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SCIENCE & TECHNoLOG

October, 1971
Vol . 20, N o. 10

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Pictorial
Reasoning
Puzzle

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Environmental Pollution

Peter House

The Liverpool Congestion Control Scheme

A. Davison and D. W. Honey

Federal Data Banks and the Bill of Rights
Pictorial Reasoning Tests, and Aptitudes of People -

Arthur R. Miller

The Life and Times of Lawrence Tate

Donald Fitzgerald

/"-

Neil Macdonald

SAN PERIl80

lP02l2l 9904 7112

PERIODICALS SEC 126 01572 *
180 W SAN CARLOS ST
•
SAN JOSE CA
95113

DO YOU WANT TO

PREVENT MISTAKES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN?
- avoid pitfalls?
- find new paths around old obstacles?
- apply in practical situations the observations and
wisdom of great scientists and wise men?
- stimulate your resourcefulness?

- see new solutions to old problems?
distinguish between sense and nonsense?
increase your accomplishments?
improve your capacities?

IF SO, TRY-

The C&A Notebook on
COMMON SENSE. ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED
devoted to research, development, exposition, and illustration of one of the most important
of all branches of knowledge, i.e. the subject of WHAT IS GENERALLY TRUE AND IMPORTANT =

Editor: Edmund C. Berkeley,
author, businessman, actuary,
scientist, computer professional,
first secretary of the Association
for Computing Machinery 1947-53,
editor of Computers and Automation.

RETURNABLE IN 7 DAYS
FOR FULL REFUND, IF
NOT SATISFACTORY WHY NOT TAKE A LOOK?
. . . . . HOW CAN YOU LOSE?

THE FIRST SIX ISSUES ARE FREE - see the coupon - THE NEXT 16 ISSUES ARE:
7. The Elephant and the Grassy Hillside
8. Ground Rules for Arguments
9. False Premises, Valid Reasoning,
and True Conclusions
10. The Investigation of Common Sense,
Elementary and Advanced
11. Principles of General Science, and
Proverbs
12. Common Sense - Questions for
Consideration
13. Falling 1800 Feet Down a Mountain
14. The Cult of the Expert

15. Preventing Mistakes from Failure
to Understand
16. The Stage of Maturity and Judgment
in any Field of Knowledge and
Experience
17. Doomsday in St. Pierre, Martinique
- Common Sense vs. Catastrophe
18. The History of the Doasyoulikes
19. Individuality in Human Beings , .••
20. How to be Silly
21. The Three Earthworms
22 . The Cochrans vs. Catastrophe

_ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (may be copied on any piece of paper) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To:

COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION
815 Washington St., R4, Newtonville, Mass.

02160

YES, please enter my subscription to the C&A Notebook on Common Sense at $12 a year,
24 issues (newsletter style), and extras.
Please send me (as FREE premiums for subscribing) the first six issues:
1. Right Answers - A Short Guide to Obtaining Them
4. Strategy in Chess
2. The Empty Column
5. The Barrels and the Elephant
3. The Golden Trumpets of Yap Yap
6. The Argument of the Beard
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Announcement

The Most Important of All Branches of Knowledge
(Based on the editorial in the April 1971 issue of Computers and Automation)
It may be that there is a branch of knowledge which is
the most important of all.
If so, I would maintain that it is a subject which used to
have the name "wisdom" but nowadays does not have a
recognized scientific name, or in any college a recognized
department or faculty to teach it. This subject currently is a
compound of common sense, wisdom, good judgment,
maturity, the scientific method, the trained capacity to
solve problems, systems analysis, operations research, and
some more besides. Its earmark is that it is a general
subject, not a special one like chemistry or psychology or
astronautics. Useful names for this subject at this time are
"generalogy" or "science in general" or "common sense,
elementary and advanced".
Many editorials published in "Computers and Automation" have in one way or another discussed or alluded to
this subject:
Examples, Understanding, and Computers / December 1964
The Barrels and the Elephant: Crackpot vs. Pioneer /
May 1965
Some Questions of Semantics / August 1965
Perspective / April 1966
Computers and Scientific Models / May 1967
New Ideas that Organize Information / December
1967
How to Spoil One's Mind - As Well as One's
Computer / August 1968
The Catching of Errors by Inspection / September
1968
Tunnel Vision / January 1969
The Cult of the Expert / May 1969
Computers, Language, and Reality / March 1970
Computers and Truth / August 1970
The Number of Answers to a Question/March 1971
In the editorial "The Cult of the Expert" we offered a
leaflet that belongs in this subject, "Right Answers - A
Short Guide for Obtaining Them". More than 600 readers
asked for a copy; so clearly this subject is interesting to the
readers of C&A.
This subject is related to computers and the computer
field in at least two ways:
First, many of the general principles which this subject
contains can be investigated in experimental or real situations by means of a computer. In fact, far more can be
investigated by computer than can possibly be investigated
by ordinary analytical mathematics.
Second, since computer professionals are in charge of
computing machines, many people consider these professionals responsible for the worthwhileness of the results of
computers. Because of "garbage in, garbage out", computer
professionals have a responsibility to apply common sense
and wisdom in at least three ways:

