The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 14

An Independent Newspaper Published Every Morning by Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. 400 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101 FREDERICK CHAIT, President CREED C. BLACK Editor Wednesday, January 24, 1973 SAM S.

McKEEL, General Manager EUGENE L. ROBERT, Executive Editor Page 14-A This time, we may hope, peace is indeed at hand Letters to the editor And so peace is at hand again and at last. Let us give thanks. And let us pray that this time the settlement which has not only been negotiated but initialed in Paris and approved in Saigon will indeed put an end to what has seemed to be an endless war. After a decade of looking for light at the end of the Vietnamese tunnel, there is a built-in skepticism about the viability of any agreement.

Only when the shooting actually stops can peace be accepted as a reality. And even then the question of how long it can endure will intrude itself. At the moment, however, the historic joint statement which President Nixon disclosed last night raises the strongest hopes yet that for the United States, at least, the nightmare which has wracked this nation so long may soon be over. We also may at least hope, on the basis of the President's broad outline of the settlement, that some means short of a resumption of hositilities, once our forces are withdrawn, has been fashioned to resolve the enduring political conflict among the Vietnamese themselves. Any judgment about the prospects for that, however, must await an analysis of the terms of the agreement, which according to Mr.

Nixon are to be made public today. There also will be time later to reflect on the lessons to be drawn from this conflict. They have much to teach us, and as a nation we owe it to those tens of thousands of young Americans who have been killed or maimed in Vietnam to study them well in an atmosphere of retrospection. For now, as Mr. Nixon himself said, the important thing is to get peace.

We are heartened by his assurance that "this we have done," and we hope earnestly that it will indeed be a peace which not only ends our own involvement but which ends the bloodletting among the long-suffering Vietnamese themselves. Bellis zoning case should be probed Letters should be brief and written on one side of the paper. The writer must sign his name for publication, and give his address and a telephone number through which the letter can be verified, although neither street addresses nor telephone numbers will be published. The Inquirer reserves the right to condense. Dedicated teachers are teaching teachers would be for the teachers to strike directly at the administrative system by refusing to carry out their administrative functions while continuing in their obligation to teach.

LINDA G. BALL Philadelphia. To the Editor: When the Teachers Union requested binding arbitration in September the Board of Education rejected that proposal. I do not recall editorials directed toward Mr. Ross at that time.

The fact finder's report was accepted as an alternative but the board agreed only if they could reject it if they wanted. The board, if you recall, waited until the union turned it down before announcing their decision to accept. Their proposal to the union was not the same as the fact finder's report. Increases under the report were limited by the phrase "payable when money is available." One gets the impression that any education is acceptable as long as it does not extend additional financial burden to those benefiting from these services. Especially those on the board whose education and the education of their children was limited to private school MARTIN BRITCHKOW Teacher Philadelphia.

To the Editor: As parents of children attending the Sharswood School, we cannot understand how so many parents have accepted this school crisis without demanding that their schools be open. We were very fortunate that our school had enough qualified teachers and aides to keep it operating. Since the PFT and the Board of Education haven't settled this crisis, it is now time for parents and other concerned citizens to demand their rights in getting the schools open. Laws were meant to be obeyed. We would like to know if the Teachers Union feel they are above the law? Also, teachers say they are marching for dignity, but their actions on the picket lines have certainly shown a great lack of dignity.

BETTY ABRAMSON President, Executive Board Sharswood Home School Philadelphia. Inept psychology To the Editor: Art Peters' column of Jan. 16 about Monopoly was simply incredible. Typical of Mr. Peter's unbelievable statements is the following: "American children are taught by playing Monopoly that it is perfectly all right to become a slum landlord and fleece poor tenants." Yes, when I had hotels on Mediterranean and Baltic, I used to laugh about charging $250 or $450, when I didn't even supply heat or.

water. Or even a room. Another gem is "The game embodies the philosophy of get all you can by any means necessary." By any means necessary you can shake the dice simultaneously or one at a time. In addition to this inept psychologizing, Mr. Peters also reveals his ignorance about economics.

He states that "monopoly" means "price fixing" and "wage starvation." Monopolists do not engage in price fixing, they don't have to. Only when you have competitors is there the temptation to engage in price fixing. By definition, monopolists have no competitors. And monopolists, partly because they do so well economically, are generally known to pay their workers quite well. (This is not to say that monopoly is desirable.) PETER L.

TAYLOR Philadelphia. provised and made necessary adjustments to get 235 schools open 81 percent of all the public schools in the city and to provide continuing education for more than 110,000 students. Nearly half of the teachers now working about 1,700 have been in the classroom since the strike began. Some 500 more returned in the early days of the walkout. The rest, more than 1,500, have gone back in compliance with the court order.

