editors:
mary long
Jo marcotty
barb cornell
Sunday
inside:
mcigozine
page four-books
page five-david
broanberg
Number IaPage Three Septembe
FEATUR
A merican leaders hi
Thedimporsbl dream
April, smoking a Cuban cigar and PHIL HART'S record is every bit emerged from under his beard and ~*
sitingin jep wth ide Cato as liberal as McGovern's. He he said, "I don't know where I'd
coutles Aerianswer inurit- proudly states that his pushing start. I'd be afraid." '-~
ed that a United States Senator throuth eonyisfaof
would publicly consort with a self- 1965 "may go down in history as IT IS IRONIC that a man in his
making the largest contribution to position would be afraid of start-
WHy. NpAR eorgeall ovth
ay N aperedor the greatest number" of any politi- ing an issue, because he has the
letsing cal act. political muscle to convince his .....
Apil, otsmon an ishran.
hitimo tna ndeep ihonidel orHe was also instrumental in colleagues that his ideas are good.
Yet three months later, the State leading the Senate fight against He could have easily been a na-
Department lifted in part its dec- Nixon's Supreme Court appointees tional leader, but he lacks the
ade-old trade ban against the is- Clement Haynsworth and Harold spark of inspiration that separates
land nation. Then, the protest was Carswell But he does not have a good, honest politician from a
weak, scattered and basically ig- McGovern's radical reputation. leader
nored.
*r Nehispat~peresidenal cam- h getstnmer fan oii- iganisebcus eha h .e
paign, McGovern accused Richard cuig alct:
Nixon of "running the most cor- ' .p e liticalmusclets une he reintroduced a Constitu years But unlike Bafalis - and ifficult, they're con
rupt hadministration in the histr Ln la 1Ck O drive > tiona amnendmentt fobidding the Hart on occasionp-oheuknows when Balancin th i oppsndgler
jority of Americans didn't listen. -n-abudget. arise. ties precludes almost a
t yhersmlatrsNixonrteaesigedin adnthtr Setefightaganpleasedd thatailyben so
Tw yas aerNxo esgedi 0 f-*Uf *Cy, "I am pesdindeed tt o Abnor's district consists of two most skillful from surviv
teaken ofthed mospat horeds dc Nio 's three ough aponte tia manyer oft my collague haejietanidsrishorsen am Laesaeakdt
political scandl of the century.es nnthi efforotbringa fdeeal in S te aminitration answers, but ifskedto
TN OTHOF hes intncs e a r d, and said ~. spending under control and to con- proposed to hike gas prices, end being turned out of off
n oTh the stastrol the inflationary spiral." he an the interstate highway building they can accomplish no
McGovern's political savoir faire don know We nounced at the time., Even as he program, and eliminate many small radicals risk being ignor
was a jump ahead of the rest of was making the empty pronounce- town post offices, Abnor announced eolleagues as well as t
the country, yet he is considered start. I'd be afrad. /ment, he was screaming into the that the President "was taking a 3ut men of no inspira
fundamentally unacceptable as a wind. Bafalis has introduced the slap at rural America." 'poor leaders. Phil Hart i
national leader. The margin of his Phl~same bill every term since he was :cience of the Senate" 1
1972 defeat demonstrates that the -Sen.P i Hart elected in 1972 - and each one has . as he lacked imagination
majority of American people be- died in the Judiciary Committee. LIKE THE MAJORITY of politi- he went no further.
lieve he is a man too far ahead of.................... ................a..:..:,,?.........csn cians, Abnor is forced to be a
his time, although this reputation Part of the reason is style, and Then there are the politicians THERE ARE HUNDREDS of poli- compromiser. "I irealize that from While the public opii
has not hurt him in his home state, part of it is vision. Hart has had a who have neither muscle or vision ticians between the almost now on all the cheap energy is dicate politicians aren
In South Dakota he is the Senator perfect opportunity to try and grab but who have the advantage of a greatness of McGovern or Hart gone," he commented the day aft- they're still asked to solv
with the 100 per cent approval rat- some publicity in his career had strong following-Republican Skip and the political ineptitude of Skip er he voted against a bill to de- of problems without off
ing from the National Farmers Un- he wanted it. As Chairman of the Bafalis, for example. He sits on the Bafalis. They're average, caught control oil prices. But he added majority. It's a juggle
ion, an influential political group Senate Subcommittee on Monopoly powerful House Ways and Means between trying to lead with new that he wouldn't sit idly by while least two issues are alw
comparable to the Americans for he could have followed the lead of Committee, and considering his ideas and remaining in touch with South Dakota, a state without pub- taneously in the air. It d
Democratic Action west of the Mis- his predecessor, Estes Kefauver, conservative district and his equac- their constituents. Not many can lic transportation, "is forced to suf- innovation, encourages
and made his probes of the steel ly conservative views, he will never be the liberal figurehead that fer higher oil prices with no end ise, and masks outright
sissippi.And it is this very eleme
Like many political leaders and auto industries exciting, da- have to worry about a tough elec- McGovern is, and fewer yet have in sig. .
