Northwest Arkansas Times from Fayetteville, Arkansas • Page 4

Editorial-Opinion Public Interest It Tto First Concern O) This Newspaper 4A SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1974 One Way To Be Sure Of A 'Fair Press American. Education Week National opinion polls for more than now have reflected a decreasing respect major American institutions all the way froTM education to the coincidence, American Education Week (Oct. 27-. Nby. 2) comes up this, the week preceding ari extremely important off-presidential year general election.

coincidence between Education Week and the elections is contained in the Education Week slogan: "Stay Involved." Intakes a certain involvement an awareness, if you will for public sentiment to reflect as substantial a dissatisfaction with its institutions (including the press, we must note) as the polls suggest. It also takes an educational effort, in almost every instance, to achieve a substantive refurbishment. It is in the interests of the individual as-well as his community that eligible residents maintain proper voter registration, and that registered voters avail themselves of sufficient information.to cast informed votes "stay involved," in other words. It is appropriate to American Education Week, we believe, to borrow from the educational issue as it applies to next week's Third District congressional race. 'Today, public schools in all parts of country, including Northwest Arkansas, are-in serious financial trouble.

The schools are caught in a squeeze between demands fir more services and higher teachers' salaries on the one hand, and overburdened taxpayers and inflationary pressures on the other. It is no secret that educational excellence requires adequate financial resources. In school year 1972-73 Arkansas ranked dead last among the 50 states in average expenditure, per pupil and 49th in average teachers' salaries. The state is making strides in tax equalization and general revenue outlays, but Arkansas is among those states with inadequate local resources to keep up wilh national educational expenditure averages. In this context it is "educationally" significant, we note that while Democrat nominee for Congress, Bill Clinton of Fayetteville (a school teacher), supports broad federal aid for education, in the belief that a well-educated citizenry is an economic as well as a political plus, the incumbent, Rep.

John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison, has a long record of opposition to education legislation. A sample of Mr. Hammerschmidt's voting record tells the story: he has voted against establishment of a national educational research and development agency; has voted to cut the Elementary and Secondary Education Act from five to two years; has voted in opposition to increased funds for the U.S. Office of Education; has voted to reduce funding for public television; has voted to reduce funding for the National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities (an area where the U.S. is already at the bottom of the list among the major industrialized rations of the world); and has failed show up for four important school lunch program votes (which is noteworthy mainly because the Harrison congressman sets great pride in being the Arkansas delegation's most diligent voter).

Education is, and will continue to be, a pressing problem for Arkansas in the light of every applicable economic index. It is essential, therefore, that our state representatives bend over in the direction of its support, rather than away from it. From The Readers Viewpoint Right Side Tf the Editor: iWe here in the Little Rock ar)ea -are also voting for a representative to to Congress, and I know the affect all Afka'ns'ans. I. i.That is why I hopj, you people fn the Northwestern- part of Arkansas will thtnk of all -Arkansans when you elect your representative to the 3rd Congressional District.

It would be a shame if Arkansas loses John Paul Hammerschmidt; it also -would a loss to our country. I. think he is a good conserva- tive who seems-to re present "the Southern point of We read quite a lot about him in Little Rock papers, so think he is doing a good job in Congress. Now, more than ever, we need Congressmen who are not liberal spenders, and will control deficit spending. I always hoped that Mr.

Hammerschmidt might someday be. a Senator form Arkansas, as he seems to be more like our Senator McClellan. Bill Clinton is young and has time to run for State or local offices. I've: heard Mr, Hammerschmidt doesn't speak up much in his own behalf; so wanted to speak for him. Mrs.

Frances Patton Bad Sign If rom Our Files; How Time 10 YEARS AGO Abe Feder, lighting expert and director of lighting for several shows, will speak Thursday to architecture students at the University. Twenty -men have been from the University to sing in the chorus of priests 50 VEARS AGO his charge to the Grand Judge A. Dickson described the statutes on cases on the court docket this term and the. penalties provided for offenses. He also recounted the method ot procedure for members who had not served on the jury before.

Another exceptional rifle 100 YEARS AGO They have a three-cornered i i the Third-District, for congressman, and it is red-hot and still- heating. The contest is between W.J. Hynes, W. W. Wilshire and Gen.

Hugh in the Tulsa Opera, production of "Aida." About 500 theater producers and directors will be in Fayetteville this weekend to attend the annual Southwest Theater Conference. team Is slated to represent the University this year. Jack Greathouse. the coach declared after watching 50 candidates try out. "It is as impossible to inherit, or steal an education as it is to fly to the moon," Dr.

