Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 12, Greencastle, Putnam County, 17 September 1979 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, September 17,1979

East Germans balloon across border to freedom

NAILA, West Germany Four children and four adults bet their lives on a hot air balloon made of nylon and bedsheets and drifted through the darkness of East Germany, hitting the jackpot freedom across the border in West Germany. Peter Strelzek, an airplane mechanic who designed the escape craft, told reporters Sunday the 12-mile, 20-30 minute flight was his second attempt to escape by balloon from his com-munist-ruled homeland. “It was no longer possible for us to lie to our children and put up with the political conditions in East Germany,” he said. He, his wife and two children, along with stonemason Andreas Wetzel, his wife and their two

Newspaper prints letter containing weapon secrets

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A small daily newspaper, objecting to “the shadow of govern- ‘ •ment censorship,” has rushed ! -into print with a letter that discusses what the government I calls nuclear weapon secrets information a federal judge had T forbidden a California news- ; paper to publish. I - “We have had no contact with "any authorities and we hope it stays that way,” editor Ron Mc-

Biggest thing since Smile Button? Souvenir trade prof its from Pope's U.S.visit

NEW YORK (AP) —■ One souvenir merchant calls it “the biggest thing since the Smile Button” the visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States. Posters and pennants usually foisted on teenyboppers at rock concerts and eager tourists now bear the pontiff’s face. And the fashion statement of the decade, the T-shirt, also has been used. One features the slogan, “I Got a Peek at the Pope” while another sports a color photo of John Paul. The trinkets are being offered to the faithful and the curious to mark the pontiff’s visit to Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Des Moines, lowa, next month. “In short-term intensity, this is the biggest thing since the Smile Button,” said Alan Slater, sales manager for N.G. Slater Co. one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of souvenirs. “It’s like a big political year. We’re neglecting some regular customers to make the pope stuff. ” Slater’s firm is turning out pope buttons, pins, pennants and pendants to be sold in cities John Paul will visit. The Quaker Trademark Co. Inc., is producing two pope Tshirts. One has his name and picture and the word, “welcome” in six languages. Mark Goldstein, president of the Cornwells Heights, Pa., firm , said he expects to distribute nearly 20,000 shirts, at $5 apiece. Morton Ohren, who owns Creative Fashions Inc. in Chicago, said he has received 30,-000 orders for his company’s pope T-shirt. He expects to sell about 150,000. The Catholic Church also has been caught up in the souvenir whirl. Parishes in Washington, D.C., will sell an official coin, showing the pope on one side and St. Matthew’s Cathedral on the other. And Vatican approved records of Masses said by the pope in three different languages will be sold for $lO through parishes and the mail during the weeklong visit. Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops Conference has received a $75,000 grant from the Knights of Columbus to produce a film on the visit. Some municipalities are banning street vendors and souvenir selling from the areas where religious celebrations will be

Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All" (USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published twice each day except Sundays and Holidays by LuMar Newspapers, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, Indiana, 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail mattar under Act of March 7,1678. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier $.85 Per Month, by motor route $3.70 Mail Subscription Rates R.R.in Rest of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months *8.75 9.50 *11.45 8 Months *17.50 *19.00 *22.90 1 Year *34.00 *37.00 *45.75 Malt subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted in towns and where motor route service is available Member ot the Associated Press The Associated Press Is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the locel news printed In this newspaper.

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children, got onto a gondola made of an iron plate. Gas burners were fired, filling the handsewn envelope with hot air at a field near Lobenstein and the balloon rose aloft. Borne toward the south by a good breeze, the refugees flew over the “death strip” border and put down in this Bavarian town, far from the border’s electrified fences and minefields. It was believed to be the first time refugees had used a balloon to cross the border. During the flight, the children rode in the middle of the 18-square-foot iron plate, and were huddled around bottles of gas used to fuel the fire that heated air in the 5,230-cubic-yard balloon. The adults rode on four iron rods projecting laterally

Crea said after the 11,-000-circulation Madison Press Connection printed the letter in a special Sunday edition. The printing came hours after U.S. District Judge Robert Schnacke of San Francisco signed a temporary restraining order Saturday against publication of the letter by the Daily Californian of Berkeley. The government, seeking a

Swedish election in dead heat

STOCKHOLM (AP) - The opposition socialist bloc held a one-seat edge over the governing non-socialist coalition today in Sweden’s general election, but with the conservatives posting the biggest gains, mail-in votes from traditionally conservative areas could easily reverse the standings. Preliminary returns from all 357 municipalities in Sunday’s voting gave the opposition Social Democrats and Communists a 175-174 parliamentary majority over the conservative Moderate Alliance Party, the Center Party and the Liberals of the non-socialist bloc. But statisticians predicted

from the plate, each grabbing onto inch-thick ropes attaching the gondola to the balloon. Strelzek said he designed the balloon using principles he learned from his work with airplanes. “Are we in the West here?” one of the balloonists reportedly asked. “We were convinced that we were in the West even before the police officers came because we saw a modern farm machine on the field unlike anything we have,” Strelzek told a reporter. He said his first attempt, during the night of July 4, ended 220 yards short of the border, but the balloonists were undetected and they returned home.

