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Show a be lake tribune i? a t 1 Sundav Morning Section Juh 2'), 1WI Page 18 A Dont Turn County Libraries Into Entertainment Centers Technology penetrated libraries long ago, tranforming quiet book centers that vaults into cater to citizens various communications needs. But the Salt Lake County Library System went too far. After brainstorming for solutions to their budget woes, library officials last January bought four video machines for Whitmore Library, the crown jewel of the system. Recognizing the incongruity of the arrangement, however, community councils convinced library officials to pull the plug on Pac Man, or multi-medi- a whatever video games theyd purchased. Over the years, libraries have served many functions, most of them dealing with the dissemination of information. All along, re- theyve provided sources for scholarly pursuits and sanctuaries for harried, intellectual or reclusive lovers of literature. More recently, libraries have harnessed the capabilities of computers and other electronic equipment to give citizens, regardless of wealth, easy access to material, whether printed or taped. But the machines primarily were used as tools to achieve a motive to preserve and pass along informa thought-provokin- g tion and other human expressions, not merely to offer mindless entertainment. Thats the main reason the county systems business venture into the video game business was so invidious. The noisy, mesmerizing machines clashed with the traditional purpose and character of the library. But besides that, they put the public agency into competition wTith private business. For this and others reasons, the library systems food vending idea also lacks luster. If librarians can keep food off books and crackling cellophane and chomping snackers out of earshot of serious readers, our objections may subside. In this case, after all, the library, like other public agencies, would be teaming up with private businesses for a cut of the profits. While they should be encouraged to come up with creative ideas for delivering quality services at minimal expense to taxpayers, library ofg ficials had best stick to projects that are conducive to a learning environment. Perhaps their plan for selling magazine subscriptions passes that test, but it still doesnt sound like something a trusted librarian would do. fund-raisin- Give Students More Credit Maintaining a trend toward cooperative reform, Utahs two education systems have forged another promising policy for students and taxpayers. Before its financial and educational benefits can be realized, however, school officials around the state must be convinced, by a show of support from constituents, that the payoff in starting new programs is worth the pain. A few weeks ago, the Liaison Committee of the Utah State Board of Education and State Board of Regents approved a concurrent enrollment policy that should make it easier for high school students to earn college credits. To a limited extent, where high schools participate in the pational Advanced Placement program or where high schools and colleges exist in close proximity, college-leve- l classes already are available to Utah students. But the proposed policy would extend the privilege to many more students by offering college-leve- l classes on high school campuses throughout the state at discount prices. To put concurrent programs in place, school districts must team up with state colleges to decide which classes will be taught where, by whom and for how much. The matter of assigning credits for the coursework also must be worked out to assure students their efforts will reap a tangible reward. The proposed policy proves that practical solutions can result from bureaucratic cooperation. The pros of the program are many; the cons few. The major educational advantage challenge and extra stimulaclasses would offer tion college-leve- l inclined students who academically is the have tended to satisfy graduation credits early and slack off on their studies their senior year. Without leaving their high school buddies prematurely or simply wasting their time, accelerated or ambitious students could save both time and money by stockpiling college credits. They would spend less on tuition, living expenses and transportation while still at home, and they could start earning a living a year or so early by finishing college ahead of schedule. Thats not all. Concurrent programs also could talented, qualified teachers greater job satisfaction. Incomes might be bolstered by extra pay for college-leve- l teaching; enthusiasm for teaching might be replenished by classrooms full of intelligent, motivated students. And of considerable importance is the positive impact such programming would have on Utahs studentladen, financially strapped school systems. State colleges and universities already are turning students away for lack of public funds. If students were moved through the higher education system faster, more students could be served. Finally, Utah taxpayers probably would save money on concurrent enrollment. It costs the state at least twice as much to put a student through a year of college as a year of give high school. Because no special monetary incentives are available to encourage school districts and colleges to team up on concurrent programs, the concepts widespread acceptance depends on public demand and the willingness of educators to do whats best for students and the state. We urge them to add concurrent enrollment to their list of school reforms. most-importa- nt Sorrv to See Him Go 9 Hes a quiet man. seemingly self-effacin- who's seldom in the limelight. His large hands fumble nervously with the