Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 13

Women in Drive to End Secrecy and Stigma on Rape By STEPHEN FRANKLIN THE PLIGHT OF RAPE victims in the Pittsburgh area has almost become a full-time preoccupation for Miss Feeney and several others who have formed the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape One of the group's most difficult jobs, its founders say, is to break down the myths. If women no longer believe that bad girls get raped and that the victim shares the guilt of her attacker, the number of reported rapes, already rising sharply, would soar, PAAR members say. In fact, law enforcement experts say rape is the most under-reported major crime of violence. Last year Pittsburgh police recorded 298 rapes or attempted rapes. But police say there are about four unreported rapes for each reported case.

For the first six months of this year, there already have been 156 rapes reported, a 13 per cent increase over the same time period last year, police said. FROM THEIR CONTACTS with area hospitals, PAAR members contend there were at least 350 rapes in the Pittsburgh area last year. To examine the situation here, Miss Feeney talked with rape victims, their friends, doctors, lawyers and policemen. "I guess I didn't talk to a group of five women where at least one woman didn't know of someone who was raped," she says. She also interviewed women waiting in court for the trials of their attackers.

Lawyers told her "Honey, don't get mixed up in something like this. Most of these women who report rapes are crazy." With the backing of medical and social work professionals, PARR hopes to open a rape counseling center similar to ones in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Roanoke and on the University of Maryiand campus. "Some women don know about morning-after pills or what to do in court," 'Miss Feeney says. "They don't know they have the right to their own counsel if they feel the district attorney hasn't done enough." "Once a victim drops out of the police report stage, she has dropped out of the system," Lee Schultz, a PAAR adviser, says. "Nobody gives a damn or provides follow-up care for her." The follow-up is indeed important to the rape victim.

MANY RAPE VICTIMS suffer a disabling emotional shock that lasts for several days after the rape. Schultz, a professor of social work at West Virginia University, says. Some women become frigid and encounter serious marital problems. And others, Schultz says, never tell anyone about the rape. Unfortunately, he says, the rape victim's family and friends often do not know how, to counsel them.

Thus, PAAR's leaders say they need a full-time staff to provide counseling, a 24-hour hotline service and overnight care of rape victims. During hearings of the Governor's Justice Commission here recently, the' group sought financial support for such a center. In its 1974 comprehensive plan, the commission has set asid some funds for a rape counseling UNTIL A FULL-TIME center is -set up, however, PAAR plans to open a volunteer-staffed office in the complex, of buildings bought by the University of Pittsburgh to build its law school. For all their anger over society's lack; of honesty and concern, PAAR members: themselves are reluctant to admit whether they, too, have been victims of rape. "A lot of women just want to forget it, but that's why polite pick up men with 20 or 30 attacks charged against them," a PAAR member says.

"They were unwilling to come forward until someone else did. "I really wonder if you can forget it?" asks another young woman. Post-Gazelte Staff Writer Only bad girls become victims so good girls don't have to worry about rape, right? Wrong. But that statement, still repeated with alarming frequency, is one of the main myths about rape. Another myth, equally as incorrect, is that most rape victims can't complain because they are partly guilty them-selves-because they hitch-hiked, walked down a dark alley or opened a front door to a stranger.

The very mention of these misstatements about female rape victims angers Anne Feeney, a University of Pittsburgh coed who says these myths have been accepted for too long by too much of society. They have persisted, she believes, because society in general is insensitive to the trauma and despair of the rape victim. SECOND SECTION MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 1, 1973 Pa. Temperatures to Affect Supply Cold Winter to Spur Shortage Of Heating Oil, Exec Warns to the continental United States has contributed to the pressure on national policy. Oil production and the environment can be safeguarded without radical action for either, Zinkand said.

The oil shortage has been caused, in part, by increased industrial demand for oil as a cleaner burning fuel, he said. 4, i rag' yt By JAMES N. CRUTCHFIELD Post-Gazettt Staff Writer An average winter will leave Penn-. sylvania 10 per cent short of home heating oil, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association said here yestermy. "If it's 20 per cent colder, we're in trouble," said the director, John Zin-kand, in an interview during the first day of the association's four-day convention in thi Hilton Hotel, Downtown.

