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Show abr gait akc ankmu Saturday Morning, April lf s.Miion Page 197H j vr-- ' Senators Vote l A Costly One Look Long, Intently to Future In Making Hospital Ruling Nationally, says tho American Hospital Association, there are between 100, (KM) to 150.(100 surplus beds. In Salt Lake County's seven hospitals the occupancy rate a erases about 74 percent of capacity. And only one of them, the University Medical Center with a 82.8 percent rate, surpasses the federal guideline rate of SO percent occupancy. Yet, plans have been advanced to build two additional hospitals in the county; a facility in Sandy and a hospital in West Jordan. The decision to build or not build can't lie based on a study of occupancy rates alone. Lionel Berry, representing Health Corporation of America which proposes to construct the West Jordan hospital, told a state review committee there is a clear and definable" need for a hospital in the southwestern part of the county. He said there are 7.4 hospital beds per 1,000 population in the northeast part of the county, while there are only .52 beds per 1,000 in the southwest section. This, according to Mr. Berry, has 00-be- d 75-be- d created a similar maldistribution of physicians. In the southwest area of Salt Lake County there is one doctor per 4,324 people compared to one physician for every 185 people in the northeast. The HCA spokesman also notes people living in areas closest to where his organization wants to build now drive 25 minutes by private automobile to reach a medical facility. Mr. Berry, thus, makes a convincing case for his organizations propos- - Washington Star Syndicate desert. refinery dumps are leaking perilous radon burial in Utahs western Theres no question the old gases. This has been acknowledged by the former Atomic Energy Commission, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the State Sciences Advisory Council and the Utah State Health Division. Its appropriate action that is lacking. Utah Rep. Dan Marriott is trying to force action, with a bill which would obtain federal financing for tho envisioned excavation and removal However, during a Salt Lake City hearing on the measure, Rep Marriott's efforts were characterized by some speakers as being either tardy, flawed or mostly a public relations show. He deserves more than that. Yes, sufficient congressional responsibility for the Vitro situation has been too slow developing Rut at least Rep. Marriott now appears ready to push the issue. Having gotten involved. he can t afiord to give the ( Sen Paul Hatfield, who WASHINGTON was appointed to take the place of Sen Lee Metcalf was sworn in to the U S. Senate on Jan 23 On March 16, he voted himself right out, of it. in the opinion of many of his fellow citizens of Montana Hatfield agonized to the last minute and never told anyone how he would go on the Panama Canal treaty, not al, in so far as ones perspective is limited to the area close to West Jordan. Similar arguments could probably be offered by Intermountain Health Care Inc., which wants to build the hospital in Sandy. IHC goes a step further by indicating it will eliminate 30 beds in LDS Hospital, with a resulting net increase of only 30 beds in the hospitals it operates in Salt Lake County. Even then the net overall increase of hospital beds in a county with about 2( percent more beds than are needed will be 105 more beds to add to the surplus. A fact that didnt go unnoticed by the state review committee when it rejected separate proposals for two new hospitals. Still, considering the apparent maldistribution of medical facilities noted by Mr. Berry in the southwestern part of the county, it could very well be premature to let the committees rejection stand as final word on the two hospital proposals. Considering the current rapid growth in the countys southern area, it is conceivable that what is now' an all too obvious over abundance could in the not too distant future become a deficit. This fact, coupled with possible creation of alternatives such as BO-b- expanded outpatient surgery facilities, should be given considerable weight before the final decision is made on plans for new hospitals in Sandy and West Jordan. Looking too intently and narrowly at the current occupancy rates could prove to be shortsighted in the extreme. Avoid Vitro Politics The point is, radioactive wastes at the old Vitro refinery site in Salt Lake County must be removed. How thats done, who gets credit for the achievement may be of related importance, but not in an overriding way. A plan for digging up the hazardous mill tailings exists. It encompasses transporting the material for matter only public relations attention. A federal uranium processing contract produced the radioactive wastes in the first place. Federal financing for the clean up is how the lingering menace should be removed. After other attempts at doing this were stymied, Rep. Marriott drafted his bill. Now he needs all the help he can rally. Its