Emerald
Vol 81. No 2
Eugene. Oregon 97403
Thursday, June 21, 1979
Draft bill moves quietly through Congress
By SALL Y HODGKINSON
Of the Emerald
Draft registration is quietly — and
sometimes secretly — making its way
through the U S Congress
On June 7. the U S Senate Subcom
mittee for Manpower and Personnel ap
proved 5-3, in secret session, the regis
tration of all males 18-26 years old start
ing next January Four days later, the
Senate Armed Services Committee
approved the same registration package
12-5
On the other side of Congress, in the
House, an amendment to the Defense
Department authorization bill that
provides for registration of all
18-year-old males beginning in January
1981 rests in the House Rules Committee
after being approved by the House
Armed Services Committee
The rules committee will decide
whether registration should be included
as part of the authorization bill or treated
as a separate issue
‘ It's pretty much a foregone conclu
sion that the rules committee can’t beat it
because they don't have enough votes.”
says Dave Isenberg of the University
Veterans Association (UVA) and the
Coalition Opposing Registration and the
Draft (CORD)
Although John Lawrence, president of
the UVA, says the chances for passage
of any form of draft registration have
narrowed from a sure bet to a 50-50 bet
due largely to anti-draft forces, he adds
that the public isn’t aware of what's
going on
'The public isn’t informed or doesn’t
care," he says "This thing is not going to
go away We re going to be faced with
this for a long time. If it (draft registration)
fails this year, it will come back stronger
than ever next year.”
Lawrence predicts that draft registra
tion probably won't be voted on in the
Senate or the House floor until early July.
Opponents of draft registration, in
cluding Rep Jim Weaver, D-Ore., say the
military is gearing up for intervention in
the Persian Gulf to secure oil imports.
“We re looking at 1980 as the year of
mobilization and 1981 as the year the
military will make their move,’’ says Law
rence, noting that the military is already
beginning to recall retired officers
For more information about draft
registration call the UVA at 686-4098 or
CORD at 344-0009.
This little girl's mother won t have to worry about her popping a Captan- or
Benomyl-coated strawberry in her mouth while picking for the family the freezer
arns
reserves A federal court judge recently ruled that children under 12 can tpick on fields
sprayed with the toxicants, but most area U-Pick farmers don 't use the chemicals.
Lane berry growers won’t suffer from labor ruling
By KEVIN HARDEN
01 the Emerald
A Court ruling that will keep
10 and 11-year-old strawberry
pickers out of the fields this
summer may be causing prob
lems in other parts of the state,
but Lane County berry growers
won't feel the pinch, says Craig
Wiggert of the Lane County Ex
tension Service
None of the county growers
whose berries are used for
processing commercially now
hire 10 or 11-year-old children
to pick the strawberries during
June and July, Wiggert says.
“Most of them only use the older
kids, from about 12 years-old
and up "
A San Francisco federal
-
r
judge ordered an injunction
against strawberry growers hir
ing the younger children June
14 after the U S Labor Depart
ment and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) dis
covered the possiblity that two
fungi-pesticides used on the
fields — Captan and Benomyl —
could cause mutations or
cancer in the younger pickers
Tests conducted by the labor
department have shown Captan
can be carcinogenic when han
dled and Benomyl can be toxic.
The ruling was greeted with
anger from nearly all strawberry
growers in Oregon and Wa
shington Oregon Farm Bureau
spokeswoman Beth Caster said
June 15 the ruling will have
“disastrous" effects on the
strawberry harvest this year,
which could mean a $4 million
loss to nearly half of the state's
berry crop
During a federal hearing on
the findings last month, FDA
lawyers argued that the pes
ticides could cause not only
cancer, but also mutations in
children under 12 years old. A
Seattle federal judge did not
accept the findings and allowed
the children to continue picking
until his ruling was overturned
last week.
Although the court’s ruling
allowed 12-year-old children to
harvest the berries, that age was
set after tests by the Environ
mental Protection Agency
Showed the fungicides to re
semble drugs that caused fetus
defects in the 1950s, says EPA
representative Michael Watson
Children younger than 12 years
old have not yet developed im
munities to the chemicals, he
says
Berry growers who normally
hire the 10 and 11-year-old chil
dren can apply for a waiver of
the injunction if their crops are
in danger of not being harvest
ed. Wiggert says, but so far only
three Lane County growers
have applied for the waiver.
‘‘The whole thing is just so
asinine,” he says. “Captan s
been used for about 30 years
without any of the problems the
FDA is talking about."
Wiggert says the FDA is “just
speculating” about the
chemicals and no real proof has
been made about the
chemicals' danger
“There are so many problems
with this ruling There is so
much confusion, I don't think
anyone knows what is going on.
But the people who really get hit
by this ruling are the growers.”
Most of the strawberries
grown in the county are sold to
private pickers who take advan
tage of the U-pick season, with
only about 40 acres set aside for
commercial processing, Wig
gert says. Most U-pick growers
also do not use the chemicals
during the harvest season, he
says.
today
The new Willie Knickerbocker
Bike bridge spans the Willamette
River near Judkins Point, but there
are a tew bugs in it that Lane County
and City of Eugene officials are try
ing to iron out See story page 8.
A Women s Studies certificate
has been given, for the first time in
University history, to a man He ex
plains his thoughts, reactions and
reasons for completing the interdis
ciplinary program on page 3.
Why did 41 Sperm Whales
beach themselves on the South Jetty
of the Suislaw River near Florence?
A team of scientist, including volun
teers from the American Spciety
Mammalogists, are trying to an
that question See story page 4,