The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. Leading the news this Monday, the economic summit opened in Houston, with Moscow asking the Western leaders for financial aid for the Soviet Union, and the Soviet politburo was expanded to give Pres. Gorbachev more power. We'll have the details in our News Summary in a moment. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: After the News Summary, Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviews Prime Minister Kaifu of Japan [NEWS MAKER], we have an update from the Communist Party Congress in Moscow [UPDATE - PARTY APART?], Jeff Kaye reports on problems caused by the drought in Southern California [FOCUS - A DRY SEASON], and Joanna Simon profiles a woman who makes up music for a living [PROFILE - MAKING MUSIC]. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. MacNeil: The 16th annual economic summit opened today in Houston, Texas. This afternoon, Pres. Bush formally welcomed the leaders of the richest nations to his hometown. During their three day meeting, the leaders of France, Italy, West Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, and the United States will discuss the changing economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. As host, Mr. Bush made the opening remarks at an arrival ceremony on the campus of Rice University.

PRES. BUSH: And over the past decade and a half, the leaders of the largest industrialized democracies have held these summits to address common problems and challenges, and together we're called upon as allies and as friends to work toward decisions here in Houston that will bring a new stability and prosperity to the world by tapping the power and energy of free wills and free markets. A new world of freedom lays before us, hopeful, confident, a world for peace and doers, where commerce has conscience and where all that seems possible is possible.

MR. MacNeil: Economic aid to China is a big issue at the summit. Most Western nations cut off loans to China after the Tiananmen Square massacre last summer, including Japan, which froze $5 1/2 billion worth. In an interview with the Newshour, Japan's prime minister, Toshiki Kaifu, said he would push for a resumption of loans.

TOSHIKI KAIFU, Prime Minister, Japan: [Speaking through Interpreter] If we were to isolate China, that would not contribute at all to peace and stability in Asia and the entire world, so on all occasions I've been talking to the Chinese people to go ahead with democratization and open door efforts. We will indicate to, or I will indicate to my colleagues at the summit meeting the basic solution of Japan, that we believe we ought to provide assistance that will be conducive to improved civilian life in China.

MR. MacNeil: We'll have the full interview with Prime Minister Kaifu after the News Summary. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Also at the summit, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu said economic experts would assess the Soviet financial needs. He said the summit leaders were divided about how to extend assistance to the Soviets. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze made an appeal for Western help today. He said it would benefit the West, as well as the Soviet Union. He made the comment at the Soviet Party Congress, which is now into its eighth day. Pres. Gorbachev won a vote there today that increases his power. The vote was to expand the membership of the ruling politburo to include the leaders of the 15 Soviet republics. Most of them support the Gorbachev reforms. We'll have a further report on the congress after this News Summary. The coal miners in the Soviet Union said no to Gorbachev today. They decided to go on strike for one day, Wednesday. Gorbachev had asked them not to. He called it illegal. The strike is to protest housing, food, and other shortages.

MR. MacNeil: The Albanian government today began granting exit visas to dissidents who sought asylum in foreign embassies. We have a report narrated by Louise Bates of Worldwide Television News.

MS. BATES: Troops continue to stand guard outside the diplomatic quarter in Tirana. Inside, harried embassy workers are trying to clear away the paper work that will allow thousands of Albanians to emigrate to the West. It's a slow process. Workers say most of the asylum seekers can't read or write. Hundreds of passport applications have to be filled out before the first of them can leave. As concerned relatives press up to embassy gates to learn whether their loved ones are among those granted visa, Czechoslovakia's presidential plane is on its way to pick up the first group of refugees. Fifty-one Albanians have received their travel documents. A Czech official says all but one or two plan to start new lives in Australia or the United States. Hungarian officials tell the same story. These men perched on the wall of the Hungarian compound, it's harboring about 40 Albanians, are also likely to resettle in the West.

MR. MacNeil: The 51 dissidents in the Czech embassy were flown to Prague this evening. It's estimated that about 5,000 other Albanians have taken refuge in a dozen different embassies. In the East African nation of Kenya violent anti-government protests spread across the country today. At least five people have died since rioting began Saturday in the capital, Nairobi. Demonstrators are calling for an end to one party rule. Pres. Daniel Irapmoy ordered a round up of government opponents last week. The U.S. embassy in Nairobi today confirmed it had given asylum to the leading dissident. The Kenyan government denounced that move, saying U.S. officials there were interfering in the country's internal affairs.

