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The Battalion • Texas A&M University • Thursday • August 16, 1979
Carter says ‘don’t
By HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — In his first two
years in office. President Carter said re
peatedly that he had restored trust and
confidence in government. But in the past
few weeks he has been struck by what he
calls a “crisis of confidence” in the land.
When he first came into office. Carter
believed the national trauma of the
Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal
were history and the country had survived
with hope and optimism.
Lately, he has changed his tune. But
says there is no “identifiable” reason why a
“malaise” has hit the country and he be
lieves it is unwarranted. And he disagrees
with critics who blame him and question
White House leadership.
Here is the question that was put to
Carter during an interview with out-of-
town editors recently and excerpts of his
answer.
Question: “Mr. President, one of the
topics you have touched on in your historic
address to the nation had to do with na
tional confidence. I am wondering if you
still feel that you can provide that confi
dence. The polls have been brutal with
you. It is perhaps the key issue in many
peoples’ minds, confidence in the White
House, confidence in the administration,
confidence in Washington.
Answer: “I think the lack of confidence
is very broad. There is a lack of confidence
of people in themselves. There is a lack of
confidence in what their quality of life will
be in the future compared to the present
and the past. There is a lack of confidence
in many institutions. The press and the
Congress are two, by the way, that are
lower than confidence in the White
House. And there is a lack of confidence in
the president which does concern me very
much.
“I believe the absence of confidence is
unwarranted. Our nation is prosperous.
Our nation is at peace. Our nation has a
fine prospect for the future. Our nation is
the strongest on Earth economically,
militarily, politically. Our alliances with
our friends around the world have never
been stronger. We have excellent and im
proving relations with the developing na
tions of the world.
“We have the highest reserves of energy
of any nation on Earth. I think we have 24
percent of all the energy reserves known
to mankind, whereas the OPEC countries
all put together only have less than 5 per
cent.
“So there is no real identifiable basis for
worry’
an absence of confidence. But it is a fact
that the people have not only lost confi
dence in themselves now and in the fu
ture, lost confidence in the institutions,
lost confidence in our government, the
free enterprise system, the press and so
forth, but they have an increasing inclina
tion toward divisiveness.”
Furthermore, Carter said, “This is the
first time in history that I know about
when our country has been faced with dis
comfort or inconvenience or more tangible
and far-reaching adverse impacts on
human life, without having at the same
time a threat to our nation that was cohe
sive in its implications. ”
He said this was not true during two
world wars and the Great Depression
when people were bound together with a
common threat.
In his first campaign for the Presidency,
Carter did not project a vision of lower
expectations, particularly since his pre
decessor, Gerald Ford, was holding the
line against any new initiatives on the
domestic front.
But in his campaign for reelection —
which to all intents and purposes is now
under way — Carter will have to defend
his own record, which he told the editors
is a “good” one to run on. He also will have
to lay out a blueprint for an America
somewhat in retreat.
But opposition candidates are bound to
make their promises for a golden future
this time around, and will blame Carter for
the current state of the nation.
Battling big business
Union mergers newest trend
By DREW VON BERGEN
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Organized labor,
faced with growing industry conglomer
ates and declining legislative power, is
merging its forces to shore up the battle
against big business.
The recent merger of two of the largest
unions in the food industry — the Meat-
cutters and Retail Clerks — into a 1.2 mil
lion United Food and Commercial Work
ers International Union highlights an at
mosphere of unity prevailing in the union
movement.
Since the American Federation of Labor
and Congress of Industrial Organizations
merged in 1955, the AFL-CIO has pro
moted the concept of linking affiliates.
Forty-one such mergers have occurred in
the past quarter century, changing the
face of many of labor’s top organizations.
Prospects for more mergers appear
likely.
The trend goes beyond the needs of in
dividual unions to the heart of the 13.6
million member AFL-CIO as the prime
representative of organized labor.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Lane
Kirkland, the heir apparent to President
George Meany, said he did not know of
any mergers that did not benefit all con
cerned.
“All of the unions involved are stronger,
more efficient and more effective in the
workplace, at the bargaining table, in the
legislative halls and in the community,”
Kirkland told the founding convention of
the UFCW.
Kirkland said such mergers were neces
sary to ward off attacks on the union
movement: “Right-wing, anti-democratic
forces, aided and abetted and bankrolled
by corporate America, are engaged in
what amounts to a holy war to destroy our
unions, undermine our nation’s laws and
roll back the gains that workers have
made,” Kirkland said.
Frank Pollara, a leading AFL-CIO offi
cial on mergers, said economics of collec
tive bargaining and organizing nonunion
workers necessitates mergers. “A small
union is at a tremendous disadvantage,"
Pollara said. “It costs money.”
The largest union in the nation, with
about 2 million members, is not in the
AFL-CIO. The Tea msters union was
ousted from the federation in 1957 be
cause of corruption charges.
Two more non-AFL-CIO unions — the
National Education Association and the
United Auto Workers — follow as the sec
ond and third largest in membership.
