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