The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 3

Cal State's President Blames Fire on SOS nn 1 IPS I CC PART II EDITORIALS FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1970 1 SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SCHMITZ SEAT SCHEDULED SEPT. 15 Exclusive te The Times from Staff Writer SACRAMENTO Gov. Reagan Thursday set Sept. 13 as the date for a special election to fill the state senate vacancy resulting from the election of Republican John G. Schmitz to Congress.

A primary election will be held in the 34th Senatorial District, which encompasses southern and eastern Orange County, on Aug. 18. If the winner of the primary receives a majority of the votes cast, a runoff election will be be necessary. Schmitz defeated David Hartman, a Democrat, by more than a 2-1 margin Tuesday to win the unexpired portion of the term of the late Rep. James B.

Utt. Republican Dennis E. Carpenter and Democrat Dwight W. Mize won their respective party nominations in the June primary to replace Schmitz and will face each other on Nov. 3.

Both have said they will run in the special election. if I ft? w-r-i-ni 11.. PYROTECHNIC PARADOX Bill Yarringfon, who live in Costa Mcso and has produced some gigantic fireworks displays, holds one of the less-spectacular pieces of fireworks a small sparkler. TiniM photo ly Yinre Strrano Recalling an Explosive Career BY (iOKDON GRANT Tiirm Staff Writer Langsdorf Contends Gathering of Group Provoked Arsonists BY JACK BOETTNER Timet Staff Writer FULLERTON Cal State Fuller-ton President William B. Langsdorf has blamed the Society Over Sedition for provoking arsonists to set fire to a campus building in May, causing $25,000 damage.

The accusation was made in a sharply worded exchange of letters with Assemblyman John V. Briggs (R-Fullerton). Briggs, however, denies the society-sponsored gathering in the gymnasium May 27 had anything to do with the blaze which occurred' several hours later. And spokesmen for the police and Fire Department say their investigations have not linked any person, group or groups to the arson case. A vacant building adjacent to the headquarters for striking Cal State students was gutted by fire before dawn May 28.

No one was hurl. In his letter to Briggs, Langsdorf said: "I think it was unwise of you and attorney (Matthew) Kuril ich to use the gymnasium for a political campaign of the SOS. (Dr. L. Donald Shields, vice president for administration, approved use of the gym for the meeting.) 'Led to Arson' "There can be little doubt but that your meeting directly led a few hours later to the arson attempt to burn the students out (with the resultant $25,000 fire, the only major loss on campus during the entire 1 1 years of its history).

"If the culprits are apprehended, it is conceivable that the provocation may be traced directly to your meeting." Briggs lays the blame for all campus fires on the dissidents. In his reply to Langsdorf, Briggs said he was "appalled by your statement. It implies that someone from the community andor the SOS meeting attempted to burn the radi-rals out of the building that you had given them, but it was not the radical headquarters that burned. "I would like to point out that all campus fires have been started by the radicals and not bv the community." SOS is composed basically of conservative oriented citizens Who are concerned about the unrest on -the Cal State campus. The fire occurred in one of the buildings from the original 1959 campus complex.

The investigation has been in the hands of Police and Fire Department arson experts. Chief Won't Side In an interview Thursday, Police ('apt. Fred King declined to side with Briggs or Langsdorf. "Our investigators have turned un no evidence linking the fire with the community or the striking group on campus," King said. He said no suspects have been arrested.

Fire Marshal Preston Pyeatte backed King's statement. "If Briggs or Langsdorf know of anything tying in the fire with an individual or group," Pyeatte said, "then that is more than I know. The fire was of incendiary origin. However, there is nothing to connect the fire with a person, group or groups." Briggs often has leen critical of the college administration's handling of campus radical elements. And he recently opened fire on the Cal State Fullerton Foundation, charging poor management of more than one million dollars.

But foundation officials contend the nonprofit organization's financial affairs have been straightened out since 1968 and that it is now operating in the black. Langsdorf also had something to Please Turn to Page 10, Col. .1 COSTA MESA M. M. (Bill) Varnngton held a match to a small Fourth of July sparkler and watched its brief, pathetic effort to create excitement.

In a few it out, leaving a blackened piece of wire in his hand. "Its little show hardly got wa's over," he said. In fireworks. Xow Yarrington, 67, who lives in Costa Mesa, is semi-retired as part owner of one of the world's largest companies producing fireworks spectaculars. The cigars he smokes are no longer used to touch off fuses that make a Ml.

Vesuvius erupt, or start a Niagara Falls, or paint fiery portraits of Presidents and colored replicas of American Flags. lie still is available as a consultant, though, and recently completed some research on the origin of fireworks which led him to conclude: "When you watch a fireworks display today in (be hands of talented pyrotechnicians, you are viewing an art brought forward from the Dark Ages, improved by time and invention and woven into a grand spectacle." IMease Turn to PaRe fi, Col. more grandiose displays: The opening-day pyr technics of the New York World's Fair in which lighted the skies over much of the huge citv; the Golden Gate Exposition shows. in San Francisco in with a finale of 500, fti-inch bombs whose thunder rolled over the entire Bay area; the inaugurations of several presidents in Latin-America "They're all fireworks down there." ART SEIDENBAUM Magazine Movement The Western college front was 'summer-peaceful when we rolled -ground it last week; beards border-ing men's faces seemed quiet enough to become birds' nests. '1 At Isla Vista, students were building some kind of arts amphitheater across from the rebuilding of America.

