The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 4

Opinion The Salina Journal Deflate the airbag The House of Representatives voted down the airbag again. Good. The airbag, the most ill-con- rceived safety device ever perpe- i trated on motorists, deserves an even more ignoble fate, however. It deserves to be deflated entirely, with government funds for research into its effectiveness being cut off. The research has been going on for the best part of a decade with little change in the answers.

It works dandy in a one-impact head- on" crash. It is worthless in virtually all other types of collision. Government safety experts, plus so-called consumer advocates like Ralph Nader, want to see all cars built with airbags by 1985. These ace-the same people who gave us the 5 mph safety bumper, excessively restrictive air pollution controls and unleaded gas that takes additional crude oil to produce at a time when this nation sorely needs cars that get 10 more miles per gallon far more than it needs cars producing five percent less pollution. airbag research will go on.

Unfortunately little is being spent to research the effect mandatory seat belt laws might have, or the effect of mandatory driver's license revocation in cases of drunken driving and flagrantly repeated violations of traffic laws. Airbags, which proponents claim could reduce highway deaths and injuries by half (a claim which sounds somewhat inflated itself), might instead become killers. They would be killers because they would give motorists a false sense of security, believing there was a little balloon tucked away under the dashboard that will reach out to cradle them in its arms and save them when the accident happens. Well, they had better be sure the accident involves a square hit into a brick wall, just like the government crash tests. Otherwise, the errant motorist is in deep trouble.

The airbag deploys for just a fraction of a second, enough to cushion a car's passengers during that moment of deceleration down to zero mph. The passengers are held in their seats during that moment of deceleration, rather than flying forward at the car's original speed to smash into the window, the steering column, the rear view mirror, the dashboard, etc. Then the bag deflates, But even in head-on accidents, how many are square hits? Hit a tree with the middle of the radiator and you have a square hit. But hit it with a headlight and in the second moment, when the airbag is deflating, the car is suddenly lurching to the side, its passengers rattling around inside like a few dried peas in a No. 10 can.

And airbags are not designed to deploy in side collisions, rear-enders, rollovers. Nor do they work in a second-hit accident. And there remain unanswered questions about small children and airbags, ear damage from sudden compression of air in a closed car, how to dispose of an airbag-equipped car when it becomes a junker, and why a gas which is a known muta- gen and suspected carcinogen must be the airbag propellant. The answer is not airbags, but seatbelts. Passive seatbelts the passenger doesn't have to hook up would do.

Active seatbelts, where the passenger can tighten them snugly are better and certainly should not be made unavailable to those who want them. Seat belts work in frontal, rear- ender, side and rollover accidents, and in multiple-hit accidents. They keep working until the accident is done. And, they have the added benefit of holding a driver in place, letting him wrestle with his car and possibly avoiding the accident in the first place. One aspect of the airbag seems conveniently overlooked by its proponents, who argue the device is needed because too few people use their seatbelts.

But for an airbag to be truly effective, a lap belt must be worn with it! So in order to get maximum benefit from a passive safety device being sought because people won't use the active safety device, an active safety device must be used. Where's the logic in that? Meaningless So, they want to give Miss Piggy a pig, a puppet pig at that an Oscar! Wonderful! Richly Deserved! What an acceptance speech she'll squeal. This department knows not what the Miss Piggy boom says about Jane Fonda, et al, but we harbor the suspicion it says something about us. We're jaded. We've had it up to here with awards.

The baubles, plaques, statuettes, engraved silver trays, whatever, have become meaningless, tokens from a society which wants us to believe an award, any award, confers excellence on the mediocre. There are some organizations we know of the Kansas Bar Association which does not make the annual award if nothing perceived to be of special merit was done thgt year. That's fine with us. We know of other organizations let CITIZEN SMITH 1979. and Tribune Syndicate 1-2S Teddy can keep his own counsel WASHINGTON When Speaker Thomas P.

O'Neill said the other day that he still did not expect Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to challenge President Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, the comment sent a buzz through the political community. In this signal- sensitive town and wherever politicians gather around the country, the question was posed: Does Tip know something? Because he is a home-state political mentor of Ted Kennedy, it was widely assumed that he did; perhaps he was signaling an attempt by Kennedy to pull back from his own hints that he was moving to the very brink of candidacy. Whatever the motivation, O'Neill's observation temporarily threw the game of Kennedy-guessing off the track.

The next day, though, both O'Neill and Kennedy put it back on. O'Neill confessed that his comment was based only on "a feeling." His knowledge of how the Kennedys had operated politically in the past, when they customarily sent an alert out to their troops when they were getting ready to march, made him think now Teddy was not going to run. And Kennedy, apprised of O'Neill's speculation, gently suggested that "my views are probably the ones to think about." O'Neill and Kennedy finally did talk, and afterward the speaker changed his tune, joining the chorus of those now expecting Kennedy to take on Carter. This time O'Neill got it from the horse's mouth rather than looking for signs of the old Kennedy approach as a tip-off. Under scrutiny Tip O'Neill's original remarks, and the fact they were read as if they were some fortune teller's tea leaves, focus on one very interesting aspect of the By Jack Gennond and Jules Witcover politics of Ted Kennedy.

