Idaho State Journal from Pocatello, Idaho • Page 4

IDAHO PAGE 4-SECf ION A- POCATKLLO, JOURNAL IDAHO, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1977 ore the opinions of their writers; unsigned editorials are the Journal's views. Consumers and Government The concept of a federal agency to act as ombudsman for American consumers, remedying our complaints, protecting us from shoddy products and services, intervening on our behalf even against other government agencies, is so deceptively alluring that it's a shame it won't work. AT LEAST, IF the existing federal regulatory agencies aren't doing the job for Americans right now, why should we expect a new superagency installed in Washington to do the job better? Congressional proponents of the Agency for Consumer Advocacy, or the Agency for Consumer Protection--whatever it would be called--insist the cost would be low. By whose standards? Beyond the initial costs of $15 million the first year, escalating to $25 million by the third year, every other agency subjected to review by the consumer agency, and every company or industry subject to its proceedings, would have to pay administrative costs and for time and paperwork as well. FEDERAL PROCEEDINGS, already incredibly time-consuming, would be further slowed by an additional party having a disproportionate legal standing to oppose the interests of both the affected private parties and the government itself.

Federal courts would be burdened with intra-govemmental disputes, with serious constitutional questions. The authority of existing agencies would be undermined, and historic oversight those regulatory agencies and the executive 1 branch would be relegated to a single federal administrator to be appointed Dy the President. Further, who is to define the "consumer interest?" For example, this country imports a lot of television sets and shoes. That results in lower prices on those commodities, but it also costs Americans a lot of jobs. Where is the public interest? AND WOULD THE consumer agency side with health advocates behind the proposal to ban saccharin as a cancer risk, or stand behind millions of diabetic patients who may want to continue to use the artificial sweetener in place of sugar? Where is the consumer's interest in the matter of farm price supports? Wheat sales to the Soviet Union? Would concumers be for or against the proposed tax on gas guzzlers? For or against regulations which guard against air and water pollution at the expense of new industry and jobs? The list of imponderables goes on and on.

The other day, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an order to ban 33,000 sound-activated electric dog collars which may be hazardous to animals and owners. The collars are designed to restrain barking. Now, who would want to pick sides between dog lovers and non lovers? The fact is that all of us are consumers-and all of us have differing opinions and conclusions on our best interests. EVEN WITH ITS FAULTS, even despite a glaring faux pas by which Chevrolet engines are sold in new Oldsmobiles without informing buyers, the American market place still offers generally the best bargains, the greatest diversity, incomparable abundance and the best products in the world.

It has achieved that status primarily on its own- not by government edict. That ought to tell us something. A Lagoon for Pocatello? With hopes for more parks and another swimming pool in Pocatello dashed by defeat of a recent bond issue proposal, it is important that other options be considered, among which should be turning the whole business over to private enterprise. IS UNUSUAL in these days of "let the government do it" to propose a private solution, but local taxpayers have shown they just don't want to shoulder more mlllage at this time. It evidently will be hard enough to get school levies through.

Meantime, it's hard on the kids. Thij year was the second time a new swimming pool was turned down by the voters. And while It's easy to add up the practical reasons, think of being a kid during the long hot summir here, and you may get another perspective. Meantime, families will make a five-hour round trip to Lagoon. Clubs will travel there as a special occasion.

Wouldn't it be worthwhile to consider having a Lagoon-type resort here? What would be the chances? Lagoon, which stresses it is a family amusement park and which puts great emphasis on attracting groups, drew a phenomenal 1,200,000 people in its summer season last year. Lagoon offers 34 rides, a swimming pool, fun house and an authentic pioneer village complete with 41 old buildings, 110 old-time conveyances and about 200,000 artifacts. Admissions run from 20 to 60 cants. The name comes, incidentally, from Lagoon's first site on Great Salt Lake where it was established as a beer garden 85 years ago. Pocatello obviously is not quite ready for another Lagoon, but a more modest enterprise built around a pool and other popular teen attractions might be feasible.

NOT SUGGESTING this as the only solution, but as a possibility. A whole generation of kids is growing up while the business of financing a larger recreation program here with tax money is hauled around, without a solution. We are reminded that when the bond issue for a city airport terminal was turned down by the voters, a pri'-ite firm built it, and the city is leasing it In the case of recreation, a private ilution also may need to be found. It is true that paying at the gate might keep some people out, but service clubs and the city itself could pay for some blocks of tickets on certain days. Meanwhile, a Pocatello resort would be good for local business.

