The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 16

A16 The News Tribune Sun June 12 1988 SKC Kids get word: UN wants peace but quiet! space is a place begin with the children from more than 50 nations who filled the lobby of the United Nations on Friday with songs of peace UN delegates in the General Assembly heard them fc and sent a But before the meeting they sang peace songs and whooped and clapped in a happy outburst that was heard in the General main hall a few yards away from the lobby have a complaint from the General said Johan Nordenfelt from the department of disarmament affairs glancing at a slip of paper hear your shouting very well Very good Yon are the voice of the future But please shout" message: Quiet down please discuss Day lights ing disarma industrial drawing boards Tinkertoys were introduced at the 1913 American Toy Fair by inventor Charles Pajeau of Evanston I1L but it was a year before they caught on In a 1914 publicity stunt so successful it halted traffic while motorists gawked Pajeau hired midgets to dress up like elves and (day with Tinkertoys in a window of New York Grand Central Station according to A Toy ft Bon by Marvin Kaye Since then more than 100 million Tinkertoy sets have found their way to the young and young-at-heart Finally ninth-grader Michael Duff caught grief from his grandmother for spray-painting graffiti on a wall but the president loved the work and commissioned the younpter to do a mural Michael 14 said he and friend Travell Brown 15 designed the painting and sneaked out to the Metrolina Courier Inc building in Gastonia NC early Monday Michael spent two hours squirting the blue spray paint The next night he did the same thing Michael covered 40 feet of a concrete-block wall with words buildings clouds an angry face and lots of star bursts Company President Joseph Greene loved It In the Charlotte Observer he and partner Harrill Jones of- iered to pay the artist to design and paint a mural Michael read the article and called Greene on Friday Michael and Travell agreed to draw up plans for the wall over the weekend They discuss with Greene how much the Job was worth But grandmother Pearl Brown said Friday she happy and punished Michael by giving him a dusk curfew is wrong" she said Compiled from News Tribune news services1 by Cliff Rowe ment Laughter rippled through the crowd of some 100 youngsters after a UN official asked for more restraint in calling for world peace A 6-year-old organization called Kids Meeting Kids Can Make a organised what it called a summit" The week-long gathering coincides with the 159-member General special session on disarmament So much for voices of the future unless kids of all ages want to raise them in singing to an old friend the Tinkertoy a simple toy conceived when a stonemason watched a group of children playing with sticks pencils and empty thread spools But since their introduction 75 years ago today Tinkertoyi have found their way into millions of toyboxes chemistry labs and even Ownership Continued from A1 36558 Jobs in 1986 according to UK comment department statistics In contrast Boeing alone employs about 90000 people in the Puget Sound area Statistics show that foreign invators have acquired only a small share of wide open spaca the millions of acres of forests and farms that comprise a significant chunk of the privately owned land The farm and timber lands remain overwhelmingly in UK hands By the end of 1987 foreign interests owned nearly 443000 acres of forest and farmland in Washington according to the UK Department of Agriculture That wu more than four tima what foreigners owned in 1979 but still less than 2 percent of the total privately owned forest and farmland in Washington Most foreign ownership in that category consists of timber land not agricultural property such as dairy or wheat farms Size and circumstanca have made one heavily forested county in Washington stick out because of its level of foreign ownership At the mouth of the Columbia River nearly half of Wahkiakum 167000 acres are owned by Cavenham Foot Industries which is controlled by British corporate raider Sir Jama Goldsmith and a group of Anglo-French investors In another large property acquisition that could have important consequenca fa the economy of north-central Washington West German billionaire Ervian Haub has purchased 1900 acres near Wlnthrop for $32 mil-lira The purchase included the Sun Mountain ski resort The new owners have proposed about $15 million in improvements at the resort over the next five yean Employment could Increase to about 150 people double the current employment said Mike Derrlg regional vice president of Village Resorts Inc which operata theproperty Haub whose family became wealthy in the Europan grocery business also ha acquired the AAP grocery chain in the United States well as the Greyhound Bus Depot in downtown Tacoma The property figures prominently in a city redevelopment proposal although no specific plan have been announced Haub who keeps a low profile in the Northwest reportedly became interested in Tacoma and Wlnthrop during years of vacationing in Washington with his family- interest in Washington by foreign invators Is hardly a new phenomenon Aerospace agriculture fishing and other industria have been attracting foreigners to these shores for a long time goa back to the turn of the said John Anderson state department of trade director economy has grown with a substantial assist from foreign business participation and investment maka us different from most UK states This is not a new or recent phenomenon fra While they were coining to Washington to do business sane foreign interests were scouting out area for future investment John Kemple a broker for William A Bain a Bellevue real estate firm still remembers an incident about five years ago when he wu showing a Japanese fish-company representative sane Tacoma industrial property Kemple got lost It took his Japanese client to explain the street system to him do you know the area so