restraining order against the California student newspaper, said the letter contained “secret, restricted data,” that could “help other nations develop nuclear weaponry and injure the U.S.” The Energy and Justice departments acted against the Daily Californian under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which provides penalties of up to 10 years in jail for possessing and communicating “restricted

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JOHN PAUL II Pope pictured on posters held. In Chicago, for example, more than 50 vendors have been denied permission to peddle in Grant Park, where a Mass will be celebrated. But there will be plenty of tourists near hotels and motels. Facilities in the Chicago Loop area reported sellouts as early as last week. Boston hotels also are booked solid.

the pendulum would swing to 175-174 for the non-socialist bloc after an estimated 40,000 mailin votes have beeh counted Wednesday. Experience shows that the non-socialists get the bulk of the mail-in votes and since the race was in a dead heat just a few thousand votes could tip the balance. “What is essential is that we have turned the trend upwards,” Social Democratic leader Olof Palme commented said. ’’The party emerges strengthened and united from the election campaign.” The Social Democrats saw their vote percentage shrink in three consecutive elections

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Manchester, N.J., auctioneer William Handley says he still drives his 1924 Ford Model T speedster about 250 miles a week.

data.” The Press Connection announced Saturday evening that it had received from an anonymous source a copy of the letter written by computer programmer Charles Hansen, 32, of Mountainview, Calif. Other recipients of the 18page document were asked to surrender their copies, authorities said. The New York Times today quoted the Energy Department’s deputy general

all of them with Palme at the helm and the 52-year-old leader’s political career appeared to be on the line in the latest campaign. The Social Democrats gained a modest 0.6 percent for a total of 43.6 percent, or 2.3 million of the 6 million eligible voters. This would give the Social Democrats 155 seats up three in the 349-seat Parliament. Palme, who spent the past three years in opposition following defeat at the polls in 1976 after 44 years of Social Democratic rule, said he would form another Social Democratic minority government if offered the premiership again.

He says he gets ”27 or 28” miles per gallon. He is shown here leaving Concord for a drive to Vermont. (AP Wirephoto).

counsel, Eric J. Fygi, as saying the Press Connection was not on the department’s list of seven papers that had the letter. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune said it plans to publish parts of the letter Thursday “because of the government’s behavior concerning the letter.” A newspaper owned by the Tribune Co. also has already published a part of the letter. In San Francisco, the American Civil Liberities Union said

'Encouraged' .. * ... Bolstered by show of support, Kennedy ponders U.S. economic problems

WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, at the brink of a 1980 challenge to President Carter, suggests it may take a tax cut soon to cope with rising unemployment, and tougher wage-price guidelines to cope with inflation. Insisting that he hasn’t decided whether to run, Kennedy said he has been “heartened and encouraged” by the support generated in the 10 days since he said he’d consider it. The Massachusetts senator said he had decided by Labor Day “that I at least would not preclude the possibility of candidacy.” Always before, Kennedy had said he expected Carter to run and intended to support him. But he said he reconsidered during the summer at the urging of congressional colleagues and other supporters. He said his family approved, and he also concluded that a challenge to the incumbent president would not divide the Democratic Party more than it already is divided. “I became convinced that the divisions that existed in the Democratic Party and in the country existed today...and were very deep-seated, and they would be there whether I was a candidate or not,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. While Carter supporters contend a Kennedy challenge could be so divisive as to make the Democratic nominee vulnerable to a Republican in the general election, the senator said past contests have seemed to “energize the party, bring new people in. ” He said those factors and, most important, “my own deep concerns about the direction of the nation, our ability to deal with many of the problems that we’re facing here in this country, about the mood of the nation,” led him to consider running. Kennedy said his decision is not made yet, and he doesn’t know when it will be. But he also said that if he runs, he expects to compete in the lowa Democratic caucuses. They will open the delegate selection process on Jan. 21, and to run there, he would need some time to organize and campaign. He said economic problems, and the way Carter is addressing them, are one of his principal concerns, and will weigh heavily in his decision about 1980. Kennedy offered no specific alternatives to Carter economic policies, but questioned whether the president’s leadership can inspire confidence that such problems as inflation and recession will be handled. “It’s back to whether the people have a sense of confidence that he can deal with these issues, I think that’s the matter of

VAT back in Congressional spotlight

By LOUISE COOK Associated Press Writer An old idea for a new tax is back in the spotlight. The levy is VAT the acronym for value added tax. It has been talked about for decades. It was adopted by France in 1954. And it is being promoted here by U.S. Rep. A 1 Ullman, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and U.S. Sen. Russell Long, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The tax gets added to goods and services as thev move from

it would seek to vacate Judge Schnacke’s order. Executive Director Dorothy Erhlich said it is a “serious abridgment of First Amendment rights,” and that a ban on publication is now moot. U.S. Attorney Frank Tuerkkeimer of Madison said the Press Connection’s publication of the letter was under study by his superiors and that it was unclear what action might be taken.