MR. LEHRER: They have found the source of a hydrogen leak which grounded the space shuttle Columbia. NASA officials said today the leak occurred in the fuel lines connecting the engines to the external fuel tank. A similar leak in the shuttle Atlantis has put the entire shuttle program on hold. It is not known whether the leaks are identical. The fleet will remain grounded until both leaks have been analyzed and fixed.

MR. MacNeil: The Louisiana legislature passed a new anti- abortion bill last night. It would make abortion illegal, except in cases of incest, rape, and danger to the mother's life. Last week, Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer vetoed a stronger anti-abortion bill which did not make exceptions for rape or incest. Today Gov. Roemer said he needed time to consider the new bill before deciding whether to sign it. It would be the strictest abortion law in the country.

MR. LEHRER: There was violence today in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. Street fights broke out between striking factory workers and supporters of Pres. Violeta Chamorro. The workers support the former Sandinista government. One person was reported killed, twelve others wounded. The strikes by pro-Sandinista unions began last week. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to a News Maker interview with the prime minister of Japan, an update from the Communist Party Congress in Moscow, a report from California about the drought, and a profile of a composer. NEWS MAKER

MR. MacNeil: We begin tonight with one perspective on the Economic Summit which opened in Houston today. The leaders of the World's seven richest nations meet with serious differences over the size and form of aid to the Soviet Union economy. That was one of the issue raised by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in an exclusive Newsmaker interview with Japan's Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. The interview follows this backgrounder.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: During his 30 year political career Toshiki Kaifu kept a low profile, did little to offend and had only a limited alliance with Japan's powerful political factions. This is precisely why he was handpicked for Prime MInister last summer. The Liberal Democratic Party which has ruled Japan for decades chose Kaifu because he was Mr. Clean. Japan's two previous Prime Ministers also from the LDP were both hit by scandal and resigned. In the past year Prime Minister Kaifu has led his faltering party to victory in important parliamentary election. secured his own reelection and now rated the most popular Prime Minister in 25 years. He has also established firm ties with the United States meeting several times with President Bush. Most recently this weekend. In the wake of those meetings Japan was removed from a list of countries with trade barriers offensive to the United States. Japan had been targeted under tough section of the U.S. Trade Law called Super 301. What is more Prime Minister Kaifu played an active role in working out an important trade pact with the United States called the SII. It is meant to change some of the basic things in both nations that led the U.S. to run a 50 billion dollar trade deficit with Japan. Japan now says it will open its markets to foreign companies by pledging to reduce the amount of protection to small businesses. It will prosecute anti trust violations like price fixing and bid rigging. It has agreed to increase public works spending. A move designed to trigger demand formore imported goods. In turn the United States has agreed to take steps to reduce the Federal Budget deficit, to change anti trust laws to permit more joint ventures and the U.S. has agreed to provide more education programs for American workers to help make the U.S. more competitive. I spoke with Prime Minister Kaifu yesterday in Houston. Mr. Prime Minister thank you for being with is and welcome. This trade agreement that you signed with the United States is unprecedented. Do you think that this heralds a new era in U.S. Japanese relationship. Is this a mile stone in your view?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: [Speaking through Interpreter] We believe that it is now necessary to expand our mutual relations ever more beyond economic ties to political and cultural and other fringes. This year is a memorable year as the 30th anniversary since the signing of the Japan, U.S. Security Treaty and we believe it is for us to this time to move on from SII to CII, Commuications improvement initiative. In another words communications are very important in order for us to expand the scope the relations between our two countries and this is a point that I intend to appeal to the people of the United States when I give a speech in Atlanta, Georgia.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: All the things that you outlined are things that require mutual cooperation but what is going to be different this time that will make this trade agreement and all the other things that you talk about succeed?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: The past two years the Government of Japan has been taking as policy efforts to increase domestic demand and also to expand imports in to Japan. As a result imports have increased by 61 billion dollars. However when we look at the bilateral trade imbalance between Japan and the United States it had come down only from 50 billion dollars to 49 billion dollars. So it is only in the U.S., Japan trade relations that we have not seen improvement in trade imbalance. And this point we have kept in mind in formulating the finaL report on the SII. So of we implement the continence of that final report steadily then we should see visible improvements and of improvements happen to be slow then during the period of follow up we should engage candidly in mutual discussions in order to get at the root cause of that slowness.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: I guess one of the reasons for so much skepticism that this agreement goes deep into the social and economic structure of both countries for example it calls on Americans to stop using their credit cards so much and to save more and at the same time it calls on Japanese to spend more. What is it going to take to reverse those sort of entrenched forms of behavior in both cultures?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: I certainly understand your question. There certainly are differences in our past societal history, cultural history but it is necessary for the peoples of the two countries to squarely recognize the problems that we have in each of our societies and try to get closer to each other. If people only think about themselves then we will not be able to try and get over problems of a bilateral nature between Japan and the United States. But along those global issues that I have talked about environment, drugs we can't go in joint actions hand in hand and that is why I appeal to the Japanese people even at the cost of having our culture changed somewhat that we must try and work on these issues.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But with all due respect, Mr. Prime Minister, many, many public opinion polls, both in this country and in Japan show that the bilateral relations between the U.S. and Japan are, in fact, deteriorating, that some polls show that American citizens, for example, view Japan as a greater threat than the Soviet Union. How do you respond to that?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: I am certainly fully aware of such public opinion poll results. As seen from the standpoint of U.S. citizens, it is certainly true that ever since the Malta Summit meeting, the Soviet Union has been getting over its cold war mentality and therefore, has become less of a military threat, and now that the Soviets have become less of a military threat, we in Japan must do even more than before to improve economic relations with the United States and to wit, what must come first before anything else is to improve the trade imbalance situation. Because that trade imbalance is huge, it is not going to be easy to overcome that problem, but, and if I may get to something rather personal, I'm wearing a suit made of Texan wool, so this is a U.S. import into Japan, and if both our countries and all our countries open ourselves up to manufactured imports, maintain our doors open, and provide equal opportunities for businesses of all countries, then I trust that the sense of threat that Americans have vis-a-vis Japan will be reduced.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But, there seems to be a lot of support for the thesis advanced in this book, The Japan That Can't Say No, that there is disdain for American work habits, for racial minorities, for the poor educational system, the poor activity level, and indeed, the theory that was advanced in that book is that there is an American bigotry against what they call cultural narrow- mindedness against yellow people. Is that the prevailing view in Japan, and if so, why shouldn't Americans consider that, as well as the problem of the trade imbalance, a real threat to bilateral relations?

