The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 4

4 Tht Independent Record. Heleno, Tuesday, Jonoory 18. 1977 Moving days along the Potomac IT DMMEDR! By JAMES RESTON N.Y. Times Newt Service WASHINGTON These are great days along the Potomac for the moving-van huskies and the real estate operators, but they are not so easy on the Carter people who are moving in, and they're hell on the Ford people who are moving out. Everybody talks about the political transition from one party or administration to another, but nobody says much about the personal transition of these headline The end of an era old the Standard because in the days everybody played 11, mf James Res ton by the Secret Service.

What if she flunks New Math, and the principal demands an explanation from her father? Jimmy Carter says he wants suggestions about how to deal with all these problems. He should have a talk with Alice Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, who grew up In the White House and who Is still one of the wisest and sauciest ladles in town. Still, it is now Georgia that is marching through Washington and complaints from newcomers are not heard or allowed. It snowed here this week one of those perfect gleaming snows that cover all our scars and leave a glistening white line atop the black bones of every wintry tree and bush. Carter and his friends have made it to the playoffs, and they have some prize! Nevertheless, our heart In these last days is with the folk who are packing up.

Moving Days are always an agony at best all those pictures, all though might-have-beens, all that trash. Poor Jerry, convicted to a life of golf, Scotland's Presbyterian punishment for man's sins! Poor Henry, the great negotiator, who has delegated the negotiation of his book contracts to an agent, and now must decide where home is and whether to take two or three million dollars in a lump sum, or a million a year, for tax purposes! But the poignant thing is that none of these spectacular rewards of retirement ever makes up for the struggles they have complained about over their years of responsibility. The guess here is that Jerry Ford's narrow miss in the election was his mercy, but service in Washington on the great questions or "power," if you like is an addiction, stronger than sex or booze, and once hooked, they never quite get over It. Fortunately, President Ford and his buddies can depart from Washington with pride. They gave us back our decency and common sense, and there are very few citizens of the Republic who don't feel a sense of gratitude to them and wish them personal happiness.

detest. Also, they are closer to home than the Kissingers and other Cabinet members, and as their jobs and fundraising have become more difficult and embarrassing, more and more of them, like George Aiken of Vermont and John Pastore of Rhode Island, decide that home holds no terrors for them. Eventually, the Cabinet officers adjust to driving their own cars, finding their own parking spaces, and licking their own stamps, but usually it's the work they miss the sense of grappling with important things; yes, of serving their country. Secretary of the Treasury Simon has been growling around here for years about how everything is going to the dogs, but the chances are that he'll never again get such an opportunity to stop so many bad things as he had in Washington. The incoming Carter people have different problems, such as finding houses they can afford.

One of them said to a Washington real estate agent the other day that he wanted a house for "about $40,000." "We don't handle rentals," the agent replied. Also the newcomers are younger with younger children who are grieving for their pals back home and hating the whole idea of new schools and a strange new city where they seldom see the Old Man. Reconciling family life with professional life in the top Cabinet and White House staff jobs here is no daisy. No city in the land talks so much about "equal opportunity" or is so unequal, for Washington is predominantly a man's town where their wives are their unpaid assistants on family budgets usually much smaller than they had back home. THERE ARE OTHER nuisances for newcomers, such as the press, a nosy outfit always sniffing around closets for skeletons, and calling up in the middle of the night, and publishing pictures of you with your mouth open or struggling out of the back seat of a two-door car.

You have to sympathize, for example, with poor Amy Carter, convoyed to school The Anaconda Company, Montana's largest employer which was at one time held in such awe by Treasure Staters that it was simply referred to as "The Company" is now a subsidiary of the giant Atlantic Richfield Co. The Anaconda Co. shrunk from giant to minnow and was swallowed with ease by a corporate shark. Anaconda was THE company. It controlled the press in Montana and greatly influenced the destiny of the state.