Droke told University freshmen today. Have you heard the good news from all quarters? Arkansas is free. Her people -reconstructed her themselves in the election. To the Editor: Recently, within the space of a walk of one block on Dickson Street, I was approached by high-school-age kids asking for "spare change." This phenomenon--panhandling by kids--has become quite widespread. It is such an overwhelmingly saddening thing to see a young boy, appearing quite fit to work a part-time job if he so desired, lolling around on store-front stoops, begging for pennies; one can only wander how such a kid's self-esteem was caused to vanish.

How is it that he doesn't have 'at least that much self- respect where he would be proud to earn some money on his o.wn two feet? There have been many, many i things which have originated or been more fully developed by this current yvning generation: a greater racial harmony, non-discrimination against gays, less sexual hang- ups, more concern with our environment, etc. But this pro- pensitv displayed by Ihe kids on Dickson Street--to chuck one's sense of self worth is certainly one the lousiest things that I have seen develop. Bing Cunningham Fayetteville Foot Press they'll Do It Every Time By JACK ANDERSON E. G. "But!" Sinister.

the enthusiastic president 'of 1 the Representatives' freshman Republican class, tried to slide a newspaper's disclosure of his slock finagling by buying out. the newspaper. Before coining to Capitol Hill, the young congressman was a high-powered business executive. He parlayed a small data equipment firm into a valuable property, then got out of it wilh a reported i some $1.8 million. Along wilh the money, Shuslci- got a pack, of legal troubles, including a multimillion-dollar suit alleging he helped perpetrate a stock fraud--a charge he denies.

Feeling the congressman's constituents had a right to know about his financial dealings, the highly regarded and conservative Bedford (Pa.) Gazette 'carried an exhaustive series. Written by editor Ned Frear, the articles gave ample space to Shuster's side of the court To the credit of co- piiblisher John Biddle, a Sinister campaign supporter and personal friend, Frear was not hampered in his pursuit of the facts. But Biddle's understanding of the Constitution's free speech guarantees was apparently not shared by his friend Shuster. The congressman took Biddle aside one day and 20 minutes chatted about his interest in keeping his business skills sharp. Then, he came to the point.

He wanted to buy out Biddle's half of the" Bedford Gazette, an almost certain way ot ending The Washington Merry-Go-Round To the Editor: Your Saturday, October 19, editorial made reference to use -of the -30'D HP automobile arid, the electric can opener. I can partially agree with you on the automobile, but the statement about the electric can opener is just too much. Now I detest tuna fish so 1 don't have a can of tuna fish handy, but I did have a can of soup which ap- proximalos the circumference of the tuna fish can. It took five seconds to open soup can. Running continously you could open twelve cans of tuna iish a minute or seven hundred cans an hour.

To consume one KWH of electricity my can opener must run continously ten hours or seven thousand two hundred cans of tuna fish, or in my case soup. In either case this is not the answer to our electrical demand. In the early 1900's my grandfather printed the Saint Paul Mountain Air on an old foot powered Washington press. Have -you considered this an alternate energy source for the Times? Earl Shinn Jr. (Mgr.

Huntsville Office. Carroll County Co-op) Huntsvilte Two Views Question 5. Will you support legislation requiring absolutely open meetings and open decision-making in the Executive Branch and in the regUT latory agencies as well as open i Congressional committees?" What is your position with respect lo 2fiO HR 10,001) bills now pending before the Government Operations Committees? Mr. Clinton: "I favor 'sunshine' legislation stories about Shuster. Biddle listened to Sinister, hut made no commitment to the congressman.

Meanwhile, (he Gazette is still doing its job of informing Shuster's constituents about his.financial hijinks. When we reached Sinister, he i 'claimed he a "astounded" al our report that he had attempted to buy off his gadfly. Then lie confirmed that he had "preliminary" conversations with Biddle for purchasing an interest in the paper. It was "ridiculous," he told us, to think his inquiries had anything to do with the Gazette's series. The case itself, Shuster said, has now been settled and 1 "not a penny" of his own money would be paid out lor the set llement.

Footnote: Shuster has established an enviable record in Congress for almost never missing a roll call. Apparently he demands the same kind of attendance from his staffers because he summarily fired a top aide, Kay Smith, when she had to serve on the Watergate grant! jury. Shuster insists it was merely a staff "re- slrucluring." REVERSE DISCRIMINATION: For a we have been writing blacks. Here is a reverse story about discrimination against whites. It happened in the General Services Administration, whose civil rights director is an articulate black ex-army officer named Edward Mitchell.

