The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 20

THE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS mm mm 'I'm Gonna Turn You Loose But Don' Run Away' oponoon WEDrfoPAY, JANUARY 17, 1973 orum Statehouse Experience A Variety of Responses THE MEMBERS OF the current Vermont Legislature possess a wealth of experience in public affairs which probably is unmatched in the state's history. For the benefit of new Vermonters, especially, it is instructive to review some of this experience. The Senate contains several members who ran for state and national offices in previous years, and who probably would not be in the Legislature today had they won those elections. These include Frederick P. Smith, who sought the Republican nomination for the U.S.

House of Representatives in 1948; Russell F. Niquette, who was the Democratic candidate for, governor in 1960; John H. Boylan, who sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1964; Graham S. Newell, who also sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1964; John T. Alden, who sought the Republican nomination for the U.S.

House of Representatives in the special 1972 election; and Fred E. Westfall, who also sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in the special 1972 election. Chittenden County's "unofficial seventh senator," Frederick J. Fayette, was the Democratic candidate for the U.S.

Senate in both 1958 and 1964. Other state senators with unique backgrounds include H. Ward Bedford, former head of the Vermont State Colleges, and Robert J. Branon, former state commissioner of agriculture. Arthur Gibb is an expert in matters environmental, Frank Smallwood is an expert in matters educational, Robert V.

Daniels is an expert in matters political and governmental, and soon. Members of the House also possess a wealth of experience. For example, Richard Snelling was the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in 1964 and the party's candidate for governor in 1966. There are numerous other representatives with wide experience in all manner of public activities. The background of experience in this Legislature is notable because it is measured by the extent of activities in public affairs and not simply by longevity of public service.

(There were many representatives in pre-reapportionment days, after all, who spent goodly portions of their lives representing their towns at the Statehouse, but who were ill-equipped to make any significant contributions to the betterment of state government). The legislation which finally emerges from the 1973 Legislature should be among the most sophisticated ever adopted in Vermont. The wealth of experience at the Statehouse will help to malte it so. F.B.S. extended from its present terminus to the lake.

To use a Vermont term (one with which my fellow commissioners seem unacquainted) that now unused portion of Pearl Street has never been "thrown up." Quite simply, there is no authority to use that land for a park without going through legal hearings similar to those which were required when St. Paul and Pine Streets were closed. At the very least, I think that right of way should be maintained for future access to the lake and waterfront. The dumping of yards of fill excavated from the Mondev development will forever preclude that possibility. Much bis been said of citizen participation in city planning and development.

As a planning commissioner, I invite interested citizens to present plans to the Planning Commission for the use of that land as a park. Would that it were cleaned up, grassed and sodded; children's and nature trails laid down its banks; the fountain returned and a meandering asphalt path laid in with frequent benches and play areas. The regimented, sterile, unworkable and formal plan presented may well form a jewel-like setting for the mass of Urban Renewal, but a people's park it is not! These are the reasons, sir, that "McSweeney objects to park design." I hope you and your paper will do so too. E. DOUGLAS McSWEENEY M.D.

Burlington, Vt. Praise for Colchester Police No words can describe the happiness that we felt when after 10 days "Misty," our Siberian Husky, was returned to us. With the determination of the Colchester Police and the help of the Massachusetts Police Department working together, they were able to trace her and return her to us from where she was abducted New Year's Eve. Never will we forget the concern and the time that Chief Smith and his men took to locate her. Words alone cannot do justice to the Police of Colchester.

THE DIETL FAMILY Colchester, Vt. mm'Yii-jk I The Wage-price Czar Not Enough Money Costly Environment Consultant It is inconceivable to me that Martin Johnson would accept the position of Environmental Secretary if he thought in his own mind that he couldn't handle the job. He retains the former Commissioner at a $400 a week salary as a consultant! I see no reason why the people of the State of Vermont have to pay $400 a week to keep a man in a job until we can find something else for him. We are paying Mr. Williams in the vicinity of $20,000 a year just to hang around, to fill a vacancy when it comes up.

