e 4-Friday, November 11, 1977-The Michigan Daily . t, r F. 4 ' k ELECTED A YEAR AGO Ulbe Atbichan- :ai1 Has Carterfound aformula? Eigy-hty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No.56 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 7DA-must be responsible or liquid dieters daths By BRUCE BRUMBERG HE FOOD AND DRUG Admini- stration (FDA) yesterday issued warning to dieters that the use of uid protein food - sold over-the- unter in pharmacies throughout the untry - is potentially dangerous., The FDA, after investigating the deaths of 16 women who had been tak- ing the diet supplement, announced it had "every reason to believe that the liquid protein was at least a contrib, uting factor or a cause of the deaths." Further studies will be necessary, the FDA said, to establish a cause and ef- fect relationship. It's all very nice that the agency has seen fit to give us this warning, but it unfortunately came too late for the 16 victims. There is no telling how many more will die or suffer needlessly from this hazardous liquid diet.. Why did anyone have to die at all? It is the assigned task of the FDA to be constantly vigilant of substances sold to the average consumer. Yet, 16 per- sons - possibly more - have to die in order to get the agency to conduct in- vestigations. The FDA obviously has it's strate- gies confused. It is to act as a protec- tive and preventive agency, not an af- ter-the-fact investigative tool. Where is the protection from this "garbage," as one director of Ralph Nader's research group called it. Many of the liquid diet supplements are made from the by-products of the slaughtering of cattle. Isn't this fact alone suspicious enough to prompt an investigation before it goes on sale? The FDA has established an alibi of sorts for itself, saying that since the product was not a drug, a food additive or a cosmetic nor medical device, it did not merit the agency's undivided scru- tiny. That is - not until users starting getting sick and dying. R EPORTS OF THE DIET'S effec- tiveness - some users lost as much as 100 pounds over a period of months - have led to its widespread popularity. As would be expected, manufacturers of the liquid protein supplement are much less concerned about what goes into the stuff or what its effects are on health than they are about how the product sells. Did the FDA expect manufacturers to analyze the diet themselves and bare all to the general public about its effects? Officials of the FDA say they are now seeking to have the various manu- facturers of the supplement volun- tarily place warning labels on the product. Only after a relationship is found between the diet and the 16 deaths will the product be taken off the market, they say. Certainly, if the FDA is not now re- quired to analyze such products as the liquid protein diet, it is time that such requirements be drawn up. 01 hieft tpn Bul Exactly one year ago last week Jimmy Carter was elected President. Now, as the 95th Congress is driving towards adjourn- ment, his leadership is in serious trouble. Carter has had some success in his first ten months. As he promised he would, he won legislative approval for executive reorgani- zation,'a strip-mining bill, a hefty increase in the minimum wage, and a limited program of public works jobs. MOREOVER, THE President's active in- volvement in foreign affairs now seems to be showing some results. There is at least some form of movement toward settlement in the Middle East and in arms talks with the Soviets. But in the domestic regions that were the favorite terrain of his campaign rhetoric and the centerpieces of his Administration - welfare reform, tax reform, reduced unem- ployment, economic ,stability and new ap- proaches to the energy crisis - Carter has been strikingly less successful. Jimmy Carter has not yet produced a special sense of authority. He came to office convinced that the solutions to many problems were far easier than they actually were. One of Carter's counselors affirms the President's intelligence, but observes: "The greatest problem facing the nation today is Carter's lack of experience." JOHN RHODES, House minority leader, is very critical of Carter's first ten months. He says: "The Carter Administration has revealed a pattern of uncertainty and inepti- tude, compounded by a moral blindness and a lack of understanding of the very processes of government, that bode no good for the na- tion's economic health or for the state of its defenses. The simple fact is that President Carter's domestic and foreign policies are The simple fact is that President Carter's domestic and foreign policies are nonexistent -. -He has failed to grasp the global im- plications of each and every one of his acts.' - House Minority Leader John Rhodes nonexistent ... He has failed to grasp the global implications of each and every one of his acts. Public policy is no policy at all unless it is an interlocking series of attitudes, judg- ments, and movements that are related to an overall objective. I don't believe we have such a policy today." There is little argument about whether Mr. Carter does or does not have serious prob- lems, but the various theories on their origin seem either incomplete or inappropriate. One theory holds that Carter should enlarge and enrich his staff to include people who know how cities run. Says a former member of Ford's Cabinet: "Carter has not made the transition from running for office to the job of leading the nation. Hamilton Jordon and Jody Powell and the rest of the Georgia