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P«f» 4 NOHTMWEST HERALD 25. nm Opinion' Forget protectionism Congress has been clamoring for "protectionism" lately. Fortunate­ ly, President Reagan has not given into this pressure which would ruin our economy. The basic problem is that some countries are flooding our markets with goods that undercut Ameri­ can prices for similar goods. Those imported goods are often being sold at prices less than what they would cost consumers in the home country. That "dumping" policy cannot be allowed to continue. However, imposing quotas and higher tariffs would be self-defeat- ing. The "culprit" country would simply retaliate by raising their own rates on imports. Our trade deficit would not decrease and con­ sumers would be penalized. The necessity of the recent "Farin Aid" concert here in Illi­ nois proves that our economy is being hurt in the world trade mar­ ket But the problems in many of our private sectors do not stem simply from our inability to export our goods. Knee-jerk reaction to a complex problem will not solve that problem Neither will lofty platitudes about the free market. A true belief in the free market, along with regulations that disal­ low "dumping" and penalize coun­ tries that push unfair quotas on our exported goods, must be real­ ized in order for consumers and industry to benefit. Protectionism could only boo­ merang, and we would all suffer the consequences of that foolishness. Over Dirksen's dead body WASHINGTON (UPI) - It would never, never have habpened if Everett Dirksen were still alive. It was a blessing he did not witness the sacrilege in the Senate. With all sorts of good humor and sly little Jokes, the Senate voted to make the rose the national flower of the United States. The rose? Why, Ev Dirksen dis­ missed that pretender as nothing more than the offshoot of a shrub. Yes, a shrub. And what of the marigold, that fine, yellow flower so close to Dirk­ sen's heart. Well, yes, it was men­ tioned. But barely, just in passing. x Not even an afterthought. It received no more notice than, well, than syringa. And who out­ side of Idaho, where it reigns as the state flower, ever speaks of the syringa. No, what the Senate did during those few minutes on Tuesday af­ ternoon of last week could not have happened if Everett Dirksen were alive. Dirksen, who reigned as Senate Republican leader until his death in 1969, was a marigold man. In his garden outside the nation's capi­ tal, he could admire other flowers, other blooms, but none like the marigold. Every year for 10 years, Dirksen triedto persuade his coUeagu^ffln the Senate to name the marigold the national flower. Now, the shaggy-haired Illinois senator with the mellifious voice, was a most persuasive man. He was a key player in many of the great issues that came to the Sen­ ate in those years. And whether he was for -- or against -- his off-the-cuff speeches were works of art and, sometimes, they could even sway votes. But not for the poor marigold. In 1969, not long before his death, Dirksen made the last of his attempts, as he put it, to persuade the Senate of the glory of the marigold. "Some prefer the rose, a shrub, or the carnation, or the petunia, the violet, the daffodil or some other bloom -- but the marigold is Steve Gerstel this hemisphere and every one of the 50 native to grows in states." And no flower, Dirksen intoned, could claim the resilience against vagaries of the weather nor the onslaught of insects as well as the marigold. But it was all in vain. And yet, in all these years since Dirksen's death, no attempt was made in the Senate to select a national- flower -- not until last week. No one said why. Perhaps it was because Howard Baker of Tennes­ see was standing guard. Baker, who started his career known little more than as Dirk­ sen's son-in-law, rose to become Senate Republican leader and presidential candidate before he retired last year. And when he left, there was no one left to speak for the marigold. And it was only then, that the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate, with flowery language, approved a resolution naming the rose the national flower and no one spoke for the marigold. What an opening Dirksen would have had when.