TOSHIKI KAIFU, Prime Minister, Japan: [Speaking through Interpreter] First of all, the kinds of opinions that you expressed just now are not ones that are harbored by all Japanese, and the second point is that if we look at various policies that United States are taking vis-a-vis Japan, and if I may be candid here, I believe that the general opinion in Japan is that we cannot accept the sort of approach that has been taken by the United States, showing this unilateral sanction represented by Super 301 and trying to force negotiations.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: And Super 301 is the trade legislation that targeted Japan as an unfair trading partner.

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: [Speaking through Interpreter] Super 301 being a legislation in the United States that provides for unilateral sanction if negotiations are not successful with a foreign country. In other words, instead of trying to force a negotiation, it would be more convincing in the minds of the Japanese public if the problems are resolved through dialogue rather than under the threat of unilateral sanction. And the third point is that we believe Americans, themselves, ought to look more carefully at the Japanese market, try to find out what sort of products will be welcome by the Japanese consumer, and by so doing increase their trade competitiveness.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Do you think that there is a lack of understanding on the part of both societies that is contributing to this -- I mean, do you accept the fact that the relationships are deteriorating?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: [Speaking through Interpreter] I don't share that view. I don't think the relations are deteriorating. In fact, we are in a process of attaining better understanding between the two societies. In less than one year since assuming office as prime minister, I've already met with Pres. Bush in Japan/U.S. summit meetings three times and we also believe that on the United States side, efforts are being made, such as the establishment of a trade competitive promotion committee under the leadership of Vice Pres. Quayle and the White House. Pres. Bush also came out with an announcement, a statement on trade at the White House on the 26th, and these efforts on the U.S. side have all caught attention on the Japanese side, and they've been highly appreciated.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: You plan to press for lifting sanctions at the Chinese at this summit meeting. What is the difference between the situation of China and the Soviet Union? I mean, why are you eager to help China and not the Soviet Union?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: [Speaking through Interpreter] It is obvious that the Tiananmen incident on the 4th of June last year is something that the Chinese cannot be forgiven for. However, since then, the Chinese government have been instituting opening policy, open door policy, reform-oriented policies in a fair manner, and they also have been making efforts to release political prisoners. If we were to isolate China, that would not contribute at all to peace and stability in Asia and the entire world. So on all occasions, I've been talking to the Chinese people to go ahead with democratization and open door efforts. So we will have discussions in-depth in the group of 7 summit talks on such things as the importance of avoiding a Chinese isolation. I will indicate my colleagues at the summit meeting, the basic position of Japan that we believe we ought to provide assistance that will be conducive to improved civilian life in China, and we will talk very candidly to my colleagues at the summit meeting that we wish to gradually restart the yen loan program.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: So you'll lift your sanctions regardless of what the other nations do?

