The Daily Chronicle from Centralia, Washington • Page 6

Will developers blight North Cascades route? ByBBLLMERTENA AiMcUted Preu Writer OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -The bands played and the speeches were felicitious Sept. 2 when they dedicated the North Cascades Highway. But for a lot of officials that rosy glow evoked by the ceremonials may become tinged-with a little gloom in future years. For nearly everyone has learned-especially the top echelon in the State Highways Department--that building of major new highways these days involves more than just getting number of cars between points A and B.

Highways Director George Andrews has said repeatedly that the time of building urban freeways is just about past. The troubles of the department with Interstate 90 in Seattle and the dispute over Spokane's northsouth freeway proposal amply demonstrate that simple engineering is no longer the major part of highway building problems. The day of the highway as a planning tool--or weapon, depending on how you look at planning--has come and with it have come changes. Until recent years, freeways and highways were built to get cars moved the quickest and safest way--if it didn't cost too much money. There was little, if any, thought of including mass transportation in plans, and certainly no thought of using highways to encourage mass transit in urban areas.

There was little consideration Of the concept of massive highways as generators of long-term traffic increases or their contribution to urban sprawl, which in turn meant the need for more big highways. And the effect on land use was at best an afterthought. In fact, the building of freeways or highways has more often been the force behind minimal land use planning, not the other way around. Now, in the North Cascades, through the nation's newest national park, the department, at a cost of some $24 million has built a handsome highway. It pierces the center of the biggest primitive wilderness area left in the contiguous United States.

At least it was a wilderness before the highway came. "You can't have a wilderness area and a highway too," said one active conservationist who formerly packed into the area. "A wilderness highway is a contradicition in terms." But the fact remains, the highway is there, and isn't likely to go away. It must be dealt with, and its presence raises some still unanswered questions about what happens next in the area. These questions include the ones always raised by highways--land use, adequacy of connecting highways and what to do about added traffic.

Given the recreational and scenic nature of the new highway some special questions are also raised. Rep. Lloyd Meeds, has already raised tlie question of the adequacy of the camping facilities in and adjacent to the new park and highway. He claims they are inadequate; park and forest service officials say new ones planned will take care of things. How much it will cost to move improvements ahead in future highway priority planning is hard to say now.

An educated guess by the experts runs into the millions--at a time when more and more demands are being made on highway funds. Already, Andrews has said, it will probably be yeacs before there is enough traffic to justify keeping the highway free of snow the year around. But the biggest question to some is what happens to the countryside through which the highway runs. Already Seattle real estate firms' signs dot the sleepy valleys. In the west and in the Okanogan, whole orchards and ranches are for sale and bulldozers are at work on new mobile home parks.

There is every indication, in both talks with local officials and in looking at the area, that very little has been done or is even planned to head off the unsightly horrors of uncontrolled development; With the added weight of federal law requiring detailed environmental impact outlines on highways, it's becoming increasingly clear that in the future, projects like the North Cascades highway will be built only after a lot of planning-- instead of being built before the planning takes place. RICHARD AFROMBOISE, PUBLISHER, 1966-1968 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1972 JACK BRITTEN, PUBLISHER Metric conversion needed Conversion to the metric system is one of those issues that inspires more talk than action with the American people. It is relatively easy to persuade us that the European system of grams, liters and meters is easier to work with than our own pounds, gallons and yards, but it is hard nonetheless to part with a system of measurements we grew up with. The Senate Commerce Committee surprised the rest of Congress by voting approval of a long-dormant bill that would launch the United States of America on a 10-year coordinated program of metric conversion. The bill may come to a vote in the Senate this fall.

It should be adopted, even if some industry spokesmen are balking at the prospect of a new government board looking over their shoulders. In this case, a "metrication" board would be set up to synchronize conversion to the metric system among different but inter-dependent segments of commerce and industry. Many manufacturers would like to retool for metric conversion at their own pace. There are expenses involved. The pitfall in this approach, however, is that products, spare parts and supplies fabricated and packaged on metric standards would begin to circulate while related goods were still being produced under the old system.

