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Fag* 6 NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Friday, July 19,1H5 Opinion Natl editorial sample Detroit Free Press ... wherever the (General Motors Saturn) complex ends up, the country as a whole will benefit from at least one aspect of the enterprise: the labor agreement. The building of the Saturn is envi­ sioned by GM and UAW officials alike as a broad social experiment not only to build cars more cheap­ ly and efficiently but to break down the decades-long adversarial relationship between management and labor. GM wants to make Saturn abso­ lutely cost-competitive with the Japanese cars that are claiming an increasing share of the domes­ tic auto market. ... and despite the dissidents amid the rank-and-file, there exists the possibility of a happy agreement ... Workers would be salaried at some 20 per­ cent below the going hourly wage, but incentives and bonuses could easily make up the difference ... Moreover, workers would enjoy considerable participation in deci­ sions not only about their own work lives but about how the prod­ uct should be built. ... Workers who are given a say in how the workplace is run and the product is built are more likely to take an interest in the matter and, in turn, the product is more likely to be better in the end. Last call for Amtrak WASHINGTON -- Once a week Bob Smith leaves his apartment near New York City's Pennsylva­ nia Station and boards Amtrak's 9:27 p.m. "Montrealer" en route to his weekend retreat in Vermont. The train holds 477 people, but Bob is one of only about 130 people who board this train daily. His one-way ticket costs $29.72, but the real cost to Amtrak to get him to his destination is $54. Fed­ eral taxpayers foot the difference. "Bob Smith" is a composite of some of Amtrak's passengers. But the train and its costs are real, illustrating how this federally fi­ nanced railroad serves and subsi­ dizes a relatively small number of middle- to upper-income travelers. The government has poured al­ most $9 billion into Amtrak since its inception in 1971. When the Con­ gressional Budget Office assessed Amtrak's operation in 1982, it found that between 1972 and 1980 the railroad's operating costs had increased by 112 percent. The Reagan administration, say­ ing "enough is enough," wants to cut its subsidies and begin to make Amtrak pay its own way. But Con­ gress shows no signs of going as far as the administration would like. The Office of Management and Budget says the average per-pas- senger federal subsidy for Amtrak last year was $35. In the coming fiscal year Am­ trak will cost taxpayers $774 mil­ lion. By fiscal 1988, its annual sub­ sidy could be close to $900 million a year. Despite these subsidies, passen­ ger use on many lines has been pathetic. Last year, less than 10 passengers a day boarded the train in 40 percent of Amtrak's stations. Less than 50 passengers a day boarded in 75 percent of these stations. A comparison of ridership for the month of May over last year's figures for the same month shows ridership has decreased in five of Amtrak's short-distance lines: from Chicago to St. Louis; from Chicago to Quincy, 111.; from Washington to Martinsburg, W.Va.; from New York to Montre­ al ; and from Chicago to Indianapolis. In 1970, according to a Congres­ sional Budget Office study, rail­ roads carried 53 out of every 10,000 inter-city travelers, By 1983 they carried only 33 out of every 10,000 travelers. Donald Lambro Cutting back sharply on Am­ trak's little-used routes would hardly eliminate transportation for people in these and other local­ ities. Buses, for example, now serve 9,800 communities around the country. Amtrak serves a mere 500 localities. Moreover, in terms of time and money, Amtrak is not a bargain for either the traveler or taxpay­ ers. You can fly from Los Angeles to Chicago for $195. Amtrak offers the same trip for $228, of which Joe Taxpayer shells out $131.24 or 58 percent. As "Bob Smith" seeks to illus­ trate, Amtrak's clientele is largely undeserving of such massive sub­ sidies. Surveys show that 41 per­ cent of Amtrak's northeast-corri­ dor riders have incomes of more than $40,000 and 55 percent have incomes of more than $30,000. Poor people obviously travel less but when they do, they usually take buses, which pay their own way. Needless to say, among trav­ elers, bus travelers have the low­ est median incomes. Amtrak officials say they've in­ vested over $3 billion in the rail­ road in new locomotives and equipment. Clifford Black, Am­ trak's manager of corporate com­ munications, told my assistant, Martha Mueller, that this equip­ ment will have "scrap value" if subsidies are substantially cut and the agency was forced to shut down operations. But closing down Amtrak is hardly the alternative to more and more