The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 2

2 Boston Evening Globe Thursday, November 2, 1978 You won't he when hughing he reaches center of Eart "No one believes that a world exists inside the Hollow Earth. We will make our journey without avarice or greed. We plan to photograph eveything we see, and then bring the photographs back. That is, if we return we can only speculate that we will feel like coming back. Tawani Shoush RICHARD COHEN Sam Ervin on TV peddles his integrity WASHINGTON Wherever I go, so goes the notebook.

It's a small, black, loose-leaf job costing maybe three bucks and when I think something that can make a column, I take out the little book and write down the idea. This happened last summer. I saw something on television, took out my book and wrote down what I saw. It was Sam Ervin doing a television commercial. The former North Carolina senator had already been selling American Express cards, but this time it was insurance for some company whose name I forgot.

He was sitting in one of those standard leather wing chairs that are used on television to sell insurance, and he spoke with that voice he had come to know on television from the Watergate hearings a mellifludus voice. A trusted voice, a voice that exuded security. This was an insurance company you could trust. The thing bothered me. I had been bothered earlier when Ervin made his American Express commercial "Do you know me?" even though that one made no sense.

Mostly American Express uses people whose faces are almost totally unknown Luciano Pavorotti, the opera singer, for instance. But Ervin's got a face right off Mount Rushmore. To have not recognized him means you have had to have been comatose during most of 1974. "Do you know me?" he asked. Sam, how could we forget you? But Ervin just sat in my little book.

I couldn't figure out why I was bothered by Ervin doing commercials. At first, I thought it was that he was cashing in on his senatorial career. But after some thought I concluded that Ervin is not the first public figure to go from government service if I A I The thing about Ervin is what he is really selling. He is selling the image he built up during the Watergate hearings. He is peddling integrity.

SSS- VHP By Bob Greene Winter is on its way, and all over the United States men and women are preparing for vacation journeys to take them away from the dreary existence of daily life. Seventy of their fellow citizens, however, are planning a trip that, it can safely be said, promises to be more unusual than any foray to Acapulco or Hawaii. The 70 are members of something calle the Hollow Earth Society. And for five years they have been planning their adventure that they say will take them well, let their leader, Tawani W. Shoush, explain it: "The Earth is hollow.

There are apertures, or openings, at the North Pole and the South Pole. Once we descend into the openings, we will be the first surface humans in 30 years to view the wondrous secrets of the people who live inside the Hollow Earth." Shoush appears to be deadly serious about the project. He has devoted his life to planning the trip inside the Earth, and he runs the project from a small town in Missouri called Houston. Shoush speaks in great detail about the world he believes exists inside the Earth. Basically, it is this: There is an advanced civilization that lives in the Hollow Earth.

Great cities are set up, populated by beings superior to ourselves. Because the people of the Hollow Earth do not approve of the way we on the surface have run our lives, they do not want us to visit them. But Shoush and the members of his Hollow Earth Society feel that if they with their compassion and understanding for the Hollow Earth beings make the journey, rather than a gov-ernment organization attempting it, the Hollow Earth people will welcome them and let them in. "We will need an airship if we can acquire one," Shoush said. "A dirigible.

We are looking for one in Germany. We will fly the dirigible to the Arctic region, and then proceed on foot to the opening that leads to the Hollow Earth. We will attempt to make contact with the beings inside, and assure them we have come in peace. Then, hopefully, we will reboard the dirigible and descend into the Hollow Earth." Shoush and the members of the Hollow Earth Society say that they already know what to expect once they enter the Hollow Earth, based on legends and unconfirmed reports from earlier visitors. "There is a tall, blond, blue-eyed super race living inside the Hollow Earth," Shoush said.

"They are the dominant beings there, although there are also Oriental types called or small-statured yellow people. "Inside the Hollow Earth are several cities built of shimmering crystal. The inhabitants of these cities are far more advanced than we are both technically and culturally. There is more land and less water than on the surface world. The inhabitants speak a language very much like German.

"During World War II, Adolf Hitler sent a U-boat, specially outfitted, to find the Hollow Earth. The boat never returned. Whether the boat made it to the Hollow Earth or not, we do not know. Hitler was a firm believer in the Hollow Earth theory." (This is probably as good a place as any to interrupt the story and mention the somewhat disconcerting fact that Shoush has a seemingly inordinate fascination with the idea of a "tall, blond, blue-eyed super race," with Hitler and with Germany. The letterhead of the Hollow Earth Society's stationery features a design built around what appears to be a swastika.

