Lance quits campaign
By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press Writer
NORTH OAKS, Minn. Bert
Lance, a former close aide to
Jimmy Carter, resigned
yesterday after 19 days as general
chairman of Walter F. Mondale's
Democratic presidential
campaign, citing the controversy
raised by "old charges" leveled
against him.
Mondale accepted the
resignation with regret and said in
a statement "I understand his
desire to protect his family from
additional pain."
Lance's resignation came after
a tenure of less than three weeks_
that was marked by a protest from
party officials. They said his
presence in the campaign might
resurrect the issue of Lance's
association with Carter and his
resignation as budget director
amid charges of irregularities in
his personal banking business.
Lance was never convicted of
any wrongdoing, but in his
resignation letter he said that in
the past three weeks unnamed
people have "once again (raised)
old charges which have been fully
resolved through our system
established by the Constitution.
"I want to be a part of a .
successful effort in your election
. . . not the focus to divert
attention away from the
substantive issues."
Lance said he was willing to be
involved in the campaign "in
whatever way you desire," and in
his statement, Mondale said, "I
look forward to Bert's advice r
friendship and support.
"I regret Bert's decision but I
'respect it," Mondale's statement
said. "In recent days he has been
subjected to some very tough and
adverse publicity."
Maxine Isaacs, Mondale's press
secretary, said the two men had a
brief "very warm" telephone
conversation. Thus ended an
awkward episode in Mondale's
presidential campaign that began
in the days immediately before the
Democratic National Convention
last month.
Lance resigned in a letter to
AP Laserphoto
Mondale in which he said, "I am
requesting solely directed by
my own initiative that you allow
me to relinquish the title of
general chairman of the Mondale-
Ferraro campaign."
Lance met earlier yesterday in
NeW York with Robert Beckel,
who is Mondale's campaign
manager
At a news conference last night
night in Minnesota, Beckel
repeatedly emphasized that he
had underestimated the reaction
which followed Lance's
appointment. However, he
insisted that it was the right
decision and that Mondale would
continue to value Lance's advice
during the campaign.
"I think that the reaction and
the timing was a mistake on our
part;" Beckel said. "I think the
judgment that Bert Lance should
join this campaign was the right
one."
And he sought to play down the
significance of the flap over
Lance's appointment in relation to
a number of appointments
President Reagan has made in his
administration.
"Within a few weeks, we'll begin
to be into a number of issues that
will overtake this one as a political
issue," Beckel said. •
Lance and three others were
indicted in 1979 on charges of bank
fraud and conspiracy arising from
allegations of false statements,
false entries and misapplication of
loans related to hundreds of
overdrafts and loans totaling $2O
million to the four men, their
friends and members of their
families."
Lance was acquitted on nine of
12 charges in 1980, with the jury
deadlocked on the remainng three
counts. Those counts later were
dropped by federal prosecutors.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Zell Miller, a
longtime friend of Lance's, called
the resignation "a sad situation"
and said, "It sure ain't gonna
help" Mondale in Georgia.
"I'm more concerned about how
Bert feels personally than I am
about any of the political stuff,"
said Miller.
the
daily
olle • ian
Winners; losers
America's Nelson Vans, above, blows a kiss to the crowd after winning round
two of the Olympic sprint cycling semi-finals yesterday. A not-so-fortunate
Steve Hegg, right, grimaces in pain on the Olympic velodrome track as a by
stander runs to his aid after Heggs fell during yesterday's 4,ooo•meter team
pursuit quarter-final event.
Report shows 1 5.2
of Americans live in
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON The number of Americans
officially in poverty climbed by nearly 900,000 to break
the 35 million mark last year, the Census Bureau said
yesterday in releasing a report sure to become an
election-year political football.
The figures showed that 15.2 percent of the nation's
population fell below the annual income of $10,178 for a
family of four set as the upper edge of poverty in 1983.
The poverty rate was up slightly from the 15.0 percent
of 1982.
