The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 22

EDITORIAL Evening Journal, Wilmington, Del. Friday, July 7, 1972 '22 V. Stay Out of the Thicket Independence Is Key ij At Last, Agency for Consumer Rv E. H. Furjrurson bill by Ralph K.

Winter a Yale law professor whose analysis is issued under the imprimatur of the conserva- cials and don't care what goes into the foods they eat would not be served. It is such a weak suggestion it is no won-der he advances it agency and the only force that might stop it is a presidential veto, the enterprises that have been huckstering shoddy goods all these years still have not given up the fight to keep right on doing so. At every step through lopsided passage by the House last October (344-44) and the Senate last month (69-10), the idea was fought by chambers of commerce, major manufacturers, a "task force" of some 150 Washington lobbyists and Administration. While avowing agreement with the bill's objectives, Mr. Nixon's spokesmen wanted to subordinate the new body within Justice or another existing departmentthus depriving it of the independence which is the whole reason for its being.

Although all that high-pow-e opposition has been overcome, yet another brief has been drawn up against the WASHINGTON Americans in general those millions who buy mass-produced goods, rather than the thousands who profit from their sales are about to get a federal agency to speak specifically for them, and it is about time. Yet even at this late date, after both houses of Congress have passed bills to create an independent consumer protection 'You Think I Look Bad Wait Till Afler the Convention' gument can be made that a national party exists only while sitting in convention; at other times it is a collection of state parties.) Nothing in the Constitution nor the federal laws recognizes the existence of political parties. The whole presidential nominating process is extra-constitutional and, in the federal jurisdiction, largely extra-legal. Only at the state level, where state law may provide for primaries or some other orderly way of naming delegates to a national convention, does law touch the parties and their nominating processes. And national conventions are out of reach of state laws; regardless of the legality or illegality, by state standards, of the selection of any delegation sent to a national convention, the convention has traditionally been able to seat whom it pleases, by will of the majority.

So a political party may be unfair, unjust or simply outrageous in its decisions. It acts in that manner, of course, at its own risk. The party may pay the price of public revulsion which would penalize its candidates, or it may pay in the loss of support of those who are directly offended by its actions. Just as no one has a constitutional right to be a Democrat or a Republican, no one is obliged to support its ticket or its platform. The time and place for making the Democratic Party's decisions on its delegate seating disputes is next Monday night at Miami Beach.

But, if the appeals court decision is upheld, they will have been made this week in a Washington courtroom. So may many other decisions affecting the internal affairs of political parties in the future, and the courts will find themselves in the uncomfortable role of the political arbiters. Unless the United States Supreme Court finds otherwise, the Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Washington has set a precedent for mischievous interference in the political process that will echo for years. Reversing District Judge George L. Hart the appeals court has stretched the due process clause to cover the seating of all 271 delegates from California to the Democratic National Convention who support Sen.

George McGovern. but denied seating to Mayor Richard J. Daley's Illinois contingent. The Tightness or wrongness, the fairness or unfairness of either the appeals court rulings or those of Judge Hart is not really the issue here. The issue is the interference of the federal courts in the nominating process of a national political party.

Judge Hart, in the lower court, had found no constitutional issue involved, so he quite rightly decided that this particular can of worms was none of the court's business. He quoted the late Justice Felix Frankfurter, who held that courts should stay out of "the political thicket." Both credentials committee decisions of last week, one depriving Sen. McGovern of 151 of his hard-won California delegates and the other unseating Mayor Daley's hand-picked colleagues, may be unfair from the standpoint of the individuals concerned, and they may be unwise from the standpoint of the party's best interests. But, quite literally, these are not federal cases. No court can make a political party, which is not a governmental institution, wise or fair.

Basically, a political party in this country, particularly while it is sitting in convention, is a law unto itselfthat is, its own rules and the will of its majority are its law. (A good ar i American Enterpirse Institute for Public Policy Research. Winter's effort is interesting as a post-mortem, a belated attempt to prove that the consumer advocates who urged passage of the measure are really working against the interests of the American consumer at large. I say so on the assumption that Mr. Nixon knows this is a leap year, when by tradition a presidential election will occur.

If he has been notified of that, he is unlikely to veto the creation of an agency with such a wide constituency, passed by such wide margins in both houses, despite the fact that its opponents are among his lifetime allies. Thus the chance that Winter's argument might have been used as the nucleus of a veto message is now remote indeed. Still, as a display of the doggedness with which Yale legal talent will labor to produce a sow's ear from the sleekest of silk purses, it is worth study. The consumer protection agency (styled the Food, Drug and Consumer Product Agency in the Senate version) is en route to reality, but legal speciousness will live to bamboozle another day, and trade associations to pay for it. The burden of Winter's case is that even if the agency turns out to be effective, it wiil impose "a particular ideology of consumerism upon consumers.

