St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 32

i i.i. i 1 1 Two Moves TWarcl Peace SILOUIS POST-DISPATCH Dtemitr 11, I grt 'fq THE POST-DISPATCH PLATFORM I KNOW THAT MY RETIREMENT VIU MAKE NO DIFFERENCE IN ITS CARDINAL PRINCIPLES, THAT IT WILL ALWAYS FIGHT FOR' PROGRESS AND REFORM. NEVER. TOLERATE INJUSTICE OR COR-HUFTION, ALWAYS FIGHT DEMAGOGUES OF ALL PARTIES, NEVER BELONG TO ANT PARTY. ALWAVS OPPOSE PRIVILEGED CLASSES AND PUBLIC PLUNDERERS.

NEVER LACK WITH THE POOR, ALWAYS REMAIN DEVOTED TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE. NEVER BE SATIS-FIED WITH MERELY PRINTING NEWS, ALWAYS BE DRASTICALLY INDEPEND tKT, NEVER SB AFRAID TO ATTACK WRONG. WHETHER BY PREDATORY PLUTOCRACY OR PREDATORY POVERTY. day war. The Russians take the position that the American initiative accepts the principle of complete withdrawal, and they are likely to exert pressure in this direction.

How far the Israelis are willing to pull back obviously will depend on what sort of agreement can be reached with the Arab states. Control of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the fate of 1,200,000 Arab refugees and guarantees of Israeli passage through the Suez canal are among the thorny issues to be settled. The issues are not new, and the question is whether there is any more chance of working them out now than there was previously. We think there is. Both the Israelis and the Egyptians must now realize that they are in a condition of dangerous stalemate, that a fair solution would be advantageous to both.

And it would also seem that both the Russians and the Americans have a clearer stake in avoiding an escalation of the fighting. So there is real hope that Mr. Jarring can make progress. The Russian-German pact could be an inspiration. It is in effect an acceptance of realities that have existed for many years and an agreement to avoid war as a means of attaining national goals.

It is the result of five months of preliminary talks, and 11 days of final negotiations. It is the keystone of Chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of better relations between Bonn and the Communist nations of eastern Europe, and it could have many constructive ramifications. It is heartening indeed, against the background of the dismal and seemingly unending American involvement in Indochina, to reflect on the hopeful developments in Europe and the Middle East. Acceptance by Israel and Egypt of the American-proposed standstill cease-fire in the Middle East and the initialing of a nonaggres-sion treaty by the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union and West Germany may be viewed together, and warmly welcomed, as examples of what diplomacy can accomplish if there is a desire for accommodation. There has been nothing but gloom over peace prospects in the Arab-Israeli struggle as hostilities continued and bitterness mounted.

But apparently a point was reached at which both the Soviet Union and the United States realized the increasing danger of a big-power confrontation which neither wanted. So the way was paved for a truce which, if the plan is followed, will last for 90 days. The hope is, of course, that before the period ends a way will have been found to continue the truce until a settlement is reached. Talks are to be under the supervision of United Nations mediator Gunnar Jarring, whose mission is supported by Britain and France as well as by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

The road before Mr. Jarring is likely to be long and rough, but he can be successful if the adversaries exercise reason. What influence the Arab commando movement will have on the cease-fire remains to be seen. Spokesmen for the Palestinian groups have rejected it and vowed to undermine it, and unless these extremists can be brought under some kind of control by the Arab states they could present a challenge to the peace-seekers. The major point at issue in the coming bargaining is the full or partial withdrawal by Israel from Arab lands seized in the 1967 six- Extending Farm Subsidies -vV- jMft'iLP.

win 1 1 crbicst ST f.TV4r 'We'll Cure That Old Inflation Yet' The Fanatic Budgeters Critic Says Defense Spending Can Be Cut By 14 Billion Next Year jompw runra AM 19. 1907 Sunday, August 9, 1970 Letters From The People The President On Peace I believe it is noteworthy that President Nixon, in responding to Israel's approval of the United States peace initiative, urged the warring Middle East countries to adopt the type of negotiating position which he has consistently rejected at this country's peace talks in Paris. In an accurate assessment of the situation, the President predicted that the goal of peace in the Middle East will require "moderation, flexibility, and a willingness of the participants to accept something less than their maximum positions if progress toward a just and lasting peace is to be made." Ironically, at his Los Angeles press conference the night before Israel's acceptance, Mr. Nixon restated his same hard and inflexible position regarding the issue of a coalition government in Saigon. He asserted that he was "opposed to a coalition government negotiated or imposed." Since the President's refusal to even discuss a coalition government is a principal obstacle in the stalemated Paris talks, I would suggest that he remind himself of the realistic negotiating formula he recommended to the embattled Middle East.