There are dedicated public school teachers in Philadelphia teachers who have a sense of responsibility for their pupils and respect for the law and the courts. The tragedy is that they have so many erstwhile colleagues who do not. With the teachers' strike in its third week despite a court injunction ordering them back to work, and with two leaders of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers now on trial for criminal contempt, it is an appropriate time to ask whatever became of that dedication which has been the traditional hallmark of the teaching profession. And the answer is to be found in classrooms all over the city where teachers are valiantly performing their duties under unusually difficult More than 3,700 teachers 28 per-centiof the total are on the job. They have overcome the adversities of a diminished teaching staff with extra effort beyond the call of duty.

They have im their jobs until retirement, resignation or other normal separation. Mr. Bates claims incorrectly that "Penn Central wants to throw us into Social Security." The recommendation that the railroad retirement fund be combined with Social Security was made by a special study commission, authorized by the U. S. Congress.

The commission included top labor representatives. Only an act of Congress can change the status of railroad retirement. WILLIAM A. LASHLEY Vice President, Public Affairs, Penn Central Transportation Co. Philadelphia.

Teachers' tactics To the Editor: As a teacher and a parent of a Philadelphia public school student I am appalled by the current impasse in the teacher-school board negotiations. While I sympathize with many of the goals of the teachers, I find it difficult to countenance the irremedial damage to the children of Philadelphia. The teachers, through their union, could register their complaints without jeopardizing the on-going learning of the children. One alternative to the traditional work-stoppage which would maintain public confidence in the A sound abortion decision To the Editor: The disclosure by your paper Jan. 18 that Council Majority Leader Isa-dore Bellis received a beneficial zoning change is nothing short of appalling.

And to add incredulity, you quote Councilman Bellis as saying his proposal for new legislation "does not concede any wrongdoing Sadly, some may ask, "Why. shouldn't a councilman be able to garner a profit by use of his ingenuity?" This apathetic situation is as audacious as the original act itself. I call on the District Attorney's office to investigate any alleged wrongdoing not only by this particular councilman, but also by the Council Rules Committee. Perhaps, then, this act will not be just winked at as a "politician getting his due." It is so terribly easy to influence zoning changes for some particular self-interest. I know; I serve on a planning commission where I could readily benefit for personal gain and the public be damned.

It may sound rather square, but should not all public officials be above any suspicion? It is time for the citizens to be outraged. Philadelphia's problems with zoning changes have been acute for years. Who is actually looking over City Council's shoulders on matters of zoning? Are there no civic groups equipped (and funded) to watchdog this arena? I commend The Inquirer on its consistent persistence in matters of public justice. WALTER L. RUBEL Philadelphia.

For civilians only? To the Editor: While driving to work recently, I was stopped at a red light on the West River drive when an opposing car ran right through the same red light. It was a Fairmount Park patrol car. His flasher was not working and I would guess he was not traveling more than 30 MPH. This is not an isolated case, as you can see patrol cars "running red lights" in Philadelphia any day. Almost any morning at 6 A.M., you can see a patrol car parked about 100 feet from the intersection of Montgomery drive and Belmont ave.

with the lights out. One can only imagine they are waiting there to catch some unsuspecting motorist that passes- a stop light. Are the traffic laws only for non-patrol cars? J. H. AMEND Merion.

Errors on Pennsy To the Editor: The Jan. 9 letter of Phillip Bates of the United Transportation Union included several incorrect statements. It is not true, as Mr. Bates infers, that United Transportation Union members are being singled out for job reductions while the number of official and supervisory employes remains the same. Since the Penn Central merger in 1968 the number of officials, supervisors and other non-union employes has been reduced by 24.6 percent.

Total employment is down more than 20 percent. But the number of freight train crewmen, including brakemen, has decreased only 4.5 percent. Elimination of unneeded, unproductive jobs is vital to the Penn Central reorganization and continued operation of the railroad. Because it has not been possible to eliminate unneeded train crew positions, maximum cuts have already been made in non-operating forces. Mr.

Bates' letter gives the impression that these men would lose their jobs. This is not true. The reduction would occur gradually, through attrition. This means that virtually all crewmen not working would stay on Environmental questions Superport is an asset? catastrophe? Justice Blackmun based the majority decision squarely on the right of personal privacy. That right is implied in the Fourteenth Amendment's safeguards of personal liberty.

It is implied in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of certain rights to the people. The state cannot force a woman to bear a child. It cannot force her not to. The decision is, as it should be, hers to make. The state has no "compelling" interest in making it for her.