To be sure, some consumers may be helped but many others will be hurt Consumers would almost surely be better off without such regulation and with the money they pay in taxes to buy more safety and information." He means, when he ham-m at a particular ideology of consumerism," that those consumers who want safer products that are as advertised, who want to halfheartedly, saying "some consumers may be helped and "Consumers would almost surely be better off Winter cripples his own argument early on when he concedes major fundamental reasons for an independent agency. That is, existing regulatory agencies are guilty of laziness, political influence and especially servitude to the industries they purport to regulate. Yet somehow he concludes that because these captive agencies have failed to control their captors, any government office, however independent of ties to specific business or industry, will also fail. If that line ever had any convincing force to it, it would have been before the creation and operation for two years of the Environmental Protection Agency. All the same advance criticisms could have been made of that concept, and were.

But the EPA has be- come a major force for the American people at large, as opposed to the corporate forces that always assumed the profit motive was holy enough to exempt them from antipollution measures. EPA is such a force because it is independent, and because the man appointed to head it has turned out to be strong and perhaps ambitious beyond the temptations that have made a shrugging mockery of the other "regulatory" agencies. There is every reason to hope a consumer protection agency would work the same way, would be effective large- ly because it is uncorrupted and unspccialized, and might turn its attention on any given offender on any given The opponents of the new" agency seem not to have considered that what makes it work might be its existence as a moral throat. On the other hand, that Is probably what scares them most. Los Angeles Times Syndicate Tanaka Faces Problems know what they are buying, might be served by the agencybut those who don't want safer products, who enjoy being misled by false commer LETTERS TO THE EDITOR In a process more orderly than most experienced democracies can muster, the Japanese have installed a new prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka.

Known as an activist and politically popular, the 54-year old Tanaka takes over at a crucial time in Japan's history. Japan's post World War II reliance on and friendship with the United States as well as the diligence and determination of her own people have helped her gain the same kind of world status that she had sought by military means earlier in this century: She is now the third largest economic power in the world and during the seven-year premiership of outgoing Eisaku Sato her gross national product tripled. Internationally, Japan not only has become a respected member at world gatherings but also has regained control over territories lost in the war (Okinawa and the Bonin Islands). But there are also problems. Her very pre-eminence in trade has caused difficulties with the United States and now threatens to have an unfavorable impact on America's previously undisputed economic foothold in Europe.

These economic factors put considerable strain on U.S. -Japanese relations within the last couple of years, and no one knows this better than the new prime minister, who has been serving as minister of international trade and industry in Mr. Sato's cabinet. Whether he will be more successful than his predecessor in lowering his country's trade barriers and channeling exports so as not to overwhelm other markets remains to be seen. One way to continue having adequate outlets for Japan's products is for her to improve her relations with the People's Republic of China.

And moves in that direction are reportedly high on Mr. Tanaka's list. While the Peking government had been unreceptive to approaches from Mr. Sato because of his long allegiance to the Taiwan regime, it is expected to be more cordial to the new prime minister and his emissaries. On domestic matters, a complex web of difficult conditions faces the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Ironically, many of them are caused by the very factors that have led Japan to her economic heights. Industrial pollution is a serious problem. Housing for the 100 million plus Japanese is at a premium. Japanese workers still work 35 days more a year than American workers. It will be Mr.

Tanaka's unenviable task to find ways of diverting resources from the export industries to the domestic market and to do this without losing Japan's favorable trading position. It will take all the energy and enthusiasm of the quick-moving Mr. Tanaka to guide his countrymen through this next stage of democratic nationhood. any democracy the opinion of the majority is usually accepted. It was brought lo Mr.

Justis' attention that there are five mobile homes on Marshall Street using one water meter while we property owners must have one meter to each getting a clear, unbiased picture. I'm certaily not getting a clear picture of youth by read-nig the Evening Journal. Js this any way to run a newspaper? Mrs. .1. Sterrett Bear Hank Allays Fears The June 15 syndicated Bob Walton column, "Are Safe Deposit Boxes Safe?" uses an isolated example of robbery losses at a California bank which may raise unwarranted fears among readers concern -i safety precautions provided in safe deposit boxes in general.

For example, procedures followed by Delaware Trust, both in the construction and the 24-hour alarm and detection systems, are in excess of the requirements of the most recent Bank Protection Act. All Delaware Trust safe deposit boxes are contained within our main vaults. In addition, a day-and-night electronic security network promptly detects any attack on outer doors, walls, floor and ceilings of each vault with police receiving immediate signals if any such attempt is made. In the event of a central power failure, Delaware Trust has a back-up battery-operated system to maintain vigilance in safe deposit and all other banking sections. Such systems also include sensitive detectors for heat and noise effects.

In view of the questions raised by the Walton column, we are happy to reassure Delaware Trust customers that modern scientific equipment, personal verfication and checking, and around-the-clock detection procedures are used constantly for maxi- mum protection of all our safe deposit areas. Kemp A. Wright Vice President, Operations Delaware Trust Company Wilmington Abortion Cost Is High Sylvia Porter had a column (June 13) on the possibilities of Blue Cross and Blue Shield giving coverage for abortions. If this would happen, say in New York, where 350,000 reported abortions were performed last year, and BC BS paid for these abortions at an average of $250, it would cost the New York policyholders $87 million. There must be a cheaper way of practicing birth control than heartlessly killing' innocent human life.

