The Lighter Side By DICK WEST
Bankruptcy race is a safer way
WASHINGTON (UPI) Everyone else seems to have a peace plan these days, so I thought I would devise one, too. I call mine "World Peace through Poverty."
It is based on the premise that if we can't achieve a disarmament agreement with the Russians by negotiation, maybe we can do it by bankruptcy.
My plan, I'll confess, is not entirely original. I got at least the germ of the idea from Richard M. Helms, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Helms is reported to have told a meeting of business leaders at Hot Springs, Va., that money-or rather, the lack of it-may end the arms race between the United States and Russia.
He was quoted as saying that
"the future costs of adequate defense may well prove impossible for both nations to bear."
It promptly occurred to me that the CIA may have been taking the wrong approach in seeking to determine what the Soviet Union's military capabilities are.
Our agents might better spend their time trying to determine the Soviets' financial capabilities.
Let us say, for example, that U.S. spy ships cruising off the Russian coast ascertain that the Soviets are capable of spending $180 billion on a new missile system.
The only way the Russians can penetrate a $181 billion antimissile system is by erecting a $182 billion missile system. But if they do that, they will be broke.
Last Corvair rolls off line, victim of losing sales battles
make the arms race so expensive that neither side can afford it.
DETROIT (UPI) The Chevrolet Corvair has come to the end of the road, a victim of its own unique design.
The mere act of switching from a military to a financial standoff would itself be a step toward peace.
The Corvair, the only U.S. production car with a rear engine and an air-cooled engine, was beaten in sales battles with other compact cars and with sporty-type cars.
$181 billion antimissile system the United States might itself go broke. But that need not preclude adoption of my peace plan.
Their only other option would be to sign an arms limitation treaty.
Then it stood alone, and auto safety critics singled it out as a favorite target in their verbal attacks on the auto industry.
The auto safety hearings began in Washington three years ago. Corvair sales plunged from 220,070 in the 1965 model year to 11,668 in 1966; 30,637 in 1967, and 14,811 in 1968.
The important thing is to
Chevrolet said sales of 1969 model Corvairs to date totaled 4,511, and ordered an end to production with 6,000 current year models.
When the last Corvair rolls off the assembly line tomorrow, it will bring total Corvair production to 1,710,018 cars since it was introduced 10 years ago as an answer to sagging big car sales. It was a contemporary of the Ford Falcon and Chrysler Valiant.
Chevrolet announced it would provide each owner of a new 1969 model Corvair with a non-transferable certificate for $150 redeemable on the purchase of any other 1969 through 1973 model Chevrolet new car. A spokesman said this was designed to compensate the Corvair owner for his inability to trade in on a new Corvair, and to encourage him to buy another Chevrolet nameplate.
It may be argued, of course,
that in the process of building a
The demise of the Corvair was announced in a four-paragraph statement from GeneralMotors' Chevrolet Division. Chevrolet said Corvair production facilities will be used to boost production of the Chevy II Nova, the top of the Chevy II line.
When it failed there, Chevrolet built the Camaro to oppose the Mustang, and the Corvair became a class by itself.
Auto safety critics, including Ralph Nader, alleged early models of the Corvair had an unsafe suspension system. A number of damage suits, most of
Safety hearings
$150 certificate
When Corvair failed to dominate the compact market, Chevrolet created the Chevy II to compete with the compacts, and groomed the Corvair as an adversary for the Ford Mustang.
them in California, were filed against GM by Corvair owners who became accident victims.
8 KANSAN May 13 1969
Photo by Ted Iliff
The legal way
This couple, obviously taking part in what, in spring, a young man's fancy turns to, find the parking lot behind Carruth-O'Leary Hall a handy place to do just that. And being law-abiding types, they do their parking on the other side of the car.
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