4 Friday, April 27, 1973 University Daily Kansan KANSAN Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers. Power and the Press Every so often the powers that be in this country sneak glances down the hall of that Establishment highrise that houses them all to see what the other powers that be are up to, which assists inie in this national pastime. Of late we have heard little rustlings in the corridor. First there was the pitter patter of the executive: Vice President Agnew scurrying off to Des Moines and Montgomery, the President slipping from room to room to avoid press conferences. Clay Whitehead heading down the hall to attempt to induce television networks to reduce administration criticism in news programs. Then came the slither, slither of the FBI checking into the credentials of Daniel Schorr of CBS News under the guise of surveying his qualifications for an administration job. The Supreme Court made quite a racket with the announcement of its decision against Earl Caldwell. Reporters' rights to confidential relationships with their news media and journalists contend, by the First Amendment—became another occupational hazard of the press. The footsteps in the hall moved in two directions, however. Reporters continued to investigate and report on the government. In the process they uncovered the Watergate affair. Traffic in the hall increased. Last month the administration asked Congress for two laws to discourage the press from its critical tendencies. These laws, included in the Criminal Code Reform Act of 1973, would allow reporters who published, without governmental permission, the content of any government report or "any national defense information." For the first time in American history, government property would be defined as "intellectual property" in opposition to all other traditional government reports and studies would no longer be public property. Under the provisions of this act. a person could be punished for publishing the contents of any government report or study, or connection with "national security." Under this arrangement, the government would not have to prove that the reporter had any intent to enter the country or to help another country. Members of the press sometimes go too far in their efforts to uncover the news. Jack Anderson's recent publication of the Watergate grand jury testimony is in questionable taste. Yet, if Anderson and others like him had not had the persistence to dig hard and keep digging, we could have been about Watergate, let alone about the overwhelming stench of the elaborate attempts to cover up the affair. Watergate is an over-riding issue of national security, one which Nixon and his apparently overgrown staff have proved they would never tolerate it. Yet the President has coolly requested a muzzle for the press. Congress is weak; a branch of the government that will have to revitalize itself soon or slump into a painful, inactive crouch beneath the greedy arm of the White House. The courts are dependent upon the executive to put their decisions into practice. Both of these branches of government have a powerful tunnel power for the President, and he is eagerly grasping for it. Yet Nixon evidently cannot even control his own branch of the government. Where, then, does the responsibility for guarding our national security lie? The press has never been the most popular power structure in America, but over the two hundred years of our country's existence, the press has proved the only watchdog vicious enough to bite both the apparent enemy and the hand that feeds it. And that, in a nation of power plays as intense as those we live with, is our only guarantee to freedom of information. —Linda Schild James J. Kilpatrick Pliny the Elder, so we are told, once remarked that "no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it." The same gentle maxim ordinarily applies to bills that reach the floor of the United States Senate. Waste-of-Time-and-Money Bill It is arguable, indeed, that McGee's first premise is in error. Is there any valid reason why vast numbers of people should vote? More precisely, is there any reason to argue between good government and mass voting? It seems exceedingly doubtful. Utah and Montana, by way of example, traditionally have ranked high among the states in terms of voter turnout. Alabama and Louisiana traditionally have ranked But Wyoming Sen. Gale McGee's S 352, now the pending business before the Senate, may well constitute an exception to the rule. This is the Voter Registration Act, and the Postcard Registration Bill. It is a good that no good whatever can be got out of it. The bill might better be entitled, "An Act to Waste the Time and Money of the People and to Undermine the Constitution of the United States." To be sure, the senator from Wyoming does not have these purposes in mind. His idea is to make it easier for eligible persons to register as a voter in the hope that, once registered, they will be given good members. The gentleman is full of good intentions and bad law. low. Yet each of the states has sent some able and distinguished men to Congress; and each of them has sent men whose distinction was scarcely visible. There is nothing whatever, so far as I know, to prove that democracy is healthier, or government more virtuous, if 70 or 80 or 90 percent of all eligible persons register to vote. This further threshold observation: The right to vote, like other rights, is non-compulsory in its exercise. Just as the right to speak embraces