Some competition for Lava? Yes, but who said competition was to be avoided? The whole recreation picture here needs some excitement. We'd be interested in reader reactions to a Lagoon idea and in other suggestions. A When in (c) 1977 N.Y. Times News Service With the onset of June and gardens, who among us does not feel the primordial urge to till the soil? I don't. It is not because I don't have any soil.

A rich aunt left me 30 pounds in herwiU. "You are now rich in soil," said the executor. "With the 15 pounds of soil you will have left after taxes, you can finally say goodbye to the daily grind and till to your heart's content." I SQUIRRELED 10 pounds of my legacy under the mattress for a rainy day. You never know when you will have your back to the wall and desperately need some mud. As John Kenneth Galbraith has often said, "A fool and his soil are soon parted." With the remaining five pounds I started tilling.

M-j plan was to till some petunias. After several days during which not a single petunia came forth, a neighbor came to watch me work. "You are wasting your time tilling for pineapples in this climate," he said. YES, THE HARDWARE store had sold me a pineapple tiller I requested. The soil was in a foul humor.

Being tilled with the wrong weapon makes soil exceedingly grouchy. Its whining was so annoying that I put it out of the house. A neighbor reported me to the Society ofr Prevention of Cruelty to Soil, which sent an inspector. "This soil is starved," the inspector said. "What are you feeding it? Table scraps?" I had made a common error.

Everyone knows that soil needs nutrients so It can produce hundreds of healthy earthworms, but whenever I called the soil to meals it refused to come, and I assumed It was feeding itself ft is that soil eats. Probably dust, I thought. THE INSPECTOR ordered me to take the soil to a soil analyst. He was. a Freudian.

The soil spent hours on a couch. "You have a very sick soil," the analyst said. "It needs love." He snowed me how to caress the soil by digging my fingers gently Into it and kneading Its loam. Because of my childhood repressions and inhibitions, I couH not bring myself to knead Its loam without feeling ashamed of myself. "I've never kneaded loam," I told the analyst, "but I'm willing to knead dough." "Everybody needs dough," said the analyst, selling me a $10,000 analysis which enabled me to knead loam without blushing.

In fact, with my refurbished psyche I was no longer content merely to knead loam. I began kneading people all over the neighborhood, some of whom were even more kneadable than loam. WHEN THE SOIL noticed the I was kneading promiscuously, the results were startling. Tiny green objects began to till from its loam. "So!" I said.

"To hold my affection, you have finally decided to bear the fruit of tillage." Day after day I watched the tiny green objects mature. They resembled geraniums, or perhaps strawberries. One evening just before bedtime they looked like tiny little geraniums, or perhaps strawberries. Next morning at breadfast they were buried under dense, waist-high and obstreperous weeds. INCENSED BY THE thought of my tiny geraniums, or perhaps strawberries, being strangled by these brutes, I quickly beat a sword into a plowshare, intending to plow the weeds out by the roots.

The neighborhood muggers, seeing me suddenly swordless, swarmed down like Vandals and would have plundered the television set had I not led them. a chase that took them through the soil's new weed crop, which instantly devoured them. The Weed Club o( America awarded me first prize for weediculture. When the soil heard the news, it was furious. The soil hated me now.

It had seen me kneading a beer can the night before it gave tillage to the weed crop and was obviously insane with Jealousy. Just before the Weed Club came to pin the ribbon, the maddened soil released swarms of chewing, cutting insects. IN A TRICE these creatures had eaten the weeds down to stubble. In a fource they had chewed the television aerial off the roof, eaten the screens out of the window and made themselves at home in the parlor chewing fur off the dog. I have hot tilled soil since, though 1 still keep some for the day when I become weary of too much ease.

It is not the same soil that produced the weeds. What happened to that is my business, and soil cannot talk. It can't even scream. I Warsaw-NATO Leapfrog' By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK (Field Enterprises) A I Unquestionably prodded by the successful, early May London meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Moscow-dominated Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe have already held one four-day session in Prague and scheduled another for June 1, site unknown. The Prague session was privately billed by Communist operatives as a "business as usual" chat.

However, Communist and Western experts are certain the major purpose was to review NATO's new goal for 3 per cent higher spending annually to start the long process fo building the alliance's con- i a i i a power somewhat closer to the Warsaw Pact's. Under Moscow's whiplash, the Warsaw Pact states now have the highest conventional strength ever, particularly in forward-based arms, and supply depots that may have made NATO vulnerable to "blitzkrieg" attack. A key objective of the NATO commander, Gen. Alexander Haig, is to bring "front line" British and Dutch units forward to permanent positions far closer to the real Central European front on the West German plain. That plan is designed to thwart a lightning Communist strike into Western Europe that would quickly outflank NATO forces assigned to "front line" duty, but in fact positioned far behind the front.

