Iran's premier says U.S. has apologized
The Michigan Daily-Sunday, October 19, 1980-Page 5
Carter says he'll
seek SALT U OK
in practic
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -
Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad
Ali Rajai, expressing sympathy with
the families of the 52 American
hostages, said yesterday he believed
the United States "in practice" has
apologized for its support of the late
shah.
"All it needs is probably to put
something on paper," Rajai said in
seeming to soften Iran's demand for
an apology as a precondition for
release of the hostages, who yester-
day spent their 350th day as captives
of Iranian militants.
A DECISION ON the hostages, by
the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament,
~' for support
is "not far away,".Rajai told a news where h
cpnference here when asked if the by Shah
issue could be solved before the secretp
American presidential election on BUTI
Nov. 4-which will be the first an- conditi(
niversary of the seizure of the States
hostages at the U.S. Embassy in prospec
Tehran. removi
Of their families, Rajai said, "I Saudi A
know how they feel and I know how Persian
they suffer . . . I know this well aid to J
because I myself was a prisoner ... I in its wa
know also when a person is kept Such.
against his will in a foreign country, created
the grief is much harder." the pro
At one point, he put his bare right said.
foot on a table to show reporters "Whe
of former shah
he said he had been tortured
h Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's
police.
RAJAI SEEMED to set new
ons when he said the United
would greatly improve
cts for freeing the hostages by
ng its radar planes from
Arabia, its warships from the
nGulf, and by ending military
ordan, which is backing Iraq
ar with Iran.
American military measures
' "obstacles to a solution to
iblem," the prime minister
en our people look at this, it
would be very hard for them to
become convinced to get ready to
solve this problem, and it creates
impasse and resistance in them,"
Rajai said a day after he went before
th U.N. Security Council and ac-
cused the United States of using its
radar planes to feed information on
Iranian troop movements to Iraq.
U.S. AMBASSADOR Donald F.
McHenry denied the charge as "un-
founded and untrue."
Rajai left open the possibility that
the Iranian Parliament still might
insist on an apology. If so, he said,
it would be the "easiest condition" to
meet.
WASHINGTON (AP)-President
Carter plans to seek Senate approval of
the long-delayed Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union
"at the earliest possible moment" after
the Nov. 4 election, from whichever
Senate-old or new-that seems most
likely to go along.
His Republican opponent, Ronald
Reagan, says the SALT II treaty favors
the Soviets and he has promised to pull
it from the Senate without a vote. Car-
ter said Reagan's call for nuclear
superiority is "dangerous and
ridiculous."
CARTER SAID he thinks prospects
for ratification of the treaty have im-
proved since he asked the Senate 10
months ago to postpone action
because of the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan.
In an interview with The Associated
Press, Carter said the delay never was
intended to punish the Russians but,
rather, to save the treaty from Senate
defeat.
"THERE WAS a certainty that had
the ratification been brought to a vote,
it would have been defeated," Carter
said. "I think that that certainty of
defeat has been removed."
A lame-duck session of Congress will
meet after the election to consider
budget matters.
Initiative America seeks constitutional amendment
(Continued from Page 1)
office, no matter what their political
philosophy, so the elected officials lose
sight of the people who elected them,"
he said.
INITIATIVE AMERICA says the
national voter initiative is the only way
to restore government to the people,
and to restore public confidence in
government.
To be enacted, the national initiative
mendment must be approved by a
two-thirds vote in Congress, and
ratified by three-fourths of the states.
The last presidential election showed
that voters are interested in issues as
well as candidates, O'Neil said. States
in which the voter initiative works on a
state level had 21 percent higher voter
turnout, he said.
L MICHIGAN IS ONE of 23 states that
allow citizens to initiate and vote on
state issues. In 1972 Michigan im-
demented Daylight Savings Time as a
esult of an initiative proposal. And in
1976 the "bottle bill," another initiative
proposal, passed.
"It is interesting that backers of the
bottle bill were outspent by about 20 to
1," Schmidt said. "That shows that with
the initiative campaign, the people with
the most money don't always win," he
said.
This year 19 states each have at least
one initiative on the ballot. Most of the
41 proposals concern taxes, energy, or
political reform measures.
ABOUT HALF OF the states with the
initiative process, including Michigan,
use it on proposals to pass new laws and
amend the state constitutions, Schmidt
said. The national initiative would be
used only to pass laws.
Opponents of the initiative plan say
the legislative system works fine the
way it is. Some critics say the public is
not well enough informed to be given
the responsibility to vote on legislation.
Others, according to O'Neil, say "it
would be like opening Pandora's Box,"
and voters would find themselves
deluged with an excess of issues, many
of which would be on the ballot as a
result of passing fads.
"NEITHER OF THESE problems
have occurred in Michigan," O'Neil
said. "Initiative issues have averaged
about one per year, and only one of
every three of those has been approved
by the voters," he said.
. Schmidt added that the initiative
process is an effective way to let
legislators know what the people want.
"In Michigan, for instance," he said,
"not enough signatures were collected
to put a proposal on the ballot to lower
the drinking age. But legislators were
made aware of the number of people
supporting such a proposal, so they put
it on the ballot."
SCHMIDT SAID initiative measures
are usually more controversial than
measures put on the ballot by
legislatures.
Initiative America has asked the
three major presidential candidates to
support the voter initiative, but has not
gained their full approval.
Carter will not say whether he sup-
ports it, according to O'Neil, and the
president's staff was unable to find a
statement of his stand on the issue.
REAGAN'S STAFF says he supports
the national initiative, and, that he con-
siders it an effective weapon against
"big government." But as the election
draws near O'Neil says he does not feel
Reagan's commitment is strong.
Anderson has written in a letter that
he believes there is room for im-
provement in the present law-making
process, but that he does not "endorse or
support making the Constitution a slave
to every passing popular fashion, fad,
whim, and notion that sweeps the coun-
try."
"IT SORT OF surprised me that An-
derson does not support the plan,"
O'Neil said. "When I spoke to him last
spring I told him I thought this would be
an ideal program for him to support, if
he is trying to give the people an alter-
native," he said.
"Anderson wants to rely on the
present system, but the present system
isn't working," O'Neil said.
If the issue of voter initiative had
been on the ballot two years ago, it
would be implemented in this election,
according to a 1978 Gallup Poll showing
more than two to one public support of
the plan.
INITIATIVE AMERICA hopes
people will write in voter initiative on
their ballots to make decision-makers
aware of this public support.
"People in this country could get
frustrated enough to bring on social
chaos," O'Neil said. "We're talking
about the life and death of society. As
Alvin Toffler (author of Future Shock
and EcoSpasm) said, 'unless political
foresight is brought under popular local
control, it could destroy us,"' O'Neil
said.
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Li
i
National Election Studies
'paints electorate portrait
.
(Continued from Page D'
"THE FACT THAT the National
Science Foundation declared it to be a
national resource" is evidence of its
univeral importance and widespread
use among scholars, said Political
Science Prof. John Jackson.
..Past funding of the study has been
kaphazard. It almost didn't get the
money it needed in1972.
"People said 'Hey, we need that' .. .
and after (the 1972 troubles) it was done
differently," Jackson said.
IN 1977, WITH a five-year funding
grant from the NSF and lots of advice
from political science scholars, Miller
and his staff began working closely
with its new Board of Overseers, which
lawas set up by NSF and acted much like
a corporation's board of directors.
Jackson, who taught political science
and was co-director of the Public
Research Program at the University of
Pennsylvania before he came to the
University in September, was one of the
first appointed to the nine-member
Board of Overseers.
"My initialinterest in joining the
board three years ago was a strong
commitment to the research com-
munity having some input (in the
development of the election study),"
Jackson said.
"There is a strong sense among all
board members of really representing
the collective interests of political
science," he said.
ABOUT 2,000 PEOPLE will be inter-
viewed for the 1980 study. New to the
research is a panel study in which
almost 1,000 people will be interviewed
*four times from January through
November.sThis will, for the first time
in NES' history, provide researchers
with information about how the same
people change their minds about can-
didates and issues over the course of
the campaign.
For instance, Miller said, resear-
chers may be able to determine
whether voters choose presidential
candidates on the basis of issue
positions or whether voters first choose
a candidate and then adopt the
positions of those candidates.
THERE IS A drawback with the panel
study, Miller said.
"After the second time, the inter-
viewees realize they'll (the inter-
viewers) be back, so they start studying
up," he said. "Maybe it's not the most
effective form of adult education, but
sometimes it happens that way."
The standard cross-section study
helps minimize the impact of the
"studying up." In this portion, which
has comprised the entire study until
this year, a group of about 1,000 voters
is interviewed in late January and early
February, a second group of people is
interviewed in April, and a third group
is interviewed just before the election in
October. The third group is interviewed
again immediately after the election.
Some of the questions being asked
this year have been asked since 1952.
Other questions change as research in-
terests change.
MOST. OF THE interviews-which
are conducted in person-last just over
an hour. The "interview
schedule"-the booklet which lists all
the study questions-is 54 pages long
this year. Post-election interviews are
conducted over the telephone.
Interviewers ask questions about the
respondents' backgrounds, their
positions on issues, their perceptions of
candidate personalities, and dozens of
other study areas.
TAqKE THE LEAqD
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BEA qSUMMER
OW ENTA;TION
LEAqDER
Pick up applications at the
Orientation Office (2530 SAB) or call
764-6290 for further information.
Applications due by Nov. 7, 1980
an affirmative action non-discriminatory employer
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