a right to remain silent, so the right to vote embraces a right not to vote. Now that poll taxes and literacy tests have been effectively removed, the right to eligible adult and the ballot box but his own indifference. McGee's bill would do nothing to alter this human characteristic The senator proposes to create within the Census Bureau a new agency, the Federal Voter Registration Administration, which the agency would be responsible with mailings and with return cards attached, to every postal address in the country. The cards would be mailed no earlier than 45 days and no later than 30 days before the close of registration for a "federal" election—that is, an election to name members of the Census Bureau. The cards would be processed by local registrars. McGee supposes that this costly and clumsy system would produce millions of new voters. (C) 1973 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc. The bill is bad on its merits, and bad in principle. too. No one, least of all the senator from Wyoming, has any realistic idea of what the scheme would cost. Two years ago, when similar proposals were under consideration, the initial costs were estimated all the way from $191 million to $527 million and the annual costs between $26 million and $134 million. Neither does anyone have any clear idea of how the system would work. The Census Bureau opposes it. So does the Postal Department of Justice, which presumably has some responsibility—still unclear—for prosecuting the massive fraud that could be expected. Sen. James B. Allen of Alabama, chief opponent of McGee's bill, has raised serious questions of mechanics and proponents have been unable to answer. These considerations to one side, the bill would do grave violence to constitutional principles as old as the nation itself. The system would provide one more pernicious assault upon responsibilities plainly imposed in the states. The senator would use a judicial judgment against a particular institution. Seventeen months ago the Senate killed a similar proposal, on the mature conclusion that the scheme was unworkable and wrong. It still is. Congress and a Lack of Interest Up in Congress they're not getting much done either. The other day the House of Representatives voted whether or not to shore up the west front of the Capitol, a major national issue the members haven't been able to resolve after the Senate's recess. Some new congressmen say they've received five-inch thick wads of material on this critical question from both the Speaker and the chairperson, although not on word on such WASHINGTON--There are too many distractions to get much work done here. Every hour we have a new Watergate story to watch, and the couple Martha Mitchell saying her life is in danger, and husband John saying he doesn't know anything about it and he's too busy to find out. What you think he thinks she asks him to rub her back? But don't dismiss this furiously productive activity as another example of your tax dollar at work. Here and there in the dusty corners of unvisited committee rooms some of the boys are playing around with a few ideas. One of the more intriguing is a game where players try to prohibition against paying interest on checking accounts. Isn't it remarkable how often our men of affairs must be restrained from destroying A lot of people think the reason they don't get any interest on their checking accounts is that it would cost too much for the bank to process the check, once did pay interest on checking accounts, but during the depression it was decided that the competition between banks on checking-account interest rates would increase to unsound business practices. Anderson Saves Nixon in Clear WASHINGTON - The astonishing story can now be told about how the Watergate cover-up-d suddenly tear apart at the stitches. From the most competent sources inside the White House and the Justice Department, we have learned the fascinating details. Jack Anderson Our sources describe categorically that President Nixon had no advance knowledge of the Watergate break-in and bugging, but he did know John Mitchell and White House Counsel John Dean swore to that they had no part in the illegal operation. It was well known however how that Jeb Stuart Magalani was neck-ease in the scandal. As No. 2 man on the campaign committee, Magruder directed the activities of Watergate ringleader G. Gordon Liddy. Magruder introduced Liddy to deputy staff in 1973 and later law but added with a knowing smile, "Gordon Liddy also has other talents." After the arrest of the Watergate wiretappers, an agitated Liddy immediately tried to contact Magruder in California. Liddy submitted regular reports to Magruder on the bugging operation under the code name, "Gemstone." Magruder wrote a memo to Magruder cash out of the committee's safe. Liddy signed small, white chits with a special mark that became jokingly as "Liddy's mark." Liddy demanded to use the White House security network so he could speak on a secure phone. Unable to get through to Mr. Magruder, she left a message for Magruder to call him from a pay phone. When the call came through, Liddy reported what had happened and received instructions from the police to provide evidence. Finally, Magruder directed Liddy to report at once. Gen. Richard Kleinderst. Gen. Richard Kleinderst. Liddy located Kleindienst at the Burning Tree Golf course and rushed to consult him. Powell Moore, the campaign press chief, asked to go along. They called Kleindienst into a back