flaps on his jacket pockets as he addresses groups of educators and state school board members But when the group disbands, Lerue Wingets hand, like his heart, warmly, sincerely envelopes those of new and old acquaintances. To assume this unassuming man makes an ineffectual education leader is to err. Burningham, over his past 27 years at the state school office. On occasion, hes been able to pacify, even satisfy, skeptical, reporters. Dr. Winget has nurtured good ideas for students, helping them filter down from the state school office to the classroom. Hes made an impression on such successful ventures as the high school Advanced Placement program and, just recently, such touchy experiments as the teacher career ladder. Dr. Winget, an associate superintendent of public instruction in Utah, is a peacemaker. He's reliable; an educator who has worked quietly to When Dr. Winget retires in August. the state will bid a fond farewell to a good and kind teacher and smooth the transition from one ministration to several others, cluding those headed by Terrel Coinputibility is when he doesn't yell at her for the first dent in the car any more than she did at him over the first spill on the get things done. He's helped Boll. Waltor D Talbot and G adin- H. I.ol'H administrator. nH- r 1'ribtmc Editorial latter Common Currier Disputing Conventional Wisdom Deficit Not Worth All orry By Charles R. Morris Special to the Los Angeles Times Anything that Walter F. Mondale and Robert J. Dole can agree on qualifies as the most conventional of conventional w isdom and it immediately raises a political skeptics suspicions. Within the last week. Mondale and Dole, the Republicans' chief Senate financial strategist, both stated that the federal deficit was the most pressing economic problem facing the nation, necessitating major tax increases as soon as possible. If we have learned anything over the past 15 years or so of economic follies and foibles, it should be that unanimity is the surest sign of error. When establishment pillars of both major parties agree that it is time to raise taxes to fix the deficit, it is time to start wondering whether the deficit is such a serious problem after all. The Mondale-Dol- e version of reality goes something like this. The economy is growing at breakneck speed. Revised Department of Commerce figures now show a 10.1 percent annual rate of real GNP growth during the first quarter of 1984 and 7.5 percent during Charles R. Morris is author of A Time of Passion: America 1960-1980- ." the second quarter the latter in particular, far higher than almost any economists expected. The rocketing growth is fueled by the huge federal deficit, expected to be in the $180 billion to $190 billion range for the current fiscal year and getting bigger after that. Deficit spending on such an enormous scale is the crassest form of Keynesism, leading inevitably to runaway inflation and zooming interest rates, until the economy spins crazily off the roller coaster track into a classic economic crackup. The root problem is the three-yea- r program of Reagan tax cuts that created the deficits in the first place. The solution is to raise taxes quickly to get the economy under control, bring down the deficits, lower interest rates and put the country back on the path of moderation and balanced growth. Or so the conventional wisdom would have it. The conventional wisdom is buttressed in this instance by the persistent, monthlong slide of the stock market, in the face of the brightest economic statistics since World War II. Leave aside the fact that since roughly 1968, the performance of the average stock market professional has been only a little better than that of the at Aqueduct Race Track. average $2 bettor on the Super-Exact- a The problem with the conventional wisdom is that a lot of economic facts do not fit the Mondale-Dol- e model. Take inflation, for instance. At this point in the business cycle as virtually all economists predicted six or seven months ago inflation should be rumbling in its den and visibly baring its teeth. But inflation is actually slowing from 4.4 percent in the first quarter to only 3.2 percent in the second quarter. Producer prices are flat, and many commodity prices are in fact falling. Copper prices are at their lowest levels since the Depression. What about crowding out? One of the bad effects of big budget deficits is supposed to be that government borrowing to finance the deficit elbows out private borrowing and chokes.off business investment. But during the years first half, fixed business investment was the economys spark plug, rattling along at annual growth rate of 20.6 percent in the first quarter and 20 percent in the second. There are still no signs that business is having trouble finding money from the banking system. In the classic late stages of the business cycle, bank earnings surged because they can charge greater spreads for scarcer funds. But bank earnings are still very depressed for reasons that go far beyond their bad Latin American loans. In 1983, business, taken as a whole, financed all of its investment without any net borrowing from banks, relying instead on profits and other internally generated funds. The picture is a little better for the banks in 1984, but not much, which is why bankers are still falling over each other to make and leveraged buy-omega-mergloans. They are sinking in the sea of liquidity and desperately looking for profitable islands to park their funds. Even high interest rates do not fit the usual pattern. In the good old days when the economy had some respect for conventional wis dom, high interest rates were the surest way to choke off a recovery insurance But consumers no longer