inconceivable that a public health threat as prominent and as recognized as the Vitro slag piles could be left to fester in the midst of dense population without all officials concerned, from county to federal level, combining every available effort to end it. And yet, indifference, and obstructionism has been more the rule than the exception. buck-passin- g Whats definitely not needed now complicating introduction of partisan politics. Strengthen Rep. Marriotts bill where it needs strengthening, enlist the congressional backing it should have, but sniping for pure political advantage is out of is the place. There are subjects on which political differences legitimately contend Eliminating a conceded, extracable human health hazard is not one. Its time to join forces against the lingering Vitro peril, not take sides. A ... A Future Einstein Future Horowitz Future Salk . . . . . .A gray-haire- nllion Alarm Sounded on Secrecy Now York Times News Service The British Oflicial Secrets Act, much criticized in Bntam, is often cited in this country as a dangerous example of what we must avoid. It forbids the disclosure of literally BOSTON anything about the government without official approval Even former Cabinet members who write about their experience have a duty to clear manuscripts with the Civil Service Dont look now, but an attempt is being made to slip British secrecy doctrine into American law. It is being made by the Justice Department Jimmy Carters Justice Department The ehicle is the suit against Frank Snepp, the former CIA man whose book on the end in Decent Interval," was published Vietnam, without official clearance The case against Snepp at first appeared to be based exclusively on a secrecy agreement he signed, promising to submit any manuscripts to the agency But papers just filed b the Justice Department make clear that it has another and much more sweeping legal theory Even if there had been no secrecy contract," it says, Snepp had a "fiduciary duty" to dear his book with the agency. The potential impact of that theory is very large Relatively few government employees signed secrecy agreements But under the Justice Departments argument, any former employee could be said to have a "fiduciary forever duty" to the government Collect Royalties If the former employee wrote some thing altout his government work without clearing it first, he would have breached the duty And then, according to the department's argument, the government could collect all his roy alto - or fees as damages The audacity of that argument is breathtaking It has long been common practice for high officials, Cabinet members, presidents to write about their years in government No statute requires them to get official approval for what they say, no regulation Yet now they are told that they are bound by something called a "fiduciary duty, and the government may claim their royalties as "unjust enrichment. Henry Kissinger had better watch out for his hook advance The Justice Department says in the Snepp case that "only those at the top of the intelligence community pyramid" can make a sound judgment on printing mattei s of possible intelligence interest If Kissinger does not clear his manuscript with Stansfield Turner, he may be sued assuming, that is. that the Justice Department will go after hi.-- millions ns as it is seeking Frank Snepps vigorously thousands likely story. , either knew a damaging statement was false or had a reckless disregard for whether it was true or false That decision, allhough recently tempered by a narrowing of the definition of a public figure, has guided the press in its judgments as io ihrr material it prints about prominent irrt'v iduals is defensible in court Now the Sullivan decision is coming back to the high court s attention in an appeal by Anthony Herbert, a former Army lieutenant i olonei He say s he was libeled in a segment on the CBS television show "(if) Minutes" and in a magazine article by the producer of the .egment $44 Million Suit bert was public figure 'he had engaged in a publicized feud with the Pentagon over alleged atrocities in Vietnam), the Sullivan decision, with its requirement that malice be shown, applies to his $44 million suit Since Ht-- a In the course of preparing for the trial. Herbert s lawyers questioned the producer Kairy l.ando He answered many of their questions in a deposition totaling close to 3.IKKI pages But h' refused to answer questions involving his 'bought processes in preparing the broadcast A federal district judge ordered Lando to answer ncaily all the disputed questions Lando look it to the I' S Court of Anneal1 which upheld his refusal, two to one Now thi Supreme Court has agteed to review that ruling J ust w hy the Supreme Court took the case is impossible to know; it seldom explains why it In asking for the review, grants review however, Herbert s lawyers made the question of malne a key and how it can be proved IssUt Intolerable Burden? They said that in order to prove malice they iu ed to know what