Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 4

Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, tod. Monday, July 10,1878 Editorial Comment The China Market Now that the "bamboo curtain" has been breeched by mutual consent of the Communist Chinese and an apparent majority of the American people, it is obvious that, outside of Asia, Peking is something of a paper tiger. Red China occupies a place in Asia as its most potent regional power. On the world stage, it occupies only a tiny place. Part of the reason for this is China's great size.

It is uncertain how this size creates problems. We do not have access to all parts of China. There is tight security on much of the nation. Moreover reports from "China watchers" make it appear that the central government in Peking is almost as unsure of what goes on in China's more distant provinces and cities as outsiders. China is not a homogeneous totalitarian state.

It is in the interests of the United States to assist.Chiha's new regime to meet its goals of advancing into the 20th century from the 19th. Therefore we can support the sending of a top level scientific mission in which some of America's senior scientists are taking proposals to Peking on how the U.S. can help in non-military scientific applications and to review the state of China's technology. China's one billion people are a tempting market. If it can develop modern apetites, good relations with China could mean good business for America.

Let's Call Soviet's Human Rights Bluff The Soviet Union is stepping up its campaign to show the United States as hypocritical in our professed concern for "human It has adopted the "big lie" technique with a new twist to persuade Soviet citizens that the U.S. is a "human rights In "Komsomolskaya the Communist youth daily, has published a coupon which, it suggests to readers who support the appeal, be pasted on a postcard and sent to President Carter. The coupon demands "Freedom to the Freedom The message on the coupon says that America's jails are filled with "political prisoners" whose only crime is that they fought for civil rights. There can be no argument that there are a number of civil rights activists in U.S. jails who resorted to terror tactics in trying to win support for their cause.

But all those jailed were tried for the injuries and damage they caused, not for their politics. To get into a discussion of whether there is greater "justice" and more concern for "human rights" in the U.S. or in the Soviet Union is feckless. We have an alternative, a challenge to the Kremlin to prove its concern for U.S. violation of "human We suggest that the'Soviets offer refuge to all those jailed American "political prisoners" who have been convicted in our courts.

Let them list their names, an easy task considering the number of radical organizations which have exploited them. The U.S. government should offer each prisoner 1 safe conduct to a transfer point, such as the Berlin Wall, at which he or she would be exchanged on a one-for-one basis with a Soviet dissident. To make everything fair, the dissidents should only take part in the program if they, too, volunteer for the program. There's beeri too much human rights name-calling and too little action to restore 'to individuals the rights of which they've been deprived.

Let's have a showdown. Berry's World by NEA, inc. "My advice to you is stop worrying about your chances of getting Into Studio 54!" Angle And Walters Choice: Furor To follow? WASHINGTON (NEA) President Carter will soon face an especially sensitive political decision in selecting and submitting for Senate confirmation his nomination for a new chairman of a powerful, quasi-independent federal agency. The agency is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. At virtually all of the nation's 15,200 commercial banks, its initials FDIC appear on signs assuring customers that their deposits are insured up to a maximum of $40,000.

The current chairman, George A. LeMaistre, is returning to his former post as a professor at the University of Alabama Law School. He has informed the White House that he wants to move back to his home town of Tuscaloosa, Ala. by mid-August. The leading contender to succeed LeMaistre is his deputy, Lewis G.

Odom a 52-year-old fellow Alabama resident who worked on Capitol Hill from 1955 to 1968, then returned to Montgomery to practice law. In early 1976, when most Alabama Democrats were united behind the presidential campaign of Gov. George C. Wallace, Odom emerged as the state's leading Carter supporter. Later that year, he became Alabama campaign manager for Carter.

When Odom returned to Washington last autumn as LeMaistre's deputy. It the small society was widely assumed that he was positioning himself for a six-year-term in the top FDIC job. In addition to his early commitment and loyalty to Carter, Odom has the support of Atlanta lawyer Charles H. Kirbo, one of the president's closest personal advisors. But Odom also is at least peripherally involved in a continuing controversy over a scheme in which unwary investors including a number of former prisoners of war in Vietnam lost between $1.5 million and $3.5 million because of allegedly fraudulent municipal bond sales.

The bonds were supposed to finance industrial development in two Alabama communities, Tuskegee and Alicevllle. But much of the money allegedly was siphoned off by the bond underwriters, the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. firm of Alexander and Alien. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against that company in U.S.