William Wynn, head of the new
UFCW, believes both the Teamsters and
UAW should be welcomed back into the
federation. In fact, he believes the
Teamsters never should have been ousted.
While collecting organized labor into
one affiliated federation may boost its lob
bying clout on Capitol Hill and at the
White House on national and international
issues, more attention is being focused on
merging individual unions for day-to-day
operations and collective bargaining.
The American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees, with
about 1 million members, has been suc
cessful in growing to the sixth largest
union using merger as a major tool.
On the horizon are several more joint
ventures, some in the final process of
merger, and others just in the talking
stage.
Th e most advanced involves the
13,000-member Wood, Wire, and Metal
Lathers International Union joining the
775,000 member Carpenters union.
A referendum of the Lathers member
ship will be held July 28, then the merger
is scheduled for completion at a conven
tion in Atlanta in August.
The Lathers are faced with modern day
technology that many unions — particu
larly those in the construction trades —
see cutting into their membership.
Lathers installed the wooden slats and
later metal mesh on which plaster was
applied to make the walls and ceilings of
most.old buildings. With the advent of
drywall construction, the trade dwindled.
“We are proud of our craft, our skills, and
the long history of accomplishment,” said
Lathers President Charles Prodeur in urg
ing the merger. “But we have to face
reality. Our basic trade, which was
founded on the use of lath and plaster, has
all but disappeared.”
Another new merger involves the UAW
and District 65, a 35,000-member inde
pendent union that includes such diverse
workers as university employees, lawyers,
editors, factory workers, and direct-mail
companies. The Autoworkers executive
board has approved accepting District 65
Letter to the Editor
as an amalgamated local union. Leaders of
both groups were among the early partici
pants in civil rights demonstrations in the
nation.
Several other unions are also con
templating merger:
So long A&M, thanks
Editor:
Well, my day has finally arrived (gradu
ation) and so I take this time to reflect on
my college journey. It was the hardest
thing I ever undertook, trying to obtain a
mechanical engineering degree at A&M.
All I can say is that A&M is a great place to
be from. For all those crybabies who
didn’t make it, my heart bleeds for you. It
took me 5 years to finish, mixed with a
year and a half of work experience. I want
to expecially thank Ned Walton, assistant
dean of engineering and the entire M.E.
faculty. Believe it or not, I learned a heck
of a lot from those guys and I’m proud to
say I m a Texas Aggie. In closing, I want to
thank God, my family and friends for put
ting up with my determination to succeed.
Highway 6, here I come!
—L.B. Tate, ’77
Cabinet arrangement
may be unproductive
By DEAN REYNOLDS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Will the adminis
tration’s health package have a better
chance to clear Congress now that Joseph
Califano has departed as secretary of
health, education and welfare?
Probably not.
Patricia Harris, who has just assumed
command of the nation’s largest agency,
will become the administration’s chief
legislative lobbyist for such things as the
hospital cost containment bill and national
health insurance.
Can she make a difference?
The answer again is, probably not.
Based on Mrs. Harris’ comments as she
takes over from Califano, she and her pre
decessor share the same philosophy about
health care and hospital costs.
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So, there will most likely be no change
in intensity when it comes to pushing the
president’s programs. So far, that intensity
has produced little.
Much of the congressional bleating that
accompanied President Carter’s dismissal
of Califano was seen as hypocritical. Many
of the congressmen who professed to be
outraged by the firing were the same ones
who were working behind the scenes to
gut the very legislation Califano was push
ing.
Hospital cost containment has yet to
come up for a vote in the full House or
Senate.
It has been weakened by the House
Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t
even made it to the half House Commerce
Committee from that panel’s subcommit
tee on health.
In the Senate, two committees also had
to pass judgment on the bill. One, the
Labor and Human Resources panel,
passed it. The other, the Finance Commit
tee, killed it — not exactly a clear show of
support.
The proposal seeks to put a cap on the
annual increase in hospital costs. The ad
ministration first proposed a 9.7 percent
ceiling, then raised it a bit, and now it sits
around 11.6 percent. As inflation con
tinues and the calendar marches on into
fall, that ceiling may go even higher.
The bill would also carry standby man
datory controls for those hospitals that re
fuse or are unable to keep their costs
within that ceiling. The Ways and Means
Committee watered that idea down con
siderably when it decided a one-house
veto could thwart any presidential move to
impose those mandatory' controls.
The question, then, is what difference
can Pat Harris make? The answer is, prob
ably very little.
Her appointment or, more accurately,
Califano’s ouster, could even hurt the ad
ministration’s proposals. If Califano was
anything, he was well-connected on
Capitol Hill. He is, after all. a Washington
veteran — unlike his former boss.
No one really believes that if Califano
had wanted the department of education
idea to die, it would have survived in spite
of him. A congressmen reportedly told the
former secretary that one negative phone
call from Califano could have finished the
bill.
The bill may be finished anyway, but
that’s another matter.
