Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1981-01-07

              73rd Year No. 96 Good Morning! It's Wednesday, January 7, 198 1 5 Sections 32 Pages - 25 Cents
Khomeini endorses Algerian effort to free hostages
ByJbhaKlmer
NewYorkTSmei
TEHRAN, Iran - Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-meini
gave Us approval Tuesday night to Alge-rian
assistance in efforts to release the S3
American hostages, raising new hopes for a so- luti- on
to the 14- raotith-
- oW crisis with the United
States.
The Ayatollah's endorsement necessary
for any major move was announced during
the evening by Prime Minister Mohammed Ah
Rajai after a meeting with the revolutionary
leader.
Bat the precise terms of me Algerian role and
the state of the negotiations remained un-known,
and Ratal's remarks themselves cre-ated
further confusion and uncertainty.
The confusion stemmed from the Prime Min- iste- rs
use of the Persian word " tahod," which
can h tratmlatpri jm msnin ojttT "" KfrTtflV- -
ing" or " guarantee." In the contest of his re-marks,
the difference is critical.
Interviewed on Iranian state television, Rajai
said:
. " We asked the Imam about the hostages and
we explained the new viewof the United States
government to him. We also explained the Alge-rian
proposal winch suggested that it will ( un-dertake,
or guarantee Ho solve our problems
with the United States and the Imam permitted
us to accept these ( undertakings, or guar-antees)
and we hope to announce me rest of the
points soon."
If translated with the word " undertake," the
statement would appear to indicate that the Al-gerians
would be serving as some sort of go- betwee- ns.
If translated as " guarantee," it would
appear that the Algerians were offering to
stand behind the latest American offer, giving
some form of assurances that Iran would be
able to recover its assets frozen by the United
States.
With Iran and the United States seemingly in
essential agreement on terms to fulfill the four
conditions set for the hostages' release by the
Iranian Parliament in November, the question
of what " guarantees" Iran would have that it
would actually get its money back when the
hostages were released has become the crucial
stumbling block.
The four conditions were: an American
pledge of noninterference in Iran's affairs, the
unfreezing of assets, the dropping of lawsuits
and the return of the late shah's wealth.
Thus the important question was whether the
Algerian intermediaries, who arrived here last
Friday after four days of meetings in Washing-ton,
had come up with some arrangement that
would enable Iran to accept an American pro-posal.
The Algerians have been conferring dai-ly
with Iranian officials.
Last week, the key Iranian negotiator raised
the possibility that some form of " guarantee"
other than the $ 24 billion deposit in the Algerian
central bank demanded by Teheran in the last
round of negotiations might be acceptable.
" If there is a kind of guarantee which is ac-cepted
by the Algerians, we can accept it too,"
said Behzad Navabi, the Minister for Executive
Affairs.
The differing possible interpretations of Ra- jai- ' s
remarks were illustrative of the linguistic
difficulties that have frequently impeded West-ern
understanding of events here and have
plagued the hostage negotiations.
The Persian language is an elusive and im-precise
tongue, and Rajai's statements, in bis
brief term in office so far, have often proved re-markably
difficult to fathom.
" That is it, the Algerians have made guar-antees
and the hostages will soon go free," one
Iranian, experienced in translating for Western
reporters, said after watching Rajai on tele-vision.
Another, equally experienced, who
watched the same interview, shrugged his
shoulders and indicated that Rajai's remarks
were inconsequential.
A news conference was scheduled for this
morning by Nabavi, the Executive Affairs Min-ister,
who is serving as the government's
spokesman on all matters as well as the key fig
ure in the hostage negotiations. In addition,
Pars, the news agency, has told foreign report-ers
that a briefing would be held this morning
but it was expected to deal with the Iraqi- Irania- n
war.
There were a number of indications here that
pointed toward a conclusion that some form of
agreement had been worked out beyond an A-lgerian
role as messengers in continued talks
between Iran and the United States.
The strongest indication was that Ayatollah
Khomeini had taken a position. Normally, the
Ayatollah would be consulted only when his
blessing was needed for a decision.
The officials involved in the negotiations are
believed to be feeling further pressure for a
quick solution from two sources: the clamoring
from the hard- lin- e fringe of their own party for
trials of the hostages, which they fear could
lead to new problems; and unease that the in-coming
Reagan administration may take a
harsher position, possibly involving military
action.
Fast action
averts book
catastrophe
ByJohBHartmaa
Misssortcu stxff writer
It could have been worse, but' be-cause
of a recently completed plan far
dealing with such a disaster, 6,000
steain- soake- d nooks worth more than
$ 60,000 from the University's Ellis li-brary
have been rescued.
Over the weekend, a steam coil in
the library's boiler room burst, send-ing
water vapor through the ventila-tion
system to part of me stacks. The
vapor condensed and coated the books
with moisture, but library employees
knew immediately bow to react to the
disaster Monday. A plan for saving
damaged books had been finished only
days before asincident.
" We'll come out of this with only
some wrinkled pages and some warped
cwers" said Deana Affle, head of the
library in rial department.