PRIME MINISTER KAIFU: We already have given our undertaking to the Chinese in the past for the yen loan program and so Japan will act on its own judgment in a gradual manner, and we believe we have to do that and we also believe that the Chinese are changing. As for the Soviet Union, we certainly welcome the perestroika policy of Mr. Gorbachev because we believe that it heads in the correct direction, and we have already been making various efforts in providing support to the Soviet Union, however, there still remain some intransparent aspects of the Soviet Union. If we, for example, listen to the heated discussions at the party congress in Moscow, would the Soviets really be able to transform themselves into a genuinely free, market economy? That we don't know, so we have to try and make out very clearly whether the provision of assistance from us would be truly effective or not, and one other point that I have to state very clearly is that the Northern territories issue between Japan and the Soviet Union has not been resolved, that as a result of the expansionism of the Soviet Union under Stalin in the Second World, and the Peace and Amity Treaty has not been signed as yet either. So I will try and explain Japan's position as accurately as possible and try to gain the understanding of all my colleagues at this summit meeting about this situation between Japan and the Soviet Union in light of the need for peace and stability in the world.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Well, Mr. Prime Minister, we thank you for being with us.

MR. MacNeil: Still ahead on the Newshour, Gorbachev wins one, water problems in California, and a profile of composer Ellen Zwilich. UPDATE - PARTY APART?

MR. LEHRER: This was the 8th day of the Communist Party Congress in Moscow. Today Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev maintained his control but only after paying a political price. Our update report is by David Smith of Independent Television News.

MR. SMITH: Once again, appearances deceive. Pres. Gorbachev has today strengthened his own position, kept the party together, and made himself its unchallenged leader, but he pays a price, and the price is the kind of compromise that could put him back months, if not years. Quite unprecedented for the general secretary to do what he's done here today, go back to the congress with a revised plan for changes in the way the party runs this country. In the end, Mr. Gorbachev had to, because the conservatives had rewritten his first blueprint to suit themselves. And a close examination shows that Mr. Gorbachev has made major concessions to them. He will not be chairman of the party as he wanted. He will remain general secretary. The politburo will be expanded, but it stays. The party will give up little of its power as a result. Even then, some were asking how he could continue as general secretary.

MR. GORBACHEV: [Speaking through Interpreter] Comrades, in our commission we've looked at several different options, a first secretary, secretary general, no secretary at all, only the politburo with a rotating chairman, and we've come up with a carefully thought out option.

MR. SMITH: That best option means no radical change in the power structure, the president then bogged down in party in fighting and getting nowhere fast. So how had the president failed to get what he wanted?

NIKOLAI SHISHLIN, Central Committee Adviser: Yes. He really wanted to reconstruct the whole party structure, but now the party is ready and they think that this congress is the first stage of events. Then we'll have a next stage of events.

MR. SMITH: How much longer can Pres. Gorbachev go on tinkering with the party structure, rather than fundamentally changing it?

MR. SHISHLIN: I think, I think that he has only one year, not more.

MR. SMITH: Really?

MR. SHISHLIN: Yes.

MR. SMITH: One year?

MR. SHISHLIN: Yes.

MR. SMITH: That's as gloomy a forecast as we've ever heard, and yet it may be optimistic if the crisis in the country now escalates. This week, for example, the miners will go on strike almost a year to the day since they first walked out. That is now the reason is economic. By Soviet standards they earn decent wages. But there's little or nothing for them to buy. The promises of better food, more consumer goods, and improvements in housing have proved illusory.

ALEXANDER ANDRYUKHIN, Strike Committee Leader: [Speaking through Interpreter] All the promises have come to nothing. Nothing has changed. It's got worse, if anything, in terms of supplies. Anything could happen now. It's that bad.

MR. SMITH: This time though the miners strike has a political message as well. They say they're anti-Communist and determined to bring the party down and they're not alone. Is there not a growing anti-Communist feeling in this country?