Kemple remembers asking It turned out that on the trips to the United Stata to buy and sell fish he frequently rented cars and drove around "ThatL knew Sat On the real estate front the Japanese traditionally have been conservative buying major propertla in key UK citia such New Yak La Angeles and San Francisco A December story in Fortune magazine said that in New York alone Japanese invators had paid premium prica for the buildings that house Exxon Citicorp American Broadcasting Corp and Tiffany A Co among others An April report by Kenneth Leventhal Co a national accounting firm based in La Angeles said Japanese investors had poured Marly $128 billion into UK real estate in 1987 a 70 percent increase over the year before The firm also reported a continuing shift by Japanese investors into secondary UK citia places such Seattle Phoenix Dallas Chicago and Miami Next Should we fear foreign ownership? with foreign money employ thousands of Washington residents and turn out everything from VCRs and computer chips to newsprint and starch used in animal feed In March at least 23 foreign-owned firms in Pierce County reported employing 1495 people or less than 1 percent of the wok force according to a survey by the state Department of Trade and Economic Development In King County 257 firms employed 11697 The weak dollar America's huge foreign debt and some less-than-favorable repots about large Japanese investments in Hawaii have caused fears that foreigners are in a position to snatch up the nation's prime land buildings and factories like chipped dishes at a garage sale Not everyone is worried Some think foreign investment in the United States is only the flip side of decades of American investment in other countries For years the term was virtually synonymous with large UK firms Countries such as Canada have economies that have thrived on foreign capital from the United States Bong Kong and other nations to what we used to own of foreign countries foreigners still own a relatively small portion of the VS" said Tom Roehl assistant professor of international business at the University of Washington For better or for worse foreign investment in Washington represents only a tiny put of the international flow of money and products that comprises the world economy After earlier Jobs in Saigon and Hong Kong the 49-year-old Arima is 1 years into a third overseas assignment that could last five to 10 years Once or twice a year he and his family return to Japan for a visit Although Arima said he likes Seattle as a place to rear a family he chafes at the relative lack of business opportunities Seattle remains a long way from Tokyo or New York as a center for international business and investment Arima said frustrated because business is he said Despite its strategic location on the bustling Pacific Rim foreign investment in Washington still lags behind national averages even though it has steadily been gaining ground in the last decade a new report by the department of trade reveals According to the report: Between 1977 and 1985 the value of foreign investment nationwide grew at an inflation-adjusted average annual rate of 133 percent In Washington it was rising 157 percent During the same period employment by firms linked to foreign investment grew 115 percent a year nationwide but in Washington it was rising 149 percent The value of foreign-owned property in Washington was 337 billion in 1985 more than three times the inflation-adjusted figure for 1977 Although Canadian British Dutch and other firms continue to be important investors in the state Japanese have been making the biggest splash many sources say Itofa is one Japanese company that has decided to risk some of its money in the Seattle-area real estate market The firm has financed and acquired a minority share in two Seattle office buildings the First Stewart Building and the 44-story Pacific First Center now under construction as well as in a major Bellevue office and hotel project I Seattle office manages the $150-million-a-year forest-products and fish-export business while providing support for another company real estate investments in the area The high-flying yen has helped Japanese construction companies Join Itoh in the Northwest Their names Hazama-Gumi Kumagat Gumi Itoh Gumi and Koooike may sound unfamiliar to many in Washington but important players in the Japanese development business In Tacoma a group of Japanese banks financed the 1987 sale of a downtown Tacoma high-rise the Financial Center Patar HatayTtw The construction workers at Pacific First Center are home-grown but the financing to build the center comes from abroad The Japanese firm Itoh owns a share of the 44-story building at Fifth and Pike streets In Seattle Other foreign investments involve Industry and may have a far greater impact on the state economy and employment In February Diashowa America the UK subsidiary of a major Japanese pulp and paper company with longstanding ties to Washington completed a $75 mil-lira purchase of the James River paper mill in Port Angeles The mill which before James River was owned by Crown Zellerbach will continue manufacturing telephone-directory newsprint and other paper products for the United States market and eventually for Japan Because of its age the mill and its 325 workers faced an uncertain future The future became much brighter when Diashowa announced it was studying a $560 million plant expansion that would take place over the next five years the bat of our understanding the largest purely private investment in the history Anderson said The department of trade report by economist Dan Inveen concludes that recent Japanese investments probably have employed more Washington residents than similar invatments by other foreign countries But figures from the UK Department of Commerce show that in 1986 a much closer neighbor Canada was for ahead as the leading foreign employer of Washington workers Canada was followed by Britain Japan and the Netherlands The year before Britain had