Political reaction came quickly, with House Speaker
Thomas P. O'Neill, D-Mass., saying "today we have
the smoking gun of Reagan unfairness," and the
Republican White House claiming credit for leveling
off a rate of increase that soared under its Democratic
predecessors.
Administration officials sought to soften the impact
of the figures with an accompanying study that said
there are really a lot fewer poor people than it seems
if you use a different yardstick to measure them.--
But O'Neill asserted that "Under (President)
Reagan, the poor are'getting poorer."
In Santa Barbara, Calif., deputy White House press
secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the report. "points out
the need for a constant effort to reduce poverty in the
country. We are firmly committed to that goal."
He said the report showed "poverty has leveled off
from the disastrous increases of 1979 and '80," which
he blamed on the economic policies of former
President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.
While the administration's political opponents
stressed the poverty rate, social action groups
promptly attacked the alternate income
measurements as an attempt to redefine poverty out of
existence.
The poverty rate for 1983 was 15.2 percent, meaning
that 35,266,000 Americans an increase of 868,000
fell below the official definition of being poor, said
Gordon Green, the Census Bureau's assistant
population division chief for socioeconomic statistics.
That is up from a rate of 15.0 percent in 1982, when
34,398,000 Americans fell below the poverty level, he
said.
Fitzwater maintained that when the "high interest
rate-high inflation policies of the last administration
sent economic growth into a four-year stall, poverty
went from 11.7 percent in 1979 to 13 percent in 1980 and
14 percent in 'Bl. Those policies also led to the
recession, which raised the poverty level to 15 percent
in 1982."
The presidential spokesman said the 1983 increase
does not yet reflect the drop in unemployment, now at 7
percent. "More than 5 million new jobs have been
created since this report was written and the prospects
Leftists kill guard and
take hostages at bank
By ANNIE CABRERA
Associated Press Writer
SOYAPANGO, El Salvador A
top military official said a band of
heavily armed guerrillas who
seized a bank and took at least 100
people hostage yesterday would be
given asylum at the Spanish
Embassy if they release their
captives.
Col. Rinaldo Golcher, director of
the Treasury Police, said Spanish
and Salvadoran officials were
working out details of an
arrangement to provide the
gunmen with safe passage from
the embassy out of the country.
He said the guerrillas had
agreed to release women hostages
first•and then the men. He said he
, did not know exactly how many
hostages were in the bank.
The guerrillas also agreed to
leave behind "a large sum" of
money they had stolen from the
main vault during an aborted
holdup in which they killed a bank
guard, he said.
The guerrillas had already freed
three children and a pregnant
woman before Golcher spoke
about the asylum negotiations to
reporters outside the bank in
Soyapango, a suburb on the east
side of the Salvadoran capital.
The children were released first.
The guerrillas freed Gloria Mirna
Diaz, 20, about 3 1 / 2 hours later in
exchange for permission to
communicate with foreign
embassies about possible asylum.
Diaz told reporters there were
six guerrillas and about 100
hostages inside, including 45 bank
employees. Other reports from
inside put the number of hostages
as high as 125.
She said the rebels claimed they
merithers 'of the Armed
Forces of National Resistance,
one of five rebel groups operating
here, and they were armed with
automatic rifles, pistols and hand
grenades.
She said all the captives were in
good health and the guerrillas
"have been treating the hostages
correctly."
Golcher arrived with two
`Hiding the poor with crooked
statistics won't eliminate
poverty.'
—Kate Waracks of Seniors' Action on
the Office of Management and Budget
for a drop in the poverty rate appear very good," he
said.
_
"In 1982, when Reagan policies sent the poverty rate
to 15 percent, the administration said that the trend
would be 'dramatically' reversed in 1983," O'Neill told
reporters. "Today, we learned just the opposite has
happened . . . Making the rich richer and the poor
poorer has not helped the average American family."
Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., reacted similarly,
saying: "Almost one year ago (budget director) David
Stockman told my subcommittee that he was
`absolutely confident' that the poverty rate would
decline for 1983. Mr. Stockman was once again wrong
and he and his administration are going to be held
accountable."
