noinlon Walla Walla Union-Bulletin John A Blethen Chairman ol ttw Board
Donald Sherwood, Publisher Christian Anderson, Managing Editor
W J Penmiwton President
F. A. Blethen. Associate Publisher F. G. Mitchell. Vice President
Sunday, August IS, 1976
Prison staff shortage unsafe, uneconomical It's pretty obvious the next legislature is going to have to do something about the staffing situation at Washington State Penitentiary for the sake of sound economics and security. There's just no logic in paying guards at the understaffed prison well over $100,000 a year in nonholiday overtime instead of beefing up the staff.
our opinion that prisons aren't like colleges where student enrollment can be cut off when there aren't enough instructors to go around. Convicted felons have to be housed and guarded.
Last month guards at the penitentiary put in 1,465 hours of nonholiday overtime. That's It also is illogical for the the equivalent of about 36 40legislature to place a ceiling on hour weeks and cost the state the number of employes that $13,000. can be hired, thus forcing the And according to the guard excessive overtime pay. union's president a number of If the division of corrections officers aren't happy with all of has the authority to pay over- the overtime which makes it time, the legislature also hard for them to get time off for should give it the authority to holidays, vacations and illness. increase or decrease the num- He said there are even inber of guards as the prison stances when ill guards are called at home and asked to population fluctuates. return to work. In the past year the convict This shortage of personnel population has risen from 1,274 inmates to well over 1,500. But and working hours could go a there is no provision by the long way toward explaining legislature to hire more guards. why there is such a high turnover — expected to reach 70 Legislators should realize per cent at year's end.
Understandable anguish The howls coming out of Snohomish County over the possible cost of retrial of a Washington State Penitentiary inmate are falling on sympathetic ears here. The Snohomish County sheriff raised a fuss about the state's plan to house about 30 inmate witnesses in the county jail during the trial. So now they will be housed in the state reformatory at Monroe. But he's still unhappy because of the anticipated costs of shuttling the witnesses between the reformatory and the Everrett courtroom. We can sympathize with the county's complaints over any costs they face in connection with the trial of an inmate defendant from the Walla Walla prison. Walla Walla County for years has borne the cost of trials of inmates who commit crimes while serving sentences here — probably many of them from Snohomish County. The alternative, however, would be not to conduct the retrial of the defendant charged with first-degree mur-
der, and that wouldn't be in the best interests of justice. (The first trial ended in a hung jury in June. The jurors favored conviction 11 to one.) Walla Walla County has been trying for years to get the state. to offset the cost of inmate trials. Maybe the Snohomish County experience—and howls — will generate support from the legislators on that side of the mountains when Walla Walla County's pleas for assistance comes up in the next session of the legislature.
letters Wilbur already is a speedway To the editor: Please do not increase the speed limit on Wilbur Avenue. School children will soon be talking to Edison, Pioneer, Berney and Assumption schools. It is already a speedway with motorcycles and through traffic to the freeway. Think of the residents and homeowners. CallaD.Stazel 118 Brock St Walla Walla
Present system not working
Is a new federalism needed? On May 21,1969 President Nixon announced the issuance of an executive order which, as he put it, would mark the beginning of a "new federalism." It has not worked out quite that way, but Nixon was trying to cope with what he deemed to be an urgent national need. His executive order required the establishment of 10 federal administrative regions, each of which would be staffed by a chief executive officer, an executive center and a regional council. Thus organized, each of these federal regions or districts would be charged with the duty of administering federal legislation in its own area, particularly federal grantsin-aid and revenue-sharing measures. The main objective of this plan was to decentralize federal administrative operations and at the same time secure better coordination of our multitude of federal agencies. The need for something to tighten up and "debureaucratize" our greatly overladen federal system had become specially acute by reason of the transformation of this country from a union of states into a widespread scramble of metropolitan population sprawls. This was a condition that our original federal system was not designed to cope with or even to live with. The f ramers of our Constitution were highly knowledgeable about federalism. Most of them had been through the fine-grinding mill of classical education and were thoroughly grounded in Greek and Roman history. They knew a good deal about the Achaean League, the Amphictyonic Council, and the various other unions of Greek city states.
