Ah t ichgan tag Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Me abuck oil to nab part o barons move Wednesday, September 15, 1976 News Phone: 764-0552 uranium pile Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Demonstrate against Ford TONIGHT, a capacity crowd will jam its way into Crisler Arena to see one of the major events scheduled on campus this year. No sports fans, it's not the Indiana-Michigan bas- ketball game, and no music fans, it's not The Who. But since neither of those attractions is available, what is being offered is the only U. S. President running as an incumbent, while never having been elected. Gerald Rudolph Ford and his cam- paign cronies have 'decided to try and capitalize on the circumstantial fact that he played football and went to school here by springboarding their quadrenniel GOP travelling road show at the big 'U'. Lest everyone not get carte(r)d off on the political bandwagon an4 fall victim to the flak of flying rhet- oric, people should not just go to be entertained and swayed by the rosy picture that Ford will present of his past performance. Everyone should look realistically at the re- cord of our most celebrated alumnus and show their disapproval with the shaft he is giving the American pub- lic. Ford kicking off his presidential campaign at a college campus is something akin to Hitler making the first donation to the United Jewish Appeal. One can't fool most of the people all of the time, Jerry. For example, Ford is a time-prov- en enemy of higher education. With atypical consistency, he has vetoed almost every bill designed to bene- fit higher education that has passed through the Oval Office. Ford should not be allowed to exit the arena without first beig forced to come Editorial Staff Rob Meachum ..................Bill Turque Co-Editors-in-Chief Jeff Ristine .................... Managing Editor Tim Schick............._ uean Wt Stephen Hersh...... ...... Magazine Editor Rob Meachum ..... .... Editorial Director Lois Josimovich ..................... Arts Editor STAFF WRITERS: Susan Ades, Dana Bauman, Michael Beckman, Dana Bauman, James Burns, Jodi Dimick, Elaine Fletcher, Mark Friedlander, Tom Godell, Kurt Harju, Charlotte Heeg, Rich- ard James, Tom Kettler, Chris Kochmanski, Stephen Kursnan, Jay Levin, Ann Marie Lip- nski, George Lobsenz, Pauline Lubens Teri Maneau, Maureen Nolan, Mike Norton, Jon Pansius, Kim Potter, Cathy Reutter, Ann Marie Schiavi, Karen Schulkins, Jeff Selbst, Rock Sobel, Ton Stevens, Steve Stojic, Cathi Suyak, Jim Tobin Jim Valk, Margaret Yao Andrew zerman Sports Staff Bill Stieg....... Sports Editor Rich Lerner..... Executive Sports Editor Andy Glazer.Managing Sports Editor Rick Bonino .:.......... Associate Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS: Tom Cameron, Enid Goldman, Kathy Henneghan, Scott Lewis, Rick Maddock, Bob Miller, John Niemeyer, Mark Whitney. STAFF WRITERS: Leslie=Brown, Paul Campbell. Marybeth Dillon, Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engel- hardt, Jeff Frank, Cindy Gatzolis, Don Mac- Lachlan, Rich Ovshinsky, Jim Powers, Pat Rode, John Schwartz, Business Staff Beth Friedman........ . . .Business Manager Deborah Dreyfuss..... .....Operations Manager Kathleen Muhern........ Advertising Manager David Harlan ................. Finance Manager Dan Blugerman . . ................ Sales Manager Pete Peterson..........Advertising Coordinator Casse St. Clair............Circulation Manager Beth Stratford ............. Circulation Director By ALAN MILLER Pacific News Service ALTHOUGH FEDERAL grand jury revelations of. a secret uranium cartel of foreign governments and cor- porations have spotlighted international price fixing, a related area under in- vestigation by the same grand jury has received little attention: big oil's take-- over of the U.S. uranium industry. OVER THE PAST DECADE, major American oil companies - including 18 of the top 25 - have moved quietly but rapidly to acquire a majority in- terest in the business of mining and processing uranium, the fuel base of nuclear plants. By 1971-the last year the government got statistics from the highly secretive uranium industry - major and minor oil companies controlled 61.8 per cent of uranium mining and 50.4 per cent of all reserves, the lattersupsharply from 31 per cent five years previously. Since then, while the price of urani- um has skyrocketed from roughly $8 to $40 a pound, the tide of acquisition has accelerated. Gulf has joined Kerr-McGee Oil Co. among the nation's largest urani- um companies, while Atlantic Richfield (Arco) has signed a preliminary merger agreement with Anaconda, another lead- ing uranium mining corporation. EXXON, WHICH HELD'5.9 per