WGBH Journal; Local Impact Of Coal Strike, Sarah Caldwell, Nutrition For Children, Louis Lyons

Good afternoon and welcome to GBH Journal. I'm Bill cavernous. There are three interviews on The Journal today to begin with. One with an economist who discusses the local impact of the coal strike and on the Sarah Caldwell the artistic director of the Opera Company of Boston and then one with a nutritionist to provide some information about getting kids to eat foods which are good for them. And the clothes we'll have Louis Lyons who will comment on the news. The gold strike in this country lasted for almost four months and the striking miners returned to work on Monday people began to assess the impact which the strike would have. Datasource incorporated in Lexington the largest economic research and consulting firm in the

country. And lately they've made a concentrated effort to study the effect of the strike. Dr Dr Otto Eckstein of Harvard University is the founder of datasource incorporated. He spoke with reporter John Frieden brag about the strike and discussed whether its impact will reach New England. It was 110 days before most miners went back to work Monday. How long do you predict it will take before the coal industry is back to full operational order. And how did this affect the country and how will this affect the country as far as the economy is concerned and the use of energy is concerned. Let's start first with the question about how long do you think it will take before the industry is back to full operational order. Well the industry is never back at full operating order because there has been industrial ations trouble in his industry for years. There were wildcat strikes all through recent years particularly in 1977 and even though the the basic contract is now settled and the the

pay and the fringe benefits are known there will continue to be local troubles. This is a very difficult situation and the union is not really able to lead its members the members are disgruntled with management and the fact that this is an industry which has a really an almost unique poor industrial relations situation casts a lot of doubt on the energy strategy that we have adopted the president's program bets very heavily on the increase coal production to substitute for imported oil and for a fading gas and. He wants that cold to come from the east where it comes out of the pit mines rather than out of the strip mines of the West. Well we have now seen for the last year and most of it early in the strike that there was eastern coal mines I just a mess. There really is no no practical alternative to utilizing the enormous coal resources that we have in a strip mining form to keep one other thing in mind too. We know that our gas fields are gradually being exhausted our oil fields and so you know if you think it through since we have that energy

crisis four years ago we have raised our oil imports by 50 percent. We have raised our dependence on those foreign sources by that much. We are increasingly vulnerable politically. You just can't rest an industrial society and that kind of insecure supply. So what I think I hear you saying that is the tradeoff for freedom from foreign imports is possibly on the strip the land I mean I'm not defending the land. Well you've got to do. Is to use the laws and institutions that we've built up more effectively so that in fact you can get both safe nuclear power and strip mining which is followed by meaningful reconstruction of the land. Well that would be my final question on this point can we be assured that we will have meaningful reconstruction when there is no way to know anything for sure in this world. You're always running risks. I think the risks on those Western valleys are less than the risks of our dependence on OpEx.

Let's talk about the economic facts how do you feel the strikes going to affect us economically. It's an inflationary element the probably the cost effect on a ton of steel is somewhere between four and six dollars. The $4 is pretty much the first year in fact with a settlement is very expensive at the beginning. The second and third year course isn't quite so bad. So and of course it will have some impact on coal prices generally. But you know that isn't going to add as much as a tenth of a point to the inflation rate in the economy there are much bigger issues on inflation. I mean for us including the new agricultural price of war and acreage reduction programs in the Congress and also the big increase in Social Security taxes. The. The extra month of the strike Rand did not lead to serious dislocations it turned out that the utilities bought a lot of power in Canada Ontario Hydro. They used some gas and oil generators also outside of the area

and shipped that electricity into the affected states so the industrial cutbacks were limited to relatively few utilities mainly in Virginia and Maryland. But if the strike had gone on for another month those industrial cutbacks would have had to occur. And then by golly you would have had unemployment in the three quarter million range rather quickly and if it got on another month it would have been in the millions as the administration kind of threatened just to bring it home to our listeners here how is the coal strike or is the coal strike going to affect New England while New England is home free now and now that it's settled we are quite far removed from it if it had gone long enough there would have been some movement of power of some in some quantity from here to that area they would not have hurt as much anyway. But we use very little coal. We mainly rely on imported oil. Well are we again. Are we going to feel the effects of the rising cost of steel I know you said that the inflationary factor compared to other place Neri factors really isn't going to be terribly significant.

