Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 12

FOUNDED to IMT Alice Siegcrt Bonn feels the heat over alien workers Stanton R. Cook, Chairman and Publisher Robert M. Hunt, President and General Manager Clayton Kirkpatrick, Editor Maxwell McCrohon, Managing Editor John McCtjtcheon, Editorial Page Editor WiLLiAii H.Jones, Managing Editor, Nevm, Scott Schmidt, Managing Editor, Ftaturen Saturday, May 3, 1975 12 Section 1 THE NEWSPAPER is an institution developed by modern civilization to present the news of the day, to foster commerce and industry, to inform and lead public opinion, and to furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide. -THE TRIBUNE CREDO called in workers, but human beings came." This comment by the Swiss writer Max Frisch must be haunting German officials who In recent months sent home thousands of Turks, Yugoslavs, and Greeks, employed in West Germany for years, to improve job pros-" pects for Germans. In a demonstration in Kassel more than 2,000 south Europeans protested this discrimination and accused the Bonn government of treating them like helots who could be imported and deported at wilL They demanded a change in laws which give German authorities the right to send home unemployed "guest workers" from non-Common Market countries.

Even tho the West German jobless rate in March took a seasonal dip to 4.9 per cent, the outlook for the 2.3 million foreign workers left in the federal republic is still dim. Some fear that even more stringent rules will be imposed and that the government; involved in an almost permanent election campaign six states We're 'protected' enough, thanks It7 by etfcago Tribim Bill Anderson vote this year, and there win be general elections in 1976 will bow to public pressure for a drastic cut in the alien work force. Every second German questioned in a poll blamed a surplus of foreign workers for the high unemployment figure. The truth is that Italians, Turks, Yugoslavs, and Greeks are doing work which many Germans, spoiled by years of affluence and a high degreu of social security protection, regard as beneath them. Besides, Germans often turn down Jobs if these involve moving to another city.

Instead, they prefer living on unemployment compensation until they find work in their home town. The German hotel and restaurant trade has been trying to get permission to hire additional foreigners to fill some 50,000 vacancies. Few unemployed Germans care for a job in which they work nights or on weekends or holidays. The important chemical and automobile industries are against large-scale expulsion of immigrant workers. "Without the foreigners we could close down production," a Daimler-Benz official remarked recently.

The share of aliens on the payroll of Germany's most prestigious car maker is as high as 24 per cent. An estimated 30 per cent of the immigrant workers are unaffected by current restrictions. They Include: nationals of Common Market countries; foreigners who have been residents in the federal republic for at least five years; foreigners married to Germans; and self-employed persons. The last category includes store keepers, artisans, taxi drivers, and restaurant owners. In Northrhine-Westpba-lia, West German's most populous state, 10 per cent of the restaurants are operated by foreigners.

In an effort to stop the smuggling in and employment of illegal foreign labor, usually at lower pay, the government last fall increased penalties to a maximum of five years in prison for serious cases. Since the ban on additional recruitment abroad was imposed in 1973, the total immigrant work force has been cut by 250,000. But the number of foreigners in the federal republic actually has grown by 4 per cent to 4-1 million. This is due to the high birth rate among south Europeans aid the fact that thousands of Turks recently brought their wives and children to Germany to benefit from'higher dren subsidies granted to children living in this The "Airlift from Istanbul" has created new problems. One major concern -of German officials is integrating thousands of Turkish children in the industrial centers into German schools.

TVirmtf iVa 1QAA-1QA? flarmnn ruvecitn They ask: How long can Dr. K. last? mined by the retailer's cost and the amount of profit he wanted to make on the item. The development of discount Stores after World War is directly attributable to the fair trade laws. Many manufacturers most recently Sony have already given up trying to fix.

their prices The sooner all "fair trade" laws are dead, the better. What worries consumers the most, polls still show, is the fear of Inflation; and nearly all of these efforts in their behalf end up costing them more in prices or in taxes or both. For example, in the 1973 Economic Report of the President, the Council of Economic Advisers wrote in a chapter on government regulation that the 1962 amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 cost consumers $300 million to $400 million in 1970. These amendments required that new drugs be proved effective as well as. safe.

