Local labor leader defends Mondale
Endorsement reflects membership views
By Brooks Dareff
Of the Emerald
The AFL-CIO presidential en
dorsement of Walter Mondale last
month was not, "as the media
chose to view" it, a "choice from
on top," but was an accurate
reflection of membership senti
ment, Oregon AFL-CIO President
Erv Fletcher said Tuesday.
Fletcher reported on his trip to
the AFL-CIO national convention
during the weekly Lane Demo
Forum in Eugene's Bavarian
Restaurant.
Boasting a membership of 13.7
million, the largest union con
federation in the country, the AFL
CIO threw the full weight of its
1984 presidential support behind
democratic frontrunner Mondale
at its national convention in
Miami.
While the AFL-CIO endorsed
Mondale, Fletcher indicated they
would support whoever won the
democratic nomination.
"I think we would even support
the governor of Florida (Ruben
Askew) — and he's an avowed
right to work-er."
To prove that the AFL-CIO en
dorsement was representative of
membership, Fletcher detailed the
efforts the organization went
through to guarantee the
statistical significance of its
membership poll. Fletcher said
the AFL-CIO queried 23 percent of
its membership, or 3.5 million
people. He contrasted this with
i
national pollsters, who he said
take a nationwide sample of
"maybe 1,500, 2,000 persons of the
more than 220 million."
The membership poll was taken
nationally for each union, such as
the woodworkers or
metalworkers, rather than
statewide, so Fletcher said he
didn't know how the Oregon
membership voted.
Fletcher said the unions who
have endorsed Mondale are not
special interests, but represent a
aggressive as I'd like" in vocaliz
ing opposition to Pres. Ronald
Reagan's invasion of Grenada,
Fletcher said he feels Mondale is
the best candidate available.
To back this up, Fletcher refer
red to Mondale's longtime profes
sional, personal and philosophical
association with liberal standard
bearer Hubert Humphrey, who
ran unsuccessfully as the
democratic nominee against
Richard Nixon in 1968.
According to the AFL-CIO, Mon
'While we endorsed Walter Mondale.. .the
theme in Florida was anybody but Reagan'
Oregon AFL-CIO Pres. Erv Fletcher
significant proportion of the U.S.
population.
"To those from both parties
who have been spitting and moan
ing that Mondale has been secur
ing the support of the special in
terests, 13.7 million (people) is not
a special interest."
The endorsement of Mondale
was "in no sense a repudiation of
the other candidates," said
Fletcher.
While "we endorsed Walter
Mondale.. .the theme in Florida
was anybody but Reagan," he
said.
"I'd be comfortable with Jesse
Jackson," he added.
While Mondale is "maybe not as
dale voted "correctly" in the
Senate 93 percent of the time on
labor issues like job safety and
health. Mondale left his Min
nesota seat in 1976, when he ran
successfully for the vice-pres
idency.
Fletcher said the Mondale peo
ple have not yet put together a
campaign committee in Oregon,
which has a primary in May next
year. They are concentrating their
efforts in states like New Hamp
shire, New York and Iowa, where
primaries occur much earlier.
Campaign organizers may be
estimating the nomination may
already be sewn up by May, he
said.
Emerald photo
Erv Fletcher, Oregon president of AFL-CIO, says his organiza
tion's endorsement of Mondale accurately represents the think
ing of membership.
Emerald photo
Pres. Paul Olum visited universities during his re
cent trip to Japan.
Hiroshima, colleges
highlight Olum's visit
By loan Hetman
Of the Emtud
On a typical day, Paul Olum can walk through campus
with little, if any, fanfare. Few students give a respectful
nod or friendly wave when they see the University's presi
dent approach — perhaps because few recognize him.
Such was not the case during his recent goodwill trip
to |apan, where Olum was given "the royal treatment" by
his courteous Japanese hosts.
After being prompted by several University pro
fessors to reciprocate many visits by Japanese delegations
to Eugene, Olum decided to make the voyage — but not
without some "trepidation" on his part, he says.
"I don't speak the language at all and everything in
Japan is in Japanese," Olum says in his Johnson Hall of
fice. "I wasn't sure how it (the trip) could be pulled off.
"As a matter of fact," the president says, "It turned
out to be absolutely magnificent. It was just wonderful. I
'It was remarkable to see how built
up (Hiroshima) is. It's a totally
modern, rebuilt city'
— Paul Olum
had a marvelous time. I thought from the professional
point of view it was far better than I'd hoped it would be,
and from the personal point of view it was terrific."
The professional aspects of Olum's trip entailed
visiting university after university throughout Tokyo and
neighboring cities, which gave the American professor in
sight into the Japanese educational system.
On a more personal note, Olum traveled 650 miles
from Tokyo to visit Hiroshima, sight of the 1945 atomic
bombing by American military forces.
The journey held a personal interest for Olum. In
1943, Olum interrupted his graduate studies in physics at
Princeton University to work on the Manhattan Project in
Los Alamos, N. M.
Alongside the world's leading scientists, the 25-year
old Olum helped construct the world's first atomic bomb.
University prof. Aaron Novick, who now heads the
biology department, also worked on the Manhattan
Project.
"It was very moving and very disturbing," Olum says
of Hiroshima.
The atomic bomb, which was dropped on the large ci
ty in 1945, leveled Hiroshima for miles around, he says.
Nothing was left standing.
Nearly 40 years later, Olum was surprised at what he
found there.
"It was remarkable to see how built up (Hiroshima) is.
It's a totally modern, rebuilt city. You would never know
what happened."
Except one place, he adds.
"Right under ground zero (the point of the bomb's
detonation) they left one building standing. This one
building, made of concrete and steel, was very tough. It
was just devastated except for steel girders, which formed
a dome, and some pieces of the building below."
The Japanese people deliberately left that one
building standing as a reminder of the bombing, Olum
says. Then they built a peace park around it, filled with
statues and monuments.
One particularly moving monument, Olum says, was
built in memory of a young Japanese girl. The girl was two
years old when the bomb was dropped, he says. Ten years
later, she died from radiation poisoning, or what the
Japanese call "atomic bomb disease."
Today the monument is surrounded by thousands of
colorful cranes, made from folded paper and placed there
in accordance with an old Japanese myth.
According to the myth, if ill people each make a thou
sand cranes in time, they won't die. The girl had tediously
folded more than 700 cranes before she died, Olum says.
Her death made national news and today children come
from all over Japan to leave personally folded cranes on
her monument.
"I don't see how you can help feeling a sense of some
guilt and responsibility for the whole thing. It concerns
me a lot," Olum says.
Olum has other memories of Japan as well.
The bulk of his 12-day trip was spent in visiting the
country's lavishly funded universities. What Japanese
universities lack in prestige — compared with their
American counterparts — they more than make up for in
funding, he says.
At Waseda University — the self-proclaimed "Har
vard" of Japanese universities — Olum chatted with the
University's American exchange students, who are spen
ding the year studying abroad.
Olum also discussed with his Japanese counterparts
plans for establishing exchange programs at other
Japanese universities, including Tokyo's Aoyamagakuim
University, where 15 University students will study in
1984-85.
Olum professor dined on a typical Japanese dinner of
raw fish at a sushi bar. "Wonderful food," he said sincere
ly. He even learned to be "fairly fast with the chopsticks."
And whenever he rode Tokyo subways, American
rock-and-roll blared in the background.