OCR Text |
Show "Don't Just Stand There - Help Me ART HOPPE DESERET NEWS SAIT LAKE CITY, UTAH Rocky Comes Through We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As Having Been Divinely Inspired A 18 EDITORIAL PAGE I cant tell you how glad I am to see you back from your goodwill tour of Latin America, Rocky, alive. Thanks a thou, .Dick. As I said to the press, I thiiik the trip was a tresuccess. mendous 12, 1969 THURSDAY, JUNE Channel Oil Drilling It certainly duced impressive results. Yes, ten deau and several hundred injured. Tell me, Rocky, did you follow my instructions and open a dialogue with our good friends south of the border? Too Big A Gamble The recommendation of a special presidential panel to continue oil drilling in the Santa Barbara channel may produce many more headaches than it professes to cure if it is Implemented. The blowout of a Union Oil Company well four months ago while drilling 300 feet below the sea floor sent a slimy film of crude oil over nearby beaches and took a heavy toll of bird and marine life. Union Oil, it must be pointed out, spared no efforts or expense in attempting to rectify the damage. Yet the fact remains that the scars of this massive pollution will last a long time. The presidential panel not only recommended continuation of drilling, but asked that Union Oil be authorized to drill d up to 50 wells to speed up oi! removal from the d terrain. Even so, it estimated the process would take 10 to 20 years to complete drilling and pumping of the oil reserve. If Interior Secretary Hickel approves the plan, the possibilities of a similar blowout to the Jan. 28 disaster will be first, because of the increased number of greatly increased wells, and second, because of unstable seismic conditions. Shortly before the start of construction on Platform A, for example (the platform from which the blowout occurred), seismologists recorded 66 undersea shocks in one period. Such a shock could snap well casings or sever d pipelines. Obviously, the presidential panel, in making its recommendations, was influenced by a continuing oil leak that spews out more than 1,500 gallons a day (compared to the rate during the rupture). It is leaks like this the panel hopes will be eliminated by stepped-u- p drilling. But that is a gamble at best, for the reasons already mentioned. Another such oil spill might have even more ruinous effects than the last. The deleterious effect on sea life, for instance, could be much worse than it was on the thousands of sea lions, ducks, fishand other marine life committed to an oily death by the Jan. 28 mishap. The Navy, too, is pushing for a cessation of channel oil operations. As platforms are built farther to sea, they present an increasing hazard to Navy missile test operations from its Point Mugu Pacific Missile Range headquarters. Then, too, geologists declare that the beaches wont stay that way. By midsummer or early fall, says Prof. Robert Curry of the University of California, the underlying saturation of oil, covered by sand from winter storms, will come to the surface and completely permeate all the beach sand, no longer covered by new sand from offshore. And the real problems will occur about November when winter erosion begins once again to degrade the beach and uncovers what will be about two feet of sand . . . All things considered, the more prudent course appears to be to halt drilling operations until improved technology can remove the oil more safely. Everywhere I went, Dick. Id say, Hi, there, good friends south of the border. and theyd say: Yanqui, go home. Well, Its a start, Rocky. Tell me, how did you like Bolivia? ' Marvelous airport, Dick. I would have gone into town, but they seemed to be having some sort of local festival. You know, fireworks, smoke and sirens. Festivals everywhere down there this time of year. But I did see some marvel- deeply-fissure- sea-be- six-wee- pro- ous airports. And the people, Rocky. You did see the people? Oh, thousands and thousands, Dick. And let me say they were all very well uniformed and armed Its too bad you had to call off your tour of Venezuela, Rocky. Well, Dick, its a nice place to live, but I wouldnt want to visit there. Not as your emissary. Is that a crack, Rocky? Look, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I appointed you my goodwill ambassador to Latin America as a reward for your k shore-boun- support, lukewarm though it was, in my campaign last fall to carry New York State. . . . I appreciate that, fella." . . . Which Hubert swept in a landslide. Win a few, lose a few, I always say. And I wanted to show the whole world that I bore you no grudge for at calling me a born loser and a the convention in Miami last year. ( has-bee- n Well, you certainly proved that, Dick, by sending me down to South America alone in times like these. But to be perfectly frank, Rocky, I cant understand why an intelligent man like you would accept a mission like that, knowing youd do nothing but provoke riots