then," the CEA said, "the rate of introduction of new drugs has fallen more than 50 per cent and the average testing period has more than doubled. Moreover, it is not clear that the average efficiency of drugs Introduced after 1962 is any higher than that of drugs previously introduced." As in so many areas, what tbe.legis-lators want us to think they are doing isn't always what they actually are doing. When powerful special Interests get in the way, the consumer is likely to be forgotten no matter how many agencies bear his name. In Washington we find a Congress dominated by Democrats who consider themselves liberals advocating a Consumer Protection Agency, while in Springfield Senate committee similarly dominated kills a bill that would have required the meatcutters union to let consumers buy meat in the evening in supermarkets. In general, we are confident, the consumer is willing and quite able to protect himself, thank you.

His most po- tent weapon is his wallet, but It is hard for him to use this when the government tells him what he can buy and what he can pay for it. Where monopoly exists or threatens, he is entitled to government protection. But where competition exists and flourishes, there should be signs reading, "Government, Keep President Ford is on solid ground In urging Congress to reject the proposed consumer protection agency and to repeal the so-called fair trade laws that restrict price competition. The last thing we need Is another agency in Washington, even one with the lofty purpose of protecting consumers. The consumer is supposed to be protected already by the Federal Trade Commission, which warns us against tar and nicotine in cigarets; by the Food and Drug Administration, which tells us which drugs the doctor can prescribe and oversees the nutrition labeling on foods; and by the Cort- sumer Product Safety Commission, and the Office of Consumer Affairs.

He it also "protected" in one way or another by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Power Commission, the Federal Communications Commission the Agriculture Department, the Labor Department, the Commerce Department, the Justice- Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Just about every other government agency. Consumers are so thoroly protected, indeed, that it is costing them nearly $14 billion a year, or $66 for every man, woman, and child largely in the form of higher prices. "I do not believe" the President says, "that we need yet another federal burocracy In Washington with its attendant cost about $60 million over the next three years and hundreds of additional federal Most of us are producers and taxpayers as well as consumers, and efforts to protect us in one role are all too likely to hurt us in another. Mr. Ford is on the right track also in calling for an end to the fair trade laws, which he described as a "depression-era" law.

Fair trade laws at nothing more than legal price fixing. They permit a manufacturer to dictate the price of his product, ostensibly to "protect" the small businessman from cutthroat price competition from larger retailers. If consumers didn't like the price, they could always buy a competitive product whose price was deter Ford has few options. He inherited Kissinger and is well aware the cabinet officer was for a time the darling of many journalists and kings of Congress. Now that Kissinger's blood has been drawn, the President knows that kingmakers, like sharks and revolutionaries, often devour their own.

Already the once passive Senate Foreign Relations Committee is pushing Kissinger to turn over private papers drawn in connection with the now infamous Paris accord. One opinion holds that Congress suf- fered Kissinger as it endured Nixon, and for the same reasons: The execution of power was too private and too haughty. It is said neither Nixon nor Kissinger really understood the legislative body, but Ford does and knows how to roll with it. As a result, was not lost on key legislators that Kissinger, not Ford, ex- plained the major defeat in American foreign policy. And it was not lost on the White House that the heavy, serious opponents of Kissinger did not immediately cry out for his resignation.

In fact, one critic privately observed it would be a mistake to brand Kissinger with all of the failures of United Stated foreign policy during his leadership period. "Who is to say what would have happened if Nixon had remained in office?" our source asked. And, it was also pointed out that Kissinger may just have enough reserve strength and admitted capability to help lace together a new foreign policy. During his public explanation appearance this week, Kissinger showed more candor than ever before. Not many argue with him about the insanity of an all-out nuclear war between the superpowers that would cause the destruction of civilization.

