European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 05, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Tom Wicker monday september 5, 1977 Why the Public does t believe Energy crisis when the Senate gets Back to work after its summer recess it will take up an administration Energy program that the american people apparently do not believe is necessary. That s the sad conclusion to be drawn from a new York times lbs poll in which 57 per cent of the respondents said they did not believe the Energy situation was As bad As president Carter said it was and 49 per cent suggested that the crisis was Only a plot to get higher prices for Oil and Gas companies. So much Wishful thinking suggests that neither Carter s leadership nor the pro Gram he has put Forward has As yet made the kind of demands on the citizenry that would Force them to realize the seriousness of the Energy situation. He did Call the other Day for enforce ment of the 55-Mph Speed limit As a Gaso line saving measure. Combined with the gradual elimination of Gas guzzlers that would make a considerable difference in the nation s profligate consumption of Gas Oline in private automobiles. But the Carter Energy program offers no incentives or penalties designed to get people out of automobiles altogether and into mass transit or longer haul rail facilities. To top this failure Amtrak which runs such intercity trains As there Are has James Reston announced extensive cuts in service and a Rise in fares. Obviously the left hand kno Weth not what the right hand doth. Cutting service and raising fares is the classic pattern by which ridership on any transit system is inevitably reduced. Those were the Steps the private Railroad companies took when they were trying to kill off passenger service an Effort in which they mostly succeeded so it s ironic in the extreme to see Amtrak which con Gress established to Rescue passenger service embarking on the ame course. It s even More ironic in the midst of the Energy crisis which so Many believe is not a crisis at All that this Energy saving Mode of transportation is being Cut Back instead of extended. Why should anyone believe the crisis is real when such contradictions Are permitted worse Amtrak has not been failing in fact it has been extending its passenger train network improving its equipment and schedules and attracting increased ridership up from 16.6 to 18.6 million Annu ally. But the revenues do not As yet cover expenses making Federal subsidy Neces sary. And for fiscal 1978, beginning next month Congress inexplicably reduced Amtrak s fund request from $534.1 million to $488.5 million. Since Amtrak had added major routes this year the 1978 fiscal year appropriation is in effect a Cut from the $482.6 Mil lion subsidy for 1977. How the deep thinkers in Congress reconcile that with the new taxes and restrictions that will be decreed in the Energy program will be painful to watch. The announced service cuts will affect 26 states but appear to be concentrated on the Boston Washington line along which to Complete the Absurdity the Federal government is spending hundreds of millions to rebuild the so called Northeast corridor roadbed. These cuts May Well destroy what s left of Connecticut s passenger service gov. Ella Grasso said they will also reduce weekend runs on one of am Trak s most successful projects the metro liner Between new York and Washington. Even so the announced cutbacks will account for Only $28 million of the shortfall in subsidies and revenues that Amtrak faces for 1978. Other cuts May have to be made and Amtrak says a prime Candi Date is the floridian which now provides service albeit not very Good Between Chicago and Miami. The floridian loses about $9.5 million a year illustrating another of Amtrak s problems the private railroads. The train could pick up major additional rider ship and Revenue if it were routed through Atlanta the traditional Southern transportation Hub. But the Louisville and Nash Ville won t let Amtrak use its line from Chattanooga to Atlanta owing to heavy freight traffic and the Southern railway would permit the use of tracks it controls Only if Amtrak puts about $20 million into upgrading the line. Amtrak obviously does t have the Money. In the West for another example Amtrak May sue the Missouri Pacific rail Road to Force decent service and schedules on the inter american which to Pac runs on much of the important route from Chi Cago through St. Louis and North South across Texas to Laredo on the mexican Border. To Pac operation has made the inter american legendary for lateness slowness and Hurliness. On top of such problems the reduced Federal subsidy forcing service cuts and fare increases is nothing less than weird. How do Carter and Congress expect Ever to convince the Public that there s an Energy crisis much less that they know How Socope with it c new York times the bewildering dilemmas that face the . For the people who have to govern this country and even for those who have to report and Analyse