The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 142

iEiami lUralib VIEWPOINT JOHN KNlGHl Editorial Chairman JAMES I KNIGHT Chairman IEE HILLS Publisher ALVAH CHAPMAN Jr President DON SHOEMAKER Editor JURGfcNSMEYER Gen Mgr GEORGE BEEBE Senior Managing Editor LARRY JINKS Managing Editor JOHN PENNEKAMP Associate Editor 6-AYV Friday July 7 1972 Drivers' Renewal Test Is Inadequate EDITORIALS stable an alcoholic or a drug user -any of which would make me a prime road hazard and none of which he had I was told that no state in the United States tests drivers for peripheral vision reflexes judgment or emotional stability Since licensed drivers can drive interstate why not set universal standards? Only recently I was required to appear for a in order to renew my Florida drivers license After a few questions to verify my hearing ability and knowledge of ihe shapes of Florida road signs and after a myopia test I was told to see the cashier I was Before leaving the inspector's window since there was no line behind me I suggested to the officer no state in the United States tests drivers for peripheral vision reflexes judgment or emotional stability that I could have tunnel vision bad reflexes and extremely bad judgment Besides I might be emotionally un Political Thicketry Returns To Obscure Court Functions i si Added to the road test could be scieptifically devised simulator test registering peripheral vision reaction time and judgment Within reason able limits these could provide minimal requiiements for licensing Some European countries have already adapted emotional stability tests for drivers We have in this area driver who operate with air-conditioners os windows closed and radios playing They couldn't hear anything even with good hearing They insist on driving in the left lane and are often slower than existing traffic and they appear oblivious to the world around them Now having had inadequate testing and being insulated by the quietude of the new car lulled by automatic devices galore including speed control so that cars almost drive themselves and signal lights which give some drivers the feeling that having signaled they now have the right of way how safe are the drivers their cars their passengers or the cars and pedestrians near -them when an emergency situation arises? DANIEL DIAMANT lawyer asks the Supreme Court to the judiciary to its proper He is right but for the wrong reasons Those who question the position of the courts have in fact put the courts into that position It is not difficult to be cynical about delegate deals The Republican Party went all through this just 20 years ago in the effort to Dwight Eisenhower The increasing openness of conventions however lets the public in on the rights and the wrongs and it is disturbed when rules are broken before its face Let the convention too be restored to its proper position Scratch Chess As A THESE days not even so cerebral and sedentary a game as chess can be played without a thunderclap or two Chess had seemed so noble a pastime suited' to long periods of staring and thinking conducive to grand strategies and great wars within but a nutshell of space Armies could be sacrificed even while a yawn was savored and extended to its satisfying limit Now the trumpets must sound across the checkered board too The moneychangers and politicians want the proper proportions of coin and propaganda For Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky the register must ring and national pride must unfurl Like the other games chess as they now will play it becomes something less than a game not a delight but another grim part of survival We lament the passing of true games in Iceland and elsewhere on the checkered board and off and in particular regret the passing of that sense of noble luxury that came as international chessmasters bent with joy to the task of being wastefully and irrelevantly clever ought not to enter this political protested Mr Justice Frankfurter in 1946 in the celebrated case of Colegrove Green which first brought congressional redistricting under judicial scrutiny Federal District Judge George Hart Jr found himself inflicted by the same mood last Monday when he was compelled to rule against Sen George McGovern in the California delegate case Indeed the political underbrush reminded him of the Frankfurter phrase and he revived it The non-lawyers among us probably will react in the same manner as this tedious bit of political in-fighting which has already involved two courts is resumed in a third one Yesterday the Democratic hierarchy asked Chief Justice Burger to call a special session of the Supreme Court to override the appeals court which had overridden Judge Hart For good measure the forces of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who sees the great mace of a venerable bossism slipping from his grasp asked also for a reversal of his fortunes It is difficult to see any constitutional issue fit for court consideration It is easy to see the forcing of an embarrassing constitutional crisis It is easier still to see a simple issue of right and wrong The ground rules in the California primary were laid down well in advance The winner would take the whole thing And putting aside any digestive Afterthoughts everyone agreed Nominating