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Page 10-Sunday, April 6, 1980-The Michigan Daily
MOUNT ST. HELENS 'SHOWING ALL THE SIGNS'
Volcano may erupt soon
Hotel employees protest religious
jokes by atheist conventioneers
VANCOUVER, Wash. (UPI) -
Rumbling, steam-belching Mount St.
Helens was showing all the signs of,
building toward a major eruption of
lava yesterday and National Guar-
dsmen were called in to keep the
curious at a safe distance.
Sixty soldiers moved into place at 6
a.m. on roadblocks around the 9,677-
foot mountain to assist local law enfor-
cement officials, according to Col.
Robert Rudolph, operations and
military support officer for the state.
guard.
All 5,500 members of Washington's
National Guard were available in the.
event of a "major disaster," he said.
The soldiers established bases at
Camus, Longview and Vancouver, and
Rudolph said additional base camps
might be established closer to the
mountain.
The volcano blew steam and ash
thousands of feet into the air for nine
sustained minutes beginning at 6:28
a.m. yesterday morning.
The call-up of guardsmen was
authorized under an official state of,
emergency signed by Gov. Dixy Lee
Ray on Thursday. With the mountain
showing all signs of getting ready for a
major blowout, other state agencies
readied plans for a possible evacuation
of the area.
The decision to bring in guardsmen
was preceded by the largest "harmonic
tremor" yet as molten lava worked its
way up inside the mountain to set off an
unnerving 33-minute earthquake
Friday. It was the second harmonic
tremor of the day, and the sixth recor-
ded since Tuesday evening.
The volcano let fly a 10-minute blast
of ash and steam Friday afternoon and
NEW MINI-COURSE:
ten Lectures, 1 credit
SOVIETSEM10TICS OF CULTURE
(all in English)
Lecturer: ANN SHUKMAN, Oxford University
Place: Lecture Room 2, MLB
Time: 4-5:30 p.m., beginning April 8
For information, col 764-5355 or Checkpoint 764-6830
tickets for President Shapiro's
Inaugurion iffand Concvert
MAonday April14 1980
A limited number of general admission tickets to President
Shapiro's Inaugural Ceremony and Inaugural Concert are
available for students, faculty and staff who would like to
attend. The Inauguration will be held at 10:30 a.m. and the
concert at 2:00 p.m. Both events will be held in Hill Audi-
torium on Monday, April 14.
Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis
upon presentation of an individual's identification card. Tic-
kets will be limited to two per person and will be distributed
from the Office of the Registrar, Room 1518, ISA Building,
from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon and from 1:00 p.m. until
5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning Monday, March
31.
followed up with another blast that sent
steam plumes nearly Ythree miles into
the sky.
A sharp earthquake measuring 4.2 on
the Richter scale jolted the mountain
early yesterday. U.S. Geological Sur-
vey (USGS) scientists said tremors
measuring under 3.0 on the Richter
scale were occurring by the "thousan-
ds" each day.
"They're going on constantly,
ranging from 1.0 to 3.0 and on up," said
one seismologist at the USGS obser-
vatory at Newport, Wash. "We've
never seen anything like this before
these past two weeks."
Those in excess of 3.0 were "running
about two or three per hour," and
tremblors in excess of 4.0 were rattling
the mountain approximately every six
hours, University of Washington
spokesman Dave Endicott said.
The governor's volcano watch group
issued a list of four recommended
viewing spots for sightseers, who were
forced a few miles further from the
base of the mountain by Cowlitz County
deputy sheriffs worried about the hun-
dreds of parked cars lining the narrow
two-lane highways approaching the
peak.
"The nature of the beast," said En-
dicott, was that molten rock "is exer-
ting pressure and the pressure is ap-
parently being released in two ways,"
inside the mountain.
"Fluid lava is seeping into cracks and
crannies under pressure causing the
harmonic tremor readings, or it (the
lava) is crushing the rock un-
derground, causing the earthquakes."
"We feel that rock is being crushed,"
he said.
SOUTHFIELD (UPI) - A dispute with Easter-
celebrating kitchen workers left an American atheist con-
vention foraging for food yesterday and an angry
Madalyn Murray O'Hair demanding a boycott of a major
hotel chain.
O'Hair, a longtime foe of organized religion and founder
of the Society of Separationists, branded the incident fun-
damental to the struggle being addressed by the 10th
national American Atheists convention.
A SPOKESMAN FOR the Sheraton Southfield Hotel in
suburban Detroit, however, said the atheists overreacted
to a protest by catering employees about anti-religious
jokes told at an opening dinner.
"Anybody has the right to speak, and frankly, those
jokes were tame," O'Hair said as she walked a picket line
set up by the conventioneers. "We don't intend to let kit-
chen employees tell us what to do.
"We want a public apology, we're asking for a boycott of
the Sheratons, and as for the meals, they can take them
and shove them."
She said the more than 100 participants would remain at
the hotel through today but would eat meals outside the
catering halls.
NORMAN LIPPITT, an attorney representing the
Sheraton, said the hotel was "ready and willing" to serve
the meals and threatened legal action if the convention
refused to pay its food bill.
"We have a contract, and the hotel is entitled to be
paid," Lippitt said. "It's ludicrous to think the Sheraton
would discriminate against any group."
The atheists had convened their yearly meeting to
assess the past and plan the future of the movement to
stem the influence of organized religion.
Admittedly disturbed over a resurgence in organized
faiths, they pointed to the boom in evangelism as a
bellwhether of the mood Americans have developed
during troubled times both at home and abroad.
A linchpin of the convention was to be O'Hair's un-
veiling of a proposed lawsuit to force churches to disclose
all their assets.
The "so-called non-profit" organizations, she claimed,
are "ripping off" the public.
Also on the agenda for the Texas-based society,
representing some 100,000 American atheists, was
discussion of the 1981 convention slated for Salt Lake City
- the stronghold of the Mormons.
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Miller cites recent price decline
as bright spot in war on inflation
(Continued from Page1)
"I wouldn't want to tell you it's a tur-
ning point or a permanent signal, but
it's a hopeful sign," he said. "If lower
crude prices begin to work into inter-
mediate and finished goods, I think we
can see a couple of months downstream
some relief beginning to show up."
HE SAID HE hopes "we could do a
little better" than the administration's
official forecast of an increase in con-
sumer prices of 12.8 per cent this year.
The current rate of increase is about 18
per cent.
Miller said he doesn't trust private
forecasts of a more severe recession
than the mild downturn predicted by
the administration. However, he
acknowledged that it could be worse.
"I don't think there is 'much risk. we
won't have a recession," he said. "I
think there is a risk that it could be a lit-
tle more severe."
REMINDED THAT he had declared
last year*that the nation was in a
recession that was already half over,
Miller laughed and said, "We were in a
recession. The only thing I was wrong
about was we were completely over it,
and now we're having a new one." But
he admitted the one-quarter slump in
the economy last year didn't meet the
conventional definition of a recession:
two consecutive quarters of decline.
, He said he didn't want to predict how
long the new downturn would last.
Miller said the government would
take steps - "counter-cyclical
measures" - to deal with a'steep down-
turn.Such measures normally would
include aid to cities, industries and
groups of worlers who are especially
hard hit, although Miller didn't mention
them specifically.
High interest, rates and credit
restraints are the major causes of the
slowing economy, Miller said, adding
that the government will need to guard
against bringing on a severe credit
crunch.
The administration is predicting an
overall decline of 0.4 per cent in the
nation's output of goods and services thi
year, which would be a mild downturn.
Miller.said a more serious downturn
than that could complicate plans to
balance the budget in 1981.
4
Limp lettuce, celery or carrots can be
revived by soaking in ice water for an
hour, freshening the flavor with a
thrusU AYteaspoon of sugar or honey.
THE CENTER FOR SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
announces a lecture by
HIS EXCELLENCY, PUNCH COOMARASWAMY,
The Ambassador to the United States from
THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE
"SINGAPORE, ASIA AND THE WEST"
Miller
... sees hope in economy
Miller declined to speculate 'on how
spon President Carter might consider a
tax cut, which Carter has said he would
do if and when the 1981 budget is balan-
ced. There have been indications the
president may recommend a tax cut
this fall, which could be timely from a
political point of view, assuming he
wins the Democratic nomination.
Ronald Reagan, the Republican Carter
expects to face in November, is
recommending broad cuts in federa
taxes.
Tuesday, April 8, 1980
3:00-5:00 p.m.
West Conference Room
4th floor. Rackham Bldg.
An informal reception will follow the lecture
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