WGBH Journal; Should Massachusetts Legislature Be Full-time, Huge Instant Polaroid Camera, Louis Lyons

The position is taking an ever increasing amount of time I think much of the time is wasted it's inefficient and I have a serious question in my mind as to whether or not I should continue to be part of a institution which does demand so much time when in fact it really isn't that necessary at all. This sheer magnitude of of feeling a part of print for example in the US in the small full of color to material that people normally are used to you can yank it apart with your hands. It takes two people to pull this thing apart. This week has been a very bad show for the American dollar abroad. It found a record new

lows in terms of German and Swiss currency down a quarter but now it's nine hundred seventy five value in German my 50 percent below its 1960 value. Welcome to the journal I'm Bill Gavin. The question of whether the Massachusetts legislators should meet Iran. A camera which can make life sized reproductions. And a look at the week's news from the lines. The three features on today's edition of GBH Journal. Massachusetts is one of the very few states in the country where the legislature which often meets all

year long. And last year a court reform bill died in the Senate. When the clock struck midnight in the legislative session came to a close. But despite the state government's inability to deal with all the bills which come its way several people legislators among them feel that the sections of the state legislature should be shorter. Thank you bangs explored some of the arguments surrounding this issue. And has this report. Some people are unhappy with the trend in Massachusetts toward a full time legislature. This year the Massachusetts legislature has theoretically been in session for two months but has voted on only one item. Snow removal funds the California state legislature which represents a population almost triple that of Massachusetts made for fewer months than we do. And Texas with a population double our size meets only once every other year. And then for only four and a half months. But many legislators feel that in an industrial state government has more problems is more complex and demands a full time legislature. Senator Allen McKinnon a Democrat from Weymouth

explains why. A large industrial states require a full time legislature you have so many complex problems to deal with unemployment. Environmental Affairs economic development transportation. Just so many issues that a profound problem of no fault insurance or our car insurance in general. It's a four and a half billion dollar budget. Legislators could spend a good five a year just trying to fathom the myriad items that are in the budget. There's a myriad of questions that again are complex and demand. I think full time professional legislature is the term professional which rankles those who prefer a part time legislature. The argument focuses on two problems. First should office holders be professional career politicians or should they be average citizens from all walks of life. And second should office holders receive salaries soley from the state or be able to earn outside

income on their own. Senator David Locke a Republican from Wellesley explains why he believes that elected officials should be citizen legislators from all walks of life and not professional full time politicians make one of the benefits of a citizen legislature is that members come from all walks of life. We will have businessmen will have professional men will have housewives will have teachers and doctors and lawyers and orderly in various occupations that make up society. Each person will bring to the legislature their own expertise and background in their own field combined together we'll have a very broad spectrum of the experiences and different ideas. If on the other hand the state legislature is to become a fulltime institution then it seems to me you breed a separate the type of person the professional politician who perhaps is a principal concern is to stay in office to constantly be campaigning for

re-election to dream up ways to start new programs and build new empires and I think on balance that the the public will not be benefited and will be a far more expensive form of government. I think that it can be documented as a legislative sessions have increased in length the cost of government has just skyrocketed. Another problem is Senator Locke sees in the move toward a full time legislature is that representatives and senators would depend soley on their income from the state. Some groups concerned with ethics are already suggesting that an office holder may not earn outside income. Senator Locke feels this would create a less independent minded group of legislators. And when you make the legislature a full time institution and require members to have no other outside activities then each member becomes dependent upon the salary paid to the members of the legislature for his livelihood and I think this in the long run undermines his independence of judgment and I think that if members can have outside income properly

and wisely of course earned it that it preserves the degree of independence that is terribly important and the role of a legislator. How does relying upon one feller in the legislature make a person lose his independence of judgment committee chairmanships and positions in leadership now pay additional salaries. They were all appointed by the leadership in the legislature so that the leadership can control to some extent the votes of some members of the legislature merely because those members need that extra salary derived from a position of leadership or a chairmanship of a committee and consequently they don't have the same degree of independence that I think they should have. On the other hand Senator MacKinnon feels that having a group of part time legislators creates a different kind of conflict of interest. I feel that having part time legislators almost guarantees a built in conflict of interest because the part time