What is this, a new form of Social Welfare? If so, it would only be fair to follow the same procedure with all the people we replace. EDWARD M. HARTMAN Montpelier, Vt. Archaeology Courses at UVM Archaeology is alive and well at UVM, although Cora Cheney is technically correct in Saturday's Free Press that no course is offered by that name. Nonetheless, archaeology has been a part of the Anthropology curriculum, on a regular basis, since 1966.

In the current (Spring) semester, no fewer than four courses with an archaeological content are being offered by this department. Mention may also be made of Professor Davison's courses on the ancient Near East and Greece for the History Department. One other point: Louise Basa, whose picture appears on the front of Saturday's Focus, is an instructor in anthropology, not sociology. WILLIAM A. HAVILAND, Chairman Department of Anthropology, UVM Burlington, Vt.

Detection of Discrepancies Addendum: Our venerable town clerk, Arthur Thompson, has assured me that he too was cognizant of the discrepancy between the Presidential vote and the total vote cast. In this instance we detected the mistake, but how many more in how many towns have escaped notice due to multiple ballots, lax procedures, fatigue, JOSEPH S.WOOD North Ferrisburg, Vt. The Milton Phonics Program Your reporter, Lorna Lecker, wrote a fine story on our phonics program last week. However, there are a few points which I apparently failed to make clear: First, the program works because of the efforts of the teachers. It is a success because of their dedication, skill and enthusiasm.

Second, the fact that no students qualify for remedial reading in grade two does not mean that we are 100 per cent successful. Federal guidelines state that children must be at least one year behind in reading to qualify as needing remedial instruction. We do have some children with reading problems in grade two. Second-grade teachers have their job cut out for them. However, the reading success rate is greatly enhanced by the Alpha-I program.

Any school which claims 100 per cent success with any reading program is probably not looking for the problems. Third, the entire elementary program in Milton has shown steady improvement over the past several years due mainly to the superb efforts of an excellent staff Again the article was encouraging. However, the people of Milton should be aware of the gains in our whole educational effort and that when dealing with human beings, no program works equally well for everyone. A recent letter from the Commissioner of Education states: "Congratulations for the very great educational progress which has been made in Milton in recent years." Thanks again. MERRITT W.

CLARK. Principal Milton, Vt. Milton Elementary School Objection to Park Design The expenditure of $180,000 (roughly) to make an extension of Battery Park south to College Street on the west side of Battery Street was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the most recent so-called Urban Renewal Bond Issue. The city Park Commission approved the ONLY plan submitted for this work and, over my objections, the Burlington Planning Commission acting as the Urban Renewal Agency has affirmed this plan. The park as conceived and approved has design and conceptual deficiencies which include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Only that portion of city land above the brink of the hill is projected for use.

Far more than on- of the total property is uncontrolled. The natural slope becomes instead a repository for wino's bottles and other junk. (2) The park is not passable on a bicycle; persons in wheelchairs cannot navigate it; mothers pushing baby carriages or shopping carts cannot use it. (3) There is no separation between a heavily traveled four-lane street (Battery) and the park. (4) There is no access via the park to the highly touted Waterfront recreational area, nor for that matter, to or from Urban Renewal land.

(5) There is no place to park to use the park. (6) The entire usable area, except the various batteries of steps, will be crushed rock or gravel. No grass, sod, asphalt or concrete. (7) The formal design envisages impossible numbers of stairs up the entire slope from College Street. There are to be no ramps, no sloped walks.

(8) Trees, shrubs, walks, promontories appear to have been laid out by a drill sergeant or an architect who never heard of a curve or slope and has no acquaintance with the meaning of the word "Nature." The resuscitation of the Humane Society's watering trough (given to the city in 1901 and long a favorite feature of Battery Park) is great and i wonderful. It is the only thing in the present plan i worth a damn. However, this magnificent piece belonged to the city in the first instance and it was removed by the Park Department: it seems unnecessary to spend $168,000 of Urban Renewal funds to resurrect it. One expects that it will be returned when construction of streets is complete and paid for out of the Park Department's usual budget. Prior to 1910 or thereabouts, Pearl Street VERMONT LEGISLATORS at Montpelier are faced with the difficult decision of how to meet increased requests from the various departments of government during the next fiscal year without increasing taxes, and at the same time fulfill Governor Salmon's campaign promise to reduce taxes of those now paying more than five per cent of income in property taxes.