conventions exist for the purpose of injecting some democracy or freedom of choice in the process of picking a President They ought not to limp into court when they are injured by their own roughhousing In all likelihood the pending Democratic Convention will settle the delegate numbers problem on the floor no matter what the courts say This means a fight but that is why the credentials machinery was created in the first place The Democratic Par In US Neivspeak 9 Defense Means Aggression I The world that Orwell envisaged for 1984 has come to pass in the United States much sooner Our language has become Newspeak a system so utterly corrupt that the words not only lose their true meaning but are used to express their opposites 1 How else can it be explained that we have a I Defense Department whose leader insists publicly i with a straight face that we must increase our gigantic spending for weapons to assure our capa- bility not to defend ourselves but to wage offen- sive strikes at our potential enemies? So accustomed are we to our aggressive actions abroad under the guise of defending that instead of an outcry of protest against such ab- surdity there is just calm acceptance of the new fact that defense means aggression We are the knights in shining armor maintain- ing at fantastic cost to our taxpayers the dictator- ship of Thieu and the corrupt landlords around him I by bombing to bits the present and future means of 1 livelihood of people people whose only I guilt lies in their seeking freedom trom foreign dom- I ination Ironically our ancestors were guilty of the 1 same quest some 200 years ago Our leaders have been misleaders far too long 1 Nothing is more important for our people than to I speak out strongly at the polls for a new clean slate carried by honest men LASSNER Fort Lauderdale 1 Cars Are Monsters Of The Roads Each morning I am awakened: at 8:30 by two honks of horn and the start of a motorcycle While riding my bicycle I notice the disgusting traffic Jams and drivers who care only for themselves Many teenagers are pressured-into buying cars for If a boy does not own a cf he is looked down upon He cannot even take a girl out! Looking back at pollution help that cause I just hope someday these inhuman monsters are-taken off the road HELENE LIEBESKIND-' He Owes Wealthy I No Explanation With reference to Sen welfare proposals I can multiply $1000 by the US population of about210 million and come up witH figure of $210 billion But that is fiot the full story The Notebook column (June 18) mentioned substantially lower cost estimates not endorsing these of course estimates which are lower in fact than the present expenditures of the Departmertl'of Health Welfare and Education J-Elsewhere in The Herald an article correctly describes the -scheme-! one involving a sliding-scale tax- on the so-called grant Incidentally thtf' McGovern statement of April 28 quoted in The Notebook briefly contains the essence of the sliding-scale tax idea Such a sliding-scale idea could not possibly result in a cost of billion Does McGovern owe a clarification of his position? I presume that he will go into- great detail on the subject during the campaign the nominee) but I personally do not think that he owes anything to his affluent opponents eager to smear him and unlikely to vote for him' TURNAGE TT in iMffliitPulil'Wflf 'Ill': fciiMiI ftiniHWiii ii'iui 11 lUii'wa ijiMiiAnniwmiiiiuiiiii iw iiiiiiiiiiiSKifiiirii'i'niiWinrit iimri' -w Not For Everyone On Sliootouts And Hijacking Let's Preserve Old Indian Key In your June 28 editorial On Indian you quoted the Muse News (official publication of the Museum of Science) as describing the early historic setting of Indian Key It seems as though The editorial put much more emphasis on restoring the key the way it was trying to recapture part of South early history Whereas in Muse News they seem to like the other side of restoration mainly money Their way of restoring is to clear out a few acres of mangroves to build a highrise orientation center a marina and parking This kind of restoration leads to one thing pollution HARRY COE Phone Service Could Be Better When the only telephone service in town meet its charged-for obligations would it not behoove telephone subscribers to insist said telephone company assure that communication is maintained even if the Pony Express has to be re-created? SMITH pears to me your correspondent went out of his way to go to the biggest tourist traps which of course are going to be crowded How crowded is Musee Rodin or Ac-cademia? Did he go to either of these museums? glad not going back to Europe Europe made for people like him NORRA TANNENHAUS Spanish Settlers Weren't Mexicans Page 13C of the June 19 Herald had an interesting article on the restoration of Mission San Juan de As-palaga It mentioned British Col James Moore and Creek warriors destroying all of the 27 major Spanish missions from St Augustine to west of Tallahassee in the early 1700s State archaeologist Calvin Jones is quoted as saying: it been for Col Moore and his people we would very likely all have been eating tortillas and speaking a fate worse than death without a doubt! But pray tell how did tortillas a Mexican dish get into this picture? JACK KILDEA I feel compelled to reply to your