Page 4-Thursday, Septem ber 14, 1978-The Michigan Daily

Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom

A global grab

for. U.S. Ian, d


Vol. LIX, No. 7

Thursday, September 14, 1978

News Phone: 764-0552

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan


Did Biko' die in vain?,

ONE YEAR AGO Tuesday, black
South African leader Stephen
Biko died of massive brain injuries
after three weeks in police custody.
Officials said he committed suicide by,
falling from a chair, and a magistrate
absolved the police of any wrong doing.
But doctors who examined the body
said the injuries could have only come
from repeated blows to the head, which
all but confirms the popular belief that
overzealous police officers
interrogated Biko to death..
But as tragic as his death was, at
least it was not in vain. At the U.N.
Tuesday, Andrew Young said, "Steve
Bilko will continue to live on even more
powerfully in death than in life."
Indeed he has. His death has served to
fuel the war against the racist white
regime of Prime Minister John
Vorster, much as his fiery rhetoric did
when he was still alive. Even the
staunchest Vorster supporters both in
and out of South Africa could not
ignore Biko's murder. It has been a
severe blow to the white supremacist's
image in the world's eye.
But as Vorster has shown so many
times in the past, when something
threatens his vise-like grip on South
Africa he eliminates it. Steve Biko was
a threat when he was alive - and he
was eliminated. With world opinion
continuing to turn against Vorster, he
has found the spirit of Biko to be an
even greater threat. Sunday and
Monday, South African police raided
the black townships of East London,
Port Elizabeth, King William's
Town, and Johannesburg, and
arrested at least 11 friends and
relatives of Biko's to prevent them

from observing the first anniversary of
his death.
In the past year there has been much
talk of changing South Africa from
within, of working through the system.
There have been numerous magazine
and newspaper articles alleging a
softening of Vorster's views, but this
week's events clearly show that such
optimism is wholly unfounded. Vorster
has no intention of loosening his grip
willingly. He must be forced either
through stringent economic sanctions
or through military overthrow.
The most disturbing point,.is that
most organizations, corporations and
institutions, including this University,
appear willing to await the latter,
inevitable solution. The corporate
divestiture we fought so hard for last
year has all but been forgotten.
Sadly, even when the Washtenaw
County Coalition Against Apartheid is
preparing to abandon the divestiture
fight, right now when we need it most.
Vorster is scared, his attempts to
obliterate the memory of Biko are
evidence of this, and as such he is very
susceptible to pressure-economic
pressure. With the revolution gaining
force in Rhodesia, it will not be long
before an all out struggle begins in
South Africa. If they cannot get
weapons from the west, they will turn
to the Soviets or the Cubans, or
whomever will supply them. But there
is still time to prevent this bloodshed if
the U.S. and other nations act now, and
the first act must be divestiture. If we
let this issue fade now, then perhaps
Steve Biko will have died in vain, for
his people will be forced to kill and die
for their rights because of our inaction.

If the dollar's continuing plunge' on
international money markets has sent
tremors of fear through the New w, York
banking establishment and the Carter
administration, it has also alarmed many of
the nation's farmers who worry that a tide of
foreign investors are gobbling up U.S. farm
land.
Global jet-set investors have found that one
of the best places to put the tremendous
surplus of U.S. dollars piling up overseas is in
U.S. farm land. European, Arab, South
American and Asian investors are buying up
choice tracts of some of the most productive
land in America :
" In Missouri, Jack Runyon, director of the
state department of agriculture, reports that
foreign investors have bought at least 150,000
acres of grain and row crop land in the state.
" In Logan, Utah, Mountain Valley Realty
sold 6,000 acres of farm land to Dutch
investors represented by a California agent.
" In California's fertile San Joaquin Valley,
13,453 acres of row crop land have been
bought by German, French and . Italian
investors since 1977.
While the experts agree that there has been
a recent substantial increase in foreign
investment, no one knows just how much. So
far, the investment appears to be more of a
steady stream than a flood. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
estimates that 3 per cent of the nation's farm
land changed hands last year and that up to 21
per cent of these sales may have involved
foreign investors. USDA specialists estimate
that foreign land sales totaled about $1 billion
in 1977.
Foreign investors' interest has been
focused in the South, Midwest and the central
California valley. In those areas up to 40 per
cent of all sales are to Europeans and Asians.
The overseas investors have joined the ranks
of insurance companies, oil conglamorates
and pension funds that have entered the farm,
land market, hiking the average price per
acre from $219 in 1972 to $490 in 1978. The
soaring prices make the farmer's land more
valuable, but many small famers complain
that the profits from their crops are not
enough to pay off the bank loans needed to
buy the land.
Young farmers, in particular, have had a
tough time getting started. Several states
have passed special legislation to provide
financial assistance. But U.S. farm land
prices are still onbly half the cost of the
average acre in Europe. That disparity
troubles National Farmers Union leaders who
worry that if U.S. land prices rise to the
European level, many small farmers could be
squeezed out entirely.
A variety of schemes have been used to put
U.S. farm land on the international auction
block. One of the most innovative was set up
by the San Francisco-based American Real
Estate Exchange (Amrex), which sponsored
an "international market day" last spring in
Zurich, Switzerland. It was advertised in the
Wall Street Journal as a chance for buyers
and sellers of U.S. real estate to get together
for "confidential discussions."
Hundreds of German, French; Italian and
Arab investors came to see what land was
available. Meeting with U.S. real estate
dealers, property owners, private landing
institutions and banks, several discreet deals