and insults. Oh, I got the idea from a real slick politician, Dick. You. Me? Right, fella. Dont you remember your last goodwill visit down there? They spat on you and threw rocks and Ike had to alert the fleet and call out the Marines. You were a national hero. It was the making of you, Dick. Ahah, so you still have your eye on my job, well, I have to hand it to you. Rocky. But alls fair In war and politics. No hard feelings and may the better man win. You never were one to carry hard feelings against an opponent, Dick, if you could dump them on him. But I suppose now that you know what Im up to you'll cancel my final scheduled trip to Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Not at ali. Rocky. That wouldnt be fair. In fact, Im even going to add still another Latin American country to your itinerary. And while youre there, give my regards to Castro. f 1 V 24,000-gallon-per-d- ay steam-cleane- d Fire Caution Needed The approach of hot, dry summer days should remind Utahns of their responsibility to prevent fires in such places as national forests. In many areas, lush ground cover, produced by an unusually high rate of moisture early in the year, is becoming increasingly tinderlike and hazardous as the summer progresses. In the Wasatch National Forest alone, fire conditions are already at the Class Three level and are on the verge of becoming Class Four, or near the extreme danger stage. Lack of precipitation the past three months, moreover, has brought the fire season a month earlier than usual. To lessen the possibility of fire, state and federal forest officials will soon have to enforce the closure of the entire Wasatch Front to open fires, except where authorized; fire lookouts will have to roam areas to warn campers of fire hazards, and parents will have to warn their children about the danger of playing with matches. An array of federal, state and local fire equipment and personnel, moreover, is being readied to extinguish any blaze. But in any case, such preparedness alone will not solve the problem. Utahns must also be willing to match this with maximum caution in handling fires. At stake are not only trees, wildlife, recreational sites and watersheds, but thousands of dollars in funds which, without fires, could more favorably be applied to development projects. School For Anti-Dru- g Establishing a debriefing school for youthful drug offenders and their parents, as proposed this week by the Drug Abuse Steering Committee, would be a step in the right direction. The plan, as outlined by Dr. Verne Peterson, director of Second District Juvenile Courts mental health program, has many advantages, including the bringing together of parents and children with law enforcement officers, medical personnel, social workers and other professional counselors to discuss all ramifications of continued drug use. The courts, moreover, much the same as with traffic school, would direct offenders to attend. If successful in Second District Juvenile Court, which includes Salt Lake, Tooele and Summit counties, the program could be expanded to other areas in the state. It could be even more effectively coordinatd statewide program of drug use prevened with a tion. Those who have not tried drugs and could be persuaded not to, far outnumber the youths who have used them. A governors committee now studying the overall drug problem may recommend a comprehensive plan for dealing with the problem. However, no conceited state educational advice is given program presently exists. What comes from a variety of sources, including school classes, organizational speaker bureaus and law enforcement agencies. In any case, both drug abusers and abstainers must be effort to do this is clearly in reached, and a much-neede- anti-dru- g two-prong- wder. a i Chanaina& Faces Of Communism THE DRUMMONDS By ROSCOE and GEOFFREY DRUMMOND WASHINGTON Soviet leadership is going through a painful and humiliating experience. What is happening is that the summit conference of Communist parties, now assembled in Moscow to show how united they are behind the Kremlin, is revealing how disunited they have become and how much they resent Soviet attempts at domination. It is evident that the Kremlin cant explusion of Red get what it wants China from the ranks of true Communists and endorsement of its right to intervene in the internal affairs of other Communist countries (as in Czechoslovakia) whenever it doesn't like their brand of communism. This means that in very few nations do the Communist governments or the Communist parties accept Soviet leadership unless compelled to do so by Soviet force. This means that communism in the world today is a collection of changing, divergent, national unions, most of them rejecting the idealogical pattern of both Moscow and Peking. Hov.' disunited is this unity summit which took the Soviets five years of coaxing, cajoling and threatening to bring about? Consider: Nearly half of all the Communist six out of 14 are parties in