Input - in the selection and acceptance of the data
with which they begin;
Processing - in the processing through a system;
Output - in the interpretation and use of the answers.
Then the computerized systems will produce stIong structures that human beings can use and rely on, and not weak
structures which will crash with false information or ridiculous results.
"Computers and Automation" for April 1971 contains an
article, "Common Sense, Wisdom, General Science, and Computers", which deals with this subject. For more t~an a dozen years I have been studying this subject - ever SInce I searched in a very large and good public library for a textbook ?n
common sense or wisdom and found none at all. There IS,
however, a great deal of information to be gathered on this
subject because a large number of great men, ancient, medieval, and modern, have made remarks and comments (usually while talking or writing about something else) that belong
in this subject.
.
The subject of wisdom is particularly importan.t In the.se
modern days. The subject has been neglected, whIle speCIal
sciences have been cultivated. Investigators have pursued
the special sciences with the enthusiasm of a child with a
new toy. Specialized science and specialized technology
have rendered our earthly world almost unrecognizable:
All major cities on the planet are only a few hours
.
apart by jet plane.
Millions upon millions of people who otherWIse
would be dead are alive because of miracle drugs,
- thus creating a population explosion;
Nuclear weapons if used can destroy mankind and
civilization in a few hours: etc.
To deal with so many diverse, vast problems we need
wisdom. To use wisdom we should study it.
The staff of "Computers and Automation" have decided
that it is desirable to make the drawers full of information
we have been ,collecting on this subject more accessible and
more widely distributed. We have decided to publish twice
a month a publication of newsletter type called "The C&A
Notebook on Common Sense, Elementary and Advanced".
For more details, see the announcement on page 2. (The first
few issues of the Notebook are free.)
We invite you, our readers, to join us in the pursuit of
this subject, as readers of the Notebook, and as participators with us in the research and study.
Wisdom is a joint enterprise - and truth is not shaped so
that it can fit into the palm of anyone person's hand.

~~~.. ~
EDITOR

}

computers
Vol. 20, No. 10
October, 1971

and automation

The magazine of the design, applications, and implications
of information processing systems.
Computers and Applications

Editor

Edmund C. Berkeley

Assistant Editors

Linda Ladd Lovett
Neil D. Macdonald

Software Editor

Stewart B. Nelson

Advertising
Director

Edmund C. Berkeley

Art Directors
Contributing
Editors

Advisory
Committee

Editorial Offices

L'ldvertis ing
Contact

Ray W. Hass
Daniel T. Langdale
John Benne"
Moses M. Berlin
Andrew D. Booth
John W. Carr III
Ned Chapin
Alston S. Householder
Leslie Mezei
Ted Schoeters
Richard E. Sprague
James J. Cryan
Alston S. Householder
Bernard Quint

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION: MORE PROBLEMS
[T A]
WITHOUT SOLUTIONS?
by Peter House, President, Envirometrics, Washington, D.C.
Proposals for a sensible and sophisticated management information system for an administrator, so that he can test by simulation proposed solutions to environmental problems ahead of
time - and thus avoid bigger problems than the ones he started
with!

[T A]
THE LIVERPOOL CONGESTION CONTROL SCHEME
by A. Davison and D. W. Honey, the Liverpool Corporation,
Liverpool, England
A working computer system for the control of traffic in the
central area of Liverpool, containing the tunnel under the
river Mersey .

THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRONICS TO COMPOSITION
[T A]
AND PRINTING
by Raymond A. Hay, Exec. Vice Pres., Xerox Corp.,
Rochester, N.Y.
By the 1990's, we can expect broad use of high-speed electronic
composing machines, and facsimile newspapers produced in
homes. What consequences can we predict?

Computers and Management
28

"ESSENTIAL COMPUTER CONCEPTS FOR TOP MANAGEMENT"
- COMMENT
[T F]
1. By Eugene S. Stark, Needham, Mass.
Management must learn to rely on qualified D.P. professionals
for their D.P. judgment ....
2. By Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor, Computers and Automation
Every good member of top management knows that he must
understand a certain definite layer of special information for
which he employs specialists ....

COMPUTER SECURITY - SABOTAGE FEARS
DISCOUNTED
[NT F]
by Mel Mandell
The main threat to computer security is from insiders.

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.,
Newtonville, Mass. 02160
617-332-5453

THE PUBLISHER
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.,
Newtonville, Mass. 02160
617-332-5453

Computers and Automation is published monthly
(except two issues in June) at 815 Washington
St., Newtonville, Mass. 02160, by Berkeley Enerprises, Inc. Printed in U.S.A.
Subscription rates: United States, 11 monthly
issues and two issues in June (one of which
is a directory issue) - $18.50 for 1 year, $36.00
for 2 years; 12 monthly issues (without directory
issue in June) - $9.50 for 1 year; $18.00 for
2 years. Canada, add 50¢ a year for postage;
foreign, add $3.50 a year for postage. Address
all U.S. subscription mail to: Berkeley Enterprises,
Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, Mass.
02160. Second Class Postage paid at Boston, Mass.
Postmaster: Please send all forms 3579 to
Berkeley Enterprises Inc., 815 Washington St.,
Newtonville, Mass. 02160. © Copyright 1971. by
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
Change of address: If your address changes,
please send us bo~h your new address and your old
address (as it appears on the magazine address
imprint), and allow three weeks for the change to
be made.

Computers and Privacy
12

FEDERAL DATA BANKS AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS
[NT A]
by Arthur R. Miller, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
The dangers from the spiraling pattern of government data collection; and the need for a new impartial institution for regulating the nature of the data that may be collected and stored
about citizens.

Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions - I
[NT F]
by Congressman Cornelius E. Gallagher, Washington, D.C.
A plea for a committee of the House of Representatives on the
subject of privacy and democratic institutions.

Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions - 'Ii
[NT F]
by Congressman Frank J. Horton, Washington, D.C.
An added plea - both presented before the House Committee
on Rules, which approved a Resolution for creating a Select
Committee.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

The Selection of Personnel - for Computers and Other Purposes
38

PICTORIAL REASONING TESTS, AND APTITUDES
OF PEOPLE
[NT A]
by Neil Macdonald, Assistant Editor, "Computers and Automation"
Can we find tests not lim ited by culture or background that
would identify useful people for computer programming and
other jobs?

Computers, Common Sense, Wisdom and Science in General
6

CAN A COMPUTER APPLY COMMON SENSE?
[NT E)
by Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor, "Computers and Automation"
An operational definition of common sense; and how a computer can be programmed to apply it.
THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL BRANCHES OF
KNOWLEDGE
Common sense, wisdom, and science in general.

[NT F]

THE C&A NOTEBOOK ON COMMON SENSE,
ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED
Annou ncement

[NT F]

Computers, Science, and Assassinations
41

THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY DECLASSIFICATION OF RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
[NT A]
FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
by Richard E. Sprague, Hartsdale, N.Y.
The titles of the documents and other evidence indicate convincingly that Lee Harvey Oswald was an informant of the
FBI; that Oswald was trained in spy work by the CIA before
his visit to Russia; etc. Like the Pentagon Papers, the documents should be declassified.

The Golden Trumpet
33

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAWRENCE TATE:
Computer Professional, I BM Engineer, Fired After
Losing Local Court Action, Though Case Now On Appeal
[NT A]
by Donald Fitzgerald, New York
How an I BM engineer fought a civil rights case and tyranny by
local police, and thereby lost his job.

[NT A]
ONE WORLD OF COMMUNICATIONS
by Robert W. Sarnoff, Chairman, RCA
No international legal framework exists today to permit full use
by the nations of the world of the benefits of modern communications technology.

CAMPAIGN FINANCING: MONEY AND SECRECY
[NT G]
by John Gardner, Chairman, Common Cause, Washington, D.C.

The Science and Technology Division of the New York Public
Library to Close Its Doors on January 1, 1972
[NT G]
by Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor, "Computers and Automation"

Stands for and Against the Anti-Ballistic Missile System
by Herbert R. J. Grosch, National Bureau of Standards,
Washington, D.C.

[NT G)

Pictorial Reasoning Puzzle, by Ed Volkstorf
[T F)
Out of 255 circles, find the single pair of two alike patterns.

Problem Corner, by Walter Penney, CDP

[T C)

Numbles, by Neil Macdonald

[T C)

COMPUTERS and . AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Front Cover Picture
The object of "Puzzle", by
Ed Volkstorf, Radford, Va., is to
find the two identical "ferritecore-like" figures. Each figure is
based on a binary number between
2 and 255 (base 10); the presence
or absence of a binary one determines whether or not one of the
eight possible straight line segments
in the figure is drawn. We invite
our readers to test their keenness
of pictorial observation, and tell us
how long it takes to find the two
identical "ferrite-core-like" figures.
For more information, see page 57 .

Departments
50
50
51
52
52
28
57

Across the Editor's Desk
Applications
Education News
Miscellaneous
Research Frontier
Advertising Index
Calendar of Coming
Events
Monthly Computer
Census
New Contracts
New Installations
Who's Who Entry Form

55
53
54
58

Key
[A]

Article

[C] - Monthly Column
[E) - Editorial

Compu ters and Puzz les

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[F]
[G)
[NT]
[T]

Forum
Golden Trumpet
Not Technical
Technical Computer
Information
5

C- a
EDITORIAL

Can A Computer Apply Common Sense?
It is often said that:
Let's take an imaginary. example. John Jonesis a college
A computer cannot apply common sense.
student engaged in a three months summer job with a
In this context, the term "computer" of course means a
magazine publisher. His supervisor says to him:
We have a rush order for 47 copies of the May
computer with a program controlling it, a programmed
issue from Samuel Smith. Please take our company
computer.
car, go to our warehouse (a mile away), get 47 copies
I would maintain that this statement is not true, and it iy--of the May issue, package them, and mail them to
possible for a computer to apply many kinds of and many
Samuel Smith with this label.
degrees of common sense. But what do we mean by
"common sense"?
Now John Jones we shall imagine does the following things:
One of the more lucid discussions of the synonyms
sense, common sense, good sense, judgment and wisdom is
to be found in the Third International Webster's Dictionary, Unabridged, published by Merriam Webster, Springfield, Mass., page 2067. The substance of this is:
Sense indicates an accustomed steady ability to
judge and decide between possible courses with intelligence and soundness. Common sense and good sense
add only slight additional suggestions to sense; common sense suggests ordinary good judgment and
prudence without sophistication and learning; good
sense implies an especial perception of circumstances
and soundness in analysis.... Judgment involves
notions of sense refined and tempered by experience,
maturity, training, or discipline, to discern coolly and
judge soundly in difficult matters. Wisdom suggests
great soundness, sagacity, and insight, the result of
blending together common sense, wit, experience,
maturity, learning, and understanding.
Unfortunately, these implied definitions of common
sense are not operational; they do not provide physical
operations or tests which we can apply to the observed
behavior of a human being (or a programmed computer),
and as a result of the observations or tests say "Yes, it
displays common sense" or "No, it does not display
common sense."
But it seems to me that an operational definition of
common sense behavior for a human being can be constructed out of four main ingredients: observation, intelligence, initiative, and common knowledge (i.e., not including special knowledge). In other words, a human being
displays common sense behavior about a problem if:
- he is observant and alert;
- he shows initiative;
- he behaves reasonably;
- he modifies the instructions he is given (or the
intentions which he started with) so as to adjust
suitably to any new or unusual factors that he
encounters;
- he draws on common knowledge or general knowledge only (not the special knowledge of any
particular branch of knowledge);
- he effectively solves the problem.
6

• Looks to see if any other requests to go to the
warehouse are on hand and can be filled on the
same trip; finds three and takes them along.
• Observes that the car is low on gas; stops at a gas
station on the way; puts in a dollar's worth of gas;
and writes a slip for the bookkeeper requesting
repayment of his $1.
• Finds that there are only 45 copies of the May
issue in the warehouse; uses 42 to fill the order;
leaves one issue in the storeroom tagged with a slip
"Last copy - To be replenished";
• Fills the other three requests to the warehouse,
pu tting them in the car to bring to the office;
• Wraps up the 42 copies securely, ties them additionally with string, affixes the label, weighs the
package, affixes proper postage from the postage
meter, and mails the package at the post office on
his way back;
• Directs the remaining two copies of the May issue
to the clerk in charge of reprinting, with a slip
reporting that the supply of the May issue is
exhausted;
• Returns the car to a nearby parking space, since
the original space has been filled by another car;
and
• Reports the completion of the task to his supervisor, informing him of other actions taken.
John Jones has been observant, alert, displayed initiative, acted reasonably, modified given instructions appropriately, drawn on his general knowledge, and has effectively solved the problem - even though only 42 copies were
shipped instead of 47. There is no doubt at 'all that Jones
has displayed a great deal of common sense - as if he were
an employee of ten years experience and had been taught
over the years all the modifications of instructions that he
needed.
With this example in front of us, we can see plainly the
answer to the question:
Can a computer apply common sense?
The answer is yes.
First we make the program cover logically, appropriately, and completely, all or almost all of the kinds of
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

situations that can arise. That takes work, but if a clerk of
ten years experience can do it, so can a good systems
analyst do it and then translate it into a computer program.
Second, we equip the program with an evaluating function such as in a computer program that plays chess. In
other words, in situations where different degrees of desirability attach to different courses of action relative to a
purpose, the computer is given a subroutine that weighs
factors and makes decisions. This also takes work, but if a
chess-playing program can do it, so also can other programs.
To modify instructions in the light of purposes is not hard,
provided we take the trouble to express the evaluating
function in a computer program.
Of course a computer cannot regularly observe or perceive all of the environment - any more than a blind man
can. But we do not expect the same kind or degree of
common sense from a blind man as we expect from a
sighted person.
We can properly expect a very high degree of many
kinds of common sense from well-worked-out computer
programs.

Edmund C. Berkeley
Editor

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For complete information write to:
Instruments

Note: An expanded discussion of "What is Common Sense?" and
how different organisms apply it constitutes Issue No. 24 in The
C&A Notebook on Common Sense. Elementary and Advanced. See
the announcement on page 2.

Inc.

~2~0 EAST EVANS AVENUE. DENVER COLORADO 80222

(303) 7[,6-8301 TWX 910 931·0~6a

subtracting depending on whether the number it's after is
more or less than the current number."

PROBLEM CORNER

Walter Penney, cOP
Problem Editor
Computers and Automation

"How can the machine tell when the number has been
found?"
"The machine is able to compare two numbers, deciding
whether one is less than, equal to or greater than another.
It stops when it finds the two are the same."
AI looked a little puzzled. "I'm still a little confused",
he said. "How would it go about finding the number 6, for
example?"
"It would go 1 + 2 + 4 - 2 + 4 - 2 - 1 so that seven
operations would be necessary."
"How many operations would be necessary for a number
in general?"

Problem 7110: Operation Search
Solution to Problem 719: Messages in Math?

"Here's a really far-out search procedure", said Pete.
"Don't know why they want it, but ours not to reason
why, etc."
"How does it work?" asked AI.
"Well, the program is supposed to be looking for a
certain number. It starts with 1, then adds 2, the 4, and so
on, doubling the amount added at every point as long as the
sum is less than the number it's looking for."
"Sooner or later it will reach a number bigger than the
target number. What does it do then?"
"Actually if the number is of the form 2n - 1 the
machine will reach it directly by addition", said Pete. "For
other numbers it starts subtracting half the last number
used and continues doubling and adding or halving and
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Of the 63 possible two-digit endings of cubes, only 00,
17, 25, 41, 37, 57 and 97 yield admissible endings for
squares when 41 (the last two digits of 1971 2 ) is
subtracted. Additional restrictions on the hundred's digits
of squares and cubes allow us to reduce these possibilities
further until we find 1971 2 + 14302 = 181 3 •

Readers are invited to submit problems (and their
solutions) for publication in this column to: Problem
Editor, Computers and Automation, 815 Washington St.,
Newtonville, Mass. 02160.
r

THE LIVERP,OOL CONGESTION CONTR,OL SCHEME
The ever-increasing density of traffic in our city
streets, and the astronomical costs of major revisions
of street layouts, have stimulated research into
methods of traffic control to cope with congestion
efficiently and economically. One solution to this
problem would appear to be the application of
computer control. Two experimental control centres
have been established in Great Britain by the
Ministry of Transport, in West London and in
Glasgow. In Liverpool, the Corporation have gone
one step further, and in June 1968, established a
working control system.

By A. Davison and D. W. Honey

The Mersey road tunnel links the City of Liverpool, sited
on the east bank of the river Mersey, to the Wirral
Peninsular (bounded by the Mersey and the river Dee),
and was opened to road traffic by King George V in 1936.
This tunnel is currently the only practicable road link
between Liverpool and Birkenhead, although a second
two-lane tunnel is scheduled to be opened in 1971. The
existing tunnel has four 9-ft wide lanes between the main
entrances in Liverpool and Birkenhead, together with two
two-lane branches off the main tunnel, one leading to the
docks at Liverpool, and the other to Birkenhead. The
Birkenhead branch is now restricted to use by traffic
entering the tunnel only; the Liverpool branch is used for
exit traffic only.
The first major use of 'tidal flow' control in the tunnel
was made in 1950. This is' the utilisation of the main tunnel
lanes in the ratio of 3:1 in a particular direction, to assist
commuter flow during the morning and evening peak
hours. Between the hours of 08.30 and 09.15, and 17.00
and 18.30, some 3,500 vehicles per hour flow into and out
of the city through the tunnel. During these hours, congestion within the tunnel causes extensive queueing on the
city streets leading to the tunnel entrance, with subsequent
dislocation of the other traffic not requiring access to the
tunnel. In particular, traffic attempting to cross the tunnelbound traffic is delayed by nose-to-tail queues of vehicles
blocking the cross-roads.
Traffic conditions are aggravated by the radial distribution of roads leading into Liverpool, and steadily
deteriorate as the 'central area' (centralised on the Mersey
tunnel entrance) is approached. Conditions on the
Birkenhead side are not so critical, because the approach
routes are not intersected by cross-roads to the same
extent. In 1965, a traffic control scheme was recommended
to and adopted by the Liverpool Council. Design work
started immediately on a comprehensive, one-way street,
traffic signal controlled scheme in which reserved lanes
Reprinted with permission from the December 1970 issue of
The Computer Bulletin, published by The British Computer
Society, London, England.
8

for the tunnel-bound traffic were provided on the tunnel
approach routes, with physical separation and channelising
islands to cut out queue-jumping from 'local' lanes. tFils
scheme was put into operation in 1966, with the knowledge
that further controls would be required to give positive
directions to tunnel traffic during the periods of congestion,
and at other times to enable the lanes reserved for tunnel
traffic to be used. by the local traffic.
Thus the Tunnel Approaches Congestion Control
Scheme was born, and from the beginning it has been regarded as the first step towards a more complex 'area
control'. The main objectives of the scheme were
a)

c)
d)
e)

control of tunnel-bound traffic queues at main intersections by red signals rather than by a 'voluntary'
restriction using box junction regulations;
forward movement of tunnel-bound traffic at intersections to be made in phase with flows of local
traffic, restricted as necessary by limiting the greentime by the use of sub-controllers;
maximum queue occupancy of tunnel lanes, thus
limiting queue-jumping from local l~nes and side
routes;
overall control and display of regulatory and informatory part-time signs;
maintenance and improvement of bus schedules, with
free flow of other local traffic as far as practicable at
all times; and
the establishment of a traffic control office, with a
central processing unit to pursue and maintain these
complex and integrated objectives.

The adoption of signal controls was dictated by intense
competition for forward movement of traffic towards the
tunnel, the shapes, areas and distances to be kept clear,
the prevalence of vehicles stoppin~ in a 'box' under slowmoving queue conditions, and irrespective of a bias
linking programme, the opportunities presented by boxes
for queue-jumping and infiltration. Prior to computer
control, 'box offences' occurred at an abnormally high
level on the tunnel approaches, but not elsewhere.
Sub-controllers at key intersections on the tunnel
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

approaches were manually operated by traffic engineering
technicians between 1966 and 1968. This relieved police
from traffic duty and confirmed the decisions made, as the
public quickly became wholly reliant upon these controls.
Surveillance by closed-circuit television assists the programme development and enables action to be taken to
re-direct public transport and to deal with abnormal traffic
problems. Internally illuminated gantry signs, including
part-time signs, were erected in 1966 to direct traffic into
the correct lanes.
The objectives necessitated the inclusion of an on-line
real time computer, a general purpose digital type being
selected for its programming flexibiity, and with a
capacity for expansion and integration in future traffic
management projects. Schemes and tenders for an
automatic control system were invited from commercial
firms with specialist knowledge, and a tender accepted
from the Plessey Company Limited (Automation Group),
to supply a general purpose XL9 digital computer, together
with associated hardware and software. A closed-circuit
television contract was awarded to Pye TVT. Most of the
necessary traffic signals and cables had been installed
during the implementation of the comprehensive one-way
traffic scheme in 1965-66.
Control centre
The main facilities available to the supervisory staff are
the computer and its peripherals, including manual override of traffic signals and sign displays, control of the closedcircuit television, VHF radio, telephones, a map display,
and various tally and record panels. Two dual position
control desks have been installed, and are placed one
behind the other with the rearmost elevated on a dais.
The rearmost desk is allocated to transport personnel, due
to their predominant use of the radio telephone equipment
and the engineering personnels' greater reliance on the
map display, which faces both desks.
Two banks of eight 19-in. television monitor displays
are located on each side of the map display. Nine displays
are being used in the present closed-circuit television
system, the remainder being taken up at present by
internally illuminated maps of key intersections and signs,
an internally illuminated calendar, and a spare TV
monitor. Each desk has a camera control panel with two
8·5-in. desk monitors and two telephones. The engineer's
desk has switch panels for the control of signals, signs and
the map display, together with a radio telephone link via
the normal telephone handset. The transport desk has the
normal radio telephone speaker equipment together with
tally and record panels displaying vital information regarding availability and location of personnel and vehicles.
The map display is about 12 ft long by 8 ft in height,
and represents the road layout within the central area and
around the proposed Liverpool inner ring road, suitably
distorted to permit clear presentation of the existing and
future road pattern.
The streets are shown in white with light and dark blue
colours for areas of land and water respectively. Green
triangles with their apexes in the direction of vehicle traffic
flow indicate green signal aspects, with red bars and orange
discs showing inhibit and queue conditons on the approach
routes. At pedestrian crossings, green discs are illuminated
when the 'crQss' signal is showing.
The computer room is to the rear of the map display
and contains the computer and its peripherals, the closedcircuit television and radio telephone engineering cabinets
and an air conditioning unit. A false floor is provided over
the whole area to cater for the large amount of cabling.
The street cables terminate on a main distribution frame
which is situated in the basement below the computer
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

room. The engineering cabinets of the closed-circuit
television and radio telephone equipment are contained
in blocks separate from the main computer to allow for
further expansion of the computer system.
Computer equipment
The Plessey XL9 is a general purpose, 24-bit word digital
computer' used 'on-line', in real time. It currently has a
16K word core store (2 p,secs cycle time) of which about
12K is used in the current scheme, with only some 40 per
cenl. usage of the computer available time. An additional
32K core store has been added during 1970 to allow for
expansion of wider area control and for numerous
additional control schemes.
Two data channellers containing the interface equipment handle input and output signals, via relays in a relay
butTering rack in some cases and directly in others such as
the loop detectors. The computer scans these data channellers at ! sec. intervals and transfers up-to-date information to and from core store. The conventional peripheral
equipment includes a paper tape reader and punch capable
of processing about 500 and 110 words a second respectively, and a control typewriter, for input and output
commands and messages. An off-line Flexowriter is used
for tape preparation of the program which is written in
a pseudocode known as 'EXEC 9'.
In an annexe, located immediately off the main equipment room, are six master signal linking controllers, the
sub-master controller, engineering work benches, and
electronic test equipment.
Control philosophy
Under normal conditions tunnel-bound traffic, parallel
and cross 'local' traffic use the various intersections under
conventional biased linking of traffic signals. During
congestion, sub-controllers controlled by the computer
limit the durations of the green aspects on the tunnel lanes
by artificially inducing red aspects within the normal overall green phases.
Congestion conditions originate in the Tunnel Plaza
where three approach routes (a total of eight tunnel lanes)
merge, and where tunnel-bound traffic passes through
11 toll booths* into one, two, or three tunnel lanes
according to the prevailing lane-working in the tunnel
proper. The two' sections into which the operational
program is divided relate to the Plaza and the approach
lanes/roads respectively.

Plaza program
'Presence' loops, placed at the entrance to the Plaza and
'A' loops in the final sections of the approach lanes are
scanned by the computer to detect very slow moving or
stationary traffic. These are compared with adjustable
parameters set in the program and when necessary, trigger
the control program into 'close control'. For example,
a process in the computer establishes 'presence' conditions
after at le:lst a 7 sec. duration for each loop. Three such
conditions occurring coincidentally trigger the Plaza
control program.
Close 'control' of the Plaza approaches is then established using their own pre-set basic maximum 'green time'
allowance. Subsequently this green allowance for each
approach is reduced by 1 sec. for each second that a Plaza
entry loop shows presence, but is increased by 1 sec. each

*The toll booths were moved to the Birkenhead entrance on
1 September 1970.
9

second, towards the basic maximum as vehicles are detected
leaving the Plaza (ie entering the tunnel). When this
allowance reaches a predetermined minimum, the computer
applies an 'inhibit', turning the tunnel lane signals to red.
Removal of the inhibit occurs when the allowance reaches
the predetermined period of 12 secs.
The calculations take place independently of the normal
signal cycling, 'but minimum durations of 8 sec. for the
green and red phase are maintained, with the computer
taking account of instantaneous and impending main
phases changes. A smooth termination of the Plaza control
is effected by giving fixed long green allowances (apart
from normal phase changes) when a predetermined number
of booth 'exit' loops show a simultaneous 'absence' of
vehicles for a certain number of seconds. Switch-on of the
Plaza program also initiates control of gantry signs, etc;
switch-off of the Plaza program takes place if, for three
consecutive minutes, no 'switch-on' condition has been
detected.

Tunnel approach program
The main objective of the tunnel approach program is the
optimum loading of the tunnel approach lanes. At certain
intersections, merging of tunnel lanes takes place, using
appropriate control programs. Elsewhere, special traffic