correspondent who suggested that overseas travel be outlawed like to amend his suggestion to read that overseas travel should be outlawed for people like him My parents have been making annual trips to Europe for years now and they never fail to enjoy themselves They stay at first-class European hotels not places probably erected for the sole purpose of catering to group tours Comnlaints about the difficulty in obtaining reservations can be attributed to a lack of preparation or thoughtlessness in planning a trip during a peak tourist season Your correspondent complains about public restrooms European countries have a monopoly on pay toilets run into them at JFK International Airport and in dime stores on Miami Beach Avarice is an international characteristic As for crowded museums it ap- Did Democrals Stage The Raid? The silly and unsuccessful raid on the Democratic headquarters was just what the doctor ordered for a political party in deep trouble with fights between candidates a platform it will never agree on and a coming convention that will be hard pressed even to call itself to order Since the invaders were amateur- Sign Your Name" Letters to the Editor must bear the writers jwm and address The use' of htu tials or pen-names os eigno-tures will eliminate a letter from consideration for jni lication All letters ore subject to condensation by the editors "vis I BEHIND THE FRONT PAGE Fresh Water Crisis Lies Ahead By JOHN PENNEKAMP bodies as can influence them At stake are innocent lives the issue is simple brutal crime Cannot agreement to protect the one and stop the other overcome the artificial barriers of world politics? In this case the hijackers demanded $800000 ransom and wanted to be flown to Russia Would the Soviet Union which has been encouraged to join hands with the United States in seeking world peace give these criminals safe haven? We think not Rather than a shootout which sent bullets flying through the narrow confines of an airliner loaded with passengers why not deliver the criminals to Russia? Why cannot there be justice waiting for them wherever they go? The efforts to stop hijacking should be mounted in these directions we think rather than toward shotgun shoot-outs that can rob such law-abiding people as Stanley Carter of his life Dr Leoni VENEZUELANS elected Dr Raul Leoni their president in one of the most remarkable displays of democracy ever seen in this hemisphere A long campaign of terrorism preceded the December 1963 election The Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN) pledged to prevent the elections and threatened death to any who crossed them They had a plan of revolution ready Yet Venezuelans in overwhelming numbers simply ignored the FALN and stood in long lines before the polling places to choose Dr Leoni as their president A great deal was at stake for Venezuela in those days Dr Leoni was the first democratically elected president in decades to succeed another similarly elected It seemed to mark the end of old days of taking the palace by force and coup Dr Leoni preserved those tenuous institutions in his term and was able himself to hand the presidency over to a democratically elected successor Dr Rafael Caldera The death of Dr Leoni this week in New York brings to mind again the contributions he made both to his country and to the democratic ideal in this hemisphere As Venezuela approaches another round of elections the traditions Dr Leoni helped establish will be one of her major strengths STANLEY Carter was thinking of retiring to California so he and the wife boarded a plane to San Diego to look over the possibilities But he never arrived A bullet killed Mr Carter as two FBI agents stormed aboard with a shotgun The two hijackers died and two other passengers were wounded An airliner packed with passengers it seems to us is no place for a shootout The cost paid this time was too high and the potential exists for an even higher toll While we agree that hijacking must be stopped there must necessarily be a limit placed on methods Protection of innocent lives should have first priority The hijackers had guns Where were the screening devices to detect them? The government has behavioral and psychological profiles to screen out would-be 'hijackers before they board Where were they? Protection against hijackers' we think must come by screening them and disarming them before they board and by removing from the world any safe havens to which they can fly The screening and disarming should be immediately possible The elimination of safe havens is an obligation of chiefs of state and such international f-rTTWift pww vP'TliF1' WWmWfflF fWliats Good For Mitsubishi Is I JAPAN has gone into foreign aid in a major way and with the clear thought in mind that it is good for business For the current fiscal year Japan has put $213 billion into the budget for foreign aid That is a 39 per cent increase and compares with the $319 billion that Congress authorized for the United States last March Much of the Japanese aid goes in the form of credits loans and investments that generate trade and to develop agricultural and mineral resources which will be used by Japanese manufacturers When private investment totals are added the total flow of Japanese funds abroad reaches $2 billion or