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444 P#4 News vrdretek:p Books Magazines 913 W. 24 Austin 478-0284 Photography Posters MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life of Canada 1001 Century -Building Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 his conviction showed 79% against it and only 9% for it, but when the people who were against it were asked why, only 20% said it was because what he did was not a crime 71% said it was because “many others besides Lieutenant Calley shared a responsibility for what happened.” Evidently many are denying his guilt as a way of denying their guilt. We are all guilty of irretrievable and irreversible crimes against humanity in Indochina to whatever extent we have known of these crimes yet have not done enough to protest and end them. We are not guilty of the act of shooting women and children in ditches unless we did that act ourselves. The officials, civilian or military, however high, who authorized or participated in free-fire zone and free-strike zone bombing and razing are guilty of the indiscriminate consequences of these policies and should be held accountable in our courts of justice, as Calley has been. That they will not be does not change the moral fact that they should be or that The Observer is 17 years old this year, and the only time it has ever showed a profit was on its fifteenth birthday, back in 1969. We’re more in debt now than we’ve ever been. That’s not to say that we’re discouraged. Our creditors may be, but we’re not. Follows the annual report: The best news comes first: Our circulation is up to an all time high of 12,500. This is mostly thanks to Clif Olofson, the Observer’s zealot of a business manager. Clif sent out 93,000 pieces of mail in the way of form letters and sample copies to potential subscribers last year and by doing so he brought in 4,368 new subscriptions. We now have 75 coin racks thrdughout the state, and those racks have sold about 1,000 copies an issue. Some two and a half percent of the people who sample the Observer at a coin rack go on to subscribe, which, the business people tell me, is super. Next year we hope to get a bunch more coin racks. Our income last year was $77,732, up $13,000 from 1969, but we were inflated out of our expected profit. Next year we think we’ll come out in the black. \(I know .we say that every year, but we really are going to come out ahead effective cash worth is minus $4,250, and that hole should get deeper come summer, when subscription income drops off drastically. We’re borrowing money to pay our bills. In order to bring the Observer out of debt this year, we need to make six or seven thousand dollars. The only way we can do that is to budget ourselves for 16-page issues for the rest of the year. Last all those who committed My Lai should be held accountable at law or that Calley should have been found guilty and sentenced. The outcry against the conviction and sentencing of Calley and the intervention of President Nixon have removed all traces of rhetoric and exaggeration from the import of My Lai for each of us. The Calley case fully and completely entails the honor and conscience of each citizen and our honor and conscience as a people. Silence now would be like silence after Wounded Knee, Babi Yar or Auschwitz. The action by the Texas Senate calling for a full pardon for Willian Calley disgraces the people, the state and the country. Each politician responsible for this disgrace should be held fully accountable by his constituents. Senators Schwartz and Kennard deserve personal thanks from each citizen of Texas for having fought the occurrence of this disgrace at every stage. R.D. year, thanks to the Childers Manufacturing Company, the Democratic Rebuilding Committee and a few other unexpected advertising windfalls, we were able to print 24-page Observers most of the time. We got quite. used to the idea of having a whole 24 pages, and now that we’re back to 16 we’re frustrated. The Observer is trying to set up advertising representatives in Houston, Dallas, Austin and New York in hopes of getting enough additional advertising to justify a bunch of 24 page issues this year. Our press prints Observer-sized journals in nothing less than multiples of eight; so we have to make healthy jumps from 16 to 24 to 32 pages. Each 8-page jump costs $220 an issue in printing, additional mailing costs, etc. Two full pages of advertising an issue would pay for eight pages of Observer. At sixteen pages an issue, my editorial function is primarily negative. I sit at my desk saying to aspiring writers, “No, we don’t have enough room for that. No. Maybe next time.” Molly Ivins and I both have to hold back on the amount of material we want to write. Last issue I held out a piece I did on the Bauer House controversy. Molly’s column, a book review by Ronnie Dugger, and a satiric article on the stock fraud scandal, because April 23, 1971 13 IDA. PRESS 504 West 24th Multi copy service. Call 477-8351 MEETINGS THE THURSDAY CLUB of Dallas meets each Downtown YMCA, 605 No. Ervay St., Dallas. Good discussion. You’re welcome. Informal, no dues. CENTRAL TEXAS ACLU luncheon meeting. Spanish Village. 2nd Friday every month. From noon. All welcome. CLASSIFIED BOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address: BOOKPLATES, P.O. Box 28-I, Yellow Springs; Ohio 45387. ANNE’S TYPING SERVICE: Complete Typing Service and Editing. Duplicating \(printing, Notary. Twenty years experience. Call 442-7008 or 442-0170, Austin. WE SELL THE BEST SOUND. Yamaha pianos, guitars; Moeck KungAulus recorders; harmonicas, kalimbas and other exotic instruments. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin. 478-7331. The $ report