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Show Marv McGrorv Monday Morning, June Section A 23, 1973 Connally Error Spells The End? age 12 Summit Nudge Given Arms Talks Critical Plus From Brezhnev Visit Now that they have the knack of it. Soviet and I'.S. leaders may produce an even stronger clamp on mutually destructive nuclear weapons, but there's no guarantee for it. Communist Party Highlighting Soviet Chief Leonid I. Brezhnev's week-lonvisit, he and President Nixon announced Wednesfor limiting each naday a new time-tabltion's offensive arsenal. This could well bump the adjourned Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) back into significant action. That was usually the case with SALT I. g e The talks were launched when both countries realized there was more advantage m controlling the arms race than in perpetuating it. But that direction change wasnt easy to achieve. It involved long periods of tedious, sometimes deadlocked, always complicated bargaining. More than that, it eventually required direct contact between the Kremlin and the White House, tne official delegations charged with actual, detailed negotiations. Mr Nixon was able to cap his summit lournev to Moscow last year with agreements ratifying the terms patiently wrung out of SALT I. These understandings restricted missiles both countries could deploy and established a temporary, five year freeze on offensive weapons Russia and the U.S. could point at each other. SALT II was next organized to move further, principally to hammer out a more satisfactory lid c Syndicate is taking the Connally John WASHINGTON 19h heartbroken for advocated was course that The over. was centurv maidens when the romance Washington attack capabilities. But the talks on nuclear President's stalled. In his Even so. the sandtraps on both sides remain numerous and formidable. Critics in and out of the Nixon administration arent yet reconciled to SALT I milestones. Similar dissent among Soviet hardliners is reported at the Russian end. Overcoming these d fears and suspicions is an exacting task. long-nurture- . aircraft." The words are Rep. Jack Brooks, and are excerpted from his opening statement at hearings last March on the transport of hazardous materials. Brooks is chairman of the House subcommittee examining the problem. In a report to Congress on May 1 the General Accountaing Office made this finding: Hazardous materials shipments present an increasing danger to public safety. Each year, hundreds of new materials are devel- the flood will recede. Advice Not Sought As The GAO report also says the Federal does not have a Aviation Administration program for the systematic, routine surveil- - Another Viewpoint Congress In Self-Impos- Stall ed From The Milwaukee Journal After five months on the job. Congress is not off to a flashy start. Democratic leaders slill predict bold action" before adjournment later this year, but So far the pace has been plodding, especially in the House. To be sure, the effort to regain eroded congressional power and prestige has shown some results. There have been several remarkable internal reforms that should help make Congress a more vibrant body. Some strong challenges have been mounted against the growth of executive branch power, particularly as it relates to warmaking. The Public Forum Will Get Their Wedge Fordham (Forum, June Editor, Tribune: 20) refers to use of hysteria and false rumors group. He goes on to say by the has already some 90 percent of the Editor, Tribune: When industry and public utilities apply for increased rates on service, they itemize inflated costs: maintenance, operations, research, etc. Executive salaries are conspicuously omitted, but its a certainty the needy will be provided with a generous wedge of pie, supplied Alleu y right-of-wa- y been purchased. I would suggest he check his information more closely before someone accuses him of spreading false rumors, too. 22nd District, only 83 of the necessary has not done well m crucial budge; bottles with the White House. The legislative But Congress branch is still groping for a grip on federal spending Without its own version of a budget it cannot offer a set of coherent alternatives to the president's tenacious budget eers. Congress has also moved along some important pieces of legislation, such as changes in mass transit aid, the minimum wage and farm subsifrom tax dies. But the bulk of the vital issues reform, foreign trade and the energy crisis to health insurance and new campaign spending seem far from resolved. Much may be rules shoved over to 1974. Watergate gets a large slice of the blame for Capitol Hill dawdling. The scandals have convulsed the Nixon administration and diverted its attention from legislative concerns. Meanwhile, the Democratic majority tends to dwell on Watergate to the neglect of backlogged business. While a paramount concern, Watergate is, not the nation's only worry. Of course, this Congress right-of-wa- y y anti-froew- pages GAELL GOTTSCHALL Matter of Stance Editor, Tribune: I must protest your inconsistency in the editorials. On April 21, you condemned the China Meadows Project for irrigation water, quoting the high cost of a whopping $5.3 million. You further stated this project should be killed outright instead of being allowed to lie dormant in the hope that money might be available at some later date." Recently you had another editorial on the Central Utah Project, and you did a complete about face. be turned from brake into lies with Congress. PresiThe answer pedal? gas dent Nixon, who several months ago towered over Washington, has been diminished, m some ways crippled. If Congress responds with inertia or indecision, if it squabbles away its opportunity to exert influence and restore stature, it will have no one to blame but itself How can Congress Q You complained about the niggardly Forum Rules; Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writer's 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 II days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. that the Nixon Administration has asktd when you want in excess of $23 million for 1974 alone. You further said there is something not about w foolish ise and pound penny appropriating enough money to quickly finish a vitally needed water project, one that has already cost more than $80 