The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 20

Tuesday, May 4, 1S71 20 Boston Pcntufi Sfolic Suez THE NATION By MARTEN F. SOLAN D.C. police play it cool WASHINGTON It was, in the end, the most idle threat of all. Tie up traffic on the Potomac bridges? Traffic is always tied up on the Potomac bridges. Washington has long been a military target, at least since Fort Sumter.

But this time, the defeated army was more amateurish than the most ragtag militia. Rennie Davis stood on 14th st Sunday crying with rage against the police. Rennie Davis is always crying with rage against the police. He was protesting the fact that the government defended itself by revoking a camping permit at 6 a.m. and dispersing the invading army of protesters.

It was a lesson in cynicism for the Mayday Tribe. Police Chief Jerry Wilson had granted the permit to camp along a riverside park, then changed his mind at his convenience. Wilson discovered, after almost a week of sweet asphyxiation, that people were actually smoking marijuana on the old camp ground. The scene was reminiscent of "Casablanca" wherein Claude Rains, the corrupt Vichy prefect of police, suddenly closes down Humphrey Bo-gart's American cafe. "I'm shocked, shocked to find out that there's gambling going on here," he says as he pockets his evening's winnings.

But the D.C. police are not corrupt. They have proven that they are professional in the past few days. They have proven that law enforcement can do without the wanton head-cracking occasionally indulged in by their blue-clad brethren in Chicago and Boston. Sure they used force (you think all of those sophomores are Gand IMr.

Rojjcrs and Secretary of State W.lham P. Rogers is in Cairo today and goes on to Jerusalem Thursday with the crucial mission of seeking the reopening of the Suez Canal as an interim measure toward a negotiated lettlement in the Middle East. Although the economic importance of the canal has been eakened by the shipment cf Mid-East oil in huge tankers around South Africa and by new pipelines to the Mediterranean that are expected to have a capacity of 500 million tons by 1980, the canal must be opened before the four-year stalemate between Israel and the Arab nations can be broken. Israel, which has had troops on the east bank of the canal since the end of the Six Day War in June of 1967 and has resisted Egyptian overtures for its reopening, has lately shown increasing willingness to consider new attitudes. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan has for some time favored limited withdrawal of Israeli troops without specifying a distance for such withdrawal from the canal.

Israel's founder and former Prime Minister Ben Gurion has gone even farther, indicating that peace is more important than real estate. Now Foreign Minister Abba Eban has spoken out for pragmatism, saying that "in this limited context of a canal settlement," Israel would require "certainty that fighting will not be resumed," without demanding the traditional "end to belligerency." Israel's deep fear is that even the announcement of such a pullback would weaken her negotiating position and that the withdrawal might be followed by establishment of Soviet troops and equipment on the canal's east bank. These fears have no doubt been heightened by a speech Saturday in which Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said he would not only insist on Israeli withdrawal, but would insist that- Egyptian troops cross the canal to replace those withdrawn by Israel. Yet, while Egypt would lose (ST 'v "Patience, boy why, we withdrew another 45 men just last week." LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Go to Hanoi first As a fellow Jesuit I was surprised with the naivete of the "principles" enunciated by a group of Jesuits to terminate the war in Southeast Asia, published in the April 23 Globe. They seem to put the blame only on the US and on the government of South Vietnam and to have a great confidence in the communists to the extent of believing that communists will hold free elections and respect the lives of their opponents.

Before declaring any "principles" I would suggest that these Jesuits form a committee to go to North Vietnam and obtain the guarantee that Hanoi will renounce, if not the communist ideology, at least the communist This was attempted very recently by a delegation of American churchmen who were refused entry to North Vietnam. But, of course, I hope the Jesuits will have better luck. ALEXIS U. FLORIDI, S.J. Administrator, Our Lady of Kazan, Russian Greek Catholic Church South Boston Privileged air pollution Arab subsidies and have to bear the cost of eight months' dredging end repairs to open the 100-mile waterway, she could gain relief from the burden of supporting thousands of evacuees from the canal towns and would have won a psychological point in having initiated the first step in getting Israel to back away from territory occupied since 1967.