the producer to the consumer. Some people describe VAT as a national sales tax a description supporters don’t like. Ullman, a Democrat from Oregon, says Americans could be paying VAT by 1981. He wants Congress to enact the new tax to replace some existing taxes. No one, says Ullman, should end up paying any more taxes than he or she does now. Ullman has indicated he is thinking of a VAT in the neighborhood of 10 percent. He wants to reduce Social Security taxes by 25 percent and cut some

55,000 acres consumed by California fires

By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) Stub born brush fires roared out of control today in Southern California, blackening thousands of acres and destroying more than a score of fashionable homes as firefighters called in reserves from as far away as Maine and Rhode Island. Residents of Hollywood Hills’ Laurel Canyon area were stunned when a fire pushed by 25 mph winds burned its way through 19 expensive homes in the wooded area overlooking Los Angeles. Among the homes destroyed were those of blues musician John Mayall and actress Mackenzie Phillips, a regular on the CBS television series, “One Day At A Time.” “My home, my beautiful home,” said George Hunt as he walked near his home on Grandview Drive, where houses are valued at as much as $500,000. “It was so beautiful, so lush here.” Three hundred firefighters stopped the flames after water drops were made by helicopters and two “super scooper” airplanes that skimmed the Pacific Ocean to fill their water tanks. The Forest Service asked for 800 firefighters to help the 2,473 men and women battling the blazes which had consumed more than 55,000 acres. “We’ve gone about as far as we can with what we have, so now we’re drawing on our firefighting resources nationally,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Lee Redding said Sunday. The crews called in to help were from stations in Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode

deepening and increasing concern to people as we come to the 1980 s,” he said. On Thursday, an AP-NBC News poll showed only 19 percent-of those questioned rated Carter’s work excellent or good. It was the lowest overall job rating for an American president in 30 years. Asked what he would do differently, Kennedy said “the way we come to grips” with rising prices and unemployment will set a course for the early 1980 s. “I today don’t call for a tax cut, but I think we are going to have to be sensitive to the need for that over, potentially, the latter part of this year and the first part of next,” he said. “How that is shaped, formulated, is going to be a very important choice and decision by the administration Treasury Secretary G. William Miller said Friday that “at the moment, it would be inappropriate to consider a tax cut.” Carter said on July 16 that “if unemployment starts getting too high, then I will take action,” probably to lower the payroll taxes that finance Social Security. But nine days later, he spoke out against Republican tax-cut-ting proposals. And administration economic officials have been playing down the possibility of payroll tax cuts. Kennedy also said he thinks people are confused about the Carter administration’s commitment to wage-price guidelines. He said Americans don’t know how sincere the president is about his own program. He said voluntary guidelines worked in the early 19605. “As a technique, it has merit.” But he said it sometimes seems the guidelines are not really the president’s, but only a project of inflation adviser Alfred E. Kahn. He said that “leaves some confusion on this.” Again, Kennedy did not offer specifics as to how he would make the guidelines more forceful. Like Carter, he opposes mandatory wage and price controls. Carter announced the current guidelines last Oct. 24, to be effective for one year. A revised program is due soon. The current standards call for wage increases to be held to a maximum of 7 percent, and for price increases to be held onehalf of one percent below the average increases of the last two years. Despite that program, consumer prices this year have increased at an annual rate of more than 13 percent. The administration is trying now to fashion a compromise that will enlist the support of organized labor for revised guidelines.

other existing levies as well. Long, who is also a Democrat and is from Louisiana, wants Social Security taxes to be eliminated. Donald Lubick of the Treasury Department said earlier this year that it would take a VAT of 13 percent to completely replace the payroll tax as a source of financing for Social Security. The Tax Foundation Inc., a research group based in Washington, D.C., calculated that in 1978, each one percentage point of VAT would produce sll bil-

Island, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, orders closing the Angeles, Los Padres, Cleveland and San Bernardino National Forests were issued during the weekend because of extreme fire hazard. Only one of the major fires, the Pinecrest blaze which at one time threatened the radio and television transmitters serving Southern California atop milehigh Mount Wilson, was expected to be under control today. After charring nearly 5,000 acres of valuable watershed since Tuesday, it was contained Sunday night. Farther south, San Diego County’s most destructive brush fire in decades was brought under control after seven hours Saturday, but ocean breezes caused flare-ups Sunday that kept more than 100 firefighters busy. Seven homes were destroyed and the fire was halted a half mile from Toorrey Pines High School. Some 9,800 acres were charred from the blaze that started at Black Mountain and swept through the Rancho Penasquitos area. Damage was estimated at more than $2 million, according to fire authorities. Six other brush fires in the San Diego area left up to 50,000 homes and businesses without electricity Sunday. Meanwhile, Oregon firefighters controlled three forest fires in the southern part of the state after the blazes had charred 1,600 acres. The largest fire, in the Winema National Forest about 30 miles north of Klamath Falls, burned 1,150 acres.

lion in revenue. Social insurance taxes basically, Social Security are expected to raise a little more than $l4O billion in the current fiscal year. VAT is a tax on the value that is added to a product on its way to market. It is based on the difference between each manufacturer’s buying price and selling price. VAT may or may not apply to all products. Some European countries exempt essentials like food and drugs. Great Britain considers reading material an essential and exempts books.