The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 34

The Paris News, July 1, 1979 The Paris a Netos Pat M. Bassano, Editorial- Publisher Opinion David Managing Sullens, Editor Want to write your governmental representatives? Here's how: U.S. SENATORS: The Hon. John Tower or the Hon. Lloyd Denrsen Old Senate Office Building.

Washington, D.C. 20510. CONGRESSMAN: The Hon. Sam B. Hall Ir- 319 Cannon House Office Building.

Washington. D.C. 20515. Phone 1202) 225-3035. Paris office: Room 210, Post Office Building, P.0.

Moses established a standard of weights and measures. Box 350, Paris, Tex. 75460, phone 785-0723. STATE SENATOR: THE Hon. Ed Howard, Texas "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a and Senate.

P. 0. Box. 12068. Capitol Station, Austin, thou a Tex.

78711 Austin Phone (512) 475 0140. great a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt STATE REPRESENTATIVE: The Hon. L. P. shalt have thou -Deut.

(Petel Patterson. Texas House of Represen tatives. P. 0. Box 2910.

Tex. 78169: or Brookston, Tex 75421 Austin phone $12) 47 5-5727. No matter what, we can't repeal reality Events of the last few days seem, alas. to be bearing out a conclusion we reached some time ago: No way are the American people ready to come to terms with the realities of the energy crisis. Indeed, the most recent manifestations of our reluctance to face facts demonstrate a combination of wishful thinking and downright swinishness that does not augur well for the future.

We have all been aware of the occasional instances of violence at our nation's service stations: Motorists. weary of waiting in long, long lines for gasoline, take umbrage when some clown cuts in ahead of them; words are exchanged; and takes its course. At least one person has been shot dead in such an encounter, and there have been countless episodes of a less violent nature. This past weekend, however. brought something truly novel what just may have been our first full-blown gasoline riot.

It began in Levittown, when a gaggle of independent truckers (remember them?) blocked an intersection. Other motorists many of them teen-agers joined in the fun: and when the melee was over. 67 persons had been arrested and 32 had been treated for injuries. All the while. of course.

the truckers have been blockading fuel distribution points. typing up food deliveries and (not least) taking drivers, with one death having been the blame for this can be laid on the governCarter administration nor Congress have suchome to the public the fact that, yes, Virginia crisis; there is no likelihood of things getting and there is a strong possibility of their getting Where we have needed Churchillian exhorthere has only been with some exceptions of politicians heading for the exits. But it won't do to place all the as Walt Kelly's Pogo reminded days. is us. We are, for all dependence and pluck, a self buck -passers; we long.

in spite repeal reality, to go back to the Perhaps all of this will change we're inclined to believe it's before the American psyche awaiting us. Picture a little brighter for boat people Even as Malaysian authorities temporized this week over whether to drive arriving Vietnamese boat people back into the sea in some cases they have been repulsed; in others, they have been admitted to refugee camps one encouraging note was sounded: China announced that it would consider establishing a major center to receive refugees from Vietnam. Now. admittedly, this may be a rather chilly comfort for many of the Indochinese refugees who fled their homes largely because of the Communist takeover: Jumping from one authoritarian Communist state into another isn't exactly what they had in mind when they hocked their belongings and boarded leaky. unreliable boats blame on the politicos.

The enemy, us in those long ago pre OPEC our protestations of rugged inimprovident, sullen lot of of au the evidence Detore us, to days of 30-cent-a-gallon gasoline. under the pressure of events but going to take a heap of persuading grudgingly faces up the bleak dawn and set sail. But on the other hand, a berth in China might not look so bad when the alternative is being cast adrift in a hostile sea. At the very least, the Chinese action should serve as a goad to the conscience of the free world. whose response to the dilemma posed by the refugees has been, shall we say, mixed.

While the United States has been admitting some 7,000 Indochinese a month, other states have been less openhanded. Japan, for instance, has admitted half a dozen refugees as legal residents. An improvement in that record is not likely. given Japan's adamant refusal to open itself up to the would-be immigrants. but it's worth working toward.

Are we hearing fact or fiction about fuel? Have you noticed in all the conflicting reports about our gas shortage or surplus. oil crisis (real or imaginary), how ignorant we as individual citizens and as a federal government are about the few giant global firms that produce, process or distribute essential raw materials? Have you had the queasy feeling that the so-called experts among reporters in this area, appear little, if any, better informed than run-at-themouth administration pundits? The morass of confusing and frequently opening contradictory that are released by administration officials and the sudden force with which gas shortages stike in widely separated areas of the nation strongly suggest that the workings of the oil industry are indeed mysterious often reminiscent of the way the internal politics of China appeared to us before diplomatic relations were re-established. As one illustration of the depth of our ignorance, a leading big city newspaper recently, printed a photograph of what described were the nation's chief oil executives on their way to a private meeting with President Carter. But the photo was in fact. of five insurance executives who were at the White House to discuss a program of neighborhood revitalization.