In Western Pennsylvania, the shortage would be felt mostly in suburban and rural areas, Zinkand said. Most Pittsburgh residents use natural gas heating, he noted. SOME 35 PER CENT of the homes In Pennsylvania about 1.3 million of them are heated by oil, Zinkand said. Supplies to retailers of home heating oil are being limited to amounts they bought last winter when temperatures were 10 per cent warmer than normal, he said. If the winter's temperatures drop below last season's, the oil sellers will not be able to meet rising demands, according to Zinkand.

ZINKAND WAS evasive about the Saudi Arabian threat to withhold oil from the United States to force Israeli concessions in the Middle East cold war. "We haven't developed a policy on it," he said, noting that the 650 home heating oil and wholesale gasoline distributors in the association have varying backgrounds. "What we are is pro-oil," he said, Zinkand, who said a cutoff of Arabian oil would be a bad setback for this Manpower Study Gets $100,000 The U.S. Labor Department will to the Allegheny County commissioners next month to develop a master plan for co-ordinating and merging all manpower services in the county. The Manpower Administration jn Washington, D.

said the one-time grant will provide for personnel to develop a comprehensive plan for controlling and integrating all future, manpower services in the county. The; master plan is expected to be completed late next summer. Among manpower services in" Alle- gheny County are the Public Employment Program, a $1 million program providing full and part-time public service jobs for some 965 unemployed persons; the Neighborhood Youth Corps, a $330,000 program helping prepare some 225 youths for employment through training and education; and the Concentrated Employment Program, a $1 million project awarded earlier this month for helping some 900 persons living in high unemployment areas prepare for and obtain jobs. Post-Gozette Photo Information Center attendant, Doris Davis, left, explains highlights of Pittsburgh to Giidrum Rebolzke. INFORMATION BOOTHS SCARCE Pity the Poor Stranger in Our City If yU' think Manor House is just Ethan Allen Early American, you hav en't seen us lately.

JOHN ZINKAND For oil, not politics. energy-short nation, did say the association would not like to see a national policy discouraging the flow of foreign oil into the United States. HE INDICATED delay in the construction of an oil pipeline from Alaska just the you the .1.1.. siyics Allen mi nu To mar-e your also introduce Center. Here of fabrics and stery, carpeting lows and right finishinq So, pay Visitors to the area entering at Greater Pittsburgh Airport will encounter no information service at all.

Nor arc there any booths at any of the city's other gateways. Even without a noticeable sign, the Gateway Center pod is the city's only tourist-information office. John Besanceney, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, says more information centers are definitely needed throughout the city. And, he says, the new tourist information center will get a sign soon. "At the moment there is a request on record for a space at the airport to set up an information center similar to the one downtown," he says.

Besanceney says the airport has been undergoing expansion and improvements, and the officials just haven't gotten around to answering the request to erect a visitor information center. By OSKER SPICER P08t Gozett Stoff Writer Doris Davis, the attendant at the Visitor Information Center in Gateway Center, smiles vibrantly as she explains yet another pamphlet on Pittsburgh to a iyhewcomer to the city. "This booklet will fill you in on many of the points of interest around Pitts-. burgh," she says. And indeed it will, If the newcomer or tourist can locate Doris Davis with her smile an her handful of brochures.

Althobgo perhaps the most futuristic structure in the city, the center has ro clearly visible sign to tell strangers they can get some friendly assistance inside. However, there's always a chance that a tourist will find his way to the center, and more than a few visitors have teen picking up sports schedules and other brochures, the center's attendant decorating even simpler, we'll you to the Home Fashion you can select from hundreds swatches of drapery, uphol- and rugs plus dozens of pil-. bedspreads. They'll add just the touches. us a visit soon and let us show; Today, we have a huge variety of styles and periods each made with the so me quality and craftsmanship for which our Early American is famous.

You can see each piece in any one of literally dozens of fully decorated rooms each with its own mood and feeling. And, there are decorating experts here to take you through all this vari MONEY 'WON'T BE MISUSED' County GOP Letter Solicits Funds TJie Republican Finance Committee of Allegheny County has expressed itscon- cern "about the abuse and misuse of contributions" in the 1972 national election campaign but has asked local contributors to nevertheless support local slates this fall. A most unusual letter of solicitation has been distributed to "Dear Republican Friends" and is signed by Frank Armour chairman of the finance committee; Robert J. Dodds treasurer, and Robert P. Fohl.

chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Executive Committee. It reads, in part: "Are you griped about the Watergate "As a matter of fact," he says, "it wasn't until early this month that we finally got the poly-pod shaped information center." Miss Davis says the eye-catching design of the three gold poly-pods housing the facility has lured many visitors into it. Besanceney says that the problem with expanding the city's visitor information capability is mostly financial. He believes more money and attention should be given to both convention and visitor commerce. "There is a lot of extra money coming to any city that can bring in outsiders, who will be spending large sums.