SERGEI PLEKHANOV, USA/Canada Institute: I think there is and I think this is a very dangerous development. It again shows the dangers of extremist thinking. Either you're all the way for or you're all the way against. Besides, if we look at the role that anti-Communism has played in the West or in Eastern Europe, we would seem some very ugly manifestations of political behavior.

MR. GORBACHEV: [Speaking through Interpreter] It's absolutely true that we haven't found a solution for the miners and it's true that they want to send us a signal. We understand, but for the miners to use these methods to push us, that's intolerable.

MR. SMITH: In the past 24 hours, the president has looked and sounded decidedly rattled about the miners, about where this congress is going. But the significance of the moves he's made today is that he's sticking with the party come what may.

NIKOLAI SHISHLIN, Central Committee Adviser: In this critical moment, Gorbachev has had to be a president and had to be a party leader, but not forever, maybe for a short period of time, and I'm quite sure that Gorbachev's right choice is an alliance with the left, with democratic forces, not with the right wing of the party, and let's wait a little bit.

MR. SMITH: Do you think that's what he will now do, realistically?

MR. SHISHLIN: Yes.

MR. SMITH: Is he going to gamble?

MR. SHISHLIN: I think that Gorbachev will make a proper choice. He simply needs to find proper time for his decision.

MR. SMITH: Now we must see if he can bring himself to forge an alliance with the radicals. For the moment though, Mr. Gorbachev remains the strong leader of a party determined to slow the pace of his reforms.

MR. LEHRER: The party congress is expected to end on Thursday. FOCUS - A DRY SEASON

MR. MacNeil: We go next tonight to California's water problems. While much of the country has experienced record rainfall in recent weeks, parts of California are in the fourth year of a drought. The water shortage forced Los Angeles to join the list of cities that have ordered residents and businesses to cut their water use by 10 percent. But while Los Angeles is bone dry, other areas in California have water, pitting the haves against the have nots. The battle has spilled into the local politics. We have a report from Jeffrey Kaye of station KCET-Los Angeles.

MR. KAYE: This old propaganda film dramatized Los Angeles' unquenchable thirst. The film was part of a 1931 campaign for a bond measure to fund an aqueduct. [FILM SEGMENT]

MR. KAYE: Such exhortations from growth-minded business interests and politicians led to the creation of California's elaborate plumbing system which pumps water hundreds of miles over mountains and through deserts and which made an oasis out of an otherwise dry hole. [FILM SEGMENT]

MR. KAYE: Sixty years later, Hollywood has produced a remake of the hold theme. Now instead of a black and white nightmare, LA's thirst is portrayed in technicolor. Instead of posing the solution as more dams and aqueducts, today the main emphasis is on conservation.

ANNOUNCER: [FILM SEGMENT] We're suffering a serious drought. We have to change our habits now. If you're using more water than you need, wake up.

MR. KAYE: After four years of drought, Californians have woken up to mandatory water rationing in some parts of the state. Many residents have made shutting off a faucet an act of civic virtue.

POLICEMAN: I don't leave it running while I'm brushing my teeth.

CITIZEN: I've cut the sprinklers back in half and actually we've talked to the boys in the family of proper times to flush and when not to flush.

MR. KAYE: Drought conditions provided fuel for the infernos which have hit Los Angeles and the coastal community of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara has been severely affected by the water shortage because citizens there decided not to tap into the state's water system. That decision was made to control growth. Now nearby reservoirs that supply Santa Barbara's water are practically dry. Drought police are on the patrol for leaky garden hoses. The homeless camp on parched lawns, while some residents are painting their brown grass green. To save water, Santa Barbara Mayor Sheila Lodge showers only twice a week.

MAYOR SHEILA LODGE, Santa Barbara: The only cheap water is rain water and any new source of supply is going to be expensive, whatever it is.

MR. KAYE: New sources of water considered by Santa Barbara officials include proposals to build a plant to de-salt seawater and to bring in fresh water by tanker from Canada. Along with grand schemes, today's water shortage is defining new political alliances and battles. It was California resident Mark Twain who said, "Whiskey's for drinking. Water's for fighting over." Now there's a growing split between farms and cities, once firm allies in the pursuit of water. As urban areas are forced to make drastic cutbacks, some local officials like Timothy Brick are being more critical of the state's No. 1 water user, agriculture.

TIMOTHY BRICK: The first thing people need to realize is that 85 percent of the water in the state of California is being used by agriculture. If we can reallocate some of the agricultural water supplies, there can be plenty of water for any kind of growth in Southern California, for far more growth than I would like to see in Southern California.

