THE
Summer Daily
Summer Edition of
TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Tuesday, May 15, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
Meat standards
lose in court
THE FEDERAL government may not have heart, but it
apparently doesn't care if we do-have heart that
Is; along with animal udders, lips, ears, lungs, and
snouts in our sausage products.
The Supreme Court yesterday, in a victory for the
meatpackers, declined to hear an appeal from state At-
torney General Frank Kelley to allow Michigan to en-
force stiffer meat processing regulations than those al-
lowed by federal laws. While we see this action as con-
stitutionally correct, it can only serve to slow down fed-
eral initiative to revamp its present meat processing
laws.
Michigan has had a tough meat processing law in
effect since 1952. Recently however, the Sixth U. S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, in reviewing a suit
started by three meatnackers, declared that 1967's Fed-
eral Wholesale Meat Act, though setting standards gen-
erally more lenient than Michigan's, must, under the
Constitution. prevail over state law.
HOWEVER, THE federal law's priority over a state law
does not necessarily make it the better law. Michi-
gan's mest nrncessine laws do not permit the use of the
heart, toneP. liver, cracklines, stomach, lungs, esopha-
gus, udder. lins. ears or snouts of cattle, sheep, swine, and
goats in sasae- the federal law does.
Michian laws had set a minimal protein content
for meat prodets at 12 per cent. The federal law sets
no minimum reairement Furthermore, it permits up to
15 per cent of poultrv products in cooked smoked sau-
sage, alon with cereal. sova binders, and certain milk
derivatives all of which were forbidden under the state
laws.
In Decemher of last year, the U. S. Agriculture De-
partment proposed bringing federal standards into line
with those of Michigan. Six monthe later, we find that
no action has been taken on this proposal.
Considering the cost involved in producing higher
quality meats, along with the administration's concerted
attempt to hold down farm prices, we find it unlikely
that the Agriculture Department will be prompted at this
time to pass new and stricter regulations, which while in-
creasing nutritional values would also increase prices.
UNFORTUNATELY, yesterday's Supreme Court action
will only ease the pressure on the government.
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The fall of John Mitchell;
the irony of Nixon's America
IT JUST DOESN'T pay to be a
right-thinking American any-
Its really tough - especially just
when it seemed Richard Nixon had
the nation "back on the right
track" so to speak. Millions of
Americans who voted for the Pres-
ident had a right to expect better
than this. Oh, John Mitchell, why
hast thou forsaken us?
C11rs parks
Mr. Mitchell, you will remember,
was just another municipal bonds
lawyer when, in 1969, his g o o d
friend Dick Nixon named him to
replace Attorney General Ramsey
Clark and restore respect for the
law in the justice department.
Losing no time, Mitchell quick-
ly indicted eight of Ameriza's
most dangerots and disrespectful
radicals on charges of conspiring
to incite riots at the 1968 Demo-
tratic National Convention .
AH, THOSE WERE the heydays
if law and order.
John Mitchell was riding high
in Washington. Stern, forbidding
almost paternal, he would teach
right from wrong to those who
would not heed the dictates of
American ethics and values.
While, on the other hand, radi-
cals like Bobby Seale were in their
place - bound and gagged in a
Chicago courtroom, facing zertain
onviction with a string of other
indictments on hand in case he
managed to wriggle tnrosugh the
government's fingers on this one.
It was, after all, as it should
be. John Mitchell was the nroto-
type, solid, four-square American
("Cood field, mmicioal bonds").
Seale was a trouble-maker, a
screaming radical too lazy to even
look for his bootstraps to s a y
nothing of puling himself up by
them.
BUT WHERE IS John Michell
now? Where is the ni who,
shoulder to shoulder with I i c k
Nixon, formed the first 'in i ofde-
tense for decent Americ n 'alues
against the onslaught of her carp-
ing detractors?