George J. Kerry Greetings From Hiroshima For several years now St. Louis citizens have been observing Hiroshima Day and have been sending greetings to Hiroshima for the solemn observances there on Aug. 6. The Mayor of Hiroshima, Setsuo Yama-da's response to our greetings on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the A-bombing of his city, said in part: "Lack of vision and apathy nurture the stealthily advancing nuclear armament which, as the experts put it, i 1 enough nuclear weapons to kill the whole population of this planet many times over.

The hugeness makes the dreadful reality elusive to the layman who is actually the victim of colossal madness. At the same time, the initial impact of the actual horrors and sufferings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki tends to diminish in the minds of the rising generations with the passage of a quarter-century since the catastrophe. "We hope that the experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will keep all of us alert to the silently advancing nuclear armament; and urge us all to continue our patient efforts to turn ignorance and apa The two other significant changes give the Secretary of Agriculture more flexibility in setting price supports and farmers more latitude as to what they may plant. The bill would do away with specific acreage controls for specific crops and require farmers who want subsidies to retire a fixed number of acres. They could use the remainder as they chose.

In general, however, the basic theory of all farm legislation since the New Deal is retained. That is that overproduction remains the chief threat to farm income and that it can best be controlled and income supported by subsidies. In his campaign President Nixon told farmers that "we will strengthen markets so more of your money can come from the market." In fact, the new program would leave farmers about as dependent upon subsidization as did the old. It has always proved a lot easier to talk about a return to a free farm market than to risk the consequences. rank drugs in four categories according to their potential for harm, and grade punishment accordingly.

This is sound recognition that laws that treat marijuana in the same manner as heroin are excessively harsh, as well as unrealistic. It might be added that they do not work very well, either. A Jumbo Goes To Cuba It was only a matter of time before someone hijacked one of the new jumbo jets and now that a Boeing 747 carrying 379 persons has been diverted to Cuba the time is clearly at hand for the Federal Government to take further steps to discourage aerial piracy. A call by the airlines, government officials and the press for urgent action has become something of a routine after every hijacking but the possibilty that now exists for a desperate or deranged adventurer to take 400 lives gives the demand a special importance. The 119-member Organization of Civil Aviation is drafting a broad treaty requiring all signing nations to return most hijackers to face criminal No doubt there is merit in such an agreement, but the fact remains that Cuba categorically rejects the proposal and Cuba, at least for aviation in this hemisphere, is the principal destination of hijackers.

Since 1961, 116 airplanes have been ordered to Cuba and of these 64 have been American. Cuba reportedly would consider signing a bilateral agreement on hijacking with the United States and we think the Administration should give serious thought to such an arrangement. An agreement between Cuba and the United States would not necessarily weaken the OCA proposal, which in any case would be of only limited value without Havana's co-operation. Until technological deterrents to hijacking are perfected or an acceptable international treaty on air piracy is signed, an arrangement with Cuba has much to recommend it. The Facade Of Influence Among the petty frauds that are practiced with some regularity' in Washington, probably none is as prevalent as the announcement from the office of a Senator or Representative that the home state or district has been awarded a defense contract.

Except in unusual cases, the contract itself is insignificant and the legislator had little or nothing to do with its award. Still, he is able to present himself to his constituents as a Congressman with plenty of influence at the Pentagon. The Senate has voted, in what the Wo It Street Journal describes as a "unanimous display of purity," to abolish this cozy arrangement between the Pentagon and Congress. While there is some question as to whether the House, which is the chief beneficiary of the procedure, will be willing to give it up, reform scarcely needs to wait on legislative action. The Pentagon is perfectly capable of issuing the first public announcement of all defense contracts.

Beyond this, of course, legislators who are opposed to continuing this facade can themselves refuse to appear to take credit for defense business over which they had no real influence. The House has voted by 212 to 171 for a farm bill that contains a few changes in farm subsidy practices but no real change in the philosophy of subsidized agriculture. Perhaps the most notable change is a $55,000 limit on crop payments to individual producers of cotton, wheat and feed grains. The Senate version of the bill would place the limit at $20,000. Undoubtedly most taxpayers would agree there should be some restrictions on the size of payments made for not growing crops.

The problem is to keep the limit high enough so that big farm operators would still have an incentive to use the control program. There is no precise measurement for such a limitation, and there probably will be an effort to reduce the $55,000 figure. Even that limit, however, would prevent the most egregious abuses in a program originally intended to help not huge corporate farms, but family-sized operations. Postal Business Though Postmaster General i M. Blount says he will still ask Congress for improvements in the postal revision plan it has just sent to the White House, the measure is a remarkable achievement.

