Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 8

A-8 VOL. 118, NO. 74 JULY 10, 1972 I CHESS Auto Tot Seats THE STATE JOURNAL Founded April 28,1855 Park Cost Proposal Too Late tive rebellion at being reinstalled in the child's version of the Iron Maiden. Past the crawling stage such prolonged confinement is decidedly torturous. Of course our safety sealots can always argue that dogs are confined to crates for air or rail shipment and transported to and from dog shows in wire cages.

Are we to regard our children as animals to be similarly caged for travel? Or is this year another case where the intellectual idiots presume themselves to be "experts" and "us dumb public" are expected to acquiesce meekly to yet another example of auto safety garbage? To be paid for eventually out of our own pocketbooks, of course. As for the "testing procedures" per se, since when was it recommended that a child Ik; allowed to ride in the front? When our car safety experts discovered that here was another thing the unwary public-needed to be protected against? Perhaps all who agree or disagree should clip this letter, add their own comments and send them to the Department of Transportation so that that agency for once can hear from the paying public instead of the self-elected watchdogs of the auto industry and well-kept but sometimes not too practical University personnel. 11ENRETTA T. BAND 'MR. FISCHER SEEMS TO BE READY NOW SHALL WE COMMENCE, MR.

DAVID S. BRODER Hazards of Change BIOSSAT Hard Feelings to Linger EAST LANSING: As a 7-year veteran of traveling with a now 7-year-old, including over 20,000 air miles, at least five 2-day driving trips to Virginia and three 3- and 4-day trips west before reaching our destination, I feel I am qualified to say something about traveling with children. It is one thing to buckle in a child for the trip to church, supermarket or shopping center. But you cannot travel all day with a child impounded, imprisoned or otherwise strapped down to the seat. No, not even if there are rest stops at 10 and 2, a lunch stop and motel stop by 4 or 5 p.m.

Even when the child is a good traveler. Indeed, when traveling by car about the best that can be done is to provide a supply of travel toys, some old favorites, pillows, the back seat and hope there won't be too many disagreements between dog and daughter over the pillows. Parents traveling with more than one child go quietly mad. Some resort to banishing them one at a time to the front seat, buckled in of course. Granted every age group and every child presents slightly different problems, so long as they are in diapers, the ability to execute a quick change is desirable.

This is hardly possible if junior is encased in a car seat or bound in a Gordian knot of straps. Indeed once out, there can be ac- MIAMI BEACH (NEA) The Democratic party assembled here in convention is moving further each day into a time of anguished division which will endure whether or not it captures the presidency this November. No healing words heard at this turn from its 1972 presidential nominee will purge it of its troubles. There is no way to apply soothing balm to the wounds it is suffering. POLITICAL SCHOLAR Walter DeVries has told me, and on the evidence I believe him, that there is an unbroken continuity in the life of a great political party.

It cannot shake off bitter experience as if it never happened. It cannot "get something out of its system" and start afresh. Its future can only be created from all it has done in the past. And what the Democrats are now doing is tormenting themselves with irreconcilable conflict. With the world watching through television's eye, they are tearing at the fabric which binds them.

THE MEN who decided to try to stop the nomination of Sen. George MeGovern by political maneuver rather than delegate votes (which they did not have) gave the party its final thrust down this dark path. Leaders in labor and many top party regulars made this choice, lashing at MeGovern through a convention committee which for a turbulent few days cut away some of his huge delegate winnings from the California primary. It cannot be rubbed from the record that this under-taking had the sanction of virtually all of McGovern's presidential rivalsnot just vocal Sen. Hubert Humphrey but quiet Sen.

Edmund Muskie and a long list including even U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, that supposed advocate of things new and different and better. A TWIST of irony sure to be remembered, too, is the fact BRUCE Sure America that this year's election is likely to be no more than a stage in the evolution of the new political balance. Within the Democratic party, that balance has already shifted significantly.