John Mitchell now stanls in a
New York courtroom indicted on
several counts of conspira:y to de-
fraud the United States and ob-
struct justice in the matter relat-
ing to the $200,000 campaign con-
tributions of securities wizordl o-
bert L. "Light Fingers" Vesco.
And if he wriggles through t io e
government's fingers on thisone,
he will probably face a strin of
indictments as a result of the
Watergate bugging investigatio I.
AND WHAT OF Bobby Seale,
the man Mitchell sought to 'pro-
secute as an example to wrong
thinkers everywhere?
Seale is now runniag for uayor
of his home town - 'laklal - and
BOBBY SEALE - Former
troublemaker is now running
for mayor of Oakland, Cal., and
is doing quite well.
by all accounts, he is citigrather
bwell. In fact, in a recent speech his
Republican opponent referrel to
him as "a fine American."
And Seale is selling himself in
a way that would warm the heart
of the staunchest Germano-Cali-
fornian ad men in the Nixon ad-
ministration.
'The system is like ta razotr
blade," he told an audience re-
cently. "If you put new metal con-
tent into the blade, you set six or
seven shaves instead of two. So
let's put some new content into the
system so we can get a better
shave and a better life."
(One can just picture Disneyland
ad-man turned press secretary,
Ronald "no comment" Ziegler, sit-
ting at a board meeting stroking
his chin and musing, "The system
is like a razor blade, huh . . I
think you've got something there,
Bobby.)
SO WHAT does it all mean?
Probably not much. Except that
self-righteousness is a dangerous
game because someday, somebody
may find out you're as much of a
crook as the next man.
Everyone's time comes, event-
ually.
"OH, JOHN MITCHELL, why
hast thou forsaken us?"
D.C. jobs unsteady
By DICK WEST
'THE SENATE Judiciary Commit-
tee has been holding hearings on
the nomination of Elliott Richard-
son, former secretary of health,
education and welfare and present
secretary of defense, to be the fu-
ture attorney general.
After one of the sessions a col-
league turned to me and said, "I
wonder why Richardson can't keep
a steady job?"
"I dunno," I said. "I was just
wondering 'the same thing about
Schlesinger."V
The reference was to James R.
Schlesinger, director of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency and the
former chairman of -the Atomic
Energy Commission who has now
been nominated to head the De-
fense Department.
IN THE OLD days, tramp print-
ers and other workers who drifted
from job to job usually were re-
garded as shiftless malcontents, or
at least lacking in stick-to-itive-
ness.
"You'll never get ahead that
way," other people would t e l"1
them. "Nobody wants to hire some-
one who barely hangs around long
enough to learn the ropes."
But President Nixon apparently
has no compunctions against hiring
itinerants.
Richardson is switching to t h e
Justice Department after o n I y
being at the Pentagon long enough
to hear the orientation lecture and
see the VD movie. And Schlesing-
er had hardly been with the CIA
long enough to get measured for a
cloak and sign up for dagger prac-
tice.
Yet Nixon hired them as readily
as he would someone who was
practically married to his job.
JOHN CONNALLY is another new
employe who seems to have trou-
ble sticking to one job. He tried
his hand as Navy secretary for a
while, you'll recall, and later stay-
ed on at the Treasury Department
at least long enough to hang up
his hat.
Now he's taken a part-time sum-
mer job at the White House. I don't
know how he got it but I assume
he enrolled in one of those intern
programs. Not that there haven't
always been government officials
with vagabond shoes and ants in
their pants who thoimght the grass
looked greener in the other pas-
ture.
I remember Arthur Goldberg
coming here as the Johnson ad-
ministration's Labor secretary and
then flitting about to the Supreme
Court and United Nations. He nev-
er could settle down, that fellow.
BUT RICHARDSON and Schles-
inger appear to be part of a new
breed of transitory public servants.
One more job swap and they'll be
included in the Migratory Labor
Act.
Disk 'it is a triter for United
Press International.
Watergate hasn't exactly humbled the
administration, has it?'