Matsui said the actual amount of poverty is even
higher than the level reported because the figures
"ignore the increasing tax burden of the poor."
A Census report issued a month ago indicated that
taxes paid by Americans earning less than $lO,OOO have
increased, while those in higher income groups fell last
year.
Green stressed that if such benefits as food stamps,
public housing, school lunches and Medicare counted
as income, the poverty rate would drop to between 10.2
percent and 13.9 percent of Americans.
Bureau studies about counting such benefits as
income have draWn considerable criticism and an
attempt to convene a panel of independent experts last
spring to advise the bureau on this approach had to be
canceled in the face of the public outcry.
Pickets outside the Commerce Department, where
yesterday's announcement was made, contended that
the government was trying to redefine poverty out of
existence.
"Hiding the poor with crooked statistics won't
eliminate poverty," charged Kate Waracks of a group
called Seniors' Action on OMB.
It is OMB, the Office of Management and Budget
headed by Stockman, that sets the official definition of
poverty, not the Census Bureau.
Green noted that Census officials studied and
reported on various measurements of poverty only
because they were instructed to do so by Congress.
Matsui and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., have pressed
for a special commission to try to redefine poverty.
Friday, Aug. 3, 1984
Vol. 85, No. 30 24 pages University Park, Pa. 18802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1984 Collegian Inc.
percent
poverty
American men shortly before Diaz
was released. He said the rebels
had asked for asylum in the
French, Spanish or Mexican
embassies, and safe conduct out of
El Salvador.
One of the Americans identified
himself as Capt. Emilio Gonzalez
of the U.S. Defense Attache's
office. He said he was not involved
and had come along to observe.
The other American did not
identify himself. ,
Col. Jesus Caceres, in charge of
the rescue operation, said the
rebels made several demands.
"I cannot tell you," what those
demands are, he said. "But we are
seeking the manner by which this
thing can end without bloodshed."
Caceres described the rebels as
"very nervous" and "without
much experience" in such an
operation.
Caceres seemed to indicate he
was preparing an assault on the
bank."lf it is necessary, we'll do
it," he said. "The people cannot
continue to live in a state of
anxiety for too much longer."
Work crews arrived about 4:45
p.m. to cut off the power, water
and apparently all.but a few
telephone lines to the bank. A
helicopter dumped two loads of
what appeared to be bricks on the
roof of the bank, but it was not
clear why.
A gray Mercedes-Benz was
found about 80 yards east of the
bank, and security officials said
they believed the rebels had
driven to the bank in it. Bomb
experts defused a dynamite bomb
found inside the car.
Witnesses, who asked not to be
identified for fear of reprisals,
said the rebels seized the Banco
Agricola at about 11:30 a.m. About
,'lOO soldiers and civil defense •
guards with submachine guns and
automatic rifles surrounded the
building in Soyapango, a working
class suburb of San Salvador.
About 2 1 / 2 hours later, a Red
Cross team evacuated two girls,
ages 5 and 6, and a 9-year-old boy
from the bank. They also carried
out the body of the dead guard,
Jose Mauro Gonzalez, 53:
August 10
new deadline
for filing bills
By KRISTINE SORCHILLA
Collegian Staff Writer
The deadline for filing
estimated bills has been extended
to Aug. 10, the University bursar.
said yesterday.
Donald J. Tressler said the
original deadline of Aug. 3 was
extended because the estimated
bills were mailed to students
later than was originally
planned.
The extension was not a result
of confusion about the new
registration process, Tressler
"Other than students needing
to have their bills filed to
consumate registration, the two
are not related," Tressler said.
J. James Wager, director of
registration and scheduling, said
the extension of the deadline for
filing the estimated bills will not
affect the registration deadline
itself. The deadline for
registering will remain Aug. 16,
he. said.
fridu y
inside
• The United States has decid
ed to drop two sanctions im
posed after Poland declared
martial law in 1981 Page 4
index
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Variable cloudiness today and
tomorrow with occasional show
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both days near 82. Patchy dense
fog developing tonight with a
low of 68 by Glenn Rolph