It represents a surrender of political control by Congress over what for 181 years has been treated as a political plum. That was just the trouble. A system that involved seven billion dollars a year and 32,000 offices across the country had become so inefficient as to be politically unmanageable. It called for business management. While Congress would not go all the way and establish a public mail corporation, it has agreed to an independent service which will set its own policies and postal rates and conduct collective bargaining over postal pay.

What remains for use of the taxpayers' money is a subsidy program, largely to pay for costly rural mail service, amounting to $300,000,000 a year through 1979 and declining thereafter. In 1984 Congress will be asked to decide whether to place the new United States Postal Service entirely on a self supporting basis. That is the goal Mr. Blount has in Whether and when it is reached now depends on how well the new service is managed. Mr.

Gore In Tennessee The victory of Senator Albert Gore in the Tennessee Democratic primary appears likely to insure a genuinely significant election contest in November. Mr. Gore, a candidate for a fourth Senate term, will face Representative William E. Brock, who won the Republican primary. Mr.

Brock, a millionaire candy manufacturer, is a strong backer of President Nixon; Mr. Gore, a liberal with a record of 32 years on Capitol Hill, is a critic of United States policy in Vietnam and voted against Mr. Nixon's two rejected Southern appointees to the Supreme Court. He refers to himself as the No. 1 White House target in the fall voting.

So, as the election shapes up today, the issue in Tennessee is unequivocal. Mr. Gore's distinguished record entitles him to another term, and we hope he gets it. A Model Drug Law Though the National Conference on Uniform State Laws was told President Nixon wanted state drug laws similar to one passed by Congress, the Administration is not going to get them. The group meeting here has voted to eliminate a "no knock" police raid provision already accepted by the Senate and awaiting House action.

This provision would permit police with search warrants to break into Hbmes and buildings without warning to searcih for drugs a procedure not authorized by statute in the past and not one to be encouraged. The Nixon Administration advised the confidence that "no knock" would be constitutional. The state commissioners considering the matter think otherwise and we suspect the co'orts might, too. Otherwise the model law under consideration has some progressive features. It would of the number of delivered warheads will increase the population fatalities by only 9 per cent or from 30 to 39 per cent.

A doubling of the delivered warheads from 400 to 800 hardly increases the amount of industry destroyed. It raises that figure by only one per cent from 76 to 77 per cent or a figure which is too small to be important. There is, therefore, a very definite law of diminishing returns which operates with respect to the size of our nuclear deterrent. Yet with 4200 weapons in our intercontinental arsenal (and some believe we already have more than 6000) plus those which can be delivered by medium range missiles or tactical aircraft, we are now moving on through this bill and other bills to increase our official nuclear force loadings from 4200 to MOO, nr by 12!) per rent. As George Santayana once said, fanatacism means redoubling one's efforts after having lost sight, of one's aims.

We could cut 10 billion from the present budget and still meet every assumption on which the Secretary of Defense says it is based. We can take them at their word and take their assumptions and still cut it 10 billion. In addition, we could cut the 18 billion for the strategic nuclear forces in this year's budget by up to 4 billion, and still have more than 15 times the deliverable nuclear weapons which could destroy 30 per cent of the Russian population and 75 per cent of its industry, or some 7000 deliverable nuclear weapons. Based on the Administration's own verbal assumptions, we could have a budget of 62 billion instead of 72 billion. Based on some additional small reduction in- the proposed nuclear strategic program but which would still increase our existing strategic strength, we could cut another 4 billion, or to a level of about 58 billion.

And this total amount would include the 11 billion incremental cost of the Vietnam War. There are those who will acknowledge the facts about, the 1971 budget but who will nonetheless say that it takes time to shift, from old assumptions, to cut back on weapons and manpower, and to bring a shift in policies. They will therefore attempt to justify this year's high level 72 billion dollar budget with these arguments. Of course, there is something to this. To move from the 72 billiri level to a 58 billion level all at once might be a difficult job.

It. may well be that a smaller reduction would be more possible to accomplish. But we must reduce expenditures. 'I'm Still A Mttle There Didn't lerl To Be A Resistance Movement' Ad To Live Bv mid, right-hand-of-the-road (U.S.A.) driver whose automotive goal is to stay alive might well rise to bait such as this: "Pollution-free engine of modern horsepower, Indestructible chassis, full-view vision, blow-out proof tires, top speed legal limit, does 0 to 35 in plenty of time to get you and the car there in one piece." Dull, perhaps, but guaranteed to promote you to senior citizenship and keep you there. From A Sppprh By Spnatnr William Proxmire We have before us the military authorization bill, which covers chiefly the future procurement of planes, tanks, ships, guns anil missiles, and the funds we intend to spend for military research and development.