MR. KAYE: At first glance, the drought seems not to have reached California's agriculture rich San Joaquin Valley in the central part of the state. Lush crops are well irrigated. Fields and orchards are often flooded with water. This year, California farmers are expected to reap record profits in part by pumping groundwater. The well water is making up for the fact that many farms have had their water supplies curtailed by as much as 50 percent. A.J. Yates, the president of the Fresno Farm Bureau, uses underground water to irrigate his raisin grapes, but he's not sure how long even that water supply will hold out.

A.J. YATES, President, Fresno Farm Bureau: What really concerns me is as we pump the underground, we're continuing to lower that water table and whether we're going to make it through this year without spending a lot of money on lowering the pumps is really hard to say. The long-term effect of this is we're definitely losing our underground water table and the quality of our water is not what it was before the drought.

MR. KAYE: For those farms without well water, particularly small farms that can't afford to drill, the drought is already taking its toll. Around the state, thousands of acres lie fallow. Orchards that take years to grow could go out of production. But for those who have enough water, there is little thought of changing irrigation methods. Flooding is a favored, though water intensive way of irrigating furrows. Contrast this system to drip irrigation. Here, not far away at Lee Simpson's vineyard, wet patches on furrows show where water, along with fertilizer, is injected right into the plant's roots. Irrigation valves are monitored and controlled by computers, one in the office, others in the field.

LEE SIMPSON, Farmer: The field equipment allows us to accurately and uniformly distribute the water and fertilizer. The computer allows us to in very minute detail control that system.

MR. KAYE: And you've been using this system for how long?

MR. SIMPSON: We've had it in operation about six years now.

MR. KAYE: And in that six years, how much water have you used compared to six years previously?

MR. SIMPSON: We're down to about 50 percent of what we would be putting on if we were flood irrigating.

MR. KAYE: One reason that more farmers don't follow Lee Simpson's example and install more efficient irrigation systems is that most water used on California farms is relatively cheap. It's subsidized by the federal government, so farmers have little incentive to invest in water saving systems like Lee Simpsons.

MR. SIMPSON: In this particular ranch, we're in the Fresno irrigation district and we pay a flat fee per acre, per year.

MR. KAYE: No matter how much water you use?

MR. SIMPSON: Yes. In a year like this, we don't get very much water. In a good rain year, we get all the water or more than all the water that we need.

MR. KAYE: So there's really no incentive to cut back on the amount of water you use?

MR. SIMPSON: From a water cost standpoint, no.

MR. KAYE: Even more galling to urban politicians is the fact that many farmers used subsidized water to grow subsidized crops, crops such as cotton and rice. Last month, over the objections of rural Congressman, the House of Representatives voted to end the practice, which critics such as Sacramento Assemblyman Phil Isenberg describe as double dipping.

PHIL ISENBERG, California Assemblyman: The taxpayers of California should not be subsidizing water to be given away at virtually rock bottom, giveaway prices to agriculture in California, mostly large, corporate agriculture. That doesn't mean we shouldn't help them in some fashion with subsidizing a portion of the cost, but God knows, they've been riding fat on the hog for 40 years, 50 years, and there's no reason why that should have to continue.

MR. KAYE: Farmers such as A.J. Yates make no apologies for their water use or for their subsidies. He says consumers are the actual beneficiaries of the system.

MR. YATES: We have the cheapest food in the world. Only 13 percent of the average consumer's paycheck goes for feeding their family. Anyplace else in the world, developed countries, it's about 25 percent, and, you know, we do use a large amount of water but we don't use what's claimed against us and the thing that people forget is that this is as vital as the defense of this country. The strength of a nation is its food supply and we are that food supply.

MR. KAYE: Water use as most criticized by Isenberg and others are growers of water intensive crops such as alfalfa and rice. This time of year California rice paddies are inundated with water.

MR. ISENBERG: Rice is a crop that's grown in monsoon countries and we're in the middle of a dry part of Northern America, and we grow rice all over hell and gone in Northern California right near where we're sitting today. We do it because water is available and it's cheap, and it's crazy, of course, to think that you can continue to grow a water intensive crop in the middle of some kind of shortage.

MR. KAYE: Naturally, rice growers disagree. Farmer Allen Garcia says his rice fields actually benefit the environment.

ALLEN GARCIA, Farmer: Essentially when we harvest our rice crops, we open up the bed and breakfast industry for the duck in the Pacific flyway, because we not only provide the food but the habitat for them to live, and if you want to value that for the state of California that has destroyed over 90 percent of its natural wetlands, without the rice industry, you're going to start an ecological chain in reverse.