As usual, no announcement was made about the Prague meeting. But its military intent, according to experts, was to consider leapfrogging tho new NATO decision by an immediate increase in its own strength. The June 1 Communist session will bring foreign ministers of the Warsaw Pact together, probably for another strategy preview of the Belgrade conference next month, a follow-up to the Helsinki agreement of 1975. CONGRESS'? The abysmal failure of President Carter to compromise his bitter struggle with Congress over those 18 unwanted water projects reached a humiliating peak when not one of the 37 Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee spoke in his defense when the committee approved 17 of the projects. Moreover, the White House made not the slightest effort to i i Reupulicans to the President's side.

Neither RCD. Elford Cederberg of Michigan, ranking committee Republican, nor Rep. John Myers of Indiana, senior Republican on the public works subcommittee, has ever met any member of the overworked White House lobby staff. Neither was asked for help on the water projects. More worrisome for Mr.

Carter was the silence of his own Democrats despite his ardent appeals for help-at least four separate appeals to Rep Tom Bevill of Alabama, chairman of the public works subcommittee. Although a presidential veto of the bill is not certain (the Senate may cut three or four additional projects when it acts on the bill, Republicans are salivating at the prospect. "What we are soon going to be witnessing," Cederberg told us, "is Jimmy Carter running against his own Congress." That prospect also worries House Democratic leaders, headed by Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill and majority leader Jim Wright, who have repeatedly warned Jimmy Carter (hey do not relish the idea of the overwhelmingly a i overriding the first veto of a new Democratic President. CARTER AND SALT Svhile promising that no specific new SALT proposals would be formally presented to the Russians at Geneva, President Carter nevertheless ten select Senators he a a description of what he said was worrying the Kremlin.

The description came May 19 when senior Senators of both parties were called to the White House to discuss the latest phase of strategic arms talks (SALT). Mr. Carter revealed nothing specific about Geneva but he did discuss the general i a i a i a including alleged Soviet concerns. The President said the Russians were worried aboul i U.S. "first-strike that is, U.S.

ability lo hit the Soviet Union with so much nuclear force it could retaliate. In fact, the U.S. is not close to such capability, and the Russians know it. (Mr. Carter next suggested tHat the Kremlin is deeply worried about revived German militarism.

That echoed a familiar Soviet propaganda theme even further removed from reality than U.S. first- strike capability. "This was not the time or.J place to argue with President," one minded Senator told us. "But for one, was worried." When Mr. Carter's remarks were followed by news accounts that the Russians fear the mysterious new first-strike capability, some Senators began to suspect a plot hatched by Mr.

Carter's disarmament advisers. Its purpose: to soften the way for major SALT concessions. A footnote: At the May 19 meeting several Senators told the President they saw no need for a quick SAL'T agreement and urged him to stand fast. Although liberals were present, no dissenting view was ex: pressed. Our Be-Laagered Allies King Features WASHINGTON (KFS)--It is fair to say that Israel, South Africa, Rhodesia and South Korea are beleaguered countries, surrounded or pressured by a rising hostile tide.

That was true when Jimmy Carter took office. BUT WHAT WAS not true before, and thus raises a painful new embarrassment and a stumbling block for American foreign policy, is that these same nations are also "be- laagered" by the thoughtless and even careless policies of the Carter Administration. The word "laager" is South African. Just as settlers in the American West circled the wagons, the Afrikaner settlers of the South African veldt formed a "laager," and today they are still said to have a laager mentality--defensive and suspicious. A year ago, with the United State still run by a friendly government, South African politics was liberalizing.

Real gains were in sight. But now, with U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young playing black nationalist anthems on his portable mouth organ, the South Africans seem to be laagering again. So too in Rhodesia, to the north, where white government officials are bluntly critical of Young and the Carter Administration. AND FARTHER NORTH still, not a few analysts believe that Israel's sharp tilt to the militant right in the early May elections--the unexpected triumph of onetime terrorist leader and now probably Prime Minister Menahem Begin--can be partially attributed to growing Israeli fear over U.S.

commitment to establishing a Palestinian state on Israel's border. Mr. Carter has not only said as much, he chose to repeat these sentiments in a way that very publicly demonstrated his very substantial private knowledge gap. Consider the extraordinary allegation in his May 26 press conference that the United Nations has passed resolutions, all of them "binding policies of the (U.S.) government," spelling out the rights of Palestinians to a homeland and to compensation. The Washington press corps was thunderstruck.

The President was simply (and strikingly) in error. No previous Administration has, in fact, come out for a Palestinian state. Small wonder that the Israelis also feel increasingly be-laagered. A presidential statement of this sort can hardly be repaired. TURNING TO KOREA, that situation has the making of an Asian tragedy.