.n. o.he te dmnitrtin nwrbifchkey dossc
McGovern, labeled by the Repub- matic quiries. It might have led tion. From his position he could as many friends in the government Abnor is a tyical example of e reot
amnesty candidate," is caught in a as it almost did for Kefauver in conservatism that he claims to be Jim Abdnor, a Republican from from politicians. The press pro-
political bind. He has failed to find 1956 and 1960 But certainly he has no muscle South Dakota is in many ways a claims daily that no political lead- Daily City Editor Ste
the happy medium between being But Hart is essentially a cautious Each year Bafalis introduces hun- typical politician. He's friendly, ers exist, and that the public needs worked last summer as an in
innovative and radical in the eyes man. He never attempted to ex- dreds of bills, but none ever seem likable, and has held a variety of them. But the demands put upon for the Thonpson Newspap
of the public. He succeeds at some plode monopoly scandals, though to emerge from committee. This public offices in the last twenty politicians are more than merely Washington D.C.
r 14, 1975
ES
tradictory.
personali
11 but the
al.
rovide new
o, they risk
ice, where
thing. And
ed by their
he public.
tion make
s "the con-
'ut as long
and drive,
ions polls
ft trusted,
e a variety
ending the
's art; at
ays simul-
iscourages
comprom-
mediocrity.
nt of con-
difficult to
ship.
phen Selbst
tern reporter
er bureau in
Time stands still
in the Blue Front
By PAUL HASKINS
THE FACE OF a university town
changes as often as the identi-
ties of its residents. Several notable
local buildings that once were con-
sidered inextricable parts of the
town's architectural fabric have
long since fallen to the wrecking
ball.
One can just picture, fifty years
from now, some local historian re-
counting, "And the Masonic Tem-
ple yielded to the tower of asphalt
and Big Mac sprang from the loins
of Nichols House." The scenario
may lack something in literary ap-
peal, but then, the business bible
never claimed to place much stock
in aesthetics.
On occasion, however, an indi-
vidual or establishment will remain
unmoved by the mandates of
change, either through inclination
or ignorance, and will still endure.
It may be bruised and battered, but
it is an authentic throwback to an
earlier age.
SUCH A MAN is Ray Collins. Such
an establishment is the Blue
Front, the magazine store at Pack-
ard and State that Collins has
owned and operated since 1928.
More so perhaps than any other
storekeeper in town, Collins be-
lieves that a good item will sell
itself revardless of its surroundings.
dered and updated, every issue in
its proper place. Though occupy-
ing only a fraction of the total
floor space, the rack is obviously
the life's blood of the store, an
island of contemporary vitality in
a sea of stagnation.
In a reversal of the rule of trees
that holds that the ring closest to
the core is the oldest, the nooks
and the appointments of the Blue
Front grow more dated with each
successive step from the magazine
counter. In many remote corners,
dust-covered props, sent to a
younger Mr. Collins by one long
defunct business or another, stand
barren, stripped of the items they
were meant to encase, grim re-
minders of the ravages of time.
'OLLIINS FIGURES his store to
be one of only half a dozen Ann
Arbor businesses that have lasted
half a century without changing
owners. And when a business has
been around for nearly half a cen-
tury and its owner is pushing three
quarters himself, it is doubtful
that changes that never material-
ized in the past will take hold in
the future.
Ray Collins is the Blue Front.
Its idiosyncracies, its faults and
successes are also his, for better or
for worse. Since he was 26 and just
over a brief two-year fling as a
University student, the store has
d