If liberalized abortions are paid for, will BC BS also give coverage for euthanasia, mandatory sterilization, infanticide, and genetic It's All Check, No Male home. He said, "That meter is always over the minimum." So are many of ours. (Incidentally, these mobile homes are owned by Mr. Justis.) Since Mr. Justis has been in office the town charter has been changed several times.

Is Newport a democracy or a dictatorship? Mrs. Ralph L. Knowles Newport hp for Employers The editor who wrote the June 17 editorial. "It's Who Gets Whipped," omitted forked-tongued employers from his list of possible candidates for the whipping post. Maybe some employes consider the whipping post not good enough punishment for such employers, and might opt for beating said employers with their watered-down, funky contracts.

Right on! Beverly L. Lloyd Kadnor (ireen Explo '72 Big News I have always thought that the news media told it like it was. It is hard to print newsworthy news with objectivity but I've always thought the Evening Journal did a commendable job, until now. During the the week of June 12, scores of young people (well over 100,000) met in Dallas, Texas for Explo 72. On the closing day it was estimated that 2 5 0,00 0 youths gathered on a hillside outside Dallas for a Jesus music festival.

The purpose of Explo '72 was to train young people, and older ones, too, to tell others of the love of God through Je-s Christ certainly a worthwhile cause. Peace and love ruled. These kids spread love wherever they went. They were clean, happy and orderly. But most of all, they were involved in something constructive.

Expo 72 was unparalleled in modern times. Certainly sounds like a newsworthy front-page item, doesn't it? It could be considered both a national and a local interest story. Many local young people raised money to go to Explo 72. Many people in Del-awaie weie invoieii in iunu-raising activities. Shortly after the Explo story was buried in the pages of the paper along with the ads.

we saw a real front-page spectac-u 1 a story. Some people waited in line, some overnight, to get tickets for a rock concert. This is not news. These things have gone on for years. But lo and behold, there is a large picture on the front page and a long, detailed story under it.

So I see clearly where your priorities are. From now on I will read the paper knowing that I am only reading those stories which are considered important by a few people in an office. I may not be getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I mav not be engineering or selective breeding when bills for them are introduced and passed? What a high price these policyhold-e will individually pay because of bills being intro-d and passed by a demoralized society. Robert A.

Sokolosky Pennsville, N.J. met a man I didn't like," but he was before Mr. Fischer's time. There is his insistence on money. Throughout this century Americans have built a reputation for the crass, a brash love for cash that has built a cache of ill-will toward America and Americans.

That's what Bobby Fischer-did. He acted so American. Mr. Spassky is in there trying, but his et has little bite to it. The way he walked out of the first scheduled meeting resembled a poor road version ot the act Andrei Gromyko used to stage so regularly in the United Nations.

The way the two were checking each other it seemed unlikely they'll ever be mated. Compounding their cold war is that their chosen arena is Iceland. Chess players are like that. Olympians choose places like Tokyo and Munich, regular tourist stops, but the chess federation only takes Iceland when it can't get Bulgaria. The self-effacement of the game may be summed up by the knowledge that the head of the international federation is a man named Euwe.

It's quite possible that-hate him as you will chess needs a Bobby Fischer and his emphasis on "Me!" Certainly it's received more attention this year than many a year in memory. Fischer's hate could be bait. An agreement has now been reached on a chess match between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, but no matter. The match itself will be an anticlimax after the months of moves by the two over where, when and how to hold the match as well as the how much. If he has done nothing else.

Bobby Fischer has done more for chess than anv man since Lewis Carroll. Customarily a chess match raises as much popular interest in this country as the annual meeting of beekeepers or a seminar on the teaching of Esperanto to the Incas. This time there is a difference, and mostly it's been Bobby. The Russians deserve some credit. For years now the Soviets haven't just held the title: they've owned it.

Until Bobby Fischer came along a world chess match was truly a case of Russian roulette. From the buildup he had the chance to become the most popular American since Lindbergh. There are some Americans whose detestation of the Soviets is so great they resent being called red-blooded. Even for them Mr. Fischer is assuming the character of an acquired distaste.

The late Will Rogers drew a lot of mileage out of his line, "I never No Justice in Newport It seems to me that Cedrick D. Justis, the mayor of the town of Newport does not know the meaning of his own name. When 70 of the town's prop-e owners attended a meeting on June 14 to discuss the sale of the Newport water system, Mr. Justis ignored a petition signed by 80 people for a referendum to decide the issue. Mr.

Justis was rudely inattentive during the whole meeting. It seemed to those of us present that his mind was already made up. I realize the town charter gives the commissioners the right to decide certain issues and that we elected these five men, but in EVENING JOURNAL CHARLES L. REESE JR. Chairman ol the Board RICHARD P.

SANGER President and Editor-in-Chief FREDERICK WALTER Executive Vice President and General Manager JOHN G. CRAIG JR. Vice President and Executive Editor LESLIE E. CANSLER JR. Managing Editor FREDERICK W.

HARTMANN Metropolitan Editor harry f. themal Features Editor An independent newspaper published every afternoon xcept Sunday by The News-Journal Company Wilmington, Delaware -ii oei tttjm.