They illustrate how his every action and comment and every comment by everybody else claiming to be close to him is subjected to unique scrutiny and speculation. It is so because of a widespread impression that Ted Kennedy has some carefully preconceived master plan for capturing the presidency, and that he is teasingly doling out the clues one at a time in a diabolically clever scheme to draw and capture public attention and intrigue. And because the Kennedys are known for their thoroughness in political organization everybody knows about "the well-oiled Kennedy machine" that swept its candidate into the White House in 1960 a myth has grown: surely the prime clue to Ted Kennedy's candidacy will come when he passes the word to the Kennedy political "network." O'Neill himself said he based his original feeling that Kennedy wouldn't run "on the fact that the people closest to his organization have not been notified of his plans. None of them have direct knowledge of what the man might do." And he added: "If he were a candidate, he would be out there organizing. There's no advance men sent anywhere by Kennedy." A different game Nobody would dispute that Tip O'Neill knows as well as anybody how the Kennedys have operated in the past.

But in making such observations he failed to grasp that this time he and the country are dealing with a different Kennedy and a different set of circumstances than existed in 1960 and in 1968, when the other Kennedy brothers made their presidential bids. In 1959 and 1960, John F. Kennedy laboriously built a political network because none was there for him. And in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, making a late start, was obliged to send the word out broadly to old Kennedy supporters because he was, in a real sensd, campaigning against the clock.

This time around, however, Ted Kennedy doesn't need, in O'Neill's words, to "be out there organizing" or to dispatch advance men. All that is being done for him by the self-starting and rapidly growing draft-Kennedy and Kennedy write -in committees that now are active in more than two dozen states. He is riding rather than dictating events according to any great master plan. Also, unlike his brothers before him, Ted Kennedy has been able to keep his own counsel on his intentions because so much of the organizational spadework has been done for him. Whereas Jack and Bobby Kennedy needed inner circles of advisers with whom they consulted at length before moving, Ted Kennedy from every evidence has talked to hardly anyone about what he will do.

Even those closest to him on a personal or staff basis insist there have been no braintrust sessions on Cape Cod or anywhere else of the sort that charted the initial presidential moves of brothers John and Robert. For that reason, stories quoting individuals "close to Kennedy" need to be taken with a grain of salt these days, even if those individuals carry impressive Kennedy credentials the way Tip O'Neill does. More than in the case of either of his brothers who ran for president, Ted Kennedy is charting his own course and sending out his own signals. Settling dispute with a broker them be nameless who confer awards for mere survival. The other day, the Kansas Consulting Engineers cited the Salina Bicentennial Center with a Public Improvement Award (incidentally, deserved) and it was discovered three previous Salina projects had been similiarly honored.

But no one at City Hall or in this newsroom, where such things are supposed to be recorded, remembered why in tunket the earlier awards had been earned. Sic transit gloria! Miss Piggy ought to be a shoo-in. Meditations I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. Matthew 7:24 He who builds his life upon the eternal words of Jesus, that man is truly wise and strong. By Dave Gerard "I fill up every evening.

That way I beat the next day's price increase!" (Second of two columns.) When you, a new investor, open an account with a brokerage firm, you usually receive a packet of papers brochures explaining the firm's various services, a card to verify your signature and possibly a standard "customer agreement." This agreement, routinely sent to holders of margin and option accounts (and often to those with regular cash accounts, too) outlines the terms of your relationship with your broker. Included in it will be a clause which can be highly important to you if you become involved in a dispute with your broker for this clause says you agree to settle any controversy through arbitration. In sum, if you can't resolve your dispute through the firm, you agree to submit it to a panel of "judges" appointed by the appropriate stock exchange. In a controversial (though seemingly minor) move, the Securities Exchange Commission recently warned broker-dealers that these arbitration agreements may be misleading. It urged brokers to inform you, a customer, that the agreements are voluntary and do not prevent you from going to court if you think your broker has violated the federal securities laws.

Another example of "regulatory overkill" is the disgusted response of some members of the securities industry. In a letter to the SEC, one broker complained that the SEC's suggestion "would be like requiring a minister to Include appropriate references to the divorce laws in the marriage ceremony," reports my associate, Brooke Shearer. SEC Commissioner Roberta Karmel also has taken issue with the announcement on the basis that it casts doubt on the "efficacy and fairness" of the industry's arbitration system. By Sylvia Porter Arbitration is a relatively quick and inexpensive way for customers and brokers to settle disputes. Each of the exchanges the New York, American, Midwest, Pacific as well as the National Association of Securities Dealers (which regulates the over-the-counter markets) runs its own arbitration program.

