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Show William Raspberry Section A Thursday Morning, October 4, Agnew Hanged Without a Trial Page 22 1973 Unless you are either totally WASHINGTON devoid of feeling or totally convinced of his guilt, little sympathy for you have to have at least a , Vice President Agnew. The odds are against his having anything like a fair trial on the charges now, about to be apparently, made against him. And . there is no chance whatso-,4'- f ever that b' will survive the I t 1 ordeal with his reputation no and his honor intact matter if he never accepted a single bribe, did a Compensation for Lost Grazing Bad Precedent and Wrong While the $362.5 million figure that of the Earth see as the ultimate Friends cost to American taxpayers if the Congress enacts the San Carlos Mineral Strip bill might be something off the top of someones head, the conservation groups opposition to the bill is proper. There is something very wrong with compensating any lessee simply because the lessor chooses not to renew the lease. At least, it is wrong if the man occupying any premises is given adequate notice that, his .ease is going to be cancelled. The bill would authorize payment of $2.5 million to a group of Arizona ranchers because their cattle have been pushed off land that has been returned to the San Carlos Apache Indians. Formerly the ranchers used the land for grazing. The point made by Friends of the Earth legislative director George Alderson that, The bill would set an unacceptable precedent and enthrone livestock grazing as the dominant use of all public lands being used under permit, is well taken. Federal land and resources managers, knowing that they would likely be required to compensate cattle and sheep men, would likely be very reluctant, even for some very sound ecological reasons, to cancel or substantially change a grazing permit. They would thus be denied a necessary flexiblity that is inherently part of a good resource management plan. This is not to argue against reasonable notification if for good conservation management reasons a grazing permit must be withdrawn or. altered. Such notification is only fair to the rancher. He must have sufficient time to arrange for additional grazing, negotiate other grazing permits or change his methods of operations. - and Agnew the politician is dead already, to it. In both close is human the oeing Agnew cases, the fate may be deserved. The point is, hes been hanged without a trial. But to pay a rancher because his grazing permit has been withdrawn would be the equivalent of paying him for the loss of property he never owned. The land under consideration in the San Carlos Mineral Strip has never belonged to those Arizona ranchers. They have only be given federal permission to use, a privilege they had to pay for. the title for that land, Nevertheless, regardless of how many years the land has been used by the ranchers, has never been conveyed to the ranchers. The land remains No, thats a wrong figure; in a dam break of leaks. Does the Damage What isnt forgivable, in the name of justice, is that so many unchecked, and uncheckable particulars of the allegations against him were made public, primarily through leaks to newsmen. For as a result, there is no longer simply a suspicion of wrongdoing hanging over his head; it has come to the point where many people only wonder graft he took, not whether he took it. what they would have had to pay if had been leasing private land of compathey rable quality. The mere fact that they probably enjoyed some pretty cheap grazing for many years more than compensates them for any imagined loss they might have incurred by withdrawal of their grazing petunia. below how-muc- first term that Mr. Nixon reversed his stand and assumed the power Congress had given him to fix prices and wages and impose other economic regulations. Then the process of voluntary controls started all over again. When it became obvious that there would be gasoline, heating oil and gas shortages, It was not until late in his One wonders why an administration which had experienced failure with voluntary controls waited so long to impose regulations on the distribution of oil and gas. Cold weather could be upon most of the nation before the administrative machinery to enforce controls can be organized and put to work. Any kind of controls are inherently objectionable in a society dedicated to free enterprise. We dont like them any better than the oil and gas industry or the beef farmers or the auto makers. But when the alternative is cold schoolrooms, farmers unable to harvest and dry their crops, plants shut down for lack of fuel then we can temporarily put aside our scruples in the face of overriding necessity to distribute available supplies fairly. Now that the government has finally of distribution moved toward equtable is oil it and this winter propane gas heating the duty of suppliers and