By Hal Bernton

were made - including one that linked an
American developer of former ranch lands
,with a Swiss bank representing Kuwaiti
clients.
Both U.S. and European banks are actively
involved in farm purchases. Gerald Jackson,
president of Amrex,,. said he deals "with the
biggest banks in New York." Special land
Global jet-set investors have
found that one of the best places
to put the tremendous surplus of
U.S. dollars piling up overseas is
in U.S. farm land.
divisions have been established in major New
York and Swiss banks, and their officials
boast of the agriculture expertise to attract
prospective investors. Even the U.S.
Ambassador, to Switzerland, Marvin
Warner, arranged a meeting to introduce U.S.
real estate agents to international banks and
buyers.
Another popular point of entry for foreign
capital is in the balmy Caribbean. Islands of
the Netherlands Antilles. Corporations based
on the island have their profits exempted
from Netherlands taxes. In addition, the U.S.
Department of Treasury has signed a tax
treaty with the Netherlands Antilles
that grants its corporations special tax
treatment when they invest their money in
the United States.
Italian, German, French and Swiss
investors with unreported income have
flocked to the Dutch Antilles. They set up
"straw" corporations and have taken
advantage of the U.S. tax treaty to but U.S.
farms. There is some speculation that even
some SAmerican investors have set up straw
corporations on the islands to evade taxes in
the United States.
Runyon, Missouri's, director of agriculture,
says that 13 .,straw companies from the
Netherlands Antilles have registered
their farm purchases with the
state, but that their true owners
are "harder than hell to trace."
n Hillsdale, Mich., 650 acres of small
family farms were purchased by Dutch
Antilles interests. In California, 1,280 acres of
federally irrigated land supposed to be
reserved for small farmers ended up in tithe
hands of a Dutch Antilles corporation. Rep.
Charles Grassely (R-Iowa), has proposed
legislation that would close the tax loophole.
.1 Some famers, however, eagerly support
foreign investment, arguing that it helps
provide capital needed by today's modern
agri-business enterprises. Other farmers
have made handsome profits by selling their
land to foreign investors and then signing a
lease with the new owner. This allows them to
pay off their debts and stay on the land.
In parts of the country where sniall family
farmers still dominate the scene, there is
widespread mistrust of any outside attempts
to take over the land. Rumors of foreign
purchases can sweep along the country lanes

as swiftly as a wind-whipped prairie fire
Sometimes, there are facts behind th
rumors.
In Georgia, for example, Transatlanti
Consultants Inc., an international investment
corporation; based in Munich, Germany, ha
bought at least. 17,000 acresof land. Th;
average size pf a farm in Georgia is only
acres. Transatlantic's Georgia connection
retired Air Force Col. Phillip Beegle, h
gained a controversial reputation for hi'
shrewd and hard-driving bargaining '
techniques.
Beegle's success has been due, in part, t
the impact of disastrous crop failures, which
plagued the South in 1977. A severe drough,
coupled with low -grain prices and hig
fertilizer, costs, pushed many, farmers to th
brink of bankruptcy. Some were glad to sell t
Beegle at the "'above market prices" -h.
advertised in local papers. Others were mor
reluctant. Tommy Kersey, a Georgia farmer
active in the, agricultural movement, rejected
Beegle's offer after he was cautioned to "keep
things quiet because we got a lot of foreig'
investment behind us."
A check of state records showed that Beegl
created at least seven straw corporations t
shhield Transatlantic's investors. On
Georgia corporation, Soybean Hill Inc.
bought 1,100 acres in Jefferson County
naming Ferdinand Seefield, an Austrian, a
its president. Seefield is also a to
Transatlantic official.
The land bought by Transatlantic is
managed by Southern Farm Services Co., of
Bartow, Ga. Phillip Beegle is president of
that company.
Public outcry over Transatlantic's land
deals spurred Georgia Sen. Herman
Talmadge, chairman of the Senate
Agriculture Committee, to order a special
investigation. into foreign land purchases i
his and several other states.
Both the House and Senate Agriculture
~committees have passed bills to require all
foreign investors to register with the
Department of Agriculture. Those bills have
won support from major national groups, but
the Treasury Department, which wants to
encourage foreign investments to ease the
balance of payments deficit, opposed the bill.
Meanwhile, 25 states now have laws
restricting foreign ownership of land,
although the General Accounting Office
reported this year that most of these laws "do
not have a major impact on foreign
ownership."
(Hal Bernton is a staff reporter for
,columnist Jack Anderson and a frequent
contributor to Pacific News Service. He
recently testified before the House'
Subcommittee on Family Farms
concerning the results of his investigation
into foreign investment in U.S.'
agr cultu're.)

