The Tampa Times from Tampa, Florida • 10

EDITORIALS PAGE 1 0A THE TAMPA TIMES, Friday, June 2, 1 978 A door is left wide open for abuse of your freedom so, or documentary proof of money changing hands, it could be possible for the state attorney to obtain a warrant to search this newspaper and confiscate evidence before it could be brought to public attention. White did add that there have been only a few newspaper searches since 1971, and "if abuse occurs, there will be time enough to deal with it. The press is not only an important, critical and valuable asset to society, but it is not easily intimidated nor should it be." We might add: Nor will it be! The press has a constitutional obligation to provide the public with accurate information. Frequently, this information is obtained from sources which must at all costs be protected. The very freedom of the United States was founded on the free flow of information regarding British plans to impose further restrictions and penalties on the American "colonies." Crooked politicians as well as law enforcement officials have been exposed by a free press doing its duty for the public at large.

Richard Nixon might never have been forced to resign if the press had been muzzled concerning the true nature of Watergate. It should be remembered that restrictions on a free press are restrictions on your right to know what is taking place in your community. When a Supreme Court ruling intimi-, dates newspapers and other members of the news-collecting family, it intimidates your access to information. We hope Mr. Justice White is correct in stating that "if abuses occur, there will be time enough to deal with them." Our fear is that abuses will occur and vast damage may be done before anyone deals with them.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT to the United States Constitution was kicked, mauled and gouged by the Supreme Court this week. In a 5-to-3 ruling, the court said that nothing in the constitution bars police who have obtained a warrant from making a surprise search of a newspaper office for documents or photographs relating to a crime. This action will severely restrict a newspaper's ability to obtain and protect information gained from informers who do not wish to be identified. It also will deny the public that degree of protection it gains through investigative reporting which uncovers irregular and improper actions by public officials. In addition, the court has opened the door to police harassment of newspapers which might be critical of law enforcement proced- ures.

Justice John Paul Stevens said the ruling offers additional dangers. It could have, said Stevens, "extremely serious" consequences for "countless law-abiding citizens doctors, lawyers, merchants, customers, bystanders" who may possess documents relating to a criminal investigation. Justice Byron White, who supported the ruling, said that if magistrates are cautious, there will be "no opportunity for officers to rummage at large in newspaper files or to intrude into or to deter normal editorial and publication decisions." Mr. Justice White's assumptions that magistrates are consistently cautious is ill founded and does not take into account the possibility that a newspaper may be preparing information disclosing the impropriety of a magistrate issuing the search warrant. For instance, if The Tampa Times was investigating the state attorney's office on charges of alleged bribes and had photographs When the terrible wind blows, here's what you should do HERE IT IS June, the month of graduations, weddings, picnics, beach parties and the beginning of the hurricane season.

For the next six months, into the month of November, weathermen will be keeping their eyes open for tropical storms which threaten to grow into hurricanes. The National Weather Service will be quick to spread the word if a hurricane should seem to be headed for Florida's Gulf Coast. Although it has been 57 years since a hurri- Jack Germond and Jules Witcover They like Garter, not his policies even though I am a Republican," an impeccably uptown woman said at a Cochran fundraiser here, "but now he's scaring me half to death the way he's doing on the neutron bomb and the B-l bomber. We're just giving away too much, too much entirely." cane squarely struck the Tampa Bay area the 1921 one was a "minor" hurricane, which still tore up a good deal of St. Petersburg's ocean-front that does not rule out the possibility that the area could be the target of such a storm this year.

For newcomers and visitors to Florida, hurricanes are not something you need to be constantly on the lookout for. If one is headed this way, you'll know about it usually days in advance. But, just in case one should come roaring toward Tampa with its 75-to-150-miles-per-hour winds, drenching rains and accompanying high tides, there are a few protection measures you should know. First, find out where you should go if you need to evacuate your home. According to the Tampa chapter of the American Red Cross, their advice is for people to go to "the nearest substantial building a school, a church.

In the event of a hurricane, it's a good idea to have plenty of drinking water, at least a bathtub full, on hand. You should also have an adequate supply of canned foods, along with candles or flashlights, and a portable radio on which to listen for weather bulletins. Cars and trucks should not be parked near trees and utility lines, and a window should be left, open slightly to accommodate the atmos pheric pressure coming with the storm. (You also should leave open a window or windows in your house, facing away from the direction of the approaching storm). Lawn furniture and trash cans either should be tied down or brought inside the house.

