100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

September 06, 1974 - Image 22

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1974-09-06

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Page Ten-8

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Friday, September 6,.1974

Page Ten-B THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 6, 1974

r..... ................................................::..::. :::::::.:.:::::::::::::::::::::::::, :.

.smaum ....m n .E .. .

SHADOW GOVERNMENT?

Lobbyists shape

legislation

6ato~4cr
c46dft(f~geI/

By .KAY BARTLETT sults of 'existing legislation.
WASHINGTON (P) - Andrew They bring important insights
Biemiller, chief lobbyist for the into the operation. They know
AFL-CIO, was testifying before whether or not a piece of legis-
a House committee recently on lation needs to be continued or
legislation in which organized whether we're just spinning our
labor had an interest. Rep. Cle- wheels."
ment Zablocki (D-Wis.) was a LOBBYING has been called
member of the committee. the fourth branch of govern-
"Congressman Zablocki .. "," ment. It is pervasive; part of
Biemiller began in his gravely t syste Te iratepro-
voice. tesse.Teiaepo
"Andy," the congressman in- nouncement that "I'm going to
terrupted, "why don't you call write to my congressman," is,
me Clem like you always do."1
AN ANTI-LABOR lobbyist wit-,
nesses the exchange.-
"My guys tell me that poor When I go back
son of a gun jumped out of his
skin when Clem said that," .o,
chortles Biemiller.Im alobyist, its m
And chortle he might. Good
old Clem had served with good I'm a pimp," says one
old Andy when Andy was Con-
gressmen Biemiller, also a Wis-
consin Democrat. devoutly in anonymi
"I helped get him elected," dvul nao m
Biemiller notes in passing. ' ..::; s...

is the American Petroleum In-
stitute, representing 8,500 to
9,000 companies directly or in-
directly related to oil..There are,
the people lobbies - Common
Cause, the League of Women
Voters, the NAACP, Ralph Na-,
der - and t h o s e representing
causes: pro and anti-abortion,.
population control, world peace'.
F Almost anyonenis free to
"lobby. But the name of -the
game is good connections and.
expertise..
home and tell people
uch the same as saying '
lobbyist who believes

..
\ .. .
It'
V/C?, ; You not only reduce co
know what a few do
So we have elimin
NATIONAL CITY T
$1000 in savings or buil
4 f} *~Ann Arbor Federz
money, so you increz
winner? Take advantag
We can handle the transfer

..........

'RNELERS
NEY ORDE
ITH $1/OO(
I SAVINGS
sts when you save at AAFS, you also increase y
llgrs saved here and a few there can do for a fam
nated charges for MONEY ORDERS and for FIF
RAVELERS CHECKS for all AAFS customers
d the balance in their savings to $1000. Remer
al Savings you receive the highest interest on yo
ase your income while you reduce your costs.S
e of it.
of your _hnds to an AF l 1account with no inconveni

"ur "ncome. We
jRS -
our income. We < .°.f
nily budget.
RST:tp
who have
,nber, too, that at
iur
Sound like a
ence to you.

ty.

Women Voters seemed to care,"
Stafford said.
In the climate of Watergate
morality, Stafford has re-sub-
mitted his refordi hill. Sen.
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.),
has introduced another, similar
bill and there were five before
the House at the beginning of
the summer.
L0BBYISTS, in inter-
views, say the 1946 law is so
vaguely worded that the re-
quirements to register and to
list expenses probably could
be bypassed. The reform legis-
lation would remove the vague-
ness, as well as requiring lob-
byists to keep logs of their daily
contacts and their sources of
income.
The public thus would be able
to know how much time and
money went into influencing a
specific piece of legislation.
Common Cause, which listed
$934,835.67 for lobbying ex-
penses last year - the high-
est of all lobbies - strongly
supports reform legislation.
"WE WANT IT on public
view. The public should know
who is going to see whom, why,
what they are being paid for do-
ing and by whom," says Fred
Wertheimer, chief lobbyist for
Common Cause.
Beimiller grumbles: "It can
get pretty absurd if I"have to
record every call I make. I
work pretty well on the tele-
phone. I might make 30 calls
a day. I'd have to log each of
those calls? That's noisense."
And Smith adds: "Vhat good
is the new legislaiton going
to do anyway? If soMtone slips
a congressman a $10,000 cam-
paign contribution, do you think
he's going to list that on his
lobby form?"