consumers alike to cooperate fully to that end. Failure to do so could mean even stiffer curbs in the future. Not Dead, Yet Procedure d According to the Utah Code of Criminal Procedure, the judge must upon the request of the defendant Utah clear the court room. Code Annotated 1953, reads as follows: The Exclusion rf spectators on request magistrate must also, upon the request of the defendant, exclude from the examination every person except his clerk, the prosecutor and his 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. AU letters are subject to condensation. counsel, the attorney general, the district attorney, the county attorney, the defendant and and the officer having the defendant in custody. d This is an old and provision of law defendant the right not to have his giving every acts and statements aired publicly until there has been a judicial determination a) that a crime has been committed and b) that there is probable cause that the defendant committed that crime. time-teste- It would appear the question on open or closed court v'as not in the discretion of the judge, but in the discretion of counsel for the defendant. SUMNER J. H ATCH Joseph Alsop The Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON In the murk obscuring the bleak realities of U.S. foreign policy, no single as detente. word is so thickly As previously noted, this reporter nightly goc--s to bed praying that events may prove him crazy. If not, however, almost everything that has been said or written about the alleged detente with the Sovied Union is no more than innocent twaddle. d In reality, you have two great countries, the United States and the Sc-- - .t Union, f y lMr- - Als0D roles. It is simultaneously pursuing simplest to begin with the Soviets, since their role is the source and explanation of the American role. double-face- d Long ago, a brilliant if eccentric English student of modern Russia put the problem in a nutshell. Max Hayward said: The point is that in the Soviet Union today, nothing really works For many except, alas, the armed forces reasons mainly because the Soviet leaders wish to preside over a society this peculiar situation has ended by becoming downright dangerous, and therefore intolerable. 2 Realistic Choices In these strange circumstances, the Soviet leaders in fact have only two realistic choices. The first choice, which people call detente, is to try to make all the things work that do not now work, by massive importations of western credits and western technology. The natural Soviet obioction to this choice is. of course, the need to accept the temporary loss of freedom of action that goes with importation. As to the second Soviet choice, it is simply to exploit what unquestionably works very well in short, the vast Soviet military power. If this is the final decision of Leonid Brezhnev and his colleagues, the first result will be a Soviet preventive attack on China. The minimum aim will be to subject China to nuclear castration; for an independent, successful China, fully armed with nuclear weapons, is plainly a major nightmare for Moscow. Only a Start But an attack on China, if it comes, can only be the start of a larger process. The essence of that process will be Soviet exploitation of superior military power, not just in China, but later, if the attack on China is successful, in other vital areas like the Persian Gulf. In recent months, moreover, several important indicators suggest that the Soviets are leaning towards the military choice. To name just two indicators, there is first of all the matter of the Soviet general staff. The Marshal M. V. powerful chief of staff in Zakharov, was strongly opposed to the Chinese adventure. Marshal Zakharov is even known to have played a key role in averting a Soviet decision to attack in 1969, when the quarrel was so open and vicious. 1969-197- Sino-Sovi- Almost as Vicious Nobody has noticed the quarrel is almost as open and vicious today. Observers in Peking are beginning to say that in view of the rage being openly expressed on both sides, tangible results, such as a break in diplomatic relations, may well N sem fairlv soon Yet the Soviets can put off the final decision, to attack or to refrain from attacking, for a year or two longer. The key moment will be when the Chinese nuclear program gives China what the military call a safe second strike." These being the real facts, the Soviet policy can be called double-facein the most literal sense. If the military choice is made, in other words, all the actions and gestures people describe as detente will still be most useful to Soviets but as a of simply program in advance of an tranquilizers-fo- r everybody, eastwards attack. If the final choice is not to attack, however, the Soviets will then have prepared for ihe massive importations of western credits and technology that constitute the other road they can take. d Double-Face- d What may be called the