control logic is used to assist general traffic movement,
and is provided as sub-routines of the tunnel approach and
Plaza programs.
In each tunnel lane, approximately one-third of the way
down each block from its entrance, a pair of Plessey
Mectest loops, 5 ft square and placed 7 ft apart, are set in
the road surface, to measure vehicle presence and speed.
These are known as the 'A' and 'B' loops. A threshold
speed for each block is set in the computer in the range 34,
16, 11, 8'3, 6·7, 5·7 and 5 miles per hour. Basically each
block is controlled independently of adjacent blocks, but
queue indications on the A and B loops are checked, since.
false information can be generated by isolated slowor
stopped vehicles, lane changing, etc. The criteria for each
block are the state of the downstream signals, the downstream traffic density, and the long-term flows within the
block. When the sum of the 'weighting values' given to
these conditions exceeds a pre-set total, queue conditions
are assumed within the block. The computer then continuously calculates for the block of the delay required
before the application of a red (inhibit) aspect to the tunnel
lane signals at the block entrance, ie the time necessary to
fill the block with vehicles. This delay is continuously
adjusted until the actual application of the inhibit, and
takes account of entry traffic volumes and of downstream
traffic movements, based on the state of signals at the
entrance into the next downstream block.
Near the entrance to the block, at the optimum end of
queue position as determined by the requirements of local
traffic movements, is located a single loop entrance detector
in each tunnel lane. These determine 'presence', 'absence'
and 'instantaneous' entry traffic volumes. Presence and
absence of vehicles on the entrance loops after the
application of an inhibit indicate to the computer the
adequacy of, and subsequent modifications required to,
the inhibit calculations.
After application of an inhibit the computer continuously
checks for inhibit release conditions and modifies a pre-set
release delay according to
a)
b)

the state of downstream tunnel lane signals;
traffic flows, if any, over the A and B loops in the
blocks; and
any restriction applied to cross traffic movements,
where the computer supervises overall signal cycles
and phases.

Heavy movements of vehicles into the Victoria Street
tunnel lanes from local side streets introduced considerable
difficulties, the prohibition of turning, even at peak periods,
being impractical. The aim of keeping the main queue
moving and filling available spaces was frustrated when the
standard link scheme was being used, even with computer
control, since the off-sets frequently encouraged use of the
local streets to gain access to the approach. In fact, using
vehicle-actuated (va) working, the heavy local flows on
side roads tended to extend side road greens at the expense
of the main approaches, with their limited movements,
whilst fixed-time working was too rigid. A Plan 2 bias link,
with off-sets timed back from the Plaza, could not allow
for variations of inhibits within the overall main road
green phases, or for the substantial variations of queue
progression speeds causing wide departures from the
calculated off-sets.
Since the signal controllers could offer a 'green wave'
facility whereby the computer can make direct demands for
phase change and duration, a Plan 3 system was evolved.
In this, the computer induces isolated va working, triggered on and off by the Plaza program through a master
controller. On inhibit release, the computer commands the
controller (subject to safeguards, eg minimum green on
opposing route, etc) to select tunnel route phase green.,
This is held either for maximum phase green, or until the
block is filled, after which normal va working is restored.
This 'green wave' facility is also used for emergency
services. This system reduces and limits filtering from local
streets into tunnel approach lanes but gives maximum
(virtually indefinite) green time to the cross routes under
stationary tunnel queue conditions, thus helping to clear
local traffic.

Emergency service

A special computer program facility (the 'hurry call'
program) permits the Fire Service to select, at the press of
a button, a priority route to anyone of 18 sub-areas of the
city centre. A wave of long green phases (known as the
'green wave') is transmitted to assist overall movement of
traffic on local lanes prior to and during the scheduled
passage of the fire appliances. Certain junctions not directly
on the route are also controlled, to give traffic clearance
ahead of and away from the selected route. The sub-area
route selected is shown on the map display in the control
centre. A maximum of 12 simultaneous route demands can
be made, at present affecting up to 12 controlled intersections. On a clash of requirements at an intersection,
one phase takes priority on a pre-set basis, but even on
repeated calls, no phase may be held more than 2 min.
The computer seizes the required phases at appropriate
times based on operational experience. To cover variations,
the phase is called 20 sec. before the scheduled arrival of
the appliance, and is held for a total of 50 sec. As all safety
guards, eg minimum green on the opposing phase, intergreens, etc, are observed, the phase is in fact held for less
than 50 secs.
An average of all fire calls during a 24-hr period, shows
savings of up to 50 per cent. on trip times, this saving being
most marked during the peak hours and its associated
congestion. Expansion and improvement of control are
envisaged for a new second central area fire station, with
automatic triggering of the hurry call program by the
departure of the appliances themselves, and subsequently,
the synchronisation of the program with the actual progress
of the appliance through the selected route. The latter
facility is to ensure that the appliance and the progress of
the green wave remain in synchronism throughout.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Part-time signs
Part-time signs indicate traffic conditions to the involved
motorist, effect lane switching and assist in the regulation
of traffic movements. These signs are computer operated,
using 'logic' conditions based on the tunnel traffic conditions, the major determining factor being the switch-on
of the Plaza control program, and congestion states of the
various blocks. Sign changes are subject to pre-set smoothing periods (at present set to 5 min.) irrespective of the main
contr?l logic. With the Plaza program alone triggered, the
first SIgns restrict the tunnel lanes to the tunnel traffic only.
As. the approach blocks fill, advisory 'congestion' signs are
sWItched on further upstream, indicating the prime cause
of the delay.
Additional part-time signs are fitted to the traffic signals
at the entry to each block, showing 'tunnel congested'
when the inhibit starts. This aids driver co-operation and
discipline, when the tunnel signals are red, often for
prolonged periods. Part-time regulatory signs (for example,
"NO LEFT TURN'), operated according to the traffic
situations prevailing at any time, obviate unnecessary
restrictions on traffic movements, but experience shows
a need for advance advisory signs indicating the state of
these regulatory signs. Further control of high capacity
arterial routes, and more particularly the approaches to
two road tunnels, will make extensive use of part-time
signing.

Operational program
The Operational Program is made up with sub-programs
which are run at i-sec., I-sec., and I-min. intervals. These
time intervals are defined by interrupts generated by a
real time clock synchronised with the frequency of the
National Grid electricity supply; the interrupts are served
by a small but powerful supervisor program. Parameters
of interrupted programs are preserved until the interrupt
has been serviced, and a sequence of program priorities
established according to the interrupt priorities. When the
programs of a higher priority have been completed and
terminated, the interrupted program is continued from the
point at which it had been interrupted.
The i-sec. program scans all the detector information
staticised on buffer relays and transfers the information
into core store. Some minor calculations establishing
"change of presence' on each loop in the system are also
executed. The I-sec. program contains a number of subprograms. Demands for 'hurry calls' for a fire appliance
using a 'green wave' are dealt with first. Subsequent
programs are the Plaza control program, which establishes
the necessity for close control, followed by the tunnel
approach program, in which the various blocks of road on
each approach are optimised. The gantry signs are then
adjusted according to the traffic conditions, and finally all
the outgoing data is output (via wetted reed relays) to the
sub-controllers, gantry signs and secret signs. The amount
of spare time is also calculated at this point for the assessment of program efficiency, and displayed on the engineering console.
During the I-min. program, a simple test is made on the
~~j.ority of the comp~ter functions. A failure of any test
InItIates an output faIl message as a warning to the duty
controller. (Since the official hand-over on 1 July 1968,
there have been no known computer failures, although the
system h~s been in operation 24 hrs per day, seven days
a week,. SInce that date.) The I-min. program is also used
when a 'fault log' of the system is demanded by the duty
controller. On receipt of this demand, part or all of the
system (according to the demand) is scanned for defects
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

such as 'continuous presence' or 'absence' on a loop detector
without a just cause - such as a parked car - and a report
output at the end of a minute interval.
Miscellaneous facilities are available to correct the
system parameters, or to output data from the core stores
by suitable commands via the control typewriter, or to b~
input via the typewriter or the tape reader whilst the
system is on-line. Work is proceeding to extend these
facilities to enable new programs to be loaded run
suspended and terminated as in a simple mul;i-Ievei
programming system.
System evaluation
Two years of operational use, and the implementation of
software modifications (made as a result of experience and
to cater for changes in the approach routes) have made
a qualitative assessment of the system very difficult.
However, general evaluations of local traffic behaviour
have been possible during periods of severe tunnel
congestion.
The usual random appearance of accidents and serious
breakdo ...:ns in the tunnel has continued to lead to long
periods of stationary or very slow Illoving queues, but local
traffic has moved freely with little or no interference from
the tunnel queues. One unusual yardstick is the number of
buses actually present in the main bus station, reflecting
the low delays and reduced difficulties of traversing the
city centre. With computer control, significantly larger
numbers of buses are now seen at the bus station during
the peak hours.
Future developments
The experience gained so far confirms that an early
expansion of the system towards area traffic control is
essential. Future systems will be based on the existing
control centre, and will include advanced aids to drivers
in the form of advisory signs.
In the city centre linked signal system, it is proposed
that the selection of the linking program from the master
controller's 'library' of three, and the choice of fixed time
or vehicle actuated working will be made by the computer
from traffic flow and density measurements made at
selected points, coupled with a 'time of day' choice to
cater for pedestrian movements.
Data transmission ducts are being provided in all new
highway schemes and installations. Early use will be made
of these in connection with approaches to the new road
tunnel leading to Wallasey, scheduled to open in 1971, and
the first stage of the inner ring road. Further part-time signs
in the new and existing gantry signs will control and distribute traffic to the two tunnels, giving advance notice of
congestion conditions, closures, and estimated time delays.
Studies are being made of a wide range of advanced aids
such as electronic displays (for the presentation of mimic
and alpha-numeric information on TV monitors), simple
time-division-multiplex units to permit economic transmission to the control centre of data relating to more
remote installations, and new static 'detector' devices
(particularly required on multi-storey car park schemes).
With the removal of the toll booths from the Liverpool
entrance to Birkenhead during 1970, an automatic system
controlling nine lanes of merging traffic into the main
tunnel is being designed, not only to eliminate conflicts
where the traffic merges but also as a first step towards the
optimisation of the tunnel flow, in which a 5 per cent.
improvement in traffic throughput is envisaged.
On-line checking of the city's one-mill ion-pound traffic
light system is already planned, by sampling the timing
(Please turn to page 23)
11

FEDERAL DATA BANKS AND THE BILL ,OF RIGHTS

Arthur R. Miller
Professor of Law
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104

"Whether he knows it or not, each time a citizen files a tax return, applies
for life insurance or a credit card, seeks government benefits, or interviews
for a job, a dossier is opened under his name and an informational profile
on him is sketched. ... Few people seem to appreciate the fact that
modern technology is capable of monitoring, centralizing, and evaluating
these- electronic entries - no matter how numerous they may be - thereby
making credible the fear that many Americans have of a womb-to-tomb
dossier on each of us. "

(Based on a statement presented to the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the judiciary of the United
States, February 23,1971.)

Someone with limited vision might be tempted to say, as
did a federal judge recently, that army spying on the lawful
activities of civilians is "much ado about nothing." Viewed
in isolation, perhaps the judge was right in characterizing
the army's activities as an "assemblage of keystone cops" or
as a mild irritant, especially since the public mea culpas by
former intelligence agents may have helped to abort their
expansion. But military spying cannot be viewed in a
vacuum - unfortunately, it is symptomatic of growing
governmental intrusion and heightened threats to our consti tu tional freedoms.

The Surveillance Society

Consider the implications of these three propositions:
First, Americans are scrutinized, measured, watched,
counted, and interrogated by more governmental agencies,
law enforcement officials, social scientists, and poll takers
than at any time in our history. Second, probably in no
nation on earth is as much individualized information
collected, recorded, and disseminated as in the United
States. Third, the information gathering and surveillance
activities of the federal government have expanded to such
an extent that they are becoming a threat to several basic
rights of every American - privacy, speech, assembly,
association, and petition of the government.
As recently as a decade ago we could smugly treat
Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 as exaggerated science fiction having no relevance to us or to life in
this country. But in the last few years this comforting, but
self-delusive, mantle has been stripped away. Revelations
before congressional subcommittees and in the news media
have presented a disheartening panorama of the ways in
which the intruders of our society, aided by modern
science, have destroyed many of our traditional bastions of
privacy. The widespread use of spike and parabolic microphones, the emergence of various gadgets for electronic
eavesdropping, and the ready availability of cameras
equipped with esoteric optical devices have made it clear
that we no longer enjoy physical privacy in our homes,
offices, or remote country retreats. And now, ever increasing resort to the computer, laser technology, and
microminiaturization techniques has begun to erode our
informational privacy and to threaten several of our most
fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Spiraling Pattern of Data Collection

Arthur R. Miller is a Professor of Law at the University of
Michigan. He is the author of The Assault on Privacy (Univversity of Michigan Press, 1971), a comprehensive analysis of
the computer-privacy problem. Prof. Miller has testified before a number of Congressional Subcommittees on various aspects of the legal implications of computer technology, and
has written widely on these subjects. He is a graduate of
Harvard Law School, and will be a visiting professor there
during the academic year 1971-72.

The hearings on governmental questionnaires and related
matters held by this Subcommittee during April, 1970, and
the wealth of material presented in my new book, The
Assault on Privacy: Computers, Data Banks, and Dossiers
(University of Michigan Press, 1971) demonstrate the spiraling pattern of data collection in this country, and no
purpose is served by redocumenting here what now is
self-evident. Whether he knows it or not, each time a citizen
files a tax return, applies for life insurance or a credit card,
seeks government benefits, or interviews for a job, a dossier
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

is opened under his name and an informational profile on
him is sketched. It has now reached the point at which
whenever we travel on a commercial airline, reserve a room
at one of the national hotel chains, or rent a car we are
likely to leave 'distinctive electronic tracks in the memory
of a computer - tracks that can tell a great deal about our
activities, habits, and associations when collated and
analyzed Few people seem to appreciate the fact that
modern technology is capable of monitoring, centralizing,
and evaluating these electronic entries -- no matter how
numerous they may be - thereby making credible the fear
that many Americans have of a womb-to-tomb dossier on
each of us.
Data Banks

Even though the threat to our informational privacy is
growing constantly, most Americans remain unaware of the
extent to which federal agencies and private companies are
using computers and microfilm technology to collect, store,
and exchange information about the activities of private
citizens. Rarely does a day go by without the existence of
some new data bank being disclosed. In recent months we
have read of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Adverse Information File, the National Science
Foundation's data bank on scientists, the Customs Bureau's
computerized data bank on "suspects," the Civil Service
Commission's "investigative" and "security" files, the
Secret Service's dossiers on "undesirables," and the surveillance activities of the United States Army - to name
only a few of the federal government's data banks that have
brought to light. Even now only the tip of the iceberg may
be visible.
Justification of Data Banks

The lack of concern over these data gathering activities
probably reflects the fact that by and large they are well
intended efforts to achieve socially desirable objectives. For
example, the law enforcement agencies can claim that
filebuilding is necessary to combat organized crime and
restore "Law and Order." In a similar vein, the FBI and the
Army can justify their intelligence activities in terms of
combating subversion or quelling campus disruptions and
riots in our urban centers by knowing who to watch or
seize in times of strife.
Negative Side to Data Banks

But there is a negative side to these mushrooming data
banks - particularly those that bear the imprimatur of a
governmental organization. Consider the information practices of the United States Army. Early this year it was
revealed that for some time Army intelligence systematically was keeping watch on the lawful political activity of a
number of groups and preparing "incident" reports and
dossiers on individuals engaging in a wide range of legal
protests. It must be emphasized that this monitoring not
only covered society's "crazies" but extended to such
non-violent organizations as the NAACP, the ACLU, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Women
Strike for Peace.
The Army's intelligence system apparently came into
existence as a by-product of the military's role in ending
the civil disorders of the mid-1960's. Although there is
considerable justification for certain types of information
collection that are directly relevant to the Army's duties,
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

the development of dossiers on people pursuing lawful
social and political activities bears little relationship to the
function of the military during periods of social unrest especially when many of those being scrutinized are extremely unlikely to be involved in riotous conduct. Not
only is the Army's filebuilding difficult to justify, but it
appears to have been undertaken without sufficient
appreciation of the fact that the creation and exposure of
dossiers on people who are politically active could deter
them from exercising their First Amendment freedoms of
free speech and assembly, as well as their right to petition
the government. If a citizen's conduct and associations are
put "on file," and perhaps used to harass or injure him, he
may become more concerned about the possible content of
that file and less willing to "stick his neck out" in pursuit
of his constitutional rights. The effect may be (to
paraphrase a thought expressed by Justice Brennan in an
analogous context) to encourage Americans to keep their
mouths shut on all occasions (Lopez v. United States, 373
U.S. 427, 450 (dissenting opinion)). If we really take our
constitutional guarantees seriously, we cannot afford to
stand idly by and allow them to be debilitated any further
by this type of coercion.
A Return to McCarthyism

After a flurry of pUblicity about the Army's activities,
the institution of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties
Union, and a number of sharply worded letters from
members of the Congress, the Army announced that it was
abandoning the data bank. But as has been pointed out
repeatedly by the Chairman of this Subcommittee, many of
the Army's statements have been vague and leave the status
and future of its intelligence activities in doubt. Add to this
uncertain state of affairs the existence of the Secret
Service's unregulated computerized system containing
dossiers on "activists," "malcontents," and "potential
presidential assassins," as well as the recent disclosure that
the Justice Department's civil disturbance group is
maintaining an intelligence data bank, and no one should be
surprised if some suggest that these surveillance efforts
contain the seeds of the much dreaded police state or a
return to McCarthyism.
NCIC Threat to Personal Privacy

The rapid development of a number of other
information systems in the law enforcement arena also
threatens personal privacy. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation has established a National Crime Information
Center (NCIC), which provides state and city police forces
with immediate access to computerized files on stolen
property and wanted persons. In the few years since its
establishment, NCIC has become the keystone of an
elaborate crime information network that eventually will
integrate intelligence information centers throughout the
nation into a single system. By the end of 1969, the FBI's
Center was exchanging data with state and city police
computers in every state except Alaska. In a recent speech
to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) an FBI
representative announced that there are already
approximately 3,000 remote access terminals linked to the
FBI's computer. Apparently 1,000 of these are in police
stations that are tied directly to NCIC and 2,000 terminals
are' connected to state computer systems, which in turn
have access to NCIC.
13

Dangers May Outweigh Benefits

There is no doubt that in its present fonn NCIC, as is
true of many other law enforcement data banks, is highly
utilitarian and justifiable. No one can quarrel with the
notion that a policeman in a squad car should be able to
call his dispatcher for an NCIC check on a vehicle he stops
on the highway and its registered owner before he
personally approaches it. How else is he likely to be warned
that the driver may be armed and dangerous?
But if these data banks expand to include sensitive
information about people who have not been branded as
fugitives from justice and precautions are not taken to
insure the security and integrity of NCIC and other law
enforcement systems, the dangers may begin to outweigh
the benefits. In the speech before the ACM mentioned
earlier, the FBI spokesman also revealed that police arrest
records probably will be computerized and added to the
NCIC data base next year, assuming that Congress provides
the necessary funds. Despite the notoriously misleading
character of many arrest records (many people who are
arrested are never prosecuted, even fewer are convicted, and
many arrests are of the dragnet variety that occur during
perfectly lawful demonstrations), it was admitted that there
currently are no plans to insure the security of the NCIC
network or to upgrade the quality and accuracy of the data
that is recorded. That, it was said, is the responsibility of
the user.
Other Law Enforcement Computer Systems

State and local law enforcement computer systems also
are becoming increasingly sophisticated. New York already
has in operation the essential features of a network built
around a single computer center - the New York State
Identification and Intelligence System (NYSIIS). This unit
is designed to store information for state and local law
enforcement agencies and permit them to retrieve data
through their own terminals. In Ohio, the
Cincinnati-Hamilton County Crime Information Center
allows 38 city and state agencies to share its computerized
information. This system is tied both to NCIC and the Ohio
State Highway Patrol Computer Center in Columbus, Ohio
and plans are underway to connect the Cincinnati-Hamilton
County Center to systems in Kentucky and Indiana. Going
farther afield, Scotland Yard is developing an information
system that will be available to law enforcement agencies
throughout the British Isles and similar computer systems
are being developed in other nations and by multi-national
organizations such as INTERPOL. Satellite or cable
transmission will enable these centers to exchange data with
NCIC, which can then forward them to state and local
systems.
More Comprehensive Networks in Future

The same pressures of efficiency and expediency that are
encouraging the exchange of information among agencies
on the same and different levels of government will lead to
even more comprehensive networks in the future. Direct
federal funding already is contributing to this trend - the
Office of Education is supporting a Migrant Worker
Children Data Bank, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development is sponsoring prototype computerized
municipal information systems and building files on
housing loan applicants (with particular attention to those
14

who prove to be ineligible), and President Nixon's welfare
reform proposal (the Family Assistance Act) would give the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare authority to
collect and exchange data on individuals with state welfare
agencies. It would be foolish to ignore the ease with which
each of these data centers could be integrated with the law
enforcement and surveillance information flow.
Other combinations are on the horizon. In light of the
polarity of today's student activism and public and
governmental reactivism, it is even conceivable that federal
surveillance systems and educational data centers will be
linked, either formally or informally. If anyone thinks that
this notion is farfetched, let him consider the implications
of President Nixon's request of September 22, 1970 for
funding and increased statutory authority to use 1,000 new
FBI agents on university campuses. Conceding the need for
reinforced investigative manpower to restore peace to our
institutions of higher learning, what controls will there be
on the massive amount of potentially damaging personal
information this type of operation is bound to generate and
what assurance do we have that the integrity of university
records will not be compromised?
The Need for Regulation

At present there are no effective restraints on the
national government's information activities and no one has
undertaken to insure that individuals are protected against
the misuse of the burgeoning data banks. Indeed, a survey
by the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice
and Procedure revealed many instances of agency demands
for information that had not been authorized by Congress
and concluded that most "government forms require either
nonessential or too detailed information from the
individual citizen." Similarly, the authority for the Army's
surveillance of civilians is obscure. Neither the Executive
Orders relating to security checks for government employment nor the so-called "Delimitations Agreement" between
the military and the FBI, which allocates jurisdiction over
personnel security investigations, seems to encompass the
Army's filE: building.
What is more, muscle flexing has become a common
government technique for furthering some of its datagathering activities. Information collectors often deceive
people by intimating that the law requires a response to
questionnaires that in fact are voluntary, or use coercive
practices (such as subtle threats of a loss of government
benefits) to extract information. Even among citizens who
are offended by certain inquiries or practices, there is a
natural reluctance to "buck the system."
Banking and Credit Transactions Watched

No one seems to be immune from these activities. For
example, in an effort to trace the movement of American
funds abroad - particularly to Swiss banks, draft evaders,
and the Viet Cong - the FBI keeps watch on large numbers
of domestic banking and credit transactions. Financial
institutions rarely object to these intrusions on their files,
perhaps in part because many bank and corporate security
officers are former FBI and law enforcement agents.
Furthermore, since the FBI has jurisdiction over bank fraud
cases, the banks may find it to their advantage to "cooperate" - especially if they might want an information
favor from their government friends tomorrow. Thus, it is
not surprising that the FBI is able to examine over 25,000
credit bureau files annually without first securing
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

sUbpoenas.
Governmental Bugging

Nor is the government's hyperactivity in collecting
information offset by its exercise of restraint in using it. On
one occasion the FBI publicly released 1,200 pages of
transcripts of electronically recorded conversations among
reputed Mafia figures in which numerous prominent people
were talked about, often disparagingly. Even conceding the
desirability of informing the public of the threat organized
crime poses to our society, need it be done by encouraging
the daily press to publish unsworn conversations procured
by governmental bugging? In a similar vein, why shouldn't
citizens have doubts about the government's handling of
personal information when presidential advisors have access
to their federal tax returns and they are exchanged with
state and local taxing agencies without taking any serious