He has unceremoniously dumped i white deputy, John Brosnahan. Shoved down lo a lesser job was Brosnahan while assistant Dolores Symons. Milchell charged Brosimlum with insubordination and failure to obey orders. In response, Brosnahan and Symons alleged that their black boss repeatedly promoted less qualified blacks over whiles. Yet Brosnahan had a 15-year record of commendations, many in defense of blacks.

A General Accounting Office report, meanwhile, charged that the GSA had one of the government's least effective civil rights programs. GSA'a vital civil rights watchdogging on government contract work has been further hampered by the firing of Brosnahan. Footnote: Milchell lold my associate Les Wliitlcn that he had tried lo promote Brosnahnn and had "met with gross insubordination." A reduction in force, not reprisal, caused him to give Ms. Symons a new job, he said. As for the criticism of his office, Mitchell said, with military pride, that it was unfair.

"All charges have been answered," he said firmly. to advance Ihe date of the luition benefits to August 1. If Ihe House had gone along, Thunnond's maneuver to hellp Clemson student-veterans would have (he taxpayers $-10 million. A spokesman for the senator said Thurmond was looking out for Ihe 'Interest of all Marlow Cook, luis been howling about our recent reports on his high living. He was quoted in as complaining, "Jack Anderson has got to be the most malicious man that ever walked this earth." During a previous encounter with my former associate, Brit Hume, according lo Hume's book, "Inside Story." Cook told him: "This country' needs someone like Jack Anderson around.

He does a lot to keep people honest" Chairman Lester Wolff, one of the House international narcotics subcommittee members, has turned up evidence that U.S. pharmaceutical firms are licensing dubious foreign companie5 to make pep pills and other drugs. Wolff has found some of the drugs then find their way to smugglers who hustle them into the U.S. Hearings are planned IMs tall. WASHINGTON I Li Sprightly old Sen.

Strom Thurmond, lunched a few weeks ago with a veterans leader who mentioned that some universities would open before new tuition benefits became effective on September 1. Thunnond's maneuver to help find out when South Carolina's institutions opened and learned that Clemson 'would begin classes on August 21. Thurmond immediately put up a clamor 'Blend With A Little Bite in the Executive Agencies and Committees." Mr. Hammerschmidt: "I strongly favor Committee reform in the House and supported the Boiling Report rather than the less comprehensive Hansen substitute. In an effort to keep the Boiling Report in tact (sic) during debate, I voted against the substitute proposal offered by Congress- woman Hansen.When the House voted on final passage of Committee Reform, I voted in favor of it," (This is something other than a "clear, 'unequivocal" what does "it in the last sentence stand for?) Question G.

Will you to establish rules requiring House- Senate committees to be 1 11 open to the public, as House bill-drafting sessions already are? you support or introduce legislation or rules changes that party caucus meetings be open and votes recorded on all rule changes, legislative policy, and elections, that no Representative be allowed to serve more than eight years on any particular committee, and that chairmen no longer attain office by seniority? Mr. Clinton: "I also open conference c.o i and caucus meetings with recorded votes. The seniority system should be replaced by elections for committee chairmen. I do not think it necessary to limit Committee membership to eight years." To this last sentence, Mr. Clinton added a postscript: "I have been giving some more thought to this, and I think that rotating committee ships, as well as rotating committee chairmanships might be a good idea." I tint! no clear answer from Mr.

Hrcmmcrsch- miclt to this query, unless what he said above under Question 5 is intended as an answer. Mr. Hamm'erschmTdt goes on to say: "The other issues you mentioned have not yet been -drafted into legislative proposals and considered by the House. To be bound to a specific issue before it has been tho of debate and amend? ment would-nol, in my opinion, Te'prescnt the best interests of the 3rd District residents." This seems a peculiar, indeed a most interesting position to be taken by a member of Congress. I can only understand from these statements that Mr.

Hammer- Schmidt has to wait until he knows what others are thinking gets his signals before he can claim opinions of his own and take stands on issues. He goes on to say: "I would certainly provide a copy of my voting record during my tenure in office, and would welcome a discussion on any other issues involving legislation in its final form pending before the House of Representatives." A copy of his voting record should be interesting reading --provided it showed clearly just what was the i a form and meaning of the bills on which he voted. Yet one may be dismayed by Mr. Hammerschmidt's apparent reluctance to come out plainly on his own responsibility and to speak out clearly and unequivocally on important issues before legislation is presented to him in its "final form." We need a man in Congress wilh a mind of his.own. The contrasts evident in these two letters makes it more than clear that Bill Clinton should represent the Third District of Arkansas in the House of Representatives.