Planning and coordination offer the only hope of sparing us all a period of hopeless confusion. Great Britain, where our present system of weights and measures originated, is well along with a metric conversion program that began in 1965. The program called for in the Senate bill is patterned on British experience. It is high time that American business and industry bowed to the fact that clinging to our archaic system of weights and measures is impeding development of new markets for our products abroad. The expense of metric conversion promises to be balanced in the long run by opening new markets for American goods once they become compatible with the system of measurement used by most of our trading partners.

The conversion will be especially beneficial to American i a i a corporations. In our households we may face some difficult adjustments as we see yardsticks, half-gallons of milk and quarter-inch plywood fade into the past. It is easier, though, to multiply and divide by 10, as metric measurements built on the decimal system require, than to wrestle with ounces and pounds, cups and quarts, and feet, yards and miles. Ask any second-grader, who must wonder why grownups invented all those complicated measurements in the first place. Topic for today: profession's builWn Comics studies paid The education but completely unacknowledged death wish.

I'll swear it's for all the world like a mortally sick patient who carries around with him a fatal disease which everybody knows about except him. In past columns, I've sent up smoke signals of various colors to warn my colleagues about what they were doing to our profession every time they used tax money to produce filthy plays, conduct courses in four-letter-word "modern" literature, offer seminars in street-fighting and even enlarge the curriculum to include such slack-jawed subjects as witchcraft and astrology. It's been wasted effort, I'm afraid. After all, any educator stupid enough to slap the public's face with expensive shenanigans such as these is going to be too stupid to heed any warnings, no matter how pungently put. Take Indiana University, for example.

According to a story in Parade magazine, the harried Hoosier taxpayer is now subsidizing a course in comic books. Yes, Virginia, that's what I said: Superman, Flash Gordon, Wonder Woman and all the rest. The instructor, a character named Mike Uslan, wears a Spiderman T-shirt and blue jeans to class, and perches precariously atop a classroom table while voicing such deathless sentiments as the following: "Comic books are more than just escapism, adventure, excitement and thrills. They're a very real reflection of our times and our ways of thought." Sure they are, Mike. All of us are gloriously invulnerable except when suddenly confronted with nasty old Everybody fights death- ray duels with Ming the Merciless.

No one is surprised to see some black-clad nut swinging from rooftop to rooftop on his own manually projected spider web. And doesn't simply everyone drive Batmobiles and wear long pastel underwear? Comic books are a "very real reflection of our times" in exactly the same sense that Dbgpatch is an accurate depiction of an American small town, or that Snoopy is a realistic facsimile of a beagle. Superman and Wonder Woman reflect the real world the way a fun-house mirror does. Come off it, Mike. Say that childish minds revel in childish things.

Say that cartoon heroics give the intellect a needed rest. Say even that the preposterous perils and the supernatural successes furnish a kind of pinheaded catharsis to a certain sort of mentality. But don't try to con us with any guff about the Green Hornet reflecting anything of any importance to anyone over the age of 12. While I was shaking my head disbelievingly over this adventure in Wonderland with public funds, I came upon this gem of a statement from Indiana's assistant dean of arts and sciences, which pretty well sums up the whole problem: "In this experiment, we throw away tradition and say that just about everything in the world around us is an appropriate subject for study. Michael Uslan convinced us that such people as Batman are part of an authentic American art form, worthy of study with credit toward graduation." So comic books are now an authentic American art form, recognized as such by one of our great universities.

Never mind their intellectual puerility, their Anti-pollution ambiguities The persistence of the smog problem prompts us to applaud the action of the state Air Resources Board requiring that 1966-70 model full-size cars registered in California be equipped with a special emission control device. These cars were manufactured before the law required a built-in system to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, the source of photochemical smog. JTiere are about four million of them in use in California. However, it turns out that the board's test engineers are not satisfied with the performance of one of the two devices which the board has certified as acceptable for cars covered by the order, either one of which would cost no more than $35 installed. Their tests indicate it could damage the engine.

independent engineers contend that the same reduction in emissions could be achieved by a simple engine adjustment that a mechanic could perform for $5. This is the kind of uncertainty that damages public support of antipollution programs. A motorist should not be asked to invest $35 for the sake of cleaner air if he runs the risk of ruining his car. He should not be asked to buy a device if the state cannot guarantee it is really effective. The board's order is scheduled to take effect next Feb.