The broken steam pe was- dSsco- vr
ered early Mcsiday mcrning by Horary
personnel, and -- the shelving staff
worked late, laying books on the floor
of a large first- flo- or room and setting
up fans to dry them, Ms-- Astle said.
Ms. Astle and Grey Cole, the librar-y's
associate director, bad nothing but
praise for physical plant workmen who
arrived Monday to repair the steam
pipe- -
The books, some of which are irre-placeable,
Ms. Astle said, could have
been lost if a library committee bad
not formulated the disaster response
plan. Ms. Astle chairsthe group.
The committee's report, which is not
yet pnhtishert, fnrnishert guidance for
dealing with the wet books, Ms. Astle
said, and added that the staff would
have had to conduct time- consumi- ng
research had it not been for the plan.
The committee's plan was prompted,
Ms. AsQesaid, by recent disasters at
other universities. Bom Cornell and
Stanford universities have suffered ex-tensive
damage from floods in the low-er
levels of their libraries, and librari- an- s
worry most about water damage,
she said.
" The big problem when books get
wet is mold andfungus," she said.
Mold and fungus will spread from
book to book and are hard to stop once
they take bold, she said.
" We were fortunate this time be-cause
we caught it early," she said.
The library staff hopes to have the
books bade on the shelves today.
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-- WW WWIW I I 1 I II, 1IIW III,
Deana Astle, bead of Ellis library's soials de-- were damaged by moisture last weekend. A bro- partme- nt,
checks one of the 6,000 books that ken steam pipe caused the damage.
Titan may be hiding
ingredients for life
TORONTO ( UPI) Saturn's in-triguing
moon Titan may serve as a
dees freeze for the remnants of early
stages of life development, and Mars
appears to have had intermittent
breaks in its prolonged ice age, Ameri-can
scientists have reported.
They also revealed at the annual
meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science that
the Soviet Union is planning to launch
two Venus landing robots next Decem-ber
mat will grab soil samples for on- si- te
analysis.
hi a report on the latest findings
from America's planetary probes, the
scientists said they are still scratching
their beads about many of the findings
of November's reconnaissance of Sa-turn
by Voyager 1, particularly the
probe's observations of the planet's er-ratic
rings.
Voyager 1, now enroute to a 1S88 ren-dezvous
with Uranus, found that Titan
Saturn's biggest moon and the only
one in the solar system known to have
a thick atmosphere has a surface
temperature of' minus 283 degrees F
( minus 175 C).
Dr. Tobias C Owen, a project scien-tist
from the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, said the methane
in the nitrogen- ric- h atmosphere of Ti
tan is probably frozen into a " methane
slush" on the satellite's surface. Be
said the extreme cold has halted or-ganic
chemistry processes of me type
that presumably fed to life en Earth.
But Owen said Titan must have been
warmer bOMons of years ago.
" Some very interesting chemistry
could have occurred and the results of
that chemistry could be trapped there
and available for exploration," be
said. " It an depends on bow warm it'
got and bow long it stayed warm.
" I think it certainly could have got-ten
warm enough to have had seas of
ammonia. Whether it got warm enough
to have liquid water I don't know.
That's the real question. You need wa-terforEarth-
typ- e life."
Asa result of Voyager's Titan dis-coveries,
Owen said the National Aero-nautics
and Space Admuastratkra is
considering sadpnriaylclceihcnertmoafitcthatoel dplsaerunverdcefulaoorcpnseomTriseictnaettnoafioninffdet. hlaeoo1rk9o9bf0oos, t r
NASA also Is thinking about sending a second generation lander to Mars to
return samples of the marti?, goQ
back to Earth for laboratory study.
Inside
today
UAW willing
to help Chrysler
United Auto Workers Presi-dent
Douglas Fraser says the
union is willing to make conces-sions
to keep the Chrysler Cor-poration
solvent, but predicted
the automaker " cannot long sur-vive"
unless the economy im-proves.
Read about Chrysler's
continuing problems and related
auto industry developments on
Page 4a
Index
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Omiit's , . ...... j. 2C
Opiates. 4A
Fnplit B28
Spate CA- Z- A
City's budget crunch
catches agency head;
council wipes out job
ByTerriHengel
Missoarian staff writer
No one has criticized the job Dwight
Collins was doing as head of the city's
Department of Community Services,
but be still received the unkindest cut
of all be lost his job.
In a closed meeting after the regu-larly
scheduled session Monday night,
the Columbia City Council decided the
best way to reduce its budget would be
to cut at least ace job, saving the city
" in excess of $ 25,000" annually. City
Manager Richard Gray said. That job
happened to belong to Collins.
la response to me council's desire to
reduce city funds allotted to the De-partment
of Conmassty Services in
- tchoeun1c3il83M1s cpiltayn btuodgacect, omGprlaiyshtothlde trhe- e
daction. The council unanimously en-dorsed
Gray's plan to eliminate the
community services director's pesitisa
and merge the cwiinniTiity services
and health departments.