He talks about the fine line walked to avoid such a calamity, but shades the degree of involvement of the other side. Still, the other side clearly won this victory after years of slicing at the edges. It. furnished the financing, weapons, and ships in Haiphong Harbor to give North Viet Nam the energy to overwhelm the South. The consolidation of power gives the Communists better WASHINGTON The heady era of Henry Kissinger has ended because the "successes" simulated by his private diplomacy clearly turned to ashes this week.

i Kissinger himself faced the truth at a press conference as Indochina was surrendering to the Communists. He said he would stay on only as long as he was effective. The well of opinion which eventually determines the foreign policies of the United States now shows only the most shallow of support for Kissinger. The brutal question being asked about him is not "Will he stay?" but "How long can he stay?" Kissinger's dilemma parallels the one Richard M. Nixon found himself in last August.

His world has cracked to the point that nothing less than the best efforts of the king's men could put it back together again. And it is questionable whether the king's men could do it even then. In the first place, there are not many of them left. President Ford appears to stand loyally like an Eagle Scout, declining to kick a man when he is down. Ford also is faced with the more pragmatic question of who can replace Kissinger and shape the foreign policy now demanded.

Could it be Donald Rumsfeld, the President's chief of staff, who has experience as ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? Line o' type. Confidence is the feeling you had before you knew better. Quin Ryan I'm really shaken up. My tax refund check came with a note "Do not deposit until Wednesday." Arnold Glosoto UV1IUHU VVVWJ.U positions for fresh offensives in areas almost one-tnira or tne migrant workers returned home voluntarily. Now, even those who were laid off want to stay on.

1 like the Middle East. In winning, the Communists ended the Kissinger era. Mr. Wikon's unruly team Voice of the People Writer should be oi concise as possible. Give fail names and addresses.

Man script are not returned. Spacat limited; the right to condense letters is reserved. Addrett letter to Voice of the People, THE TRIBVUE, Chicago, 0)611. Harold Wilson is in a deucedly awkward position for a British prime minister. He is supporting an issue Britain's continued membership in the Common Market-on which his own party won't back him.

A party conference voted 2 to 1 last weekend to urge the Brisish people to say "no" to continued membership in a referendum June 5. If Mr. Wilson stands firm, one can expect a widening schism among the Laborites. But, if he shifted, he would be Joining what seems to be the losing side. Polls indicate that 70 per cent of British voters will say "yes" in the referendum.

The ruling Labor Party is now against its own government. The people are against the party and are with' the minority Conservatives and Liberals. And this only months after Labor won a general election. But whatever a "yes" vote on the Common Market might mean for Mr. Wilson, it would be a fortunate one for Britain.

E. E. C. ties bring more benefits than drawbacks. The heart of Mr.

Wilson's opposition is an extremist group of hard-line Socialists and doctrinaire trade unionists who fear that membership in the market will impede Britain on its path to Socialism and will -leave important decisions concerning Britain in the hands of E. E. C. officials in Brussels. The choice that faced the party was whether to pursue ideological dogma at all costs or to support economic prog-.

ress for a Britain that sorely needs it It made the wrong- choice. And if the voters prove that they prefer facing economic realities to trusting in a Socialist Utopia, it is hard to see how the prime minister will be able to persuade the electorate at the next election they should vote for a party dominated by inflexible left-wingers who prefer the opposite. 1 'Abortion is murder CHICAGO The April 15 letter from Doctors Mensheha and Manhart uses false arguments to support legalized abortion while dodging the fact that such deliberate killing of a human being is murder. The doctors say that "in its early stages, a human embryo looks like a tadpole." The looks of a human embryo are beside the point; its humanness is what distinguishes that embryo from all others, and that humanness is the very basis, under our civilization, for that embryo's having a protoctible right to life. That means no parent or other person has any right to extinguish, abort, or murder that human life.

The doctors say that because illegal abortions have never been stopped they should be made legal. That same kind of nonthinking could be applied to every other kind of illegal act, but it would obviously not provide any satisfactory solution. The doctors naively ask, "Whom are we helping if we prevent legalized abortions?" The answer is simplei By preventing legalized abortions we are helping the human being whose right to life begins with its creation; we are helping the mother and our entire society by recognizing that no one has any right to kill an innocent person just because it makes her healthier, happier, or more comfortable, The logical Grasping the thistle MOUNT PRQSPECT Many years ago William F. Halsey summarized a key lesson America can learn from Viet Nam. The admiral advised: "All problems; personal, national, or combat, become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them.

