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Editorials
Experiment Gone Sour
Add to experiments in government
that turned out differently from planners’
dreams: Election financing reforms.
The Federal Election Campaign Act of
1974 was supposed to lessen the influence
of special interest in national politics: to
expose sources of political money so
secret slush funds would less likely: to in
crease the participation of voters in
presidential and congressional races.
A Federal Election Commission was
set up to enforce the Act and pass out
subsidies to those candidates meeting
certain standards.
In its first five years of operation,
what the Act actually has accomplished,
however, is to foster three destructive
trends in American politics, as follows:
1. By setting unrealistically low limits
on the amount of money an individual can
contribute to any candidate, the law has
forced office seekers to depend more than
ever on their personal wealth plus con
tributions from Political Action Commit
tees, which usually represent the special
interests whose influence was due to be
lessened.
2. By the inexorable principles of
bureaucracy, the Federal Election Com
mission has spawned a jungle of regula
tions that tend to add still another layer
to the confusion and cynicism enveloping
the American electoral process. In the
welter of over-regulation, it is the power
ful, well-financed campaigners who get
the largest subsidies because they can
thread their way through the
Airships Again?
In at least four countries airships are
being built again. The last commercial
use of these aerial carriers was in the thir
ties; and when the Hindenburg burned at
Lakehurst, N. J., in 1937, that was the
death-knell of their pre-war use.
But the Hindenburg was filled with
hydrogen, not helium, which doesn’t burn
(the U. S. refused to sell Germany helium
to fill the Hindenburg). And because of
the higher price of fuel today, and better
weather reporting, dirigibles appear to be
an economical mode of transportation.
A Brisith firm has just completed the
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bureaucratic mazes better than the little
fellows who were supposed to be helped
by the 1974 Act.
3. The major political parties, which
once provided a school for leaders and a
means of bringing the average person in
to some kind of enduring relationship
with politics, are being increasingly weak
ed. Moving into their former place of
power are the special interests
represented by Political Action Commit
tees, and the promoters of one-issue
groups such as anit-abortion and pro
abortion forces; no-nukes and pro-nukes
alliances—the list of one-shot splinter
groups gets longer each year. The House
Administration Committee financed a
study of election finances by Harvard
Unversity’s Institute of Politics. The
study’s authors declare the 1974 Act
“has addded to the honesty and efficiency
of the political system.” But their facts
and figures demonstrate the problems,
not successes.
Individual contributions are down, in
relation to PAC gifts. Fund-raising has
become more a matter of direct mail and
TV advertising than grassroots par
ticipation. A smaller share of voters are
voting, than ever before.
Congress may try to legislate some
reduction in financial reports that can
didates have to file, in weeks ahead. But
substantive reforms will be put aside un
til after the 1980 election. The subject of
money is still too tender to tackle, on the
eve of a presidential race, even when a
charge is needed.
first of 21 165-foot airships for a
Venezuela financier. In Germany a
400-foot airship is being constructed.
These airships have titanium skins, said
to be as hard as steel. They use little fuel
(since their gas does the lifting) and they
cruise at just under 100 miles an hour.
They are quiet, smooth and now con
sidered quite safe. They may be part of
the answer to the fuel crunch—letting the
winds and air transport goods of the
world, with minimum assist from gas
line engines (the new British airshop is
powered by only two 3-liter engines).
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A Decade Later: Less Commitment
It is ironic that the space program
would get so much bad press with the fall
ing of Skylab this year as it is the 10th an
niversary of our first moon landing.
The early reentry of Skylab is stark
evidence that this nation has lost its com
mitment to space exploration at the very
time we need it most.
Most of us became concerned that
somebody might get hit by the falling
Skylab—a not uncalled for fear,
perhaps—but the big tragedy was that
with its death we lost our only orbiting
space laboratory. Yes, we lost the only
building block we had in space in our
quest of the heavens.
Our space program has seen trerpen
dous cuts—by approximately 20 percent
over the past decade—at the very time we
need to be focusing our energies on space
travel.