precautions to insure their confidentiality.
The data bank problem is being magnified by the
computer. The trend toward computerization of personal
information is resulting in a marked increase in the
quantity, sensitivity, and variety of data that will be found
in the electronic dossiers of the future, as well as expediting
their exchange. Moreover, gaining access to these systems
will be a desirable objective for a snooper, muckraking
newsman, or political operative since a printout of
someone's file may well contain public record information
intermingled with subjective intelligence reports, data given
by the subject or an informer with the assurance that its use
would be limited, and information transferred from other
computer systems. And it simply is unrealistic to assume
that the managers or proprietors of computer systems governmental or private - will take it upon themselves to
protect the public against misuse of the data in their
custody.
Growing Governmental Computer Power

Approximately 20 federal agencies, bureaus, and
departments already operate time-sharing computer systems
or are in the process of establishing them. Additional
systems are certain to spring up both within other governmental organizations and as a result of a number of
proposed legislative programs calling for the collection of
new bodies of personal data. Thus, the roots of a federal
information exchange network have taken hold and the
Bureau of Management and Budget has extensive authority
to promote its further development. In view of the disclosures, both before this Subcommittee and others,
relating to the insensitivity of some government information handling practices, the prospect of an omnibus, de
facto, federal data network evolving without prior
comprehensive congressional review, or the formulation of
any policy guidelines that impose an obligation to protect
privacy and the various rights guaranteed by the Constitution, is not a pleasant one. Yet in spite of the obvious
implications of this growing governmental computer power,
in critical areas involving fundamental personal rights,
federal agencies are still operating in an environment of
policy by default and inaction. Information is being gathered, recorded, and disseminated with a Let-GeorgeWorry-About-It philosophy that is putting us on the
pathway toward a dossier dictatorship.
The irony of all this is that several years ago a proposal
to establish a National Data Center was blocked by a
combination of congressional opposition and public
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

ou trage. In retrospect, that suggestion has proven
innocuous compared to the reality of some of the systems
already functioning in the Executive Branch of the
government. The phoenix that has arisen from the ashes of
the Data Center proposal is the unregulated and haphazard
proliferation of governmental data banks and machine
interconnections that already is posing a threat to some of
the pillars of our democratic society.
Suggestions for Protecting the B ill of Rights The I nadequacy of Common-Law Remedies

If some of the constitutional protections we have
enjoyed in this country are to survive in a data based,
electronic world, the law must begin to adjust to today's
realities. As I have attempted to demonstrate in my book,
the existing patchwork of common-law remedies, constitutional doctrines, statutes, and administrative regulations is
not capable of dealing with the problems raised by the
accelerating pace of federal information gathering and the
emergence of computerized information systems. Today's
legal structure is characterized by uncertain application,
lack of predictability, frequent inconsistency, unawareness
of the ramifications of the new communications media, and
an almost total disregard for the individual's right to
participate in information transactions that may have a
profound impact on his life. To take but one of many
examples of this, the existing common-law tort theories
deal almost exclusively with the public dissemination of
previously acquired data, and ignore the implications of the
unrestrained governmental collection of information. To be
effective, a regulatory scheme must reach the latter
problem and this simply may be impossible or may evolve
too slowly from the right-to-privacy tort as we know it
today.
Recognition of Citizens' Rights

But the law books are not entirely barren. The Supreme
Court has recognized the individual's right to object to
certain governmental attempts to extract information from
him. Perhaps the most clearly developed of these notions is
the citizen's right of associational privacy, which seeks to
recognize the "vital relationship between the First
Amendment freedom to associate and privacy in one's
association." (NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 462;
1958) Thus, when the government attempts to gather data
concerning an individual's association with a group
dedicated to the advancement of certain beliefs in "political, economic, religious, or cultural matters" (Id. at 460), it
must "convincingly show a substantial relation between the
information sought and compelling state interest." (Gibson
v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, 372 U.S.
539,546; 1963) These cases certainly contain the doctrinal
seeds needed to curb the excesses of those federal surveillance activities that are likely to inhibit the exercise of First
Amendment freedoms. It must be noted, however, that the
successful assertion of a violation of one's associational
privacy appears to depend upon a showing that disclosure
will result in a restraint on an individual's ability to exercise
his freedom of association.
Closely related to the right of associational privacy is
another judicially recognized individual interest - the right
to possess ideas and beliefs free from governmental
intrusion. As the Supreme Court stated in Schneider v.
Smith, 390 U.S. 17 (1968), First Amendment guarantees
and ·the concept of associational privacy "create a preserve
15

where the views of the individual are made inviolate. This is
the philosophy of Jefferson that 'the opinions of men are
not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction ... .' " (Id. at 25)
This judicial recognition of privacy in one's associations
and beliefs should not be narrowly construed; if it is, the
people will receive only limited protection against highly
inhibiting governmental intrusiveness. It seems to me that
these Supreme Court cases announce an expansive principle, one that is part of a tradition basic to the nation's
philosophical fabric - the conception of government as an
institution of limited powers that is obliged to meet a heavy
burden of justification when it undertakes a program or
course of action that will inhibit the freedom of its citizens.
It is axiomatic that the in terrorem effect of wide scale
governmental surveillance or information control can chill
the exercise of an individual's constitutional rights. Thus,
agency supplications based on claims of economy or gains
in governmental efficiency or justified in terms of the
current quest for the holy grail of "Law and Order" simply
do not justify every demand for greater power to extract,
manipulate, store, and disseminate data relating to the lives
and activities of people and groups.
Altering Citizen-Government

~alance

Unfortunately, the trends in the information surveillance
field are altering the citizen-government balance so drastically that even if the common-law privacy remedies were
refurbished and the First Amendment freedoms of association of belief were expanded, it still would be unwise to
rely exclusively on private lawsuits for damages or an
injunction against further intrusion on constitutional rights.
In addition to the difficulty and imprecision of attempting
to convert a loss of freedom into monetary terms, the right
of an injured person to seek redress is hollow indeed
because he is so completely excluded from the information
gathering-recordation-dissemination cycle that in many
instances he may never rearn how his life is being affected
by the circulation of personal data relating to him.
Possible Legislative Approaches

Direct legislative action based on the congressional
power to safeguard constitutional rights clearly is indicated.
Statutory protection might take a number of different
forms. One relatively simple statutory approach is to
prohibit governmental organizations from collecting
designated classes of sensitive personal data - an approach
that is bound to incur the ire of the agencies, all of whom
believe that their data gathering activities are imperative for
the success of some national policy.
One variation would be a statute prohibiting data
collectors from using, or threatening to use, coercion to
compel individuals to disclose data they are not legally
obliged to furnish. This would also require reappraising the
existing statutes that make disclosure of certain
information by citizens mandatory, presumably with an eye
toward reducing their coverage. Some aspects of the bill
introduced last year by the Chairman of this Subcommittee
(S. 1791) illustrate this approach. The same is true of the
proposals seeking to eliminate the criminal penalties for .
failure to answer many of the questions on the decennial
census. Although eliminating some of the harsh sanctions
for noncompliance with governmental demands for
information appears to be desirable, doing so is not a
16

panacea. Prohibitions against coercive data collection will
only remedy some of the more blatant abuses; they will be
of no assistance in assuring better data handling and
dissemination practices or limiting the government's right
to collect information from sources other than the data
subject.
A different, and in some ways more drastic, legislative
approach involves requiring computer manufacturers, users,
and data networks to employ prescribed technical and
administrative safeguards for maintaining the integrity of
personal information. This also could take the form of
imposing a general statutory duty of care on every federal
official connected with the processing of data, which would
have the effect of encouraging sensitivity to the dangers of
information abuse, or of enacting detailed requirements
that would have to be followed by all computer
manufacturers, handlers, and users of personal information.
The Complexity of Legislation

It would be very difficult at this time to employ any of
these legislative formats in a statute that was to have
general application. Personal information is used for so
many different purposes that it may be impossible to draft
a single body of statutory rules to govern all data systems
carrying individualized data. The problem is compounded
by the chameleon-like character of many types of
information - data collected in one context may carry an
entirely different meaning when transplanted to anothe.r.
Extremely complex legislation therefore would be
necessary if specific privacy safeguards are to be prescribed
for different information environments. This would be a
particularly useful way, for example, of insuring that the
sophisticated protective schemes that do exist for
safeguarding computerized data are employed. A variety of
access regulations, personnel controls, and mechanical
devices are available that can discriminate among users and
differentiate data on the basis of its sensitivity. To protect a
system adequately, a combination of these techniques will
have to be used so that a weakness in one aspect of a
system's security will not compromise the other protective
schemes. Along the same lines, any legislation that
purported to prescribe how sensitive personal data whether computerized or not - should be protected would
have to deal with every phase of information integrity and
draw distinctions in terms of the various levels of
information sensitivity.
A Potpourri of Statutory Controls

Thus, a potpourri of statutory controls might well prove
necessary; some would establish degrees of confidentiality
for different kinds of data and others might prescribe the
technical and procedural safeguards to be employed by the
sys tem. This type of refined legislative structuring
presumably would be based on an evaluation of how much
"privacy" the data in a given system deserves and a
balancing of the damage that could be caused by misuse of
the information against the importance of the information
to some legitimate government objective, as well as the cost
and loss of efficiency that might result from implementing
various safeguards. Alternatively, separate statutes could be
framed in terms of the different types of information that
is collected - e.g. health, military, internal security,
financial - or to deal with the activities of the various
groups that gather data - e.g., law enforcement agencies,
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

military organizations, administrative agencies, statistical
organiza tions.
But a detailed congressional assessment along these lines
becomes an overwhelmingly complex undertaking,
especially if it must be made against the background of
massive surveillance data banks or highly sophisticated
computer networks that carry information from numerous
sources and are used by different governmental
organizations for highly disparate purposes. Our very
limited experience with data centers and computer
networks, however, makes the job of drafting sound,
comprehensive, national legislation that will stand up under
the pressure of rapid technological change virtually
insurmountable at present.
Watchdog Group

Al though various factors make detailed federal
legislation in the near future both difficult to compose and
a potentially unsatisfactory technique, they do not
preclude the possibility that the current threat to our
privacy and constitutional freedoms may be amenable to
administrative regulation. In addition to obviating the need
to make highly sophisticated policy judgments in statutory
form, which may become obsolete shortly after going into
force, giving the problem over to administrative control
might have the effect of putting it in the hands of a
watchdog group, composed of experts in the field who can
exercise continuing supervision over governmental data
activities. Moreover, if well drawn, administrative
regulations should provide su'fficient flexibility to permit
experimentation and require less time for revision when
new problems present themselves than do statutes.
Administrative Regulation Holds Promise

Unfortunately, there is a negative side. Administrative
regulation has fallen into considerable disfavor in the
United States because it frequently takes on a highly
bureaucratic character. All too often, resort to agency
action has become synonymous with delay, red tape, and
arbitrariness, with the hoped for supervision of a field by an
informed cadre giving way to the reality of politicized
administrators who have little understanding of the
complex problems under their governance. The situation
typically is made worse by inadequate staffing and funding,
which prevents many federal agencies from acquiring the
expertise necessary for rational decision making. Despite
these deficiencies, however, I believe that administrative
regulation holds the most promise as a means of coming to
grips with the important problems confronting us in the
information arena.

jurisdiction over all of the federal government's information
activities.
It also seems axiomatic that regulatory power ought not
be given to an agency having operating responsibilities that
are dependent upon or involve the handling of a flow of
personal information. The debate over the proposed
National Data Center and revelations before congressional
subcommittees concerning the intrusive activities of the
Internal Revenue Service, the Post Office, and the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, make it abundantly clear that the rights of the individual often get short
shrift from agencies that have a vested interest in gathering
and using personal data. The result, of course, is that most
of the existing information agencies should be disqualified
from a leadership role in formulating regulatory policy for
governmental data banks.
The Creation of a New Institution

Is there any organization to which the problem can be
entrusted? I have given careful thought to the possibility
that an existing federal bureau, agency, or department, such
as the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Management and
Budget, the Federal Communications Commission, or the
Federal Trade Commission, might be given responsibility
for developing an administrative scheme for regulating the
federal government's information activities and computer
systems. But I have sadly come to the conclusion that none
of them would be an effective guardian of the rights of our
citizens, either because they are obligated to various
institu tional "clients", or because they are philosophically
committed to the paramount importance of administrative
efficiency.
If this is true, then the conclusion is inescapable:
regulatory control must be lodged outside the existing
administrative channels. As repugnant as it may sound in an
era of expanding governmental involvements, it may be
necessary to establish a completely new institution perhaps modelled after the semi-autonomous Government
Accounting Office - that can operate under a set of
legislative guidelines and establish policy for the protection
of individual privacy and the preservation of Constitutional
rights. A new agency migllt well succeed in regulating the
nature of the data about citizens that can be collected,
recorded, and stored by various governmental
organizations, enforce a congressional standard of care for
insuring the accuracy of the government's information
store, and make certain that all federal data centers employ
the latest and most appropriate technological safeguards to
protect files against breaches of security.
Characteristics of the New Administrative Body

Where Should Regulatory Power Be Placed?

It is not immediately apparent where regulatory power
should be placed or what form it should take. Certain basic
principles provide some guidance, however. Because of the
national character of the citizen-surveillance problem and
the computer-communications industries, there is no doubt
that control at the federal level is essential. Yet a regulatory
approach based on a general legislative directive to all of the
agencies, but one that leaves each of them responsible for
establishing rules governing their own information
activities, is likely to produce such significant variations in
philosophy and practice that little may be gained. Thus,
regulation must come from a single source having
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

In addition, there are several necessary characteristics
that any administrative body must possess in order to be
effective as a guardian against undue informational
surveillance, and it might be useful at this point to suggest
what some of them are. The agency should be staffed by
people who are versed in a wide range of disciplines technology, science, law, and the humanities (particularly
psychology and sociology). The agency commissioners or
directors themselves should be drawn from various fields.
The agency also must have access to all federal data banks
and maintain a close liaison with other governmental
organizations as well as the data gathering and using
communities in the private sector. This is essential in order
17

both to stay abreast of the nation's information needs and
to be in a position to recommend a revision of the
regulatory scheme when changing conditions make that
necessary.
Educating People About Society's Data Needs

One of the basic tasks of an agency of the type I am
suggesting is to attempt to educate the data worshippers,
the privacy paranoids, and the general public in the hope of
achieving some common understanding of society's data
needs and the growing public concern over the preservation
of individual privacy and the First Amendment freedoms.
At present there is considerable anxiety throughout the
nation about the specter of a fishbowl environment and a
lack of sensitivity to the problem on the part of
information managers and system designers.
To further this educative function, it might be desirable
to hold public hearings on a broad range of subjects,
undertake technical and social science research projects,
and act as a clearinghouse for information concerning
activity in each of the many fields that bear on the question
of governmental information policy. By use of these and
other methods, the proposed agency could implement a
principle analogous to that embodied in recent proposals
before the Congress to create a Technology Assessment
Board.
Preservation of Personal Privacy and Freedoms

Ano ther basic ingredient for evolving a rational
regulatory policy is that the agency must have authority to
engage in rulemaking relating to the technical features,
personnel qualifications, and administrative procedures
employed by all data centers that handle significant
quantities of personal information. If airplanes and pilots
must be certified, if automobiles are required to meet
safety standards and their drivers obliged to pass tests and
obtain licenses, why shouldn't governmental data
collectors, computer systems, and information managers be
obliged to meet and be pledged to honor requirements
relating to the preservation of personal privacy and
constitutional based freedoms?
Regulation of Non-Federal Systems

Ideally, the agency's power should be broad enough to
embrace the activities of non-federal information gatherers
that might adversely affect the rights we are trying to
protect. The regulators should be particularly attentive to
the interlocking relationships that have begun to spring up
between federal and local data handlers in the law
enforcement field and the fact that many of the nation's
major corporations maintain dossiers on millions of
Americans. Close scrutiny of the latter category of data
banks is becoming imperative because there is growing
reason to believe that these files are exchanged both within
the private sector and with law enforcement and
surveillance groups at all levels of government. In short,
once standards are established for federal systems, I believe
that it eventually will become necessary to apply them to
certain non-federal systems.
I nformation Ombudsman

To implement the controls and regulations ultimately
adopted, the federal agency I am describing will have to
18

provide a method for handling grievances brought to its
attention by members of the public. One obvious method
would be to give statutory authority to the information
agency to investigate, direct correction, and award
appropriate relief for any abuses brought to its attention by
individual citizens. Through the use of these procedures, its
ability to negotiate with the information managers, and its
status as a governmental organization, the agency could
play the role of an information ombudsman, a device that is
well known in the law of several European countries and is
beginning to be recognized in the United States.
A Citizen's Control Over Information Relating to Him

The agency also must develop and place heavy reliance
on measures that provide the citizen some degree of control
over personal information relating to him. The objective
should be to develop procedures that give the individual a
voice in the important transactions concerning his life
history - transactions that often may drastically affect his
economic and social well-being. Our society's traditional
dedication to ideals of fair play and due process indicates
that any set of rules regulating the handling of personal
information should accord the individual, or someone who
can represent his interests adequately, the right to receive
notice and an opportunity to be heard before important
decisions are made concerning his informational profile.
The federal government should be held to no lesser
standard.
The right to be heard must include the ability to rebut
damaging evaluations, or to show that a particular
information practice deters his exercise of rights protected
by the Constitution, or to demonstrate that the data does
not sufficiently further any legitimate government objective
so as to warrant its retention, or to demand that recorded
personal information conform to minimal standards of
accuracy. In order to be meaningful, an administrative
means of resolving conflicts between the citizen and the
government must be expeditious and inexpensive.
An Agency Accessible and Responsive to Everyone

The effectiveness of an agency that is intended to
protect individual citizens against information abuses
obviously depends upon its ability to avoid becoming a
captive of the governmental units and private interests that
have a stake in the data networks and systems that are to be
regulated. The tendency of the so-called independent
regulatory agencies to be captured by the industries they
supposedly stand vigil over is a disheartening, but not
totally bleak, prior history from which to proceed. With
proper staffing and well-chosen lines of authority, an
information agency may be able to achieve the degree of
independence needed to perform its vital watchdog role.
The other extreme must be avoided as well. A
governmental agency cannot be permitted to become an
island unto itself - neither responsive nor responsible to
anyone, populated by technocrats whose conduct is
shielded by their alleged expertise and the supposed
importance of the governmental functions they perform. It
must be accessible and be respo"nsive to everyone. Above
all, the agency's activities and its regulations must not be
permitted to ossify. For the foreseeable future the key to
effective regulation will be the ability to maintain sufficient
flexibility and resiliency to adjust to changes in our
0
technological and social environment.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

ENVIR'ONMENTAL POLLUTION:
MORE PROBLEMS WITHOUT SOLUTIONS?

what really happens to a city when a clean air policy is instituted? An easy
answer might be that the people will eventually breathe more freely. The more
searching questions, however, might concern the secondary results that such a
policy would have on the economic, social and political atmosphere of the city. "

Peter House
En vira me tries
1100 17th St., N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20036

(Based on a paper presented as part of the technical program at the
1971 Spring Joint Computer Conference in Atlantic City, N.J.)

We are about to spend (so says the Federal Government)
about 10 billion dollars over the next few years on a holy
war to save the environment. The crusade, this time, is to
fight pollution initially and to preserve our environment
eternally.
We mayor may not win, but past performance indicates
that when the goal is universally agreed upon, the chances
of success are greater. We have already spent double this
amount to achieve our country's most flamboyant success
of the past decade - leaving footsteps on the moon. This
universally-acclaimed achievement, coupled with other large
and well-known crash programs, such as the Manhattan
Project and war production of airplanes and ships, gives
credence to the American formula for problem solving take research and technology, add publicity and stir, blending in large amounts of money as needed.
Research Fads

The formula seems to work well enough in the fields of
science and technology. Unfortunately, when the social
sciences try to use the same recipe, they usually come up
with half-baked schemes. Despite their good intentions,
social scientists in the past decade have been sent on
crusades to banish poverty, segregation, unemployment,
youthful alienation, mis-education, the urban dilemma, and
others. Those impressive hula-hoops of research were discarded one by one - not because problems were vanquished, but because fickle public interest, policy focus and
funding were supporting a new and better research fad.
Test Proposed Solutions

Upon us now is another cycle of extensive radio and
T.V. coverage, newspaper stories, magazine pieces, journal
articles and speeches covering every topic that can be even
loosely tied to the environment - which may well include
anything. My sincere hope has been that in this cycle, we
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Peter House is President of Envirometrics, Inc., where he has
directed the development of three simulation models of urban
operations; he was a pioneer in the use of man-computer simulation techniques; and has also worked in the field of assessment and taxation. He is the author of several papers and has
spoken before many groups including the Association for Computing Machinery and various government and academic
groups. Dr. House received an M.A. in Economics from Clark
University, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Cornell
University.

decide what we want to do, plan carefully, and test our
proposed solutions before we inflict them on our land and
our people.
My ten years in social science research has led me
through the wasteland of many of the above programs with
their policy statements, their resounding high hopes and all
too few successes. This experience also suggests that my
wish for environmental policy planning before the expenditure of large amounts of money for "solutions," is naive.
Almost two years ago, a group of us, frustrated by rhetoric,
19

formed a company called Envirometrics. The name reflected our concern not so much for the physical milieu but
for the total fiber of society.
Proliferation of R&D Groups

Today the name seems a possible error as dozens of
others will attempt to become "Environmetricians" (as
many of the past decade became, or are still becoming
"Urbanologists"). The possible proliferation of so many
R&D groups, added to those already in universities, all
writing weighty treatises that define environmental problems and offer still weightier solutions suggests a pollution
of our landscape greater than almost any form of smoke or
raw sewage.
An Alternative

I would suggest a somewhat radical departure from
many of our past research techniques. Let us keep the
amount of repetitive, descriptive, paper-generating "research" to a minimum, particularly the variety which offers
instant solutions to mammoth and complex problems. More
importantly, I would suggest that we not rush into testing
our dubious schemes on our people and our land before we
test them in a laboratory. Such restraint is not only good
research policy, it is also good economics - not to mention
the humanistic benefits of minimizing the often horrendous
social and personal costs of program failure.
The physical effects of environmental research can easily
be pretested before solutions are actually tried out. The
problem is how to test these physical solutions in the
context of a total society. For example, what really
happens to a city when a clean air policy is instituted? An
easy answer might be that the people will eventually
breathe more freely. The more searching questions, however, might concern the secondary results that such a policy
would have on the economic, social and political atmosphere of the city.
Solution to Pollution Problem is Expensive

Once as I drove along the Massachusetts Turnpike from
Springfield, Massachusetts to Albany, New York and
looked at the river pollution caused by the paper mills, I
thought that it was a shame that good trout waters were
ruined because of a factory or two. The immediate solution
seemed relatively simple. The State could pass a law