But in general are are we in New England going to feel other industries raising their prices will raise our cost of living by a tenth of a point or so through the higher price of steel which goes in the cans and cars and anything you know engines. And of course. Electricity itself economy wide will be up a little bit and that'll spread into our electricity rates vary slightly also. Well then I guess Bostonians should worry because according to the last report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston continues to have the highest cost of living in the country now their figures are being updated. But could you give me a ballpark figure of how much more you think will see our prices rise while the inflation rate quite independent. The Cole matter has been around 6 percent. There's a new consumer price index out today which actually came out rather moderate considering the tremendous run up in farm prices that has just occurred. It was up six tenths of a point which is actually a 7 8 percent annual rate. We think the inflation rate will stay in a six to six now after sandy area for a long list of reasons. And

Boston won't be any different than any place else. Now. Sara Caldwell is the founder and artistic director of the upper A Company of Boston which celebrated its 20th anniversary with performances of Bendigo says opera the demolition of Faust. Opera as a profession has only recently been in existence in this country and according to Sara Caldwell financial support for opera and for all access to professions has been one of the major problems which she has faced in her career. She spoke about this problem and reflected on her own career in an interview with reporter Nadine Dukat. What were your goals when you started.

To find a way to make an opera company take root in the city and to in a sense if we could not help build a profession that barely existed since that time when an incredible group of performing organizations in this country. And today there are over a hundred and many many other organizations that do things. Sporadic basis so was to encourage others more than to create something for yourself. Oh not at all I think it was to create something for ourselves and we were the same. That was the primary objective. We were at the same time aware that we lived in interesting and unusual times at all times but that our profession did not really exist in this country and it is so we have 2 for. Chamakh. One is to create something for ourselves as a means of

artistic expression and the other is to try to find where the equally creative to make economics work in our system so that that the economics do not yet work in our system. That's what they're working much better than them better and better and I do believe that they will. Before too long. There will be a situation in which people can work in the arts without having to present it to such an extent on financial problems. How exactly was the one going to more money. I think that that our problems are becoming more and more clear to the general public I think if that that most people this controversy pathetic they want to have a lively life in the arts. They want their children to be able to be singers or dancers or from players or conductors or whatever painters and there were two of them so I

won't have to experience for themselves of that and so the fruits of the country's cultural heritage which we all share. They were two of the best I think that becoming aware that the best can come only if there are funds made from Best available to everyone. That I was asked to come from a much larger measure of government support from support from corporations foundations businesses as well as individuals. How the artistic goals changed since you began or have their Gurus I don't think you change maybe perceptions of the way to achieve or that we've found that certain things that we thought might get us to these goals didn't work as well as we hoped. Repped simple fact is that what we wanted when we started out was to have the time to work going to production until it represented at that moment the

best we could do at the moment but would never achieve that. But what have you achieved. Instead. We have weather the circumstances. And at that moment I think the best that we could do and the major problem was to have the wit to change the circumstances. What does it take in general to keep an opera company alive or to to make it grow the way you need it grass. I think the arts institutions in America exist because a few people will them to exist any number of times and the course of the life of every morsel it could have stopped in front of one of the wayside but there we have been fortunate to have been or was one or two or three people that were determined that the weather what that would not happen. These people are not just people on artistic.

And professional but these are basically the people on the board of trustees who are the president. Christie in truth is particularly interested in what we're doing who. Simply are determined to keep it going. And in a sense they are the most important people we have when in reality they are the more people we have. So it's I was money that comes out. Morning does have a way of coming up in the arts because money will he when you think of giving money to opera. I don't know what image you have maybe it's giving money for. Blue or curtains but the reality is money to pay musicians want to play singers carpenters painters people who make scenery designers. And. These people must have enough money to live in it. Inflation is what the rest of the world so it is hit. Reform your own you cannot birth the creativity or the dedication of any artist. I don't let you

give up hope for but each artist is first with the problem of having to survive although he was for the road to earn money to do that and he can. If we cannot provide the money. For him to live decently and he'll have to do twenty or thirty other things in order to form with us. And that is the thing that creates really in order and an unreasonable pressure. With. Providing proper nutrition in children's diets can be quite an ordeal for those responsible for children's meals. Which are highly nutritious are often not