power K. Drummond G. Drummond rules for a free so-e- ty is simply this: The tewer laws the ?tter. As a general proposition, the maxim has much to commend it; but with deference to this Jeffersonian concept, what we are witnessing on Capitol Hill this spring is getting to be absurd. At the end of May, the United States Senate had been in session for Mr. Kilpatrick 206 hours, the House for 175 hours. On the record of positive accomplishment, these must rank among the 381 most useless hours ever spent in marble halls. Let us see: The two chambers, acting together, have raised the Presidents pay and raised their own as well. They have hiked the debt limit to $377 billion. They have completed action on only 28 bills, all told, including nine bills of a private nature. The Senate, on its own, has confirmed the Cabinet and approved the treaty on of nuclear weapons. The House, laboring heroically, has changed the name of the Committee on Activities and seated Adam Clayton Powell. The House also has continued school milk funds and extended aid to education; it has voted funds for Coast Guard procurement, for water pollution, and for the International Development Association. Such toil has left the members exhausted. They have taken three recesses and look forward to a fourth three weeks hence Speaking generally, as I say, such a our record might well command applause. It is quite true, at least in the conservative view, that the multiplication of laws tends not to enlarge our freedoms but rather to hedge them around. John Randolph of Roanoke once urged that a ceiling be placed on legislative en- - In the Eastern European Communist bloc, where the Soviets exert their greatest power because the Red army can move in so readily, Romania is showing itself bravely independent. It refuses to say anything even politely vague that could be twisted into apparent approval of the Czech occupation of the Soviet doctrine of limited sovereignty for others. Its position is that the less we shine, the better because the Romanians well know how the Soviets use past vagaries to justify the Czech invasion. There are at least eight other Communist parties deliberately absent those from New Zealand, Idonesia, Burma, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and South Vietnam. Italian Communist Party, the largest in Europe, is independent of Soviet wishes. It is turning sharply away from anything but the loosest association with Moscow. Its leaders are beginning to describe Marxism as outdated and irrelevant to conditions of modem industrial society, and they dont want to be bound by the Kremlins "petrified Communist Of the approximately parties present, not more than 20 are substantial and significant parties. The remainder are minisects, many of them no more than splinter groups within Communist parties, as in India and Israel, with the larger segments staying t. away because they are On the eve of the conference there were so many controversial amendments cutting away at what the Kremlin wanted the conference to approve that the ideology. Like the Czech Communist reformers, before they were bludgeoned by Soviet tanks, the Italians are now saying that communism can achieve its goals only by popular consent Communism by popular consent will be wholly unlike the communism we have known in the past. It may not be communism at all. But it is unlikely that the Kremlin can succeed in stemming the tide. boycotting it. They are Mainland China, Yugoslavia, Nurth Vietnam, North Korea, Albania and Cuba. 75 anti-Sovie- Are They Earning The One of the working only way the Soviets could get the opening 'session under way with some semblance of harmony was to postpone debate. JAMES J. KILPATRICK actments: For every useless new law approved, a useless old law would have to be repealed. It was a remarkably sound idea. Granting all this, the Congress goes yawning into June with nothing much delivered and very little in the pipeline. Some of the blame for this soporific session properly lies on the White House. Under the Constitution, the President is such to recommend to the Congress measures as he shall judge necessary Over the years, the cusand expedient. tom has grown up to leave the initiative on all significant bills to the President. If he fails to propose, the Congress cannot dispose. Mr. Nixon has proposed very little. The $42,500? We are within three weeks of the end of the fiscal year. It is not only the surtax that is hanging fire. Appropriations bills, as usual, are stacked up like Fridays jets at OHare. Mr. Nixons budget calls for $198.7 billion in revenues, against $192.9 billion in outlays, but the figures have little meaning in the absence of congressional action. What about the 7 per cent investment tax credit? Is it to be repealed,, retroactive to April 21, or is it to be maintained? Only the Congress can say. Members of the House and Senate are now drawing $42,500 a year. It is not bad pay. They havent done much to earn it so far. , GUEST CARTOON