Blair Rouse Fayetteville Hit And Run To the Editor: Last Saturday evening, October 12, at 10:45 p.m., we were proceeding south on Old Road, one-hall mile north of Old Missouri Road intersection, when a misdirected (or inebriated) person, travelling north on the same road, headed into our right lane, forcing us off the pavement onto the gravel shoulder. As he gayly passed by, his vehicle collided with the rear left portion of our car, creating an unwanted opening in our trunk, and causing approximately $750 worth of damage. From the paint marks, the vehicle's color appears to be blue or green and Is most likely quite dented in the front left and-or rear section. We would appreciate anyone spoiling a denied vehicle of Ihe nalure we described to secure and report the license number to the Fayelteville police. Fortunately, neither myself, wife or two children were injured.

However, I would like to think a through a cooperative effort we can remove this driver from the road and possibly prevent future accidents and higher insurance costs. Barry S. Brown Fayetteville From The Bookshelf To Woody (to equalize college football competition) came from jealous people who didn't understand how things worked. It was only logical that winners, not losers, should receive the rewards. One of the troubles wilh pro football was that in its zeal to maintain competition, the NFL awarded its worst teams the best draft choices.

Society was the same way. People who didn't work got welfare. Everywhere a man looked, except college football, losing and Josers were being rewarded. If tight recruiting restrictions became a reality, the weak teams might someday rise up and knock off Ohio State, the Buckeye fans might become restless and stop coming to games, and the Machine teams where they were. No, he would never willingly would cave in.

It was politically wise, then, to keep the share success, because then it wouldn't be success. Food Stamp Outreach WASHINGTON (ERR) As spiraling inflation drives fond prices higher and higher, federal food assistance programs take on greater importance for more and more families. Chief among these is the federal food stamp program, set up during tlie Johnson administration to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. Tlie original 196'1 legislation authorized million in appropriations for fiscal year Now, 10 years later, the food stamp program has grown to a $4-billion-a-ycar operation serving approximately 14 million persons. Despite such large growth, many people feel the program is not functioning properly or adequately.

Last June, during hearings conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, the food stamp program was heavily criticized for reaching only 38 per cent of eligible persons and for failing to keep up 'With inflation: A panel on nutrition and special groups, in its report to the full' committee, recommended (1) giving free stamps to families with net monthly incomes below $100 instead of the current $30, (2) allowing stamps to he mailed to recipients, and (3) advertising the food stamp program through radio and TV. PUBLICITY IS essential if the food stamp program is to attract a larger percentage of eligible persons. Congress saw the neecl for greater advertisement in 1971 when it passed amendments the Food Stamp Act requiring states to inform low income families of the benefits of the food stamp program and to ensure their participation. As a result of these amendments, states are now required to have "outreach" plans approved by thu U.S. Department of Agriculture (USD A).

The strategy has not worked as well as many had hoped. The Food Research and Action Center (FRAG), a private legal services firm based in New York, recently filed suits against 17 states, a numbers of eligible persons are not receiving food stamps. "Tha stale outreach plans generally evidence nothing more than intentions," says a Lipner, a FRAC attorney. "They are so unspccific as to be almost meaningless. For example, a plan may say that the slata will contact minority groups, but it will not say which groups, how many 'groups or what the slate will to these groups." The FRAC lawsuits also charge the USDA with negligence.

FRAC claims a it does not enforce its own deadlines for submitting outreach plans, nor does it act when a state refuses to implement iU plan. FRAC GOT A boost in its fight for better outreach plans when a federal judge in Minnesota ruled Oct. 12 that the USDA must spend $278 million in surplus funds from 1973 on the food stamp program instead of impounding it in the U.S. Treasury. Judge held that the USDA had failed to carry out the 1971 outreach amendments and had violated the law in refusing to spend money appropriated for fond stamps.

rtonald Pollack, director of FRAC, thinks the ruling will be a tremendous hel in all outreach suits. FRAC lawyers also are pleased about a recent federal court decision that ordered stale of-- ficials in Oklahoma to begin issuing food stamps in Beaver- County no later than Nov. I. Previously, the county had been opposed to administering any type of assistance pro-' gram. Madison County, is the only food-stamp holdout not currently under federal litigation.

But FRAC expects to file suit thero "shortly..