In the background, the Soviet Union supporting Egypt would like direct access to the Indian Ocean where Russia has plans for a floating naval base. But the Soviets, who proposed a phased withdrawal in the Sinai Peninsula accompanied by a reopening of the canal two and a half years ago, would not like to see the United States get the credit for its achievement. The United States, plagued with the winding down of a war in Southeast Asia and fearful of new conflict in the Middle East, hopes to stage a prestigious step forward in negotiations starting with the canal and, in an effort to further increase its prestige over the Soviet Union, has offered financial and technical help to Egypt in the rebuilding of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez if the canal is reopened. Egypt, which has just fired its pro-Soviet vice president and negotiated a weak federation with Libya and Syria, appears unusually receptive. And Secretary Rogers, making the first Middle Eastern tour by any Secretary of State in 18 years, has shown considerable diplomacy in his current appearances in Saudi Arabia and Jordan by emphasizing for the benefit of both Egypt and Israel that "no interim canal settlement as desirable as it may be can be a substitute for a fundamental and final solution." It may well be that the key to the first step of reopening the canal will be agreement on an international peacekeeping force on the east bank.

In any case, we wish the Secretary success in his difficult and delicate task. violations charged to it in a separate law suit, those others being of the sanitary code. And HUD would be in a better position to argue, were it not in violation of a directive of a Feb. 4, 1970, Executive Order to provide leadership in observing the requirements of the 1969 and 1970 environment protection laws. How, if at all, the BHA might benefit by new regulations of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency giving states nine months to comply with new stricter pollution standards has not been determined.

It clearly is in violation of existing standards. The one certainty is that BHA pollutants are a health hazard. The conditions at the Columbia Point project are not peculiar to that area. "The patients coming to the Columbia Point Health Center," director Leon Bennet-Alder states, "present a variety of diseases and difficulties related to their respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It is very frustrating and indeed dangerous to have to put up with gross pollution from project incinerators." What the BHA may be able to do, if HUD continues to withhold the necessary money, has not been determined.

But an extension of 60 days has been suggested as the maximum by James W. Dolan, the OEO attorney representing the Boston Public Housing Tenant Policy Council Inc. After that the Health Department could bring a criminal suit against both HUD and BHA, with a request for the imposition of fines ranging from $50 to $500 a day for each violation. "The Health Department," says Mr. Dolan, "would establish a blatant double standard if it simply granted a variance for a public agency for lack of funds without granting similar variances to private polluters, in which case there would be no end to pollution.

The President and the governor have strongly urged strict air pollution regulations. They cannot escape responsibility when agencies under their direction violate these regulations. Government should be setting an example by compliance." merits support operated as a community service by Boston University, which provides a third of its support, another third coming from grants and foundations. One of its award-winning and most outstanding programs is "The Drum," by and for the black community, and which is also a training program for minority employment in broadcasting. Contributions should be sent to WBUR, 630 Commonwealth Boston, Mass.

02215. Sen. McCann attacks editorial May I comment on your April 15 editorial, "Youth reform on the mat." First, your writer states, "The Youth Services Board has come under scathing attack from the Massachusetts Legislature's Special Commission on Crime and Violence." What attack? The commission has not issued any report, but has listened to testimony from such distinguished people as Judge Francis G. Poitrast of the Juvenile Court and Judge Elijah Adlow, the chaplains at the Lyman and Shirley institutions, and other personnel who live with the problems on a daily basis. Your editorial states, "In its two year existence the commission has produced no legislation." The undersigned only assumed the chairmanship of the commission on Feb.

9, 1971. It is not my role to account for whatever may have, or may not have, taken place prior to my being named as chairman of this commission. Your writer tagged the group as "The McCann Commission" and then went on to say that the Speaker of the House supported Dr. Miller against the "McCann Commission" as though one person was the commission, when in fact Dr. Miller is a member of it.

Speaker Bartley is quoted by your writer as saying, "The commission chairman, Sen. McCann, has called for an investigation." That is not true. I have never called for an investigation and I challenge your paper and the Speaker to indicate when and where I did call for it. If we are investigating crime and violence, it is my opinion we should look at the first level at which the greatest number of young people come in contact with the law and confinement the Youth Service Can't find workers I am the owner of a shoe manufacturing business employing more than one hundred people in the town of Natick. This plant has been in existence continually for about fifty years without major shutdowns or layoffs.