million. $6,280, OCO for Would Still Die say which of these projects is the more needed? I am sure your viewpoint depends on where you are standing. From where I stand, the China Meadows Project is every bit as necessary as the Central Utah Project. . Editor. Tribune: Your article on coyote poisoning (June 17) left out two significant points: Coyotes are generally too intelligent to eat poisoned bait. However, many other small predators and and birds can be effectively eliminated have been eliminated, many to the point of extinction. One could conclude then that the poisoning program does not do the intended job. established fact that sheep are unusually stupid animals - prone to falling off cliffs, and yet in the staeating poisonous plants, etc. tistics kept by the government and sheep industry, only a very small number of sheep die from these causes. Statistically, they die from predators (I understand the insurance pays for predator a sheep is dead from any cause, an Once deaths). animal such as an eagle or coyote will cat the carcass. The sheepman has blatantly called these predator deaths. partially - eaten carcasses This might lead to the conclusion that the sheepman is incapable of facing his natural losses. If every living thing was poisoned off our public lands, the sheep would still die and probably at the same rate. It is a Is it possible that David Raskin or maybe Don Brooks wrote the first editorial, and someone else the second? RONALD C. WALKER Lyman, Wyo. well- - It does not seem likely that an industry which can hire helicopters and professional hunters is about to go broke. These men have been using our public lands almost for free for a long time and seem to be w illing to give nothing in return. In exchange for the use of public lands, the sheep rancher has savagely disrupted the natural balance by indiscriminate and careless killing of wildlife and continuous overgrazing. We have an a example of sheepman mentality in the eagle-kil- l few years ago in Wyoming. Those people who desire to preserve this part of the countn' m its natural beauty should be overjoyed that the government poisoning program it killed evwas halted. It did not kill coyotes erything but coyotes, the taxpayers paid for it (not sheep ranchers) and the poison was carelessly distributed. The sheep rancher must start to try to live in harmony with the other living things rather than destroying them to line his pockets as he has done in the past. Who is to philosophy. The former secretary of the treasury is represented by his fans as a man taken in by the White House gang. RepubConnally turned his coat so that licans who would have no part of to the party would be mollified by a selfless dash to the aide of a sinktng president And he answered the call from the Wjute House for special help which came a week later. old-lin- e ANN PFAFFENBERGER State College, Pa. Joins Team? But what he had in mind was a kind of assignas an ment. Instead, the White House announced he w as joining the team. This raised the cry of conflict of interest and Connally had to resign from his law firm and his directorships. special-missio- Instead of darting about the country and the he spent many hours world as a trouble-shootein his Mayflower Hotel suite, waiting for the call that seldom came, while down at the White House, his enemies boosted the stock of another ambitious, but longer-timRepublican, former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird. r, e While Connally was bowing out, Laird who had been slated to bring a breath of political reality to the beleaguered inner circle, brought instead a new touch of political scandal. The day of Connallys news conference it was disclosed that Laird as defense secretary had intervened for a friend having difficulties with the Securities and Exchange Commission. two telephone Laird dismissed the inquiries as routine, similar to calls made by an aide the kind he made during his congressional years. But Laird was a cabinet officer and there is nothabout a cabinet officer intervening ing routine with another department when his own agency is not involved. The friend's sister had made $200,000 in contributions to pet Laird projects in Wisconsin. So while the White House has used the Brezhnev breather to sink a few harpoons into dangerous John Dean, it has added nothing to its own moral tone or to public confidence that it is a going concern. The Connally exit may have ended his dreams for the presidency. But at this juncture, it wounds the president just as much. Little boys who were too secretive have never been highly regarded. Now. however, they would seem to be ideal prospects for high governmental office. How can the cost of living be going up when everything is either on sale or available at everyday low, low discount prices? Congressman Sludgepump says a dirty campaign is any one a politician loses. Quite Adequate Editor. Tribune: The letter by Bill Robis (June 19) was probably the best piece of writing that Tuesday. But in the context of general agreement with Mr. Robis, I would suggest he take a closer look at Congressman Owens. He may be of a bettor breed than was suggested. InUrlanili haven't read the congressmans campaign expense staltment, but I do know something about how he spent money during his campaign. Most of the time, he and his crew of volunteers jammed themselves into his pickup camper for the night. When they took a motel, it was one room with cots, and take turns for the shower. I had breakfast with him after about a trek, and it was oatmeal nd hot chocolate. I was off balance from the outset. It was immediately caught up in presidential budget cuts, vetoes and plans to kill popular programs. After decades of serving as a restraint on presidents who usually wanted to expand federal ventures, Congress found it difficult to deal creatively with a president who wanted mainly to end some activities, shrink others and shift still others to state and local government v ia revenue sharing. MARGARET BURTON 136 homes have been purchased, leav ing 53 yet to be condemned and-o- r purchased. This means only 61 has been purchased, percent of the not the 90 percent figure currently and constantly groups. being quoted by the The acceptance and use of this erroneous 90 percent figure in the attempt to prove the futility of further activity