have to get better... they II SEEM better/ iNEWSPAPERI
the Articles of Confederation in 1781. Ideologically there are two ways of setting up a true federal union. One is to set up a dual system of central and noncentral entities with the central having all the powers not specifically given to the non-central. The other is just the opposite scheme of the central having the specified or delegated powers and the non-central the non-delegated or residuary powers. All federal governments follow one or the other of these two principles. The trainers of our Constitution opted for the second alternative for the simple reason that it was the one most likely to be accepted by our original 13 states. The crux of controversy in federal systems is in the distribution of powers between the two authorities — central and dispersed. In pre-Reyolutionary America the central authority was the home government in England and the dispersed authorities were the colonies. The task assumed by the framers of the Constitution was to replace the central authority of Britain with one begotten of a union of 13 state governments
quite ungovernable slices of political
chaos. Neither the states nor the central government have as yet been able to come to grips with this problem. The Constitution reserves all authority over urban government to the states (which deal with it in a piecemeal fashion), and the Supreme Court has not as yet discovered any implied powers which would sanction direct federal action in the urban sphere. There seems to be little chance for a constitutional amendment empowering the national government to move into the urban sphere. The consent of the legislatures of three-fourths of the states is too forbidding a hurdle to get over. The logic of Nixon's "new federalism" was to find an escape from this predicament by means of administrative action not requiring either Congressional or state approval and luring objectors into compliance through politically selective revenue sharing. As noted above, that has not succeeded. John V. Undsay, when mayor of New York, made the suggestion that the easiest way for the central government to get a handle on the problem of urban sprawl would be for Congress to charter 25 "national cities" embracing most of the great metropolitan areas of the United States. Lindsay did not go into detail as to just how this might be accomplished, but he assumed that the implied powers of Congress would sustain such Congressional action. He may be right, and if so and his proposal were put into effect, we might indeed achieve something on the order of a new federalism.
Shah has long shopping fist for Pentagon WASHINGTON—The State Department makes everyone write an essay when he or she comes back from vacation. Here is the one Henry Kissinger wrote. "I went to Iran on my summer vacation. I met a new friend named Shah. He is a very nice person and we had a lot of fun together in his palace. Shah likes to play with missiles and airplanes and specially fitted destroyers and tanks and guns and toys like that. "He asked me if there were any toys
By
ARTBUCHWALD Los Angeles Times
we had in America that he didn't have. I said we had a lot of toys that he would love and he said he would like to buy some. "Shah has a very big allowance and he said he would give me $10 billion if I would send him some new toys when I got back hone. I told him it would be no problem and all he had to do was give me a list of what he wanted and I would go to the toy store in the Pentagon and buy them for him. "He seemed very happy because he said that if he couldn't buy the toys in America he was going to buy them some place else. I told him America makes the best toys there are and they are all brand-new and they can do things no foreign toys could duplicate. Some of them had lasers and others were controlled electronically and still others had heat-seeking devices on them that could blow other people's tovstobits. "He got very excited and said maybe
(Rqmtedfran 11* Eugene RegBMrGa»nl>
convsntions, our regular shows won't
By CHESTER MAXEY o! Walla Walla
under a distribution of powers limiting and yet maintaining the supposed sovereignty of both. This was accomplished by expressly delegating to the central government powers thought to be requisite for general government and reserving to the states every power not so delegated. Lest there be too much rigidity in the foregoing federal distribution, the framers included the famous "elastic clause" (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18) which gives Congress authority "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." These unspecified powers of the central government are commonly called "implied" powers, and the Supreme Court of the United States has final authority, as cases come before it, to decide what they are. The implied powers have been construed liberally enough to enable our national government to cope with most of the gigantic problems which have arisen through our growth from a tiny Atlantic seaboard republic to a massive continental empire.. There are, however, a few exceptions to this success story, and the most baffling one at the present time is what to do about the problem of urban sprawl. Still not half realizing what has happened, we have become a predominantly urbanized people. Population has spread like a tremendous lava flow over all formerly established political boundaries and state and local governments have become a gigantic jumble of wretchedly governed and sometimes
He wants to buy many new 'toys'
Candidates in Oregon run long
'And by telecasting more political
They were keenly aware of the difference between a federation and a confederation, and were determined, for the most part, not to repeat the mistake which had been made in the adoption of
In Washington state, politicians are just now lining up at the post for the Sept 21 primary election. In Oregon they've been lined up officially since March 16. Oregon candidates who filed March 16 and survived the primary will have been on the campaign trail for almost eight months, compared to a little more than three months for those in WashingtonOregon could shorten its long campaign season except for one important contest That is the presidential preference primary, which Oregon pioneered and of which it is very jealous. It would be cumbersome to call * special election for that every four years. As it is, the Oregon primary is quite late, hardly giving delegates to early conventions time to pack their bags. Also, it can be argued that the date of filing and the time of the primary hive little to do with the actual length of the campaigns. In Oregon, candidates often start sounding like candidates months before they file officially for the office. The same is true in Washington and every other state. The Oregon system has the advantage of giving the candidates, and the voters, a breathing .spell between the primary and the genera] election.
