SHAKE up the SALT CONTENTS Politics: Reports
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White House: An End to the Silent Minority RIPON MAY, 1973 Vol. IX, No. 9 ONE DOLLAR I I ~ SHAKE UP THE SALT CONTENTS Politics: Reports . 13 Commentary The Steiger Commission. Politics: Profiles 13 4 Mississippi GOP State Chairman Clarke Reed is The Suburban Middle Class Exodus .. to some an enigma wrapped in an anathema. But Editorial Board member Ralph E. Thayer, director to others, Reed is a Republican's Republican. of the Urban Studies Institute of Louisiana State University, New Orleans, contends that the re turn of the middle class from the ,suburbs is nec Politics: People 16 essary to the salvation of the cities. Duly Noted: Politics 32 The Third Nixon Administration 6 Editorial Board Chairman Robert D. Behn looks Duly Noted: Books 29 for competence rather than absolute loyalty as Dear Israelis, Dear Arabs: A Working Approach the criterion for the third Nixon Administration. to Peace; Arabs and Israelis: LIfe Together; Cold War and Counter-Revolution; Prisons, Protest and PoMtics; An American Philosophy of Social Se In Re The Burger Court .. 7 curity; and American Enterprise: Free and Not Robert G. Stewart, a third-year law student at So Free. Harvard University, explains the equities and in equities of municipal school financing as the re late to the Supreme Court's decision in San An Letters 30 tonio v. Rodriguez. 14a Eliot Street 31 Correction A "Politics: People" note in the March FORUM mag Book Review azine confused the identity of Robert F. Odell, Jr. and Robert C. Odle. Mr. Odell is the Finance Director of the Republican National Committee who spoke before the Massachusetts State Republican Finance Committee. Mr. The Bored of Education ..... 27 Odle served as director of personnel and administration for the Committee to Re-elect the President. The FORUM FORUM Editor Dick Behn, still learning, reviews "incerely regrets the error. And trying one more time, four diverse books on education: Busing and Back let's try to straighten out the ages of the under-26 crowd lash; Places for Learning, Places for Joy; Chil of Vermont Republican legislators: Thomas R. Haley, Jr., dren in the Learning Factory; and Equal Educa 23, Gregory E. Reed, 20, and James H. Douglas, 21. Omit tion. ted in the Correction in the April FORUM was Ripon Na tional Associate Member Richard L. Cleveland, 25, who represents District 21. THE RIPON FORUM Is published semi-monthly by the Ripon Soclety. Inc.. 140 Ellot Street. At Issue Cambridge. Massachusetts 02138. Second crass postage rates paid Boston. Massachusetts. Contents are copyrighted © 1972 by the Ripon Socl<:ty. Inc. Correspondence to the Editor Is welcomed. In pubhshlng this magazine the Ripon Society seeks to provide Municipal Decentralization 17 a forum for a spirit of criticism. Innovation. and Independent think ing within the Republican Parly. Artlcles do not necessarily rep Dr. John A. Rehfuss, acting director of the Cen ~~si~~~n:d~pln\on of the Ripon Society. unless they are explicltly ter for Governmental Studies at North Dllnois SUBSCRIPTION RATES are $10 a year. $5 for students. service University, DeKalb, Illinois, explains what works m.en. apd for Peace Corps. Vista and other volunteers. Overseas and what doesn't in decentralizing municipal serv alr m.all. $10 extra. Advertising rates on request. $10 of any con ices and government. tribul10n to the Ripon Society is credited for a subscription to the Ripon FORUM. Editor: Dick Behn Salt Talks ....... 22 Editorial Board: Robert D. Behn. Chairman Tanya Mellch Robert H. Donaldson Ralph Thayer Richard Burt, a Ph.D. candidate at the Fletcher James Manahan School of Law and Diplomacy, makes some rec Contributing Editom Cilliord Brown. Glenn Gerstell. WUllam A. ommendations for U.S. action in the current round Koelsch and Daniel J. Swillinger. of SALT talks. Circulation _d Tedm1cal Editorl Judith H. Bahn. Art: Leslle Morrill. Editorial .Ass!slClntsl Deborah Bowen and Victoria Golden. Correspondents J. James Plant. Nebraska Foy McDavid. Alabama Scott Green. New Hampshire James F. McCollum. Jr .