We haven’t given up, mind you, but
while other countries—notably the
U.S.S.R.—has stepped up its commit
ment to space travel the U. S. has step
ped back in that endeavor.
Unfortunately too many Americans
view the space race as a rat hole in which
money has been thrown down with few, if
any, paybacks.
But the paybacks have been many. A
few examples:
* The mini-calculator that can be
bought anywhere now for a few dollars,
His Mommie Done Tol' Him
WASHINGTON—Maybe
we’ve heard the last of com
plaints that women are
discriminated against in na
tional politics.
If you can believe the com
ments and actions of Presi
dent Jimmy Carter and
Senator Edward Kennedy, the
two front-runners for the 1980
Democratic Party nomination
for President, women have
plenty of political savvy and
clout.
Teddy, who only stops run
ning long enough to deny that
he’s running, reminds me of
an expectant mother in her
eighth month of pregnancy
who still claims she's a virgin.
However, the 47-year-old
senator’s, facade was per
forated recently when his
mother gave him permission
to run for the Presidency. If
Teddy makes a good early
showing, perhaps matriarch
Rose will also let him sleep
over with friends, not on
school nights, of course, but
on weekends.
To show that mother
Rose's blessing wasn’t a one
sided, isolated gesture, the
Senator’s wife also jumped
through the hoop. Joan allow
ed as now shea be willing to
live with Ted again full
time—if he lived in the White
House. Apparently, she
believes it will be no harder to
TOM KIRWAN
Off the Newsdesk
WARTS
AND ALL
“dry out” at 1600 Penn
sylvania Avenue than at an
exclusive west coast
sanitarium.
If they make it, I hope
Joan knows she won’t be able
to use the White House
closets for her favorite
pastime. Teddy will have dibs
on the closets, and you know
what he’ll hide in them, the
same rattling objects he’s
been hiding in closets since
Chappaquiadick.
In any event, two of the
prominent women in the
senator's life have given him
the “go ahead." In due course,
he’ll also receive pats on the
head from Jackie, Ethel, and
his array of sisters.
But, don’t think for one
minute President Carter has
no counter moves. A few days
ago, Jimmy began to lean on a
number of reluctant con
gressmen. Angered by House
members who have con
sistently voted against him,
Jimmy issued an ultimatum.
“i’ll be damned if I'll send
my wife into your district for a
fund-raiser," he was quoted as
saying.
Surprisingly, no one asked,
“Is that a promise?” Or, "Can
we count on it?”
I quickly scanned the news
report hoping to find my Con
gressman's name among
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only 20 years ago would have cost $1
million—and you would need a living
room to store the equipment.
* In our homes, because of the space
age, we now have relatively-inexpensive
smoke and fire alarms, better fans, safer
electric wiring, non-flammable furniture,
and new wall coverings. All are direct or
indirect benefits from the space program.
* Innumerable biological is solation
systems and continuation controls have
come from manned space flight efforts,
just some of the many medical benefits
that have translated into lives being sav
ed.
* Even in recreation improvements
have cropped up. A new plastic foam
three times as shock absorbent as its
predecessor is now used in football
helmets and pads.
But these improvements are nothing
compared to what could be accomplished
in space if we set our minds to it. It is not
farfetched to believe that space mining
could help reduce our energy crisis, as
could orbiting solar stations. And, at a
time when we don’t know what to do with
millions of pounds of radioactive wastes,
the possibility of shooting such materials
into the sun seems logical.
Yes, the U. S. needs to regain its com
mitment for space travel. To do anything
less would be more than shortsighted.
BEN FULTON
those to be boycotted by
Rosalynn. No such luck.
Thus, we northern Virgi
nians soon will be treated to
Rosalynn’s well-known wifely
testimonial: “Jimmy’s doing a
great job. He’s happy and
healthy and loves all of you.
And I’m so proud of him
because I know he’s right.”
Now, I ask you. Would
anyone dare claim that women
aren’t playing a vital role in
running the country?
Os course, Teddy has an
ace in the hole that Jimmy
doesn’t have—Speaker of the
House, Tip O’Neill.