was in Landos mind at the time he selected the material for the broadcast To try to prove malice without having access to his thought processes would create an intolera tile but den, thev claimed In other words, their position is that if the appeals court decision is allowed io rtand, the Sullivan decision is as good as no libel protection at ail CBS lawyers tixik the opposite view, of course Thev argued that the case was not ripe foi Supi erne ( ourt review. And they asserted that tlie Iimlo deposition provided all tht material Herbert s lawyers need To go into the "editorial process," they said, would pose an unacceptable threat to the robust debate w huh the First Amendment was designed to protect Their position is in line with the appeals i ourt decision Chief Judge Irving R Kaufman said that the "lifeblood of the editorial pro ess is human judgment " If imirn, (lists wire required lo answer A d d The ingenious new Justice Department argument has British echoes It seeks to apply to government the principle, laid down in private commercial cases, that someone leaving Company A should not give its trade secrets to Company B The British government drew just that parallel, between commercial and official business when it tried to stop publication of Richard Crossman's Cabinet diaries in 1974 But in the United States there is an enormous a constitutional difference difference between commercial and governmental affairs Our presumption is that the public ought to discuss what goes on in government. The First Amendment allows the government to enforce secrecy only for the most compelling reasons, and ordinarily only by specific statutes enacted by Congress. Should Ask For Law If the Justice Department wants all former government employees to have to clear manuscripts before publication, why doesnt it ak Congress to pass a law? The answer, of course, that such a proposal would have no chance It would arouse cries of alarm about an Official Secrets Act. But raise the idea in litigation, and no one may notice until it is too late. and The attempt to slip such a dangerous doctrine into American law is of a piece with other repressive positions taken by the Carter Justice Department in law suits The department, again copying secretive British tradition, has asked the courts for gag orders in civil cases. It has taken insensitive positions on official wiretapping and Landlocked State Just why Panama arouses such passion in a landlocked state on the Canadian border is not entirely clear, but right-wintreaty opponents say that feeling through the West runs right off the charts Larry Williams, the Republican Senate candidate, says that the latest polls show that 80 percent of Montana voters are opposed to the treaty, even with amendments and reservations factored in. and that 61 percent of voters of both parties vowed they would not vote for anyone who voted for the treaty Williams is assuring Montanans that he will be "the type of senator who votes what the people want on major issues g mail-openin- g 1 must correct one criticism in a previous column I said a brief signed by Barbara Babcock, assistant attorney general, opposed a suit for access to Kissinger's telephone transcripts In fact, the department opposed immediate judgment for the plaintiffs but asked to look at the transcripts so it could see whether they were official records covered by the Freedom of Information Act. The judge put aside that suggestion and decided himself that they were The department is not appealing, Kissinger is ) Not a General Policy Why have things gone so wrong, from the viewpoint of civil liberties, in the Carter Justice Department? I do not think it is a general policy. When Attorney General Griffin Bell has focused on major issues in legislation for example on electronic surveillance, he has often taken a careful, sensitive position But in bringing and arguing cases the department seems rudderless these days Lawyers make the most outrageous arguments, as if they were zealous private defense counsel unconcerned about the effects on or a society. There is no sense of a person in charge principle (Copy right i Chilling Action? Top Court Action Could Be One WASHINGTON When we m the news business see a threat to the freedom of the This court press we Use the word "chilling decision or that iegssla live proposal has a chil ling effect on our efforts to do our job, we say It's a useful word It is unspecific but implies a lot. a threatened freeze of "the publics right to know" (that s another expression we trot out at strategic momentsi These days the chill breeze is coming from that marble edifice on Capitol Hill where the Supreme Court resides The court has agreed to review a lower court's ruling that was given an ecstatic welcome by the press less than a year ago. The ruling protected from forced disclosure the mental processes by which journalists select and prepare information for publication Reckless Disregard To understand what is at stake, wc must go back to a landmark 1964 