Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 1

Final 3-star Flag, 1890-1881 THE 0 D'S GREATEST NEWSPAPER Wednesday, June 30, 1976 6 Sections I5e ltttri Year-No. 112 Chlcwe Tribum Black rule: A struggle for freedom with no guarantees 5 "5. if i.v hjfS things I have said here. "THE SOUTH African government will let you speak out all you want. It's only when they feel too many people are listening that they take action." At the same time, Mattera was not surprised by the recent surge of violence in the black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg.

"Every South African blaak man knows the experience of having a nice evening in Jo'burg interrupted by a cop. "HE GRABS you by the belt buckle, pulls your pants up tight against your groin, calls you a kaffir Afrikaans for 'nigger' and sets you frantically searching for your pass. Even if you have it but it doesn't have all the proper signatures and stamps, you go to jail to await pass-law court." Mattera is luckier than most; his editors at the Johannesburg Star refused to fire him after the banning order. He has lost his byline and edits other reporters' stories. There is a startling parallel between Continued on page 8, col.

1 tain control in extraordinary ways while things are being figured out." The remark could be applied widely to the broad band of newly independent black states in this part of the world. In most cases Botswana, with a smoothly functioning two-party system, is a notable exception these countries have developed one-party systems which practice varying degrees of rigid control over all aspects of life. AND THIS, in turn, has reinforced the conviction among the white rulers of Rhodesia and South Africa that there is no middle way out of their predicament. They are convinced that a switch to black majority rule would end their way of life. Ironically, some fuel for the white argument is provided by people like Don Matt era, a black South African journalist who was banned from public writing or speaking because of his outspoken antiapartheid activities.

"It's always painful to admit that, as repressive as things are in South Africa," he said, "I might be shot in some of the black countries for saying the By Clarence Page Chicago Tribune Press Service DAR ES SALAAM. Tanzania For Eric, who is 27 years old and intensely ambitious, this is the best of times and the worst 01 times. He is a college student, something he could not have been in the old German and British colonial days when there were no colleges for blacks in all of what was then called Tanganyika. Since its independence in 1961, Tanzania has become a closely watched testing ground for socialistic reform in independent black Africa. It has also become a training ground for the guerrillas attacking the white-minority regimes to the south.

FOR AMERICANS who want to understand what is -happening in troubled southern Africa, it is difficult but essentialto understand how people like Eric think because they are the wave of the future. Their backgrounds have created a mental approach that is strictly African. Words like "democracy" and "freedom" Cox Page Crisis in black and white and "independence" take on new meaning here. It is confusing and often seems contradictory, but that is how it is. As Eric indicated over a glass of beer at the city's only sidewalk cafe, independence is not a guarantee of Paradise.

"People here do not talk easily," he said. In fact, he would not permit his real name to be used. "WE ARE A baby nation like almost all the black-ruled countries in Africa. There are still many things to be figured out. The government must main The black challenge for power in southern Africa's white-ruled nations threatens to embroil the continent in a bitter war.

To help explain the complicated events, the emotions, and the plight of southern Africa's black and white inhabitants, The Tribune sent a team composed of London correspondent James Yuenger, reporter Clarence Page, and photographer Ernie Cox Jr. to the troubled area. This is the fourth in a series of reports on what they observed and were told. Photos and text telling of the life and future of southern Africa's children are on the Back Page. i5) fjnirpcp fjwn LJj(0 Blaze hits Belmont-Central iibti 1 -s 1 "i ft 1 ix -yv-A i i i si 12' Yuenger Only way' to resolve RTA fight By David Young Transportation editor CLOSE ASSOCIATES have advised Mayor Daley that the resignation of Regional Transportation Authority chairman Milton Pikarsky is the only solution to the dispute that threatens to shut down the RTA.

However, sources close to City Hall said Daley has not decided whether a new RTA chairman is needed. One associate said Daley has remained steadfast in his support of Pikarsky. Part of any settlement to get Pikarsky out of the job would include paying him the estimated $300,000 he would receive if he stayed on the job the remaining years of his five-year term. The four suburban RTA board members have indicated they would vote Pikarsky the money to get him out of the job. THE FOUR SAID Tuesday they are standing by their decision to veto the agency's proposed budget Wednesday if Pikarsky does not resign.