District Court in Miami, After a trial, the judge wrote an unusually harsh opinion, which concluded: "The evidence in this case describes a horrible fraud, one that has been vicious and brutal. It is difficult to imagine how 'anyone could contrive and execute a more diabolical scheme." Odom, his partners and their law firm served only as bond counsel, a role that technically limitited their involvement to Donald Graff Very Friendly Skies What goes up is down, eventually. The airlines, however, have been doing supposed to come quarters full, the extra passengers are in the category of found money. There has, however, been a price to Charley Reese NATO Failure If Union West about one-third of the Ameri- ican soldiers in Europe would desert. That's not my opinion.

It's the opinion of Vice Adm. John J. Shanahan, who just retired and now lives in Palm Coast; and who was the military advisory to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO and most recently commander of the Second Fleet. Shanahan is an outspoken man, a fighting admiral with a distinguished record, a sharp intellect and a blunt way of talking.

In short, he is exactly the kind of professional military man who Is an anathema to the civilian elite in Washington. "If the Russians started across the line, about a third of our guys would look at their wives and kids and then put them in a car and try to save them instead of going to the front. It's insane to have those dependents over there," he said. Shanahan's opinion is shared by other professionals but those on active duty are not free to speak. Shanahan and others believe the Soviets could blast through West Germany in a matter of hours and present NATO with a fait accompli before the West could mobilize and before a decision could be made to employ nuclear weapons.

The 100,000 or so American women and children who survived would then be hostages in the negotiations. The admiral thinks we should do what the Russians our men every six months but put them on the front line in combat ready positions. American dependents should stay home. Shanahan describes much of NATO's military posture as a farce. Instead of food, weapons and ammunition reserves of 30 to 60 days, many of the depots contain 4 to 6 days supply, he said.

"We make a big show oi flying over troops to demonstrate par ability to bring in reinforcements. What the public doesn't know is that when these troops get off the planes, the trucks that are suppose to take them to the forward areas are sitting there with dead batteries and flat tires." More recently, a study commissioned by the Defense Department shows that both Soviet military doctrine and equipment capability have been designed for continuous day and night combat NATO is neither equipped nor trained to cope with. Traditionally, combat slacks off at sunset, but Soviet military planners have been working since the 1950's to develop the tactics, logistics, and equipment that would enable Soviet forces to engage in a continuous offensive that would run round-the-clock regardless of weather or terrain for a number of days. Pact forces haveJhis equipment in hand. In addition, all of the communist military hardware has been designed for chemical, biological and nuclear war.

NATO equipment is not. Shanahan is also disturbed by the weakening of the Navy and blames the Navy's all-time high desertion rate of over 30,000 men a year on the shortage of ships and the poor condition of many of the ones we do have. He says the present fleet simply is not large enough to accomplish the Navy's mission nor is it configured properly to take maximum advantage of U.S. technology. He says, too, that our military strategy is too often hampered by purely political considerations and cites the commitment to keep two carriers in the Mediterranean at all times.

"The Russians pick up our ships when they leave the U.S. and then another Russian plane checks on-them when they approach the Mediterranean. We're just making it easy for them to keep track of us." In recent years, our politicians in Washington have engaged in the practice of deliberatey deceiving us to Justify their political decisions. When those decisions conflicted with sound military doctrine or even intelligence information, they have vetoed the doctrine and ignored the intelligence. Attempting to alter reality to fit one's pre-conceived notions is a sign of insanity and when leaders of nations do they have often in result is alsways disaster.

The American people owe a large debt front to men like Jack Shanahan, Jack The former second class would be Singlaub, Lew Walt, George Keegan and renamed "club." No Immediate plans Dan Graham who are out on the speaKing certifying that the bonds were backed by legitimate industrial development authorities in'the two communities. But when those claiming to be defrauded investors filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court In Montgomery to regain their money, they named as defendants not only the bond underwriters but also Odom, his law partners and their firm. The suit charged that Odom's firm received "excessive legal fees," participated in an "illegal scheme" and was involved in "aiding and abetting the wrongful acts which culminated In the issuance and sale" of the bonds. Odom and his partners extricated themselves and their law firm from the still-unresolved case through an out- of'court settlement that required them to personally pay more than $100,000 to the plaintiffs.