Obviously the budget presented to the legislators by Governor Salmon allocates to most departments less than requested. That was inevitable if the budget was to be balanced without increasing taxes. Now the legislators must decide whether the estimated income of the state has been distributed in the governor's budget in such a manner as to best serve the majority of the people of Vermont. In such allocations of expected revenue, there is a tendency to "rob Peter in order to pay Paul," with Peter representing well-established services requiring increased appropriations each year, and Paul representing newer services which have won popular support but require more money if they are to continue. Faced with their constituents' resistance to tax increases, legislators undertake to shift expected available funds in such a manner as to keep everybody functioning, if WASHINGTON While explaining Phase Three to some newsmen, assistant President George Shultz said it was voluntary but the government had "a stick" which it could "take out of the closet" to "clobber" those who aren't too voluntary about the mostly non-mandatory pay-price control guidelines.

"Standards" he called them. Point is: Who will decide who is greedily failing the test of self-administered standards of pay and price increases? Who will decide who is to be clobbered by the government? It will be Harvard's Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a most unlikely title for Johnny Dunlop, the new pay-price czar whom Shultz considers "the most experienced in the country if not in the world." So just a brief word about Prof. Dunlop so ye shall know him and understand why we newsmen sometimes yelp. There isn't anything anywhere and most importantly, anybody of consequence in the labor-management-production-industrial -social (meaning martini social) complex John Dunlop doesn't know. And he always works with the top.

Best description of Dunlop is in two unreported incidents. Some years ago some of us flew to Rome from various points in Europe for a labor-industrial-cultural conference during which the Pope was to be visited. We scooted in under a lowering ceiling. But Dunlop's plane, winging from the U.S., had to circle Rome several times and was finally forced to head back for Paris. Legend has it Dunlop took this as a personal insult and sought out the highest power to protest the meteorological affront.

Only the American ambassador was available in Paris. Had the Almighty been reachable, Johnny Dunlop would have gone to that final authority. So he slept in Paris. But only because he couldn't reverse the weather. But in the labor-management field there's little or few he hasn't been able to reverse or argue, bully, push, shove, cajole, arm-twist since he began in this field some 35 years ago.

THEN THERE'S THAT morning in the White House cabinet room about a year ago when President Nixon summoned the construction industry's labor and business leaders. With them came Johnny Dunlop, loaded with charts. They proved to the President that all was running smoothly and that they were one big, big, happy, happy family in the tribe-ridden $110 billion (annual) industry. President Nixon asked how they managed to work together so effectively and quietly and how strikes had been cut in half and how the rate of pay increases was slowed. Both sides obviously had combed what was left of their hair so the scars didn't show.

But they had been working together. And, in full consensus, they told Dick Nixon Dunlop was the "glue" which held them together. That's good, said the President mockingly rapping the desk. Those in the other industries come in feuding with each other and pounding the table. So it doesn't look like any stick will be taken out of the closet.

Dunlop, new director of the Cost of Living Council, who now has Mr. Nixon's and Shultz's mandate as pay-price czar, doesn't clobber. He hasn't as chairman of the Construction Industry Stabilization Committee which he will continue to run. He uses power brokerage, intellectual leverage and a sort of mystical method of painlessly extracting just a little more money from employer. avoid a crisis, strike or public rhubarb.

When the dying Pay Board got in his way he simply bypassed it and went to George Shultz. He stayed behind the scenes above the battle. Thus he is the total symbol of the White House Phase Three philosophy. Labor leaders feel no pain. They can deal with Dunlop.

They know the pay increase standard still is a "voluntary" 5.5 per cent annually. But with Dunlop's special arts and sciences it will be higher and it will still look mighty like 5.5 per cent. And the employers will be promised and probably will get the concessions and productivity they seek. THAT'S WHY ALL the labor leaders invited to join the labor-management advisory committee of the Cost of Living Council accepted. The tradeoff is there if their rank and files don't get overly greedy during the approaching massive collective bargaining in the 73-74 season.