requiring that the paper industry clean up its run-off before
dumping it into the river. I understand that present technology is quite capable of accomplishing the cleansing. The
problem is that the technique is so expensive that it is
doubtful it can be afforded by these small paper companies.
Strict enforcement of the law would probably close most of
them. From the point-of-view of conservation, that would
be a victory, as the rivers would eventually return to normal
with help from the State Water Commission and fishing
would be restored after restocking.
A minor flaw in the solution is that these paper mills are
usually the only industry in the surrounding town. The
closing of the mill means the closing of a whole community
effectively.
Let's not try and judge the relative merits of the choice,
one Clean River over one viable Community, since there is
no value scale (at least one on which we would all agree) to
use as a measure. Rather, this admittedly simple example
20

suggests that rushing headlong into the solution of the
environmental problems, before we examine the potential
effects of policy, may have unexpected, deleterious effects.
We may throw out the baby with the bath-water - even if
our purpose was to get rid of the dirty water.
The Environment and the Policy Maker

Probably the single most difficult task of the policy
maker is to extrapolate into the future the changes he
would like to make to the current situation. This need to
"predict" the potential results of policy decisions has led to
the birth of numerous methodologies in the social sciences,
all aimed at the same goal of being able to be "predictive."
When pursuing the goal, most social science disciplines
reduced the scope of the problem and claimed that they
were only going to note the effects of a particular decision
on one sector of the total milieu. This strategy makes the
problems more manageable for the social scientist; unfortunately, it also often makes the results useless to the
policy maker.
Others who recognized the need to look at the total
milieu, rather than each of the parts, were faced with an
equally interesting dilemma. Much of the detail used by
those who focused on a single discipline was solid and
appeared to represent reality. Unfortunately, the task of
correlating all of these detailed factors seemed beyond
normal ability. These early systems analysts solved the
dilemma by deciding on a level of generality which would
encompass most of these other disciplines compatibly, and
yet be understandable. Regrettably, the level usually chosen
was so gross that analysis of the effects of policy change
was not possible. Recently modern systems analysts have
suggested that we use the computer to help us remember
more facts and to aid us in correlating the more detailed
features of the various social science disciplines. In essence,
the computer allows us to increase the level of detail when
handling a total milieu rather than a particular part. In fact,
the level might be sufficiently fine that the policy maker
could use it to get a glimpse into the future.
The social scientist has, of course, not totally ignored the
computer. Skipping applications which use the computer
only as a number manipulator, let us concentrate on three
major areas of computer usage: information retrieval,
simulation, and gaming. In this article, I will try to explore
only the essence of each.
Information Retrieval

It seems that only recently the urban social sciences have
seriously considered basing their decision-making process
on real data. Spurred by national interest, particularly in
our decennial Census and Federally-sponsored research,
state and local areas have turned to numerous software
concerns to design information systems to store the vast
amounts of data generated by various government departments and others, and to organize the data so that it is able
to be retrieved on command by interested parties. The
concept is obvious and necessary.
On the other hand, not all state and local governments
have rushed to computerize their records. The reasons for
this reticence differ but can generally be attributed to a
lack of understanding or knowledge of the service, fear of
having others acquire a detailed knowledge of particular
sections of government, and cost.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

The 1970 Census with its attendant pUblicity and availability of data over the next year should make the applications of information retrieval more widely known. Further,
the Department of Housing and Urban Development has
funded six cities, on a matching-grant basis,to build
information retrieval systems which can be readily exportable to other cities. The effects of this six million dollar
program will begin to show up in the next couple of years.
Finally, the Census Bureau, in making its tapes readily
available to a number of centers across the nation, should
help to attract sufficient interest from private industry to
make information retrieval or management information
better known.
Resistance to the Computer

A second stumbling block, fear, is both serious and
horrifying. This fear i~ not new nor confined to the civil
service. Throughout the vocations, job security has been
associated with the monopolization of knowledge or skills.
We seem to be encountering the same resistance to computers with which manual workers met the introduction of
mechanization. After many years, we have finally convinced most sectors of the community that the manmachine partnership has truly produced an industrial
revolution; a revolution which has led to a society of
material opulence unparallelled in man's existence. Now the
professional and white collar worker is being asked to also
accept a partnership with a machine, the computer. The
resistance shown the computer is also as severe as the
resistance to the mechanical machine of old. We can
continue to expect a great level of resistance to the
computer throughout the job community, helping to slow
down its acceptance and its use in information systems for
governmen t agencies.
And finally, changing from hand-operated record keeping to computer is initially extremely costly. The organization of data, key punching, and so forth, of all necessary
data to load such a system is often quite large. Further, the
loading takes place while governments carryon "business as
usual." The hiring of additional help, usually consultants,
does mean high start-up costs. Further, the confusion
caused by the switchover may reduce the efficiency of
many government staffs as they carry out their day-to-day
functions.
Such defects could be mitigated, however, by phasing in
the information system over longer periods of time. A plan
to computerize a state or local government, when carried
out over some time by local talent (possibly using consultants only to design the system) has a greater chance of
worker acceptability, is cheaper yearly, and interferes less
with daily routine.
To summarize, the computer will be used more and
more to aid us in keeping the large amounts of data we
need to make better policy decisions. The computer revolution, however, has not been immediate nor its acceptance
unanimous.
Simulation

Among the first uses of the computer as a decisionmaking aid were those associated with simulation in the
physical sciences. The history of such uses is extraordinarily
rich and too well documented elsewhere to be repeated
here.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

During the past decade or two, the social scientist has
also attempted to use the computer to answer questions in
the realm of "what if." Simulating a city, in whole or in
part, is an extraordinarily useful tool for the urban researcher and policy maker. A successful replication of social
reality in a computer-simulation would allow the people
who must make decisions, both administrative and political,
to make them better and to have more confidence in the
expected effects of the policies they put forth.
At the same time such simulations can reduce the overall
cost of attempting to bring about a given social change. A
simulation can do this by pinpointing a policy which
promises to be the most successful of a number of possible
alternatives. Reducing the number of false starts would also
help to lessen the amount of human suffering and inconvenience associated with social programs which are begun
and then abandoned.
Simulation Techniques

The technique by which social scientists simulate their
world is basically the same regardless of the problem.
1. They define the situation (of which the problem
or interest area is a part). The definition usually
includes a number of necessary limiting assumptions which define the strata of the real world the
analyst is about to simulate.
2. They decide the level of abstraction to be used and
the variables, which they believe to have sufficient
bearing on the area to be stimulated.
3. They determine the method of simulating the
problem so that the significant variables are related
to one another and the relative effects on each
other can be considered.
4. They gather the necessary data to load the simulation so that the current situation (as described by
the model) can become the basis for future extrapolations.
5. They fine-tune the model so that, by some criteria
or other, the user has confidence in the predicted
results.
The process, therefore, is relatively straight forward and
not impossibly difficult to program for the computer. In
fact, the similarity among many types of simulation problems is so great that special computer languages, SIMSCRIPT and GPSS were developed to facilitate programming the simulation routines.
Success of Simulation

Unfortunately, the results of simulations have not been
uniformly good. There appears to be some success with
those that concentrate on a single problem which can be
defined with measurable parameters. Probably the m0st
successful examples in social science are transportation
simulations where expected road usage, effects of road
building on traffic load, and many other related problems
are considered. Reputedly successful are those that predict
use based on population projection and transportation
routes.
Failure of Simulation

Failures, however, far outweigh successes. Many
attempts have been made to simulate a total urban environ21

ment; most have been judged failures after running. Some
never ran. The difficulties were many; horrendous complexity as well as lack of data, of basic research, of basic
theory, and of money. Generally, though, the failures stem
from the simple inability of the simulation designers to
measure social, political and institutional parameters descriptors of the environment which are indispensable but
generally conceded to be non-quantifiable or at least very
difficult to quantify.
Obviously, these general statements do not condemn
simulations but emphasize their limitations. Unfortunately
these limitations have been sufficiently serious that no new
macro-simulations have been started which attempt to deal
with all the various facets of the social milieu.
Gaming

The third major area in which the social sciences have
employed th~ computer as a partner is in education and
training. Gaming has been using computers for almost two
decades. In many instances, builders of games have rebelled
against simulation and thus, have been damned by simulation designers for not being able to use realistic numbers in
their models.
Bluntly, regardless of whether or not a game builder uses
simulation, the principal constraint of gaming models is not
the degree of their realism nor the accuracy of their data
base. Games are built so ~hat people can play them, and
learn various things from such participation. If the game
gets too complex to play it loses its purpose and approximates reality only to the extent that there are people bright
enough to comprehend the total environment represented
in the game and to operate within its constraints.
Gaming has come a long way in the past several years.
Early models (and some of the more simple-minded present
ones) were designed to be learned rapidly, played manually,
and teach little. They resembled a parlor game more than a
serious educational tool and consequently, gave gaming an
almost ludicrous reputation and relegated it to the primary
and secondary grades. Recent models such as the GSPIA,
METRO, CITY, Northeast Corridor, and INS have advanced
the technique into a respected education-training tool for
college level and adult audiences. The principal aim of these
models is to create a more or less comprehensive decisionmaking milieu for players to operate in and on. Among the
many goals sought by their builders, is to teach participants
the interrelatedness of the social system and the hopelessness of making policy through the single focus of one
discipline.
As gaming evolves over the next several years it will be
used by many areas of social science. Its success as a
stimulating educational tool has led d~signers to begin
creating a laboratory for social scientists. This laboratory
will create a simulated environment where educators and
students can both learn about the real environment.
The Next Stage

Simulation techniques, gaming and management information systems are all useful in the search for understanding and organizing our State and local governments.
They are, however, limited at present in their usefulness to
the chief decision-maker. Rather than compound the confusion already generated by researchers in the three fields
mentioned above, I would like to suggest a synthesis of all
of them.
22

Operational Simulation

A few years ago, a group of us, then called Urban
Systems Simulations, began work on a new form of urban
gaming, operational simulation. At that time, there was
general disagreement (there still is) on whether mathematical simulation, systemic gaming, or role-playing gaming
was the "best" way to approximate and teach about urban
area. We decided not to join the fight but to take parts of
the three approaches and wed them. Today the staff, now
Envirometrics, is proceeding with the development of a
single, generalized model which can be used by any government to study all levels of the social environment national to neighborhood - regardless of the location,
cheaply and quickly.
Although we think these models represent the apex of
modeling research, they have some definite limitations.
These limitations generally are in the areas of validation and
the usefulness of operational simulation as a policy tool.
The limitations are, of course, not particular to these
models but can be found in all games.
Even if we spend a large amount of money to actually
replicate specific locations for gaming purposes, we should
be very careful to understand exactly what we will have
when we produce the final product. A game, or a more
sophisticated operational simulation, representing a specific
city, would be a desirable and useful tool in many ways. It
would provide a continuing laboratory with which to teach
local inhabitants, researchers, students, and professionals
about their city; provide a focus for continuing forums
concerning specific issues, such as a new school, road, tax
policy, etc. It would also allow the policy maker to
introduce a new concept into this laboratory and see at
least one of the possible results of his idea each time a game
was run. It is not, however, a useful tool for the administrator or policy maker who is concerned with the probabilities
of the success and consequences of his actions.
The Need for Simulation

Modern administrators can no longer afford to implement policies until they have a greater idea of their
consequences. Obviously, leaders have always had the responsibility for their actions. But today's technology makes
their failure to use modern applications almost as big a
crime as the surgeon failing to use modern techniques to
diagnose and cure a patient.
A technique must be perfected which will suit the needs
of the modern administrator. Simulation seems to fill this
demand, except that it has an almost fatal weakness in areas
of our environment which do not appear to be measurable
in readily agreed-upon terms. The introduction of gaming
techniques to simulation is a step toward solving this
problem, as human players are substituted for math
equations when decisions call for human intervention.
Unfortunately, this tool is not satisfactory for the policy
maker who wants to use simulation to ascertain the future
ramifications of his decisions. Frankly, he cannot spare the
time or the staff to run a game a sufficient number of times
to generate statistically confident results.
A Modeling Compiler

While building the general gaming model mentioned
above, the Envirometrics staff has begun the development
of a modeling compiler. A compiler of this sort resembles
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

the already available programming languages in that it will
interface with the user and the computer. The model is so
constructed that the user can specify not only the data base
but the specific equations he wants for his simulation.
Further, the model builder will be able to change individual
segments to specify more precisely a specific section of the
model.
Each model produced with the compiler would only be
one path through the very large number of possible alternative model designs. The ability to specify modules would
mean that the model could be used for gaming or sim1llation purposes. Inputs, both exogeneous and endogeneous,
could be added by human operators. The beginning points
plus these inputs could be run in a simulated model
generating a large number of possible outcomes for the
locality in the next year - based on the inputs. The'se
results should then be analyzed statistically so that the
administrator knows what the "odds" are of a particular
outcome if he pursues a specific set of policies. At that
point he is able to decide if these outcomes meet his
criteria. If not, he could readjust some of his decisions and
test again. He could take the best probable outcome as a
new beginning point and make his policy decisions on this
data. Perfect? Hardly, but better by far than any other
technique currently available.
Thus, a decision maker has at his disposal all of the
power associated with today's modern computer hardware
and software and combines it with his own experience and
judgment. The more people he uses to provide decision data
to the simulation the more certain he can be of the most
likely results of his actions.
Summary

In summary, we need the best of all three areas to
provide a tool for the policy maker:
We need the information capability of a sophisticated
management information system, not only to provide the
administrator with a high quality data base but also to serve
as a base for the simulation.
We need the techniques developed in operational simulation, not only for the sophistication of the process itself
but for the methods developed for dealing with people as
decision-makers in a contrived environment.
We need the technique of machine simulation for its
ability to generate large numbers of possible alternative
futures with given data. Thereby we explore many of the
outcomes that might happen to an administrator, given his
particular policy decisions and those of his peers.
To conclude, the technique I suggest is not one which
will provide instant results in terms of better cities, states,
counties, etc. On the other hand, it will allow the policy
maker to determine whether he really wants to pursue a
particular plan of action - given the probable results
suggested by a simulation of his area. Final testing of the
technique will be expensive and time consuming. On the
other hand, the Federal government promises to spend
some $10 billion to improve the quality of our environment. Similar amounts were promised to save our cities, our
poor, our land and so forth. Recently, we spent $20 billion
to go to the moon. If we do not use our 20th Century
technology to help solve our social and ecological problems
before the 21 st Century, the $20 billion spent for the moon
shot may turn out to be the cost of basic transportation
research - as preparation for an exodus from an uninhabitable earth.
0
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Davison and Honey - Continued from page 11

sequences of any controller on the city streets, and displaying the timing sequences on demand in the control
centre. Software developments include a traffic simulator
to enable the system programs to be rigourously checked,
and to enable input data for detailed study of boundary
conditions to be reproduced, especially when the additional
schemes are being tested. A complete duplication of the
system has now been ordered in which an automatic takeover of one computer from a faulty one will occur, with
load shedding as necessary. As no auxiliary memory
systems such as magnetic tape or disc are being used,
system reload will be via paper tape, using automatic
wind and rewind facilities, so that the diagnostic programs,
and ultimately the system program reload, may be
attempted.
In conclusion, to cater for the large numbers of vehicles
which are required to be stored in the city centre during the
working day, computer control of multi-storey car parks
is being carefully studied. Vehicles will be monitored
en route along the city ring road, and advised on the availability of parking facilities as they are approached.
Vehicles entering the parks themselves will be advised on
the floor and aisle status on each floor to eliminate the
'random walk' so often experienced by motorists in search
of a space. Vehicles exiting the car parks will be carefully
filtered into the traffic flow on the ring road so as to avoid
congestion points and to maintain smooth, shock-free
flow.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Tunnel route a designated signed route leading to the tunnel upon
which movement and storage of tunnel bound traffic is catered for
Tunnel lane part of tunnel route which, under peak traffic conditions, is reserved for tunnel bound vehicles, and forms the only
acceptable approach to the tunnel
Local lanes part of tunnel route reserved, under peak traffic
conditions, for local (non-tunnel) vehicles; by the use of traffic
islands, etc access to tunnel is made impracticable from these lanes
Local route a route for use by traffic other than bound for the tunnel
Block section of controlled road between t\\lO signalled intersections
Queue-jumping the unauthorised entry into tunnel queues from
adjacent parallel local lanes
Inhibit the application by the computer system of a red signal on
the tunnel-lat'es, irrespective of state of main signals
Inhibit delay the time, as assessed by the computer, before the
application of the inhibit signal should take place; this is continuously modified by the computer, according to conditions at
any instant
Release removal by the computer of an inhibit signal, and reversion
to main phase working
Release delay the time, as assessed by the computer (during an
inhibit phase), before release of the inhibit signal should take
place; this is continuously modified by the computer, accoramg
to conditions at any instant
References
1 City centre planning group, Liverpool City Centre Plan 1965.
2 Stockley N. H. and Evans A. J. R., Tra./;;c Engineering and
Management in Central Liverpool, Traffic Engineering Control,
1967, 8 (March).
3 Foote R. S., instruments for Road Transportation, Report TBR
2-68, Tunnel and Bridge Dept., Port of New York Authority,
March 1968.
4 Gazio D. C. and Foote R. S., Surveillance and Control of Tunnel
Traffic by an on-line computer, IBM Research RC 2358, Jan. 1969.
5 Stockley N. H., Evans A. J. R. and Davison A., City of Li~'erpool:
Central Area Congestion Control System, Proc. Instn. Civ.. Engrs.
1969, 44 (Oct.).
6 Honey D. W., Computer Applications in Road Traffic Control,
Journal Instn. Measurement and Control 2 (Sept) 1969. (Paper
first read at the Symposium on 'Experiences with Software in
Computer Control Applications, July 1969).
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
A. Davison, FlEE, was technical
manager at the Liverpool factory of the Plessey Company Limited,
Automation Group. He joined the City Engineer's Department of
the Liverpool Corporation in February 1968, as chief assistant
engineer, responsible for the implementation of traffic control
schemes, including those by computer.
D.W. Honey, MEng, MIEE, MBCS, was programming manager
of the Data Processing Division, Automation Group, until joining
the City Engineer's Department in July 1968. He is directly responsible for the computer complex and the implementation of new
schemes and programs. He is at present researching into traffic
delays associated with road tunnels as part of his general duties.

THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRONICS
TO COMPOSITION AND PRINTING
One of the most dramatic of these new technologies - the application of electronics
to composition and printing - presages a revolution of the same magnitude as that
brought about by the invention of moveable type."

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COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Tarrytown has a population of over 12,000 and includes a large automotive assembly plant. Unlike Irvington, it has a black "ghetto" area and numerous bars, restaurants, and movie theaters. It is on the same rail commuter line to New York City, but the commuter fraction
of its population is much smaller than Irvington's. Tarrytown has a police force of 26, while Irvington's is kept at
about 21 or 22.
The First Police Raid

During the school lunch hour on March 20, 1970,
Irvington police raided an apartment near the Irvington
High School. This apartment had become a lunch-time
gathering place for a number of young people including
the owner's daughter and her friends; both parents
worked during the day and the school cafeteria had been
shut down because the school was on an austerity budget.
Among the ten young people arrested in that raid was
Lawrence Tate's daughter, Cindy - the first of several
encounters of the Tate family with police. Most of the
ten, including Cindy, were charged with "lOitering with
intent to use dangerous drugs".
The search warrant for this raid had been obtained
on an affidavit by Detective Sergeant John McSharry of
the IrVington police, based on an uncorroborated report
by one high school student that drugs could be purchased
at that apartment. The police investigation report consisted of a tabulation of the time of entry and departure
of several high school students, all during school lunch
hour, with no mention of drugs. Cindy was mentioned as
entering twice during about a month of police surveillance.
The inventory of items found during the search of the
apartment showed microscopic samples of marijuana,
and the police concluded their search by using a vacuum
cleaner.
Irvington officials met with parents of the arrested
students; the officials offered to "cancel the arrests"
and seal both the court records and police records by
court order, if the arrested students would obtain some
kind of counseling. Several of the parents were furious,
but all except two accepted cancellation of the arrests.
The police harassment of young people was, by then,
well known in Irvington, but nobody had done anything
about it. Mr. Tate started visiting the Irvington court,
watching the proceedings as the court processed an
average of 15 to 20 defendants each week, but it was
four months before he saw the first defendant over 21
years old. On June 17, 1970, Tate and another parent,
determined that their children were not going to grow up
in this "miniature police state", each filed a Notice of
Claim against Det. Sgt. McSharry and the village of
Irvington. This reserved their right to sue for false
arrest, and Cindy and the other youth entered pleas of
"not guilty".
Starting shortly after June 17, both Cindy and the
other youth were subjected to harassment by the Irvington police. But the boy moved to New York City to attend
college; so Cindy took the brunt of it. She got a speeding
ticket; her car was repeatedly followed and stopped as
many as four times in one day, ostensibly to check the
same license and registration. On one evening, an offduty Irvington policeman, dressed in civilian clothes and
driving a private car with a girl, stopped Cindy's car in
Tarrytown by trying to run it off the road. He made a
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

citizen's arrest of the boy who was driving, claiming
two traffic violations, neither of which is an arrestable
offense.
Cindy's trial for the March 20 arrest started in
December 1970 and concluded in the early morning
hours of January 8, 1971. The microscopic samples
reported on the search inventory were too minute for
chemical analysis, but some seeds were identified visually as marijuana. However, both McSharry and
Irvington Police Chief James Sansevera testified that
hashish wrapped in tinfoil was found in a "bookbank",
even though McSharry had recorded in the inventory
the contents of this "bookbank" without mentioning any
hashish or tinfoil, and nobody had been charged with
possession of any drugs. It was also brought out in the
trial that the Village Prosecutor, Chief Sansevera, and
four other policemen had intimidated a defense witness.
No drug use or intent to use drugs was shown, and the
students were due back in school within a few minutes
after the start of the raid. The jury could not agree on
a verdict and the charge against Cindy was dismissed.
Failure to reach a unanimous verdict of guilty indicates
strongly that the prosecution had failed to prove guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Second Police Raid

But even before Cindy's trial, the Tates had developed new difficulties with the police: their home was
raided on July 31, 1970, shortly after midnight. The
search warrant was again based on information from
McSharry, of the Irvington police, even though the Tate
home is in Tarrytown. He described a single period of
surveillance, on the night before the raid. Cindy and
her friends who were in the home at the time all insist
that no illegal act had been committed. At any rate,
everybody including McSharry agrees that several large
windows were left open and uncovered, with no attempt
at concealment.
Police also stated that there had been three months
of prior surveillance, all by IrVington police. This was
apparently unproductive, as nothing from this period
was mentioned in obtaining the warrant. But just three
months and one week earlier was the date of Mr. Tate's
meeting with Irvington officials, concerning their false
arrest of his daughter on March 20. Thus, Irvington
police initiated and maintained surveillance of the Tate
home, in Tarrytown, from the time they first learned
that their raid of March 20 was going to be contested.
Lawrence Tate had been away from his home for
most of the evening of July 31, the evening of the raid,
meeting a friend at La Guardia Airport and having dinner with him. He and his friend, Director of Engineering of a corporation in West Germany, returned about
45 minutes before the raid. Upon his return, Cindy
told him that four youths, strangers to her, had been
admitted as friends of a friend while she had also been
out of the home. One of these strangers turned out to
be a heroin addict, who supported his habit by selling
drugs; so drugs were found in the home.
Justice in the Courts?

The trial of Cindy and Lawrence Tate started on
June 8, 1971, in the village court of Tarrytown. Cindy
35

was charged with "possession of dangerous drugs" and