At Santa Cruz, bulletin boards were full of directions for people participating in a summer institute to educate the blind. At St anford, individual a i-vists sat alone at separate bridge tables waiting for seconds, thirds and fourths. Then 1 came home this week to discover that stu dents at Santa Monica City College are trying to turn the movement into a magazine. They call themselves Stu-'dents Organized for Survival, 'which is a handy acronym and the name of their journal. They have temporary, unofficial offices in the student activities building.

Santa Monica City? Well, partly. Some of the organizers for survival go to other schools, larger and smaller. SOS already has chapters they use that old fraternal term at six other local area schools: Cal State LA, Long Beach City, Rio Hondo, Cal State Dominguez, Valley State and Pierce. A magazine to make the movement? Exactly. One of the founders explained that the whole demonstration inventory from administration sit-ins to zoological name-calling doesn't move minds or change governments.

What students need are constructive actions they can apply from a medium addressed in their terms. SMCC graduate Leonard Miller paid SOS has encouragement from colleges all over the country. The same students who formed strike groups, peace groups or pollution-fighting groups want to convert marching energy into ongoing programs. The magazine would be a sort of program guide for applied commitment in every area of concern, an answer to the all-generations question of "What can I do?" The well-bottom motive is to involve the uninvolved, supplying them with reason instead of simple rhetoric. The editorial posture of SOS, then, would be a stance above the underground while hanging left of the establishment.

It would appear on good quality paper. The bottom of the bottom motiv is as old-fashioned as Addison and Steele's ISth century Spectator, as traditional as Tom Paine. The pamphlet as a political weapon, carrying the word. I wonder what Marshall McLuhan would say about such publish or perish? Survival, the monthly magazine, exists in mockup form at the moment. First issue, with contributions from each chapter, is due by the end of summer.

Sometime between now and then SOS needs more editing and cash and personality to enhance stance. The seductive aspect of print is how far you can reach with a shoc-ptring. Millionaires effectively communicate through a tube. Marchers have limited range and risk of bail bonds or doctor bills. SOS figures it can cover a year's worth of campus advocacy on This is the same year undergraduates may finally get to vote and the year that University of California school newspapers may lose institutional financing.

I'm attuned to the literary transformation of the movement, but I'm not convinced that violent I lectors have ever really learned to read or that the awesome crowd of apathctics have ever really wanted In. Task Force Seeks Lease of 40 Vote-Counting Machines Panel Members Say Use of Devices in Wo of County Precincts Will Speed Election Results in November RY HOWARD SEELYK Timet Staff Wrlttr Bomb in Briefcase Explodes, Killing Man Carrying If A young man was blown up Thursday in front of the Compton police department, when a time bomb he was carrying in a briefcase exploded, police said. The dead man was tentatively identified as Tommy Lige Harper 23. Nobody else was injured. The explosion occurred at 8:25 a.m.

on the Willowbrook Ave. sidewalk ad jacent to the police building at 100 W. Almond St. "Everybody knew it was a bomb," said patrolman Patrick E. Dempsey.

"There was no doubt about that." The exact nature of the bomb was not immediately determined but it did contain dry cell batteries and ar alarm clock. Policemen rushed out the front and back doors of the building shortly after the blast. They found Harper dead on the sidewalk. Parts of his body were hurled 200 feet. Det.

Sgt. Robert Ellis said nobody had seen what Harper was doins prior to the explosion, so there vva no way of knowing what he intended to do with the bomb. Harper, a tall, slender dark youth who wore glasses, had been a student at Compton College off and on since the fall of 1965. His last enrollment was the fall of 19G9. He was a member of the Black Students Union there, investigators said.

Students and faculty recalled that Harper was a participant in several demonstrations at the campus. He was employed by Mattel. in Hawthorne for several months in 1967-6S, but was discharged for absenteeism, a spokesman for the firm said. Harper was on three years' probation for a conviction for marijuana possession. His probation officer, Melvin le Blanc, said he had not.

seen Harper since December. 1969, and that a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest. Officials were unable to estimate the amount of revenue to be derived from such a tax, if finally approved. An airport spokesman said 11 million passengers entered the airport in 1969 and there were an additional 20 million visitors. Drafting of the ordinance was ordered despite the warning of Asst.

City Atty. James A. Doherty that the charge would be illegal under the City Charter and under existing Airport Department leases with the airlines. Mrs. Russell pleaded for the requested ban on jet and heavy propeller aircraft traffic on the north runway despite the knowledge that it could be a futile gesture in view of the commission's prevailing attitude and final authority.