<jn the day that the United StaUi peraime an interna­ tional debtor for the first time in 71 years, the Senate chose the rose. The rose, which even its most eloquent spokesman, Howell Hef- lin of Alabama, said is heavily imported into the United States, generally from South America, specifically from the nation of Colombia. To be sure, Heflin included the marigold in his 32-line poem, lumping "marigolds and dogwood, camellias and more" into two brief lines, a throwaway mention for Dirksen's flower. And, maybe worst of all, Heflin, on Sept. 1,1962, was awarded a life membership in the Alabama Mari­ gold Society. Certainly that honor should now be revoked. (Steve Gerstel writes for United Press International) is nave YWHeRe.I Trie EaST GeRMaNS iNFiLTRarrep eveRYvmeRe. You'Re "fee ONLY one UJFT I CaN TaLK To, OLP FRieNP. is w •85 Kor K V MT*J NLA NORTHWIST HERALD "Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater." Epictetus ROBERT A. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARDM. INGRASSIA MICHAEL E MORSCH Executive Editor News Editor/Regional STEVEN H HUNTER Marketing Director KAREN A. ANDROS Saturday Editor DENNIS M. McNAMARA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L. STANLEY Circulation Director w WE CLAIM ENTRAPMENT...1UE DECEASED SAT IN BRIGHT* MOONLIGHT WHERE MY CLIENT COULDN'T MISS" On It was rather refreshing, I thought, to have the old Kremlin lash out in retaliation against the British expulsion of Soviet KGB agents posing as diplomats, by ex­ pelling British diplomats and jour­ nalists posing as nothing other than what they in fact are. It came at just the right moment, after Mr. Gorbachev had spent 12 days more or less non-stop spooning with Western Journalists and diplomats in Operation ingratiation. The effect was quite wonderful, recalling that glorious moment in the '30s when the children's radio ^ idol Don Carney would read for an hour or so children's stories, and one day at the end of the hour commented, "There! I guess thatm hold |he/ litttebastardSMor another night," the trouble being that the little bastards all heard that because the radio operator had neglected to switch Carney off the air. He paid for that by expul­ sion from the airwaves for a pro­ bationary period of one forgets how long. Gorbachev won't have to pay so prolonged a price, because Operation Ingratiation has a natu­ ral audience, and soon he will be back smiling his petulant smile and telling children's stories about his love for peace, and there are those who will drink it all in. It has, to be sure, been quite a season for spies. A cursory look at the headlines in West Germany during the past month raises the question whether there are more communists in East or West Ger­ many. If Joe McCarthy had ever said about the United States that communist penetration was at a level it in fact reached in West Germany, why, even Mrs. McCar­ thy and Roy Cohn would have laughed him out of town. And the West German scandal came only one month after we discovered that San Diego, Calif., is one part a retirement community, one part a military-industrial complex, one part a ganglion of Soviet spy activ­ ity aimed at penetrating naval intelligence. Along comes Caspar Weinber­ ger, our devoted secretary of de­ fense, and he makes a concrete suggestion. Back up for a moment. It has recently been highlighted in the press that the new Soviet Embassy in Washington presides over the city in approximately the same way that the Eiffel Tower presides over Paris. If the KGB had ap- William F. T Buckley Manifesto; * of America and Canada Institute hours later. Meanwhile -- of course -- our request for a new embassy in Moscow, now over 20 years old, was grudgingly grantecg and we were assigned some acre; age roughly 100 feet below sea level. Not content with that, th£ Soviet Union has diddled and daw* died, and the structure is not y< complete. Why? Well, a SovU spokesman would no doubt sif and say that the Soviet Union i! always running into labor unioif problems. _j Sometimes one has to pause an< wonder, wonder -- in the hauntinj refrain of the Negro spiritual -- the sheer stupidity of the Ameri* can government, at so fundamen§ tal a level. Well, along comes Mr* Weinberger with a proposal to dtf something about what is going on* He has a concrete recommenda* tion, namely to send a bunch of Russians home. proached the city of Paris and asked please might it lease the Eiffel Tower to facilitate the inter­ ception of radio and telephone traf­ fic emanating from Paris, and France had acceded to the re­ quest, the difference in the advan­ ces enjoyed by the Soviet Union in Washington would not be noticeable. Super-modern equipment sprouts from the embassy like the bristles of a porcupine, and