MR. KAYE: Despite pressure from both farms and cities, construction of California's massive water systems slowed in the last decade, but the drought has prompted renewed calls for bigger and better water storage and delivery systems. Among the advocates of more building is Robert Leake, general manager of the Fresno Irrigation System, an agency which supplies water to the city of Fresno and to many farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.

ROBERT LEAKE, Fresno Irrigation System: What we don't have enough water to do is to meet the growing demand from the state, both from some in agriculture, but certainly a very large growth in demand for urban usage. I think additional storage has to be developed. In our particular area, we've looked at several different reservoir projects in the Sierra Foothills, but if you look at the total balance in the entire San Joaquin Valley, additional water is going to have to be brought in.

MR. KAYE: From the delta.

MR. LEAKE; From the delta.

MR. KAYE: The delta is the Sacramento Delta, an estuary that eventually flows into the San Francisco Bay. Environmentalists have successfully opposed efforts to withdraw more water from the delta to send it South. Environmental lawsuits are creating new limits on the state's use of water. The delta is the symbol of the increasingly important role environmentalists like Assemblyman Isenberg are playing in California water politics.

PHIL ISENBERG: It's always kind of a fantasy of the 1940 water engineers, the ones that build the big dams that think it's terrific and fun to come up North and get more water, but there isn't a vast quantity of available water here which you can take without doing substantial damage.

MR. KAYE: The fear is that as fresh water is removed from the delta, salt water from the ocean will flow in to contaminate the wetlands. Environmental concerns about water use have deepened hostilities between agriculture and urbanites. Many farmers worry that city folk don't understand their needs.

MR. GARCIA: Everybody used to have an Uncle Harry or a Brother Joe that lived on the farm and when a farm issue came up, they thought about who they knew and they figured, well, things are okay on the farm, because I know Uncle Joe and he's a good guy and he's taking good care of those resources, and now you have a large segment of the population that doesn't have any roots or any ties with people on the land.

MR. KAYE: Water officials in the city are looking to some long- term solutions, among them recycling the water they've got. Whatever the differences between agriculture and urbanites, there is agreement that in general water can be used and managed more efficiently. PROFILE

MR. LEHRER: Finally tonight a profile of a woman who has made it in the music business. Her name is Ellen Zwilich and Joanna Simon has her story.

ELLEN ZWILICH, Composer: I've often thought that many people think that a composer is someone who's dead, male, and Austrian. So I don't think I fit the bill in any of those cases.

MS. SIMON: Ellen Tate Zwilich is a modern rarity, a composer who derives her income solely from writing music. She's also the first and only woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music. And this year alone, she's completing a chamber music piece and working on commissions for four of the nation's top five symphony orchestras. The New York Philharmonic will premier her third symphony next year. Zubin Mehta is its conductor.

ZUBIN MEHTA, New York Philharmonic: She has a lot to say. This girl has something to say with music. She has a message and she does make music. Sometimes she pours her heart out. There is sometimes a great inner struggle of the spirit, sometimes there's a great victorious element in the music, and she manages to say it all.

ELLEN ZWILICH: The people that tell you not to be a composer are probably giving you very good advice. It's not a reasonable choice to make, but I've just felt that I had to. This is something very, very central to me. It's in the core of me. It's not just something that I do, and so I have done it where it was a great struggle and I have done it where it's been a success. I'll tell you something, it's much more fun when it's a success.

MS. SIMON: Zwilich shares her fun and success with performers for whom she writes. Musicians find Zwilich's commissions rewarding precisely because her pieces are so demanding. Base trombonist Charles Vernon is rehearsing a Zwilich concerto he will premier with the Chicago symphony next April. To Vernon, the work is almost a class action for what has been a neglected solo instrument.

CHARLES VERNON, Trombonist: One reason I pushed to do this was so that we could put the base trombone in the 21st century like everybody else in the solo world. My part is about the hardest thing that was ever written for the instrument. There's nothing out there like this that takes the instrument and expands it in every possible way.

MS. SIMON: Does it give you a real chance to show off?

MR. VERNON: Yeah. Either show off or not be shown.

