The Mail-Journal, Volume 7, Number 52, Milford, Kosciusko County, 27 January 1971 — Page 9

JfailMjoMriial PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY The Milford Mail (Eat 1888) Syracuse-Wawatee Journal (Eat 1907) Consolidated Into The Mail-Journal Feb. 15, 1952 DEMOCRATIC ~ ARCHIBALD E. BAUMGARTNER. Editor and Publisher ? DELLA BAUMGARTNER, Business Manager • w Box 8 Syracuse, Ind., — 46557

Why No Expose? A lot of people in the Syracuse area are continuing to ask why the results of the state fire marshal's investigation into the Pickwick fire on New Year’s Day have not been made public. And now we are asking the same question. Does the investigation point to a clear negligence on the part of the owners of the building or the occupants? Ordinarily, there is no reason to hide the results of such an investigation. The fire meant too much to too many people in the Syracuse area to cloud the circumstances under a smokescreen of silence. Owners of the building, in particular Mr. Mollenhour, have become well known for their “investigative repor-

Groundhog Day

For those who are not ready to accept the judgment of weather and all the other scientific paraphernalia of projecting the weather, that time-honored prophet of the elements — the groundhog — will soon make his appearance. February 2 is the critical day. If the old fellow sees his shadow, he goes underground for six „ more weeks of winter. Whether the groundhog s performance has ever been studied officially by a government body is unknown, and it would probably make very little difference to the groundhog and his faithful followers if it had.

Flight Os Apollo 14

At 3:23 p.m. EST on January 31 Apollo 14 is scheduled for launch from Cape Kennedy with Alan Shepard who was America’s first man into space (on May 5,1961) Stuart A. Roosa and Edgar D. Mitchell on board. Shepard’s first flight was aboard the Freedom 7 and was sub-orbital. Information from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration states, ‘‘His two cohorts weren’t even in the space program then. As a matter of fact they didn't come aboard until the United States had worked its way through the Mercury and Gemini manned space flight program. This makes them third generation astronauts.” Believe it or not 60 spacecrafts like the Freedom 7 could be placed into orbit in a single launch of the Saturn V launch vehicle. Shepard, commander of the flight, is from East Derry, N.H.; Mitchell, lunar module pilot, was born in Hereford, Texas but considers Artesia, N.M., his home town; Roosa, command module pilot, is from Durango, Colo. AU three are married. Shepard and Mitchell each have two children while Roosa has four.

Know Your Indiana Law _ By JOHN J. DILLON _VI ■ Attorney at Law This is a public service article explaining provisions of Indiana law in general terms.

Highway Planning'

During the early years of urban freeway planning, road builders generally took the path of least resistance to combine favorable aspects of urban renewal and highway programs. and engineered highways through old urban neighborhoods. New federal laws have brought about a highway policy in all of the states which attempts to be more responsive to people affected by highway programs. ■ Federal and state highway planning now seeks to identify with formal and informal organizations. and leaders within

EDITORIALS

a community, and to work with them to integrate the highway program with the needs and concerns of the people affected by the program. This new attitude is reflected in the recent changes in public hearing procedure required by Federal law and utilized by the State Highway Department of Indiana in the early planning stages to plan for the construction and ’ improvement of state trunkline highways. While public hearings for highway planners were always a vital part of the planning, design and

ting.” They did a thorough job on drugs in Kosciusko county, have repeatedly needled out state legislators about their stand on secrecy in legislative committee hearings. They’ve always insisted the public has a right to know, and we’ve agreed completely. But now, the Pickwick fire is something different, it would appear. They would have us think the public doesn’t have a right to know in this instance. And here we disagree. Where is the investigative reporting? Where are the headlines? Why the change in policy? Is there a cover-up? Unless the fire marshal’s report becomes public, interested townspeople have no choice but to think so.