Touch a thistle timidly and it pricks you; grasp it boldly i and its spines crumble." Altho it is unpopular to praise Richard Nixon, it is a fact that in three weeks of December, 1972, and early '73, with intensive bombing of principal cities and the mining of North Vietnamese, harbors, the former President brought the adversary to concrete negotiation. Unfortunately, that campaign was eight, years and 55,000 dead Americans too late. More unfortunately, the War Powders Act once again tied our hands while simultaneously slashing the throat of our ally, Perhaps the lesson is a deeper one. Is it that we recognize the need to analyze and act, but that our democracy has become- incapable of such action? This is a question we all must answer, for as thousands of demonstrators shouted in the streets of Chicago in 1968, "The whole world Is watching." Stephen Paul Brunner Gentlemanly Dr, Redmond HINSDALE Dr. James F.

Redmond, Chicago superintendent of schools, did not wait for the hatchet. When he inherited a problem-riddled post nine' years ago, he appeared brave and optimistic. Now he is plainly weary and seems disillusioned. A gentlemanly and low-key approach was Dr. Redmond's way of dealing with an ill assorted Board of Educa-, tion, both good and bad administrators, dedicated and lazy teachers, and the public.

Would that during his tenure he 1 had caught onto Just a modicum of Mayor Daley's aggressive decisiveness! 8arah L. Mann Seeks lesson1 In Viet Nam WINNETKA President Ford's call for Americans to stop "relighting" the Vict Nam War and to concentrate on the "new agenda for the future" has a very constructive and wholesome ring. But where would Ford Motor Co. be to-1 day if it had tailed to study the mistakes that were made with the 1 It should be possible, without personal Taiwanese demands KEARNY, N. J.

We have been informed by reliable sources that the Nationalist China regime in Taiwan has decided In principle to commute the sentences of some political prisoners. The details 0 Implementions of this decision are not yet known. While we believe this is a step In the right direction, from our point of view it left much to be desired. We demand that all political prisoners be released unconditionally and that their civil rights be fully restored. Further, we demand that the regime provide an opportunity to allow international human rights groups such as Amnesty International to send in a field team to conduct a tboro investigation of the political prisoners in Taiwan.

For many years, the Taiwanese people have been strongly urging the present regime in Taiwan to take drastic steps to change its structure and character so that it would become a representative government of Taiwan, instead of a fictitious government of China. We hope the release of the political prisoners would constitute the first step after the death of Chiang Kai-shek. George T. Chang PrtsiSent, World United FormoMiw For IndonnMna 'Kennedy's war EVANSTON I am amazed at the unwillingness of writers to label the Viet Nam mess properly. Today's paper de- scribes it as "Kissinger's defeat" and as "Johnson's war." Actually it was John Kennedy's war and Kennedy's defeat J.

F. K. put combat troops into Viet Nam, which Eisenhower would not do. And even as he started the war, he lost it by a policy of leaving Haiphong and Hanoi alone. In the same fashion, Harry Truman lost the Korean war.

Johnson was a victim of an attempt to carry out Kennedy policy, and Nixon a victim of an attempt to reverse the policy when it was too late to do so. Gordon M. Jones Thieu words, deeds ELMHURST Former President Thieu, in his speech of resignation, harangued. the U. S.

for deserting Viet Nam. Yet his bitterness did not stop him from accepting the generosity of our government in flying him and his group into Taiwan. But we probably learned from past performances not to Judge Thieu by what ha says, but by what ha does. William UVolk extensions of abortion are "mercy killing" and then killing at will. Doctors Mensheha and Manhart support legalized abortion as a means of.

