European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes wednesday May 7,1986 James Reston another Thunderclap shows How vulnerable we Are every week or so it scrim some Thunderclap in the news reminds us of the accidents or life and the unpredictable con sequences of human presumption. No Mailer How carefully the leaders of notions proclaim their philosophies and plan their National strategies somehow they Are constantly being surprised by Tome missing link in their calculations. The soviet nuclear failure in the Ukraine is Maruly the latest example. Mik Hail Gorbachev has been presenting him self As the. New soviet Man concerned. About the Well being of All nations and determined to control explosive substances from nuclear Power to booze. But when one of his nuclear reactors blew up he could t control the Cloud of radioactive dust Drifting across Scandinavia and his Eastern european Empire. So like his predecessors he controlled and suppressed the news. President Reagan likewise has had to Deal with the elements of Accident tend Surprise he he planned for no doubt with Confidence and sincerity a particular economic policy at Home and a strategic defense initiative that would shield the United stain from atomic weapons. If his budget and his computers worked All would be Welt. Bui somehow his Bud gets produced the largest  the history of the Republic and when the Chal Lenger blew up with its precious human cargo at least some people Here began to wonder where we were going and who was going with us. There have however been some gains from this latest tragedy in the Ukraine. It has to begin with taken Mike Deaver and colonel khad Afy off the front pages for a few Days and focused attention on the main question of the arms race and the Trade race in the world. Presumably the president and the other Industrial world leaders now meeting in Tokyo will discuss the problem of Ter ror and maybe even define it beyond the boundaries of Libya. There is to be sure terror on the com Mercial airlines in the major cities in the bomb and run raids in Lebanon and in the thread of nuclear knowledge. But even accidental Clouds of radioactive James Kilpatrick let me mint out 1hkt im1he dust Are terror and there is Little evidence that he world Leaden have considered the terror thai would ensue if the Khz Adays of the world got hold of nuclear weapons or even nuclear wastes that can be dumped into harbours and hold vast cities at Ransom. Reagan and Gorbachev have a special obligation to Deal with this problem. The United Stales and the soviet Union agreed by treaty some years ago to control the further spread of nuclear weapons and on the whole they have been faithful to that agreement. But the other Side of this treaty was that if other nations agreed not to produce nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow would agree to control their own nuclear Competition. This so far they Haven t done. And the secrecy of Gorbachev on the Accident in the Ukraine has made things Ever Mare difficult for the politicians in Washington who Don t wan any arms control Are now say ing that Gorbachev the new soviet Man is a fraud and that in the clutch he is not to be trusted. The chances Are however that this talk will probably pass away like that of Mike Deaver and khad Afy and the president and Gorbachev will probably hold a Washington Summit later in the year. They will have much to discuss and in a Way they have much in common. For they Are both in a Jam the prisoners of their own propaganda and cannot avoid the accidents of life and their problems both at Home and abroad. Herbert Butterfield my mato4s Ailine Home favorite economist preacher gave a talk in Washington at the american University some years ago in which he summed up the present dilemma however hard we have tried in the 20th Century to make allowances in and Vance for the unpredictable consequences of violence and War we have always Dit covered that the most terrible of these had been omitted from our calculations or Only imperfectly foreseen. One of the examples of this fact is the loss of Liberty in various countries in East Ern Europe and the Balkans the very regions whose Freedom was the primary Issue for which we were supposed to have undertaken two world  now Vortis Tjw. Government still supports discrimination by race it seems an elementary question when a Federal contract is put out for competitive bids do All bidders have an equal Chance the lamentable answer is no far in this area some bidders Are More equal than others a company that qualifies As an m be or a be is out in front with what is known As a set aside. An be is a minority business enter prise. A be is a disadvantaged Busi Ness Enterprise. Under various Federal Laws 10 percent of appropriated funds Mutt be set aside for contract awards to them. It makes no difference if a company owned by while persons has better qualifications and submits a lower bid. The contract goes to a company that is owned at least on paper by Blacks. Hispanic i aleuts orientals indians or other minorities. A couple of weeks ago the staff of the . Commission on civil rights sub mined a draft report on the several set aside programs. The draft found serious fault with the programs and recommended thai they be suspended for a year of care Ful review. When the draft report leaked out to the press a predictable How arose. On april 11, the commission decided by a divided vote to Send the report Back for revision. The commission should have stuck with the staff. This report was essentially right the first time. The set aside programs go Back to an executive order from the Nixon administration in 1969. The first statute was the Public works employment act of 1977, which earmarked $400 million of a 14 billion appropriation for minority con tractors then came what is known As the 8 a program under the Small Busi Ness administration which now provides about s2.7 billion every year in awards to Mes. In 1982 Congress approved the surface transportation assistance act which sets aside at least 15.3 billion for disadvantaged business enterprises. We Are not talking Small potatoes. What is wrong with set asides for Blacks and other minorities said the draft report the programs create a new form of discrimination and a new class of  the programs Are unjustifiable in theory and ineffective to prac Tice they have led to rampant corruption in the form of Sham companies that ostensibly Are controlled by Blacks but covertly Are owned by whiles. One study found that 20 percent of 1,500 Mes in the 3 a program were ineligible an Esti mated 32 percent of minority beneficiaries under the Public works act were Shams or fronts. In Illinois it was Esti mated that Only 40 percent of the certified does were legitimate firms. Half of the minority contractor in new eng land Oklahoma and Arkansas were in eligible or  the programs Are costly. In one study by the general accounting office it appeared that minority contracts on Public works projects were 9 percent higher than Low bids from non minority Compa Nies. On Highway jobs minority bids were from 10.7 percent to 15 percent higher. These costs often were increased by reason of shoddy workmanship that had to be done Over by someone else. There was another Cost the Highway set asides have led to financial hardship and bankruptcy for a significant number of non minority subcontractors by Way of example the draft report cited the experience of Southern seeding service of Greensboro n.c., which despite is excellent record and its submission of numerous Tow bids could not get a contract from jm3 through 1985. Warning Lites of Illinois submitted bids that were 7 per cent lower than bids from Beds but repeatedly lost out. Defenders of the set asides say the programs have served to set Many legitimate minority firms on their feet but the draft report found Little evidence to support that assertion. Neither is it demonstrable that a Ripple effect has greatly increased minority employment. Proponents make the Point that 98 percent of All Public and private construction is unaffected by the several programs but the statistic is mean ingless to the individual Small company that has just lost its Low bid to a preferentially privileged minority firm in Fullilove v. Klutznick 1980a bit Terly divided supreme court split 3-3-3 to upholding the now expired Public works program. The reasoning was that Congress had devised a plausible program for relieving past racial discrimination. If the 10 percent set aside was unfair to White Iran said the court it was not very unfair to them and besides the program would t Lasi forever. Now the set asides Promise indeed to last forever and though Many abuses Nave been corrected the underlying evil re mams. Thai evil is slate sanctioned racial discrimination. In t it time to put that Wil behind us la la Phenil priv dirndl Cal