is deplorable, whether the writer is a contributor to this column or a seasoned reporter with access to your news n Johnny-come-Iatel- y by consumers. According to Georgia Peterson, state represen- tative of of Connally Agrees with their analysis of the agreed Connally Democratic contenders, but insisted, as he had during the campaign, that the Democrats would never come back to his kind of conservative, Deplorable Percentage airlines of this nation routinely cargoes that include everything A improperly handled load of volatile liquids can be just as deadly as a man with a gun loose in the passenger compartment. Probably more so, at least there exists the possiblity the man with a gun can be talked out of shooting. The wrong cargo will just blow up unannounced. his unorthodox thinking, Connallys advice was not often result apparently, sought. In the weeks preceding ins conversion, to a on May 3. they Republican, which was announced have begged him to consider that the Democrats next time. for They pointed no inevitable choice Robert Strauss. Democratic out that National Committee chairman, would help bring stanAs Democratic about a reconciliation. dard bearer, with a party chastened by a leftist ReRing, he would attract Republican votes and publican money, they told him. Whos your rustler? With the g oped. thousands of shipments are made daily. and annual volume (carried by all modes of transportation) is expected to reach 1.3 billion tons by 1980." a fellow-Texa- ls carrying from bulk consignments of compressed-ga- s hairsprays to explosives to as many as 540.000 annual shipments of radioactive materials it is time a hazardous cargo surveillance program be set up that is as effective as the efforts appear to be. silver-haire- d is-i- ts But it's also a safer distance from a headlong run into miscalculated holocaust. Above all. this is the value of encouraging and continuing the talk part of SALT. And if Mr. Brezhnevs trip to the Camp David summit helped keep the conversation going, it was a visit well worth hosting. spot-check- t to be that in his v Connallys faux pas is said to the oval office, he suggested that Watergate was a problem. That is heresy in the White House. He is further said to have advocated meeting it head on, which is his style, but blasphemy in is that after John Dean, circles where the crc-e- In fact, no one has casually, suddenly thrown away all the former caution and distrust. SALT I (jerms left the U.S. and Russia with still devastating missile power. A permanent limit to offensive arms would surely do the same. The world is a long way from disarmament. mat-erisla- , some things, Nixon whirti him the presthat was his greatest asset in the strugnomination. gle for the Republican He could not, he said, for instance, change the to President. The President is going to continue nf hir'h u a k a olll ICC VlflC rvnornta tVlQ Xl'i SALT II needs. lance over air shipments of hazardous . . . primary reliance is placed on air carriers accepting only those hazardous material shipments that meet (safety) requirements. Considering. the results of a survey made by the Air Line Pilots Assn., the reliance placed on the air carriers is misplaced. In s 1.000 by pilots at cargo docks across the country, the ALPA concluded it is possible that 90 percent of the 14,000 passenger-carrying flights operated daily by U.S. airlines have some type of hazardous materials aboard and nine out of every ten of these shipments are illegal They are illegal in the sense that they violate Department of Transportation regulations for the handling of hazardous material cargoes. During the hearings it evolved that the FAA has only one man assigned full time to the surveillance of hazardous cargoes. He depends almost entirely on work other FAA employes can do for him when they are not busy carrying out their regular duties. departure-announcemen- the ence, Texas said about Richard may have lost idential favor All Set to Go Boom Lest American air travelers become too complacent, not all dangers to their personal safety have been eliminated because tighter airport and aircraft security measures have v irtually halted hijackings. The majority of all commercial airline flights in our nation also carry some form of hazardous materials in their baggage and cargo compartments. These materials include small arms ammunition . . . etiological agents capable of causing such diseases as cholera, encephalitis, yellow fever and anthrax . . . poisonous substances that can cause death or permanent injury by inhalation or contact with skin . . . acids of many and thousands of other comvarieties . . modities, many of which cannot be extinguished, should a fire occur, with extinguishing agents normally carried on passenger , news confer- n reivigora-tio- spe- - short-ter- cial adviser is going around the world. Politically, he may never come back. Now. Mr. Nixon and Mr. Brezhnev have put more steam behind the effort. Not only did they formally agree that draining the competitive edge off strategic weapon development is necessary, hut this spigot must be implanted before the five year interim freeze starts thawing. That could be the s Star-New- Would Sack Nixon Editor, Tribune: Nixon really caught it. in June edition, front page, editorial page, cartoon and other features, but particularly that beautiful tack page ad by the Rocky Mountain Mint and Depository, defying the price freeze. I felt I must congratulate you on your courage in attacking the terrible way our government has been abused by our administration under Nixon and his cohorts. 19 A few months ago I often heard people who would say a kind word defending Nixon but lately about all I hear is talk of impeachment, and if I had a chance to vote on it. I'd certainly get rid of him w ith no further delay. It's nice to have a newspaper with guts enough to print the kind of information you have been printing about what is happening. LLOYD DAVID LAMOREAUX Recently Ive been reading the Congressional Record to c?e what hes up to in Washington. While he hasn't had the grace to agiee with me all the time. I haven't caught him in a broken promise vet. Of course, there's that streak of independence that keeps cropping up. But I even like that. Speaking for myself. I think he's probably quite an adequate representative. LLOYD GORDON Cedar City v |