mafia may make great campaign aides, but they are not experienced in power." Some critics feel Carter's problems star- ted with an early ineptness in -his Congres- sional liaison staff. Others find fault with his tendency to moralize on every issue. Many suggest that he simply tried to do too much too soon with Congress - an organism that is constitutionally incapable of moving fast. SURELY, MR. Carter's long preoccupa- tion with Office of Management and Budget Director Bert Lance did not help his legisla- tive programs. Also, the renaissance of a Congress unimpressed with the White House and proud of its own power, has played a role in the President's first-year difficulties. Still, there is another side to all this. There is the contention on Capital Hill that the President does not seem to understand that his approach to any issue - welfare or tax reform, economic stimuli or energy solutions - is not the only available theory or problem- solving technique. The fact that Carter has chosen to deal with society's most perplexing troubles is very impressive. Yet, Carter's reluctance to compromise has left many on Capital Hill believing that the White House thinks its own legislative programs are stone tablets from Mount Sinai. In the words of one Democratic Senator: "He has his way and we have our way. We believe we're right but we're willing to talk about it. He insists he's right and that's the end of the discussion." There is no handbook on how to be a suc- cessful President. Every Chief Executive has had to blend his special strengths into a for- mula for leadership. Being President is the job of fusing together the correct ideas, the correct instincts, and the correct people. From these come purpose and force. Carter has not yet found his formula. Bruce Brumberg is a frequent contribu- tor to the Daily's editorial page. EDITORIAL STAFF ANN MARIE LIPINSKI Editors-in-Chief JIM TOBIN LOIS JOSIMOVICH......... ............ Managing Editor GEORGE LOBSENZ ..........................Managing Editor STU McCONNELL............................Managing Editor JENNIFER MILLER Managing Editor PATRICIA MONTEMURRI ............... Magaging Editor KEN PARSIGIAN.. Managing Editor BOB ROSENBAUM Managing Editor MARGARET YAO............... Managing Editor SUSAN ADES JAY LEVIN Sunday Magazine Editors ELAINE FLECTCHER TOM O'CONNELL Associate Magazine Editors STAFF WRITERS: Susan Barry, Richard Berke, Brian Blan- chard, Michael Beckman, Lori Carruthers, Ken Chotiner, Eileen Daley, Lisa Fisher, Denise Fox, Steve Gold, David Goodman, Elisa Isaacson, Michael Jones, Lani Jordan, Janet Klein. Garth Kriewall, Gregg Krupa, Paula Lashinsky,Marty Levine, Dobilas Matunonis, Carolyn Morgan, Dan Oberdorfer, Mark Parrent, Karen Paul, Stephen Pickover, Christopher Potter, Martha. Retallick, Keith Richburg, Diane Robinson, Julie Rovner, Dennis Sabo, Annmarie Schiavi, Paul Shapiro, R. J. Smith, Elizabeth Slowik, Mike Taylor, Pauline Toole, Sue Warner, Jim Warren, Linda Willcox, Shelley Wolson, Tim Yagle, Mike Yellin, Barbara Zahs, Jim Zazakis Mark Anarews, Mike Gilford, Richard Foltman Weather Forecasters By STEPHEN HERSH The Ann Arbor Tenants Union (TU) has been victimized by thef- ts from one of its bank accounts. Money was stolen from one of the union's escrow funds - the ac- counts used by tenants on rent strike as a repository for their rent funds. As a result of the thef- ts, the TU's escrow accounts are frozen; the union is neither re- leasing nor accepting escrow money pending the completion of an audit of its books and an in- vestigation of the thefts. The stolen money was drained from the TU's general escrow fund, the fund which serves tenants involved in miscellane- ous rent strikes. No money was taken from escrow deposits which were placed in Canadian banks in an effort toprotect the tenants involved in the Reliable Realty and Traver Knoll rent strikes from garnishment. The Reliable and Traver Knoll strikes are continuing unabated. THE NEWS of the thefts should not distract the public from all the good work the TU has done for the Ann Arbor commu- nity. The TU has been a force in the city since 1968, helping in- dividual tenants with their rental problems, and fighting to im- prove the housing market for the benefit of all tenants. The TU began its work with the intention of helping Ann Ar- borites assert their rights under the 1968 Tenants Rights Act. In 1969, the union organized a mas- sive city-wide rent strike, which led to a substantial improvement in maintenance of rental housing across the city, and which brought rent refunds to many ten- ants whose homes did not meet the minimum legal health and safety standards. The '69 strike changed the cli- mate of the city's housing market. Until the strike began, Escrow thefts can't cloud work of TU landlords all over town felt they could withhold needed repairs with impunity, forcing the tenan- ts to live in sub-standard condi- tions so that profits could be max- imized. As one landlord noted at the time of the strike, if the cost of rent includes an allowance for the landlord to make repairs, and the landlord doesn't make re- pairs, that's more money in the landlord's pocket. City landlords had a financial incentive to give their tenants a raw deal - and the TU organized its rent strike to give the landlords an incentive to treat tenants more fairly. AS LONG AS the city's tenants saw themselves as individuals who were helpless in the face of unfair treatment by landlords, their tenant problems were bound to continue and get worse. But 