To be sure, some familiar names and faces from that last unpleasant meeting in Chicago are here again in Miami Beach. But the four-year journey from Chicago nonetheless has made a big difference difference enough so that less than one-seventh of the more than 3,000 delegates here have ever been to a national convention before. WHAT THE Democrats have done is exactly what one young McCarthy worker at the Chicago convention asked them to do. Cindy Samuels had been standing, distraught, in wrecked lobby of the Conrad Hilton after the last battle between the police and the demonstrators, when an older delegate, seeing her tears, came along and asked what he could do to help her. Her reply: "Chance things!" The Democratic party set out to do that deliberately and massively.

The basic blueprint came out of the Chicago convention in the mandate for reform of the delegate-selection process. The clear purpose of reform was to "open up" the party's internal processes to those who had been most vocal in complaining they had been shut out in 1968 the young people, the blacks, the Chicanos and alter the American electorate, not just for the presidential contest but in congressional and local races as well, shifting the entire spectrum of government significantly to the left. SOME OTHERS like columnists Kevin Phillips and, appar-ently, Joseph Alsop see a MeGovern nomination sparking a vast exodus from the Democratic party of some of its strongest constituency groups. If union men, Catholics, Jews and perhaps Wallace's followers shift to Mr. Nixon, they foresee a new Republican majority, with a massive presidential victory and perhaps even Republican control of Congress.

My own suspicion is that neither party will achieve a durable new majority coalition from this year's election. The men involved in the contest for national leadership this year-including President Nixon do not look that compelling. The centrifugal forces seem too powerful for any of them to command. The vote this November is likely to be fractionated, whether there are in the end two parties, three parties or four from which to choose. EVEN IF a significant majority votes for Richard Nixon or for the Democratic nominee, it will do so for such diverse reasons that it would be unwise to predict that the winner's party has a long-term grip on the controls of American government.

The tides of change are moving so fast in GERMOIMD CHMAHOMSHIP the just-emerging women activists. The object was to take the demonstrators off the streets and bring them the disappointed backers of McCarthy and Robert Kennedy back into the party. THE DEMOCRATS may find this week that they have bit off more than they can chew that all those new groups cannot be put together, this week or this year, with each other or with the older, traditional Democratic elements also represented in this convention. But if one looks beyond this week, what one sees, I think, is that the Democrats have not only changed, but have aligned themselves with the forces of continuing change in a changing society. Change of the scale taking place in this country always is turbulent, and this convention may be so turbulent it flies apart.

It will certainly not be as programmed, as disciplined or as decorous as the Republican convention here next month. BUT IF the Democrats are about to demonstrate the dangers of change, the Republicans may face the greater hazard of living with the status quo. No one can say what headlines the Democrats will pro-d here this week. Next month's Miami Beach headline is predictable: "Republicans renominate Nixon." And of that bulletin one can ask, as they ask here in Miami Beach: "So what's new already?" 0 192. The Washington Post his way, he will have the kind of forum he loves in which to stage a walk-out.

But George MeGovern dares not go too far either in placating the Alabama governor. The core of his support in the campaign against President Nixon is made up of voters to whom Wallace is an anathema and to whom in most cases, at least compromise with Wallace is political immorality. SO THE task for those who ostensibly are running things here is to tread a fine line between appearing to abuse Wallace and appearing to cave in to him. Most Democratic leaders here are convinced Wallace does not plan to run another third-party campaign this fall. They doubt that he has any inclination to do so, and they question whether he is physically capable of it.

And few of them believe Wallace will be willing to help the national ticket if it is headed by George MeGovern. THE ALABAMA governor has called him "a tool of the Communist Party," which is pretty strong talk even for the uninhibited Wallace. So they are hoping he simply decides to sit out the campaign rather than throwing in with Nixon. And that is why handling him this week is such a ticklish business. A Bible Thought Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.

Proverbs 3:30. Truth is always beautiful and mercy becomes those who are strong. that McGovern's adversaries donned the robes of reform as they struck hard at the man whose name is stamped on the sweeping party reforms of 1972. They invoked the glories of proportional representation, or something for everybody, though their real aim was to see that there was less for MeGovern than he had won. Here in this setting, I am still talking to party people I have sounded out all year.

