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$1.50 Vol. 324, No. 112 Sunday, October 20, 1991 1991, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Call (21S) 665-1234 for home delivery America: What went wrong? First in a series. Across the country, people sense that the rules of the game have changed, in some undefined way that rewards a few and hurts the many.

They are right. In a nine-part series, The Inquirer examines the dismantling of America Increase in salaries of people earning more than $1 million: 2,184 i ii i hmrrimnw ial kin The Philadelphia Inquirer RICK BOWMER The Diamond Glass Co. plant, where Belinda Schell worked, had been a fixture in downtown Royersford in Montgomery County. But it became a victim of the corporate takeover craze, and, after being sold and resold, it was closed in 1990. Doubts on talks' chances Assailed by some I Israelis, Arabs I By Richard Lorant Associated Press MADRID Secretary of State James A.

Baker 3d yesterday tempered expectations for next week's Middle East peace conference, while an Israeli hard-liner denounced the talks as ruinous. "I really would prefer not to put odds on this or give you percentages," Baker said during a news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. "As I told Spanish officials at lunch, we are dealing here with the Middle East." Baker and his Soviet counterpart, Boris Pankin, announced in Jerusalem on Friday that Presidents Bush and Mikhail S. Gorbachev had issued invitations to the conference, to begin in Madrid on Oct. 30.

Baker met with Gonzalez yesterday to discuss conference logistics, and then departed for Washington. Some Israelis and Palestinians alike were angry about the conference, the first broad-based Mideast parley since failed talks in Geneva in 1973. The prospects for the conference are uncertain. The Palestinians want Israeli-occupied land for their own state in exchange for peace, but Israel has adamantly rejected that formula as a way to end the Mideast conflict. In the occupied Gaza strip yesterday, the Israeli army detained dozens of activists who belong to the Muslim fundamentalist Hamas movement, which condemns negotiations with Israel as a sellout.

An Israeli army official said it arrested the activists to prevent "terrorist activity" after the announce ment of the talks. But more moderate Palestinians from the occupied territories named 14 representatives to serve as part of a joint delegation with Jordan to the peace conference. Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini refused to disclose their names. It was not clear if the 14 picked yesterday included the seven Palestinians who were on a list approved by Baker on Friday; their names were circulated by the Associated Press on Friday. In Israel yesterday, Ariel Sharon, the country's hard-line housing minister, demanded that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir resign, charging that he had led the country to the brink of disaster by agreeing to the talks.

Shamir faces pressure from hardliners to turn down the peace-conference invitation but told Baker he would recommend that his cabinet accept. The cabinet is expected to back Shamir when it meets today, despite opposition from hawkish ministers such as Sharon. PLO leader Yasir Arafat, meanwhile, was believed to be working to assuage Palestinian hard-liners. He arrived yesterday in Damascus, Syria, and was expected to meet with Palestinians who oppose the talks because they still want to eradicate Israel. Arafat has not commented publicly on Friday's announcement of the conference but has accepted the talks on the condition that the United States pressure Israel to make concessions.

"Invitations have gone out," Baker said. "Responses have not been received. We hope this conference will (See MIDEAST on 12-A) ow the game was rigged affainst the middle cla ss By Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele Inquirer Stall Writers 'orried that you're falling behind, not living as well as you once did? Or expected to? TO That you're going to have to What went wrong Hie total amount of dollars in salaries funneled to the rich soared in the 1980s as did the number of rich themselves.

Meanwhile, the total dollars in wages that went to the middle class increased an average of just 4 percent a year, or 44 percent over the decade. Increase fefil in salaries ll of people i earning 1 llttglil Wil $1 million: 6 I and trading companies the way most Americans buy, sell and trade knickknacks at a yard sale. They borrowed money to destroy, not to build. They constructed financial houses of cards, then vanished before they collapsed. Caught between the lawmakers in Washington and the dealmakers on Wall Street have been millions of American workers forced to move from jobs that once paid $15 an hour into jobs that now pay $7.

If, that is, they aren't already the victims of mass layoffs, production halts, shuttered factories and owners who enrich themselves by doing that damage and then walking away. As a result, the already-rich are richer than ever; there has been an explosion in overnight new rich; life for the working class is deteriorating, and those at the bottom are trapped. And for the first time in this, century, members of a generation entering adulthood will find it impossible to achieve a better lifestyle than their parents. Most will be unable to even match their parents' middle-class status. Indeed, the growth of the middle class one of the underpinnings of democracy in this country has been reversed.