room and confided that the burglary-bugging squad, caught red-handed inside Democrat headquarters, was headed by the President's campaign security chief. Coldly, Kleindienst picked up a telephone and reached Atty. Altay, who was the only one instructed Kleindienst, "I want to be sure that these people are treated as any other person I need under those circumstances." The chastened Liddy returned to the campaign headquarters and bolted out of the small shredder, which chewed them up too slowly to suit him. So he hustled upstairs with arms full of tools, and pushed them through a larger shredded Over at the White House, Dean ordered two aides to clean out the files of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. Eight cardboard cartons of papers were sneaked into a warehouse in a warehouse. They were later returned to the White House and most of the documents were People in banking and finance are divided about the idea. Those in opposition fear something that could undermine which is the money man's mystical way of saying that paying interest on checking accounts might suck the bank from savings and loan associations. themselves in free market competition? And yet our textbooks continue to say one of the glories of our system is that the just plain stupid must pay for their folly in red ink. Our sources state flatly that Dean used his authority to obstruct the FBI and to keep incriminating evidence away from the Justice Department. He even ordered Hunt out of the country. White House aide Charles Colson, who was being plodged, "Do you want to make the White House an accessory to a tautitive from?" One of the President's closest advisors, John Erichman, wanted to put out a statement acknowledging Magruder's role in the investigation. This was vigorously opposed by Clark MacGregor, who succeeded Mitchell as campaign chairman. Dean finally persuaded the President to announce merely that "no one in this administration presently employs him" in this very bizarre incident." The President ordered Dean t find out whether any White House people were involved in the Watergate crimes. Contrary to the opinion of many by the White House, Dean never written a report. Perseverance, America! selectively destroved. NEW RELIEFS r 438 WHEN (NEW) BUYING FOR prices are getting you down, you might take inspiration from the indomitable fortitude with which White House advisers face head-on on the economic storm. Treasury Secretary George Shultz, for example, finds that if you exclude the 30 per cent annual rate of food price increases you will discover that price rise is "quite moderate." By JOHN CUNNIFF Associated Press Visits By assuming such a posture, it is conceivable you might consider that the markups are more zephyrs, and that all those markups at the store and those statistical indicators issued each month depict an unreal Viewing that same price report last Friday, Herbert Stein, chairman of the President's office, found it "contains the first encouraging signs on prices we have seen in the past two months." If that is so, you are justified in wondering what signs guided Stein a month earlier when he food prices is near its end." Had he taken his cue from James McLane, Deputy Director of the Cost of Living Council, who issued at the same time a white shirt and tie that was the high point for food prices might soon be reached. That was midway in the first quarter of the year, and the first quarter also of the Phase 3 controls, a period in which she bulged at an 8.4 per cent annual rate, the highest in 22 years. A month before that, on Feb. 12, Stein admitted Americans that while retail prices would continue to rise for a time, no big buge in prices should result from the shift to less ridicuil controls. Was this the "reasonable price stability" for which, Stein said on Jan. 23, conditions were improving? Or was it the "period of unparalleled progress" when the global stability impaired last Oct. 12? It can be unnerving to check on White House price forecasts, for retrospect they seem innocent, puerile, futility optimistic. A few presidential advisers, including Erichlman and Colon, warned the President in 1972 that decisions must have been approved by Mitchell and Dean. Nixon replied that both had denied any involvement. He proof of the accusations. James McLane, deputy director of the Cost of Living Council, believes in a positive outlook. Optimism permits him to reflect that "Wage increases are no longer being eaten up by sizeable price increases."1 He notes that Hagedorn, notes that farm products prices rose 25.1 per cent in a year. The White House interpretations indicate, as they have for more than a year, that a turning point is coming. The surveys of consumer attitudes show they don't believe it. By mid-March, the President's faith in Dean began to waver. He ordered Dean to Camp David to write a belated report on his Watergate investigation. After a few days at the presidential retreat, Dean reported back to him that he couldn't write a report. Instead, Nixon took Dean off the Watergate case. Colson, meanwhile, took a lie tester test to prove his mo- ncence. Dean was furious. He didn't have to have to aake one, he grummed. You probably would get a lot of disintermediation (ugh) if the law were repeated and nothing else were done at the same time. Mr. Sanders, a former banker to pay interest but is one of many interrelated proposals contained in a document depressingly entitled "The Report of the President's Structure and Regulation," more