It is unmistakably plain that many regulars have what they believe are legitimate fears and grievances relating to MeGovern. It is going over old ground to see him as too far-out on issues, as the choice of too few Democrats for 11 his primary victories and his overwhelming delegate strength, as a probable disaster for the Democratic ticket. WHAT I find interesting in their comment is how small a number of these regulars is willing to bow gracefully to the inevitable. Only a handful tell me, "Let MeGovern have it and let's see what he does with it." The rest, stepped upon or shunted aside by McGovern's avenging angels (his young cadres), want revenge in their turn. The consequences of their harsh response could be brutal.

An Illinois man shepherding some Muskie delegates says he is pretty disgusted with the whole thing" that is happening to his party. The mood of revulsion is widening steadily. Even as its first fruits appear, party reform among Democrats seems tainted and abused. But, as scholar DeVries says, everything is linked. The ferment and trauma of 1968 produced reform.

Reform brought some excess and revenge against the old. And now, here in convention, we are watching the party's self-destructive impulse of counter-revenge. Newspaper Enterprise Association For decades, Lansing City Council has taken the responsibility of selecting, developing and financing parks and recreational sites in the city. Many of these have been developed in connection with new subdivision and housing areas with developers dedicating the land and the city financing the parks from the general city budget. Now the council is in a sharp debate over a proposal by members William A.

Brenke and Lucile E. Belen that the developers should provide, finance and maintain such facilities in the future. Thrust of the argument seems to be that developers should pick up more of the costs for their projects and ease the burden on the city government and taxpayers. It is an argument that would appear to be appealing in an era when everyone is trying to cut costs. But from the standpoint of fairness it is at least many years too late.

As noted by Councilman Harold A. Moore, the city has always provided parks and recreational areas and "now we are asking a select few to pay for their own parks and recreational areas." Moore said if developers were required to pay full costs of the park developments these costs ultimately would be passed on to the people who come to live there. In short, new residents would have to assume the cost of a public service which has been shared on a city-wide basis in the past. Miss Belen said she believed the largest percentage of taxpayers should not be expected to pay for a park that will be used by residents of one area alone. That could be so in theory, but it is what the city has been doing for many, many years without any substantial complaint except from those residents who do not have sufficient park facilities and have asked the city to provide them.

In view of the past policy, it seems to us the city should not suddenly put the burden of parks development on new residents. Developers should continue to dedicate the land, and council can either develop it or not as it sees fit. Still a Chance After many months of uncertainty it appears Michigan residents may at last have a chance to vote this November on the issue of school property tax reform. The Michigan Education Association, which sponsored a statewide petition drive on the issue, delivered its petitions today just barely making the deadline. A final decision will depend upon verification of the signatures by state officials to make sure all legal requirements are met.

If that is ascertained, voters will ballot on twin constitutional amendments, one to reduce school property taxes and set local ceilings, the other to abolish the constitutional ban on a state graduated income tax. The issues have been kicking around the Legislature for two or three years without decision. In the absence of legislative action, the MEA started its own citizen petition effort earlier this year. Monday's filing is about the closest anyone has ever gotten to putting a comprehensive proposal on this vital tax issue before the electorate and we hope the remaining hurdles will be cleared quickly. Whatever the outcome, the MEA deserves congratulations for accomplishing this enormous petition project in such a relatively short period.

Hope for Peace Since World War II, one of the greatest continuing threats to world peace has been that of divided nations like Korea, Vietnam, Germany and Pakistan, and the new state of Israel, carved out of the Arab Middle East. A brief war and followup peace negotiations have opened new hopes of ending the Pakistan deadlock. The two Germanies moving toward at least limited agreements. But most surprising of all was an announcement last week by officials of North and South Korea that they have agreed to seek peaceful reunification after more than 20 years of implacable hostility. The nightmare of Vietnam remains, but there is new hope there with the scheduled reopening of peace talks this week.

It could all be diplomatic illusion. But when opposing forces at least agree to talk there is hope that peaceful settlements are still possible. Nice to Wallace MIAMI BEACH The Democratic Party, which woundup its last convention on a midnight of August violence in Chicago four years ago, reassembled here today, bathed in sunshine but still searching for its soul. For the past month, the air has been full of warnings that if Sen. George MeGovern is nominated, it might trigger a massive defection from the party's center.