However, so far, a number of our governmental leaders haven't been sold on that idea," he says. "Until we can change that, we'll just have to do what we can, with what we have." uort "VV ran't It's too imDortant the work of government goes on and the activities of political parties go on, Watergate notwithstanding." THE LETTER expressed particular concern about the election of Republican judicial candidates in the 6 voting and reminded contributors that "we must gird for the all-important goal of ousting Milton Shapp as governor "Your basic interest in and support for the GOP should not be negated entirely because of Watergate," the letter said. "Repugnant as that business was, the clear fact remains that no one here in Allegheny County, or in the Republican organizational structure elsewhere, had any involvement whatever. "It is simply a matter of directing your financial assistance to where it won't be misused, where it will be spent for the purposes intended." MONEY IS NEEDED now, the letter goes on, to conduct registration drives, man the polls on election day, hold political meetings, rallies, train party workers and enable the candidates to meet the public; to establish campaign headquarters, print campaign material, pay for advertising and mailings and maintain a modest year-round headquarters. The Armour-Dodds-Fohl letter contained what amounted to a pledge: "We DON'T engage in any illegal activities; we DON'T carry thousands of dollars around in briefcases using code words and fictitious names; we DON'T concoct exotic schemes from a James Bond script.

So don't confuse us with the people involved in Watergate. We need your help, now more than ever." Contract Extended, Home Talks Resume Members of Local 636 of the Teamsters Union will resume negotiations today with Joseph Home Co. officials after the union members, all warehouse employes of the department slore. agreed to a one-week extension in an effort to get a contract agreement wide, wide range of i ik4- cun unu letiuiyi imui iiicuii luiuh today. At The Manor House We can help you have the home you While Here.

Ask or your Free Cop of the 388 Page Ethan Allen Decorating Treasury. ety and help you create mood and feeling you want. MumMinne(2liIi) Gasoline Supply Reduced Foerster Orders Cut In County Vehicle Use mess? About the careless handling and expenditure of campaign funds in Washington? About the abuse and misuse of contributions, maybe including your own, carried on by some campaign officials in Washington last year? "And, have you resolved not to contribute to such an effort again until your confidence in those matters is restored? Well, if so, we agree with you, partially. We're concerned and upset about the Watergate goings-on; the truth Is, we're griped, too, probably more than you are. "But we haven't turned off the whole realm of government and politics because of Watergate," the letter contin- He said the county will be spending $25,000 more for the 260,000 gallon supply this year than would have been paid for the same amount last year with regular gas up nine cents a gallon and premium gas up seven cents per gallon.

"Although the national gasoline shortage peaked for most motorists this summer," the Democratic commissioner said, "it will continue to plague the county into 1974." Last week the federal Cost of Living Council approved industry requests for a two-cent-a-gallon increase which is set to take effect sometime this week. Besides limiting the use of cars and trucks, Foerster said checks will be made to insure that all county vehicles are being strictly used for county business. He also recommended a series of driving tips be issued for county drivers with warnings against "jackrabbit starts," gunning of engines, poorly inflated tires and stopand-go traffic and suggesting that drivers stay five to ten miles below posted speed limits. By GEOFFREY TOMB Post-Gazettt Stofl Writer Allegheny County will be forced to operate with 100,000 fewer gallons of gasoline than normal during the next six months, and Commissioner Thomas J. Foerster has ordered a cutback in the use of all county vehicles.

Foerster is issuing directives today to county department heads advising them to greatly reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled by county personnel, to limit speeds to 50-miles-per-hour and to tune vehicles. The move Is prompted by the county's inability Jo obtain a sufficient supply of gasoline over the next half-year. Bids were sought last month for a six-months supply but only one firm Exxon submitted a bid. the normal use is approximately 360,000 gallons but Exxon would only agree to supply according to Foerster, who says the catnty's shortage has only just begun. On top of the 100,000 gallon shortage, Foerster noted that the price of gasoline has increased dramatically.

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