1. The board should not demand compliance until it has cleared up these ambiguities. DEAR ABBY: Do you believe that when a doctor knows there is no hope for a patient's recovery, he should tell the patient the truth? My wife and I disagree on this. The patient happens to be her father. She insists that "ignorance is bliss," and her father should not have been told (His doctor told him.) I say it's a person's right to know so that he can put his affairs in order.

Isn't it the practice of most doctors to tell their patients the truth? And don't vou think most patients would rather know? And finally, Abby, how do you feel about this? JANDA DEAR AND Most doctors betteve ta tefflnc their patients the Mb, MUM wffl not If the family Mto Urn Mt to, or If the doctor feels the ptffcrt cttt hudte It. (Mwt paitenti MMy fete tut of thte world alive, death should be looked upon realistically, and without fear. There is no "bliss" in ignorance which creates false hope, and the inconvenience and confusion of unfinished business. DEAR ABBY: When I was in my teens I gave birth to a baby boy which I gave up for adoption because I was not married. My husband knows all about it and has never held it against me.

We have two darling daughters and are considering adopting a baby boy. We don't want another child unless we are sure of getting a boy. I keep thinking maybe the reason I want a boy is to replace the one I gave away. If this is true, it wouldn't be fair to the child. My husband is satisfied with our family, but I am the one who wants a boy.

Please help me decide. UNDECIDED DEAR UNDECIDED: If you have any doubts or misgivings about your reasons for wanting to adopt a child, you'd be wise not to. Feedback COMMUNIST ADVANTAGE? Itseems incredible that the President of the United States would sign a treaty (S.A.L.T.) with the communists that gives them an advantage of 40 per cent more intercontinental missiles, 40 per cent more submarines, and 33 1-3 per cent more submarine-based missiles. This treaty allows each country to defend only one city. Russia would be able to defend its only large city, its capital Moscow.

In a completely totalitarian dictatorship the regime is totally dependent on its headquarters. In the case of Russia this is Moscow. On the other hand, Washington, D.C., the only city we would be allowed to defend, is the seventh largest city in the United States, Under Our form of government, founded as a Constitutional Republic, there would not only be many large cities to defend but 50 state capitals as well. The Declaration of Principles, also signed by the communists and Mr. Nixon three days after they signed S.A.L.T., declares, in part, that the "ultimate objective" is the establishment of an effective system of international security under the United Nations.

This can mean only one thing--an international United Nations police force. As an American I would not look forward to this country being at the mercy of the communist-controlled, godless United Nations. The House voted in favor of this treaty Aug. 5,1972, as reported in The Daily Chronicle on Aug. 19, 1972.

The Senate has not ratified it as of today. I urge every concerned American to write or, to send a to your United States Senators asking them to vote no on this treaty and urge them to get us out of the United Agnew, Tciiino pandering to mindless violence, their coddling of stark impossibilities. Never mind even their atrocious drawing and lurid coloring. "Everything in the world" is now appropriate for study in an institution of higher learning. How now, oh generous and prodigal Indiana taxpayer? Are you going to hold still for this trip to Never-Never Land with your money? If so, why not a senior seminar in Nursery Rhymes? A graduate course in Latrine Graffiti? After all, the university is supposed to study "just about everything," to quote the dizzy dean.

Wouldn't you think that educators, confronted with the marvelous opportunity to impart the accumulated wisdom of the ages to the next generation, would be content to do just that? There are so many wonderful, supremely important things we should be dealing with, we teachers. Why do we spurn the true food of the mind and root instead in the garbage heap contemporary quirks and quackery? And these are fellow professionals! I guess I'll never, never understand my own people. Pow! Zap! Ugh! Adele Ferguson GOP family feud There probably isn't another legislative race that's being watched with more intense interest by House Republicans than the primary battle in the 48th district of King County. If incumbent James Gilleland of Bellevue is upset by challenger Dave McNabb, they say, McNabb will be the first legislator to be a lame duck before he even takes office. He not only would be lucky to get a seat back by the water fountain he'd be fortunate if very many members even spoke to him.