The National Weather Service' says it is also important to remember that a sudden calmness during the storm does not necessarily mean that the hurricane has passed. It may merely mean that the eye of the hurricane is over you; you've gone through only half of the storm. It is wise to get information via radio before heading out after a storm. Now, if you aren't too busy looking out for hurricanes, it's also a good time to watch out for lightning. Tampa, as you may already know from past experience, is the nation's thunderstorm capital, experiencing brief thunderstorms an average of 90 days per year.

And just as this is the beginning of the hurricane season, it's also the beginning of the thunder and lightning season, and we can be expecting a of afternoon and early evening rains. The thunder and lightning might not be too pleasant, but area residents can look forward to the cooling and cleansing of the air brought by the rains. So now, if you're not too busy looking out for hurricanes and lightning have a great summer! The service of John Culbreath TODAY IN TALLAHASSEE John R. Culbreath is announcing that he will not seek reelection after 1 1 years in the Florida Legislature. Tampa will be losing a friend.

Representative Culbreath, a Brooksville Democrat with strong Hillsborough County ties, will conclude his legislative service this year after a career in the House which brought him influence and power, first as chairman of the agriculture committee, then more recently as head of the committee on regulated industries. John Culbreath was born into the rough-and-tumble politics of Tampa's yesteryear. His father, the late Hugh Culbreath, was county sheriff. His father-in-law, the late Jim Council, was publisher of The Tampa Times and Tribune. And his brother, H.L.

Culbreath, is still an influential local leader as president of Tampa Electric Co. Mr. Culbreath first was elected to the legislature from a big district which, in 1967, included Hillsborough County. He worked with distinction as a capable, moderate-thinking member of the Hillsborough delegation and more recently as the representative from a single district of several small counties. John Culbreath served his hometown, his adopted community, and his state well with a voice of moderation and a concern for people and their problems with government.

We wish him well in the future. VICKSBURG, Miss. When Republican Thad Cochran spoke to the Jaycees at the Depot restaurant here the other night, he didn't really get a rise out of them until he said some harsh things about President Carter's decision against the neutron bomb. And the 35 young white men, some of them awash in light beer, didn't really show much enthusiasm until Cochran observed that there was something wrong with ah administration that claims the Panama Canal treaties as its principal foreign policy achievement. No one would pretend that the Vicksburg Jaycees are the most accurate barometer of Southern political thought.

But their response on the defense questions does reflect what you hear all across the Deep South these days an increasingly obvious interest in the "national security" issue that has always been more volatile in the South than anywhere else. And what that, in turn, suggests is that Jimmy Carter may be in serious trouble with the voters who made up his base in 1976. "I voted for Mr. Carter last time black votes with his independent candidacy to doom the Democratic nominee. Some Democrats insist, predictably, that times have changed since Evers drew 172,000 votes as an independent candidate for governor in 1971.

But Evers doesn't have to drain away many votes this time because the state is much more closely contested now, as the Republican gu- bernatorial nominee, Gil Car-michael, showed in 1975 with more than 45 per cent against Cliff Finch. Finch, the flamboyant neo-popu-' list governor, is the nominal favorite among the Democrats in a primary that is certain to require a runoff June 27. But what is intriguing is that it doesn't seem to matter much who wins the Republican primary. What is plain is that, whoever wins, the campaign will be waged on issues that will provide at least a rough test of Carter's standing in the South. And in a state that gave 80 per cent of its vote to Richard Nixon in 1972, that is not likely to be good news for the White House.

There may be some hazard, of course, in running against Carter. Although this view is far from unanimous, Cochran thinks there is enough residual Mississippi pride in a Southern President that he makes a point of talking about "the administration" rather than the President himself. "President Carter," he said the other night, "still rings a warm bell in Mississippi." Whether or not that is true, what is obvious is that Jimmy Carter has put a serious strain on that relationship in the state that put him over the top two years ago. (c) 1978, The Chicago Tribune And at a Jackson shopping center, a sweaty construction worker said: "Sure, I like old Jimmy Carter but he's got to stand up to the Russians, everybody knows that." Just how the national security issue cuts in the campaign here to fill the Senate seat being vacated by James 0. Eastland is far from clear.