Involved are budgetary requests for about 20 billion dollars of the 72 billion dollar military budget for fiscal year 1971. What we need to ask ourselves is whether we are not spending a disproportionate amount of our treasury and our resources on the military establishment. I say that given the need to protect, the country, the a a i 1 i i of our potential enemies, the strength of our allies, the social needs we have at home, the cruel effects of excessive military spending on The Mirror our the requirements for prudence and effi-Of i in procurement, the need to provide for domestic Public Opinion tranquillity, and the overwhelming importance of gaining from all groups and sections of our society the fundamental support of our government and our system and the democratic processes, we are now spending far too much on the military. Since 1960 we have spent between 15 and IS billion dollars a year on our strategic nuclear forces. We have a triple deterrent.

We have built up our land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. There are now some 1054 of these ICBM launchers. We have built up our submarine fleet. We have a force of 41 Polaris submarines and at least some 656 SLBM launchers. In addition to that, we now have some 581 intercontinental bombers capable of delivering nuclear warheads, in our strategic arsenal.

None of this is secret. These figures are all outlined in the annual posture statement of the Secretary of Defense. These three strategic deterrents can deliver some 4200 nuclear warheads what are called "total force loadings." In addition to all of this, we have ringed the Soviet Union with a large number of medium range missiles and we have Navy and Air Force medium range bombers and other tactical aircraft which can also carry nuclear weapons. But what do we need to provide an "assured destruction Secretary McNamara published a damage table in 1968 giving some of the assumptions on which our deterrent is based. He believed there was an unacceptable level of damage which we could inflict on the Soviet Union after a nuclear attack on us.

Such an ability to retaliate would therefore deter them from attack. This has generally been taken as a level of damage which would include 25 per cent of the population of the Soviet Union and approximately 75 per cent of its industry. Surely that should he sufficient to deter the Soviet Union from attacking us. According to Serretary McNamara's table, the equivalent of 400 one-megaton delivered warheads could achieve this purpose. That number could wipe out 74,000,000 Russians or 30 per cent of their estimated 1972 population.

It would also wipe out more than 75 per cent of their industrial capacity. This is the horrible state of the world. Without counting medium range missiles or bombers, or any increase in strength due to the MIRVing of either the Minuteman or Polaris submarines, we now have at least 4200 total force loadings. This is ten times the number needed to kill 74,000,000 Russians or 30 per cent of their population and to destroy 75 per cent of their industry. One interesting aspect of all of this is that, according to Secretary McNamara's damage table, a doubling nf the number of delivered warheads from 400 to 800 does not double the damage.

A doubling Automobile From The. Miami Herald A British auto manufacturer is bringing out a V-8 sports car (not for export yet, mate) advertised as having "an overhead camshaft engine, with a top speed of 120 miles an hour 0 to 60 m.p.h. In 9.5 seconds." This sort of thing doubtless appeals to the drag fraternity but we wonder whether, so to speak, the brake shoe is on the wrong foot. Some day your ti thy into cognizance of the most vital prob- lem of today." Mrs. Herbert Spiegelberg On The Block This is to express my thanks to the Post-Dispatch and to your George McCue I for espousing the cause of saving the Old Post Office.

As one who was born and brought up in St. Louis and whose family lived there for several generations, I was shocked to read Mrs. Huxtable's splendid article in the Sunday New York Times i about the probable fate of the old build-I ing. It seems incredible that this wonder-. ful old landmark should be sacrificed to the greed cf a few people.

My father, Silas Bent Russell, and my mother, Anne Clendenin Russell, were loy-' al St. Louisans and worked in different ways to make the city a good place in which to live. My mother after she came East sub- scribedtothe Post-Dispatch after my 1 father's death and read it faithfully as long as she was able to read. I hope some-I how you will manage to save the building. Setauket, N.Y.

Isabel Rus3ell Wenneis Smearing The Flag One of your readers has said that our flag was desecrated when it appeared on jewelry and other decorations, and he stated that it was illegal to so use the flag. He forgot to mention the worst offender cf all, the United States Post Office Department. Not only has the department issued stamps with the Stars and Stripes on it, but it has smeared it by using it as a cancellation mark. University City Raphael Kahn "Where To Bury The Gas A sensible method of disposing of the army's lethal nerve gas would be to bury it beneath the Pentagon and then flood the Pentagon up to the top floor with concrete. Future chemical and biological war activities could be confined to the top floor and facilities close by built for the other services.

Perhaps the parking lot would be the ideal site. Savings in future years would be tremendous. James A. Ryan 2B.