Supreme Court derision II held, ill New York Times Co Sul!) van. that to prove libel rhatges. public officials (later broadened to include public figures generally' had to show malice That is, they had to prove that the reixirter or editor even President Carter, who had him (or lunch and asked for his help. Hatfield was fighting off a ton of mail, angry and beseeching telephone calls, yards of petitions from various veterans organizations The only signal he gave was an llth-hou- r meeting with San Nunn of Georgia and Dennis DeConcim of Arizona, two equally Democrats who were looking for a way to support their president without cutting their own throats The morning of March 16, Hatfield was still on the telephone talking to members of the joint chiefs of staff and receiving their assurances that the "neutrality" treaty was in the best interests of national security. Sober Man man Hatfield is a sober, quiet, with th look of the frontier on his tanned, face Just over a year ago he was square-jaweelected chief justice of Montana by a margin of 103,000 votes. When Metcalf died, Gov. Tom Judge could have appointed Max Baucus, the young liberal congressman who had already announed for the Senate. who had senatorial But the governor, ambitions himself, and is said to feel about Baucus approximately the way Jimmy Carter feels about Menachem Begin, named Hatfield instead Hatfield now intends to run, and Montanas small Democratic party the is entire population of the state is 700,000 faced with an expensive and divisive scrap between two good men Panama will not be the issue in the primary, since Baucus announced that he also supports the canal treaties. Said one conservative, People pay much less attention to Baucus words than Hatfield's vote " hard-presse- d Jiarlr- - B. N'ilt A Gn r M;in questions about their judgments, he said, they would be "chilled in the very process of " thought An inquiry into judgments and how they are formed endangers a constitutionally realm and unquestionably puts a freeze on the free exchange of ideas within the newsroom Those are noble words, and most journalists would subscribe to them But I suspect that many members of the general public perhaps a majority might go along with Judge Thomas J Mesktil, who dissented from the appeals court decision Meat of Libel Action Me.sk ill said the Constitution permits prob ing into a journalists state of nnnd Under the Sullivan decision, he said, review of the editor's thought process "is what a libel action is all about "Obviously sui h review has a 'chilling' or deterrent effect," he said "It is supposed to The publication of lies should be discouraged " Finley Peter Dunne, writing as Mr. Lhxiley, once said that the supreme court follows the That great truth can be diction returns extended to say that public officials, including ludge1 respond to the public mood That is a thought which makes for a very factor in newsrooms uin oniiortable wind-dul- l and editorial offices pro-teite- d Copyright Vs, Canal Zone Williams "sort of admires" Hatfield for burking the popular tide. captain Sen Paul Laxalt, had put Hatfield in the possible" column because he thought he would follow the lead of Montanas other Democratic senator, John Meleher, who has four years to go and who announced himself against In the last hour of debate Meleher got up, said he would vote "no" mr no particular reason, and harangued the Senate to get on to more pressing matters like the farm bill Hatfield went home to face the music the next day, appearing at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Great Falls VFW post, of which he is a member He is a veteran of the Korean War When he was introduced some people stood up and clapped. "But there were a couple of boos" and one old friend came up to him and said grimly, "I want to talk to you Hatfield understands how his constituents feel He knows they think that "Washington doesn't bother to explain things to them He hopes he can explain his actions to them, and counts on their old respect and friendship to ease the scenes he expects. Easter Recess r Cher the recess, the Committee to Save the Panama Canal had scheduled some rather intense entertainments for hm, like radio and television spots, hostile speakers and calls from out of state These diversions were canceled, howevei, when the committee was informed that Laxalt, in a post-votparley, had discovered that the former judge had some legal problems" with Part II of the treaties. ' Were going to leave it up to the home folks," said a committee member. John Bell, a Helena lawyer and local conservative leader, is laying for Hatfield I want to tell him that he stepped in a hole on this neutrality treaty, but that he can recovet by voting against the turnover," Bell says Hatfield, as he was leaving for home, says he has nut made up his mind on Part II All he knows is tha, he is going to announce his intentions ahead of time "I just couldn't go through it all again," he says simply rt'opvnchti Anti-treat- v , Ca-,te- e J y |