nearly one per cent of gross national product Latin America is one region already being touched by the Japanese economic force Japan imports more than a billion dollars worth of raw materials from Latin America and the region attracts 21 per cent of the Japanese private investment abroad Peru Argentina and Brazil are among the principal customers For the United States as well as Latin America the new competition for trade and the diversification it represents in terms of foreign political presence are a healthy development GROWING discussions about returning treated waste water to the Everglades to supplement the normal fresh water supply leave me uncomfortable It may be necessary say some of the experts as the population of Dade Broward and Palm Beach Counties continues to grow especially in times of drought The crisis period is expected sometime after 1976 Pennekamp ishly sloppy and practically begged to be caught and since the whole story had a ring of implausibility to it it seem too far off the mark to suggest the Democrats themselves might have arranged the incident knowing it would shift the deadly spotlight from their self-destructing party SAYWARD WING Jimmy The Greek's Odds Are Way Off Oddsmaker Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder picks President Nixon as 3-to-1 over Sen McGovern In the light of the results of recent Presidential preference primaries political insight and perspicacity leave much to be desired He had picked Sen Muskie to win the Democratic nomination by odds of 4-to-l Such prophetic wisdom does not warrant taking Mr Snyder toe seriously as far as political predictions are concerned Odds of 3-to-I against Sen McGovern are to say the least unrealistic JOHN KOSMETOS Good Thing Fidel Followed Nixons I read that Fidel Castro was to occupy the same guest quarters in Moscow that Mr and Mrs Nixon were put up in glad that the Nixons got there first Otherwise our First Lady might have found the place covered with chicken feathers LAWRENCE A SOPER Lantana taken together approximate twice the area of the lake) by evapo-trahspira-tion water withdrawn by avapera-tion and from plants One suggested partial remedy or this which has been occasionally tried is to store more water in shallow canals thus reducing the area exposed to the sun for evaporation JAN BROWNING environmental engineer for the Flood Control" 01- trict recently completed a study Yh depth of the proposed recycle end reuse of the waste Based on experiments with model it was deduced that 1329 cubic feet of water per second would be required to maintain sufficient water height in the ground to supply domestic and agricultural needs and prevent salt water encroachment of the aquifer It would require 85 million people to generate this amount of waste water (An acre foot covera one ter with one foot of water) THE POPULATION of all Florida in 1970 was 6789000 1 1 states the report! treated waste water from the entire state would not be enough water to entirely prevent salt water entrbSch-ment in South Dade County alone during drought conditions" Copies of 11-page report are available for educational purposes and interested organizations from The Editor In-Depth Report Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District PO Box -1671 West Palm Beach Fla 33401 pecially on its east side and needs to be preserved from threats of further salt water intrusion Some damage has been done over the past 70 years by the dredging of canals before the full effects were known Also there has been much pressure to extend canals to provide more waterfront property dig new ones and avoid dams in those already made Nearly forgotten is the fact that when the Miami River was deepened to its present 15-foot depth some 40 years ago officials decided that would mark the limit for all future times IN FACT before that deepening was done fresh-water wells lined the banks of the river at fairly regular intervals Soon thereafter the wells turned salty and where they continued in use had to be moved as much as a quarter mile from the river The experience revealed the existence of fissures through which the salt water could penetrate The digging as well as the movement of salt water through the canals made the damming of the river in the 36th Street area necessary and caused the westward movement of the fresh water-supplying wells which once had been on golf course at Miami Springs ENORMOUS quantities of fresh water are drawn from the River of Grass from Lake Okeechobee and from the Flood Control District's three conservation areas (which Biggest question in this problem as with others involving ecology pollution and the conservation of natural resources is how soon can the experts come to agreement and remedies be applied AS IS fairly generally known most of the fresh water supply of the three counties comes from the Bis-cayne aquifer underlying the River of Grass which is the slow drift of rain water generally south and south-westward into Florida Bay and the rivers emptying into it and the Gulf On the way much of the water sinks into the underlying aquifer from which it is drawn by wells to provide the fresh water we use The aquifer has been self-recharging but droughts like that of early 1971 sent up danger signals The aquifer itself is fragile es.