However, Shoush says that this is a "Nordic symbol," that it has nothing to do with the Nazis, and that, "as you probably realize, the swastika has been known in various cultures for thousands of years." So, On we go.) "We believe that there have been other attempts to go into the Hollow Earth, financed by governments," Shoush said. "These attempts have met with disaster. The beings of the Hollow Earth are not interested in any such incursions by governments." Shoush said that he feels many of the Unidentified Flying Objects sighted around the world emanate from inside the Hollow Earth, and are intended to "watch" those of us on the surface. One of his prize pieces of "evidence" is a document which he says is a secret diary kept by Adm. Richard Byrd during an otherwise unreported 1947 visit to the Hollow Earth.

The diary goes into some detail about what the admiral found. An excerpt: "The radioman and I are taken from the aircraft and we are received in a most cordial manner. We were then boarded on a small platformlike conveyance with no wheels. It moves us toward the glowing city with great swiftness. As we approach, the city seems to be made of a crystal material.

Soon we arrive at a large building that is a type I have never seen before." Shoush's theory is that the beings of the Hollow Earth allowed Byrd to visit their land because they respected him and knew he would not try to take it over, as surface-Earth governments might. Shoush believes that, for the same reason, his Hollow Earth Society expedition will. also be allowed inside. "In the past, we have sought no publicity," he said. "We fully realize that people will call us crackpots, will try to ridicule us and even stop us.

But we are not We are a small group, made up of physicians, engineers and pilots. "No one believes that a world exists inside the Hollow Earth. We will make our journey without avarice or greed. We plan to photograph everything we see, and then bring the photographs back. That is, if we return.

For the Hollow Earth is better than our own world, and we can only speculate that we will feel like coming back." Bob Greene is a syndicated columnist. LA kJ to what is called in Washington the "private sector" for what is known everywhere as Big Bucks. Some former members of Congress became lobbyists. Government lawyers go into private practice. In fact, this is something of a Washington tradition.

But the Ervin thing is a bit different. He's not selling his expertise, he's selling his fame, his image. He's not showing you how to do something pass a bill, for instance but selling something. He's doing something that no other government figure may ever have done before simply cashing in on his fame. At least, we have a Washington figure, outside of a resident or v'ce president, who is sufficently well-known that he can do what only movie stars and athletes have been able to do sell soap.

But this, too, is something of an American tradition. We are all aware that people get paid to make commercials for products they either don't use or don't know the first thing about, or both. This is true, say, of Jimmy Stewart, who is now selling Firestone tires even though, you, can bet, it has been years since he personally bought one. If I had his money, I would rent cars. Henry Fonda, to name another movie star, sells GAF film without any particular expertise, and James Garner, who was truly wonderful as Maverick, now sells cameras.

In fact, it is the rare celebrity who will not make commercials, really big stars like Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand, or those of really strong moral convictions or independent means like William F. Buckley who has both. So why, then, this obsession of mine with Ervin, this inability to move him out of my notebook and either onto the painted page or into the wastepaper basket? I asked people about it and brought it up as a topic of conversation whenever there was a lull. Then, the other day, someone put his finger on it. The thing about Ervin is what he is really selling.

He is selling the image he built up during the Watergate hearings. He is peddling integrity. Now I have to tell you something. The Watergate Committee has become something of a joke in this town a party game in which you name the committee members and then name the scandal. You can start playing with Herman Talmadge and then go to Daniel Inouye's aide that sort of thing.

The committee stands tarnished a bit like Richard Nixon and his people predicted, and you hate like hell to see this happen. Ervin personified that committee, and that was one of the reasons the thing worked. You believe he wasn't for sale.He had integrity. And now he's selling Richard Cohen writes for the Washington Post. By Larry Johnson THE DIGEST Continued from Page 1 indictments with soliciting and accepting kickbacks from vendors and contractors during construction of Revere High School from 1972 to 1975.

THE BOSTON City Council voted yesterday for a public hearing within a week on proposed pay raises for Mayor Kevin White, city department heads and members of the council themselves. White's raise would be $25,000. Councilors, who now earn $20,000 a year, would get an additional $5000. THE HIGHEST ranking Hispanic in the Boston School Department, Miguel Torrado, has reportedly submitted his resignation as the $27,000 a year transportation director. If Supt.