Neither has it the right under the Constitution. Yet the right of privacy is not abso lute. The majority acknowledges that after the first three months of pregnancy the state may properly regulate abortion procedures in ways "reasonably related to maternal health." At the point of viability of the fetus, the state may, if it wishes, prohibit abortions except where they may be necessary to preserve the mother's life or health. In a dissent, Justice Byron R. White, joined by Justice William H.

Rehnquist, charges the majority with "an exercise of raw judicial power." On the contrary. The majority has simply forbidden the exercise of raw legislative power to invade the private lives of American citizens. It has, after years of controversy, vindicated the right of women to control their own bodies. This is no mere abstract constitutional principle. For it means that thousands of women will not feel obliged to go to back-alley butchers or attempt dangerous, do-it-yourself methods of abortion or be compelled to bring unwanted children into the world, even the product of rape or incest.

In Pennsylvania, it means that women may be attended by their own doctors, and their doctors may prescribe what they believe, in their own professional judgment, is best for their patients, not what a legislature orders in its political judgment. It also means that the rigidly prohibitive Martin P. Mullen measure, which Gov. Shapp courageously vetoed, could never have stood muster under the court's ruling. At that time, the governor urged the legislature to await the Supreme Court's decision as a guide to future action.

The legislature may now proceed to act within the framework laid down by the court. Some controversial questions can never be resolved to everyone's satisfactionfor they involve matters of faith which are beyond rational consensus. Such a question is when does life truly begin. At the moment of conception? At the moment of birth? Somewhere in between, and if so, where? As U. S.

Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun declared for the 7-2 court majority, which has just struck down all state laws forbidding or restricting women's right to obtain abortions in the first three months of pregnancy: "When those, trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer." It follows all the more emphatically, then, that the legislature is not in a position to mandate the answer. Yet the question of abortion could not be left unsettled, and in his admirably reasoned decision Justice Blackmun has drawn the appropriate boundaries in the central; issue where does the power of the state begin, and where does it end? Noting that the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons, The First State Perhaps it was just a slip of the tongue by the usually erudite David Brinkley, but he gave millions of persons who watched the inaugural parade on NBC outlets around the country a bit of misinformtaion about the State of Delaware that needs correction. When its float went by, he noted that Delaware is called The First State because it was the -first to approve the Declaration of Independence. Delaware was indeed instrumental in winning the vote for independence by the Continental Congress in 1776 with Caesar Rodney rising from a sick bed and making his historic ride from Dover to Philadelphia to cast his ballot.

But Delaware earned The First State title more than 11 years later on Dec. 7, 1787 by becoming the first to ratify the U. S. Constitution, beating Pennsylvania by five days. Architect's drawing of proposed superport To the Editor: With present facilities in the Delaware Valley unable to supply necessary fuel to heat our homes and businesses right now, it seems indescribable that the citizens of the lower Delaware River and Bay are mounting obstacles and complaints to the construction of a superport.

Many individuals are alarmed about damage to marine life and environmental aesthetics without considering the chilly, cheerless- alternatives. Technology offers the lower valley a facility capable of meeting the crude oil requirements of the original 13 colony area, for the foreseeable future, protecting the environment with unheralded safety devices. The "six-mile superport" proposed includes underwater tanks as part of the facility itself, invulnerable to leakage or spillage as we think about it. No tanks or lines would appear to the eye. An additional benefit would be the development of a recreational facility unparalleled in the north-eastern range of the North Atlantic, centrally located to provide opportunities for entertainment and relaxation available economically now only to residents of the far south and west.

Other superport facilities now exist in Ireland, Canada, the Bahamas and the Far East where spillage and other environmental factors have not been a problem. The mere existence of these facilities, inferior to the proposed facility in the lower Delaware Bay region, pose a serious threat to the security and economy not only of our area, but of the United States. Imagine having to purchase the energy required to heat our homes from foreign governments at their price! Such installations do pose a potential catastrophe for New Jersey's coast but we urge that the threat of radioactive contamination from the floating off-shore atomic power plant proposed for siting northeast of Atlantic City be properly compared to that of an oil spill. It has been explained by eminent scientists that a meltdown in an atomic reactor could contaminate an area in excess of 150,000 square miles, three times that of New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined, causing deaths up to a distance of 100 miles or more. JOHN K.

MUSTARD Executive Director, Delaware Valley Committe for Protection of Environment Moorestown, N. J. The development of a super tanker facility in the central North-Eastern range is vital to the economic and social well-being of the entire Delaware Valley. No tanker now being built, and many already at sea, can navigate the Delaware River due to insufficient water. J.

W. HARTZELL, JR. Philadelphia. To the Editor: The unanimous opposition by citizens and local, state and Federal legislators to the proposed deepwater superport off New Jersey's coast was capped off by Gov. Cahill's announcement Jan.

10 that "the superport sites currently recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers are unacceptable to New Jersey.".