"possession of narcotic implements". No drugs or implements were found on anybody, since the police were
slow in starting the search of people in the home. No
investigation was made to determine who possessed or
knew of any drugs or implements; all were charged
against Cindy as the only young person who lived in the
home. The drugs and implements were all found downstairs, and both Cindy and Lawrence Tate were upstairs.
The charge related to implements was dismissed at the
end of the prosecution case. The heroin addict appeared
as a defense witness and testified that he alone possessed
the package containing the narcotic implements and the
heroin (3 grains), and that the Tates had no way of knowing that he had brought drugs into their home. One
marijuana cigarette was found, the source of which is
unknown. The evidence linking this to Cindy was entirely circumstantial; the prosecution failed to establish
the required chain of evidence. There were also direct
contradictions in this police testimony; and attorneys for
the Tates have stated that the evidence is legally insufficient to support a conviction.
Lawrence Tate was charged with "criminal nuisance"
(i. e., knowingly maintaining a premises where people
gathered to use or possess drugs). There was no testimony that Mr. Tate knew of any drugs in the home,
which is an essential element in the proof of "criminal
nuisance". Also, his friend from Germany had been
released after police determined that he "could not have
known what was going on", although police testimony
placed him at the kitchen table with Mr. Tate for the
entire time after they entered the home.
Tate was also charged with "obstructing governmental administration" (i. e., interfering with the search),
based on his verbal objections to certain police actions.
But the police testified that they completed the search
to their satisfaction in about 25 minutes (9 rooms plus
3 baths). Mr. Tate's attorneys have stated that his actions in protesting to the police and protecting legal
rights and property, with no physical violence, do not
under the law constitute a crime.
Although all charges related only to incidents on the
night of the raid, the court allowed the prosecutor to
delve back through several years, introducing extraneous but possibly prejudicial testimony that Cindy was
allowed to bring friends into her home, play records,
drink beer, and have parties. But the court was very
restrictive on the testimony of several defense witnesses,
even on matters directly related to the charges. However, strict prohibition of drugs was repeatedly confirmed, and it was brought out that Mr. Tate had given
evidence on drug sources to Federal Narcotics Agents,
re-affirming his strong convictions against the use of
drugs.
The defense produced an impressive array of character witnesses, including: Mr. John C. McPherson, an
IBM Vice President; Dr. Charles DeCarlo, President of
Sarah Lawrence College; Mr. Theodore B. Merrill, an
Editor of Business Week; the friend from Germany; and
several IBM employees and neighbors from Irvington.
On July 8, 1971, after hearing 36 witnesses, a sixman jury returned a verdict of "guilty" on all charges
then remaining. Decision on a defense motion, to set

aside the jury verdict as contrary to law and the evidence, was reserved until the date of sentencing. The
trial was concluded on August 11 when the judge denied
that motion; and Lawrence Tate was fined $1, 000
and sentenced to one year of probation, while Cindy
was sentenced to three years of probation.
The Notice of Appeal and certification of judicial
and legal errors were promptly filed.
Drugs and Politics
Lawrence Tate and other parents publicly criticized
the situation in Irvington, to the point where the Village
Board coerced the local newspaper into printing a retraction. The mayor of Irvington was criticized, during his
campaign for Congress, for: the failure of the anti-drug
program; failure to enlist the aid of parents; lack of
recreational facilities; grossly exaggerated and prejudicial use of pre-trial publicity in police press releases;
misdirecting police action against users instead of the
sources of drugs; and using the false police raid on
March 20 as publicity for the mayor's political campaign.
Local police are supposed to be non-political; but the
police chief reports to an elected member of the village
board. Tarrytown police made a series of about 30 drug
arrests within a few days before the village elections in
late March, 1971, although their newspaper release
stated that the evidence had been obtained by January.
This, plus an earlier series of arrests of heroin pushers,
had brought the subject of drugs into public attention in
Tarrytown shortly before the start of the Tate trial.
In November, 1970, Chief Sansevera and Det. Sgt.
McSharry were charged with "interfering with the
administration of justice". Mter a hearing before the
Irvington Village Board, both were reprimanded and
acquitted. Chief Sansevera was also charged with
acts of delinquency which would "seriously impair and
affect his general character and fitness for office".
He was suspended without pay for 15 days. More recently, Sansevera has again been suspended without
pay since July 1, 1971, pending a hearing on three
additional charges. None of these charges have been
related to the Tate case.
As criticism of the police became more widespread,
their harassment of young people became more subdued.
There was a third raid in August 1970, in which eyewitnesses said the police twice attempted to "plant"
a marijuana cigarette. Since then, Irvington has abolished its Detective DiviSion, and the number of cases
before the village court has declined dramatically.
Harassment and Countersuits
Mter the raid on the Tate home, harassment by
stopping Cindy's car continued, coupled with police
spreading gossip, telling a number of people that they
shouldn't visit the Tates. The other youth who had
contested the March 20 false arrest finally dropped out
of the contest after Cindy's trial had resulted in
acquittal. At that point, the police had directed their
evidence and testimony at Cindy and would have had
difficulty redirecting it, in a later trial, against
another defendant. But he and his parents abandoned
the near-certain acquittal and lawsuit because the
worry and harassment had contributed to his need for

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

psychiatric care, and he was not prepared to face a trial.
Cindy has required hospitalization for an ulcerous condition, indicating the extreme strain on these young people.
A few weeks after the second raid on July 31, Tarrytown Detective DelGrande, who was the arresting officer
in that raid, filed a petition against Cindy in Family
Court. This petition described her arrest on July 31 and
would have had the effect of trying the case twice, both
on criminal charges and as a basis for taking Cindy's
custody away from her father. The judge in Family
Court said that the grounds were insufficient for this
action, so DelGrande filed an amended petition. This
contained one legally significant claim, that Cindy had
been truant for more than 42 days in one school year;
but the school records showed no truancy. The judge
refused to consider the proposed "emergency" intervention in the Tate home and ordered the detective to
document the claims in his petition. He was unable to
do so (since his sworn petition was false); so this case
lay dormant for months. After an abortive attempt to
re-open the case during Easter vacation, when school
witnesses on truancy would have been unavailable, a
judge dismissed the amended petition for failure to prosecute, failure to document the claims as provided by
law and ordered by the court, and on the merits (i. e. ,
a summary dismissal, without taking testimony, preventing a re-opening of the case).
In addition to the Notice of Claim filed against
McSharry and Irvington for the first raid on March 20,
Lawrence Tate also filed two Notices of Claim against
DelGrande and Tarrytown - one for the second raid on
July 31 and one for the amended petition in Family Court.
These three Notices of Claim establish his right to sue
the villages of Irvington and Tarrytown and their agents
for a total of $875, 000. The harassment was finally
stopped, at least until this writing, when on June 4,
1971, Tate filed a petition for an injunction, seeking a
court order to stop the harassment and other abuses of
police power. All four of these countersuits are pending in the courts.
Justice in Corporations?

This case is exceptional both in the massive extent
of the police action and the massive legal counterattack.
But the implications of the precedents established are
much more general.
Anyone with children of high school or college age
must know the risk of drugs being brought into their
homes, either by their own children or their friends.
Anyone who has tried to fight a traffic ticket must know
something about the quality of justice in local village
courts. If the charge is more serious than a traffic
ticket, not many people could afford the costs of obtaining justice by an appeal, especially if they lose their
jobs in the process. If corporations add their sentencing
to the sentences imposed by courts of law, few people
would risk speaking out on controversial community
issues. This silencing of responsible citizens can only
encourage corrupt police to act with impunity. It would
also serve to convince the more radical elements that
nobody else will act, and that they have been left to their
own devic es.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Balanced against this condition is the very real
need of a corporation to maintain its desired image in
the eyes of its customers and the public. In some lines
of business, this is a necessity if the company is to be
viable. In the case in point, many IBM employees are
frequently in customers' offices in the design and maintenance of computer systems, and these people may
have access to customers' most confidential information.
But this can not justify extrapolation of criteria for one
critical job to all other employees; if all corporations
did the same, it would for example prohibit rehabilitation of convicts and any sentenCing would become a life
sentence to unemployment.
A number of people, including journalists, engineers,
and lawyers, have reviewed the legal documents and the
evidence in this case. To the writer's knowledge, all
have reached the same conclusion: that Lawrence Tate
and his daughter are the victims of police harassment
and retaliation. This conclusion also is evident in all
recent publicity. The IBM corporation had full access
to all of this information, as the case developed. Perhaps IBM does not trust its customers to reach that
same conclUSion, or to consider it reasonable for a
company to stand behind its employees in these circumstances, at leas t as far as an appeal.
Thus, the total effect on IBM's corporate image
must include several factors: the non-job-related
nature of the problem, the fact that there was no customer contact in Tate's last assignment, the decision
as to just when "innocent until proved guilty" ends, the
recruiting image in colleges as more young professionals
demand more freedom and individuality in their private
lives, and, finally, the actual reaction of IBM's customers and the public to IBM's action.
We, as members of the engineering and scientific
professions, have been criticized in recent years for
failing to consider the social consequences of our technical activities. We have been told that we should speak
out on such matters. We have been told we should even
challenge our own employer if we are, for example,
directed to design an unsafe product. But according to
the precedents set in this case, we cannot now safely
speak out against the social consequences of somebody
else's non-technical activities. We are still in the
formative stages of such an evolution in the profession,
but no measure of social responsibility can be imposed
on the individual without a corresponding burden on his
employer.
Engineers, computer programmers, and scientists
do not have a really strong professional society such as
exists in the medical field. Nor do they have any equivalent to tenure as in the teaching profession, nor is there
even any portable pension plan. Thus, these professions
are poorly equipped to enter into any new era of individual social responsibility, and anybody who ventures to
act alone is vulnerable. As existing trends continue, the
various professional societies will have to re-evaluate
their roles. No profession, whose members are not
largely self-employed, can hold its members accountable for socially or ethically responsible conduct unless,
in return, that profession gives its members a measure
of job security, by some variation or combination of
those protective mechanisms already developed in
other professions.

PICTORIAL REASONING TESTS 1 AND APTITUDES OF PEOPLE

"There undoubtedly is a place for non-verbal, non-mathematical testing, which
is not culture-limited, not occupation-limited, and not background-limited and which would enable finding and employing many useful people (including
computer programmers) who do not have American, middle-class backgrounds. "

Neil Macdonald
Assistant Editor
Computers and Automation
Tests at Employment Interviews

One of the subjects which we at Computers and Automation work on from time to time is aptitude tests: tests
of adaptability; tests of proofreading capacities; tests of
ability to program a computer; etc. The organization
that publishes Computers and Automation (Berkeley
Enterprises) is small (about 3 full-time people, 10 parttime people, and a DEC PDP-9 computer). Consequently,
we need to find tests that tell us significant information
about a person at the time of the employment interview.
Then we can make a good decision right then, and not
waste his time or our time employing someone who proves
not to meet the job requirements.
Some useful people are not particularly verbal, at
home with words. Other useful people are not arithmetical, not at home with figures or numerical reasoning. Many aptitude tests rely on items that are verbal
or mathematical. So such tests are likely to miss some
useful people who lack formal training in verbal or mathematical subjects. This is not desirable.
We would like to find tests that measure capacity: to
observe; to adapt; to reason; to program a computer; etc.
We desire tests that do not rely on previous formal training in verbal or mathematical subjects. Perhaps pictorial reasoning tests would meet these reqUirements.
Pictorial Reasoning Tests

One commercial supplier of aptitude tests offers a
pictorial reasoning test of 80 items. Each item consists
of a row of five pictures. The instructions are (essentially):
This is a test to see how carefully you can
observe and reason. In each row find the
four pictures that are alike in some way,
and then write (in the answer column) the
letter of the picture that is not like the
others.
I have tried this test on about ten people; and I have
observed that some undoubtedly clever people get low
scores because they can imagine many ways in which
each picture is not like the others.

Ambiguity

For example, consider Figure 1 (which is an altered
copy of an item in the instructions for the commercial
test). Clearly, cach square is different from all the
others in that a different number appears in that square.
However, the answer given is B, since in B "the number
is located in the center of the square, instead of in a
corner". But I would consider Figure 1 "baSically ambiguous"; for example, the square that contains 8 is
unlike each of the other squares, for they contain numbers different from 8.
For a second example, consider Figure 2. After
looking at these five squares for a couple of minutes, I
might nominate
- A because it shows the only figure with 3 sides;
B because it shows the only figure with sides at
right angles to each other;
C because it shows the only figure which has
given its name to a famous building in
Washington, D. C., where the U. S. Defense
Department is located;
D because it shows the only figure with 6 Sides;
E because it shows the only figure with a number
of sides equal to two more (instead of one
more) than the number of sides in the figure
to the left of it (this statement is logically
incomplete, but it is a statement which a
person could give).
Unambiguity

Presumably, a "well-constructed" pictorial reasoning item consisting of five pictures will be definitely unambiguous. Consider Figure 3. Each of A, B, C, and
D is alike: each holds a circle. Square E is different:
it holds a cross. Probably nobody would produce a
"wrong" answer for this item: in fact it may be too
"simple": it would not make distinctions between
people.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Consider Figure 4. A and E are clearly alike. B
and D are clearly alike. C is clearly different. Perhaps
nobody would produce a wrong answer for this one either;
perhaps it also is too simple.
Consider Figure 5. This item is the same as the
item in Figure 2 - except that the triangle in A has been
turned ninety degrees. Consequently, now there is exactly OIle picture that is not symmetric about a central
vertical line. So we can reasonably maintain that picture
A is clearly different from all the others. Perhaps everybody would agree about this too - and so this item also
would be too simple. (In Figure 2, there were two pictures not symmetric about a central horizontal line, the
triangle and the pentagon. )

7
A

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Figure 5

But in this case we would like to do something
different from validation, more like exploration.
We would like to ask you - you being any interested
reader of Computers and Automation - to take the test
shown in Figure 6, and send us your answers. At the
bottom of the test are a few questions to tell us something about the kind of person that you are. Since you
are reporting on yourself, there may be of course a
little bias present - but for purposes of exploration,
this is not likely to be serious. From enough answers
from enough readers, we might discover some interesting information about what sorts of traits tests of this
type may be measuring.
Note that all the figures in this article have been
drawn freehand and not too carefully. It is a myth, in
my opinion, that asserts that all figures in all publications sh~uld be drawn professionally: one can do a
great deal with an author's free hand, approximate
drawings, and the reader's eyes to interpret them; and
such drawings make the gap between the author and the
reader far less formidable.

A Game

10101

Exploration

Mter you have taken the test (it may be copied on
any piece of paper) we would like to ask you (if you
are interested) to try it on your friends, and send us
those results too, for study and correlation.

c:::.

IA I~ I~I~I(YI
A

The name which constructors of tests use for Step
3 is "validation". Ordinarily, validation is accomplished
by taking a group of people, finding out something about
them, giving the test to them, and seeing what results
are produc ed.

Furthermore, it is possible for you to playa game
of "Testing Pictorial Reasoning" with your friends:
make up your own test; make copies of it; and try the
tests on your friends. (And, if you like, send us a copy
and the results. )
The central question we are seeking to investigate
is this: If we collect this sort of information about
people, what correlations might we discover?

The Statement of the Problem

We are now ready to express our problem as follows:

1. Construct some observing and reasoning
tests that are not biased towards word
knowledge or arithmetical knowledge.
2. Use pictorial items, making sure either (1)
that each item of five squares has a single
reasonable answer A to E, - or (2) that
"F" for "defective, basically ambiguous"
is accepted as a sixth answer.
3. Find out the relation of the answers that a
person actually gives on the test with the
kind of person that he is.

Other Verbal, Non-Mathematical Tests of
Aptitudes and Characteristics

There are, of course, many other ways in which
observations of people in testing situations and in actual
daily-life situations can be made, and deductions about
people can be drawn. In our small business the first
week of employment of a new person is usually like a
crucible (though without heat). This preliminary period
reveals a great deal about a new employee - how fast
he can learn, how well he observes, how soon he can
turn out useful work - often information not guessed
(unfortunately) from what was found out in the employment interview. In fact, we have been looking for a
personality test as useful as the commercially-supplied
adaptability test that we use; but so far we have not
found any.

4. Find out if such a test as this distinguishes,
for example, good computer programmers.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

PICTORIAL REASONING TEST --- C&A No.1 --- (may be copied on any piece of paper)

1. The following Pictorial Reasoning Test (Figure 6) is a
test to see how carefully you can observe and reason.
It is not timed ...... but most peopleuse about ten minutes.
2. In each row, find the four pictures that are alike in
some way, and find the one that is not like all the

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Answers:

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2
3
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Insert in each blank one
letter out of A, B, C, D,
E, or F, designating your
choice.

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others and write its letter as your answer.
3. If you become convinced that no picture is essentially
unlike the others, write F (for "defective" or "fatally
ambiguous") as your answer.

El GJ U
~ ~\ ~ ~~

9
9
10

13
14
15
16

17
18
19
20

Survey Data: 1. Name______________________________________________..--- 2. Title
3.0rgaruzation ________________________________________________________
4. Address
5.
6.
7.
8.

Excellent? Not your field? Other? {2lease s2ecify
Good?
Average?
In computer programming, are you:
In systems analysis, are you:
In managing, are you:
What fields (not mentioned above) are you fairly good in (or even expert in) ?_________________________

9. What other capacities do you have? (Please don't be bashful ...... but be objective),___________________
10.

Anyremarks?~,

___________________________________________________________________
(attach paper if needed)

When completed, please send to: Neil Macdonald, Survey Editor,
Computers and Automation, 815 Washington St., Newtonville, Mass.
40

02160

(Please turn to page 56)

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

The Assassination of President Kenne:dy DeclassiFication of Relevant Documents from the National Archive's

"The people of the United States have a right to know, to find out the truth
about the lies they have been told. "

Richard E. Sprague
Hartsdale, N. Y.

The precedent-setting ruling on the Pentagon Papers
by the U. S. Supreme Court produced the revelation that
"Secret" and "Top Secret" government documents prove
that the American people have been deceived and lied to
about Vietnam and U. S. involvement for many years.

evidence extant and has performed such a correlation
against the classified documents. The sources for the
evidence gathered are:

One of the immediate reactions of an American citiz€m is: "How many other lies have been told by our governing officials, which would be exposed by declassifying and publishing other classified documents?"

- Twenty-Six Volumes of Hearings and Exhibits
of the Warren Commission

Resting in a special area in our National Archives
are a group of Secret and Top Secret documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in
November, 1963. Publication of these papers should
reveal a great deal about that assassination. They may
contain the facts about a conspiracy, the names of some
of the conspirators, information about the planning for,
and the backing of the conspiracy, and, most importantly,
proof that the American public have been told many lies
about the assassination by the Warren Commission and
by others.
The documents fall into two categories: (1) Warren
Commission executive session minutes; and (2) reports
submitted to the Commission by government agencies.
The former documents were classified top secret by the
Warren Commission itself, and are listed partially in
Reference 5. The latter category includes reports from
the FBI, CIA, and Secret Service, classified Secret or
Top Secret by each agency. The Commission did not
actually see most of these documents because they were
assembled in the Archives after the Commission disbanded. Reference 6 gives a list of the titles of these
documents, the agency involved, and the document number. The classifications are all Top Secret, Secret, or
Confidential.

- Warren Report

- Warren Commission Documents in Archives
(About 10 times the size of the 26 Volumes)
- Senate Investigation Files (Senator Ed Long,
Subcommittee, 1967-68)
- NCTIA Investigations
- Books and articles
The work of correlating this vast amount of information is tedious; it requires many people and man-hours.
Two computer systems are being developed to help researchers and committee members with the analysis.
Enough work has already been done to illustrate the
probable significance of the classified papers. Here are
a' few examples:
Lee Harvey Oswald's Relation to the FBI

Thesis: Oswald was a paid FBI informer and the
Warren Commission probably covered up this fact.
Many meetings of the Warren Commission are still
classified Top Secret. (See Reference 5.) The dates of
many of these sessions follow immediately after sessions
described in a boo~ by Gerald Ford, one of the Commissioners.

How do we know the documents may be revealing?
As in any complex web of information about a subject, correlation of some data with other data, provides
a value judgment of validity or significance. In the
complex case of the assassination of President Kennedy,
it is necessary to correlate the titles of the documents,
dates, and names of the classifying agencies against a
vast body of evidence about the assassination.
The National Committee to Investigate Assassinations 1 (NCTIA) has gathered together a vast amount of
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

At these sessions beginning January 21, 1964, Ford
says the Warren Commission was concerned because
Wagonner Carr, Texas Attorney General, told them that
he had information about Oswald being a paid informer
for the FBI. The classified sessions would, no doubt,
be very revealing on this subject.
The Commission wound up merely asking J. Edgar
Hoover whether Oswald was a paid informer or not.
Hoover said no; and that ended the matter as far as the
public record (including Ford's book) is concerned.
41

The NCTIA however has developed several correlated pieces of evidence, including recent statements
from one of the FBI agents Oswald reported to in his informer role. Collectively, this evidence shows that
Oswald was indeed being paid by the FBI to infiltrate
various pro-Castro and anti-Castro groups as well as
the JFK assassination team. He reported his findings to
three different FBI agents, two in New Orleans and one
in Dallas. He attended several meetings in Mexico City
where the assassination was planned. He reported to the
FBI that President Kennedy was to be assassinated in
Dallas just a few days before that happened.
On the day before the assassination and on the morning of the assassination, the special agent in Dallas that
Oswald reported to, was trying to find him in order to
obtain more information from him.
A record exists that the FBI received the information
from Oswald about the forthcoming assassination, but the
FBI did nothing about it except for the futile attempts of
the agent to find Oswald. The record is in the form of a
TWX message which appeared on November 17, 1963, on
the FBI teleprinter in New Orleans relayed from Dallas
via Washington, D. C. William S. Walters, FBI security
clerk in New Orleans, retained a copy and gave it to
District Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans.
With this type of correlative evidence and the relationship of the Secret Executive Session dates to
Waggoner Carr's visit, it is a fairly good bet that the
sessions were classified because the Commission discovered some of the other evidence and did not want it
known that Oswald was an FBI informer.
However, even if this is not the case, the public is
entitled to know what went on in those sessions. The
chances that declassifying them now and publishing them
will endanger our national security after nearly eight
years, are slimmer than "endangering national security"
by publishing the Pentagon Papers has been.
One of the classified sessions worried the Commision so much they went to the extreme of forcing the
stenographer to destroy his notes. (See Reference 5. )
In addition to the Commission's secret sessions,
various classified FBI documents no doubt would reveal
Oswald's informer status. Reference 6 includes document 941, "Telephone numbers on 47th page of Lee
Harvey Oswald's address book/Washington, D. C." This
document may reveal that Oswald had placed in his book
the phone numbers of the three FBI agents to whom he
reported as a paid informer.
There are a total of 40 documents classified by the
FBI concerning Oswald. Most of them are labelled
"Lee Harvey Oswald" and a city such as Chicago or
Washington. This would tend to indicate either a series
of reports about Oswald from various FBI offices, or
perhaps multiple copies of an FBI directive to various
offices. In any event, the FBI was certainly trying to
keep something about Oswald from the public's eyes.
To date the FBI has succeeded.
Oswald's Knowledge of the U2

Thesis: Oswald had access to knowledge about the
U2 high flying planes.
42

Another subject the public is entitled to know about
is document number 931, Reference 6, classified secret
by the CIA.
The title is "Oswald's access to Information About
the U2." This title takes on added significance when
correlated with evidence about Oswald's training for
espionage work while at Atsugi Air Force Base in Japan
3
and statements by Francis Gary Powers in his new book.
There is every indication from Hvailable evidence
that Oswald and Powers met in Italy prior to the U2 overflight. There is also a heavy weight of evidence showing
that Oswald was trained by the CIA for spy work before
his trip to Russia.
The secret documents whose titles refer to the relation of Oswald and Russia, and which were classified by
the CIA, undoubtedly would also be very revealing on
this subject. See Table 1.
Table 1
List of Secret Documents Relating to Oswald and Russia

Comm.
Doc.

Agency

300

CIA

321

CIA

528

CIA

631

CIA

680
691
692

CIA
CIA
CIA

698

CIA

844

CIA

871

CIA

928

CIA

990

CIA

1041

CIA

1216

CIA

1552

CIA

Subject / Place
re Recent Soviet statements of Lee
Harvey Oswald
Chronology of Lee Harvey Oswald in
the USSR / Washington, DC
re allegation Lee Harvey Oswald
intel'viewed by the CIA in the USSR
re CIA dissemination of information
on Lee Harvey Oswald / Washington
Oswald chronology in Russia
Oswald chronology in Russia
Reproduction of CIA official dossier
on Lee Harvey Oswald
Reports of travel and activities: Lee
Harvey Oswald and Marina
re Lydia Dimytruk, Russian acquaintance of Marina Oswald /
Washington, DC
Photos of Oswald in Russia /
Washington, DC
Lev Setyayev and Lee Harvey Oswald
contact with USSR citizens / Washington, DC
Khrushchev and Drew Pearson discussion re Lee Harvey Oswald /
Washington, DC
Allegations re Intelligence Training