'...and der socks. Ve promised also der socks!' he should buy $15 billion worth of toys instead of f 10 billion. "I told him that was a very good idea. I described a new American toy airplane called the F-16 fighter and another called the F-18. They were so new that American kids didn't even have them yet. He liked that and said he would buy as many of them as I could get my hands on. Then he asked me if there were any new toy ships that would be coming out for Christmas. "I told him about a guided missile attack fngate that could fire 20 missiles at one time in 20 different directions. His eyes lit up and he made me promise I would send them a dozen of them as soon as they were available. "He also told me how much he loved
submarines and I said he would go nuts over the submarine toys that had just been designed. They could stay underwater tor months at a time. He got so excited that he bought me an icecream soda. "Then he asked me if I could get him 25 nuclear energy plants for his playroom. I said that they were considered dangerous toys and the stores couldn't sell them to him unless they could control the waste material that the plants made, because if it got into the wrong hands it could hurt somebody. "He got very angry at this and said he didn't want to play with me any more if he couldn't have the waste material for himself.
"I told him I would try to work something out if he promised to be very careful of the waste material and not tell anybody what he was going to do with it He apologized for getting mad and said he would probably buy another $5 billion worth of toys next year and another $5 billion the year after.
"I never saw a kid who had so much money to buy toys in my life. We had a swell dinner and the next morning as I left he gave me a World War H collection of bubble gum cards as a goingaway present I thought that was real nice of him because I really hadn't done anything to deserve it. I like buying toys for other people. It makes me feel 'I've done something to earn my vacation."
Reverend wins his case
Closure of school threatened By JAMES KILPATRICK Tl» Waaxngnm s»
The struggle for personal freedom is a long and drawn-out war, composed of innumerable battles. The defenders of freedom, sad to say, don't win many fights these days, but they do win a few. They do win a few. And they won a fine one the other day in Columbus, Ohio. There the state Supreme Court handed down an opinion dismissing all criminal charges against the Rev. Levi Whisner and his co-defendants in the matter of the Tabernacle Christian School Word of the decision got back to Brother Levi's flock in the small town of Bradford about 3:30 in the afternoon, right in the middle of a week-long revival. "I tell you," says Mrs. Whisner, "there was jubilation. There were shouts, and hymns, and testimonials and praises. It was a hallelujah time.'" And well it might have been. For the ease of State v. Whisner was a combat of Goliath and David if ever suchacombat came to court The State of Ohio marshalled its power not through a civil proceeding, but through criminal prosecution, in an effort to punish a handful of parents for a dreadful crime against the state. The parents had dared to send their children to an anchartered private school! Not long after the case arose, nearly three years ago, this correspondent went to Ohio to meet the Rev. Whisner (be immediately became "the Rev.
Wiz" around our shop) and to have a look at the school. We found a brandnew, modern school house, marked by simplicity and sunshine, in which 60 or 70 children manifestly were receiving a thorough grounding in educational fundamentals. The children were receiving something else also — a pervasive indoctrination in the Bible and in the sunpie, unsophisticated religious faith of their parents. In his opinion of July 21, Ohio's Justice Frank D. Celebrezze accurately described the defendants as "God-fearing people" whose beliefs are "truly held." Their whole lives revolve around their religion. Dissatisfied with the available public schools. Brother Levi's flock created their own school in 1973 to meet their religious needs. The question of accreditation immediately arose. Without a state charter, the school could not continue; but in order to obtain a state charter, the school would haveto meet "all" requirements of the state's Minimum Standards for Ohio Elementary Schools. The Rev. Wiz read these standards and balked. He thus got himself arrested on criminal charges. Justice Celebrezze found the Minimum Standards "pervasive and all-encompassing." The regulations allocated instructional time "almost to the minute," with the result that no time could be set aside for religious instruction. The rules demanded that "aO" school activities must conform "to policies
adopted by the Board of Education." Under the Minimum Standards, the Christian Tabernacle School would be compelled to submit constant written evidence of its "cooperation and interaction" with the community. Within this little school house, the state decreed, "organized group life of all types must act in accordance with established rales of social relationships and a system of social controls." Brother Levi couldn't figure out what that sentence meant, but be figured it must mean something or it wouldn't be there. He saw his religious freedom in party, and he fought hack. Udujah!Hewon.
EThe couipiehensive Minimum Stan-
dards, said the court, could result in "the absolute suffocation of inndent thought and educational The effect of the standards to •to obliterate the philosophy of the school andtoimpose that of the state." Two members of the court Justices Leonard J. Stern and Thomas M. Herbert dissented from tic majority ophrion. but aD participating justices {NkUcuJ'Ku in the judgment: Convictions icvtiscd and defendants dismissed. It was a victory not only for the Rev. Wiz, but also for Wuuam B. Bail of KairisUag, Pa., the brilliant lawyer who five years ago led the fight for the Anton that resulted in Wisconsin v. Voder. On the long hard road to rritgkiai fiMduiu, this Ohio case to a happy mflestane. Mark ft, friend, as we all pass by. SFAPERl