the news the events of the last Day of August 1977 around Washington were almost enough to make you think that life is a Little complicated. For example on this one Day the Secretary of labor Ray Marshall announced that unemployment among Black Young people in the United states this summer nearly 35 per cent was the highest Ever recorded by his depart ment. Overall White and Black youth unemployment was 15.3 per cent. On the same Day a Federal judge in Virginia ordered Secretary Marshall and the labor department to approve the importation of about 5,000 foreign workers to pick apples in nine Border and Northeast Ern states because it seems we won t do our own work. Marshall called it an alarming  Al sen the same Day the department of human resources of the District of co Lumbia announced that last year there were one third More Legal abortions in Washington than live births 12,945 abortions to 9,635 births 57 per cent of the abortions paid for by the Federal medicaid program which stopped financing such abortions last month. This is not very cheery summer read ing but while the headlines recently had been on Secretary of state Vance in the Middle East and China and Andy Young and sol Linowitz trying to avoid War in Rhodesia South America and Panama All useful missions these late August statistics remind us that we have a few awk Ward problems at Home. Also on the last Day of August 1977, Amtrak the government s latest Experiment in Public transportation announced that it was cutting its services in the Washington Philadelphia new York Boston Cor Ridor and increasing its fares because while the american people were calling for Public transportation they weren t using it enough to avoid a $50-million-a-year operating deficit. James Schlesinger the new Energy chief has the same problem. Like presi Dent Carter he keeps insisting that there Isa critical Energy crisis in this country which threatens the nation s Freedom an that we have to conserve and slow Down. But the evidence so far is that most people Are not listening or slowing Down and the imports of Gas and Oil Are going up at a alarming rate. Secretary of labor Marshall s dilemma of the last Day of August dramatizes the problem. Faced with a court order to bring in 5,000 foreign workers to pick apples while he is trying to put millions of unemployed americans to work he defied the court order. I am deeply concerned he said that the importation of this Large number of for eign workers will deprive about 3,000 american workers of needed jobs. I know the growers prefer foreign workers be cause they find them More docile than Domestic workers. But with unemployment at 6.9 per cent almost seven million americans out of work this is not a valid  we intend Marshall said to take every Legal and administrative step at our disposal to prevent this unfortunate order erosion l977u f from taking effect but of course Marshall who is one of the most reflective and underestimated members of the Carter Cabinet is going Tolose. For by the time he took every Legal and administrative step the apples would have rotted on the Trees. The prob Lem is that the administration has no effective policy to put our own unemployed people to work in the Orchards and in the end will have to import workers from Mexico Jamaica and elsewhere Many of whom will remain in the country As illegal aliens against the policy of the Carter government. The Basic problem which the Carter administration has grappled with seriously but has t yet solved is How to train and put Young unemployed americans Black and White to work on the jobs that clearly have to be done. And beyond this a Larder but maybe More important problem How to help Mexico and our neighbors in the Caribbean to improve their economies so As to pro vide work and keep their people at Home. Wayne a. Cornelius associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of technology has pointed out after Many years of careful study of this problem that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on policing the Border and catching the illegal aliens might be More effective if they were spent on improving the Economy of Mexico and providing jobs to keep their unemployed people from going North. The Carter administration is working on All this at Home and abroad but it is a Dev Ilish tangle. What to do about the alarming rate of Young people out of work in Ameri Ca what to do about the work that has to be done but our own people won t do How to face up to More abortions than births in the capital City of the Republic with or without Federal abortion funds these questions obviously baffle the policy makers and even the scribblers have to sympathize with their problems. Twas just an Accident that so Many Dilem Mas surfaced on aug. 31, 1977. On another week or month you could probably have found the same catalogue of bewildering dilemmas. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way of .consid8r representing the views of the Star and stripes or the United states government