led the employment list Inveen said the UK acquisition of the British-controlled Frederick A Nelson department store chain and the Canadian Campeau purchase of Allied Stores which owned The Bon Marche stores and Tacoma MaU probably helped turn the figures around Although foreign investment in the United Stata has become a hot topic from Capitol Hill to the corner tavern the overall picture requires some perspective Foreigners still are a long way from signing the pay-checks for a majority of Washington workers Statewide foreign-owned firms generated about Motel Continued from A1 with people with no assets The BIA citing exemption in the FOI law refused to release information about the tribe's financial nmuWfawi when it agreed to lend the tribe $1054000 Bra Brown the acting regional director in Portland said he could not comment because he did not know enough about the loan Another BIA official who asked not to be Montiwu said the BIA changed the mortgage to help the tribe keep its credit good wu a method of helping them over a rough the official uld used in a power play by unscrupulous negotiators at a key Juncture of the settlement Tacoma Mayor Doug Sutherland a member of the non-Indian negotiations team said there wu no conspiracy involving the newspaper Sterud claimed the loan issue hu not been finally resolved by the tribe or BIA "The tribe believa the BIA hu some financial responsibility well federal trust responsibility to consider a realistic restructuring proposal because loan funds were not allocated contingent on other federal grant monia necessary for the full hotel project development consequently the tribe wu left owning and operating a 33-room motel attempting to service a $154 (sic) million Sterud's statement said Another tribal document obtained under the FOI law from the BIA provida more details about why the tribe believa the BIA is responsible fa the plight -The document claimed a person working with the tribe on the 1984 hotel project wu related to a forma high official in the BIA The high BIA official hand-carried loan applications through all levels of the BIA openly stating he would use his connections to rapidly push through approval of all loan the tribal memo complained because of this the fedaal trust responsibility to the Puyallup Tribe wu totally ignored and a bad incomplete project wu financed Jeopardizing the financial stability of the entire tribal it uid The forma BIA official could not be reached fa comment Sterud in his written statement said the motel purchase exemplified the commitment to address the economic state of tribal membership" any other segment of the private sector wHt Investments enjoy great succea and profitabllty and sane do not" Sterud wrote the tribe is proud and determined to continue the pursuit of economic growth and an improved quality of life fa its members through economic development projects" tion provides: The tribe only is required to use funds from a possible land claims settlement to repay the $694000 If no settlement taka place by 1993 the BIA agreed to cancel the $694000 debt The membership is scheduled to vote in July on a settlement offer that would provide more than $111 million in cash land and other benefits to the tribe Most of the money would come from local state and federal governments If the BIA were to cancel the debt in 1993 the Ion would have to be absorbed solely by federal taxpayers Carl Shaw a spokesman for Swimmer aid the BIA wu prepared to forgive the loan in 1993 because the tribe had no assets to go after He said forgiving large loan wu a common business practice when dealing Tribal Chairman BUI Sterud attacked The Mon News Tribune for raising questions about the loan payment "It is unfortunate the TNT hu chosen this crit time in our land-claim negotiations to stoop so low a go search for Sterud said in a written stateme research and legal effort wu used by 77VT to gather information and paint a gloomy or five picture of the tribe No doubt the papa is Doctors Continued from A1 measure the effectiveness of individual practitioners I think that the state of the art is there to do One result of the study would be research" Ropa said be studying how to make doctors more effective and which procedures work and which he uld Another result Ropa uid would be establishing preferred provida organizations of physicians who practice quality medicine who will have patients steered to Such he uid will be by the use of economic incentives in which Medicare patients would pay leu fa care by physicians The Incentiva would be similar to the economic in-centiva that some insurance compania offer patients who select certain groups of physicians While the government would pay to encourage Medicare patients to switch to doctors hulth officials predict that the government ultimately would uve money because the overall cost of health care would decline patients received higher quality care The study will be similar to data on mortality rata of nearly 6000 hospitals published in each of the last two years and a forthcoming study on the quality of care in 15000 nursing homes The hospital studia were conducted to provide the public with information regarding the quality of care and to enable patients to make better-informed decisions on where to obtain health care When the hospital studia were released they stirred considerable debate in the health-care field ova whether results fairly compared individual hospitals The studies which compared hospitals according to mortality rates have been criticized by some hospital officials who uid the studia failed to take into swmnt factors such the numba of high-risk patients treated or the numba of trauma a emergency casa served at a given hospital of the Fedaation of American Health Care Systems which includa private health maintenance organizations and private hospitals supportive of Dr desire to increase the disclosure of data that will tell which medical procedures are effective and which I would be careful about using limited data to.