Her appeal for the action followed Monday's demonstration at a commission meeting by approximately T0 angry housewives who demanded that the strip be closed because of the jet-noise effect on more than homes alongside the runway. started before is accustomed it to Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. The central areas of the county will be counted on the Coleman in Santa Ana, he said. The Cubic machines are similar to the Coleman in that they read ballots electronically. Some members of the Task Force favor this system because it provides individual ballots which can be hand-counted later if necessary.

Thursday's meeting was short and calm compared to last week's meeting, which dissolved in bitterness and confusion. Actually it was a continuation of the previous meeting, which could not be adjourned after two members walked out, leaving less than a quorum on hand. The Task Force vote on the Cubic nuestion was 4 to 2. with member Will Lindsay not voting. Against the proposal were Joseph Irvine and Cecil Marks.

When the vote was taken, Lindsay closed up his papers and walked to the rear of the room but returned to his chair to vote against the main motion, which had been amended to increase the number of leased machines from 20 to 40. The motion was approved nn a 4-1 vote. used for production of antivenin were freed from their cages. All eight were recovered inside the la-bora tory. Dr.

Findlay Russell, director of the research laboratory where the snakes were released, said Thursday: "We're at a complete loss to explain why anyone would do anything like this a person who does must really be sick. "And it's gotten beyond the place of just being a problem. It could become an extremely dangerous SANTA ANA The county Voting Systems Task Force recommended Thursday that the county lease -40 Cubic vote-counting machines to speed election results in November. The action came at the fourth Task Force meeting since the June 2 primary, in which equipment breakdowns and other problems delayed final returns for days. The 40 machines will cover about of Orange County's expected precincts.

The remainder of the ballots will be counted on the controversial Coleman Vote Tallying System machines. The Task Force recommendation will be presented to county supervisors, probably at their July 12 meeting. It calls for leasing the machines on a one-time, no-strings-attached basis for $60,000. The augmenting vole counting equipment will serve two purposes. Task Force members said.

One will be to speed the county, and the other will be to serve as a test of a decentralized counting system. County Clerk William E. St John said he plans to put the machines, each of which can handle 12 precincts, in outlying such as San WAR TOOK FATHER Vic Has Earned Part of Camp Fee Vic, 12, has to be hospitalized for treatment of an intestinal disorder on an average of three times a year. "In my opinion, he is an emotionally healthy, well-adjusted child," says the Rev. Michael Lenihan, assistant pastor at St.

Columbkille's Church in Watts. "But he has always accepted responsibilities beyond his years. His illness is the price he pays for being so serious about life. It would be a blessing for him to get out of the Watts area for a while, to a relaxing mountain camp where he could have fun with children his age. His only hope for this experience is the Times Summer Camp Fund." For several years.

Father Lenihan continues, Vic has been both father and brother to his three younger brothers. Vic's mother, the widow of a serviceman killed in action, must work long hours in a garment factory to provide for her children. When the subject of summer camp came up at school, Vic realized he would have to earn his way in order to go, so he started collecting returnable bottles. A liquor store owner in the area was so impressed by his. initiative that he gave him a nickel for each bottle, but Vic 'has only been able to earn less than half the 548.50 fee and his mother cannot afford to help.

The only way he will lie able to go is through the generosity of Camp Fund contributors. rirase Turn to Page 7, Col. 3 Rain in July Falls Mainly Elsewhere A trace of rain barely enough to wet the streets swept across southern Orange County Thursday afternoon, marking only the second time in 39 years that it has rained in July. According to amateur weatherman Carl H. Hankey of San Juan Capistrano, who has kept rain records for 65 years, it rained .06 of an inch in July, 1931, and not again in July until last year, when .17 of an inch was recorded on July 11.

Harkey said the July record is .19 of an inch. That was 1911. Thursday's rainfall ai not enough to measure. Council Asks Airport Board to Restrict Use of New Runway RATTLESNAKES RELEASED Hospital Bolsters Security Municipal Airport Commissioners were requested by the Los Angeles City Council Thursday to ban the use of International Airport's newly opened north runway for four-months to all jets but 747s and to all propeller driven aircraft in excess of 12,000 pounds. Pat Russell, who, in an emotional The action was voted, 12 to 3, on the urgent appeal of Councilwoman speech, complained that people living close to the runway were being "punished worse than we had anticipated by the jet noise." Mrs.

Russell, who represents the area, said the people are "not so hysterical as they are disbelieving" as a result of the opening Monday of the new runway. Meanwhile, in a companion action, the council, by a vote of 11 to 4, instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance which would impose a $1 "admission fee" on anyone entering the airport The money would be used to support the rity Security measures were lightened this week at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center following two fires and the release of eight rattlesnakes from cages in a laboratory. A hospital spokesman said the three occurences appeared related. The first fire was set June 21, killing 500 mice and 10 guinea pigs and causing $.3,000 damage in a research laboratory. The second fire, in another animal research laboratory June 24, killed no animals but caused an estimated $6,000 damage.

Last Sunday eight rattlesnakes.