conveniently referred to as the Hunt Commission report. Reed O. Hunt is the retired Crown Zellerbach executive who chaired the group of academic bribes who wrote the report. Watergate defendants to keep their mouths shut. On Friday, April 13, Ehrlichman confronted Dean with the charges. Colson and Ehrlichman also put together information that Dean had advance knowledge of the country. Dean had ordered Hunt out of the country and that Dean had authorized payments to the Silbert refused to grant immunity. Instead, he called in Magruder and confronted him with Dean's revelations. This broke down Magruder who also recognized his role in the conspiracy. That night, Dean put together some documents he had been saving, which indicated that both Haldenman and John Ehrlichman were the Watergate cover-up. Next day, Dean took the documents to Asst. U.S. Atty. Earl Silbert and made accusations against Haldenman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and John, in turn, Dean asked for immunity. The lid, which Mitchell and Deart had held on the Watergate scandal for 10 months, had blown off Copyright, 1973, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. The Hunt Commission would protect the savings and loan associations by cutting them loose of much regulatory restraint so that they could offer their customers checking accounts services and, by competing, stave off the consequences of that charming word disintermediation. In fact, the commission's recommendations go much further. They would even eliminate the ceilings that law has enabled on how much interest savings and loan associations can pay their depositors. The whole thrust of the commission's proposals are toward the use of taxpayer most controlled of all occupations. From the customers' point of view, this would permit an additional fee for the public's dollars on the basis of price, not on the basis of a lot of expensive widget services of very marginal use. Which would you rather have your savings institution do, install a $200 smartwatch or cash a $50 check at 4 o'clock on Sunday morning or pay you 1/2 per cent more interest? As matters stand now, banks are like airlines. They can only hope to lure you in by offering you a lot of free gift cards. That's what gimmicks like free electric blankets for opening an account are about. The bad news is that a free market might also cost the consumer more. Under the current system, a home buyer derives a certain THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN An All-American college newspaper Published at the University of Kansas, May 2013; online until June 2013, except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $8 per month. Send resume to the address posted at Lawrence KC. 660444. Accommodations, goods services and transportation costs. Students without regard to color, crest or national origin. Opinions expressed are those of the University of Kansas or the State University of Kansas. Activist Editor Joyce Nererman Associate Editor Sally Carlson Editorial Editor Steve Kroepp News Editors Hal Ritter, Jr. Harry Wilson Copy Chiefs Michelle Mitchell Assoc. Campus Editor George Qianer Anst. Campus Editors Brian Green, Sr. Features Editor Kevin Shafer Sports Editors Emmer Lynn, Lions Wire Editors Jim Kernel, Makeup Editors Munkie Mucker Editorial Anka Knopp, Hal Ritter Picture Editor David Laung, Cartoonists Steve Carpenter, Editorial Editors John Bailly, Christopher Wells, Bob Weisner Erik Kramer, Linda Schild advantage from our perpetual inflation. He comes out ahead if he borrows money to buy a house with 190 dollars, but pays it back with 197 dollars. The Hunt proposals would do away with interest rates and interest rates which could rise during the term of the mortgage. The commission would stop the banking and finance system from being used as a vehicle to uninterruptively socially use objective data for income housing. Henceforth our subsidies would be out in the open where we could see and debate them instead of being handled as they presently are by a method as involuntarily involved as it is ineffectual. Business Adviser Mel Adama Busi Sis Manager Chuck Goodall Busi Sis Manager Chuck Goodall Amt. Adv. Mgr Sue Wood Amt. Adv. Mgr Sue Wood Promotional Mgr Kathy Hilderbright Promotional Mgr Kathy Hilderbright Untouched by the commission are some very old objections to the way the Federal Reserve bank is set up, such as its imposition of oversight, its antique regional banks which don't do anything a computer can't do better, except waste money, and the domination of its decision-making process by an ill-founded system. How the system automatically enriches a small number of people and institutions by being allowed, in effect, to lend until they have no more little or no interest is paid. Under the Hunt recommendations, the big guys will still get the lush government securities and the rest of us will be stuck with those securities. Still, the report is a good beginning for weeding out one important area of the economy that is dangerous to grower-grown crops and self-sufficiency mechanisms. So you'll be happy to learn that there isn't a chance that anything will come of the commission's efforts. Settle back and accommodate yourself to more economic dislocations, gas shortages, deficits and ineffectual price controls. They may do something about the Capitol wall, however, and if Martina Mitchell is found murders, she can give her sorry he didn't listen to her. "OH, WHEN THEY COME TO YOUR RESCUE YOULL KNOW IT"