Then Phase Three will phase out controls. That's why George Meany, AFL-CIO president, who broke up the original tripartite Pay Board by leading a traditional labor walkout, swiftly praised the President's proposals. The long Presidential message to Congress and the intricate Phase Three proposals were officially available to newsmen at about 10 a.m. Thursday. The stories did not appear for hours.

Yet the Meany statement was available about lunchtime. Obviously, the full text of the President's message had been cleared carefully with Meany and his advisory board colleagues, steel's I. W. Abel, the Seafarers' Paul Hall, as well as with the Teamsters' Frank Fitzsimmons and even with George McGovern's intimate, the auto workers' Leonard Woodcock. And virtually all the businessmen on the advisory committee are respected by labor and are Johnny Dunlop's kind of commerce and industry executives.

The President and Shultz, with a lateral pass to Dunlop, actually have thrown the economic ball to the labor and industrial leaders. The White House theory is that if this voluntarism doesn't work, it will be the fault of the labor-management complex. And who then can blame him if he gets tough in many fashions at the beginning of 74? It's a chancy game plan. But it sure is being chanced. Unless, of course, the President has reason to believe the Vietnamese war is over.

Press Rights Debate Habeas Corpus Delicti? As I am sure that an organization that wants to represent the people at meetings of governmental bodies such as yours, is therefore very careful to insure strict accuracy in reporting, your report of the bills introduced in the Legislature in the issue dated Jan. 5, is assumed correct. One bill, S-39 introduced by Janeway, R-Windham, took my notice as being a dangerous precedent. I quote: "Would provide loans to state residents studying law and would have the state repay such loans if recipients practice medicine in Vermont." The bold-facing is mine. I realize that lawyers have become omnipotent recently, what with practicing engineering in Colchester, and politics in Essex, to say nothing of the makeup of the Legislature itself.

But I think it is time to call a halt when they get their habeas corpus mixed up with the corpus delicti. I don't know whether Senator Janeway is a lawyer or not, but I do know him to be above such things. Let the lawyers keep their hands out of the public trough and, more important, keep their hands off the sick. DOUGLAS P. FAY Westford.Vt.

Antiwar Falsehoods Exposed Those who now spread Hanoi's propaganda are going to live to regret it, as did Stalin's mouthpieces in their day. To speak of propaganda does not mean they are saying things they know to be false. The best propaganda is that which contains, or seems to the gullible to contain, the most "truth." The most convincing propagandists, to the unwary, are those who so completely believe in the righteousness of their cause that they can ignore facts completely. There is a big core of truth in the current campaign to persuade us to give Hanoi victory. The United States has so far stymied its conquest of all Indochina, as we prevented Communist takeover of all Korea, West Berlin, Greece, and several other areas.

Otherwise the campaign is based on distortions, tenth truths and falsehoods. I exposed some of them in a letter published last May 9. Still we have David Ross speaking of "our newly established puppet government." The N.Y. Times for Jan. 5 contains a picture of Tran Van Do Minister and Saigon's negotiator at the Geneva Conference in 1954.

In 1957 the Soviet Union even proposed both Vietnams be admitted to the U.N. The exact number of countries (including Sweden) which recognize the Republic of (South) Vietnam isn't a fact Hanoi's supporters want us to keep in mind, but it's around 60 or 70. And so much for William Lizotte's "one nation by international law." I've been waiting for years with unbated breath for proof that President Eisenhower ever said that "possibly 80 per cent of the populace would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh" if the elections had been held in 1956. Perhaps Mr. Ross knows something the rest of us don't.

At the Geneva Conference Mr. Tran Van Do specifically warned his government would not be bound by an agreement it was allowed no part in drafting. So much for Mr. Ross' "all disputes had been peacefully settled at Geneva." If Mr. Lizotte will check, he'll find nobody signed the so-called Final Declaration.

And the United States merely stated it will refrain from the threat or the use of force to disturb" the Agreements, the final and the other, the military one between the French and Vietminh (Communist) forces. St. Albans, Vt. DONALD A. NEWTON Chances for Wrong Decision Re Nixon's bombing: The more, fanatical you are, the better chance you have for making the wrong decision.