Lately, however, Tip has
had some difficulty picking up
Teddy’s ever-changing
signals. A few times Tip has
been taking pitches when he
should have been swinging
away.
,r Don’t worry about the
speaker,” Buncombe Bray,
our resident political
soothsayer, admonished
recently. "Kennedy has him in
his hip pocket."
"Is that where the Speaker
of the House should be?” I
asked.
“The proximity is right if
he intends to pursue a popular
osculating ritual so prevalent
in politics,” Buncombe chortl
ed.
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Facing South
“YOUR ROOTS GET SO DEEP”
LAFAYETTE, Ala.—“l grieved and cussed and
prayed myself into politics,” says Dot Allen, the first and
only woman elected to the Chambers County Board of
Education.
Mrs. Allen is also a florist, and as
she talks to visitors in her shop her
hands are busily snipping off flower
stems or arranging pieces of greenery
around a styrofoam block to make a
wreath or a floral blanket for a casket.
She talks and works and when she gets
excited she punctuates her words with
a wave of a flower. When she talks
about the school board and how she
came to be on it, the flowers start to
fly-
Mrs. Allen’s four children were all in the public
schools in LaFayette, but when desegregation arrived in
the late ’6os, she and her husband Ed came under
pressure to do like most other white parents and enroll
their children in a hastily-created private academy.
“We were approached about the private school in the
very beginning. But our initial reaction was just that we
weren’t interested. I had no objection to the integration.
When you have lived in a community all your life, you
know the people and I didn’t foresee any problems,” says
Mrs. Allen.
There were some personal problems, however. People
Dot Allen had known all her life began to avoid her. Com
ments were made about possible boycotts of her business.
There were a few anonymous, aggravating letters.
"I had never been uncomfortable in church in my life,
but all of a sudden the church was split just like the
school. You were either public or private and that’s the
way you were. It got so bad and I worried over it so that I
believe if I had been younger I might have moved away,”
she says. “But you know, your roots get so deep in a place
that you just can’t leave.”
So Dot and Ed Allen stayed with the public schools,
and one morning she woke up with the idea of running for
election to the county Board of Education.
“I looked and none of the people on the school board
had any children in public school. So I thought I could
contribute something in a first-hand kind of way. But at
first I didn’t even tell Ed I was planning to run.”
The seat that was up for election in 1973 was held by
Glenn McClendon, the wealthy owner of McClendon
Trucking Company, a major LaFayette employer and one
of the South’s largest motor haulers. McClendon served
on the county school board, but he sent his children to
private schools.
“I called Glenn up one morning and told him it was
nothing personal but that I was going to qualify,” Mrs.
Allen said. “Then I told Ed. He said, ‘Well, what does it
cost to qualify? I’ll pay the fee for you.’ I said, ‘Nope. I’m
not going to be obligated to you or anybody else, I ’ll pay
my own fee.’ So I qualified and then Glenn decided not to
run for re-election, so I had no opposition.”
She has since been reelected, and she works to rebuild
faith in public education. “I wish we had had somebody
who knew what I know now and who could have called a
big old town meeting where the whole community could
have talked about what we were about to be going
through. The community leaders at that time thought it
was best not to talk about it and that was a mistake. But
you can’t point a finger at anyone, because it was just
something so different from what any of us knew.”
But she acknowledges that winning whites back to the
public schools in Lafayette is a slow process. “I don’t
know of any problem in the schools now except that we
don t have enough whites. And you see that makes the
problem even worse because it was the influential white
people who pulled out. That left the black community and
a very few whites to try to do something about the
schools here. We have done something. I frankly think
my child is getting as good an education where he is as he
would get at the Academy. And I think it’s healthier.
They re trying to prolong something over there which
doesn’t exist any more.”
-RANDALL WILLIAMS
free lance
LaFayette, Ga.
IT IS
Middle age is when work is no longer
p!ay, and play is getting to be
work.—Florida Gosport
a syndicated column
voices of tradition
in a changing region
LA FAYETTE HIGH SCHOOL