Despite conditions in the shoe industry, we are still getting our share of business. We read about the unheard-of rate of unemployment in the state. We hear of the closing of various shoe companies in nearby cities and towns. We hear of the closing of numerous other industries with the resultant layoff of thousands of workers. Despite this, we are unable to find sufficient help to fill vacancies in our plant.

Where are all the people who desperately need jobs? We advertise in the local papers, and we have appealed to the Massachusetts unemployment offices, all to no avail. We wonder if the unemployment commission is really doing the job for which it was intended. When unemployment security was started it was intended to assist persons temporarily out of work with sufficient funds to tide them over until they were reemployed. We stand ready to hire and train unskilled workers at any time. In the meantime we welcome skilled shoe workers.

We have hired numerous people from the unemployment office only to have them fail to show for work the next morning, ISAY FRIEDMAN President, Winchell Shoe Inc. Natick Board. Unless we do take such a look at it, then these youngsters will become the prison statistics five year hence and, unfortunately, many have already gone that route. Your writer evidently did not bother to read Chapter 143, Acts of 1965, creating this commission. He wrote, "The Commission should include a District Attorney, two members of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police, a member of the Police Officers Association, a member of the Juvenile Police Officers Association and persons skilled in penology, sociology and psychiatry." The commission has among its members the police representatives he suggests, as well as the commissioners of Correction, Mental Health, Parole Board, Public Safety and the Commissioner of Youth Services plus a member skilled in the field of penology, one in the field of sociology and one in the field of psychiatry Criticism in public life is something to be expected.

Accuracy in newspaper editorials should also be expected. FRANCIS X. McCANN Senator, 2d Middlesex District Boston Boston's problems We have lived in eastern Massachusetts for six years. Your article (April 21) by Bernard Borman is the first such that I have seen in that time. He gives 16 reasons for Boston's decline and indeed there may be 600.

The importance of such an article is not the number of reasons that Mr. Borman discusses but the fact that it is discussed at all. In spite of all the lip service paid to Boston and its many marvels and wonders, most persons in any position of prominence or importance with whom I have had any contact have generally denied the existence of any significant problem. This is reflected in the institutions and establishments generally found in Boston, eastern Massachusetts, the state of Massachusetts and northern New England in general. It is reflected in a generally reactionary attitude.

Although I must say that freedom and individuality are highly respected in this area, the fruits of. such freedom are not utilized by the system or its institutions. The chauvinism that exists has been an obstacle rather than a acilitatory influence on the community and its activities. Certainly none of this can change unless there is an acceptance of the fact that problems really do exist and that certain individual prerogatives must be negotiated and compromised to the benefit of the community. Once we have accepted that there are certain things that must be done if we are to survive and accept that premise not only intellectually but emotionally as well, then we might be well on our way to the solutions of such problems.

Alienation, corruption, lack of respect for government, "a decrepit educational system," civic spirit, etc. are all problem areas immediately apparent to the newly arrived to Boston. Had I written this article six years ago, or had it been written by "one of those newcomers," would it have been accepted? Is Mr. Borman's article accepted now? H. GERSTMAN but they used it with coolness, dispatch and yes, even sympathy.

Rennie Davis was complaining that the police broke their word, but he's the one who declared war. Did Robert E. Lee send to Union generals detailed times and places of his troop movements? That's what General Davis did. Leadership was a crucial factor in this invasion. Davis prided himself on his movement's lack of leadership and therefore could not command the respect that John Kerry did among last week's veterans or that Sam Brown did during the October Moratorium of 1969.

Leadership and mobility. Mobility was the secret of the D.C. police and of the Commander-in-chief. He said he wouldn't be intimidated and he was right. The protesters never got near San Clemente.

Martin Nolan is chief of The Globe's Washington Bureau. EDITORIAL POINTS Russia and China dislike "revisionists," unknown over here unless they're the same as protesters. We've lived to see the day when fashion permits only women to go around in public with bare legs. It isn't what it boasts about, but air conditioning eliminates house flies. Time was when even a $4-a-plate breakfast would have sounded like a big deal.