By government action. Taken as a whole, the rules that govern the game have: Created a tax system that is firmly weighted against the middle class. Enabled companies to cancel health-care (See MIDDLE CLASS on 16-A) work extra hours, or take a second job, just to stay even with your bills? That the company you've worked for all these years may dump you for a younger person? Or that the pension you've been promised may not be there when you retire? Worried, if you're on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, that you'll never see a middle-class lifestyle? Or, if you're a single parent or part of a young working family, that you'll never be able to save enough to buy a home? That you're paying more than your fair share of taxes? Worried that the people who represent you in Congress are taking care of themselves and their friends at your expense? You're right. Keep worrying. For those people in Washington who write the complex tangle of rules by which the economy operates have, over the last 20 years, rigged the game by design and default to favor the privileged, the powerful and the influential.

At the expense of everyone else. Seizing on that opportunity, an army of business buccaneers began buying, selling It was a phenomenon unlike any America had seen in this century. Increase in salaries of people earning $20,000 to $50,000: 44 1 1991 The Philadelphia Inquirer The Philadelphia Inquirer BILL MARSH SOURCE: Internal Revenue Service Weather Index A rage toward women consumed Texas killer if "tf Youthful rebellion in the '90s Faces change, but attitudes stay the same fit 41, fi- J) wl if yf i Jodie Foster has been in front of the movie camera since she was 3 years old. Now, she's behind it. Page 1L.

Partly sunny and cool, high 56. Low tonight 38. Full weather report on Page 12-D. By Tanya Barrientos Inquirer Stall Writer David Kerchner wanted a pierced ear and a tattoo. His parents countered with a timeless adult dictate: "Not as long as you live in our house." "So," the 20-year-old said in a recent interview, "the first day I got to college, I got my ear pierced and then I got a tattoo." Kerchner proudly pointed to not one but two holes in his left ear and a half-dollar-sized tattoo on his left calf: a basketball, with the words Cabrini Cats wrapped around it.

Riding the wave of his rebellion, Kerchner said he didn't even tell his parents about the haircut that came later. He considered it a personal victory that they didn't even object when they first saw the sides of his head shaved and the top mop of hair died blond. Youth and rebellion. They go together like Madonna and under- By Donna St. George and Linda S.

Wallace Inquirer Stall Writers BELTON, Texas He shouted obscenities at a passing neighbor. At the corner grocery, he spit all over a stranger's car. He scornfully shoved another customer out of line. All three victims of his bewildering anger had one thing in common. They were women.

George Hennard stewed and brooded in a dark world where innocence was no protection against his venom. But never were the victims more innocent or unsuspecting than the 22 people he shot to death after plunging his pickup truck into a lunch-crowd at Luby's Cafeteria on Wednesday. A 23d victim died yesterday from her injuries. Hennard ended the rampage with a bullet to his head, leaving police to puzzle together the clues about what provoked his ruthless rampage. And their focus quickly settled on his volatile, often vicious, attitudes toward women.

Fifteen victims were female. "Take bitch," he said as he Special 10 The Inquirer JOAN FAIRMAN KANtS At Haverford High, wearing leather jackets, jeans, T-shirts. SECTIONS FEATURES News AjB Ann Landers 3-K Review Opinion Automotive 1-G Business Editorials 6-C Sports Horoscope 6-K View Obituaries 18-E Real Estate Society 2K Food TV Puzzle 54-TV FamilyFashion Word Puzzles 5-F Entertainment I CLASSIFIED Travel Index tj Inquirer Magazine Autos 1-G TV Week Comics Help Wanted 1-1 "When we were growing up, we really could say that our parents didn't know what we were talking about or experiencing," said Evelyn Atkins, 40, sitting in her Haverford home with her son Kyle, 17. She said she remembered dating (See REBELLION on 6-A) wear. Psychologists say every generation has its form of rebellion, different in content, but similar in style.

And as always, rebellion is driving parents crazy. Even those who grew up in the rebellious 1960s. George Hennard Rampage in Texas cafeteria pumped bullets into one woman's prone body. "Wait till those women in Bel-ton see this!" he said at one point, calmly selecting his victims. "I wonder if they'll think it was worth it!" It was 10 minutes of horror that (See KILLEEN on 8-A).