Robert C. Woods accepts the resignation, Torrado would step down Jan. 15. Miscellany NEW JERSEY is suing the city of Bordentown in an effort to halt a "workfare" program that wiped out the local welfare rolls. The program forces able-bodies welfare recipients to do public works in order to receive aid.

The state says the program is illegal. THE ALLEGED kidnaper of a Las Vegas bank executive was arrested by police and the FBI yesterday as he collected a $250,000 ransom. Officers are still seeking the abductors of the 5-year-old son of a wealthy Las Vegas carpet dealer who was kidnaped Oct. 25. THE US GEOLOGICAL Survey says significant traces of oil and gas deposits have been discovered in the Pacific just north of the Santa Barbara Channel in Southern California.

Thirteen companies are sharing the estimated $4.5 million costs of the test drilling. A HOUSE investigating subcommittee says it has evidence that organizations controlled by South Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon violated US tax immigration, banking, currency and foreign-agent laws. It recommended a federal task force continue the investigation. Local METROPOLITAN District Comr. John F.

Snedeker rejoins the Boston city administration next month as executive director of the Water and Sewer Commission at $39,000 a year. He served as an aide to Mayor Kevin White before going to the MDC in 1972. His salary there is about $31,000. FIFTY-FIVE Boston police trainees were taking part today in the first water safety and rescue course given to members of the force. The Red Cross provided the instructors.

The course teaches alternatives to swimming in effecting a rescue, among other things. TESTIMONY began today in the Suffolk Superior court trial of former Revere Mayor William G. Reinstein, charged in 16 LOTTERY NUMBERS WEDNESDAY'S DRAWING PAYOFF World PHILIPPINE officials say 156 persons may be dead in the sinking of a ferry which was rammed and cut in half by an unidentified vessel 550 miles south of Manila Monday night. The ferry was carrying 234 persons from Basilan Island to the port of Jolo in the south. A $20 MILLION loan to Nicaragua has been delayed by the International Monetary Fund at the request of the United States in a move to force President Somoza to make concessions to anti-government factions who staged an abortive uprising in September.

POLICE RESERVES were sent today into the south Indian election district, where Indira Gandhi is seeking a political comeback, because of violence that killed one person and injured 85 yesterday. Officials threatened to end campaigning there immediately. THE OFFICIAL Soviet news agency Tass said today the two Soyuz 29 cosmonauts have ended their record-smashing 139-day mission in space with a safe return to earth in Soviet Central Asia. The previous manned spaceflight endurance record was 96 days, also set by Russians. THE 10 surviving crew members of a US Navy reconnaissance plane that crashed last week off the coast of Siberia left the Soviet Union for Japan today aboard a commercial flight.

The bodies of three other crewmen were recovered and two more are still missing. National PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER left today on a two-day cross-country trip that he hopes will help produce a big Democratic turnout at the polls Tuesday. His first stop was New York. He will visit Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, Minnesota and Minneapolis before returning tomorrow night 0931 ANY ORDER EXACT ORDER $4674 All 4 digits $195 654 First 3 digits 109 56 Last 3 digits 109 6 All 4 digits First or last 3 Any 2 digits Any 1 digit Former Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel says he will stump the state in a whirlwind five-day campaign as a write-in candidate for governor.

He lost in the primary election by less than 100 votes Musicians at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington have agreed to end their 17-day strike. Last Friday, members of the National Symphony ended a five-week strike against the Kennedy Center Gunmen, believed mem- bers of the Basque separatist organization Eta, today shot a building contractor to death in Irun, Spain, and seriously wounded his brother. The dead man was reported to have denounced members of the organization to police two years ago Experiments by California researchers have shown that the controversial pesticide DBCP is absorbed by fruit Government auditors say a computer consulting firm that has a contract with the city of Cleveland has overcharged the General Services Administration by $948,000 Dominica, a banana- growing island of 80,000 residents in the Caribbean, receives full independence from Britain at midnight tonight from Princess Margaret, who is representing her sister Queen Elizabeth. Above payoffs based on $1 bets PREVIOUS DRAWINGS Tuesday 5746 ($4406) Friday 5072 ($3839) Monday 3621 ($4245) Thursday 8254 ($3491) Saturday 2530 ($4164) The weekly winning lottery numbers drawn last night: White Yellow Blue SEYMOUR R. LINSCOTT 58 264.