the most appealing to eat. Judith Martin works in the department of nutrition and food Sciences at MIT. She spoke with David Freiberg and provide some useful tips about ensuring proper nutrition for children of various age groups. It's very typical to find two or three or four year olds living for weeks and sometimes months on one or two foods a slice of cheese a half a piece of toast maybe a slice of apple and an oatmeal cookie. It's very hard for the mother to get into this child all the nutrients a child needs without resorting to some subterfuge. Take the oatmeal cookie for example. If you make the oatmeal cookies or if you buy an oatmeal cookie mix when you are mixing up the batter you can add evaporated milk which provides the nutrients in milk such as calcium and riboflavin and vitamin D in a concentrated form. You can add a little bit of wheat germ to the spatter. We germ is a wonderful source of some of the nutrients that I'm sure your toddler

is not getting such as zinc and folic acid and Vitamin B6. You can throw in a few extra raisins a very good source of copper. And if your toddler isn't that worried about the color of the oatmeal cookie you even can put some shredded carrots in. How about the child who can't wait till dinner time and becomes a nuisance I know many mothers have a tendency kind of to pacify the child give him or her a cookie. One thing the mother can do is to spend a couple of days writing down everything her child is eating. Of course it may not be very much but in particular when her child tends to be most hungry she may find that her child really wants to eat. At times a don't coincide with meal time three o'clock in the afternoon 10 o'clock in the morning if she can anticipate these times she can then get into her child the foods that she ordinarily would be feeding him at meal time. A baked potato a scrambled egg a half a cup a yogurt and certainly a child whose stomach is very small and interest in food very limited will respond much better to

food when he's hungry than when he sat down in front of the meat in front of the table and told to eat. Let's talk about elementary school aged children. This represents the advent of what you call independent eating. A lot of eating takes place at school when you can't really know for sure whether anything was eaten or how much or what was traded for baseball cards. How can parents best guide the eating of children in this group. If the mother is sympathetic I think that together with the school age child she can find out when he's most hungry. And the kinds of foods he would like to eat when he wants to eat. Many many school age children eat their major meal of the day around three o'clock in the afternoon when they come home from school. It usually is their first meal of the day unless they stop at a candy bar on the way home from school or even going to school. Let the mother have a meal components or come home. It's of the meal in the refrigerator or in easily obtainable

form in the kitchen so that when the child gets home he could have a second or indeed a first lunch make an extra sandwich have some tuna for salad or egg salad in bowls in the refrigerator make extra food the night before so the child can help himself the leftovers which usually tastes better than the day after when he comes home from school without any trouble or even have jars of peanut butter or soup or yogurt or rounds of the child can open something up really fast and eat foods containing nutrients when he's hungry rather than grabbing the first bag of potato chips or corn chips that he sees. The stern to the teenager wear a different factor comes into play that is the eating styles of peers. A lot of mobile teenagers find themselves at fast food chains gobbling down food with low or no nutrients. Do you have any suggestions for supplementing those diets.

This is much more difficult. The parent is also not considered a source of advice or information at this age so that one can only work indirectly by providing food rather than talking about it. That's right the mother can assume the teenager is going to drink soda on his own. There is no reason to bring soda into the house. She should instead have plenty of milk available. She also going to assume the teenager is not going to be eating fruits and vegetables or not very frequently when he's away from the home. They're not sold in vending machines. You don't find broccoli in a vending machine and most don't contain even oranges. Make sure the refrigerator is filled with fruits. Offer vegetables and forms of salads or other except of vegetables as frequently as possible. If your son or daughter won't eat cooked vegetables at home take them out to a Chinese restaurant he'll probably eat them there. If the teenager is into health foods the mother can do her best by having them around the house. She can buy granola. She can buy some of the snacks that are sold

both in supermarkets and in health food stores that consist of sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds dried fruits nuts. She can encourage the eating of yogurt which is an awfully good substitute for milk if the teenager is not going to be drinking milk and she can cooperate with him in experimenting on some That's a new vegetarian dishes that might combine certain kinds of beans and grains. My only reservation is making sure that the mother and the teenager know what they're doing if they're switching from traditional foods to let's say a vegetarian type diet. There are a lot of books on the market which tell you how to eat well if you're not eating animal products or cutting down on animal products before making a police switch do some reading. President Carter's recent activities during his trip abroad and his newly announced urban policy