'from the time Ann Arbor tenants organized to confront the city landlords collectively, the situation was bound to change. It was important that the city-wide strike brought rent reductions and better maintenance to the tenants who went on strike. But it was more important that the strike changed landlords' at- titudes toward their tenants. The strike, and the establishment of the TU, told city landlords that henceforth, if they were going to try to cheat their tenants, they would have the Tenants Union to contend with. The TU has managed to keep landlords on the defensive since that city-wide strike. The union has provided counseling to ten- ants having housing problems, informing them of their legal rights and instructing how to assert them. This is quite an im- portant service in a city where most tenants don't know their rights, and where rental housing is. among the worst in the nation. Most local tenants don't know, for example, what the state and city standards are for safe and heal- thy rental housing. And ,they don't know that if their housing doesn't meet those standards, they have a right to stop paying their rent until their landlord makes the repairs necessary to bring their homes up to the mini- mum standards. The union has helped individual tenants to go on rent strikes, and has organized groups of tenants with common grievances against a single 'lan- dlord to strike collectively. Right now, the TU is working with MSA Housing Law Reform Project at- torneys to write and negotiate with landlords innovative and equitable settlements to rent strikes. HOW MANY people in the city are in need of the TU's services? About 90 per cent of the student off-campus housing in Ann Arbor violates the city and state housing ,codes, according to the Center for National Housing Law Reform. And students and other local -residents who must live in Ann Arbor don't have much of a choice when it comes to choosing a place to live - the latest figures on the supply of housing in the city, compiled by the Univer- sity's Off-Campus Housing Of- fice, show that less than one half of one per cent of the rental units in the city are vacant. According to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), that vacancy rate is less than one tenth of the minimum necessary for a healthy housing market. With so many tenants fighting each other to find decent housing in a scarce market, tenants don't have adequate choice as to where they will live, and, landlords don't have to offer a good deal in order to find tenan- ts. 1 The TU is the group most ac- tive in the city in directly helping tenants to help themselves in fighting their housing problems. The union deserves the support of local tenants. And it deserves the support of the city government. The city should be addressing housing problems more squarely - and one of the most direct ways in which the city could help tenants would be by lending more support to the TU. The city has denied bids by the TU for finan- cial help at various times during recent years. If th'e TU had received more money from the city in the past, the union might have been able to afford to pay for professional fi- nancial accounting, which would have prevented the thefts from the TU escrow account. More money for the union from the city in the future might allow the TU to resume its escrow services and to give tenants more of the help they need. Stephen Hersh is commu- nity education director of the Michigan Student Assembly Housing Law Reform Project. Letters to too cutsey To The Daily: Among the many ways that the Daily covers news responsibly, attempts to be impartial in its coverage, looks for new ways to be of service to the University community, and the other classic duties of a newspaper; there ex- ists a habit that I find sufficiently irritating that I feel I must bring it to your attention. I have found, only since the term begun so far as I can re- member, a tendency for features, picture captions, and other short stories to sign off with a cutsey sentence containing on offhand remark supposedly as an aside by the editorial staff. This hap- same reaction to a co-worker who came in every morning with the same cute remark about the weather which was funny the fir- st time. The writing talent of the Daily staff is certainly nothing to sneeze at. But it gets overlooked if too much reliance is made on devices and gadgets. Please have mercy on those of us with this idiocyncrasy and look for other ways of entertaining a blase' readership. Thank you in advance for your consideration. - Rosalind King. g To The Dairy: energy Regarding Rod Kosann's TheE set, who should get the money, and how should new natural gas be handled. With natural gas under gover- nment control, we would no longer face the distribution problems as we had in Ohio last winter. Pricing would be relatively simple: home con- sumers would receive a certain amount of gas necessary for heating and cooking, ei- ther for free or at a small fee. Any additional gas 'aily above the basic requirements would be more heavily priced to discourage waste. Businesses would also be charged a higher price; again, to discourage waste and encourage conservation. Allowances would be made for industries in areas of poor air quality who must use the relatively pollution-free natural gas. Finally, no new uses of natural gas would be allowed ex- cept, again, in areas where it is advantageous. -Tom Reeder I Contact your reps Sen. Donald Riegle (Dem.), 1205 Dirksen Bldg., Washington, fl C. 20510l "" ' I .! I