McNabb committed one of the real political sins. He bit the'hand that fed him. For well over a year, McNabb collected $800 a month as communications director for the House Republican caucus. That means he was their public relations "flack" --writing all the little goodies for release to the news media, the homefoiks, about what particular GOP legislators were doing. Before he was relations business.

in the public Anyway, during the 1972 session while redistricting plans were being drawn, McNabb got the fever and started talking about becoming a candidate himself. His problem was there were no openings where he lived incumbents Gilleland and John Jones are Republicans. House Republican leaders assured McNabb if there were an open seat when the court-approved plan came out, they'd back him, but in no way would they tolerate his 'filing against one of their incumbents. After the session, McNabb was sort of turned loose by the caucus to go to work on the campaign of Rep. Hal Wolf for lieutenant governor.

But on the first day of filing, Aug. 31, he telephoned Wolf, pleaded his health wouldn't take his doing that job any further, and resigned. That afternoon he filed against Gilleland. GOP leaders were, of course, infuriated none more so than Rep. Stewart Bledsoe, majority floor leader, after what happened to him.

Bledsoe is running for Congress-and hefound'himself one day shaking hands with McNabb, an event'that was duly photographed and wound up on McNabb's brochures, implying support of the challenger. Such is far from the case. As for Gilleland, he's not the type to cut anybody up. He's one of the most honest and outspoken members of the legislature and the most he can say is that he thinks he'll beat McNabb. If not, even out of the legislature, he'd have more influence on what was going on inside than McNabb.

It's all right to challenge incumbents --after all, Gilleland got in there by beating out veteran GOP legislator Al Leland, but not when the incumbent has been one of your employers, If McNabb truly aspires to a future in politics, he will find this was a costly error, win or lose. Low Down" FROM THE Congressional Record By JOE CRUMP SEN. PERCY: 'WATCHDOGS HAVE BECOME LAPDOGS' SENATOR CHARLES H. PERCY I would-like to comment on the Consumer Protection Agency legislation, reported out of the Government Operations Committee. This would not have been possible without the complete cooperation of the members of that committee on both sides of the aisle, and both our former chairman, Senator John McClellan, and the present chairman, Sam Ervin.

"After two months of intensive consideration, the Government Operations Committee by a 14 to 2 vote reported a landmark consumer protection bill to the Senate. "This action should be taken as a signal to government and industry that the day of the consumer is finally at hand. "Yesterday's action practically assures that a consumer protection bill will emerge from this Congress. The bill, similar to an administration- backed version approved 344 to 44 by the House last October, creates a Consumer Protection Agency which would be authorized to: "Represent consumer interests as an equal party before federal agencies and courts in formal and informal proceedings, including those where fines, penalties, of forfeitures are involved. "Represent consumer interests in proceedings before state or local courts or agencies, when requested to do so by the agency or court involved.

"Make grants to states, localities, and nonprofit private groups to encourage and assist their consumer programs and activities. "This legislation does not tip the scales for the consumer or against business. It is needed because the regulatory agencies Congress has set up to protect the consumer have simply not been doing the job. Too often in the. past, agencies established as wat- 'ehdogs for the public" interest have become lapdogs for private interests.

"The Senate bill also establishes a three-member Council of Consumer Advisors in the Executive Office of the President, which would replace the present Office Of Consumer "The Council would not be involved in daily operations, such as handling consumer complaints or publishing consumer education material. Those functions, now performed by the Office of Consumer Affairs would be taken over by the Consumer Protectioh Agency. "The Senate passed similar, legislation in December, 1970, by 74 to 4 margin, and I trust the upcoming vote will be at least as overwhelming." CRUMP'S GRASS ROOTS COMMENT News of government agency chills the taxpayers. They can be encouraged however, to learn that it will replace an established government agency..