European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 23, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns William Safire the stars and stripes Friday october 23, 1967 politicians Grope for answers to Market crash dont just do something stand there was the advice taken by the president of the United Stales As the Slock Market crashed and one third of the air escaped from the nation s balloon of Confidence. Perhaps there was a Case to be made for a Day s silence at the top to avoid sounding like Herbert Hoo ver a much better Case could have been made for a Brief televised statement from the Oval office shown All Over the world reminding us of for s words the Only thing we have to fear is fear itself and reviewing the latest evidence of continuing Prosperity from Low unemployment to reduced deficits and in creased housing starts in a Calm realistic tone. President Rengan neither reassured us by shutting up nor by speaking calmly. Instead we saw him calling out ill considered answers to shouted questions Over the noise of helicopter engines. There is nothing wrong with the Economy he shouted. All the business indices Are up. Maybe some people Sec a Chance to grab a  a Day later still Over the engines he was Yelling the Congress is responsible for the deficit in using the helicopter hollering technique which hat become his sound biting substitute for press conferences the president demonstrated that 1 he is no the Calm at the Center of the storm 2 his perception is that the sudden fall was caused by greedy profit takers which is absurd and 3 he is reacting to the loss of Confidence As if it were Tome kind of unfair personal criticism of his stewardship. Here i co analysing the political failure associated with the Market nosedive much As the satirist in Field and Stream Magazine reviewed the Gam keep ing passages in lady Chat Lurley s  but As one who predicted for years that the fall would be triggered by a junk Bond collapse which was not the cause will stick to the political fallout Reagan loses which Means George Bush loses Al most As much both had been taking credit for the rain and must now Lake the blame Tor the drought. This is True even if no sleep recession follows the crash or even if the Market stages a stunning comeback part of the madness of crowds is to blame the political ins for the crowd s own  of the five announced democratic candidates gain simply because their nomination is Worth More when voters feel uneasy about the economic future under republicans. The protectionist candidate Rich Ard Gephardt May be forced on the defensive by charges thai the fear of Trade barriers contributed to the worldwide Haemorrhage of Confidence. Talk of Mario Cuomo will grow with increased fears of races  the non administration republicans Bob Dole neither gains nor loses he has adopted a posture of observer rather than participant available for re James Kilpatrick Marks from the sidelines the quotable pundit As candidate. Jack Kemp gains because he can talk knowledgeably about economics and his longtime Call for a return to a Dollar pegged to a Basket of commodities now assumes new urgency As a Stabilizer Pete Dupont must have lost a bundle personally but is Likely to pick up some support shaken off the vice presi Dent. Pal Robertson likes to warn of a financial armageddon. All candidates face a new fact the nation has been scared people s plans have been changed and the Outlook is now different for a generation that never knew it could be standing on an existentialist s trap door. How docs a politician answer the yearning for a new caution one Way will be mechanistic control the Market s capacity for volatility by stopping options arbitrage and restricting computerized decision making another approach will be roundly partisan like for s summation of the Harding Coolidge Hoover Era nine crazy years at the ticker and three Long years in the bread Tel a third path will be programmatic attack the budget deficit and defeat a Rise in interest rates by raising taxes and cutting defense spending but that would seem anti keynesian in the first stage of  politicians will say let s Sec if we can mud dle through a spending Cut Here an Oil import fee there reciprocity at Trade restrictions incentives to save a monetary course Between the scylla of inflation and the Charybdis of  do not search for a Iii Cal figure with the courage to Tell the million no have been burned and frightened that no government can or should save us from the consequences of our personal eco nomic risk taking. The fault dear fellow investors a not in our system but in ourselves thai we Are forget Ful Vtha time student editor should t have totally free rein suppose to be supposing that a typical Public High school publishes a typical High school newspaper. The paper is written and edited by students in a senior journalism course. Ii carries news editorials and letters to the editor. One Day the editor prepares an editorial to this effect the school Board s policy forbidding smoking on school grounds is crazy. Smoking cigarettes is fun and smoking in moderation causes no harm to any one principal John Smith is a Puritan fuss budget whose greatest pleasure in life is denying pleasure to hairier. He ought to be canned and we ought to have a new principal who believes in individual  principal Smith sees a Galley proof of the editorial and orders in killed. Has the principal violated the editor s first amendment right to Freedom of the press Justice Antonin Scatia posed a ques Tion along these lines in the supreme court a few Days ago. Scalia wondered about an editorial or a letter to the editor saying smoking pot is fun bul posses Sion of marijuana is a criminal offence and that fact might be material the High court was hearing Oral argument in a Case from St. Louis that for the first Lime goes directly to the rights of student editors As opposed to the Power of a school s administration. The Case arose at Hazelwood East High school in May 1983, when the Edi tors of Spee Irum proposed to run two controversial articles. One dealt with teen age pregnancies. It was based upon interviews with three girls who agreed to discuss their sexual life As Long As their names were not used. The other dealt with the Impact of divorce on children. Principal Robert Reynolds Felt the article on pregnancies might be interpreted As sympathetic to sexual Intercourse. Be cause there were Only eight or 10 preg Nant girls in the school he fell they could be identified. He fell the article on divorce was one sided in that it gave the viewpoint Only of students and not of the divorced parents. He killed both  few months later the student editors sued for a declaratory judgment charging violation of i hair constitutional rights. The school administration won in . District court but Losi on Appeal to the blah circuit the supreme court accepted the Case for review. A decision May be handed Down before the end of the year. What about All this the student plaintiffs rely on a Case decided in 1969, but that Case known As the tinker Case really is no precedent at All. Tinker involved five students who were briefly suspended from their schools in pcs Moines Iowa. In Defiance of regulations they donned Black armbands As symbols of their opposition to the War i Vietnam. The supreme court speaking through Justice Abe Fortas held 7-1 that the suspensions violated the Slu Denis first amendment rights. There is a night and Day differ ence or so it seems to me Between the tinker Case and the Hazelwood Case. Fifteen year old John tinker acted wholly on his own. As Fonas said his was a passive expression of opinion unrelated to the school As such it can hardly be argued said Fortas that either Stu dents or teachers shed their Constitution Al rights to Freedom of speech or express Ion at the schoolhouse  by contrast the Hazelwood school paper was an officially sanctioned part of the journalism curriculum. Publication of the paper was a class assignment supervised by a classroom teacher. The Stu dents published articles figured in their grades for the  8th circuit Laid Down tour conditions that could justify a principal s censorship if an article in a etude no paper materially disrupts school work gives Rise to substantial disorder invade the rights of others or might Lead to Luil against the school the article May be killed. Otherwise Slu Denis Are free to publish in a school paper whatever the want to publish free from any fear of suppression or punishment. These Ere reasonable guidelines even so. I dissent. I would go a Long tolerant philosophical Way in giving Itu Donl reporter and editors a free rein bul i would insist thai in the crunch High school principal should have All the Power of a private newspaper  student newspaper does t belong to the students who Are Here today and gone tomorrow. It belongs to the school As a continuing institution if a principal wants to enforce an official school policy against smoking on school grounds hit authority ought not to be undermined by rebellious and insulting ridicule from a 16-year-old who thinks he is Horace Grce Lcy