ON THE other hand, since the California credential challenge made it seem possible that MeGovern be defeated here, the senator himself has raised the specter of a third party on the left. And finally there remains the question mark on the right posed by Gov. George C. Wallace. Will he take his constituency out of the Democratic Party again and run an independent campaign? Will he make common cause with Mr.

Nixon and the Republicans? AT THIS point no one can say with certainty that the nation may not be on the brink of a fundamental political change. MeGovern, in an interview with the Washington Post three months ago, asserted that his nomination would mark as significant a landmark in his party's history as the choice of Andrew Jackson, or F.D.R. His followers talk of conduct-i a massive registration campaign that would enroll most of the potential 25 million first-time piesidontial voters and thereby fundamentally JACK Gannett News Service MIAMI BEACH The most awkward problem for the Democratic party, no matter who finally wins the presidential nomination, is George Wal-lace. The Democrats would like to tell him to shove off but they don't dare. For one thing, Wallace has become far more politically respectable this year.

It's impossible to ignore a candidate who has won primaries in such important states as Florida and Michigan, however foreign he may be to the councils of the Democratic party hierarchy. TO THIS has been added the natural sympathy for a man who has suffered as Wallace has suffered since he was shot down in a Maryland shopping center May 15. You simply can't be beastly to him. But quite beyond this, the Democrats fear that Wallace will turn on them and endorse President Nixon, a course that could mean it would be much tougher for them not only in the border states and South but in several major industrial states. Wallace cannot be nominated at this convention.

He never Ijothered to conduct anything resembling a delegate hunt, so he has fewer than 400 votes here, virtually all the result of his strong primary performance. NOR IS anyone considering Wallace for vice president. To accept him would be certain to provoke a massive defection by the Democratic left; he's not that respectable yet. But the Democrats are nonetheless forced to handle the feisty Wallace with kid gloves this week. If, for example, he wants to address the convention, which is something candidates ordinarily aren't allowed to do, it will be difficult for National Chairman Lawrence F.

O'Brien to deny him without risking the hostility of Walla- WA Be clear he intends to "insist," as he puts it, that the platform be revised to give more recognition to the demands of the "average citizen" he has been championing all year. The key issue, of course, is school busing to achieve racial balance. Wallace doesn't have the votes to prevail, but he does have the opportunity to make an unholy stink on national television. And if things don't go ceites at the grass roots and of those who hold a special sympathy for him because of his paralysis. The most vexing problem Wallace is on the platform, a lengthy but bland document the McGovernites wrote with an eye to avoiding any serious controversy on the floor.

EVEN BEFORE he arrived here Friday, Wallace made it Don't Worry, It's Only for Six Months!" WW vStr FIVE YEARS AGO Monday The health of Lansing's economy later in 1967 and beyond went on the block today with the opening of triennial contract negotiations between the Bigh Three automakers and the United Auto Workers in Detroit A proposed $1.1 billion 1967-68 state budget was still in limbo today as state legislators prepared to return for further appropriations after a long and futile Saturday night session Lansing's mosquito killer crew embarked on a stepped-up search and destroy mission in residential areas today to combat hordes of the insects that appeared over tbe weedend. 10 YEARS AGO Tuesday Objections to the proposed dumping of wastes from the acid pickling of steel into the ground near five of Lansing's water supply wells were voiced Monday night by the Board of Water and Light Ingham County supervisors Monday approved the purchase of 22.7 acres of land on the northwest side of Mason as the site for a new county jail building Business and government leaders will view Greater Lansing from the aii on July 17 weather permitting. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday Efforts to get Michigan's $170,000,000 post-war highway improvement work into high gear have run into a series of obstacles, Charles M. Ziegler, state highway commissioner said Thursday Rising living costs have put an added bite on consumer pocketbooks here, with announcement Thursday by the management of the city's three largest hotels that room rates have been raised Eugene F. Black, attorney general, said Wednesday tnat because of a reduction in his department's budget for personal service, it is necessary "to eliminate or curtail many functions and services heretofore extended to certain public officers.".