Odom insists that he had no direct knowledge of any scheme to defraud the no the contrary has yet surfaced. But he also acknowledges that his quest for the FDIC chairmanship places him In an "awkward situation." For Carter, the situation is far more than awkward. A decision to reward an influential political supporter probably to reward an influential political supporter probably will touch off a major controversy whose intensity could match the furor that forced Bert Lance's resignation. by Brickman int. nave uvvn ituiiig iiidv their best of late to disprove the rule so pay in terms of convenience.

So many were announced, however, for calling the circuit trying to tell us the trutn our far as it applies to business trends, To consider that passenger traffic is an estimated 20 percent this month and that following an 18 percent jump in May which topped a 13 percent increase for April. Revenues and profits are on the same course and this not despite but because of reduced fares. It's onward and upward and all because a bureaucrat took a radically unbureaucratic approach to the airline Industry and, to its initial dismay, freed it from the cocoon of federal regulations which had determined its development and operational procedures for four decades. As Civil Aeronautics Board Chairman special fare plans and packages have proposed third "steerage," been introduced that passengers and ticketing personel alike are hard-pressed to find their way through the schedules and come up with the best fit for an individual traveler's needs and wallet. If it was difficult to get a phone call through to a reservation desk before, it is doubly so now.

Still, the bargain flights are worth the hassle and delay for a growing pub- lic.much of it relatively new to air travel, as indicated in some airline surveys. politicians wish to hide. In The Past One Year Ago Twenty Years Ago The Peru city council continued to Only two persons were Injured, neither Ironically, in becoming a mass fc several budget cuts at its meeting seriously, in the nine auto accidents transportation service the airlines are CQnducted lagtwe reported in Logansport and Cass County Transport's Mike Wilson Mark during the long Independence day week- cutting into a veteran in that category. The bus industry, which has begun Daily and Sunday (except Saturday, and $1.00 week by carrier In all Alfred Kahn saw it, the cocoon had making noises about the need for some Kuhn of Lewis Cass will be on the Indiana The counc n. approved the last two and and on rural motor Prepayment in office 13 developed into a straitjacket.

The re- public assistance, cites lower air fares as North All Star Baseball team. 52 $52.00. By mall In Indiana where no carrier or motor route lervlee maintained, 3 $26.00, $12.00 year; by mall Indiana, $52.00 per year. Outilde $20.00, 6 $31.00, 1 yMr All moll payable In Advance. No moil told where carrier or motor tervlee maintained.

On all paid In advance, whether by mall or home delivered, publlther the right to cdluit the expiration date on a pro-rota In the event any Increale It made In the price of the newspaper. Sold tholl be made on the effective date of any announced price Increaie. 1844 Journal 1849 N-J Reporter ettablUhed 1889 Tribune eitablllhed 1907 loganiport eitabllihed 1921 Publlihed dally except Saturday and by Loganiport Newtpaperi, SI7 Eait Broadway, Loganiport, Indiana 46947. Second clan pottage paid at loganiport, undtr the act of March 3,1897. MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION gulatory system which was supposed to ensure orderly operation in the pubJie service actually shortchanged the public and prevented the airlines' expansion into a mass transportation industry.

Early this year Kahn reversed the pattern of 40 years. and stingily parceled out to carefully selected carriers, were opened to competition and the lines were encouraged to develop competitive fare The results are recent history. The airlines have seen the all-important load factor the percentage of available seats booked on flights cliriib to an average of. more than 60 percent. Since operating costs are about the same whether a plane is one-quarter or three- a major cause of its declining-passenger problem.

ordinances on the sewage disposal ness as far as the airlines are concerned. Frankfort, Ten Years Ago the project at a special meeting called by the council. Fifty Years Ago Step to the rear, please Meanwhile, the airlines continue to devise new fare plans; A recent innovation comes from Brit- he Rev Raymond Skelton, Cass Fifteen ladies of the Neal home ish Airways, which wants to offer not Countv probation oftcer for nearly 10 enjoyed a motor ride and treats of ice one, not two, but three classes of service years has submitted his resignation, cream yesterday from the Rotary Club, between London and New York. effective Aug 1 Through a contract signed today by the In addition to the present first and Hornbeck Amusement company, second classes, there would be a super Mayor Eugene Monahan and the City operators of the Colonial and Luna no-frills section at the very rear of the of Logansport will be host to the meeting Theatres have installed movie sound plane. Passengers therein would not be the North Central Mayor's Roundta- devices which will be put to use this entitled to such luxuries as refunds, flight changes and the generous baggage allowances available to passengers up bj coming weekend,.