keep their money in policies and savings accounts. Now high rates mean a tougher time for the housing market, but more disposable income for consumers, found money for taking a trip to Europe or buying a new dishlow-retur- n washer. Most other economic indicators read the same way. The dollar should be going down, but instead it is going up (causing huge losses in the second quarter for almost all professional foreign exchange traders, who were betting on their conventional wisdom). If inflation rates should be a lot higher than were really in the offing, long-tershort term rates, but they are not. And so on. And now The Wall Street Journal has published some figures from the Council of Economic Advisers that show that there may not be so nearly big a deficit problem as we thought The deficit we have all been worrying about is the federal deficit. which is only part of the governments spending story. State and local governments will run a surplus in 1984, largely because sales tax revenues are soaring with the economy's rapid upswing. At about $90 billion, the state and local surplus will offset roughly half the projected federal deficit this year and even larger percentages for the foreseeable future. From an economic flow standpoint, surpluses on the local level have roughly the same effect as surpluses on the federal level Money is taken out of the economy by taxation and becomes a form of enforced savings. State and local surpluses are savings pools that are available to meet federal spending needs without disrupting the private financial system, just as if the federal government had taxed in the money itself. If the United States presented its accounts like most other industrialized countries, where most state and local spending shows up on if not the central government books, the deficit problem would virtually disappear and the countrv would be deficit bereft of a familiar and favorite worrv the-entir- Struggle to Control Shiite Community Khomeinists Threaten Lebanon Unity By G.H. Jansen Special to the Los Angeles Times The biggest single BEIRUT, Lebanon threat to the unity of Lebanon today comes not from the separatist Maronites of the Phalange Party, dreaming of their independent Marounistan, but from the fanatical Khomeinist group within the Lebanese Shiite community. The Khomeinists are struggling hard to Shigain political control of the whole of the ite community, and that is of great consequence to Lebanon because the Shiites, numbering almost 1 million, are 40 percent of the population and the largest community in the country; and also because the Shiites, since Feb. 6, have been in military control of West - G. H. Jansen is an author and foreign correspondent who has covered the Middle East for many years. Beirut, that is, of half the national capital. On that day, in a matter of hours, thousands of militiamen of the Shiite Amal movement swept the Lebanese army out of West Beirut; as a result, the Lebanese army broke apart and the Sixth Brigade, mainly Shiite in composition, stationed on the outskirts of West Beirut, took over formal control of the western area and still exercises it. So the Shiite military control is both informal, through Amal militiamen, and formal, through the Sixth Brigade. Accordingly, Shiite the leadership of the community is a great prize and since Feb. 6 an increasingly bitter struggle for that leadership has been going on between the hardline Khomeinists led by the bearded, cloaked and turbaned tribe of sheiks, represented by Sheik Mohammed Shamseddin, and the nonclerical moderates in shirts and trousers led by Nabih Berri. Immediately after Feb. 6, the Khomeinists, guns in hand, tried to impose on West Beirut the harsh puritanical way of life produced by the Islamic revolution in Iran. They demanded that women should be covered up and seen as little as possible in public, that public entertainment should be moral and, of course, that alcohol should be prohibited. So they smashed up bars and nightclubs and fashionable boutiques and nmc cinemas, and since thev are opnnrt to the entire Western system of social and cultural values, as taught at the American University of Beirut, that institution, which is a focal point of the life of West Beirut, has become a particular target for their threats and armed attacks. Within days the moderates reasserted their control, apologized to the owners of the establishments attacked and urged them to reopen for business. Among the Sunnis and Druse, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Christians in West Beirut (and among the Maronite and Orthodox Christians of East Beirut) there was very real fear that during the fasting month of Ramadan (when actually more g food is consumed than during months), the Khomeinists would again try and impose their bleak pattern of social life in West Beirut. the Shiites, the Sunni religious head suggested that bars might close Pre-empti- during Ramadan and the hint was taken. But there was no other attempt at enforcing Khomeinist puritanism. Hence, so far. the Khomeinists have not won the battle of the bikinis on the beaches or the battle of the bars in Hamra, the fashionable center of West Beirut. As for East Beirut and the area of the Lebanese hinterland it represents, one thing is absolutely clear: Its inhabitants will never accept Khomeinist domination nor could they accept peaceful coexistence with it. Therefore, if an Islamic republic comes about, the eastern area will go off on its own into what will, necessarily, be a separate state; and Lebanon will be partitioned into several parts because neither the Druse of the Shouf area nor the Sunnis of northern Lebanon would agree to be junior partners in a Khomeinist state |