Both Cochran, a three-term congressman from Jackson, and his Republican opponent, state Sen. Charles Pickering, are evoking an encouraging response from the neutron bomb and the B-l bomber and Panama. But none of the Democrats competing in their primary could be called soft on communism, either. So perhaps the most that can be said is that it does seem to offer a theme for either Cochran or Pickering to employ against the Democrats this fall. There are, of course, other factors that give the Republicans a realistic chance of winning this seat.

One of them is a party unity that has been nourished by the prospect of victory. Thus, Pickering and Cochran have agreed to exchange lists of key supporters' names and telephone numbers next weekend before the primary so that the let's-close-ranks telephone calls can start as soon as the returns are in Tuesday night. Perhaps more important, however, is the prospect that Charles Evers, the state's most prominent black leader, will draw away enough 202 S. Parker St. Tampa, Florida 33606 R.F.

Pittman Publisher James F. Urbanski General manager Sam Stickney Editorial page editor S. Bruce Witwer Managing Editor John Culbreath, a former Tampan, is concluding his service Promotion director Circulation director Production director Comptroller Advertising director Personnel director Jan Brazinski Jack Butcher Edwin E. Eybers George Gleason John W. Roell Gerald W.

Wright in the legislature. Nick Thimmesch ISHflf It's the last inning for supporters of ERA like gangbusters, run into a stone wall? Partly because of conservative elements in the dissenting states, but also because the vanguard group for ERA, the National Organization for Women, has offended large groups of fair-minded Americans with an outright display of bad manners and bigotry. NOW and other militant women's "liberation" groups somehow thought that the ERA movement should also include militancy on behalf of abortion-on-demand, special rights for lesbians, and even "sexual independence." For all its consciousness-raising hoopla, NOW lost sight of the main objective, namely, getting ERA passed. Why else would they attack Mormons and Catholics by lumping them with the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis and Communists, because elements in their churches opposed ERA? Why do they offend many unopposed to ERA by imposing strong-arm boycotts on states which haven't ratified? Why don't they argue ERA on its merits? NOW and other groups vow they will defeat state legislators this fall who voted against ERA, and will also push Congress to cut loose with that seven-year extension. But it seems pro-ERA groups are bad sports.

After all, no yn- that women should not be discriminated against in employment, bank loans, estate settlement and other areas where women suffered from bias. Consequently, by the mid-Seventies, government, business, education, the military and other sectors of American life had knocked out many discriminatory practices. In fact, reverse discrimination on behalf of women was put into operation in many areas. Meanwhile, ERA sailed along, and by March, 1975, when North Dakota ratified, only four more states were needed. But now, in 1978, ERA seems stopped.

Its frantic backers demand that the rules be changed, and that Congress vote for a seven-year extension for ratification. This is like a team, losing in the last of the ninth, demanding that this particular baseball game consist of 18 innings. Why has ERA, which started WASHINGTON Three more states must ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the next 10 months, or by rules of the game, it joins other defeated amendments, including that conferring titles of nobility, one protecting slavery and another allowing child labor. Within one month after Congress sent ERA to the states in 1972 (three-quarters must ratify) 14 states ratified. Only 11 months later, 30 had voted yes.

Since seven years are allowed for ratification, the quick initial acceptance of ERA indicated that it would easily become the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the Constitution. After all, more than half the voters are women, and which politician can resist such a large bloc? Moreover, fair-minded men realized when ERA was overwhelmingly passed in the U.S. Congress that women's pay should be equal toymen's for the same wyk. the law, and as well as either sex, in life itself. What is a man worth if he does not respect any woman for her ability and accomplishment? But it is quite another matter for all women, of whatever skill or qualification, to be regarded as a privileged class, backed by an stitutional amendment took more than four years to be ratified, and these folks want 14 years, hardly a "reasonable" length of time.

One wonders, if ERA is ratified, what demands the Jacobins would make of Congress and the bureauc-racy for enforcement. Would EA become a sort of sexual OSHA, with all manner of feminist peck-sniffs snooping about, checking octave levels of radio-TV commercials, eyeballing executive lounges for gender counts? It is one matter to make sure women are treated fairly before army of enforcing bureaucrats, iJ.