Groundhog Day is one of those rites that demonstrate the essential simplicity of human nature —a simplicity that instinctively rebels when confronted with the enigma of the scientific answer. Most of us are happy with the groundhog’s of doing business, but somehow we to find room in our minds to accommodate knowledge that will forever be beyond the reach of the poor old groundhog. Just as a precaution, however, it might be a good ° idea to see how the groundhog fares with his shadow on February 2. It always ' pays to be on the safe side.

When the aircraft carrier USS New Orleans recovers the crew in midPacific on February 9, it will be thf navy’s 24th recovery of a US astronaut team. If all goes weU, and we certainly hope it wiU, Alan Shepard should set foot on the moon at 9:10 a m. on February 5 and Ed Mitchell a half hour later for about a four to five hour stay on the lunar surface. They wiU repeat this the foUowing morning. This moon landing will bring to six the men from earth who have walked on the surface of the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin were the first while Conrad and Bean were the second team. Shephard and MitcheU will have a two-wheel cart to help them on their moon mission It has been named the modularized equipment transporter. NaturaUy, the boys at the Manned Spacecraft center couldn’t stand to use that name too long so they’ve come up with one of their own — the Shepard Rickshaw. As we've stated before we hope all goes well with the flight of ApoUo 14 and aU three return to earth on February 9 with another successful space adventure completed

location of highways, the new legal requirement regarding public hearings is more responsive to the citizens than the past. Henceforth, highway planners must conduct two public hearings on federal-aid highway projects involving new road locations which create “substantially different social, economic or environmental effects.** An initial hearing is held for the purposes of measuring public sentiment regarding social-economic aspects of route location. A second hearing is held for public consideration of the actual design factors of new highways. All opinions and ideas expressed by the people are carefully studied by planners and engineers of the Highway Department and the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads prior to any decision-making. In addition to this new two-step public hearing procedure, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1968 provides for an expansive system of supplemental payments and moving expenses to enable displaced families to find suitable housing. Copyright John J. Dillon

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Congressional Comer: John Brademas Reports From Washington

Democratic Caucus To Determine Party Leadership And Policy

News was breaking fast here last week when the start of the 92nd Congress shared headlines with leadership changes by Democrats and seniority reforms by both parties in the House of Representatives. The busy week was climaxed, of course, by President Nixon’s State of the Union address Friday night. COUP CAME EARLY There was a surprise at the very outset. Congressman Olin Tpague of Texas unseated Congressman Dan Rostenkowski

SPECIAL REPORT FROM WASHINGTON

To Become Democrat, Run For President

WASHINGTON - New York City’s Mayor John Lindsay has scarcely hidden his political ambitions. He rented an office a block away from Convention Hall during the 1968 Republican convention and stood by waiting for lightning to strike, ready to march triumphantly into the convention hall in case he were annointed as the vice presidential candidate. When the Republicans failed to honor him, Lindsay began a back-door flirtation with the Democrats. His interest in becoming a Democrat increased after his own party refused to renominate him for mayor and he was re-elected without his party’s endorsement John Lindsay will probably change his registration from Republican to Democrat. He will follow this up with an announcement that he is interested in the Democratic presidential nomination. Lindsay for President groups will immediately start forming across the country. To test his political strength Lindsay will challenge the Democratic front runner. Senator Ed Muskie, in his native New England and will run against Muskie for the Democratic Presidential nomination in the * New Hampshire primary. & NEW RED SPLIT American Ambassador Jacob Beam has reported, in secret messages to the State Department, that the struggle inside the Kremlin is growing more intense. Soviet Stalinists will press for a reStalinization program at the Communist Party Congress which opens on March 30. Just as ex-Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin at a previous Congress, the hard-liners hope to turn the tables and denounce Khrushchev. This could result in a new crackdown on Soviet freedoms and a continued chilling of Soviet-American relations. VIET NAM WITHDRAWAL SLOWED The Cambodian operation, which President Nixon promised would speed the U.S. pull-out from Viet Nam, may now delay the withdrawal schedule. South Vietnamese troops, which were supposed to protect the U.S. withdrawal, are now being rushed to Cambodia to prevent a

of Chicago, who did not expect opposition, as chairman of the caucus. Teague, therefore, assumed one of the leadership roles and will preside over Democratic caucus meetings. House Democrats, as expected, elected Carl Albert of Oklahoma as the new Speaker of the House. Mr. Albert, who has won wide respect as a legislator and as House Majority Leader for the past eight years, won easily over Congressman John Conyers of Detroit.