Failure to approve the agency's budget for the 1976-77 fiscal year, which begins Thursday, would paralyze the RTA and shut off its subsidies the Chicago Transit Authority, suburban bus carriers, and possibly commuter railroads. One RTA official estimated that with a few exceptions the Chicago area's transportation system probably could survive one month without RTA subsidies before services would have to be drastically cut. However, officials of the financially troubled Joliet Mass Transit District said last week they will have to shut down July 2 if the RTA budget is not approved on time. Veto of the budget also would eliminate paychecks for more than 100 RTA employes, officials said. SOURCES CLOSE TO City Hall said that some of Daley's associates have told him that because a last-ditch at tempt at compromise failed, the only-choice left for the Chicago delegation on the RTA board is to obtain Pikarsky's resignation.

Last Friday, the suburban RTA board members rejected a proposed compromise by the mayor's legislative leaders in Springfield. A counter-offer made by the suburbanites, which called for the elimination of Pikarsky as a voting board member, was not acceptable to the Chicago delegation, sources said. PIKARSKY REPORTEDLY alienated several of his Chicago supporters on the RTA board Monday by presenting them with a proposed budget that called for a 12.37 per cent reduction in subsidies to the CTA next year, though board members urged that he instead support a proposed 10-per-cent fare increase. The last paycheck employes will receive until the budget is passed will be on Friday. Last Friday, an informal poll of the RTA board showed it overwhelmingly in favor of a fare increase rather than subsidy cuts.

Weather CHICAGO AND VICINITY: Wednesday partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms; high in lower 70s. Wednesday night fair; low in low 50s. Thursday partly sunny; high around 70. Map and other reports on page 15, Sec. 3.

ft I IPS1 llltll i Fire retardant foam pumped into the FIREMEN BATTLED a 5-11 alarm fire raging in three stores in a shopping center in the 5600 block of west Belmont Avenue. No injuries were reported in the fire that began late Tuesday and was still being fought by more than 100 fire- men using a third of the city fire equip- ment early Wednesday. Early reports said the fire in the Bel- mont-Central shopping complex began in Column 1 'Never on in Ocean City Blue law, blue water meet on Jersey Shore By Joseph Egelhof Chicago Tribune Press Service OCEAN CITY. N.J. Can this big seashore resort keep its municipal golf course open on Sundays and still tell Joseph Harris, a boardwalk operator, to close his miniature golf course? "I'm a religious person, but let's face it; there is a limit," said Harris, who is suing Ocean City.

The Harris case is the latest angry current in Ocean City's historic mixture of blue waters and blue laws. Built on a South Jersey island between flashy Atlantic City and raucous Wild-wood, Ocean City regularly shuts down most of its 2-mile boardwalk for what Would be called "a proper Sunday observance" by the four Methodist ministers who founded the community in 1879. On a Sunday even the merry-go-round is curtailed, game arcades are darkened, movie houses are empty, and stores wear "closed" signs or have just a corner open to sell necessities. GO TO THE nearest bar? Not here. Sale or even public consumption of alcoholic drinks is banned every day of the week.

Historians believed Sunday closing laws date back to 321 A.D., when the Roman Emperor Constantine issued an edict banning all work except farming on the Lord's day. The term "blue laws," however, is of American origin. It refers to the first printed laws of the New Haven colony, which were bound in blue paper. Among Ocean City's laws are those prohibiting "making loud and boisterous noises between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m." and "acting in a loud, obscene or offensive manner" at any time. But despite this, rebellion is hard to find.

Ocean City perennially draws enormous crowds of vacationers who swell the year-round population of 12,000 to as much as 150,000 in the summer. They seem undisturbed by the laws. "I LIKE THE BLUE laws better than not having them," said surfer Bill Schwab, 24, of Bethesda, Md. Gibbs Peterson, 20, and Don Pileggl 20, both of Ocean City, walked down the beach, their wetsuits dripping. Both said they hope the town "keeps the blue laws." On prohibiting alcohol, Pileggi said, "Definitely yes." He noted, "It's only 5 minutes away," referring to Somers Point at the mainland end of the Ocean City bridge.