The company reigned supreme. It owned daily newspapers in Billings, Butte, Livingston, Helena and Missoula. One newsman who worked for an Anaconda-owned paper said, "Jesus Christ couldn't get his picture on the front page for the Second Coming if the boys in Butte said no." The marching orders eminated by the Mining City. Mining accidents were played down or didn't see print. The news was tightly controlled.

A former editor said (after Anaconda sold the papers to Lee Enterprises) that he had a hard time getting out of the habit of reading the Montana news the same way as the Standard. When The Anaconda Co. sold those newspapers it started to slink into the background. The days of power brokering were numbered. In recent years Anaconda has maintained a very low profile.

Montana Power emerged as the new company everyone is out to get. Meanwhile, Anaconda kept itself busy trying to keep its head above water. The low price of copper has resulted in many layoffs and a host of problems for the company. Atlantic Richfield Co. (Arco) officials reportedly plan to pump up to $1 billion into its new subsidiary to enable Anaconda to develop its ore resources and production plants.

The merger should be very beneficial to The Anaconda Co. and to Montana. We hope that Arco does revitalize the ailing copper mining company. We also hope that Arco will assume the role of a good corporate citizen in Montana. characters from authority to anonymity and vice versa.

What do you do after you've been President of the United States, like Jerry Ford; or Secretary of State, like Henry Kissinger; or Senate Majority Leader, like Mike Mansfield, and suddenly it's all over all the responsibility, all those fancy cars and planes and obedient flunkies? Some of them stay in Washington happily enough and practice law, the spare-tire of politics Bill Fulbright, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for example but this town is full of ghosts, of eminent hasbeens, making money for people who usually don't need it or lobbying for legislation the country can do without, and clinging to their memories of the past. THE RETIRING senators and congressmen here are a bit different. After a while, many of them are plain bored with their jobs, and find it hard to keep smiling, and posturing, and being pleasant to people they mi Only in Illinois? At wit's end BY ERMA BOMBECK Fat friends aren't born. They're built and molded out of gentle lumps of sub-missiveness by a group I call the Devil's Classmates. The DCs prey upon the weak, spread ugly rumors about cottage cheese and nave never known a fat Monday in their lives.

They pretend to be your friend, but refuse a dessert at their house and you'll never be asked back. During the holiday season, they come out of the woodwork. At Thanksgiving, I casually mentioned I was on a diet. The Devil's Classmates hit me with all the ammunition they had. First, Wanda, who is built like a piece of lint, stood over me and blubbered, "Have another gravy or I'll have to throw it out," (The guilt ap time, while the suit was being settled, the state struck back.

"They told me that while the suit was being settled, I could not work," Aronson said. "They came to the desk and took the phone away. They took the mail. They advised the other employes not to speak to me. "I sat at an empty desk in a big room.

I brought some old files from proach). Then Fern whispered in my ear, "You mean you're not going to try my sugar-layered torte that I slaved over all morning?" (The rejection number). Finally my mother, who "made me a plate" in the evening that would have fed California for a year," warned, "Eat something or you're going to be sick." (The scare-them-to-death routine). They've been at work ever since. Marj's little boy the one with the broken BY ROGER SIMON (c).

Chicago Sun-Times CHICAGO For the last two years Ben Aronson ha9 sat at an empty desk in the State of Illinois building here and done -absolutely nothing. And every month the state has paid him $1,730 for doing nothing. But this is not one of those stories about lazy public workers cheating the state. It is about the state cheating you. For two years the Illinois Insurance Department has ordered Aronson to do absolutely no work while they paid him.

They took away his phone. They stopped all mail from reaching his They ordered the other employes not to speak to him. They demanded he do not one speck of useful work. And in two years they paid him more than $40,000. Aronson, however, was an honest man who could not stand it.

He sued the state, demanding that he be al-. lowed to do an honest day's work. A few days ago, the suit was settled. The state agreed that Aronson would actually be allowed to earn his salary. I SUPPOSE somewhere in these United States there may be a worse case of governmental stupidity.