FIRST BILL The new Congress formally convened Thursday with the swearing in of new Members and the introduction of a number of bills. As I began my seventh term in the House of Representatives, I felt it was important that the first bill I introduced should be one directed at relieving the problem of unemployment which has become so acute in Indiana’s Third Congressional District. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate in the South Bend labor market (St. Joseph and Marshall counties) has now reached nearly 8 per cent. My bill is designed to expand and improve the existing manpower training programs and to establish a program of public service employment for the thousands of Americans who want work and cannot find it. The measure is similar to the Employment and Manpower Bill which was passed by Congress with strong bipartisan support and the endorsement of many mayors and governors, but which was vetoed by President Nixon.

Communist take-over. No slow-down has yet been ordered for sending home U.S. ground troops. However, the withdrawal of Air Force squadrons from Viet Nam has virtually been halted. Only 600 Air Force men were included in the last withdrawal phase and almost all were taken out of administrative jobs. No squadrons were pulled out. A few more administrative personnel will be sent home in the next phase. But again, not a single squadron will be pulled out. Meanwhile, Air Force pilots have reported the most successful raids on the Ho Chi Minh network of trails since they began bombing five years ago. They claim the destruction of more than 1,000 North Vietnamese trucks, moving military supplies down the jungle roads and standing in parking areas along the trails. The attacks also set off more than 7,000 secondary explosions destroying hidden fuel stores and amunition dumps. ENZYME ITCH A mysterious malady which we have scientifically labeled the “enzyme itch," has got Americans across the country scratching furiously. We wouldn’t dare guess the number of sufferers. Rather than run up doctor bills, most victims use the simple home remedy of digging their fingernails into the annoying affliction. Yet a spot check indicates that hundreds have gone to dermatologists for relief. At least 150 have complained to the Food and Drug Administration. Some dermatologists tell us the itch is caused by enzymecontaining laundry detergents. Others are either less positive or less frank about their diagnosis. A Food and Drug spokesman said the agency has medical reports on 60 cases. Os these, 14 definitely were linked to enzyme detergems. We received a loud dissent, not unexpectedly, from Proctor and Gamble, which has turned out more than one billion packages of enzyme detergents since 1966. A spokesman assured us that “enzymecontaining products are as safe and mild as nonenzyme products.’* The company used more than 11,000 housewives to test the product in their homes, he said, before enzyme detergents were introduced on the market.

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A REPORT TO THE PEOPLE OF INDIANA U. S. t>L SATOR B RCH <BAr4

Nation Faced With Host Os Problems As 92nd Congress Convenes

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last week marked a new beginning in Washington—the opening of the 92nd Congress. A new Congress generally brings with it hopes for grand, bold accomplishments, and this one, I am sure, is no exception. Our nation is faced with a host of problems that demand action, and the men elected to our legislative bodies are well aware of this. They also recognize that too much unfinished business was left over from the previous Congress, too much was not even taken up in the first place, for this Congress to be complacent about its responsibilities. « Perhaps, too, with the Administration itself more aware now of the need to work constructively with—rather than against—Congress, we can truly come to grips with some of the crucial problems confronting our people today. This is not to say, of course, that nothing was accomplished in the 91st Congress. Despite lengthy disputes with the President over foreign policy and spending, the Congress compiled a substantial record of domestic achievements. These included establishment of a government-owned postal corporation, major air and water pollution control measures, a $25billion education authorization, a farm bill including a limit on subsidy payments, an airportairways trust fund, a comprehensive reform of disaster relief programs, a package extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act and allowing 18-year-olds to vote in national elections, the first national occupational safety bill, extension of unemployment compensation and several crime bills. Even the disputes over spending and foreign policy were productive, but in ways that may not become obvious for many years. The foreign policy discussions were significant because they constituted the most searching and wide-ranging examination of U.S. military and foreign policy since World War n. This is an area in which Congress has been relatively passive and has tended to accept presidential policies, but certainly the great issues of war and peace today demand