subsidies. With a book value of $3.6 billion, Amtrak represents a potentially good buy for some con­ glomerate that could, with the help of a little deregulation, profitably operate its most heavily traveled routes. Meanwhile, in a time of $200 billion deficits, Amtrak is adding over three-quarters of a billion dol­ lars a year to our debts, subsidiz­ ing a clientele that is least in need, and running rail lines that have been consistently losing passengers. It's time for Congress to sell Amtrak to the highest bidder and get out of a business it has proved it cannot run. _ ' * (Donald Lambro is a columnist for United Feature Syndicate) 0&S? . NO NORTHWHT HERALD •'The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its odor; and no man can tell what becomes of his in­ fluence." Henry Ward Beecher ROBERTA. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARDM. INGRASSIA Executive Editor STEVEN H. HUNTER Marketing Director MICHAEL E. MORSCH News Editor/Regional DENNIS M. McNAMARA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L.STANLEY Circulation Director penrrnsPREs to A blow for religious freedom WASHINGTON - It escaped widespread reporting in the press, but a court decision last month in Ohio provided some good news: In the continuing conflict between church and state, the church now and then manages to win an occa­ sional round. The case arose six years ago in Dayton, when Linda Hoskinson, a teacher at the Dayton Christian School, informed the school's prin­ cipal that She was pregnant. The principal subsequently wrote her that the school believes mothers should stay home with preschool children; her contract therefore would not be renewed for the next year. Mrs. Hoskinson then made the mistake -- in the school's view -- of consulting a lawyer with a view toward bringing legal action on charges of sex discrimination. That did it. For failure to follow the "Biblical Chain of Command," she was summarily fired. Mrs. Hoskinson took her griev­ ance against the school to the OHIO Civil Rights Commission. Tfle state's civil rights act, adopted in 1959, makes it unlawful for "any" employer to discriminate in the tenure of employment by reason of sex. The commission proceeded to fall upon the school like a hawk on a chipmunk. The school fled into U.S. District Court with a petition for an injunction. Several years passed while the matter hung in limbo, but in January 1984, the district court dismissed the school's petition. The school ap­ pealed, and last month the 6th Cir­ cuit reversed. Ohio's Civil Rights Commission will have to leave the Dayton Christian School alone. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the circuit court's deci­ sion. That the school is a perva­ sively religious institution could not be denied. Teachers are re­ quired to be born-again Christians. As a condition of employment, teachers must sign a "statement of faith," beginning with a decla­ ration that "I believe the Bible to be the inspired and the only infalli­ ble authoritative Word of God." Teachers are required to infuse Christian tenets into "every aspect of their life." Deviation from a religious way of life "may be grounds for dismissal." The Ohio Civil Rights Commis­ sion was not the least impressed by these avowals. In response to Mrs. Hoskinson's complaint -- you James J. Kilpatrick may now draw a long breath -- the commission demanded from the school "employment applications, employee handbooks and rules and regulations; written policies on disciplinary actions, employee pregnancies, employee evalua­ tions, performance standards, con­ tract renewal and grievance pro­ cedures; job descriptions, detailed information regarding all employ­ ees who were pregnant from Jan. l, 1977, to date of request, similar information regarding all employ­ ees who were discharged and sus­ pended, minutes of specific board meetings, and complete files for 14 employees." The commission de­ manded reinstatement, back pay and a public apology. Last month, speaking through Judge Leroy J. Contie Jr., the 6th Circuit found that the commis­ sion's assault violated the First Amendment in wholesale fashion. The parents of schoolchildren were denied their right freely to exer­ cise their religion. Moreover, the state's formidable intrusion into the policies of a Christian school amounted to excessive entangle­ ment by the state with an estab­ lishment of religion. The appellate court's decision represented one more significant victory for William B. Ball of Har- risburg, Pa. Over the past 15 years, and especially since his 1972 victory for the Amish in the land­ mark case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, Ball has built a solid reputation as the nation's most successful de­ fender of religious liberty. This was a big win for him. Contie's ruling was a big win for the