focus lines commentary from today the report of the consumer price rises in February tells us what we found out for ourselves that prices are continually going up at an even faster rate than last year. The rise has been greatest in foods one point two percent for the month. Overall a 4 percent rise in beef in one month and with the prospect of more to come the Senate has voted a big rise in price support for grain growers. The high visibility of the food price advances deepens the national mood of taking inflation for granted. The rate of inflation increases even as the administration talks about seeking restraints in wage and price advances. But it hasn't so far seen where to begin. There are rows about one president made a point of showing the flag he sent the Navy around the world a power play. President Carter's tag is a little different. He's visiting developing countries to show an interest. Actually three of the four countries on his tour are

among the more developed of the developing countries and the more prosperous Venezuela and Nigeria enjoy boom economies because of their oil. They're among the chief suppliers of oil of the United States. Brazil still has a great part of the South American continent to develop. The president needed to pay a courtesy call on Brazil because he gave that government a lecture on human rights. That was sharply resented. Liberia just happens to be along the way a kind of often child United States adopted long ago and hasn't done much to develop since. Venezuela and Nigeria are strategic. As President Carter told the Venezuelan Congress today that they must share with the United States the load and the leadership of a new world order that he called for inventing it to come of all these world conferences for a more just and rational economic relations. Those two countries would be balancing elements. Nigeria is about the most stable and

self-sufficient state in the continent of dangerous instability. These four visits are unfinished business the president set out to visit 11 countries last winter but he cut the trip short at 7:00 the times were not propitious when energy the worldwide concern the American Congress had not produced an energy program with the industrial world in recession. The state of American recovery was uncertain. America has not yet found the answer to either problem. But in Venezuela the two presidents get together yesterday had so few difficulties that Mr. Carter said we will try hard tomorrow to find some differences to turn to like the press. The president added to the warmth of his welcome by making his opening speeches in Spanish that he started with Mrs. Carter. After going to bed. Americans are always amazed that any American politician speaks any language but his own. And it's assumed that any visitor of importance will be speaking in English. President Kennedy made an

international hit by using four words or German in West Berlin. It's been like Berlin in his case as in Jimmy Carter's the message to his hosts was that he cared. The Carter administration announces plans to make our cities mall of about after a year of studying ways to deal with a deteriorating city life. It's programmed spell such comprehensive and detailed proposals as to be and adjustable to the layman. A turning point for us it is the president proclaims the gist of it all is to contain the said it to restore its vitality that's been so largely drained away to expanding suburbs to stem the sprawl while seeking urban revival. This means using incentives to get business and industry expanded within the cities to make jobs to improve the quality of city living by developing or restoring facilities and parks to strengthen neighborhoods. The president would create a national development bank to finance urban rehabilitation. A big

part of his program aims at not doing the wrong things. His hundred sixty proposed corrections of government process is how to meet what he calls the greatest flaw in past federal policy that too many of the programs didn't work. He would require that every program be reviewed to make sure it's not going to do more harm than good. Even with hospitable congressional action the aim as the president says is long term and essential is to get people to believe in it and not have to elect city officials who can be trusted to work at it. The stubbornly prolonged Kull strike is shot and interest in the issue whether strikers may collect unemployment insurance. The Supreme Court will hear a case next time that was raised before the call strike. But the issue is never had Supreme Court decision. State laws vary half a dozen or so allow payment of benefits to strikers. Massachusetts is one. New York Michigan Wisconsin and three call Area states Pennsylvania Illinois Indiana. The case against

paying strikers is that it makes the employer pay for his own strikes for only employers contribute to state unemployment insurance fines. The argument that the state should be notes well is met with the claim that strikers families are the victims of a long strike that exhausted union funds. The case the court will take up illustrates the controversy. New York law allows payment of benefits after seven weeks of strike a telephone strike was ended nationally the first week but it was dragged out in New York for 30 weeks. And your telephone company took to the courts to recover the 49 million is this cost it in unemployment fund payments. But the only issue of the Supreme Court will take up is the constitutionality of such state laws whether federal Labor policy has preempted the area. Before Wednesday the twenty ninth of Mike's 1978 that's GBH Journal the regional news magazine

heard Monday through Friday at 4:30. Producer and editor for the series of Niger herds today's engineer Perry Carter and I'm Bill gammas. Here's wishing you a wonderful Wednesday.