St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 9

APR 21 1980 MONDAY, APRIL 21. 1980 ST I fllllS PnT-fUQPATPU cprTinw l.ior I Tl Editorials News analysis I Itmi nn TttYftnTm Page 2 Pago 3 oMiOilliCS) liiilLVLWLlll' general news page 4 classified pages 4-1 2 Teasdale Takes Credit For Lower Rates For Utilities WW km 0 '1 11 By Charles Bosworth Jr. Of th Poat-Okpatch Staff Gov. Joseph P. Teasdale said Sunday in St.

Louis that Missouri Public Service Commission members he appointed have saved consumers $170 million, mostly by reducing rate increases sought by utility companies. Speaking to members of the Service Employees International Union Local 50 at the Rodeway Inn Downtown, Jefferson Avenue and Market Sreet, Teasdale said that the PSC members he has appointed have led efforts to reduce utility company rate increases, amounting to cuts of $170 million in the last three years. He said his successful effort to repeal the sales tax on utility bills also saved consumers $36 million. The governor told a crowd of about 200 persons that between 1972 and 1976 "During the Republican years, the (former Gov. Christopher Bond years" the PSC granted 89 percent of the amount of increases requested by natural gas companies to allow $45 million in increases.

He said that the PSC, from 1976 to last month, allowed only 50 percent of the increases for a total of $30 million in savings. "During my administration, the PSC has stopped being just another ruBber stamp for the big utility companies," Teasdale said. "The people are represented now, not just the gluttonous utility lobby." In electric company requests, Teasdale said that more than 75 percent of the amounts requested between 1974 and 1976 were approved, compared with about 39 percent since his appointee, Alberta Slavin of St. Louis, became chairwoman. Teasdale said that there is little that can be done at the state level to hold down natural gas costs.

He said 88 percent of the cost increases for Missourians in recent years have been because of actions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Teasdale also said he has issued executive orders that reduced state energy consumption by more than 18 percent by requiring energy audits, limiting thermostat settings, assisting car-pooling and using more efficient vehicles. He said more than 16,000 residences of the poor and elderly have been weatherized with state assistance to reduce energy waste, and the PSC has ended the practice of the "cold, cruel utility companies" by prohibiting utility cutoffs without adequate warning in cold weather. In a call for the service employees and other labor organizations to support his re-election campaign, Teasdale reminded the audience that he opposed the unsuccessful attempt to pass a "right-to-work" law last year and has supported collective bargaining for public employees. Meanwhile, State Treasure James I.

Spainhower, who is running against Teasdale for the Democratic nomination for governor, elaborated upon an earlier charge that Teasdale failed to carry out his 1976 campaign promise to hold down utility rate increases. Spainhower said in a statement that, if elected governor, he would name a blue-ribbon ad hoc panel to make recommendations for long-term solutions to rising utility rates. He noted that Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. last week filed for a record $157 million rate increase just six weeks after the Public Service Commission approved a previous request. 1 ii 'iii'in iMMr Slinilillff All(l Cyclinff Robert Magnusson of St.

Louis, with a warm, sunny weather Sunday in Forest Park. to newspaper, and two bicyclists enjoyed the The temperature reached 82 at 3:10 p.m. Mother Fatally Injured At Wedding Reception Playwright Arthur Miller Honored At St. Louis Reads From Play By Charles Bosworth Jr. Of tt Poat-Ctepatch Staff Playwright Arthur Miller treated a i St.

Louis audience to a reading of bits of his new play, "The American Clock," when he came to St. Louis University on Sunday to accept an award. The play will open in New York April 29. Miller read for nearly an hour to the audience that came to see him receive the Wilma and Roswell Messing Jr. Award from the Associates of the St.

Louis University Libraries at the Pius XII Memorial Library. Obviously enjoying himself, Miller explained the progress of the play as he introduced characters and read the dialogue. The play, which he said he began 10 years ago but found an ending for only this year, is a series of episodes documenting the reactions of 52 characters, played by IS actors, to the stock market crash of 1929 that began the Great Depression. "I didn't write it to bring about the present one," he said. "I didn't write this with the expectation that the situation would be repeated so soon." The annual award, which has been presented previously to 13 writers including W.H.