"TT'S JUST THE kind of thing
politicians do for each other. I'
mean, you're part of the club.
It's that simple."
Biemiller, 67, is indeed part
of the club. Some might say
he's president. He is one of
nearly 2,000 registered Wash-
ington lobbyists, a band of men
and women who have advanced
the First Amendment's right to
netition Congress to a high art
form.
But the very word lobbyist
conjures up vision of Dita
Beards, laundered money, milk
industry campaign contribu-
tions, oil company influence.
"When I go back home and
tell people I'm a lobbyist, it's
much the same as saying I'm a,
pimp," says one lobbyist who
believes devoutly in anonymity.
AT LEAST SEVEN bills are'
before Congress to revise the
1946 law which still regulates
lobbying. A chief revision would
require lobbyists to keep logs of
whom they see, why they are
seeing them and who is paying
them for their efforts. The 1946
law specifies only registration
and listing of expenses.
Even in the nation's capital,
where everyone knows what
everyone else is doing, there!
are euphemisms for lobbyists:
"legislative liaison man," "leg-
islative counsel," "vice presi-
dent in charge of government
relations."
On the other hand, elected
officials speak freely about the
invaliable role the lobbyist of-
ten plays. Mike McPherson, ad-
dministrative assistant to Rep.
William Clay (D-Mo.) gives an
illuistration:
"When there is any educa-
tion bill up, the National Edu-
cation Association is, of course,
vitally interested. They're as
knowledgeable about any educa-
tion act as any member of the
committee. Th e y're able to
bring in information we don't
have. They have resources not
available to us in terms of sta-
tistics, field interviews, the re-

after all, lobbying. Not that
your letter would have exactly
the same effect as when Bie-
miller tells a senator how or-
ganized labor feels about a
given issue.
Biemiller speaks for 14 million
members. That's 14 million po-
tential voters, 14 million poten-
tial campaign contributors and
14 million potential foot soldiers
when it's time to tack up your
picture on telephone poles.
Who are these myriad
lobbyists?
BIG BUSINESS is there in
force. Many companies have
their own lobbyists. Some oper-
ate only through trade associa-
tions such as the Air Transport
Association, which represents
27 scheduled carriers. Another

Nearly everyone seems to
agree that the 1946 lobbying law
still in force is a poor one.
"There were never any hear-
ings on it" says Milton Smith,
chief counsel for the U. S.
Chamber of Commerce. "It was
tacked on to a congressional
reorganization bill . . . Nobody
is even sure who wrote it and
nobody paid any attention to it."
PE R I O D I C ATTEMPTS
have been made to pass a new
law. Until Watergate, no one
showed much interest. Sen.
Robert Stafford (R-Vt.), for ex-
ample introduced reform legis-
lation several years ago. But
no one came to the hearings on
his bill, and it died from ne-
glect.
"Not even the League of

masavsi . ,omes.. mgia

1

Ad execs look eastward:
Japanese sell U.S. good's

CQI .

............
...........
..........
.........
.................
.........

'.i.t :aEi 30

By ROBERT HOLDER
NEW YORK (P)-Everybody
knows the Japanese are masters
at making things small and com-
pact, right?
That's why gentlemen appar-
ently from Japan are now ap-
pearing on your television
screen to sell the idea that
small American products are
better than those ubiquitous
Japanese imports.
"IF TOYOTA can use Ameri-
cans why can't Pontiac use
Japanese," one advertising ex-
ecutive said of this recent
strategy to combat the "Made
in Japan" manufacturing wave.
So now actor Saab Shimono
is pulling a small surprise on
viewers in a commercial for the
Pontiac Ventura. The network
spot starts out like a routine
pitch for one of the competing

ANN ARBOR FEDERAL SAVINGS
ANN ARBOR OFFICES: Downtown, Liberty at Division; Westside, Pauline at Stadium; Eastside, Huron Parkway at Platt; Northside, Plymouth at Nixon;
CHELSEA-Main Street near Old U.S. 12; DEXTER-8081 Main Street: YPSILANTI-Hewitt at Packard; MANCHESTER-111 East Main Street.
Member: Federal Home Loan Bank Systemi Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation

Japanese imports in the family
compacthautomobile class, but
after the kimono-clad actor
praises the car's craftsmanship,
the camera reveals it to be a
Pontiac.
Meanwhile, actor Pat Morita
is saying "We have been most
successful in making things
small. Radios small, TV's small
." as the lead-in to a com-
mercial for Fedders Corp.'s new
lightweight rotary-powered air
conditioner. He is flanked by
two solemn and silent business-
men recruited from the ranks
of Japanese living in New York.
"WE FELT THAT if we were
going to use Japanese, they
must be proper businessmen,
said Ted Anson, Fedders' ac-
count supervisor at Keyon &
Eckhardt, Inc., advertising
agency. "We weren't going to
disparage the Japanese people
in any way, shape or form."
Russ Linabury, Pontiac ac-
count supervisor at D'Arcy,
Macmanus and Masius in Bloom-
field Hills, Mich., said 'the
agency has two women art di-
rectors of Japanese descent and
neither found the commercial
the least bit offensive.
"If the ads had been offen-
sive, you would have heard
about it by now," said a spokes-
person for the Japanese Cham-
ber of Commerce of New York.-
A man at the Japan Trade
Center found nothing unusual
about the approach.

commercials use Americans or
other foreign actors intelevi-
sioin rn.mn.ercials," he said. "I
think it's time that some for-
eianPr might be used on U.S.
tetQ ision."
.Tames Kellev, director, of the
-lanan America Institute where
Tananse huinessmen learn
English. said the students who
have seen the commercials
comment only that they swere
amused by them.
Snokesnersons at Fedders and
the Pontiac division of General
Motors Coro. sav early response
to the commerc'ials which were
rlPe eofed independently but re-
leased around the same time in
Jame, has been gratifying.
"UAT.ERS ARE our custom-
ers, and we're always -glad
when they accept ourefforts as
enthusiastically as they have
this one," said James Graham,
director of marketing for Pon-
tiac.
A Fedders spokesperson said
the firm couldn't keep up with
orders on its new air condition-
er.
Will the home screens soon
be filled with Japanese pitch-
men for all American products
that compete with Japanese
items?
"I don't think so," said an
art director at the . J. Walter
Thompson Co. ad agency, who
hadn't seen either commercial.
"It's the kind of thing that can
really make a point for one or
two manufacturers, but lf it's
picked up by others, 'it could
quickly become a cliche."

IR
A SURP

I I
'LUS STORE-AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!
*, BANKAMERICARD
JUST SAY "CHARGE IT"
WITH YOUR BANKAMERICARD OR MASTER CHARGE
NOW WITH 3
4. CONVENIENT LOCATIONS
* ANN ARBOR
201 E. WASHINGTON
aUS DUNHAM 994-3572
IN BOOT ANN ARBOR
KIn o 1166 BROADWAY
ts, Big selections of al styles and 769-9247

"BACK TO SCHOOL" SPECIALSI

SALE ENDS SEPT. 14th
SELECTED
_ PANT STYLES
Wide selection of pants in assorted
styles and colors. unbeatable values
on sale.
VALUES 00
4 -1
AIR FORCE NAVY
SNORKEL PARKA PEA COATI
Keeps you'warm at temperatures to Official Navy dress peacoats. Two
-4 0v 0- Park p e l e o aslash pockets and anchor buttons
54.98 31.98
VALUE VALUE

f
i

"IN JAPAN, many

thre PbaL Centrr

televisionE

I

3585 Plymouth Road Ann Arbor
{Just West of U.S. 23)
Daily 11-8. Sat. 10-6, Sun. 12-5
HEADQUARTERS FOR
RA4/I
BICYCLE SALES & SERVICE
Plus
Panasonic or Japan
C c40Xi of Sieei
110MTAo AMERICA
Large Selection of
Fine Bicycles ..;
Styles and Sizes for All Ages
Cml ta in of A srrP~rP

ED

HUNDREDS OF BARGAINS THROUGHOUT THE STORE!
Nylon Day Pack.........$5.49 Thermal Boot Socks ...... 2/$1.98 Dacron Fiberfill II Jackets ... $22.49
Rain Panchos ...... .... $2.49 Navy Style Denim leans ..... $5.98 Heavy Canvas Book Bag. . . ... $5.98
Heavy Wool Shirts........ $13.49 Leather Flight Jackets...... $73.98 Vietnam Boots.. . . $15.98
Insulated Down Vests...$19.49 Heavy Flannel Shirts ......$..$7.49 Surplus Fatigue Pants. $1.98

9
8
8
8

.aAlr-

ompoeene Cc
& Components

r a

Ilk

i

AOAU T-l

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan