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. MONDAY is PIZZOI NIGHT at 1140 South University 668-8411 Teword's out on rumpus .. . If you want to be in the know, you should be reading The Daily . . . the latest in news, sports, les affaires acodemiques, and entertainment .. CALL 764-0558 to order your subscription today 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 Help New Students or Their Parents Discover the Diversity of Michigan BEA qSUMMER OW ENTA;TION LEAqDER Pick up applications at the Orientation Office (2530 SAB) or call 764-6290 for further information. 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