European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 6, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday january 6, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 William f. Buckle Yit s no Small wonder commentary if Yeltsin is confused ifs Cine fix a 9 i a a a a a a a a a a it v. Tai. A tax vap a Kwh a a a v. Vas a ftlt4fc.it Ift Jfe amp 4a a n Fca-ft4t s -5 amp amp a a Safe adasm a a a a a Quot Ltd a Kamus \ mow Hun pro a Kiuon a amp pcs md6ctthemessa6eto Congress Nocan Twwila s Ono rower the tensions politics is. Economics Are wonderfully revealing at this moment with the primary tension going on in the former soviet Union. William Safire wrote a splendid prescient column the Day before Boris Yeltsin took Russia away from wage Price controls. What he said was that television viewers and Many readers would hear Only howls of protest and these have come in very loud and very Clear. One television Channel showed a Middle aged Man telling the world How much better life in Russia was 10 years ago. If you live in sing sing you done to need to worry about getting enough food is one Way of putting it. Those of us who Are tempted to be patronizing about the self evident ignorance of the russian people of the principles of the marketplace should reflect on our own ignorance. New yorkers Are very nearly As mutinous As muscovites Over a Rise in the subway fare from $1.15 to $1.25. New yorkers should know that High prices tend to happen when a facility is run by the Public sector. But even though capitalism in America is As old As anywhere in the world there is an entirely insignificant lobby in new York City arguing for privatizing the subways. And of course muscovites need to learn that privatizing agriculture is indispensable to plenty. They could buy their potatoes a lot cheaper 10 years ago a if they could find any which they sometimes could do after waiting in line for an hour or two. What no one can say is How much Yeltsin can take. Granted his training in the soviet Union accustom him to an orderly relationship Between the rulers and the ruled the former gives orders the latter follows them. But having injected perestroika Yeltsin will have to acknowledge that Public sentiment is much More important than it used to be. Indeed it was Public sentiment that kept him from getting shot last August. And he knows enough he is surrounded by advisers on this Point to know that he needs very quickly to privatize agriculture before the people can reap the great Harvest of free farming. But there Isnit anything in capitalism that will make a potato grow faster than it is accustomed to growing. So the question arises How much time does Yeltsin have the contrast is especially piquant at this historical moment because at the other end of the world was George Bush president of the bastion of world capitalism and Bush was explaining or rather trying to explain to australians who would like to have a Chance to Market their agricultural products in the United states Why the United states has so Providenty looked after our Farmers giving them huge subsidies which Are the equivalent of a Tariff Wall against foreign imports of food. The reason Bush gave was that this is the Only Way we can protect the Farmers from the enormous subsidies the farming fraternity receives in Europe where said the president a subsidies Are 10 times higher than in the United one Hopes Yeltsin Wasny to listening to that broadcast because it would then be his Challenge to understand the capitalist syllogism As follows 1 food becomes cheap and abundant to the extent the government gets out of the act. 21 government gets into the act in Europe. 3 therefore the government should get into the act in America. These Are obscurities Yeltsin should be shielded from before he goes crazy with frustration. On the other hand he will feel even intuitively the political Point. Bush is quoted in his interview with David Frost to have said that he would a do anything to e one Hopes that he meant by that that the would do anything to be re elected consistent with the principles of the Republican party. But then there is the current difficulty in knowing exactly what Are the principles of the Republican party these Days. Some of the platitudes of liberalism arc going to have one hell of a workout in the Days ahead. Give me Liberty or give me death. In Algeria having fought free from the French who gave algerians pretty Good government for Over a Hundred year the people were instantly taken in hand by a dictator. He was followed by a second dictator. Suddenly the reins relaxed and there was a free election and a fundamentalist muslims arc threatening to come in and after Jan. 16 it looks As though the ladies will be shrouded up and nobody will be free to drown his or her sorrow in wine lest they get their hands chopped off. So what Are they protesting in Algeria these Days democracy. Done to blame Yeltsin if he is confused As he leads his great country to democracy and capitalism. C ural dorsal Pross Syndicate Ernest b. Furgurson nifty Book bails out columnist on Rainy Day after intruding on the breakfasts of innocent people for years i Hap ened too late upon a second hand ook titled How to write columns. I bought it and stuck it on the shelf for a Rainy Day which has come. Olin e. Hinkle of the University of Texas and John m. Henry of the Des Moines Register and Tribune offered their advice to would be columnists in 1952 via the Iowa state College press so it has a Down to Earth touch. They open with suggestions about column titles for example roaming the Range Farmer pecks wife rambling roses and flying bricks and the office cat. They have a chapter on style a and the Light touch. It notes that As of �?T52, a for reasons too involved to discuss fully Here Young women often object to being called a Good it is the adjective which even before the great enlightenment our authors consciousness had been raised so High that they worked in a Section on women As columnists. They list women a interests As suitable subjects for women columnists 1. Engagements and marriages 2. Household management 3. Beauty care 4. Fashions 5. Rearing of children 6. Health and safety 7. Clean government and Good moral conditions 8. Women a clubs and organizations 9. Entertainment and recreation 10. Public welfare 11. Religion and 12. Education. Without comment i move on to the chapter on the paragraph which Means the column in which single Snappy paragraphs try to convey Complete thoughts. Example a rubbing elbows with a Man will reveal things about him you never suspected. So will rubbing that Gem from the Grimes Iowa news made me regret that i had not turned to Hinkle and Henry on earlier Rainy Days of which there have been plenty. I could have profited from their advice on developing a column personality and on the use of anecdotes essays and verse a for instance this modest offering from the Lebanon Ohio Star a i hate to see a Puppy a Tail with nothing much to measure for what is there for him to use to indicate his pleasure a but everyone who has spent time on the Squirrel wheel called a column will recognize that All the foregoing is just wrapping for the hard Core for what sounds Fike the most valuable Rainy Day present conceivable a one Hundred column ideas. Helpful As this sounds the chapter is a letdown to anyone facing deadlines because the list implies thought perhaps even work before writing. Except for a few samples in an appendix Hinkle and Henry Are too shrewd to flesh out ideas they themselves might have to fall Back on some Day. No. 1 a departments. Some writers classify materials by divisions or labels. Examples Edge of the seat department room for research department a did Bridge drive men to Golf or did Golf drive women to Bridge a no. 9. A the weather. Columnists who neglect it do so at a sacrifice in Reader interest no. 12. no. 99. A exaggeration. Some popular writers attend picnics and then report on them like this a the most delicious Basket lunches in the world Are served by those wonderful wonderful women of the Blank it does not seem to matter that similar adjectives Are handed another group a week later. But the writers appreciation must be regarded As and finally no. 100. A Candor a without Benefit of Hinkle and Henry i was naive enough to try that one first. I started in High school with a Iive talk record column called a Reet no Sweet and a heavily Walter Winchell influenced Effort called sport scoop. Then i did one called in this Comer in my Hometown sem weekly. After a Long Detour into straight news i started offering my opinion in the Baltimore Sun 23 years ago. I have tried Candor exaggeration the weather and poetry. I have even tried to seem sincere when offering apologies. As regular readers will agree i still Navens to got it. Had i opened Hinkle and Henry much sooner no doubt i would have soared higher. But my failure has not been from Lack of study. Its hard to believe but i have read even More columns than i have written enough to know a Good one when i see it. C the Baltimore Sun