First Amendment generally. Those tne First Amendment should accommodate religion, andtiot be hostile to it, have not been winning the big ones lately. These values were implicat­ ed in six cases heard by the Su­ preme Court during the term just ended. One of the six, a Connecti­ cut law forbidding employers to require their employees to work on their declared Sabbath, was a bad law; it should have been thrown out, and it was. Defenders of neu­ trality and accommodation lost three of the remaining five cases. They barely won the other two by 4-4 decisions that have no prece­ dential value. For the time being, at least, thank God for the 6th Circuit, (James Kilpatrick is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate) Reader Forum Bypass opposition TotheEditor: I have watched Algonquin residents pull together and con­ tribute time and money to fight a common enemy, the proposed Pyott Road garbage dump. I now know that Algonquin can kick and scream and fight to defend residents' rights and way of life. This is exhilarating. On the other hand I am saddened and disappointed by the lack of com­ munity cohesion on another issue. Algonquin is facing another invader, a 4-lane superstructure (alias "bypass") which will cut through the heart of residential Algonquin north of Route 62. But unlike the dump, the "bypass" is not a common enemy to most residents, it is a localized invader. So rather than residents sticking together to find an amenable solution to the traffic congestion at Routes 62 and 31, the "bypass" has divided residents into two distinct groups: those threatened (who live north of Route 62) and those not directly threatened (who live south of 62). Those living south of 62 have shown little empathy for those north of 62, who will bear the devastating impact of the "bypass." In fact, the "bypass" will negative­ ly impact all Algonquin residents. It will • encourge more traffic through Algonquin overall due to easier ac­ cess • increase pollution in the valley due to increased traffic • ruin the natural peace and beau­ ty of the countryside, and • increase the truck traffic and construction debris on existing roads for the years it will take to build this monstrosity. It will have even more devastating affects on residents north of 62: • Families will be condemned by eminent domain or contaminated and unsaleable by virtue of proximi­ ty to the "bypass." (You can own property 61 feet from the centerline of the highway and not receive a pen­ ny for it.) • Property values will plummet. • Residential areas will be invaded by air pollution, noise pollution, highway construct ion and maintenance crews. • Children will be forced to travel under an overhead highway and gravel truck traffic just to see friends, attend school, and walk or bike to town. Obviously, the prices to be paid by those of us living north of Route 62 far outweigh the benefits of a Guest Columnists The guest opinion column ap­ pearing in The Herald is prepared by writers with expertise and ex­ perience in specific areas. Their participation in our Opinion page is welcomed when their comments may give our readers new insight or perspective on local topics of current interest. Guest columns should be no longer than two pages of double-spaced, typewrit ten copy. Prospective wri ters ̂ re ask­ ed to call 815-459-4040, ext. 291, to make arrangements. "bypass" for Algonquin residents overall. I ask those of you living safe­ ly outside the immediately threaten­ ed areas to do two things: (1) Consider the benefits versus the costs of this highway which could invade up to 63 acres of residential and wooded countryside. (2) Think about how you would feel if the county and outside consultants decided to raise a four-lane highway overhead and run it through your residential area, such as Gaslight, High Hill Farms, Eagle Ridge or behind Eastview School.. (Bear in mind that this is not a ground level road, it will resemble Route 53 in Schaumburg -- four lanes towering over homes on cement pylons.) Find it in your heart and in your conscience to write a letter to Gover­ nor James Thompson expressing your wish to find another solution to Algonquin traffic problems -- a solu­ tion which does not cut through and condemn residentially zoned proper­ ty and threaten our way of life here in the valley. Please oppose a "bypass" which is really a residential super highway. ' Send letters to: Save the Coun­ tryside, P.O. Box 261, Algonquin, IL 60102. Put a note on the bottom of your letter to send a copy to PRC Engineering, Attention: Mr. Redio Ceppi, asking him to please include your letter as part of the Algonquin Bypass Study. "Save the Countryside" will send your letter on to people who can help stop this travesty and instead find another way. Please help us save our countryside. Write today. DannaGivot Algonquin