Fessenden would have another business which they would have an interest in. I've seen it happen numerous times in legislature where individuals be they law is our insurance man our teachers whomever. Have a slant and bias towards their particular business or profession. And I think this conflict is not in the best interest of the general public voting tends to be slanted in favor of the occupation where they make their main living. I think that having that type of a part time legislature almost automatically eliminates people from the economic categories of the day laborer the Ahly worker who cannot get a leave of absence probably from his job. It isn't like the Country Gentleman who can afford to take the time off of a business man it can leave his business because obviously it's his and he cannot use somebody else to run it for him.

But the day laborer are the worker. I can't do that so you eliminate certain categories of individuals from the political process and I don't think that's democratic and I don't think that makes for a why. Varied opinion making system. I think that the base pay of the legislator should be sufficient so that he doesn't have to worry about getting additional pay in a leadership leadership position in order to survive. But Senator Locke has other ideas he would like the sessions tightened up to run more efficiently. He has some suggestions which he feels would accomplish this. What I would recommend is that in the early weeks of each legislative session starting in January that the committees meet and hear their the bills that have been assigned to them as they have acted on bills and report them into the House or Senate for action then the legislative sessions would be increased and gradually the committee work would taper off in that way you would have the bills all heard very promptly and you would begin legislative

consideration of those proposals. I think that comfortably by the end of May we could accomplish the work of the legislature and we could poor old and if we did that not only would members then have time to devote to their own professions or businesses but you know a dition to that it would save millions and millions and millions of dollars in expenditures which you literally in some cases are projects dreamed up by a legislature that just sits around here trying to figure out ways to spend peoples money. It remains to be seen whether the Massachusetts legislature will try to shorten its year or whether it will continue its trend toward nonstop year long sessions. This is Peggy bangs. Posters have become a popular way of reproducing works of art and people can

afford an improved method of recreating their favorite masterpieces. There's a camera which can make life size color reproduction. Located in the converted storage room in one of the inner chambers of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the world's largest instant camera. The camera is an invention of the Polaroid Corp. in Cambridge and is large enough to seat several people within it. I recently visited the camera and taped this demonstration delivered by Victoria Lyon. Great. There. Was. A. Very. Serious. Debate calling it up to the ceiling to get it out of the way.

And it will be cut off in the back. But you're here now. Sense of. Material. Being. At the top of the school so as not to expose that you waste it like your own. And presto with three and a half by seven foot photo has been shot and fully developed the camera much like many of the art treasures housed by the museum is a one of a kind item it is capable of one to run representation of large works of art as well as detailed magnifications of small objects or limited areas of larger works. In terms of its physical makeup However the camera is just like any other Polaroid except that its larger Victoria Line explains the pull of color two material has been available for quite some time and the theory is still the same. It's the size that makes it quite different. And there are a whole new set of problems that come around logistic was when you get working with something that large.

What is on the problems. The sheer magnitude of of feeling a part of print for example in this in the small bowl of color to material that people normally are used to you can yank it apart with your hands. It takes two people to pull this thing apart and that has to be timed exactly because the length of the spread takes 17 seconds to go through the actual camera rollers and peeling it apart takes that long. But it actually is like a Polaroid picture with the same kind of backing same kind of backing exactly the same thing. Can you actually transport it or is it now like a a room of the museum. Its built into one of the old storage rooms at the museum. It is a prefab room designed so it is in theory portable but with all the big heavy equipment it's not something that one would move every afternoon Polaroids future plans for the camera include some industrial

uses although at present it is solely in the hands of the art historians. Museums curators have found it especially helpful in explaining certain aspects of the artworks on display without having to be present in the galleries themselves. Larry salmon is the curator of textiles at the museum. He put the camera to use this fall in a show entitled A medieval tapestry in sharp focus. He explained to me how the camera was useful in highlighting the details of one particular tapestry. You cannot show the public for instance the front and back side of a tapestry such as this on exhibition. It has to be strapped it has to be lined so that it can be supported and hangs safely. So you are limited to show one side or the other at most. But if you can show people the back side you can show the unfaded colors that are still there from the original and you can also not show them what repairs have been made what we were able to do with the camera was to take