School in Minsk, USSR / Washington, DC
Memorandum from Helms entitled
"Lee Harvey Oswald" / Washington,
DC
Soviet use of kidnapping and assassination; Soviet press reaction

(Abstracted from Reference 6)

The Warren Commission may be off the hook on this
problem, since they did not see most of those documents.
They were filed in the Archives long after the Commission disbanded. On the other hand, it seems likely that
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Allen Dulles, former CIA Director, and John J. McCloy,
connected closely to intelligence forces in the past,
would have been informed or would have taken pains to
find out about Oswald's CIA connections.
Again, the public is certainly entitled to see those
documents and to judge for themselves.
Mark Lane

Seven of the secret documents are all FBI reports
on Mark Lane, author of the best seller, "Rush to
Judgment". See Table 2.
Table 2
List of Secret Documents Relating to Mark Lane

Comm.
Doc.

Agency

489

FBI

694
763

FBI
FBI

1380
1457

FBI
FBI

1487

FBI

1522

FBI

Subj ect / Plac e
Mark Lane, Buffalo appearance /
Buffalo
Various Mark Lane appearances
Mark Lane appearances / Los
Angeles
Mark Lane / New York
Mark Lane and his trip to Europe /
Washington, DC
Memo entitled Mark Lane, James
Delaney Garst / Washington, DC
Mark Lane

(Abstracted from Reference 6)
All these documents are classified by the FBI. It
is extremely difficult to see why any report about Mark
Lane should be classified. The usual excuse given for
classifying information about an individual is that it is
for his own protection. Mark Lane needs no protection
now, and never did with respect to anything the FBI may
have discovered. He was attacked so ferociously on every
score by every government agency and many researchers
or spokesmen for the Warren Commission (Charles W.
Roberts and Lawrence Schiller4 are two examples) that
there could have been nothing at all left to protect by the
time the Warren Commission issued its report, and certainly nothing left at this date.
There can be absolutely no reason for classifying any
document pertaining to Mark Lane. He would be the first
to agree that this is the case. Again, the public is entitled to know.

Exhibit A
Excerpt from "The Kennedy Conspiracy"
Paris Flammonde, New York,
Meredith Press, 1969, p 29

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that an FB
man, Merryl Nelson, had checked out a story told
by a local businessman whose name was withheld
for "security reasons" until November, 1967. At
that time Maclean'S, a leading Canadian magazine,
ran a more complete coverage of the fascinating
incident.
The informant, an obviously sincere and
sensible Mennonite, and father of four, named
Richard Giesbrecht, related a conversation he
overheard on Feb. 13, 1964, in the Horizon Room,
a cocktail lounge in the sweepingly modern Winnipeg International Airport. The nature of the conversation led the thirty-five year old bUSinessman,
who was at the flight terminal to meet a client, to
quickly conclude the two participants had knowledge
regarding the assassination of the President. The
more he listened, the more he became certain of
his suspicions.
He described one of the men as having "the
oddest hair and eyebrows I'd ever seen. The eyebrows were wide and sort of streaky. The hair
was very shiny and it started quite far back on
his head." Geisbrecht thought this one of the
pair resembled Stan Laurel "when he gets that
look as if he's going to cry, " and he recalls he
wore heavy rimmed glasses. Giesbrecht now
says this man was David W. Ferrie.
Ferrie indicated he was concerned over how
much Oswald had told his wife about the plot to
kill Kennedy. Additionally, they discus sed a
man named Isaacs, his relationship with Oswald,
and how curious it was that he would have gotten
himself involved with a "psycho" like Oswald.
Isaacs seemed to have allowed himself to be
caught on televiSion film near the President when
Kennedy arrived in Dallas, and, at the time the
conversation was taking place, was under the
surveillance of a man named Hoffman, or
Hochman, who was to "relieve" him and destroy
a 1958 model automobile in Isaacs' possession.

Harold R. Isaacs and Marylyn Murrett

Document 1080 is titled "Information on Harold R.
Isaacs and Marylyn D. Murrett / Boston, " classified by
the FBI. Harold R. Isaacs is a well known author, World
War II reporter in Asia for Newsweek, and for several
years now, an MIT professor working on political projects funded by the CIA.
Marylyn Murrett is Oswald's cousin. Evidence
gathered by the NCTIA indicates she was involved in
espionage activities in Russia and Asia.
In this case it is essential that no implication be
made that Isaacs was involved in the assassination plot.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

However, in order to clear Mr. Isaacs completely, it is
desirable to prove that he was not the Isaacs referred to
by David Ferrie in a conversation with another assassination plotter at the Winnipeg airport in 1964. This conversation was overheard by Richard Giesbrecht, a
Canadian, reported at the time to Canadian newsmen, and
later to Jim Garrison. See Exhibit A.
The Winnipeg Isaacs was deeply involved in the
assassination according to Ferrie, who was also involved. Isaacs was at Love Field when JFK's airplane
landed, and furnished a car for use in the assassination
escape plan. He appeared on TV at the airport and this
worried Ferrie for fear he might have been recognized
43

by someone. The implication is that his face would be
recognizable by someone who should not know about his
presence there.
In this case, the public, as well as Harold Isaacs
are entitled to know what Document 1080 contains.
Oswald in Mexico

Table 3
List of Secret Documents Relating to Oswald and Mexico

Comm.
Doc.

Agency

78
347

FBI
CIA

384

CIA

426

CIA

442

State

721
726

FBI
CIA

751

FBI

785

FBI

872

FBI

873

FBI

874

FBI

880

FBI

910

FBI

944

CIA

1000

CIA

1007

FBI

1008

FBI

1029

FBI

The Warren Report, the Hearings and Exhibits
probably seek to cover up what these classified documents undoubtedly reveal. The Commission's official
public position is that Oswald took only one trip to
Mexico to try to obtain a Cuban visa.

1037

FBI

1038

FBI

1180

FBI

At least one member of the Commission must have
been suspicious even though he may not have known the
complete truth. Senator Richard Russell said in a threepart television interview conducted in his home state and
broadcast before his death: "I always wondered why
Oswald took all of those trips to Mexico".

1545

CIA

The NCTIA has developed evidence which indicates
that the planning of the assassination of President Kennedy
took place at a series of meetings in Mexico during the
summer and fall of 1963.
This evidence shows that Oswald attended some of
these meetings and was in Mexico, not once, but at least
three times. The evidence also indicates that the CIA
was well aware of Oswald's trips at the time they occurred. On one occasion they photographed him and his
"CIA baby sitter" (the person to be sure that Oswald was
performing promptly) entering the Cuban Embassy in
Mexico. This photograph was eventually cropped by the
CIA. Oswald was chopped out of the photo, which was
then given to the FBI, and used to see if Marina Oswald
could identify the "baby sitter." She did not actually
see the photo but the NCTIA has been able to identify and
interview the man.
Document 1287, "Re Lee Harvey Oswald and affidavit concerning cropped picture / Washington, DC",
classified secret by the CIA, undoubtedly would confirm this. The cropped picture was reproduced by the
FBI and is included as Odum Exhibit #1 in Page 691 of
Volume XX of the Warren Commission Hearings. No
mention was made in the Hearings about the identity of
the man in the photo, or its original source. The public has a right to know what document 1287 contains.
That the FBI and the CIA were well aware of what
took place in Mexico is indicated by 23 classified documents connected with Mexico and Mexico City. See
Table 3.

Russell knew there had been more than one,trip and
was very skeptical about the Cuban visa explanation.
He also said he had always believed there had been a
conspiracy, and he still believed it until he died.
Other Documents

There are many other documents in Reference 6
whose Significance can be detected from the title and
other known evidence. One or two more examples will
serve to illustrate the point.

Subject / Place
Lee Harvey Oswald's Mexican trip
Activity of Lee Harvey Oswald in
Mexico City
Activity of Lee Harvey Oswald in
Mexico City
Interrogations of Silvia Duran and
Husband in Mexico City
Telegrams between State Dept. and
the U. S. Embassy, Mexico City
Oswald's trip to Mexico
Actions of Silvia Duran after first
interrogation / Washington, DC
Lee Harvey Oswald: re Mexican trip
/ Washington, DC
Oswald in Mexico; 7 photos attached
/Washington, DC
Oswald's travel in Mexico / Washington, DC
Oswald's travel in Mexico / Washington, DC
Oswald's travel in Mexico / Washington, DC
re Oswald safe deposit box, in Laredo, Houston / Washington, DC
Inquiry into Oswald's Mexican trip
/ Washington, DC
Mexican control of US citizens
travel to Cuba / Mexico
Mexican interrogation of Gilberto
Alvarado / Washington, DC
Oswald's Mexican trip; entry and
departure / Washington, DC
Oswald's Mexican trip; hotel registration / Washington, DC
Oswald's Mexican trip / Washington, DC
Mexican aspects of Oswald investigation / Washington, DC
Mexican aspects of Oswald investigation / Washington, DC
Mexican aspects of the investigation
/ Washington, DC
Activity of Lee Harvey Oswald in
Mexico City / Washington, DC

(Abstracted from Reference 6)

Document 1427, FBI: "Re maintaining contact with
Albert Alexander Osborne / Washington, DC" becomes
very interesting when one digs into Mr. Osborne's identity. He was on the bus with Oswald travelling from
Texas to Mexico City. The Commission and the FBI
would have us believe it was a coincidence and that they
just struck up an acquaintance on the bus. But Osborne
turns out to be a very shady character with a long
intelligence-style past and the alias of John Howard
Bowen. Evidence gathered from the Exhibits and other
sources indicates that Osborne was involved in the
Mexican meetings.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Document 729, FBI: "Allegation that Oswald was in
Montreal, summer, 1963 / Washington, DC." The
reader is struck by the fact that an allegation about
Oswald if unfounded, would seem to have no reason to
be classified Confidential. This document becomes
interesting when coupled with several airline, hotel, and
other records showing that David Ferrie and Clay Shaw
took several trips to Montreal together during the summer
of 1963. Indications are that they were arranging for a
form of financial and intelligence support for the assassination.
The Basic Lie

The declassification and publication of the classified
assassination documents is essential for the American
public. The Warren Commission, the FBI, the CIA, and
the Dallas Police fabricated and expanded upon a basic
lie to the extent that it became necessary to stamp Secret
or Top Secret on over 200 documents to cover up the fact
that they were lying.
The basic lie is as follows: Lee Harvey Oswald
killed John F. Kennedy and Patrolman J. D. Tippitt on
November 22, 1963 using his own rifle to fire three shots
at the President, from a sixth floor window of the Texas
School Book Depository Building. Two of the shots struck
the President and Governor Connally and one shot missed,
striking the south curb of Main St. in Dealey Plaza.
Oswald used his own pistol to kill Tippitt in Oak Cliff,
several miles away from Dealey Plaza.
The mountain of evidence gathered to date including
photographic as well as ballistics, medical, and eyewitness testimony proves the above conclusions reached
successively by the Dallas Police, the FBI, and the
Warren Commission to be lies. Oswald can be shown
to have fired no shots that day. Photographic evidence
alone, proves that no shots were fired from the sixth
floor window on that day, and that certain members of
the police faked evidence in the window, on the sixth
floor, and elsewhere, in order to frame Oswald as the
lone killer. (See Reference 7. )
Evidence proves that Kennedy was killed by a shot
from the grassy knoll in front of him, and that other
shots were fired from the Dal Tex Building and the
grassy knoll. Evidence shows that two other men shot
Tippitt and not Oswald.
The classified documents mayor may not reveal all
of this, but it is highly likely that they will support the
evidence showing conspiracy.
These documents are not needed to prove conspiracy;
but nevertheless, the public has a right to know. If the
documents reveal nothing at all about Oswald's innocence,
his informer role, or the conspiracy, then why should
they remain classified? If they do reveal something,
then there is all the more necessity for declassification.

The people of the United States have right to know,
to find out the truth about the lies they have been told.

References and Notes
1. National Committee to Investigate Assassinations,

927 15th St. NW, Washington, D. C.

20005

2. Gerald R. Ford, "Portrait of the Assassin", New
York, Simon & Schuster, 1965.
3. Francis Gary Powers, "Operation Overflight", New
York, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1970, pp. 357-8.
4. Charles W. Roberts, "The Truth About the Assassination", New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1967; also,
Lawrence Schiller, "The Scavengers and Critics
of the Warren Report", New York, Dell Books,
1967.
5. "Original facsimile record of bills charged to the

Warren Commission to pay for the stenographic
reporting of sessions of the Commission", stamped
Top Secret, published as Exhibit 2, in "The Second
Conspiracy", by Richard E. Sprague, Computers
and Automation, July 1970, pp. 35-36.
This exhibit was photographically reproduced.
The second line-space of this record shows that
on January 22, 1964, the Warren Commission held
a meeting in "D. C. ", and then the line is crossed
through by another line and the handwritten notation appears "no write-up - reporter's steno notes
confiscated by the Commission".
6. "Confidential and Secret Documents of the Warren
Commission Deposited in the U. S. Archives", by
Neil Macdonald, Computers and Automation,
November 1970; list, pp. 45-47; introduction,
p. 44.
7. "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy:
The Application of Computers to the Photographic
Evidence", by Richard E. Sprague, Computers
and Automation, May 1970, pp. 29-60.

JUST PUBLISHED!
"TWO FLiGHTPATHS - EVIDENCE OF CONSPIRACY",
by R. B. Cutler, Architect, Manchester, MA 01944, 1971,81 pp

The two flightpaths are the paths of two bullets.
The occasion was the assassination of President John
F, Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 23, 1963,
while riding in a limousine with Governor John B,
Connally of Texas - now the Secretary of the Treasury
in the administration of President R. M. Nixon, One
bullet is the bullet which was alleged by the Warren
Commission to have wounded both the presjdent and
the governor (Commission ExhiiJi t 399). The other bullet
is the bullet which actually struck Governor Connally
in the back •.
"To an archi tecturally trained eye, nei ther bullet
lined up correctly with the southeasternmost sixthfloor window of the Texas School Sook Depository, the
alleged firing nest of Lee Harvey Oswald,"
Order from the author, Price, $7, Returnable in 10
days for full refund if not satisfactory (if in salable condi tion), To avoid bookkeeping problems, please
send money order or check (not cash) with order.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions

" ... The generalized use of the computer as a means of social control threatens
to destroy ... very probably all the present rights of the individual ... "

Congressman Cornelius E. Gallagher
U.S. Congress
Washington, D.C. 20515

(Gallagher testimony before the Committee on Rules,
on Resolution to create a Select Committee on
Privacy, Democratic Institutions, and Human Values,
Wednesday, May 4, 1971)
Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee on
Rules, it is a great pleasure for me to be here
this morning to offer testimony on my resolution
to create a Select Committee on Privacy, Human
Values, and Democratic Institutions.
The Use of a Computer

as a Means of Social Control

Let me begin my remarks with a statement from
one of America's most perceptive social observers
and a man who is deeply aware of the lag between
technological change and society's response. Robert
Theobold has written:
"Whether increasing violence and social disorder
can fairly be laid at the door of the computer is,
however, peripheral to the possibility of the development of a police state ... "
Mr. Theobold continues: " ... the generalized use
of the computer as a means of social control threatens to destroy at least the right of privacy, and
very probably all the present rights of the individual ... "
-He then pleads for laws to be developed which
will utilize the wonders of computer technology
without the clear threat he sees to all of our
rights.
This, Mr. Chairman, is exactly what my proposed
Select Committee is ultimately designed to accomplish. Since the hearings I held with my Privacy
Inquiry of the House Committee on Government Operations into a proposed national data bank in 1966,
I have been very concerned about the inability of
the people's representatives to grapple with technological change. For the computer, with its enormous ability to collect and retrieve information,
was totally unknown when our Bill of Rights was
framed and, unfortunately, its total impact on our
system of government is the source of considerably
more noncongressional worry than it is a subject of
investigation within the Congress.
The Invasion of Privacy

When we called attention to the computer's ability
to invade privacy in 1966, it was a very new concept.
Now, we have seen Senator Ervin's hearings with his
Constitutional Rights Subcommittee disclosing exam46

pIe after example of the power of technology to
assemble mountains of information on the lawful activities of our citizens. Since my 1966 hearings,
I have frequently pointed out specific threats in
the credit reporting industry, the marriage of sophisticated photographic methods with the computer,
and the increased instances of almost lawless personal record-keeping permitted by the new technology.
All of this, however, has been concerned with
specific cases, and let me say I could speak for
several hours with example after example of the new
technology. But let me refer to one of the most recent, and one of the best books, on this subject.
Professor Arthur R. Miller writing in his splendid
The Assault on Privacy says that a broad view of the
entire problem is necessary and he endorses my request for a fully funded, fully staffed committee.
I believe the Committee will soon receive, or has
received already, letters from Professor Miller,
Dr. Alan Westin, who heads a National Academy of
Sciences' group considering computerized data banks
and civil liberties, journalists who have covered
this area, and professionals from the computer community. Indeed, it might fairly be said that everyone recognizes the threat except those who will have
their power stripped away: Members of the Congress
of the United States.
Anticipatory Democracy

Interestingly, each review of the many books on
privacy looks to the Congress to assert the human
values, and to try to measure and hopefully guide
the massive change technology is forcing upon us.
In Irving Toffler's phrase, we will all suffer
Fu tu re Shock.
Toffler also says that we must begin to practice
anticipatory democracy; that is, we must create a
government whose institutions are knowledgeable
enough about change to have some ability to direct
that change.

Computer Power in the Executive Branch

Not only do we in the Congress have no formal
mechanil!m to assure "anticipatory democracy," the
growth of computer power in the Executive Branch is
denying us the exercise of our constitutionally
mandated "participatory democracy." We in the Congress are in real danger of becoming solely a ceremonial body, of becoming a supine figurehead on a
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

ship of state, steered by the Executive Branch's
computers, which is headin~ straight for the rocks.
Rising Tide of Frustration

Not only are we not representing ourselves in the
policy making area, but we are allowing those who
have reposed their trust in us, our constituents,
to gradually be stripped of a feeling of participation. The rising tide of frustration and powerlessness we see all around us is due, to some degree, to the fact that every proposed piece of
legislation sent to us from the Executive Branch or
that we develop ourselves, calls for the gathering
of more personal information by the Federal Establishment. If we can make sure that every law we
pass contains safeguard for that information, and
perhaps more important, if every concerned legislative committee insists that the collection of
information is fully justified, we will be able to
assure our constituents that we are playing a meaningful role.
Science Fiction Surrounding the Computer

It will not undermine the potential threat of
the computer to point out that many current computer
applications just do not work. In some cases the
down time is as high as 60% and one pertinent role
of a Select Committee would be to strip away the
science fiction surrounding the computer and
to insist that the computer industry develop more
accurate systems. But in the area of genetic engineering, there simply is no science fiction.
Almost every form of life will someday yield to
the test tube and a managed environment for conception, growth, and lifelong manipulation is within
the predictable future. Coupled with the use of
chemical technology to alter life-styles, moods, and
attitudes of our citizens, we are creating a radically different sort of society from that which
you and I know. Yet, the Congress continues to be
almost indifferent.
Technocratic Elite

America is a mixture of dozens of different cultural and ethnic heritages and yet often those who
manipulate the new technologies believe that everyone must be a mirror image of themselves. We are
in the process of creating a technocratic elite who
produce programs of massive impact but who do not
consider fully the ramifications of their actions
beyond short term successes.
Common Folk Become docile Clients or Deviants

A man very different from Robert Theobold, indicating the range of philosophies concerned, has commented on this problem. One of the prime proponents of the new life style, Paul Goodman, said:
"Human beings tend to be excluded when a logistic"
(that is, a computer-oriented) "style becomes universally pervasive, so that values and data that cannot be standardized and programmed are excluded,
when function is adjusted to the technology rather
than technology to function ... when there develops
an establishment of managers and experts who license
and allot resources, and which deludes itself that
it alone knows the only right method ... then common
folk become docile clients, maintained by sufferance,
or they are treated as deviant."
And, unfortunately, it could well be said that the
Congress itself is often a docile client of an all
knowing technocratic elite.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Pollution of the Political Atmosphere

And this power is not only in the Executive
Branch, Mr Chairman. Academies devise psychological tests which mirror their own pre-conceptions of
what constitutes decent behavior; businessmen exchange data on social, moral, and economic life of
citizens only allowing them limited access to information which determines their ability to get credit,
insurance, or employment; medical and school personnel administer behavioral modification drugs to
grammar school children, sometimes without analyzing
the socially inspired reasons for what they term
"learning disabilities;" Federally sponsored research reports launch plans which are buried deeply
within the bureaucracy until they burst forth on an
astonished and fearful citizenry; congressional committees approve efficient and economical schemes
without being able to develop information which
allows a just consideration of the long range impact
on our shared values. The list is endless.
I might describe what is happening, Mr. Chairman,
by saying that we all now recognize that the pollution of the physical atmosphere is the result of somE
technologies, but that we are unaware of the pollution of the political atmosphere. Technology's
tools spearheaded by the computer, have so accelerated the pace of change that we are in grave danger
of losing our form of government. Certainly, in so
many areas, the House of Representatives has already
lost its relevance.
And so, Mr. Chairman, I implore this Committee
to approve the Select Committee on Privacy, Human
Values and Democratic Institutions. It would be a
major aid to our constituents, our Constitution, and
our Congress.

SELECT COMMITTEE ON PRIVACY, IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES

Congressman Cornelius E. Gallagher
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.

On May 18, the House Committee on Rules approved
my Resolution to create a Select Committee on Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions.
A vote on the Floor of the House will be forthcoming
soon.
As the attached documents disclose, Senator
Ervin, and Congressmen Anderson and Horton, clearly
see the threats which the new technology poses to
privacy. But, unfortunately, this vision is not
shared by a majority of my colleagues here in the
House.
I am, therefore, asking that you do what you can
to convince your own Congressman or others who could
be influential, of the importance of the issues in
regard to privacy. I hope you share my conviction
that privacy is as fragile as it is essential to thE
. continuation of a free America.
Since the cancellation of my Privacy Inquiry by
the Government Operations Committee, the Congress
has been denied the kind of insights and actions we
generated. A Select Committee would have a full
staff and full funding and would be fully able to
confront each threat as it emerges and could help
the Nation find coherent policy. I urgently solicit your aid.

Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions

"Individuality is an absolute necessity for the survival of democracy - without
privacy and free expression, no free nation can remain free. "

Congressman Frank J. Horton
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

(Text of Congressman Horton's testimony before the
Committee on Rules in support of a proposal to
establish a Select Committee on Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions)
The Computer Has Made Man not Wiser but More Clever

Mr. Chairman, I ask your indulgence for a few
minutes in order to place my discussion in its philosophical perspective. Our forebears, some hundreds
of thousands of years ago, conducted themselves
under primitive conditions and acted with a savagery
we would consider appropriate for animals. Time improved that, with fire, the wheel, steel and gunpowder, the steam engine and the industrial revolution. But let us consider for a minute what man
has wrought. The bulldozer and dynamite have made
him stronger; he can literally move mountains.
The plane and car have made him swifter. The furnace and air conditioner have changed the "weather"
he must live in. Telescopes enable him to see objects so distant, that their proximity must be
measured in light years. And the computer has made
him not wiser -- but more clever, extending memory,
evaluation and calculation to a degree almost incomprehensible.
A Public Outcry to Ban Automobiles

This technology has taken its toll. C.P. Snow,
the British philosopher, can remember the public
outcry to ban automobiles after the first fatal
accident in London. But humans became regarded as
less unique, and the auto stayed -- despite 60,000
auto deaths a year, in this country alone. Life
expectancy in smog-ridden New York City is statistically less than elsewhere in America. The cost
has been an aesthetic one also. As the writer put
it, "You may fly ... but the birds will lose their
wonder. And the clouds will reek of gasoline."
Prohibitive Costs

Fortunately, we have reached a point in which some
of the costs have been found prohibitive and corrective steps have been taken. Automobiles must
be developed which will not poison our air. Food
preservatives, an excellent concept, have been
found harmful and are closely controlled. Industries must curtail pollutant operations.
A Machine which Can Memorize More and Better
Than We Could in a Hundred Lifetimes

This revolt against the abuse of man, against
unguided and uncontrolled technolog~ has recently
turned to the computer. A machine, no larger than
this table, which can memorize more and better than
we could in a hundred lifetimes, has been found a
threat to the quality of life and society that we
hold dear. Why? Because privacy has and contin48

ues to be abused as man failed to discern the computers' effect on our lives. The horror stories are
legion, and they range from political surveillance
to the information on 'file at credit bureaus,
which -- accurate or not -- is freely available to
almost anyone.
The Job of the Government is to Identify
the Problems of Society

The job of government -- any government -- Mr.
Chairman, is to identify the problems of society and
then go about solving them. I submit that the matter of privacy and human values, and democratic
institutions is a matter of concern to most Americans, the thus, a legitimate subject of study for
America's leaders.
A Function of Assessing

The Committee envisioned in this legislation
would not have a regulatory role. It would, however, have an attentive function in assessing the
unintentional, unconscious, but nevertheless growing threat to one of our basic freedoms -- privacy.
Our nation was based on the revolutionary and unique
notion that a man's thoughts, his private affairs,
and his activity were his own business insofar as
they did not pose danger to others or to the public
welfare. But America has since approached middleage, with attendant changes in outlook.
Government Officials Demanding to See
the Private Papers of Newsmen

In toaay's age, we see government officials demanding to see the private papers and notes of newsmen. We are told that there is no inherent right
of privacy, that individuals, including any Senator
or Congressman, can -- theoretically, be placed
under surveillance without his rights infringed.
We are asked to trust in the "self-restraint" of
the government in these matters.
Erosion of Freedom

I submit, Mr. Chairman, that this erosion
of freedom is a matter of great importance, especially its deteriorating effect on our privacy, our
uniqueness as individuals. It is imperative that a
committee undertake a study of where this development
is taking us as a society. You will note, Mr. Chairman, from my previous remarks, that there will be a
great deal of disagreement on the questions alone
before we can even begin to seek answers. But the
study must be undertaken if we are to transfer to
our grandchildren and theirs the quality of life and
the heritage of personal liberty and individual uniqueness we received from our forebears. For individuality is an absolute necessity for the survival
of democracy.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Privacy and Free Expression