News Capsules
STATE
Galveston fire slows ship traffic
Five men working on a barge-like overwork rig in Galveston Bay
escaped without injury from a fire that threatened 13,000 gallons of
diesel fuel and slowed ship traffic. Chief Petty Officer George
Blocher said the fire started about noon Tuesday on the platform one
mile east of the ship channel and 15 miles north of Galveston. Within
minutes, Blocher said, the Coast Guard had two utility boats pump
ing water on the blaze and it was extinguished within two hours. Hie
fire started in a “mud tank,” which holds a drilling compound. No
reason for the blaze was given.
NATION
Just say ‘tannic acid, beertender
Miller Brewing Co. has told the government it doesn’t think
Anheuser-Busch should be allowed to call its beers “natural” when
they are made with things like tannic acid and chemically treated
beechwood chips. In the latest round of a continuing regulator}-
agency war between the nation’s top two brewers. Miller fired off
statements from three nutritionists saying Busch’s use of the word
“natural” is deceptive. Busch’s “highly processed, chemically
modified and treated beers do not come within the accepted defini
tion of‘natural, ”’ Miller said in a memo filed with the Federal Trade
Commission. Miller, No. 2 brewer in terms of sales, has been at war
with Busch for some time. Earlier this year Miller told the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Busch should not be allowed to call
Michelob Light a “light” beer when it contains 134 calories. Miller’s
“Lite” beer has 96 calories. Earlier, Busch had complained to the
FTC Miller was promoting its Lowenbrau beer as “imported” when
in reality it was all made in this country. Miller later dropped the
imported claim.
Slain FBI agent Oliver buried
FBI Director William Webster and agents from throughout the
Midwest were among an overflow crowd in Metropolis, Ill., that paid
final respects to Johnnie L. Oliver, their colleague who was gunned
down in Cleveland. The Rev. Don Young, pastor of the Bible Baptist
Church at nearby Paducah, Ky., eulogized Oliver Tuesday as a man
“who stood in our place. He stood for what is right. Nearly 300
mourners crowded into the main chapel at the Aikins-Farmer Fu
neral Home and into two adjoining rooms and the foyer. Oliver, 35,
married and the father of three small children, was shot to death last
Thursday in Cleveland as he and five other agents attempted to arrest
a federal fugitive, Melvin Bay Guyon, 19, of Chicago. Guyon, the
prime suspect in the shooting, is the object of a massive search by the
FBI as well as state and local authorities. Guyon is wanted on kidnap
ping, rape and armed robbery charges in Chicago.
‘Robber priest's trial continues
A hardware store owner Wednesday became the third person to
testify before a jury in Wilmingotn, Del., that a Catholic priest used a
pistol to rob a store. Carroll Reynolds reiterated before a Superior
Court jury testimony he had given in the jury’s absence Monday that
the Rev. Bernard T. Pagano was the man he identified in a police
lineup as the gunman who robbed Haverbeck’s Hardware in subur
ban Wilmington last January. Reynolds said he had police turn the
eight men in the lineup to the side so he could see their profile. Only
then, he said, was he sure Pagano was the robber police nicknamed
the “Gentlemen Bandit.”
WORLD
Flood death toll up to 15,000
Now that the flood waters that inundated the industrial city of
Morvi have begun to recede, authorities have revised the death toll
to as high as 15,000. About 1,000 bodies had been recovered from the
ruins of the northwestern city by Tuesday and rescue workers said
many bloated corpses were still were rotting on streets and rooffops,
in houses and temples.“The death toll will be between 10,000 and
15,000,” Vallabhai Patel, vice president of Gujurat state’s ruing
Janata Party, told reporters after inspecting the disaster site. Five
days after the dam that released the water burst, there still were no
reports on casualties and damage from a number of villages
downstream from Morvi.
Dealer pays $10 million for letters
A London dealer has paid more than $10 million in New York for
about 3,500 antique postal items in the stamp collection of a retired
Wall Street financier. Some letters in the collection — signed by
Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson
and Abraham Lincoln — did not cost anything to mail. The chief
executives used their free mailing privileges. “A great deal of taste, a
great deal of knowledge and a great deal of money” went into putting
together the collection, said Howard Fraser, chairman of Stanley
Gibbons International, which bought the collection from Marc Haas.
Soviet planes collide, 150 killed
Two passenger planes collided in the air over the Ukraine Saturday
night, killing about 150 persons including the 17 members of a Soviet
soccer team, Soviet sources said Wednesday. The crash occurred
near Dneprodzerzhinsk, 500 miles south of Moscow, the sources
said. One of the planes was an Aeroflot jet carrying the Pakhtakor
soccer team from Tashkent to Minsk to play Minsk Dynamo, they
said. The newspaper Pravda Vostoka published a brief article in its
Wednesday edition saying only that the team was killed in a crash,
but giving no further details.
The newspaper’s executive secretary said in telephone interview
from Moscow that the story was carried on the paper’s front page.
The newspaper does not reach Moscow until several days after it is
published.
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