photographs of the complete front and the complete back of this piece while it was not strapped in lined and through comparisons of these front and back details we were able to show certain dyes that had faded a great deal. Over 500 years there were many repairs that had to be made because holes that opened up in the tapestry and these don't necessarily show from the front side but it's interesting to note that they are there and you can see them in the back details. And it was these kinds of changes that we wanted to show the public. What other uses in the museum has this camera had. It's been used a fair amount already for what would normally have been enlarged color prints only. Of course the camera can take contact prints that are actual size up to say 7 feet by 3 feet approximately so that rather than having say a blowup of something for an exhibition you have an actual size print. Now the

reason this is good is that the actual size print does not lose any detail by being blown up and you don't blow up the paper stock that was printed on so that you don't get any kind of grain showing up. Also it's been used most recently I believe in the Monet exhibition to show in close detail some of the brush strokes of the painter and also to show the painting before and during conservation to show the changes that have been brought about by cleaning off some of the old varnish. The next use of the camera will be in connection with the Pompei exhibit opening April 17th. I talked with Larry salmon curator of textiles at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for GBH Journal. This is Vivian ducat. Commentator Laura Lyons with a look at this week's news

this week has been a very bad show for the American dollar abroad. It found a record new lows in terms of German and Swiss currency down a quarter below its 1975 value in German marks 50 percent below its 960 value. Swiss and German banks went into the money markets to bouy it up and criticize the United States government for not doing more. It seemed to stabilize yesterday as did the New York Stock market whose Dow Jones level had been falling steadily to seven forty six. Europe sees the dollar as a symbol of the American system that can't pass an energy bill a full year after the president called it the highest priority. Can't get CO mind after three months of strike the choughs inflation rising at a rate the Bureau of Labor Statistics cause a matter of concern. President Carter brushed off the European appraisal yesterday holding they failed to realize the value for investment of high interest here and the faster rate of recovery in this country 3 percent

more than in Europe he said. And the leveling off of oil imports which he said will be less this year. So Carter said the dollars really in good shape. Thank you. The president proposes to do away with the civil service system to make government more efficient. He calls that the centerpiece of his promised government reorganization essentially said to reward efficiency and abolish a haven for incompetence. There's things our government is so mired in red tape the president said that it's easier to promote and transfer an incompetent employee than to dismiss him. He replaced the civil service which came into being 95 years ago with two agencies and Office of Personnel Management responsible for improving efficiency and a merit system board to protect employees rights. The chairman of the Civil Service Commission supports the president's plan. He says we have two fewer awards for excellence and too few penalties for on satisfactory work and sound of a cough chairman of the Committee on Government

Operations says such a reorganization is long overdue. He thinks Congress will accept it. The president's proposal would end automatic salary increases and permit performance bonuses. It would permit dismissal of an incompetent employee within four months. That can now take over a year and a half he said. It would shift the burden of proof of concept competence to the employee. Veterans preference which has been a major handicap to appointing ablest people would be limited to 10 years. All that faces opposition by the influential veterans lobby which has blocked reform in this state. But some states limit veterans preference to cover the first application. And so not for every opening there after during the lifetime of the employee. The issue of confidence of public employees in this state was raised in the agitated House debate the other day over the 6 million dollar contract to the IBM consulting firm for supervising construction of the

UMass Boston. Why is it necessary to hire a private firm while the state has a bureau of construction and a Department of Administration members of the house asked as they protest a delay in the investigation of political payments by MBM 90 House members voted against Speaker Mickeys ruling to put off hearings on March 23rd the day before the speaker had suspended the staff director of the hearing committee and its chairman had resigned over the charges. Records of the committee concerning the MBM contract had been altered. The conference committee of both houses of Congress has approved a bill to raise from 65 to 70 the age that mandatory retirement is permitted in private employment. Mandatory retirement ages removed entirely and government employment. This is a law against forced retirement before 70 coincides with a definite trend the opposite way toward early voluntary retirement.