Major General John Singlaub, loudly removed from his job as chief of staff in Korea, for a single indiscretion, was only one of many top officers saying that withdrawal of U.S. troops will lead to war. And these officers, in turn, were mirroring the fears expressed by South I I I Korean ollicers. Thus, for Mr. Carter to tell the nation that General Smglaub's remarks might encourage the North Koreans to invade, when the real encouragement is coming from Mr.

Carter's own withdrawal policies and nervously strident behavior towards Singlaub, is small-minded conduct unbefitting a President of the United States. Small wonder that South Korea is on edge, with Korean Christians demonstrating outside the U.S. Embassy and top officials speculating that South Korea might have to develop its own nuclear weapons if the United States removes its tactical nuclear weapons as well as its troops from the country. From the Far East to the Middle East and down to Southern Africa, there is a common problem: President Carter and Ambassador Young are aggravating an already tense situation with too much talk and too' little thought. Nervous countries are being laagered into politics and policies that raise the likelihood of war.

THIS, AND NOT well-publicized European summitry, may be emerging as the basic reality of Carter foreign policy. All the meringue of strolling around Britain with Prime Minister James Callahan and dozens of television crews (not necessarily in that order) cannot disguise the lemon curd of untutored righteousness and diplomatic naivete. A This Woman Disagrees Editor, You finally saw fit to publicize the Idaho Women's Conference and as usual you misrepresented the facts and distorted the events entirely out of proportion. These state conferences were ordered by the federal government and all the women in the state were invited. Since the conference specifically was not to be the tool of any special Interest group (I.e.

church, local or national women's group), the i responsibility dissemination of Information as to purpose and details of time and place was given to the press. Both you and local television stations failed totally in this regard. Some accidentally heard about it and attended. When you did publish a story about the conference you told only of the few disagreements. You did not tell of the many recommendations agreed upon by all the women present.

One such recommendation as lo the Idaho press statlnK that the women of Idaho wish to have women's events covered honestly, completely and without sensationalism. Your story is precisely the type of yellow journalism we see so often in the Idaho press. It did not mention how much more agreement there was than disagreement. You did not tell of the love and respect the women of Idaho gained for each other despite differences in race, religion, age, financial status, occupation, or area of residence. You did tell of women whose opinion was not heard because they had not been properly informed.

This is solely the fault of the news media. Apparently your pur- pose is to "divide and conquer" but we can no longer be duped. Your attempt to make healthy disagreement look like divisive discord failed. You can no longer separate the women of Idaho from their sisters by misinformation and half-truths. We have found we have a great deal more in common than we have differences.

The press tried to tell us there are some women who do not love their families while others are unable to think for themselves. At the Idaho Women's Conference we discovered such things were simply gross exaggerations perpetrated by the press and liad no basis in reality. We found we could love am' respect IDAHO STATE JOURNAL Published doily except Saturday and continuing with the Idaho Journal every Sunday by Idaho State Journal, 305 South Arthur. Punuant to Chapter 54, 1933 Setiion tawt of Idaho Tuetdoy ii hereby detignoted at the day of week on which weekly legal nolicei will be ibliikd. Second clott pottage paid at Pocatetlo, Idaho 83201.

Subtcription rote by carrier it J4.00 per month, by mail 6 mo. $24.00. 1 yr. 48.00. Moil lubtcriptiont mutt be paid in advance.

Thit newtpoper retervet the right to alter the expiration date of any paid in advance tubtcription thould there be on adjuttment in tubtcription ratet. each other in spite of any differences in opinion we might have. To eliminate such nonsense from our lives my husband and I wish our subscription to your newspapers stopped immediately. Also whenever possible, we plan to only deal with those businesses who do a i i newspaper. We plan to inform your advertisers that they will not get our business until they cease to advertise there.

Since you refuse to fulfill your responsibility lo Ihe women of this area by discontinuing to present only selected and-or distorted facts; you should not be supported by those women. My greatest sorrow Is that the women who did not attend the conference will think that disagreement over the ERA, abortion, were the only issue. The most Important thing to come out of the conference was the unanimous agreement that while the homemakers Is the backbone of American life, she Is treated as an Inferior member of societv whose continuous work as wife and mother is not worth financial' compensation. Both law and, tradition prevent, her from taking her rightful place in the' world and in the partnership of marriage. We want conditions not only for ourselves, we' demand they be improved for' our daughters.

The women of Idaho have become friends and' although we may disagree, we" will never lose respect for each other again. KatherineS. Stone Douglas B.Wilde 120US. 4th No. 105 Pocatello, Idaho A LITTLE LEARV SP6AKS VOUUH6S.