Meanwhile. Food and Drug has put up $7,500 to determine the extent of skin sensitivity caused by detergent additives, another $39,977 to study the effects of these additives on lung tissue. DAM SITE A'hardy band of conservationists is making a last-ditch stand to save the spectacularly scenic Cheat River in West Virginia from disfigurement by the beaver-like Army Engineers, who are trying to dam it up. The multi-million-dollar project would ruin the wild, meandering river which flows north into the Monongahela. It would also create a vast reservoir which would submerge three towns, including the historic village of St. George founded in 1776. The conservationists are trying to enlist the aid of Sen. Jennings Randolph, the portly, courtly West Virginia Democrat. As chairman of the Senate Public Works Committee, Randolph has life-and-death power over the pork-barrel projects of the Army Engineers. But So far, the Senator is siding with the special interests who want the dam built. Until we began investigating, Randolph refused even to meet with the opponents of the dam, although they are his own constituents. Then he hastily arranged a meeting and issued a solemn statement calling the dam issue “a critical one.** FBI HEIST The Knights of Columbus at Forestville, Md., couldn’t believe it. There two decorative S4O artificial plants had been stolen by FBI party-goers who had used the Knights’ hall. Faced with the unthinkable, the Knights reluctantly called the FBI to report the theft. Bob Gustafson, chairman of the FBI social group that rented the hall, zeroed in on the culprit as fast as any TV G-man. In a week, he was back at the hall with the plants. Gustafson informed Knights manager Bill Wilson that a guest — not an FBI employee — had staged the great plant heist. Wilson gratefully took the plants back with no questions asked. Next week, sad to relate, one of the artificial plants disappeared again. But this time, Wilson couldn’t call in the FBI, and the plant is still missing.

that Congress speak with a stronger voice, co-equal to the Executive Branch. The spending discussions contained the seeds of what may prove to be the most far-reaching change ever undertaken in our national priorities—the change from a nation more concerned about war and national defense to a nation more concerned about the needs of our people. It is this change that I believe will become the dominant concern at the 92nd Congress. We will see this, I believe, in a greater emphasis upon the need to improve our educational systems; to expand our health care systems and medical research programs and institute a program of national health insurance; to guarantee the rights of consumers; to expand our programs of drug control and crime prevention as well as our programs to rehabilitate criminals; to make the pledge of a c|ean, healthful environment a truly meaningful one; to provide decent housing for our citizens now living in substandard housing; to expand our programs of manpower training and public service employment; to reform our welfare programs so that they become a means of helping our disadvantaged citizens to raise themselves out of the now hopeless poverty cycle; to conduct a searching examination of our nation’s transportation needs and design adequate programs to meet those needs; and to deal with the hundred and one. other problems besetting us. In addition, we are going to see an attempt to modernize some of our most important institutional arrangements. Hopefully, we will see action on constitutional amendments to provide for direct election of the President and Vice President, to extend the vote to 18-year-olds to vote in all elections, to provide Congressional voting representation for the District of Columbia, and to insure equal rights for women. Perhaps we will see action again on a bill to limit campaign spending, vetoed by the President in the last session of Congress. The subject of draft reform is sure to be taken up. And Congress itself will be the object of reform.

By JACK ANDERSON