What's more. it took the newspaper's editors four days to realize the error. and reports by associate. Brooke Shearer, to print a correction. We might better understand the giants in oil and in such other kev resources as rubber.

aluminum or grain if we viewed them as we do separate with organizational structures and jargons of their own and with interests that do CBS really My telephone call to the Columbia Broadcasting System had a simple purpose to confirm a news story saying that according to a CBS-New York Times poll only 30 percent of those surveyed could name the two countries involved in the SALT II agreement. But in a giant corporation very few things are simple. My inquiry cost me half an hour. Here's how part of it went: "Hello. This is "Hello, could you please put me in touch with the person in charge of CBS public opinion what?" "Polls.

You know, those surveys they refer to on your news programs. The operator, saying nothing, plugged me into an em; office. The phone range for two or three minutes. I hung up and started over again. "Hello.

This is CBS." "Hello. I don't know whether you're the operator I talked to a couple of minutes ago, but I'm trying to reach the person in charge of CBS polls." "No. I'm not the one. Just a minute The phone range again and this time a voice said. "Hello.

Channel Two news." "Hello. 1 think the operator made a Write your officials to pay it's wheat bill. Now once again, crop failures abroad are resulting in feverish bidding for U.S. grain. Plans for purchases have been announced or reported by China, the U.S.S.R., East European nations.

developing lands. Worldwide gran trading in recent weeks has been in turmoil. And U.S? Does the turbulence in the markets suggest we are more thoroughly prepared this time than in the past? The question implies the answer. 3 -A Ben Sargent "No. I wasn't dreaming of a another woman.

dreamt I inherited a lot of land in Atlantic City!" LIQUORS BEER Jim Berry Wayne potshots at non-striking recorded thus far. In part, perhaps, ment: Neither the ceeded in bringing there is an energy appreciably better: a good deal worse. tations to sacrifice, the furtive scuttling Cargill, Minneapolis: Continental Grain, New York City: Andre. Laussane. Switzerland: Louis Dreyfus Paris: Bunge based largely in South America and Europe.

These firms are owned and controlled by seven of the world's richest and most private families. They publish no financial statements, have no public stockholders. The grain companies don't presume the public has a right to know anything about what they are doing and this despite the fact that they have received billions of dollars in U.S. government subsidies over the years." Morgan writes. And he states flatly: The CIA knew that the Soviet Union was negotiating for huge sales of U.S.

grain in 1972 (which cost us almost $2 billion more for food the following year) long before U.S. farmers or certainly U.S. consumers obt: ined this information. -Rhodesia used the services of private companies to export hundreds of millions of dollars of maize in circumvention of the United Nations embargo. Breadlines formed in the streets of Zaire when Continental Grain abruptly cut off wheat shipments to its flour milling subsidiary to force Zaire 'Confused Another look Robert Yoakum mistake, but perhaps you can tell me what to do.

I want to confirm a report read about a CBS-New York Times poll on "Sorry. but this is the CBS New York station. You'd better try the network news. I'll transfer you." There were a few clicks, followed by a prolonged buzz and then a dial tone. I called again.

"Hello. This is CBS." "Hello. Give me the network news department, Network news here." "Hello. I'm trying to confirm a report I read that quoted a CBS-New York Times poll as saying that only 30 percent of the public knew which two countries are involved in SALT IT." "Hmmmmm. I think there's a group of people somewhere around here in charge of polls, but I'll be damned if I know where they are.

I'll try to switch you to someone who can help. But don't get your hopes WHISKEY IMPORTED LIQUOR VODKA BY THE CASE WINES CITY BOTTLED 1000 DRY NO GIN SAYSE TE CH, REVERENO. I WAS JUST (ER) BUYING SONNE STUFF TO (AH) MIX MY OWN 1 THINK WE SCARED MI NOW 88 LET'S GET OUTA HERE! Sylvia Porter Consumer columnist Fleid Syndicate not necessarily jive with those of their host country, the U.S. Although multinational portions regard themselves as politically neutral their actions affect the diets, pocketbooks and political relations of virtually every nation. Yet.

it is undeniable that mystery surrounds what the firms do and how they do it. Would we not have been all better informed. for instance. if President Carter had invited the oil executives publicly to a Camp David session to communicate and netotiate? If it worked with Israel's Menahem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat, why couldn't it have worked with Exxon's Clifton Garvin and Gulf Oil's Jerry McAfee? Now switch to the mystery of grain not just the grain we eat as bread or which becomes pasta flour in Italy, but also the corn, barley. oats, rye and soybeans fed to cattle and poultry around out the or world and sweetners made for into ice liquid cream and soft drinks.