Do you want a male I was confirmed today by the Senate to be chairman of the Federal Reserve Board after a 14 to one committee vote of approval. The one vote against was that of the chairman Senator Proxmire who held Miller I'm qualified never has a Textron conglomerate which is being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission to force it to produce information about the sale of 500 millions of helicopters to Enron. This to meet the challenge that the company paid nearly three millions to a sales agency headed by the chief of the Iranian Air Force whose brother in law the Shah. No direct evidence of this is produced at the Miller hearing. Military Safadi know nothing about it but the Senator Proxmire had evidently recalled the Lockheed system of selling planes abroad by bribery. Coal miners have begun voting on the sentiment which the Carter administration pressed the operators to agree to. Union leaders have been working all week to persuade the union unless union agreement is reached in voting it will

go on through Sunday. The president will move in with government action Monday at the White House is the Panama debate ground on is a leadership beat off want to mention after another some buy votes larger than the two thirds ratification will need somebody less so that the issue remains in some doubt the leadership to support an impatient with the endless string of amendment proposals that amount to filibuster. Few of the uncommitted senators listen to the debate but there have been some lively passages as when New Hampshire senator McIntyre announcing his support of the treaties denounced what he called the tactics of threat and intimidation practiced by Governor Thompson of his state and publisher Lowe. The Republican Senate staffer declared his support of the treaties on the day of a crucial vote on an amendment to extend by 20 years the transfer of the can now. Senator Breaux was the only New England senator who failed to support the treaties against that amendment. He has supported some amendments voted against others.

The Martin got published an editorial yesterday Brooke straddles the canal which I scribed his performance was being up for election this November. Stuart Macintyre is the Public Utilities Commission in Massachusetts put a small brake on inflation in rejecting two thirds with a rate increase requested by the Edison Electric Company. The 23 million increase in revenue it did allow means a 4 percent rise in consumers electric bills. The DP you criticized Edison for excessive dividends and poor management protesting the award the Edison vice president James lied and said the DP you Chairman Harold Koh Hain has a preconceived anti utility attitude. The Rhodesian government of Ian Smith has now settled with the black leaders of the three national parties inside the country for the transfer of power to majority rule by the end of this year. The militant Patriotic Front that's been conducting guerrilla activity from outside the country has not been included in the negotiations. Their leaders denounced the agreement

and threatened to continue fighting. At the other end of the continent the contest to control the Horn of Africa with its access to the oil states gives Washington concern. The president yesterday said that continued support by the Soviets of the Ethiopian campaign against Somalia will make it hard to win American support for detente and control. That in Mystic politics have been pushing Israel and Egypt further apart popular rage in Egypt over the murder of their leading editor which they ascribe to Palestinians led Sadat to cancel the privileges that resident Palestinians have enjoyed in Egypt. Israel's cabinet has divided over the issue of continuing the settlements in occupied territory. Prime Minister Begin held a majority for tabling that issue for now. He's still planning to come to Washington later this month. President Carter said yesterday he would try to bring begin to acceptance of basic principles for negotiation which includes withdrawal of the settlements. The president said he hopes

to encourage resumption of direct negotiations between Israel and Egypt in place of the shuttling diplomacy that are offered. Atherton has been carrying on since they said that they can rest. Western news services have been trying to interpret the meaning of China's People's Congress meeting that's been taking up a new constitution this week it to partly puts new emphasis on economics and education less on ideology. More on support of civil rights that may not be any connection but diplomatic delegate to China. Leonard what car has been home and made a speech calling our policy of non-recognition of the Peking government silly. The State Department quickly reputed is his criticism but a few days later President Carter gave Woodcock an interview. There may not be a one two punch involved here but Senator Kennedy had just returned from China. What the administration called the best prepared trip of any American politician. Last fall Kennedy urged our shifting recognition from

Taiwan to China and spelled out a detailed plan for it. Some believe the White House was glad to have woodcocks views aired at a time when it would be just one too many things for the president to push there. Bar Friday the third day of March in 1978 that's TB external producers Nigel Hertz our engineers to go by and I'm Bill chemist have a wine and frolic some Friday.