• Florida Deryl Howard. North Carolinu Steven Livengood. Georgia Henri Pell Junod. Ohio Michael McCrary. Idaho William K. Woods. Ohio Features Mike Hansen. Idaho Stephen Jones. Oklahoma David Allison. IndiCll1a Eric R. Blackledge. Oregon Thomas A. Sargent. Indiana Donato Andre DAndrea. R. I. C.R. Connell. Iowa Bruce M. Selya. Rhode IsI_d Politics: Reports 8 Judy Gentry. K_ Dean Sinclair. South Carolina John C. Yoder. Kcmsas Stanford M. Adelstem. S. D. The long-awaited 1972 Ripon Ratings need be Eric Kames. Kentucky Mark Gustavson. Utah James Harrington. Maine W. Stuart Parsons. WiscollSin awaited no more. Our computer grinds slowly but Arthur F. McClure. Missouri George Charles. Vermont it thinks it has discerned the basis for a growing coalition of progressive Republicans in Congress. I eMargin Release BREED'S HILL - As one walks into the maximum said, "You won't squeal on us, will you, Mr. Behn?" De It security unit of the State School for Boys, one is not im pressed and annoyed, I mumbled that we would discuss mediately depressed. It takes a minute or two. the situation a little later. My tutoring session was cut Recently I visited Leggie (who was mentioned in the short when Leggie was taken out for his daily break. We February Margin Release column) in his cell in the unit. played ping pong while Leggie half-concentrated on the Fifteen-year-old Leggie spends 23Y2 hours a day in his TV (although I was not convinced that the concentration 6 x 10 foot cell in the middle of a lO-cell block. His was not an elaborate charade for overhearing the conver cell is notably neater than most. His books are piled neat sation of the guards on duty). A half hour later, Leggie ly by his bed. His mattress is on the concrete platform was returned to his cell, having, as usual, completely ob rather than torn into pieces and stuffed into the tcilet to literated me in Chinese torture. create a flood in the cell block. His blanket is on his bed I asked one guard what action had developed in the rather than rolled, knotted and wet in order to knock the cell block. He unlocked a closet door and showed me glass plate off the cell light. (Such are the diversions of two, foot-long sections of heavy-gauge angle-irons which juvenile cell life.) He lives alone (e.g., "solitary") so had once been welded to the steel walls of the cell to there is no overcrowding in his cell. But the unit, built keep them in place. Once welded, but now torn in pieces for 10 kids, was holding 19 that night. The walls of Leg by the cell occupants, they had been torn clean off the walls gie's cell are even free from the usual pornographic draw and hidden in the cells. The potential for a crushed skull ings and scribbled initials. (In at least one other cel~ ra was evident. cial epithets festoon the walls.) Only a few pinups adorn "I can't get mad," said the guard. ''I'd do the same the wall and monthly calendars have been drawn labori thing if I were locked up." The cell block was full of fa ously along the side of the toilet. miliar faces, juveniles who frequent the unit as often as If the label "incorrigible" was applied to any delin some salesmen go to Holiday Inns. The guard mentioned quent, it would probably fit Leggie. His record is stuffed his newest difficulties: the overcrowded cells; cell place with accusations ranging from breaking and entering, car ments to minimize homosexuality, personality conflicts and theft, and mugging to arson, assault with a dangerous racial antagonisms; and the most recent cell flooding. There weapon (gun), and forcible escape. And yet, Leggie is was speculation that Leggie would be sent to an adult in a likable, industrious and bright "man." (''I'm not a kid; stitution; at 15, he would be matriculated in a graduate I've been a man ever since I was a baby," he says.) school of crime. At 15. Leggie has been locked up for about two months this A recent article in a Net/! York Times series on ju year. Last year, he was locked up for periods of two months, venile justice quoted a juvenile judge as admitting that il two months, two months and three months. Some of it was legal acts are often committed by the family courts. Ju in the comparative luxury of a cell with its own TV. But venile rights are rescinded without adult protections. The much of the time was spent in the depressing environment presumption of guilt is much stronger than in criminal of the stark 6 x 10 foot cell. courts. And far too often, the facilities for rehabilitation Leggie stood by the door to his cell as I entered. He are no more effective than for adult offenders. remained there, intent on the action and conversation in Pity the "squealer" if he is caught by his peers. Pity the cell corridor. During the next hour and a half, it be the peers who live in frustration and impotence. Pity the came obvious that an escape plan had been formulated, guards whose sensibilities are affronted by their own jobs. weapons had been hidden and someone had squealed. Leg Pity the POW's. But these are not POW's. These are our gie, perhaps realizing that I am not as dumb as-llook, own children. • I wish to subscribe to the Ripon Name ............................................. FORUM through use of one of the following options: Address ......................................... D Contributors - $25 or more Zip Code .....................................