Friday, Sept. 6, 1985
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
11
AT&T reported ahead in race for long distance
United Press International
WASHINGTON - The presidents of two money-losing telephone companies said yesterday that Federal Communication's Commission policies give AT&T an almost total monopoly on the long-distance market despite its court-ordered breakup.
But the complaint, voiced at Senate hearings, wont little sympathy from key senators and a Commerce Department official.
William Esrey, president of the
Kansas-based United Telecommunications Inc., and Melvyn Goodman, president of Allnet Communications Services of Chicago, said AT&T still controls about 90 percent of the long-distance market.
Only one of AT&T's long-distance competitors, MCI Telecommunications Corp., is operating profitably, they said.
"A competitive market cannot exist when one competitor still monopolizes the market," Esrey said in accusing the FCC of not providing true "equal access" to the long-
Goodman also faulted the FCC but said he did not doubt that the commission's actions had been motivated by "the best of intentions."
distance market
"If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, we should not take it."
Esrey called for congressional intervention, saying FCC policies leave AT&T's competitors running up billions of dollars in costs while AT&T is selectively attempting to drop its prices below costs to squeeze out competitors.
Goodman said the equal access policy was "wildly misnamed" and referred instead to improved but unequal access.
The company officials testified before a communications subcommittee headed by Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., who opened the hearing by saying he believes the breakup of AT&T was a great mistake.
Goldwater also said that he saw no solution at this time to the problems posed by A&T's competitors.
"I don't think we've reached the
point yet where we can say, 'This is what we have to do,' '' he told Esrey and Goodman.
Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., chairman of the parent Senate Commerce Committee, said AT&T's competitors were asking for a period of transition before complete deregulation and asked when they believed it should end.
"The time to deregulate is when you have de-monopolized the market." Esrev responded.
Assistant Commerce Secretary David Markey said his department
does not always agree with the FCC and the Justice Department, but "in this situation we generally support the positions and actions that they have taken."
He said the goal should be to promote competition, not the commercial fortunes of individual competitors.
A consumer spokesman complained that the breakup of AT&T had resulted in higher rates and might put phone service out of the reach of more than 4 million people.
Comparable worth rejected
Groups react to verdict
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Feminists said yesterday they would "raise hell" to reinstitute a landmark pay discrimination award for women in Washington state, but an administration spokesman responded "yipee!" to a federal court's rejection of comparable worth.
"We simply won't accept a ruling that justifies injustice," said Eleanor Shoeh, president of the National Organization for Women.
Smalu joined others involved in the final battle in pledging to press the gun.
Her comments came in reaction to a decision Wednesday by three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to overturn a 1883 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner in Washington state. Tanner ordered substantial pay raises to women who work for the state because of past pay inequities.
Gerald McEntee, president on American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which brought the original classaction suit, told a news conference the decision made their goals more difficult to reach.
"But we are no less committed to achieving pay equity for working women," he said. "We intend to take
our case to the Supreme Court. We believe that we have the law and equity on our side."
Winn Newman, the lawyer who brought the case on behalf of AFSCME, said the judges were reacting to the Reagan administration's negative public campaign.
But he said, "We're not defeated,
just a little bloody."
The administration has consistently opposed comparable worth proposals and the president has called the idea "cockamamie" and "hairbrained." Business groups joined the administration in proclaiming victory after the decision.
A Justice Department spokesman said for reaction, said, "How about..."
Justice Department spokesman Patrick Korten, in a formal statement issued later, said, "They (the judges) are sending a very clear message. 'This is the way we are going to rule on these cases so don't send them up.'"
Smeal said the court's ruling was a result of intensive lobbying by bush
"The business community has been making its case for months on end that it's O.K. to discriminate if everyone does," she said. "The court bought that line.
going to the Supreme Court. If that court buys the line, then we're going to the Congress and raise so much hell they'll be compelled to change it."
"Well, we don't accept that. We're
The Washington case was the first statewide award based on the principle of comparable worth — that different jobs requiring comparable preparation or responsibility, such as secretarial work or truck driving, should be compensated equally, no matter whether they are positions traditionally held by men or women.
Tanner's decision ordered back pay for 15,000 women, which was estimated to cost the state anywhere from $400 million to $1 billion.
The San Francisco federal judges ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act did not obligate Washington state to eliminate an economic inequality that it did not create.
Civil Rights Commission Chairman Clarence Pendleton, who has called comparable worth "probably the loomiest idea since 'Looney Tunes' came on the screen," said yesterday he was elated by the decision.
"Comparable worth is not a discrimination remedy if you don't have a finding of discrimination. The law doesn't say there has to be equal pay between the sexes," he said.
New report decries schools
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Corporate leaders said yesterday that an alarming number of youngsters leave school lacking the discipline, work habits, command of English and other skills needed for job success.
Their 107-page report, "Investing in Our Children: Business and The Public Schools," represents the first clear statement of what the business world wants from public schools.
learn"—traits the business world considers as important to success in college and career as the three R's.
It said that schools were failing to stress teamwork, honesty, reliability and "learning how to
"Young people who have not learned discipline and mastered basic skills and especially mastery of English are doomed to failure and unemployability in later life," said Owen B. Butler, chairman of the 60-member panel that produced the report.
The panel's survey of business leaders representing 244 large companies and 65 small firms, found that a majority thought that
too many youngsters leave high school with the idea that adults tolerate tardiness, absenteeism and misbehavior.
"If schools tolerate excessive absenteeism, truancy, tardiness, or misbehavior, we cannot expect students to meet standards of minimum performance or behavior either in school or as adults," the report said.
William J. Bennett, Secretary of Education, said that the report was "a welcome contribution to the national conversation on the state of our schools and how to improve them."
More farm foreclosures expected
United Press International
farm hanks "
Many banks have so many loans with land pledged as collateral that they are insolvent, Chamberlin said.
CHICAGO — More farm bankruptcies and farm bank foreclosures are expected because the sharp slide in agricultural land values that started in 1981 is not over, an economist said.
In an internal report distributed to the bank's executives and lending officers, the economist said the drop in land values is even greater when measured without the effect of inflation.
"We've got several years of continued poor prices and income in the farm sector before things should start to pick up," said Richard Chamberlin, an economist with the First National Bank of Chicago. "That means more bankruptcies among farms, a further squeeze on the operating earnings of farms that survive and more foreclosures of
In his report based on U.S. Department of Agriculture figures, Chamberlin said actual farmland values dropped an average 17 percent in the 48 contiguous states from the all-time peaks reached in 1981 and 1982 until early 1985.
The average decline would amount to 39 percent if adjusted for inflation based on the consumer price index, the report said.
On that basis, the decline in farmland values in the early 1980s has been nearly double the drop that occurred during the Depression, if adjusted for price changes, Chamberlin said.
The nation's Corn Belt took the brunt of declines during the early 1800s as well as 50 years ago.
Iowa suffered the most both times. While actual values have dropped 47 percent since 1981, the inflation-adjusted drop has been 61 percent.
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