and military measures against residents of Boston created a local panic. (National Park Service CNS) April 5 200 YEARS AGO The marquis of Granby accused the British ministry of threatening the colonists with "fire and sword for resent ing the loss of their property by Parliamentary acts. (National Park Service CNS) April 6 200 YEARS AGO Merchant Nathaniel Shaw of New London, Conn., wrote a friend that future trade depended on the repeal of thfe Coercive Acts. (National Park Service CNS) April 7 200 YEARS AGO Representatives from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire agreed that measures critical of the British should have the approval of all New England colonies. (National Service Park CNS) April 8 200 YEARS AGO The Provincial Congress in Concord, Mass., resolved to raise an armed force for general defense in view of British troop harassment. (National Park Service CNS) April 9 200 YEARS AGO Two British vessels were sent to Boston in anticipation of a move by colonists to seize a cannon and ammunition at Fort Pownall. (National Park Service CNS) April 10 200 YEARS AGO The British 38th and 52nd regiments marched from Boston to Watertown causing a good deal of alarm along the countryside, a paper said. (National Park Service CNS) an cclitoric&l i Military strength stressed By William Leob, Publisher Manchester (N.II.) Union-LeadOne of the most serious problems the United States faces today concerns the need to convince a g Congress of the necessity of mainvery our military strength . taining For instance, just recently Navy Secretary J. William Middendorf II pointed out that the Navy today has fewer ships than before Pearl Harbor, and as a result risks losing its preeminence on the er left-win- seaS. According to Middendorf, The Soviet Navy has nearly twice as many major surface combatants and submarines as we do. Obviously the continuation of such a situation would mean that the United States would be a helpless position as regards opposing any action by the Russians. Unfortunately, a harassed public and a Congress worried by high costs feel like saying, To cut the budget we should cut it out of the Armed Services appropriation. Actually, this is the worst possible place to cut the budget. It would be nice to be able to use these funds for hospitals, education or some other obvious need, but whether we like it or not, we are not in an age when the lion and the lamb will lie down in peace together. We are in an age when we are faced with two very deadly foes in the shape of the Chinese Communists and the Russian Communists. For us to become weak is for us to invite attack and, at which point the ultimately, our destruction of welfare 6; Clearfield 4; 825-0638- News, .- CNS L questions 825-947- Maryjane Adams, National Park Service er Correspondents: Roy LDS Church and Roy Sunset News, Virginia YVursten, News and Sunset LDS Church News, Denise modify or waive safety and environmental standards for Intermediate Owner-Publish- Mrs. Bonnie Stahle Mrs. Pat Sutter Bonnie Cantwell Julie Johnson Lonnie Reid and education would be academic. Unfortunately, as Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and also former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently, When it comes to national defense, many in high places reason that since we havent had a fire in some time, we might as well do away with the fire engines and the firemen. 'OVER THE HILL AT 70' Court battles stir retirement age row By FRANK MACOMBER Copley News Service Should American workers be retired at 60, 70 or even earlier on a mandatory basis? Or should each employes retirement date be based on his or her ability to stay on the job and continue the competence of earlier years? The nations economy pinch has focused new controversy on these questions and on the whole issue of mandatory versus optional retirement. Some companies which either had no mandatory retirement age limits or sidestepped them in specialized merit cases now are imposing the ground rules more strictly as one way to trim payrolls. Another significant factor in the imposition of stiff retirement guidelines traditionally has been the pressures imposed on large firms by insurance companies holding their group medical and life insurance policies. As employes grow older and the risk of prolonged illness or death rises, so do the insurance premiums, company personnel officials point out. However, when an employe finally reaches age 65, he or she becomes eligible for government-finance- d Medicare if illness strikes. And many companies reduce the amount of life insurance protecting holdover workers 65 or older, thereby trimming premiums. All these conditions add up to a rash of court battles over the constitutionality or equity of enforced early retoo-cost- ly tirement. General Motors, the countrys largest auto builder, has been a leader in the growing premature retirement move. George B. Morris Jr., vice president of GM industrial relations, says more than 5,000 hourly workers between the ages of 47 and 64, with more than 30 years of service, retired by option last Oct. 1. That was the date GM pension benefits for hourly employes jumped from $550 to $625 a month. At GM, union contracts provide optional retirement arrangements up to 68 and mandatory retirement there- after. Anoiiier 2,bou GM workers .lih 30 or more years of service retired by the end of January, at a time when all auto makers were being forced to lay off thousands of workers one way or another. Morris says the heavy trend toward early retirement began at GM in 1965. The average hourly worker retirement age at GM now is 61, compared to 65 in 1965. But not all companies provide employes with full retirement benefits as early as age 58 if they have 30 years of service. Hence the more common mandatory early retirement trend is running into more opposition than favor. While there is no constitutional provi that can govern a private companys retirement rules, a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision has appeared to buttress the retirement-at-7- 0 5 concept but perhaps weaken the policy. The court held constitutional the mandatory government rule that U.S. Civil Service employes retire at 70. The justices merely affirmed an earlier three-judg- e court decision upholding the federal law. But a year earlier the high court had taken another tack. It ruled unconstitutional a mandatory leave provision in a Cleveland schoolteacher contract which required pregnant teachers to take maternity leave after the fifth month of pregnancy. The court said the school system should make an independent determination in each case to decide wh n the teacher could not perform her iuties because of pregnancy. In a dissenting opinion, Justice William H. Rehnquist said similar reasontire-ment ing might threaten mandatory programs. The Cleveland ruling, indeed, gave opponents of mandatory retirement a new pad from which to launch legal attacks, even though the decision applied only to a local government policy. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association, without any such retirement deadline problems of its own, has entered the arena on the side of optional retirement policies. The AMA got into the controversy before the Supreme Court's Civil Service ruling, asking the high tribunal to reject the federal governments rule as harmful to both the individual and society. The philosophy of the marketplace has brainwashed thousands of Americans into the belief that a person is over the hill at 70, the AMA told the justices. It contended that some people lose their judgment, abilities and even physical dexterity at 40, while others retain these qualities past 80. The granting and continuance of employment opportunities should be based on the individuals competence and ability not age, the AMA brief contended. An individuals mental and physical health ran be impaired by forced retirement through loss of status, lack of meaningful activity, fear of becoming dependent and isolation, it added. At the same time, society is burdened with the support of many older individuals who still could be productive. Legal experts, looking at the entire retirement formula spectrum, believe it will come down to an eventual series of court decisions allowing government and or agencies to abide by the mandatory retire-at-7- 0 rule and leaving it up to private firms to fix their own retirement rules, with only labor unions acting as referees so far as their member employes are concerned. sion or other law out-at-6- retire-ment-at-- nt |