SDS Threat I recently read an article in the newspaper telling of the disappointment of one of the leaders o the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) because his request to hold the National Convention of the SDS was turned down by one American community after another. The question has immediately come to my mind: Is he actually disappointed or just upset? Did he really believe that he would quickly find any city anxious to allow a convention for a group of persons such as are involved in the SDS? Having recently lived in the Los Angeles area, my wife and I are somewhat familiar with the actions or the SDS, and none has impressed u in the least. How they can add the word Democratic to their regime is beyond me. Lets recognize the SDS for what it is: A bunch of juvenile-minde- d hoodlums determined to overturn and destroy our educational system and eliminate instructors whom America so badly needs. And they care not by what means they use to do this, whether it be to hold professors hostage-forc- ing them to yield to their grievances, ransacking classrooms, or burning entire campus build- r h KYLE SMITH ii 1091-4t- h East Return The Watch Too many parents these days seem to be so involved in their own affairs that they dont take time to find out what their children are up to, or to try and teach them how to become good citizens or responsible adults. Many parents are even too busy to bother to check when their children bring things home that dont belong to them. Rather than taking a few minutes time to find out where the child picked up the things that dont belong to him, and seeing that they are returned or given to the police, they brush it aside as something that nobody and the child is deprived of wanted anyway, learning a valuable lesson and commandment of God: Thou shall not steal. While visiting grandparents in Provo on Memorial Day, an incident happened to my own child that makes me believe more than ever the foregoing about todays modern parents. My daughter and two girl friends went swimming at the Provo City pool She had absentmind-edl- y worn her wrist watch to the pool, so it was placed with the rest of her belongings in the basket that was checked in at the desk. When they had finished swimming and got their basket, they were unable to locate the watch. Needless to say, my daughter is very upset over the loss of her watch. It was given to her as a birthday present, and the sentiment connected with the watch is even greater than the fact that it cost quite a bit If the guilty party wishes to return the watch, It can be taken to the Provo Police Department and it will be gjven to the rightful owner. No questions will be asked of the person returning it S.Ls 'Cleanest City' During my recent visit to your great city for the Golden Spike Centennial I was amazed at the cleanliness of your city. I have been to many cities during my travels throughout the states and you should feel very proud of the wonderful job your sanitation department has done. In my opinion your city is the cleanest I have ever encountered and I felt it was my duty to congratulate you and the members of your sanitation department for a job well done. NICK P. KANAKARIS Staten Island, N.Y. Stop Rodeos V. Louil Post'Dispatch i Utah, and every other state is, and will continue to be a much better place in which to live, without people like the SDS members. MRS. C. LOWE 9th North Now for my report on the war, Mr. President . . ." R ings. 1521 W. The explanation does not wholly suffice. As far back as Jan. 15, Lyndon Johnson asked for extension of the 10 per cent surtax. Air. Nixon, in a special statement at the time, echoed this plea. On March 26, Mr. Nixon renewed his appeal. On April 2, the Joint Economic Committee added its voice. The tax is to expire on June 30. In the interests of ordery fiscal policy, an extension should have been voted last month. The Congress could not be hurried. Take a different area: The need for electoral reform is universally acknowledged. This need existed long before George Wallace frightened the pundits last fall; it existed long before December, when Dr. Lloyd Bailey, the maverick North Carolina elector, exercised his right to vote as he pleased. The several proposals for constitutional amendment are well known ; they have been heard to exhaustion in committee; both chambers could have brought resolutions to the floor in March. Goodness knows, they had nothing else to do. Now public interest has drifted to other topics; the tefoim movement has lost its momentum; and the calendar moves inexorably on. letters to the editor iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiii I am asking your assistance in trying to ban rodeos from our city and state. They are cruel and inhuman to say the least. When our dumb animals have to be tortured (and thats exactly what it is) to provide the public with a show, then I think the time has come to abolish such performances. LAURA W. CROSBY 1141 Garfield Ave. |