Auden, Tennessee 1 B. ForbeiPost-Dispatch Woman's Help Leads To Arrests By Kenneth J. Cooper Of th Post-Oispatch Staff A woman provided police with information that led to the arrest of two men in connection with a purse-snatching and an assault on a grocery guard Sunday. Police said that Minnie Chisom, 31, followed the men as they ran from the parking lot at the National Food Store, 4949 Martin Luther King Drive, trying to elude security guard Ivory Graves. After a struggle, the suspects took a pistol from Graves, 22, and used it to fire two shots at him.

Ms. Chisom, who was watching Graves scuffle with the men in an alley in the 5000 block of Wells Avenue, noted the license plate number of the 1973 Mercury in which they fled south on Kingshighway. Police traced the license to a house in the 4200 block of Delmar Boulevard, where two men, ages 26 and 35, were arrested. Patrolman Eddie Nash said Ms. Chisom would be nominated for a citizens award for assisting police.

Nash said he did not know what made Ms. Chisom get involved. Police recovered the purse, identified as belonging to Dorothy Harris, 54, from the Delmar residence. Some of the more than 500 persons Gays VI 1 Williams, George Plimpton and R. Buckminster Fuller, cited Miller as a spokesman for 20th Century America and for his artistry, concern and compassion.

Miller is also a Pulitzer Prize winner. Among Miller's works are "Death of a Salesman," "View from the Bridge." "The Crucible," "After the Fall" and "The Misfits," which was the last movie his wife, Marilyn Monroe, appeared in before her death. After accepting the award from the Rev. Thomas R. Fitzgerald, university president, Miller said be would give no speech because he is tired of giving speeches and would read from his play, instead.

He said he completed a musical and two other plays last year, in addition to "The American Clock." He said ha usually leapfrogs, working on several projects at a time, but had not completed anything for awhile before his latest work. He said he has no real favorite among his plays, but alternates between them depending on how he feels and which work is currently popular in different places around the world. He said "Death of a Salesman" is enjoying its first real popularity in hesitant in talking about himself, preferring not to say where he worked. Sunday's march was put together by the Magnolia Committee (hence the purple flower on the banner), a coalition of homosexual groups that took its name from a Magnolia Avenue apartment where its first meeting was held in November. The turnout, perhaps aided by the sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, rather exceeded expectations.

St. Louis police mounted on horseback and motorcyles escorted the marchers without incident. Along the route, thin young men with no shirts hawked helium-filled balloons printed with the message, "I'm a gay balloon. Can you tell?" The proceeds were to be donated to charity. But few outsiders bought the balloons, and the marchers attracted little attention from the crowds in Forest Park adjacent to the march route.

During the march, Art and Rita talked about their children. At first, Art said, he was "scared and disgusted." At first, he said, he asked himself, "Why did it have to happen to me? "But you make the critical decision, to either stand beside your child or with the society that discriminates against him." Later, Rita said that she needed to keep her anonymity because another of. her children, a daughter in high school, was afraid of the embarrassment if her friends knew her older brother was' homosexual. Magnolia March Helps Set Pace For Lesbian And Gay Pride Week9. By Jerri Stroud Of tha Post-Oispatch Staff A Cahokia family's joy turned to sorrow Saturday night when Betty Jo Politte was fatally injured by an automobile driven by a guest at her stepson's wedding reception.

Mrs. Politte, 40, of the 500 block of St. Thomas Lane in Cahokia, died early Sunday morning at Centreville Township Hospital of injuries suffered when, according to police, the bride's brother, James Randy McMinn, ran over her. McMinn, 33, of Fletcher, was arrested by Cahokia police. Warrants were being sought today.

Harold D. McCraw, 33, of 237 St. John Drive in Cahokia, was treated for bruised ribs and a sprained ankle, his wife said. He was injured when the Manslaughter Charge William Mathews of the 4400 block of Tennessee Avenue has been charged with manslaughter after an accident on South Broadway and Bates Street in which a motorcyclist was fatally injured. The victim was Albert Rivera, 24, of the 2900 block of North 41st Street In McMinn's car rammed his car, she said.