MS. SIMON: Doriot Anthony Dwyer was the first woman to become a principal instrumentalist with a major orchestra. That was 38 years ago. When Dwyer announced her intention to leave the Boston symphony for a solo career, the orchestra commissioned a Zwilich flute concerto to mark the occasion. The work's premier in April was a critical success. [DWYER PERFORMING]

DORIOT ANTHONY DWYER, Flautist: When I first played the solo, there were tears in my eyes at the end of it, oh, that's just what I asked her to do. [DWYER PERFORMING]

MS. SIMON: One reason for Zwilich's public acclaim is that you don't have to be a music aficionado to understand or appreciate her music. Richard Dyer is the music critic for the Boston Globe.

RICHARD DYER, Music Critic: The music is good and people respond to it. One proof of that is the pieces get played over and over and over again. What happens often with composers of quite great talent is that the piece gets done and it drops dead, whereas, I can't imagine that there's a piece of Ellen's that hasn't been played repeatedly. [DWYER PERFORMING]

MS. SIMON: Zwilich's work may be notable because she composes for several instruments. Her facility comes from a lifetime of playing the violin, trumpet, and piano.

ELLEN ZWILICH: I spent a lot of my childhood at the piano making things up. I started studying when I was about five and I took lessons with a neighborhood piano teacher. I'm sure I was a terrible little student. I thought the things I made up were better than the things that I was given to play.

MS. SIMON: But it was only after a decade of playing violin with the American Symphony that Zwilich was ready to make a career out of composing. In 1969, she married Joseph Zwilich, a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera. They were married for 10 years. When he suddenly died, Ellen was devastated. Did you ever think that maybe you wanted to give up music?

ELLEN ZWILICH: I had just the opposite reaction. I had been working on a piece at that time and of course, there was a period of time when I couldn't write at all. I just sort of somehow or other pulled myself together to write the piece and of course, it did turn out to be a memorial. And it also, it reminded me of how much music was at the center of my life, how important it was to me.

MS. SIMON: Can you tell me how you compose?

ELLEN ZWILICH: The way I work, there's a kind of interplay between thinking about it and working on it and letting go and going with your intuitions and really going along with rather mysterious sources that are fairly much out of your control. When I'm sitting in my little study working, I'm trying to imagine in my mind exactly what it's going to sound like when you get to the final stage. I mean, it's mysterious, but I believe in working in every possible way.

MS. SIMON: Do you start with hearing a melody in your head?

ELLEN ZWILICH: I usually here something more complete, like the opening of the flute concerto for instance just, you know, it just came to me as this is the beginning of this piece. I usually here most of what's going on at once when I'm working, rather than say writing a melody and doing something under it. I think of the whole fabric of the symphony orchestra, for instance, if I'm writing for it.

MS. SIMON: What is it like when you get into hall and hear a whole symphony orchestra playing it?

ELLEN ZWILICH: It's just got to be the most indescribable experience. It's extraordinary because no matter how well you imagine what it's going to sound like, still, when you hear the live sound, there's nothing like it. [ZWILICH CONCERTO]

ELLEN ZWILICH: Don't forget, sound is vibration. It's palpable. You feel it, particularly, you know, when I'm sitting on the stage. The stage is vibrating, the wooden floor, the sense of being surrounded by these waves of sound is just extraordinary. When I write music, I put little black dots on white paper and that's not the music. It takes the imagination of other people to make this come to life and so when the Boston Symphony and Doriot and Sagi are on stage, it isn't just that you have these technicians who are going to sit there and perform their task. You've got, you know, 70 vivid artistic imaginations, and they have their own passion, their own understanding, just the sheer energy of all these people on a stage making music that started out in my head. I mean, I just, I can't, I don't think I'll ever get used to it. I mean, this is what I do and I've done it for years, but it's the most extraordinary thing.

MR. LEHRER: The story of American composer Ellen Zwilich. Ellen Zwilich's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings had its premier last week. It was warmly reviewed by critics after it was performed in Portland, Oregon, by a group called Chamber Music Northwest. The quintet will be played next month at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and again this winter with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. RECAP

MR. MacNeil: Once again, the top stories this Monday, Pres. Bush and leaders of six other industrial nations began their economic summit in Houston, the Soviet Union asked them for economic help, White House Chief of staff John Sununu said the summit leaders were divided over the issue. At the Soviet Party congress, Pres. Gorbachev won a vote that will increase the number of his supporters on the ruling politburo, and the hardline government of Albania allowed 51 dissidents to leave the Czechoslovakian embassy and fly to Prague. About 5,000 other Albanians remain in foreign embassies. Good night, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Good night, Robin. We'll see you tomorrow night with an economic summit discussion of aid to the Soviet Union. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.