no conversation not conducted in su- per-scramblese is safe from detec­ tion. A casual telephone call from the secretary of defense to the secretary of state, if there is such a thing, can be picked up . by the Soviet Embassy, and studied in the Kremlin and at the United States them ed contrast, we have one-quarter thatf number in the Soviet Union Why not send three-quarters o£ them packing? Do we really neecfc 10 years of congressional hearing^ and State Department investigay tions to validate the good sense ire making it just a little more diffi^ cult for the Soviet Union to carry' on its subversive activities within^ the United States? It would be atH| solutely splendid if the presidents were to pick up his fountain pen* and sign the relevant document. P would suggest the eve of the Gene-£,' va summit as the ideal moment foi$ this gesture, and I would put that; pen in a solid gold frame, hang it# in the Smithsonian Institutions over the caption, "The Weinberger* Manifesto." | Reader Forum Referendum mail To the Editor: The District 200 Board wants to pass a referendum for 98 cents, Nov. 5. In order to do this, they have con­ tracted with Gene Sparrow of DeKalb, 111., to guide and direct their electioneering efforts in a manner that will (they hope) cause the elec­ torate to approve higher taxes for the benefit of that educational bureaucracy. For his efforts, suc­ cessful or not, Sparrow takes home $10,000.1 think he is what is called a "political strategist" (whatever that means). I suppose he will determine who talks to the Lions, who appears at church socials, and possibly what the party line is at any time between now and Nov. 5. By now you have all had a taste of what may be his first public offering. It was the letter signed only with a committee name (BEStT Commit­ tee) and placed in every mailbox in District 200. The postage was paid through use of the district's non­ profit organization permit number 582. I wonder if the membership of the committee was known when the letter was written or will it be fleshed out with n^mes as they find those willing to serve on it? And if it actual­ ly had members, why weren't they listed? Does it include any of the can­ didates for the board? The letter is addressed to "Dear Voter". I suspect that means they have an interest in reaching voters. Then the unknown committee goes on with: "We are a group of concern­ ed citizens from the Woodstock School District who recently joined to form a committee to support the school board's decision to run a referendum on Nov. 5, 1985." Then they follow with four paragraphs all of which are obviously points that will be stressed in the upcoming campaign. I hope we are not going to be con­ fronted with misinformation and misled intentions similar to what has shown up in past District 200 elec­ tions. This time I hope we don't end up paying $10,000 for guidance on how to mislead or misinform. There is nothing wrong with a school board working to pass a referendum. The problem arises whn they use tax money collected from all of us, including those who don't agree with their goals, to attain their goals without making the same "district resources" available to all who do not agree with the position and/or ac­ tions of the establishment in their at­ tempt to coerce us to raise our taxes. Do you suppose those who of>po6e will be given $10,000 of our tax money to mastermind a counter offensive?* It seems to me the district has been put in the position of having to say yes to any request to use the district resources to oppose their ". *.. deci­ sion to run a referendum .. " a£ long as the requests are similar tau what the district has used to in£ fluence an affirmative vote. Oh well, just because we. paid$ $10,000 for advice doesn't mean w£ have to accept it. % ft Roy Dodlej^ Woodstock- Landfill opposition | To the Editor: I would like to voice my opinion oip the Laidlaw's proposal to have m landfill in my town. I am very upsejj and scared that there could be a* possible landfill in my neighborhood^ I feel that this would be a verjg serious mistake. They have had to file three times sdjj far for this landfill and if they make various mistakes in filing/1 can im agine what mistakes would be ma if landfill will never go through. at the actual landfill site. hope thiy rough. 5 would be afraid of the water and th4| air my family and Lwould drink ancfa breathe. Please be aware of our tight ancfj aware of The Coalition to Stop theft Landfill. Gail A Dobb«$ Algonquin