cent of all reserves in 1971, has obtained uranium mining leases on 400,000 acres of Navajo land in the Southwest. And in Washington state, where prospecting for uranium has reached a fever pitch, Ralph's Universe S AKriG Reserve Oil, Getty, Evvon and Conoco are all looking for new mining sites. Phillips Petroleum, Conoco, Mobil and Standard Oil of California have also join- ed the shift to uranium. Ford Foundation energy expert Thomas D. Duchesneau, in a 1975 report to the foundation's Energy Policy Project, con- cluded that the extensive control of oil companies over "drilling activity, owner- ship of uranium reserves and mining and milling ... virtually assures that oil in- terests will continue to be the dominant force in uranium for a long time to come." Oil companies also want to buy into nuclear fuel enrichment, currently the reserve of the federal government. The Ford administration is pushing for pri- vate rather than public ownership of the next generation of enrichment plants, and Exxon, Signal Oil and Arco have all expressed interest in building them. EXXON AND OTHER companies are working on new enrichment processes that will require less energy and money and - in the case of a process using laser beams that Exxon is developing - extract more fuel from the uranium ore itself. Kerr-McGee and Getty are already heavily involved in processing plutonium -- a by-product of nuclear fission which, when processed, can also be used as fued for nuclear reactors. The oil takeover of uranium even ex- tends overseas, where American indus- try has long dominated the market for enriched uranium. U.S. oil companies are increasingly moving .into foreign ventures in other sectors of the indus- try. Getty Oil, in a joint venture with Pancontinental Mining (one of the com- panies accused of involvement in the international cartel), controls uranium reserves in Australia estimated at al- most 60 million tons - an amount far in excess of the U.S. government's most optimistic estimates of total American reserves. Other U.S. uranium holdings extend into Canada, Britain, France and South Africa. THIS REACH INTO uranium, along with a similar move to a position of control of over half the nation's coal supplies, has been summed up by the noted French economist J. M. Cheva- lier as a strategy "to organize the end of oil. "During the short time remaining for continued oil exploration (20-50 years)," Chevalier notes, "they (oil firms) in- tend to extract maximum profit from oil in order to finance their own con- version to new sources of energy over vhich they will exercise monopolistic control." Whether the oil industry's move into the uranium industry has affected sky- rocketing uranium prices is unknown. But the federal grand jury investigating possible price fixing has subpeonaed over a dozen uranium companies, including Kerr-McGee, Exxon, Gulf and others asking for a broad range of documents dealing with uranium supply, demand and price. The subjeonas specifically asked for information about possible links with the international cartel dis- covered by the grand jury. Few industries are more often ac- cused of driving prices up by stifling competition than is the U.S. oil busi- ness, the world's largest industry. OIL COMPANIES have in fact been chaiged with monopolistic practices by numerous state and federal courts, grand juries and legislatures in recent years. And in 1973, the Federal Trade Commis- sion released a major report concluding that "the majors demonstrate a clear preference for avoiding competition through mutual cooperation and the use of exclusionary practices." The report described.such methods as dividing up the nation's markets to min- imize competition, freezing out small competitors and settling up joint subsi- diaries to ensure cooperation between existing majors. Whether a result of such monopolistic practices or not, the profit rates of the eight lergest oil companies are usually 10 to 20 per cent higher than the average for American firms. But even if price manipulation by oil firms has not caused any of the 500 per cent increase in uranium prices since 1973, the move by oil firms into uranium is bound to have profound con- sequences, increasing their already im- mense economic power. EXPERTS NOW ESTIMATE the pe- troleum industry (including utilities, which sell oil industry products such as gas and electricity) already accounts for some 20 per cent of over-all indus- trial sales in the U.S. And with uranium regarded by federal energy planners as the basic fuel for America's future, that percentage is bound to increase. By Tom Stevens \\.I ( NOWA c -77\ C)ES Gerald R. Ford: The Univer- sity's most notorious alumnus? up