The prices of corn and soybeans "ripple" through the economy much the way the price of oil does The entire grain trade is dominated by five large corporations reports Dan Morgan. author of a detailed account of the business. "Merchants of Grain" Viking. They are: means 'Tanksgiving Day' is a gasser Dear Editor: One of my rocking chair cronies has come up with an idea for a new holiday on the Hill. He calls it TANKSGIVING.

A special day on which to be tankful. He asked me what I thought of it. I told him I thought it was a gasser. I told him there hadn't been a full tank on the Hill since the price of gasoline shot up past six- bits a gallon. I told him there is more gas on the stomachs of Hillers than there is in Hillers gas tanks.

I told him that long lines have nothing to do with it. As one Hiller puts it, the long lines are no detergent. The price, not the lines, is the bullfrog in the buttermilk. Did you ever see a bullfrog in the buttermilk? Probably not. But it used to be a common practice to put a frog in the church on buttermaking day.

The bullfrog splashed in the whole milk until it made itself a Broadcasting person there who is in charge of polls." Another sigh. I began to wonder what would happen at the CBS switchboard if something unusual and complicated occurred a call arriving directly from Leonid Brezhnev. for example, saying in Russian that he was resigning as president and wanted Walter Cronkite to be the first to know. about the public information department?" I suggested. "Or public affairs?" "We don't have those.

Should I try press information?" "Great! Let's try them." "Hello. Mr. Rumpelmeyer's of. fice." The boss grumps. looking at the clock, that the latest thing in fashion is his secretary.

If it's what up front that counts. why would anyone want to go on a reducing diet? Feeling down because you're not in the social swim? Recall: The Rockin' chair philosopher small island of butter. Then it would get up on the island and croak until someone came and took it and the butter out of the churen. The croak sounded something like: "Butter's come, butter's come." bullfrog was this country's first The cream separator. Or so they tell me.

I first heard that story when I was just getting big enough to handle a church dash. And I heard it off and on until I was big enough to foist the job off on a younger brother. When I asked why we didn't get a frog to do our churning, the answer System' There isn't space to go on. Suffice to say that Mr. Rumpelmeyer's office couldn't soive my problem, but that eventually after more transfers and disconnections and sighs and confusion I did reach a pleasant secretary named Randy who found the poll I was looking for.

But if that simple quest took half an hour, how long would it take Russianspeaking Brezhnev? Or Deng Xiaoping, who speaks Chinese with a strong Szechwan accent? Or an inflamed Serbian fanatic who is trying to tell CBS that he has planted a bomb and that everyone has only five minutes to clear out? (c) Yoakum Features 1979) Barbs upper crust is often One of the best ways to save gas is to keep your spouse from reading ads offering two cents off the price of something in a store 20 miles away. Diplomatese: A concrete agreement is one in which both sides have hardened their meitions and RCP is a just-rockin' former resident of Lamar County was nearly always the same: "Keep that church dash going lest the milk sulls and won't separate." The thinking was that once started, the up and down motion of the dash had to be kept going. If it stopped, something happened to the milk so that the butter wouldn't come out of it and the milk itself turned to blue john. That's what I was told, anyway. I was also told that if I didn't care to do the churning there was a place for me in the pea patch.

Picking peas is a worse job than churning milk. It's out there in the blazing sun with the chiggers, and the rest of it. There's no telling how many bushels of black eyes and purple hulls I've picked. Somewhere along the line of my spine there may be a permanent crook caused bythe unnatural practice of picking peas. I remember my first reading of Zane Gray's "Riders of the Purple Sage." What a thriller that was.

And how small I felt when I thought of myself as a lonesome rider of the purple hulls. "I won't. Not after what I've been through." The next sound was a busy signal. I waited for someone to come back on, but instead, after a minute or so. I heard a click and then a dial tone.

"Hello. This is CBS." Uh, are you the one I talked to about "No, but do you want to protest? I'll put you in touch with This operator, I realized, thought that I wanted to object to an alleged ethnic slur. Perhaps I was one of hundreds reacting angrily to some comedian's Polish joke. "No. I'm talking about public opinion polls." The operator sighed.

"You mean like at election time? That kind of "Yes. The poll I want to find out about was conducted by CBS and the New York Times. There must be some Of course, most members of the new generation have never churned milk or picked peas, or even chopped that cotton. And I'm happy for them. But it comes to me also that what they missed may be one reason for the mess the country is in today, including the long lines at the gas pumps, and all that.

Hoo boy and yours truly, RCP. can't be budged. Happiness is having your wife wash the awful jacket which wasn't drip dry thus shrinking the problem of how to get out of wearing the thing. How did they get rid of all the too-fat meat before packages with one opaque side were invented?.