Wednesday; July 13, 1977 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Pagje Five Wednesday, July 13, 1977 ~HE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five Carter asks boost in minimum wage WASHINGTON (AP) President Carter indicated yester- day he will support a compromise proposal to raise the mini- mum wage to $2.65 an hour from $2.30 and to make all future increases autonatic. Although Carter mentioned no figures during a White House news conference, congressional sources said $2.65 was the figure agreed on during weeks of intense negotiations among the ad- ministration officials, Democratic congressional leaders and or- ganized labor. "WE HAVE NO ADMINISTRATION legislation to propose and I do not intend to send the Congress any message on mini- mum wage," the President said when asked about reports of a compromise. However, Carter said he agrees with the proposal to be introduced by Rep. Carl Perkins (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee. 1 Carter's decision was the second victory in as many days for organized labor, which earlier this. year suffered a string of disappointments from the administration. ADMINISTRATION SOURCES disclosed Monday that Carter agreed to back labor's legislative campaign for broad changes in the labor laws to make it easier for unions to organize new members. The AFL-CIO joined in a broad coalition of labor, civil rights, women's and civic groups to push for a higher minimum wage than the $2.50 initially suggested by Carter earlier in the year. The AFL-CIO had no immediate comment, but a source said no problems were expected with the compromise. "It's not as much as we wanted, but it's a substantial improv'ement over what the President originally proposed," said one official. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE and other business groups are opposed to an increase in the federal pay floor, contending it would be inflationary. An estimated 3.1 million workers are currently at the mini- mum wage. In addition to raising the pay floor to $2.65 an hour, the compromise proposal would, if approved by Congress, tie future minimum wage to the average wage earned in manufacturing. Sources said one point still not final in the negotiations was the elimination of the so-called "tip credit." Carter administration to press for adoption funds Golf score too high? 'U' prof, knows why By DENISE FOX If you play golf or like to bet on the out- come of golf matches, there's something you should probably know. As a hobby, Stephen Pollock, University Professor of industrial and operations engi- neering, has developed a mathematical model to predict the probable outcome of matches. HE HAS FOUND that even considering handicaps, only in rare circumstances do the odds ever come up 50-50. Pollock contends that generally, the high- er a player's handicap, the lower his chance of winning. This is due to something the handi- cappers never took into account - consisten- cy. "The handicap system tends to favor the consistent player," said Pollock. Golf handicaps are based upon best ten of a player's most recent 20 rounds. A con- sistent player's handicap will reflect his or her true ability. But if the player's scores vary widely, his or her handicap will prob- ably be an inaccurate reflection of ability. POLLOCK MEASURES consistency through "standard deviation," which defines the range a golfer can be expected to score 68% of the time. A consistent player -- one with a standard deviation of perhaps 2.5 - will, even if his handicap is 15 strokes higher than his oppo- nent's, "win a little over half the time in both medal and match play' if the opponent is erratic - a player with a standard devia- tion of perhaps six - says Pollock. "Furthermore, if his handicap is only six strokes higher than his opponent's, he wil win 60 per cent of the time in medal play and S8 per cent in match play," Pollock said. HE CONTENDS his model did not con- sider other factors such as familiarity with the course, weather, and psychology. The birth of Pollocks model took place in his Mathematical Models class. "One of the professors was convinced that the handicap system was doing him in," said Pollock. "I had the students develop a model and I sort of finished it." Pollock himself is far from being an avid golfer. "I've only played 5 or 6 times." HAD CANCER AND ILIVED WASHINGTON MA) - The Carter administration proposed yesterday to pay the maternity medical expenses of pregnant women who choose to have their babies and give them up for adoption rather than seek abortions. Health, Education and Wel- fare (HEW) Secretary Joseph Califano, in describing an ad- ministration proposal to pro- vide federal subsidies for adop- tion of hard to place children, called elements of the plan "obviously an alternative to abortion." BOTH PRESIDENT CARTER and the secretary of health, education and welfare oppose using federal funds to pay for abortions. The adoption plan, sinilar to one already passed by the House and awaiting Senate ac- tion, eventually would cost more than a half billion dollars a year in federal subsidies to families and matching fuunds to state that improve their fos- ter care programs. Vice President Walter Mon- dale, sponsor of one subsidy bill in the Senate before he was elected vice president, outlined the administration plan at a briefing with Califano. He said the plan is designed to "streng- then, rather than undercut, the family.". CALIFANO SAID the propos- al would provide "a couple of thousand dollars a year" to needy families that adopt tradi- tionally hard to place children those over 2 years old, c'hil- dren . with. mental or physical handicaps, minority group chil- .renand siblings who for one eason..or another are deemed s parable - ported foster care program, Califano said in testimony pre- is viciously antifamily. He noted that the govern- ment now spends $171 million a year to help pay the expenses of children in foster homes but discourages foster parents from adopting the children by cuttingoff the payments - and in many states Medicaid eligi- bility - at the moment of adop- tion. "THIS IS theater of the ab- surd government policy," Cali- fano said. Federal foster care funds, which would be increas- ed to more than $300 million by the mid-1980s, would be avail- able in the form of adoption subsidies to families. Such fam- ilies would have to meet a still to be written test of need based on their income. More than $200 million event- ually would be made available to states on a matching grant basis to encourage them to de- velop better foster care facili- ties and procedures andto give state child welfare programs in- pared for the Senate, "is a classic example of the per- verse incentive system" that centives to try to keep families together or reunite them. Neither Califano nor Mon- dale mentioned the alternative to abortion aspects of the plan until asked by a reporter whe- ther those provisions had been dropped after published reports about them appeared last week, Califano said those were still in the proposal but that he was only trying - to give the broad outlines of the plan. Mondale and Califano said they don't know how many of the nation's' 350,000 children now in foster homes or 'institu- tBsis wculdbe affected by the 'ub, dy piroposoal" Gene Ltler It's possible to go into an annual checkup feeling terrific. And come out knowing something's wrong. It happened to me. The doctor found what I couldn't even feel ... a little lump under my arm. If I had put off the appointment for one reason or another, I probably wouldn't be here today. Because that little lump I couldn't feel was a melanoma, a highly aggressive form of cancer that spreads very quickly. It's curable-but only if found in time. So when I tell you, "Get a checkup," you know it's from my heart. It can save your life. I know. It saved mine. Rearegular cv heckup. can save yorife. Amencan Cancer Socie wSPC;~aQBTE BYT55PikI% 'A I A M RIC