with a rationalization for that voting record, however pathetic the reasons may be. HE SHOULD ALSO be blasted for his recent phone call to William Scranton, U. S. representative at the United Nations, ordering a veto of a proposal which would have allow- ed the Democratic Republic of Viet- nam into the General Assembly. "Politics played no part in the de- cision," Scranton said. "As far as I'm concerned and as far as the presi- dent is concerned, we have not at- temped to play politics at the United Nations." My. my, my. How long is Ford, Kissinger and the rest of the clique going to hold a grudge, and continue American humiliation with regards to a country that poses no threat to our security and is now offering the olive branch? He sure won't volunteer that infornIation tonight. The list could be expanded to in- clude unemployment, amnesty, abor- tion, taxes, child care and a dozen other issues of the day. Fumble- fumps Ford will continue his nean- drethal policies towards these issues until the people force him to get his act together, if that is indeed possi- ble at this point. Ford will arrive at Willow Run Air- port and proceed to Crisler Arena about 3:30 this afternoon. His arriv- al at the Arena, any other movements on campus and his speech in the eve- ning (open to the public) provide an excellent opportunity for those concerned to voice and demonstrate their feelings. But don't hold your hreath. TODAY'S STAFF: News: Jim Tobin, Ann Marie Lipinski, Bill Turque, Susan Ades, Pauline Toole Editorial Page: Rob Meochum, Tom Stevens, Keith Richburg, Michael Beckman Arts Page: Lois Josimu'vich Photo Technician: Scott Eccker OFFERING 7b JARd Fo 0 -.." 1 wHY aoESWT 0ERM JU ST 5M O-04 'te-rNG*S cy; ilp l BYI1JG S~t OUTSIDOE, BAND~? l LETITERS: Members of gay community blast recent Daily article To The Daily: AS A GAY CLERGYMAN I want to suggest a different per- spective on gay life in Ann Arbor than that reflected by Da- vid Bell in his article "Com- ing Out in a Gay Ghetto" in your first of term issue of Sept. 9. Apart from the content of this piece I would observe that Bell presents to Daily readers a viv- id word picture of his gay Ann Arbor experience. It is of the "slice of life" school of jour- nalism. This student writer transports his reading audience by means of a biting realism to the sites of his gay sex encoun- ters which include, as Bell puts it, "the public washroom, adult theatre and bookstore scene." It is not surprising that Daily editors would choose "Gay Ghetto" for the kickoff, a wide- ly read first edition, in view of the journalistic strength of the XAv. 1xw1RI4FARTS INT I p 8PY F p Y f p4 °ia writing, submitted to the Sum- mer Hopwood Award Competi- tion. However, as a gay Ann Ar- borite I want to register my vigorous dissent to the impres- sion that this article portrays the extent of affectional life style of gays in this community -1976. If there are those of us in the ranks of the gay fam- ily here who must seek to ful- fill our need for same sender sevual sharing and comfort in the rather furtive fashions that David Bell describes, it is pri- marily because our culture robs us as gays of almost all the legitimate and socially accept- able channels for emotional ful- fillment open to heterosexuals or straight men and women. Michigan Daily readers, whe- ther new on campus this fall or back for another term of study, should know that crea- tive alternatives for gay com- munity and fellowship are read- ily available. The just born (and thriving) Gay Community Services Center, 612 S. Forest, officially opened Sept. 10. Can- terbury House Gayness and Snirituality Group meets Sun- days at 3 p.m. at 218 N. Divi- sion. As a gay male seeking strength through sharing I have found both these groups to be rich in energy giving. A new day is dawning for the millions of us in America who find our gav orientation a "very natural thin-." Tt is my hone that at a soon to come date The Daily will treat gay- ness again-positive nlease. Rev. Craia Wilder Sentember 10 To The.Daily: ONCE AGAIN you have dis- played irresponsible, shoddy journalism and once again members of the gay community in- this town have to deal with the aftermath of your cheap, mindless tricks. I am referring in this case to an article en- titled "Coming Out in a Gay Ghetto" which you printed in the pre-school (Frosh Supple- of the positive things in Ann Arbor for gay people, not to mention that this article ex- presses a male experience and says nothing of what lesbians may find here. The tone of this article left me - a happy homo- sexual - with such a bitter taste in my mouth; what must it do to middle class white par- ents who are sending their