too, because it reflects eign policy is double-facethe foregoing situation. What amounts to a temporary alliance with China has been made, to deter a Soviet attack in the East. If the Soviets successfully make the military choice, it will be rather worse than Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland and triumph at Munich, both rolled into one. Thus, deterrence is a vital American interest. But no great government, including the Soviet government, is ever united on any painful choice Hence the U.S. has such as that to provide the indicated readiness its truthfully needed credits and technology for the Soviets. Here the aim is strengthening the arguments of those in Moscow who oppose the military choice. Nixon-Kissing- Editor, Tribune: In reference to the Associated Press article on Eureka, in the Sept. 27 i3sue of The Tribune, it is full of incorrect information. I was raised in Eureka the first 16 years of my life. I now live in Salt Lake City and am 18 years old. Being expert on the town, I was upset at some of the statements I read in the article. First of all, Eureka is far from being a ghost town, at least by my definition. There are 700 people living there and are very much alive. Second, all of the churches are ir. very well kept buildings. The Roman Catholic Church was recently remodeled on the inside and repainted on the outside. Third, my father is vice president of Centennial Development. They moved their main office to Salt Lake City over a year ago. The shop still remains in Eureka. Finally, the article makes Eureka to be an eerie dead town. Although Eureka isn't what it use to be, it is still very much alive. MARTHA QUIGLEY No. One Problem Editor, Tribune: Housing is the number one social problem in Utah. Utah is years behind every other state in providing assistance in housing for low income people. Our citizens are not aware of the problem because it is not visible. We do not have a slum area per se. The real problem is the lack of housing available. We have elderly people living in fire traps. Building inspectors close their eyes to the problem because there is no other place these people could afford to live if their present dwellings were condemned. The urban renewal in downtown Salt Lake City has displaced hundreds of people. Many of these people have been forced to crowd into the homes of family members. Others have been forced to move out of the center city, and now have a problem getting to their jobs. Some have had to give up their jobs for lack of transportation, and are now on the welfare rolls. The emergency housing bill to be considered in the legislative special session will not solve all of Utahs problems, but it will help. Lpc nrge our legislators to support the bill KATHY BLAIR or Arms: Soviets Realistic Choices Detente And because he already stands condemned without a trial, it strikes me as particularly harsh to chide him, as some have, for bacKing away from his earlier statement of confidence in the Criminal justice system of the United States. The Public Forum Editor, Tribune: It would appear that your editorial criticism of Logan City Judge, Zachary Champlin, in your Sept. 29 issue, may be unwarranted. the administration hauled cut admonitions tc the oil industry to regulate itself in the public interest. But it finally became obvious that fair, enforceable distribution of the available supply would be needed to make sure no part of the country went without gas and oil during the cold months. Tuesday controls were placed on propane gas and similar action was promised soon for heating oil. It was a case of better late than never. drowned forgivable. publiejand. Those ranchers have suffered no loss because the land has been turned back to the Apaches. The ranchers have received everythe right to graze thing they have paid for the land. And in aU probability, at prices far Time-Teste- and by extenIf the Nixon administration sion, past and future administrations have learned anything in the. past few years of inflation and shortages it is that voluntary controls just wont do the job. President Johnson had a different term for voluntary control. He called in "jawboning and he was recognized as a master of the art. But even Mr. Johnsons reasoning together and his vast store of political and other unreturned favors, couldnt make voluntary controls produce results. President Nixoi came into office with a pledge to decentralize as much of the federal government as possible. Faced with the problems inherited from previous administrations, he refused to resort to mandatory federal controls. Instead his administration relied on guidelines and federal counter moves to keep business in line. Did the steel industry intend to raise prices? Then the government let it be known that it was considering increasing steel imports. Was the beef industry asking too much for its product. Then perhaps the import quotas for meat would have to be reexamined. hes