But the case of Ben Aronson, the case of this state throwing away $40,000, is enough to make any taxpayer weep. This is what happened: Aronson, 56, began working for the state in 1962. Seven years later, he had worked himself up to chief company examiner in the insurance department. It was his job to determine the financial condition of all companies in Illinois. Approximately 80 to 100 people worked under him.

Aronson was not a political patronage worker. He was a civil service employe who took tests to qualify for his job. Therefore, he didn't pay a lot of attention when a Democratic administration left the governor's chair in 1969 and a Republican one took over. He should have. Aronson was immediately transferred to a different position, in which he was in charge of only eight people.

His salary, bowerver, was not touched. In 1971, Aronson was transferred to handling citizen complaints. Three people worked for him. "I always had very high ratings. from my superiors," Aronson said.

"There were no complaints about my work. I guess the new administration just wanted its own people." When the state tried to reduce Aronson's salary, be sued and his salary was restored. He continued to work. But in January of 1975, a budget cut was announced and Aronson was laid off, even though his work had been considered excellent. It was home just to put on the desk, it was so embarrassing.

I tried to keep myself busy. I read insurance magazines and technical journals. I tried to do some work secretly. Some of the employes secretly asked my advice on insurance matters and I helped them." Every morning for two years, Aronson would show up at work at 8: 15 a.m. and leave again at 4:45 p.m.

after sitting at an empty desk all day, trying to sneak some honest work past his superiors. "I just didn't want to sit there and read a newspaper," Aronson said. "That would have made the office look bad. A number of companies called me up to offer jobs, but this job was my career, my life work. I didn't want to leave." The man responsible for not letting Aronson work was department director Robert Wilcox, who described the situation as "foolishness." It was not foolish enough, apparently for him to let Aronson resume his duties.

In the midst of the dispute, Wilcox resigned to join the insurance industry. Aronson was still not allowed to work. But not working when you want to work can take its toll. 'THE PRESSURE got to me," Aronson said. "I collapsed one day with internal hemorrhaging.

They had to put 14 pints of blood in me to save my life." Aronson had to go to the hospital three times. He was diagnosed as having a heart condition brought about he says by the pressure of not being allowed to work. Finally, a few days ago, the state made an out-of-court settlement. Aronson would be allowed to work and be restored to his original seniority and pension benefits, as well as receiving two regular raises that he had been denied. "All I wanted to do was work," he said.

"I knew how to run the whole department. They were using my ideas from years ago. All of the people who have caused this aggravation have already left. "I never did find out what they had against me, why they did all this. People come up to me and say, boy, you came out smelling like a rose.

I say, I'd give the whole thing to them. I'd rather have my health back. I may need a serious operation soon. "It was all so strange. So unnecessary.

What did I want that was so bad? All I wanted was to earn my salary. When did that become a crime?" Just a matter of timing By C.L. SULZBERGER determination. Our own ded to freedom in a sense land power would remain. N.Y.

Times News Service Catholic church intervened any NATO member can un- Moscow's fleet is merely against this fearing derstand. It is culturally part of a complex of its VALLETTA, Malta membership in a Protes- "European." European military power; Prime Minister Dom Min- tant state that permitted Nevertheless, Mintoff America's fleet represents toff's idea of extruding both divorce and civil marriage, recalls that Malta remains a great share of NATO's the Soviet and United States and from 1962 on declared the Mediterranean's strength, fleets from the Mediterra- that anyone voting for geographical center and he This has immense nean and forming a Euro- Labor would be committing tries to capitalize on this, political significance African neutral or non- a mortal sin. But we won His particular chum is apart from any wartime aligned bloc is abhorrent to the 1971 and 1976 elections Libya's Muammar al- potential. It helps foster NATO and its supporters, and now have a new accord Qaddaf i who gave him a peacemaking diplomacy in including the U.S.A., but with the church. loan against Mintoff's per- the Arab-Israel and one must understand how it "But I would like to add sonal signature as an in- Turkish-Greek arguments developed in Malta's mind.

this. NATO has so ap- dividual in 1971, when the while bolstering Europe. Until 1964, when Britain predated Malta's strategic island faced bankruptcy if These are purposes Malta granted this island its in- value as the Mediterranean Britain refused to clearly favors and would be dependence (British crossroads that it proved renegotiate a case agree- hampered if Mintoff's military contingents will scared to encourage ment. proposal were precipitately remain 25 more months), acted on. Malta had never been "ifa MINTOFF WARNED Asfor the future that is politically free.