All basically operate the same way. How should you handle yourself if you Can't resolve your problem by complaining to the head of your brokerage firm, a branch manager or the SEC's Office of Consumer Affairs (500 N. Capitol Washington, D.C. 20549)? Write to the exchange's arbitration director. In your letter, explain your dispute (without exaggeration), the amount of money involved and your view of a proper settlement.

If your claim is small $2,500 or less you pay a $15 arbitration fee and can elect either to submit your case in writing or argue it in person. If you have such "small claims," you'll save time and travel money by submitting your disputes in writing. These cases are reviewed by a single arbitrator selected from a list of both industry members and "informed" outsiders. Cases usually are settled within three to five months of your original filing. More complicated cases involving larger sums are reviewed by panels of three to five arbitrators.

Your fee will range from $130 to $350, depending on your claim's size and the exchange involved. Some cases take as long as nine months. The panel need not justify or explain its ruling and usually you can't appeal. Despite these drawbacks, arbitration generally is the best way for investors to resolve disputes involving $10,000 or more, because it costs far less than a law suit. Nevertheless, you should be aware that you do not forfeit your right to sue by signing ah agreement to arbitrate.

This consumer-oriented warning follows another the SEC issued last September. That warning told brokerage firms to stop such potentially unfair practices as raising commission fees without prior notice, unnecessarily retaining dividend payments and issuing checks to customers on banks located far away from their homes. Most brokers have heeded the SEC's earlier proposals, the SEC's regional office is reported to have found out. Not all firms, though, have told customers who for legitimate accounting reasons still may be receiving checks written on distant banks that they can request a change. Assuming your firm has an account with a bank located nearer to you, its executives should readily agree to send you your dividend or other check written on this more convenient institution.

The new status in D.C. WASHINGTON Your status in Washington is no longer based on your title in government, nor how much entertaining you do, nor even if you come from Georgia. You are now judged strictly op real estate. I attended a party recently and my hostess was all aglow. "I want you to meet the most divine couple," she said.

"These are the Schmertzes." The name didn't ring a bell. "They bought a house in Georgetown in 1965 for $14,000 and it is now worth $350,000," she explained. I got excited. "Forgive me," I ogized, "I "didn't know you were those Schmertzes. I've been reading about you in the real estate pages.

Didn't you get a mortgage for percent?" "It was actually Schmertz said modestly. "You know how real estate; reporters tend to exaggerate." Everyone gathered around the couple, while Sen. Teddy Kennedy stood in a corner all by himself. I looked around the room and couldn't believe my eyes. Coining in the door was Ziggy Wintermelon.

I went over to my hostess. "Marion, how did you ever get Ziggy Winterme- lon, the condominium king, to come to your party?" She just grinned mysteriously. "I told him Sam Freed might be here By An Buchwald tonight. Wintermelon has been dying to meet him ever since Sam sold his mobile home in Potomac for $750,000." "Is Freed coming?" I asked. "He's already here, darling.

He's talking to that man with the glasses and frizzy hair over there -1 forget his name." "That's Henry Kissinger," I told her. "It's funny I don't remember invit-. ing Kissinger. He really doesn't fit in with these people," she said. "You certainly turned out the stars," I told her.

"It isn't that Vic Orsini who just bought a million-dollar townhouse in the Kalorama section of Washington?" "Yes, he closed on Friday. I believe he told me he's paying 12 percent fora 25-year mortgage which the bank insists it wants to renegotiate every five Vic's not too bright, but he's fun to have around." "Why isn't anyone talking to Vice President Mondale and his wife?" "They get free housing at the Naval Observatory. What could you talk to them "Marion," I said, "is it true the Stauntons sold their house in Alexandria for what they paid for it five years ago?" "I'm afraid so. They seemed like such a nice couple, I don't know what got into them. Most people have dropped them, but I still say hello to her when I see her at Bloomingdale's." Broke the rules Marion surveyed the room.

Suddenly I saw her eyes stop. "I told Chief Justice Burger not to bug Charley Smith about buying a house in Mount Vernon," she said. "Warren knows perfectly well Charley can't discuss his projects while they're still being developed." "Maybe Burger forgot," I said. Marion took out her guest list. "Perhaps you can help me with the seating protocol.

I have three Supreme Court Justices, the Vice President of the United States, six senators and Carey Winston, the mortgage banker. Should I put Carey on my left or my right?" I Letters Wanted The Journal welcomes letters to the editor but does not promise to print them. The briefer they are the better chance they have. All are subject to condensation and editing. Writer'! name must be signed with full address for publication.

Letters become the property of The Journal. Trash at Agriculture By Mark Russell At the Department of Agriculture, a number of perfectly usable desks, typewriters, mahogany bookcases and other office furnishings are regularly found in the trash. That's Washington even our dumpsters have wall-to-wall carpeting. Frankly I sleep better at night knowing that our public servants are working at desks without any fingerprints or scratches on them. -tr 1r There's an old saying in gover- ment "If a light bulb burns out it's better to replace the entire lamp than to curse the darkness.".