been It is difficult for a politician to survive even the accusation of graft especially a politician so The natural assumption in the government. high was that even the letter informing Agnew that he was under investigation would not have been written unless there was fairly solid evidence against him. Maybe thats not fair, either, but its . Belated Turn to Controls Wjtjrf for- above-outline- Here, however, the Jackson amendment may well prove cripphng to this complex U.S. policy. crippling of the So may the Watergate-engendere- d President. Thus you can see why this reporier pravs night to be proven crazy Like Little Children Editor, Tribune: Hans A. Baers shots at the Mormons (Forum, September 16) are all bulls eyes and are still unworthy of a scholars efforts. Mormonism is just one of a thousands or more Christian sects to bedevil mankind, under many names, in the last 5,000 years. Regardless of how assinine their religion they are a stalwart people. In spite of their early-dacrimes, they have dor.e America as much good as all other religions combined. The American West was a desert, . wilderness-empireThey tamed it, bless them! west Ls a better place to live than any our Today eldorado heaven any Christian witch doctor could dream of two centuries ago. He asserted that confidence last month when he made his decision to meet head-ocharges against him. He said then that he expected to be vindicated in the courts. But that was before he was convicted in the streets. When that situation changed, so did Agnews chances of any meaningful vindication, except, perhaps, for staying out of n jail. Thus it does not seem unreasonable for him to be asking now that the House of Representatives even publicly, on air the charges against him television, if it wants to. It is inconsistent, to be sure, particularly in light of his earlier condemnation of the Watergate hearings as comp';catuig, not facilitating, the search for truth. Because of the charges already floating around, many of which have been accepted as fact by too many of us, acquittal in court will have very little meaning so far as Agnews reputation is concerned, unless he is able to prove beyond any doubt that all the charges are false. That seldom happens in any trial. What is more likely is that acquittal would come on a finding of insufficient evidence, reasonable doubt, inadmissibility of evidence or some such. Any such outcome would keep him out of jail but not much more. And the failure of the grar jury to indict him, for any reason at all, would ' his wagon good. For in that case, wed a know he was guilty. The congressional Agnew has investigation begged for wouldnt guarantee fairness, but it may offer the best possibility of it. The nature of the hearings is such that the public can get a clearer idea of what is going on than in a courtroom, with all the talk of objections and citations and precedents. Get a Better Look beLer look at the accused and the accusers, and youre able to form more satisfactory opinions as to who is to be believed. Agnew seems to think he could be convincing in not that it would revive Agnew such a forum the politician; hes given up on that. But it might help rescue Agnew the man. On TV you get a It shouldnt be necessary to say that this is neither an attack on the courts nor a brief for Spiro Agnew. An important aspect of the judicial system that Agnew once declared so much faith in is its provisions for an orderly disclosure of evidence, with opportunity for examination and of witnesses, and challenges of their credibility. The courts, that is to say, are supposed to offer protection against what already has happened to Agnew. As to the man itself I personally dont care for him. And to be perfectly honest about it, I am not at all convinced that he is innocent of graft. By the same token, some of the black victims of old South lynch mobs may actually have forcibly raped white women. But tion for lynching. pilt is no justifica- y Visiting Cartoonist Of course, Mormon theology is imbecilic! So what? So is all tljeology of all religions. Singling out one issue is about the same as indicting some preacher because he wears (or does not wear) a different breech clout. Le Conte du Noiiy in his work entitled, Human Destiny, says Humanity has not Ask a Christian reached the age of reason moon went through the believes Muslum a why the sleeve of Mohammads jacket. He does not Ask a Muslim why a Buddhist believes reason. He does not an elephant impregnated Maya. reason. Ask a Buddhist why a Christian believes a god begat a son of a woman. (The fable is at least 50,000 years old.) You get the same reply. We are dealing with children: Matt, Mark and Luke in substantially the same language If you do not accept the Christian story as a little child Little children have you cant go to heaven. much faith, no knowledge and no reason. W. W. MURRAY JR. Price LePel'ey in Ihe ChrijHon Science Monitor |