Mrs. McCraw said that McMinn was among guests at the reception for James and Debbie Sylvia. Witnesses told police that as the reception was ending about 11 p.m., McMinn took his 8-year-old son and got in his car. But instead of leaving, McMinn started ramming the cars parked in the lot at the Cahokia Lions Club Hall, 610 Range Lane, the site of the reception. The passenger door of the car was open, said Mrs.

McCraw, and Mrs. Politte grabbed the door in an attempt to get McMinn's son out of the car. McMinn continued ramming cars and started to drive out of the lot, with Mrs. Polittle still holding onto the door. She was run over once in the lot and again in the street as the car left the area, police were told.

In Cyclist's Death Fairmont City. Police said Mathews, 43, was northbound on Broadway about 1:45 a.m. Saturday when his automobile hit Rivera's motorcycle in the rear as Rivera was turning left Into Bates. Mathews was charged later Saturday. .1 Ft n.

England. "They are all attempts to engage different realities," he said. "I don't, compare them somehow. They're all different." Asked if he perceives the lead character in "Death of a Salesman" as a universal character, Miller responded, "You get universal by being particular. It's the particulars that matter, and people draw universal reactions from those particulars." Miller said he begins writing after he can hear a character speaking within his mind.

He said he must know a character well if he is to make audiences know him, too. He said he believes the theater has expanded in the last 20 years and he does not believe it will ever be overwhelmed by any other medium because production for the others, such as television and movies, is much more expensive and technical. "All you need for a play is a board and a couple of actors," he said. Asked if the premiere date of the 29th, for his play about the Depression was chosen for symbolism, Miller stroked his chin and said, "I hadn't thought of that. Let's hope it's meaningless." Not everyone was hesitant.

Margaret Porter marched proudly alongside her son, David. "I knew he was gay at a very early age. I accepted it before he did," Mrs. Porter said. How early, she was asked.

"Three, 4, 5. I could tell." David is 23 now, she said. At Washington University, the marchers responded enthusiastically to several speakers including Ellen Sweets, executive director of the city's civil rights enforcement agency. "Until all our rights are fully protected, none of our rights are guaranteed," she said. "If they come for you in the morning, will they come for me at night?" The Rev.

Michael Allen, dean of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, 1210 Locust Street, said that the marchers looked happy and cheerful "because it was a gay march." When that got a laugh, he continued by saying, "The final judgment will be how many loving acts did you perform?" The crowd howled in delight. "Yeah!" Allen said. "I mean loving acts of all kinds." Byron Davidson, an activist who has spoken out on behalf of homosexuals, said Sunday's rally was a first for him. "I've spoken before almost every other kind of group but never gays. This is the first large group of my peers I've addressed and it's kind of scary.

"But St. Louis knows we're here. It'll never be the same in St. Louis," Davidson said. "They're going to see us." fr umtrHt' -i 1 nice i i By Geof Dubson Of tha Post-Oispatch Staff The march was part of "Lesbian and Gay Pride Week," and was billed as the coming out of the closet of St.

Louis' homosexual community. But for some of the more than 500 marchers Sunday afternoon, the pride could not overcome the fear. "We have spokesmen. I'd preferyou get your information from a spokesman," said a young woman who led the march carrying a banner with a large purple flower on it. She was dressed like a clown, in a satin red and green court jester's outfit complete with bells.

A curly green wig covered her hair, and her face was hidden by a paper mask decorated with crayon markings. She wouldn't give her name to a reporter or even discuss what the, purple flower meant, but she marched out in front of 500 people from Maryland Plaza down Lindell Boulevard to a rally at the Washington University campus. A little further back in the line of marchers was an older man, the father' of a homosexual son, carrying a sign reading, "We love our gay He said his name was Art; the woman i next to him gave her name as They preferred not to give last names. "It's unfortunate that not everybody is comfortable with this," said Bill Spicer, a spokesman for the organizers of the march. "But these people have to earn a living." Even Spicer was usi-isispsicn who "marched Sundayas part of "Lesbian and Gay Pride Week.".