Somers Point is a bar-crowded oasis where Ocean City people buy their beer and booze. Hefting a football, Bill Anderson, a Bucknell University sophomore, said people should have a day to relax. "I think Sunday is a fine day for it." But not everyone on the boardwalk agreed. "If the government can't subsidize Catholic schools, Sunday is no different from any other day," said Tony Mongl, a student at Williamsport Pa. Area Community College.

"I think it's mixing church and state, and I think that's unconstitutional." BUT MONGI ADDED that Ocean City ConMnued on page 4, col. 1 1 Kresge store at Central and Belmont Avenues by firefighters flows from the LaSalle Hotel closing Tribune Photo by Val Mazienga smashed in display windows. to prevent the flames from spreading. Shortly after midnight, observers re ported the Kresge store had been de- stroyed and the roof had collapsed. Chicago police put a traffic plan in effect to redirect motorists from the area and facilitate the arrival of more fire equipment.

A crowd of more than 800 persons was watching the fire fighting efforts. a 'family' write poetry to me. You just don't find places with feelings like this one anymore." DOWN IN THE Whitechapel, Al the cook had prepared his last feast for the employes. They gathered at the bar and reminisced, trading phone numbers, laughing and crying without shame. "What you see here is a family," said Lee Jackson, the head bar porter.

"And now we're breaking up going our separate ways to other hotels that are like another world to us. This placo had a personality and that's what we gave to the people who stayed here." The LaSalle Hotel opened 67 years ago with bunting and banners. There were dances in the Blue Fountain Room, big bands in the Pan American Room, fancy ladies with corsages and gentlemen in tuxedos, honeymoon couples and lonely Continued on page 15, col. snorkel units. At least one water cannon was also brought out.

The first units called for extra equip- menf DUt that added strength proved insufficient and extra alarms were called more than one-third of the city's firofighting equipment was at the scene, FIRE OFFICIALS ordered hoses trained on buildings adjacent to the fire breaks up they just might be used tomorrow. Except the horse shoe counter had signs up all around reading, "This counter closed." "It's painful to see it all go," said Rose Aim, the shop's manager who has been with the hotel for 31 years. "I started back when the hotel had a coffee shop where all the food was served under silver covers and even an egg had to be garnished with parsley. They had the waitresses polish the brass lamps with vinegar. But those were different days." ROSE ALM STILL HAD customers from the old days, who came each day for lunch sitting at the same tables.

Leland Winter, an attorney with offices in the hotel is one. And so is his secretary, Noreen Green. "I used to come in the morning and the bellmen would kiss my hand," says Miss Green. "The bellman would even the rear of the S. S.

Kresge Co. store at 5628 W. Belmont Av. and spread rapidly through that two-story structure and en- gulfed two adjacent stores a Goldblatt Bros, and Maling shoes. THE FIRST FIREMEN on the scene smashed the front windows of the Kres- ge store to fight the blaze.

Other fire- men fought the fire from above with as she turned in her key. "It's been awfully good to me. And I wanted to come and thank all the people who made this hotel what it was." JOHNNIE MIGUT, ONE or the bellmen, took her bat's out just after the clock struck three. It would be Johnnie's last tip here. Resident manager Sam Longo stood behind the registration desk where all but two of the 813 rooms on the room rack were now labeled "Out of Order," and watched her leave.

The switchboard was silent and the 200 hotel employes milled around the lobby, waiting for the final paycheck, and saying goodby to regular patrons who just dropped in. The maids had finished stripping down the rooms on the upper 21 floors, now dark and quiet. In the coffee shop, the waitresses and the kitchen help had cleaned up. The catsup and mustard bottles were lined upon the counter as if By Anne Keegan LUCILLE CONDEE was the last guest out. Check out time was 1 p.m.

but she got a two hour extension. No hurry, though. There would be no one needing her room. There would be no one checking in. By twilight, there would be no one left.

No bellhops. No maids. No room service. No waitresses serving steaks in the Whitechapel. No bartender foaming up a beer glass in the Gay Nineties bar.

The eld hotel has closed. Mrs. Condee, a retired school teacher, had come all the way from Fort Myers, to be here when the LaSalle Hotel closed. She'd been coming for decades since she was a teen-ager and it was the first hotel she'd stayed in. "I just came up to tell the place good-by," she said, stopping on her way out.