Preventive medicine, in a simple form, consists of not laying the foundation for a hangover. Old red-brick Boston was picturesque enough. What we don't know is how clean it may have been. Psychiatrists are meeting in Washington, a place where, one might think, there'd be work for them. The stock market must be in fair shape.

A swindler managed to sell some phony share certificates. The big brains who could split the atom haven't yet figured out how not to have any poor people. Congress has its own timetable. It will pass a law when it gets good and ready. For what four years of college cost now, a Horatio Alger hero would have thought himself rich for life.

Public opinion is a force even in Red Poland, where the government has done something to appease the people. Since Walter Hickel got fired as' Secretary of the Interior, his stock has risen so high people are willing to listen to him. The Duchess of' Windsor says hot' pants aren't so hot. On the other hand, she isn't 18 years old any more. The proverbial man bites the proverbial dog today at a public hearing in the State Department of Health where that department and the Boston Air Pollution Control Commission will contest the Boston Housing Authority's plea that it be permitted to continue polluting Boston's air in violation of city, state and Federal laws.

It is a case of two government agencies against a third. But also involved are the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state's Department of Community Affairs. Yet another government agency, the legal division of the Office of Economic Opportunity, represents BHA tenants. This battle of government alphabet agencies (BHA, HUD, DCA, DPH, APCC and OEO) would be funny if it did not seriously involve the health of the community, which it so plainly does. The Air Pollution Control Commission has been trying since July 30, 1969, to force the BHA to quit pouring sulfur oxides, fly ash and other pollutants into the air from its 444 incinerators and furnaces in 45 housing projects.

The Authority was granted one exception, euphemistically called a variance, about a year ago. It is the extension of that exception for at least a year beyond the July 1 expiration date that it now seeks. The Housing Authority's defense is that it does not have the funds io comply with the statutes. It asserts that the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is withholding $5 million owed to it for the conversion of polluting equipment under 1969 and 1970 legislation. It asserts that additional monies are owed to it out of $15 million appropriated for DCA's deferred maintenance program last year.

There seems no question at all that the money is available at both agencies. Its disbursement, as BHA spokesmen out it, "has been loused up" by bureaucratic interpretations of eligibility. The BHA, on the one hand, would be on solider ground in this case, were there not more than 3000 other WBURY drive Commercial-free radio in Boston is being put to the test currently by the non-stop, on-the-air fund-raising Marathon of station WBUR, seeking to raise $71,000 to convert the station to stereo, increase its live programming and continue its production of special programs. To date the station has raised 48 peicent of its goal. We'd like to see it go all the way.

For WBUR is a very special station, non-commercial and educational, 'Guilty of grave sin' I am impressed with the advertisement in Sunday's Globe (April 25), bearing the names of 300 priests of the Archdiocese of Boston and demanding that the nation get out of the Indochina War by Dec. 31 of this year, thereby endorsing a strategy considered by so many to be the most realistic means of ending this conflict. I do not, however, believe that these priests represent the total of Catholic clergy in this area who favor withdrawal. There are priests who so thoroughly abhor this war that they cannot bring themselves to sanction a plan which calls for anything but immediate withdrawal. A priest who- did not assent to this advertisement explained to me that setting a deadline (in this case, eight months away) could be equated to a priest advising a penitent that although he was guilty of grave sin, it would be acceptable to continue in this sin until an established future date.

Furthermore, I am of the opinion that there are priests whose names would have swelled this list of 300, but for the fact that they were "advised" by their superiors not to sign. At any rate, this advertisement, coupled with one (April 23) signed by a large number of Jesuit priests, gives the laity reason to rejoice in the courage of many of their priests to act against this war, despite the general lack of leadership fom the hierarchy. A Catholic seeking guidance in forming a conscience with regard to the war in Indochina need go no farther than the Vatican II Documents, which state: "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation." GRACE L. CURTIN Norwood Letters to the Editor must be signed and, for purposes of verification, give the writer's street address.

They should be no longer than 300 words, and are subject to Boston.