The dry wfll drop the position Jan. 31
and leave Collins jobless. Collins de-clined
to comment on the situation.
Gray said the elimination of the posi-tion
was a redaction in the work force
and " was of no discredit to Mr. Co-llins."
Health Department Director Michael
Sanford will assume Collins' adminis-trative
responsibilities. Two other
community services employees, a
planner and a secretary, will retain
their jobs under the new administra-tion.
The consolidated departments will
undergo few changes in becoming the
Department of Health and Community
Services, Sanford said. " There would
obviously be an increased workload for
us," be said, adding be expects few
problems.
The Community Services Depart-ment,
which has been in existence for
six years, primarily distributes funds
to mdpnendfnt agencies, said Gray.
Roughly 20 agencies are funded by the
city through the department including
the Anderson- Haye- s Day Care Center,
the Job Center Inc. and the Assault,
Abuse and Rape Crisis Center.
Gray described the service as " a
Uwigfai Coffins
LctfBg cityjob
way of channeling money'" to the agen-cies
and a way to " see that certain
services would be rendered" for the
year the city allocates more
than 3OQ, 000 for distribution by the de-partment,
and Gray assures that the
department consolidation wQl have no
effect on the agencies receiving fund-ing.
'' Support for the function is still
there," as well as the money, said
Gray. The move was just administra-tive
cost- cuttin- g, he said.
Gray explained mat the move was
" preceded by council action when it
mfliyjatprf a reduction of administra-tive
costs. They left to me bow it was to
be implemented."
In its 1980- 8- 1 city budget, approved in
September, the council allocated $ 60,- 17- 4
for the community services depart-ment's
total budget, 118,000 lower man
the requested base amount of $ 78,174.
It was the council's intent for the in-coming
city manager to make changes
in the department administration to
meet this new budgetary goal, said
Gray. The changes were merely ac-tions
carried out by Gray after the
council ' inspired'' them, he said.
Ethics courses the rage at time
when lessons are often ignored
ByFrcdM. rJecMmgcr
New York Times
NEW YORK Can ethical behavior
be taught? Can lessons be devised that
will launch children on a path of moral
action or frnhne doctors, lawyers and
business people with professional
ethics?
These questions, which have trou-bled
mankind for a very long time,
have never been satisfactorily an-swered.
Religiously instructed men
and women turn up among the sinners
against fundamental ethics. " There
are plenty of people in jail today who
passed college ethics courses," says
Arjay MUler, dean of Stanford's busi-ness
school.
The questions are urgently raised to-day
because unethical behavior seems
to have raised the level of mutual dis-trust
in American society higher than
ever. Watergate, Abscam, the Korean
bribery scandal, illegal acts by Ameri-can
business abroad, venal inspectors
at the assembly lines, profiteering by
tSBcrupulous doctors and lawyers,
chesting by college students all
these hive led to new demands that
teachers attract their charges in ways
thatwSmduthembehave ethically.
Two documents examining the issue
Insight
have been published this month: a re-port
in the Carnegie Quarterly on a
study of applied ethics, particularly in
the professions, by the Tmtrtnte of So-ciety,
Ethics and the Life Sciences in
Hastings- on- Hsdso- n, N. Y. ( the Has-tings
Center); and a working paper
based on a conference on " Ethics and
Moral Education" by the National Hu-manities
Center.
" Within the past decade," reports
the Hatfmgs Center, " almost every
medical school in the country has ini-tiated
at least some introduction in
medical ethics, and over half have
very serious courses." Nearly 90 per-cent
of aH law schools require courses
in " profescicaal responsibility," and
business and accounting schools are in-troducing
similar comes. Applied
ethics is becoming part of the curric-ulum
of schools of mining, journalism
and engineering. The military acade-mies
reojoire their students to analyze
the theories of just war and the linms
Altogether, the Hsstmgs stady esti-mates,
st least UJOBQ cetsms hi ap
plied ethics are currently offered at un-dergraduate
and professional levels.
Daniel Callahan, the Hastings Cen-ter's
director, who strongly supports
the teaching of ethics, warns of its lim-itations.
" Most professions," he says,
" daim some moral purpose and lmk
themselves with some moral goal
law with justice, medicine with pre-serving
life, and journalism with truth.
But at present few pay explicit atten-tion
to what these claims mean." Medi-cal
students, the' report says, live in a
professional ghetto little affected by
wider ethical concerns. Many a lawyer
in effect becomes " a hired gun for the
highest bidder." A law partner is
qucied as te& ktg a young recrmt: " The
great thrill is to win when you are
wrong."
Speaking at the Humanities Center's
symposium, William Bennett, its direc-tor,
said be generally opposed special
moral education courses to school. But
be and Edwin Ddattre. presktant of St.
John's CcUcge, felt that the schoofc
should serve the cause by sgnosnttng
" reasonable people of good wuT' who
bring moral imagination to their teach-ing,
and using literature to probe the
question of ethics.
He dtsd as examples the Inhssoace
( See ETHICS, Pige 124)