It had been 1 Qaddafi he couldn't repay if different. Indeed, the ruled by Phoenicians, 5WJmI London declined a new ren- Maltese are more ac- Carthaginians, Romans, tal pact. The Libyan was customed to waiting Arabs, Crusaders, Sulzberger Prepared to write off the patiently than most people. Spaniards, and that wholly AV-Y ut dea was con" More tnan our thousand militant order, the Knights eluded in the end and Min- years ago their ancestors of St. John.

toff paid back Qaddafi. This were chipping out massive The French were here KJaS encouraged Mintoff to temples with stone tools, briefly and, in response to a elaborate his present policy working generation after Maltese appeal, were Malta's political freedom, of active nonalignment, generation to achieve their ousted by Britain which Even our opponents, the seeking to bring the goal. There is nothing fun-proved to be the man who Natl0nalist party, were so northern and southern damentally wrong with came to dinner. Politically Pro-NATO that they asked Mediterranean halves Mintoff's basic policx idea the British stayed until to loiD tne alliance. Yet, together.

except iU timing which 1964. Militarily, in the sense despite Iceland's inclusion However, no one has sue- is premature, of base facilities, they'll be as an auy we were spurned ceeded in explaining to Min- here until March 31 1979 even as observers. toff that expulsion too soon Hannibal, Napoleon, "Britain's refusal to of the Soviet and U.S. fleets Churchill and Eisenhower grant us union and NATO's would almost inevitably jft INCIEDCNatNlj have been among the subsequent refusal to ac- damage the cause of rSzLL. lifECORCl island's famous guests but, cePl us as a Partner repre- freedom he treasures.

It (t from a Maltese viewpoint sent an anachronism in the would help the "other side" they weren't invited. Ac- free world. In fact, in 1959 he has deliberately avoided the cording to Mintoff "We Britain gave its governor There is no per- people talking fought for Europe in World here full powers and he im- manent Soviet embassy Established in Helena War but we had little P08 PIltlcal slaverv- At be although the U.S.A. Tt i I share in the fruits of vie- the end was colonialism has one. Valletta has rela- U9C' 1009 tory.

Why did Marshall CT.az?-'' jx tions with Moscow only via J- Plan aid go to Germany and 11118 a background to its London ambassador. Richard Wwnicfc Mgt. Editor Italy but not to Malta? Present attitude. The sixth fleet shores up My own contacts during a NATO's sagging position in m. "IN 1955 our Labor party brief stay here give me a the south-east and south.

If EXT Sj: demanded that Britain strong feeling that this the Soviet fleet were to be e. j. omo'! Mar! either integrate Malta as an beautiful midget Republic simultaneously pulled out TttlVVTX. eaual member of the United is emotionally pro-Western of the Mediterranean, prox- oonowsdm.ii comP. teg wno is noonung arouna on a crutch appeared at my door selling Christmas peanut brittle.

My sister-in-law sent her annual fruitcake with the cryptic message, "If you don't want it, give it to a good person." My best friend plied me with chip dip and coaxed, "You can get too thin, you know especially at your age." And even my kids look at me plaintively and whimper, "Mom, can you eat the rest of my fudge Lucky for me I'm on to all their tricks, including the soothsayer who swears that carrots cause blindness and skim milk gives you bad skin. Last night at a party everyone was gathered around a chafing dish of calories when a man next to me handed me a potato chip and said, "There isn't a woman on canvas in the Louvre Museum under 155 pounds." I knew he was a Devil's Classmate but what the beck, I'm only human. 1 -clear that somebody in government did not like him. ARONSON SUED again. But this Kingdom or grant us self- enthusiastically wed- imate Soviet air power and.