children off to college in big, bad Ann Arbor. I can only interpret your printing of this article to be another attack on the gay seg- ment of Ann Arbor's diverse community. It is articles like this one that causes gay peo- ple - struggling to come out - back into the closet for years. Closets are for clothes. Jim Oakley 320 S. Division To The Daily: THOSE OF US who took part in the regular meeting of Gay Community Services on Sep- tember 13 agreed to forward to the Daily our reaction to Da- vid Bell's article, "Coming Out In A Gay Ghetto", which ap- peared in your September 9 is- sue. We are outraged by the fact that the Daily saw fit to pub- lish Bell's article, which is a. one - sided, sensational pictor- ialization of gay life in Ann Ar- bor and which has certainly had a negative and highly de- structive impact on many of the hundreds on campus and in Ann Arbor who count gay- ness 'home'. Especially unset- ting is that incoming students were subjected to this distort- ed picture a month before they even arrived in Ann Arbor. Who knows how many, on the verge of coming out, will now be cemented back into their closets for months or years after reading Bell's article? It makes about as much sense to publish this niece about gay sex in (as Bell puts it) "the public washroom, adult The Daily should consider' it its responsibility to cover Ann Arbor's gay community, includ- ing the too often ignored les- bian groups and activities. To do less would be completely opposite the Daily's professed role as voice and chronicle of the University's students. In addition, there are already in- dications that the article has spurred the police and Univer- sity security to increase surveil- lance and harassment of gays. We remind the Daily that in the early sixties, police conducted systematic raids on campus to arrest homosexual faculty and students, who were then forced to leave the university. The scope of the human tragedy in- volved is indicated by the fact that one gay person committed suicide as a result of these raids. By printing Bell's article, the editors seem completely unconcerned with the real spec- tre of continuing police and University repression against gavs. As members of the Gay Com- munity Services Center, we can- not point the finger of criti- cism at those who find spots such as those described by David Bell viable outlets for the emotional fulfillment that thev reoire. We would simnly noint ont that surely part of the rea- son that these naths for seeking comfort and affection seem at- tractive to some is that our cul- tire bars us as gavs from al- most all of the commonly ac- centahle means of sharyng sex- 11a and emotional encouraoe- ment and fulfillment. Attitudes are cianirng. hit the uhlica- tion of this article is nroof that we still have far to go. An alternative for gavs in Ann Arbor and the surronnding area is the newly formed Gav Co'mmntv4 Services renter, at 61" S. Forest. suit- B. At at- trn-tipe nronram is in the wvorks fnr fnll Tnterested nr- cn~q will fend th- «welcome mat n'u"' eve"" dy '"-1 "nm And tiG dTA t S'nternhpr 1 sti".- dn-t.- an nothor' are in'ted to Ford interview To The Daily: I would like to clear up one matter regarding the list of students who will meet with President Ford today. The group offiliation listed be- side each student's name was provided to depict the diversity of the group as a whole. The students selected were select- ed to speak for themselves and not for their affiliate organiza- tions. I am sorry if listing the or- ganizational affiliation has of- fended either the organizations listed or the students selected. Thank you. Calvin Luker September 14 womens' sports To The Daily: WE WERE SURPRISED and dismayed upon reading the fall supplement and finding no men- tion of the quiet controversy over women's athletics. The sports section was filled with ontimistic stories about our top athletes. But what about Title IX of the Federal Higher Edu- cation Funding Bill concerning discriminatory practices in edu- cation? Surely women's sports have come a long way but what about scholarships, recruiting and major sports gaps such as a women's intercollegiate track team? The team has "almost" been snonsored by the University for three years and now the Univer- sity is the only Big Ten school without a women's intercollegi- ate track team. Even though it could not start as a revenue nroducing sports, such as foot- ball, it must not be discounted as a financial burden. Sports is an educational experience, not ornlv for the benefit of specta- tors. Through individual and team effort it becomes an im- portant growth activity. Let us hone that the Board in (control of Intercollegiate Ath- P i