No comment department

A GOOD DEAL of the snobbish
superiority exuded from that
school in Ann Arbor is probably a
result of MSU administrators
considering us to be inferior. Why else
would MSU place so much emphasis in
getting law and dental schools if it is
not an attempt to "keep up with the
Jonses?"
For the past 13 years, MSU has
petitioned the state to grant us the
opportunity to open dental and law
schools. And for 13 years, the state
Board of Education has told MSU to
forget it. Why is it taking MSU to long
to get the message?
We do not need a law school. The
state does not need more lawyers. We
do not need a dental school and the
state cannot afford any more dentists.
This has been obvious for 13 years, yet
this University persists in acting like
the inferiors we are accused of being.
We, of course, are not inferior to U-M
in any way, shape or form. In fact, in
areas that are directly related to
benefiting the people of this state, they
can't even come close to our
accomplishments.
This apparent inferiority complex on
the part of MSU administrators
manifests itself in our long-range
planning guidelines. The attempt to be
all things to all people is of course a
noble objective, but it is also an

impossible dream. MSU has many
programs in sciences and the social
sciences that verge on worldwide
prominence and could in fact be the
epitome of applied intellect if it were
not for energies being wasted in areas
we and the state do not need.
Lawyers and doctors definitely have
enough pull in this state - as they do in
all states - to keep emrollment in
schools to a minimum. It is a seller's
market and the state's consumers pay
through the nose. But there is no
reason to believe that MSU having a
law and dental school will in any way
change the nature of this historical
practice. And any attempt for the
University to justify its oft-repeated
request with the idea of breaking up
the oligopic practices of law and
medicine in this state would fall on
deaf ears. The bar and medical
associations are far too strong to ever
allow MSU to undermine what they
have so painstakingly constructed.
Let U-M train its dcotors and
lawyers. Let them feel intellectually
elite. Ignore them and concentrate on
making MSU a standard of education
that is applicable and necessary. We,
the people of this state, this country
and the world deerve nothing less.
--The State News, the Michigan
State University student
newspaper, August 24, 1978


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The Health Servi"c'e' Handbook

:":
Editorials which appear without a by-line represent a con-
sensus opinion of the Daily's editorial board. All othE-r editorials,
as well as cartoons, are the opinions of the individuals who sub-
m.it them.
' ' _ ... i" ........... .. .. . ".... " " ............................ .
1
X'

By GAIL RYAN
QUESTION: What is a hiccup?
What causes it and what is the
best cure? (From a pair of
curious people)
ANSWER: A hiccup results
when an involuntary spasm of the
breathing muscles, the
diaphragm in particular, causes
a sudden inhalation. This sudden
inhalation is interrupted by a
spasmodic closure of the glottis
(the vocal apparatus of the
larynx), producing a noise.
What causes a hiccup?
According to Dr. Hernan Drobny,
a physician at Health Service,

inflammation that occurs near
the vagus nerve (the nerve that
transmits messages to the
diaphragm so that it may move
for breathing) can be a cause.
Some examples of these are
gastritis (inflammation of the
stomach), pericarditis
(inflammation around the heart),
and pleurisy. Central nervous
system disorders, such as strokes
r or encephalitis, and build-up of
toxins in kidney failure can also
result in hiccups.
Dr. Drobny reviewed the
various treatments for hiccups.
The simplest ones include deep


mechanism is involved in the
cure when someone yells "Boo"
in your face (this is the best cure
for my hiccups!). His guess was
that the sudden respiratory,
movement that results when you.
are frightened in such a manner
changes the pattern of breathing,
resulting in the disappearance of
the hiccups. I also asked him why
the cartoon featuring the town
drunk always shows him
hiccupping. He hypothesized that
the hiccups associated with
alcoholism may be due to the
gastritis common in the alcoholic
or to the toxic effect of the alcohol



ANSWER: The program you
are probably referring to is the
Smoking Cessation Clinic which?
is co-sponsored by University
Health Service and the Ann Arbor
"Y. "' The clinic consists of twelve
meetings over A one-month
period, with the majority of the
time spent in group discussion of
individual members' situations
and needs (which, hopefully,
provides the support you mention
was lacking in your co-workers
this summer). Occasional guest
speakers (such as a nutritionist
and a respiratory therapist),
.movies, and written literature

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