Short enough? RICHARD ORLANDO Vergennes, Vt. not happy. It is frequently assumed that well-established departments which have had a higher percentage of state revenue such as education and social welfare can somehow continue to function effectively if their requested appropriations are reduced by larger percentages than other departments. This is not necessarily true unless the requested increases have been "padded" by unjustifiable amounts. Legislators have to try to determine what requested increases are justifiable.

Often this comes to a decision as to who to believe. Taxpayers are never likely to approve enough money for the state treasury to finance all the services department heads feel their departments should be providing. On the other hand, people are always asking for more and more services requiring increased expenditures. This is a situation which seems to be based on the assumption of many people that governments have unlimited resources which have no relationship to taxes. We just don't like to face the fact that government cannot continue to expend indefinitely more money than it receives in taxes.

Sooner or later that course results in loss of confidence in the value of money. Then we really have trouble. E.F.C. some lip-smacking in high places. On the other side, the Caldwell decision is being reflected in "Shield Laws" that would grant reporters the privilege of keeping mum before grand juries much like that already extended to priests and physicians.

There isn't complete agreement even among newspapermen about what form this should take. Some of the heavies of the industry, including the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, have endorsed an absolute privilege for reporters. But there are reasonable arguments that can be made, too, for a qualified privilege. It is one thing to protect the source of a tip on the Watergate affair: it is another if a reporter stumbles on the plot of a violent crime and refuses to tell.

WHATEVER THE SPECIFIC terms, however, it is clear that some kind of legislation is necessary now, if only because the harassment of reporters has reached the point at which sources are beginning to get nervous. That is the kind of thing that can become epidemic. The reader's stake doesn't involve only what he learns about crimes and government corruption, although these are the areas in which investigative reporters relying heavily on confidential informants have most often worked. The fact is that all reporters, whether they cover politics or business or science or sports, depend to some extent on sources outside the official structure to get an accurate picture of a situation. It is clear, for example, that our knowledge of the war in Vietnam would be greatly distorted if it were based only on the reportage of the Defense Department.

The "informed source" is an essential element of a free press. Free Press-Gannett Service WASHINGTON It is axiomatic among newspapermen that the reader isn't very interested in hearing about professional tribulations. Stories about how-I-covered-the-big-story are bush league stuff. But the debate over whether reporters should be allowed to protect the identity of their sources of information is one in which readers have a genuine stake. The fact is that they will get a far less complete and accurate picture of what's going on if the confidential sources become a thing of the past.

As imperfect as they are, newspapers and broadcast stations are better reflections of the real world than the official pronouncements of secretaries of commerce or press agents for the Pentagon. Confidentiality hasn't been obliterated yet by any means, but the news these days is full of reporters being subpoenaed, threatened with jail, or jailed because they wouldn't identify a source or surrender their notes on unpublished material. This trend has been particularly obvious since June 29 when the Supreme Court ruled in the Caldwell case that reporters don't have any absolute privilege to withhold information the government is after. Given that decision, it hasn't taken long for government to find other circumstances in which it would like to convert the press into an extension of its own function. And the suspicion is that this is only the beginning.

THE TRUTH IS THAT, although they spend a great deal of time together, officials and reporters really aren't terribly compatible. The reporters have a tendency to print things that don't reflect well on government, which leads to embarassment and conflict and resentment. And thus it is not surprising if a decision like the one in the Caldwell case causes Free Press Columnists If you wijh to write to Free Press columnists, they may be addressed in care of their syndicates as follows: Nicholas von Hoffman King Features Syndicate, 235 East 45th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017 Victor Riesel Publishers-Hall Syndicate, 401 North Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 6061 1. David Lawrence Publishers-Hall Syndicate, 30 East 42nd Street, New York, New York, 10017.

William S. White United Feature Syndicate, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, New York, 10017. Art Buchwald Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Times Mirror Square, los Angeles, California, 90053. Jack Germond, Jock Bell, and all other Free Press-GannettService columnists -1281 National Press Building, Washington, D.C., 20004..