"saving" a mother at the expense of the murdered child she helped create. That attitude represents the antithesis of medicine, the true goal of which should be to preserve both lives. Legalizing abortion is really just another example of the immorality and futility of killing persons as a means of solving problems among human beings. Edward V. Hanrahan Form Cook County States Attormy Massacres by Turks CHICAGO The Tribune is to be com-- mended for its forthright editorial of April 24, "A dreadful anniversary," lest we forget the terrible Turkish massacre of the Armenian people in 1915.

We must not forget another massacre by the Turks, of the Greek population of Smyrna in 1922. I was there. I escaped alive, but my father and my grandparents were not so lucky. Because the so-called civilized West took no steps to bring the Turks to Justice for their massacre of the Arme-. nians, Turkey felt free to carry out the second massacre.

In 1955, the Turks attacked the Greek minority in Istanbul, but again the West did not bat an eye. Again, last year, the Turks attacked the Greek people of Cyprus. We Greek-Americans join our Arme-' nian brethren in demanding that Turkey be brought before the bar of jus-. tice for her crimes against humanity. Ernest J.

Vardalas Socrttiry, United Holltnle Amerlua Column 'Revise immigration laws CinCAGO-It is right and Just that we offer shelter to Vietnamese refugees. They fought for their freedom along with our men; they resisted Communism as do we. Why, then, should we be less hospitable to people from Poland? They, too, fought for their freedom; they, too, resist They beg to come ('to us but are, allowed only short visits. Regard carefully the contrast in our treatment of the Vietnamese and the Poles; who have been our friends and allies for 200 years. They helped us fight for our freedom.

Our immigration laws need revision. Mrs. Laurie Andrews It would be very difficult for even so flexible a man as Mr. Wilson to switch positions now, because it was he who went to Brussels this spring and negotiated more favorable terms of British -membership in what is more formally known as the European Economic Community E.E.C., How could he now gracefully say he is turning his back on his own terms? Yet if he continues to stand hitched, he faces even greater humiliation. He will be riding on the coattails of the Tories and Liberals who favor the E.

E. and flouting his own party. The refugees Those who are grumbling about the Influx of Vietnamese refugees are hardly a credit to their country. They in- elude a good many among the House majority that on Thursday rejected a bill to provide money to care for the refugees ostensibly because it included a now moot provision authorizing the use of United States troops to evacuate them. But a few liberal Democrats, 'never very fond of the Thieu regime, have voiced an underlying complaint that caring for the refugees will take money that should go to our own poor.

This attitude is disgraceful' The grumblers might have been justified in complalnng that a good many people got out of Viet Nam who didn't really deserve to and that others who should have been rescued from the Communists weren't. It does appear that a rather motley assortment of prostitutes, grafters, dope peddlers, and distant relatives of deserving refugees muscled their way aboard the evacuation planes and fishing boats, and in the haste and confusion of the evacuation this may have been inevitable. There will no doubt be demands that the evacuation be investigated, and there's no reason to oppose them. DUNAGIN'S PEOPLE" But it also appears that most ot the 90,000 or so who escaped from Saigon or were "forcibly evacuated," according to the Inverted Jargon of the Communists fall into one of two legitimate categories. They are either legitimate dependents of Americans who are entitled to enter existing law and presumably will not become dependent on the government.

Or they are former members of the South Vietnamese' army or police, former employes of the Saigon government or the American embassy, or members of other "high risk" categories who had worked in collaboration with the United States and who would very likely be executed by the Communists. In view of our part in the war, it would be unthinkable to deny them sanctuary. people can't compared to Immigrants who come here illegally simply to earn money to send home. They are more like the Cubans who fled here to escape Castro's Communismand most of these Cubans have proved Intelligent, ami useful members of the community. Communism, after all, rarely appeals to those who have something to offer only to those who think they deserve more.

"VIVII, tlirre'a always llie chunou wu'll utrllo' oil uikI bei'ome nelfsuf fi-vlmi in unergy. recrimination or bitterness, to "ask some questions suggested by the Viet Nam debacle that could lead to better policies In the future. William B. Lloyd Jr..