Without privacy and free expression, no free
nation can remain free. There are three specific
areas I would like to cover and then I would be
glad to try to answer any specific questions the
Committee may have. The three areas are (1) the
essentially bipartisan nature of the work of the
proposed Select Committee; (2) the particular necessity at this point in time for such work to be
mounted here in the House of Representatives; and
(3) the reason why this work would permit the House
of Representatives to remain relevant to current
national problems by what I would regard as a most
significant act of internal reform by creating
this Select Committee.
Wide Support

First, few issues with which I have been associated have drawn support from a wider spectrum
of philosophies and political views. My presence
here today as well as my words demonstrate that
one Republican strongly supports this concept and
I feel I can speak for many of my colleagues on my
side of the aisle when I say there is no partisanship involved.

to a threat to America which the distinguished
southern Senator, Sam J. Ervin, recently laid out
in truly appalling detail. The insights of the Privacy Inquiry were indisputably proven during Mr:
Ervin's hearings.
I am sure that Mr. Gallagher, in his statement,
has shown how we could remain relevant as an institution if the House were to establish this Select
Committee.
The "Threatening" of Basic Human Rights

I just want to add an additional point, and this
has to do with reforming our procedures. The Nation
is now in turmoil and many of our constituents,
rightly or wrongly, feel that their basic human
rights are being threatened.
We have in this Congress three permanent Committees which work to guard our society against crime
and disorder, worthy pursuits which can, on occasion,
step too far toward limiting the privacy rights of
our citizens. These committees are: Committee on
the Judiciary; the Select Committee on Crime; and
the House Internal Security Committee.
Insistence on Reform of this House

National Data Bank

When I was a member of Congressman Gallagher's
Privacy group in the House Government Operations
Committee, our hearings in 1965, 1966 and 1968 were
held during Democratic Administrations. The hearing into the proposed National Data Bank was especially revealing, because we learned that the top
political advisors in those Administrations had
little or no knowledge of what was being proposed in
the middle levels of the bureaucracy.
Huge Immovable Bureaucracies

As President Nixon has learned since he has assumed his position, administrations inherit both
huge problems and huge, immovable bureaucracies.
We found in our work with the privacy study that
programs which threaten privacy are advanced by
people who are largely indifferent to partisan politics, who propose to spend millions of public dollars, and who are seldom if ever identified in the
same way men in public life are held accountable for
their decisions.
Visibility for Proposals

It may well be that a major task of the Select
Committee would be to give visibility to certain
bureaucratic suggestions before they become issues
which could divide Republican from Democrat and
liberal from conservative.
A Select Committee would, I feel, bring us together to preserve the common good rather than
create any partisan arguments.
President Nixon in a recent news conference said
that this Administration would take no actions to
infringe on the right of privacy. I believe Mr.
Nixon, just as we believed Mr. Johnson, but the
Federal Government is so large that neither of the
Presidents could be sure. One task of the proposed
Select Committee would be to make independent evaluations of proposals which could threaten what any
President wants for his country.
When we held our hearing into the computer and
invasion of Privacy in 1966, we called attention
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Let me immediately say that I do not share the
view that these Committees consciously help to
restrict individual rights in America. But one of
the central messages of those who insist we reform
this House is that we are not equipped to deal with
the rising demands of those who demand a fuller expression of their basic humanity. It seems to me
that one Select Committee looking into privacy
could balance the perspective of the House, which
must watch over both the personal safety and individual rights of Americans.
Enabling Voices to Be Heard

Naturally, a Select Committee would not undermine the work done by other Committees in the House,
but it would permit what are now only powerless
cries of frustration to be funneled into a formal
channel and it would permit other voices to be
heard as we arrive at our decisions.
The Computer May Have a More Powerful Impact
Than the Printing Press

Many observers contend that the computer will
have a more powerful impact on society than did the
printing press. I think the major thrust of the
Select Committee in conducting continuing investigations of existing and proposed computerized information systems, both those within Government and
in private hands, will allow democracy to flourish
along with this essential new means of record keeping. Neither Congressman Gallagher nor I are against
the computer, but we do share the view that it must
be used carefully, under controls, and in full consonance with the Bill of Rights. We have no present
means within the House, or indeed within the Congress to receive expert advice and to conduct knowledgeable investigations in this field. The Select
Committee would put that expertise here within the
House, rather than having it all within the Executive Branch.
In my opinion, what we are discussing is allowing the Congress to remain responsive to current
concerns. I hope that you will look with favor on
the creation of a Select Committee on Privacy, Human Values, and Democratic Institutions.
49

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK
APPLICATIONS
CHECKLESS PAYROLL SAVING
HOSPITAL DOLLARS & TIME

At Sarasota's Memorial Hospital
in Florida, a computerized checkless
payroll system is reported reducing
payroll preparation and admini stration costs more than 25%. After
four and a half years and more than
100 checkless paydays, hospi tal management, employees and fi nancial institutions consider the automated
system an unqualified success. (The
hospi tal deposi ts its entire $280,000
bi-weekly payroll in 14 different
banks designa ted by its employees.)
Under the checkless system the
hospital operates virtually a "handsoff" pay sys tem from the time an
employee clocks into the hospi tal
in the morning until his pay is
money in the bank.
Participation
is mandatory for the hospi tal employees.
H. Jack Floyd, associate executive director of the hospital,
played a major role in the inaugura tion of checkless paydays in January 1967. Mr. Floyd described the
system this way:
Each employee is issued an identification card with his name,
picture and Social Security number
when j oi ni ng the ho spi tal staff. On
coming to work he simply inserts
the card into a time clock that
transfers the information to a
"slaved" card punch in the hospi tal's
computer room. The process is repeated when an employee leaves work.
After a card has five in and/or
out punches, it is fed into the
hospi tal's Honeywell 1250 computer.
At the end of a pay peri od the
compu ter prepares a payroll deposi t
roster for each of the banks participating in the program, which
is delivered to the banks with the
hospital's check.
On payday, employees receive a Payroll Notice of
Deposi t which provides them all
pertinent pay information, as well
as information on vacation time accrued and sick time. These latter
entries are the result of the hospi tal's having programmed personnel
policy regarding time in, time out,
maximum vacation time, application
of sick leave, etc., right into
the computer.
(Software has been
developed by Memorial's EDP staff
wi th the assi stance of Honeywell
software specialists from its Tampa,
(Florida) DP operation office.
Use of the computer isn't new to
the SIS-bed hospi tal, whi ch consid50

ers itself the first hospi tal in
Florida to install a computer back
in 1962.
Today Sarasota Memorial
operates on about a $200,000 annual
EDP budget and is us i ng computer
communications to attack cost problems on a wide scale. "We're fi rm
believers in getting full utilizatio!} of the capabili ties of our
computer," Mr. Floyd emphasized.
"We've used the Model 1250 for
four years now wi thout being down
for as long as 24 hours because
of problems •... "
PROPERTIES OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS PREDICTABLE WITHOUT
ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS
THROUGH USE OF COMPUTER

Two scientists from the University of Utah have developed a completely new technique for predicting the properties of chemical compounds wi thout the time and expense
of actual measurements. Reporting
at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Richard
H. Boyd, professor of chemical engineering, andDr. Shirl Breitling,
assi stant research professor of materials science and engineering,
said they have learned how to use a
computer to predict the precise
shapes and many of the properties
of molecules.
The new technique
eliminates the necessi ty for such
measurements as X-ray and electron
defraction, infrared analysis, heat
of formation and heat capacity.

sional pictures of molecules,
cluding motion pictures.

in-

"One of the most exci ting applications of the new technique is that
compounds whi ch have never before
been made can now be calculated
through the computer," said Dr.
Boyd. "We are confident the technique will enable engineers to design chemical plants to produce
compounds with predictable properties, polymers for better plastics
and hydrocarbons for better petroleums, etc."
He also pointed to
future shortcuts in developing better materials for artificial organs,
pollution-free gasolines and other
materials wi th better balanced molecules.
LINGUISTICS RESEARCHER PLANS
NAVAJO LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS
WITH HELP OF COMPUTER

A computer will help bridge the
language and learning gaps encountered by Navaj o-speaking Indian
youngsters when they enter school
and a re faced wi th a foreign language
English.
Dr. Bernard
Spolsky, a linguistics researcher
at the University of New Mexico
(Albuquerque), is using an IBM System/360, Model 67 computer to analyze the Navajo language and catalog the knowledge Indian youngsters

The researchers fi rst devi se a
model of a molecule that makes up
the atomic structure of the compound
under study.
These are fashioned
out of plastic tubing and brass
fasteners. Then the atomic ends of
the molecule are touched by a computer-attached stylus. A button is
pressed to record the positions of
the atoms in the computer.
The
energy functions of the molecule,
including natural bond lengths,
angles, force constants, and other
known factors are also fed into the
computer, providing what Dr. Boyd
called the "converged structure" in
a numerical print-out.
Since a complex series of numbers
is difficult to interpret, the researchers went one step further and
worked out a graphic di splay program with the computer science department. Using the University of
Utah's graphic research facili ties,
the two scientists used the computer
to produce still pictures of the
molecules, as well as moving pictures of how they change shape.
One of the chief benefi ts of the
technique is that chemistry students now can observe three~dimen-

- Dr. Bernard Spolsky, shown
talking with a Navajo girl
possess on entering school.
He
believes that the young Navajos
90% of whom reach fi rs t grade knowing no English - would learn English better if they were taught to
read and wri te thei r na ti ve language first. "Before we can prepare adequate educational materials,
we must know what the Indian child
understands of his own language,"
Dr. Spolsky said.

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Dr. Spolsky trained adul t Indians
to conduct tape-recorded interviews
with more than 150 children of the
120 ,OOO-member Navaj 0 na tion to determine what instructional approach
should be taken in the chi Idren' s
native tongue. Each interview was
transcribed onto punched cards and
analyzed by the universi ty' s computer. The system produced an alphabetical index (2,673 pages long)
of all words used in the interviews,
noting for each the sentence in which
it was used and the frequency of use.
The frequency listing, tellingwhich
Navajo words the first grader understands, is the starting point for
preparing educational materials.
The study will result in elementary school textbooks wri t ten in
Navajo.
The old Dick-Jane-Spot
texts
which have accompanied
millions of Americans through the
primary grades -- will be replaced
wi th more meaningful Indian counterparts.
The federal government has taken
an interest in Dr. Spolsky's skill
with the IBM system and funded the
study.
DEFECTIVE AUTOS ROUTED OFF
STREETS, INTO REPAIR SHOPS,
WITH AID OF COMPUTER

As the result of an IBM computer
that's helping route defective vehicles off Washington, D. C. streets
and into repair shops, the more than
100 mi lli on au tomobiles traveling
the nation's highways in the mid70s will be safer and emi t less pollution. The computer is part of an
experimental vehicle inspection station developed by the District's Department of Motor Vehicles under a
$2.4 million contract with the Department of Transportation (oor) and
a $40 ,000 contract wi th the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) •
Information gathered by the System/360 Model 50 duri ng the five
year experiment wi 11 be used by DOT
to increase the effectiveness of
automobile manufacturers' recall
campaigns and, ul tima tely, to set
new safety standards for the industry. And EPA willusethe same data
to find ways that excessive engine
emissions can be eliminated.
In operation si nce late April,
the inspection station has spotted
defects in several hundred cars
traveling District streets.
When
anyone of the 250 ,000 cars regi stered in the District comes in for
its yearly inspection, its first
stop is at a video display terminal
connected to the computer. An attendant types in the auto's make
and registration number. Stored in
the computer are recall notices on

more than 11 million cars reported
to DOT by the manufacturers. If the
car is among the 11 million or has
been involved in an accident that
resul ted in damages of $200 or more,
the information is instantly displayed on the terminal's screen and
printed on a vehicle inspection form.
Defective autos go to a special
lane where, along wi th normal tests,
they're put on a dynamometer which
runs them a t speeds of 25, 40 and 60
miles per hour and checks engine
performance, transmission, exhaust
emissions and brakes at each speed.
Next, the suspension and steering
systems are checked. In some cases,
brake drums are removed for internal
inspections, then re-assembled and
tested again. Results of the tests
are fed back into the computer where
they're avai lable to the Department
of Motor Vehicles, DOT and EPA. If
no problems are reported by the computer, the auto goes through one of
four regular inspection lanes that
test seat bel ts, glass, tires and
other safety components.
The program has been well received by District residents who
feel that, for the fi rs t time,
they're getting an objective look
at the car they're driving, at no
additional cost to ihem.
UPI EDITORS WI LL TRADE
PENCI LS FOR COMPUTERS

Edi tors at Uni ted Press International news service are trading
their pencils for computer systems
to edi t news stories flowing in from
throughout the world. UPI is developing a system for edi ting and di stributing news that will eliminate
most manual rewri ting and resul t in
faster, more efficient news reports
to newspapers and broadcasters.
Stories filed by UPI correspondents and bureaus wi 11 be fed into an
RCA computer.
The computer wi 11
automatically produce an abstract
of each story, including an item
number, slug line, first paragraph
and length.
The abstract will be
printed out on teleprinters at the
desks of key edi tors at UPI headquarters in New York.
An editor can select a story to
edit, have it displayed on a video
data terminal, and using the terminal's keyboard, can correct the
copy, making addi tions and deletions
just as he now does with a pencil.
The story then will go back into the
computer for dissemination to UPI' s
client newspapers and broadcast
stations.
The system will begin ini tial
operation in the Spring of 1972,
when UPI' s primary na tional news

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

wire is converted to the comp'uter
operation.
The computerized wire
will operate in parallel with the
manual wire for about a month during
a testing period to insure uninterrupted service to clients. By mid1972, nearly all otherUPI wires will
be linked to the system.
In each
case, the manual wire will run in
paralle 1 for approxima te ly two weeks.

EDUCATION NEWS

ATLANTA BAPTIST COLLEGE
OFFERING DEGREE CREDITS
TO HONEYWELL GRADUATES

College credi ts for cIa ssroom
courses conducted by an industryoperated school are being offered
by Atlanta Baptist College (Georgia)
as of the 1971-72 Fall quarter. Dr.
Monroe F. Swi lley, Jr., president of
ABC, announced tha t the college completed arrangements with Honeywell
Inc. to allow 30 full college credits toward a bachelor's degree for
all graduates of the Honey~ell Institute of Information Sciences.
The agreement will make the young
four-year college the first institute of higher learning in the Southeast and one of the first in the
nation to make this type of arrangement wi th a compu ter ins ti tu te
for such credit transfers. Similar
plans in operation involve the Universi ty of Minnesota in Minneapoli s,
Southern Methodist Universi ty in
Dallas, and Pepperdine University
in Los Angeles, the latter in cooperation with Honeywell.
(see
Computers and Automation, September 1971, p. 42.)
Simultaneous with the credit
transfer announcement came word tha t
Honeywell also had been awarded a
contract to set up and manage a formal computer science program as
regular courses wi thi n the framework
of ABC's business administration
curriculum.
U.S. COLLEGE HELPS KOREA
ESTABLISH GRADUATE CENTER

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
(New York), a science-engineering
college, is helping Korea overcome
one of its biggest obstacles in the
way of industrialization -- a shortage of scientists and engineers.
Last summer, Polytechnic Institute
supervised the initial development
stages of Korea's first centralized
graduate school of science and engineering, which expects its first
students in the fall of 1972. (Now,
most Korean students who want to
study science and engineering on a
gradua te level must go to the Uni ted
States or another country.)
51

KAIS grew out of a study by Prof.
KunMo Chung, a native of Korea and
an associate professor of electrophysics at Polytechnic Institute's
Long Island Graduate Center. Prof.
Chung has been named Vice-President
for Academic Affairs of the new institution, and he also is a member
of Polytechnic's KAIS Ta sk Force wi th
responsibi li ty for program development and facul ty recrui tment for the
new college.
Plans call for an initial class
of approximately 40 M.S. students
in two fields of study.
By 1975,
there will be seven fields of study
offered in programs leading to the
Master of Science degree, the Engineer degree and the Doctor of Science
degree.
Financing for KAIS comes
from the Republic of Korea and the
U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
"INTERNSHIP IN INDUSTRY"
ALLOWS TEACHERS TO KEEP PACE

Honeywell InformationSystems is
conducting an" internship in industry" program to allow teachers to
keep pace wi th rapidly changing industrial technology.
The program
was set up to help ensure that what
students learn will be pertinent to
the solution of topical problems.
Faculty members who teach and have
curriculum development responsibili ties for technological subj ects at
vocational and technical insti tutions are invited to participate in
the sessions.
The" internship in industry" program includes lectures and laboratory work on the production and
maintenance of computer equipment,
principles of computer programming,
computer industry trends and career
opportuni ties wi thin the computer
industry.
Sessions are held at
Honeywell's field engineering training center in Newton, Mass.

RESEARCH FRONTIER

VOICE-CONTROLLED DEVICE GIVES
"COMMAND" PERFORMANCES

Engineers at Bell Laboratories
in Holmdel, N.J., are investigating
an experimental device that can dial
a telephone number when given spoken
commands. Voice control of the device is achieved through a simple
form of integrated circui try that
converts sound waves into electrical
pulses to open and close the electromechanical switches necessary
for obtaining a dial tone, executing
dialing, and terminating a call.
Previous voice-controlled devices
required the use of an elaborate
52

system of electronics in addi tion
to the aid of a computer to function
efficiently. By compari son, say its
developers, Meb Awipi, Cliff Hoffman
and Gerald Soloway, the experimental
device is simply constructed and
easy to operate.

and contaminants.)
The Product
Test Laboratory also uses the test
chamber to subject computers to high
concentrations of dust as well as
ci ga re t te smoke.
MEMORY DISCS

A small circular display of ten
lamps labeled wi th the numerals zero
through nine is used along wi th the
voice control device.
The lamps
light in numerical sequence.
Any
voice utterance spoken in coincidence wi th a lighted numeral wi 11
activate that number. Speaking the
numbers "one", "three", and" fi ve"
as the corresponding numerals light
up in thi s order wi 11 enable the
device to store in its memory all
of the digi ts in a typical telephone
number. As the numbers are spoken,
the
corresponding .lamps remain
lighted in the display for a slightly
longer interval to indicate registration in the device's memory.
When a special command is given,
the memory in the voice control device transmi ts stored digi ts as a
series of electrical pulses to telephone dialing circuitry.
A telephone number remains in the memory
even after it is dialed and can be
reused any time the dialing command
is given. It is automatically erased
when a new number is stored.
A similar voice control device
may one day provide "hands-free"
telephone service for motion handicapped persons. Also in the future,
the device could possibly be used
to operate more sophisticated electrical equipment or machinery.

MISCELLANEOUS
CIGARETTE SMOKE AIDS
COMPUTER TESTING

An unusual machine that "smokes"
cigarettes a whole pack at a time
is helping IBM engineers test and
evaluate the effects of smoke on
computers. At IBM's General Systems
Division Product Test Laboratory,
Rochester, Minn., the machine's two
cylindrical nl ungs" automatically
"puff" and "exhale" smoke into the
test chamber where a machine is
subjected to the dense smoke.
Because IBM's small computers,
such as System/3 and System/7, are
being operated in industrial facili ties and warehouses as well as
business office environments, new
methods such as the cigaret te smoking machi ne are used to insure
product reliability. (Larger computer systems are normally housed
in climate-controlled rooms, and
isolated ·from various pollutants

These discs may look like phonograph records of the future -- and
they wi 11 record more i nforma tion
than you'll find in a library of
long-play records. They are, however, computer memory discs. Each
side of the aluminum discs can hold

the equivalent of nearly three
80,000-word books. In the picture,
a quali ty control technician at
Reynolds Metals Company's McCook,
Ill., plant is shown a s he checks
surface flatness to wi thin thousandths of an inch.
Reynolds estimates that more than 6 million
pounds of aluminum will be used for
memory di scs thi s year -- enough to
make more than 8~ mi lli on di scs
containing 4~ trillion words.
IBM "SELECTRIC" II TYPEWRITER
AND THE NEW TECH III RIBBON

The IBM "Selectric" II Typewri ter
is the most recent addition to the
family of word processing equipment
offered by IBM's Office Products Division, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
Among the new features of the ·machine is a dual pi tch mechani sm
which enables the typist to switch
from lO-pi tch (ten characters per
inch) to 12-pi tch (twelve characters
per inch) simply by moving a lever.
Other new features include an express
backspace and a half backspace.
A new IBM Tech III Ribbon, also
fea tured wi th the typewri ter, is
enclosed ina snap-in/sriap-out cartridge.
This long-life ribbon is
manufactured under a patented process which creates a tough polymer
(plastic film) saturated wi th fluid
ink. With average use the new ribbon needs to be changed approximately five times a year, compared
wi th 64 changes needed wi th previously-exi sting carbon film ribbons
used on IBM "Selectric" Typewri ters.
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

NEW CONTRACTS
Burroughs Corporation,
Detroit, Mich.

Minister of Education,
New Zealand Government

Univac Division of Sperry
Rand, Blue Bell, Pa.

Deutsche Beamten-Versicherung,
Wiesbaden, West Germany

Logicon, Inc., San Pedro,
Calif.

Air Force Space and Missile,
Systems Organization (SAMSO)

Shintron Company, Inc.,
Cambridge, Mass.
Hazeltine Corp., Greenlawn,

Medfax Communications, Inc.,
New York, N. Y.
Philco-Ford Houston Operations, Houston, Texas

N. Y.

Incoterm Corp., Marlborough,
Mass.

Air France

Systems Engineering Lab., Inc.,
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

National Aeronautics and Space
Admn. (NASA), Lewis Research
Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Systems Engineering Labs., Inc., City of Los Angeles, Calif.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Computer Technology, Inc.
LTV Federal Credit Union,
Dallas, Tex.

Computing and Software, Inc.
(C&S) , Los Angeles, Calif.

Digital Development Corp.,
San Diego, Calif.
LMC Data, Inc., New York, N.Y.
SofTech, Inc., Waltham, Mass.
Cipher Data PrOducts', San
Diego, Calif.
Cambridge Memories, Inc.,
Newton, Mass.
Boeing Research & Engineering
Div., Seattle, Wash.
Logica Limited, London,
England

Ultronic Systems Corp., Mount
Laurel, N.J.
Honeywell Information Systems,
Wellesley Hills, Mass.
First Data Corp., Waltham,
Mass.

$3.75 million
Five B6700 systems and two DC1200 systems
for use throughout New Zealand universi ties;
systems will handle DP requirements of all
universities serving some 50,000 students;
first system scheduled for Auckland Univ.,
Oct. '72; network completion by August '73
$3.4 mi Ilion
A UNIVAC 1106 system for maintenance and
(approximate)
updating of customer policies, basis for
management information system, other actuarial and administrative tasks
$1.1 million
Engineering evaluation, validation and
software development for the Air Force
Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile program for use by the Strategic Air
Command (SAC)
QIX 504 graphic facsimile transceivers; de- $1.1 million
livery in early 1972
$1,058,000
A large quantity of fully interactive digital displays to be used by NASA for mission operations information
$1+ million
Installation of complete computer display
network at Orly Int'l Airport (outside
Paris); calls for seven different configurations of the SPD 10/20 for applications
such as passenger check-in, baggage control, boarding pass printing and message
switching
$940,000
A SYSTEMS 86 computer system to be used
(approximate)
for jet engine testing

$672,000
Real-time command and control system for
(approximate)
the Los Angeles City Fire Department
$500,000
Development, implementation and operation,
(approximate)
by CT, for an "on-line, real-time" data
processing system for the 22,000-member
credit union (5-year contract)
$400,000
Designing and initiating processing of a
City of New York Housing and
(approximate)
Development Administration (HDA) computerized system to administer HDA's
New York, N. Y.
rental adjustments on over one-million
city apartment dwellings under current
rental control legislation
$375,000+
Control Data Corp., La Jolla
Supplying head-per-track disc memory systems for use in message swi tching applicaSystems Div., La Jolla, Calif.
tions in CDC computer systems
$120,000
A master contract under which various diE. I. DuPont DeNemours Co.,
Wilmington, Del.
visions of DuPont family may elect to lease (approximate)
DP equipment of the card handling type
$105,000
U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory,
Implementation of the AED System on the
Control Data 6000 Series of computers
Dahlgren, Va.
$100,000
Dual cassette recorder systems for use
Word Processing, Inc.,
in Word Processing's text editor, the
Hagerstown, Md.
Editron System
$95,000
Development of a low-cost, block-oriented
U.S. Naval Electronics Command
random access memory (BORAM) for future
use on board naval ships and aircraft
$88,400
U.S. Navy
Computer software evaluation of executive
computer programs being developed to govern command-and-control programs aboard
nuclear attack submarines and surface ships
Funded by about 70 of world's
A study of new computer network to provide
leading commercial banks, infacili ties for international payment transcluding 25 major U.S. banks and fers between banks throughou t Europe and
U.S.; will develop computer programs to
banks in 10 European countries
aid network design and for cost analysis of
system; simulation model will be developed
for evaluation of characteristics of ~l
ternative system designs
Trans World Airlines, New
Computer communications equipment which
York, N.Y.
will ini tially handle PARS messages between
TWA's real-time computer center and maj or
reservation offices throughout the country
Social Security AdministraLease of 15 central Keyplex processing systion
tems to replace existing keypunch machines
covering 587 stations at 10 locations in
eight cities throughout the United States
National Institutes of Health
Establishment, maintenance, and operation
of specialized remote-access, time-shared
system in support of NIH research acti vi ties
in Chemical/Biological Information-Handling
Program

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

NEW INSTALLATIONS
Burroughs B2500 system

Union National Bank of
Lowell, Mass

Burroughs B6700

Data Resources, Inc.
Lexington, Mass.
(2 systems)

'Control Data 6400 system

Jutland Telephone Co.
Aarhus, Denmark

Digital Equipment PDP-lO system

Interprovincial Pipe Line Co.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Honeywell Model 58

A. J. Etkin Co., Oak Park,
Mich.

Honeywell Model 635 system

Mitsubishi Corp., Tokyo,
Japan
(2 systems)

IBM System 3 Model 10

Belmont Springs Water Company
Belmont, Mass.
Blue Channel Corporation
Port Royal, S. C.

IBM System 3 Model 10
IBM System 3 Model 10
IBM System 370 Model 135

Efco Products, Inc.,
Pou hkee sie, N. Y.
Florida Times-Union and Journal
Jacksonville, Fla.

IBM System 370 Model 145

Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati,
Ohio

IBM System/370 Model 155

Group Hospitalization, Inc.,
Washin ton, D. C.
Spiegel, Inc., Chicago, Ill.
(2 systems)

IBM System 370 Model 155
IBM System/370 Model 155
IBM System 370 Model 165

NCR Century 100 system
NCR Century 100 system
NCR Century 100 system
NCR Century 200 system
UNIVAC 1106 system

UNIVAC 9200 system
UNIVAC 9200 system
UNIVAC 9200 system
UNIVAC 9200 system
UNIVAC 9200-11 system
UNIVAC 9400 system

Virginia National Bank
Norfolk, Va.
(2 s stems)
Fireman's Fund American Insurance
Companies, San Francisco, Calif.
Banco Nacional de Fomento,
Asuncion, Paraguay
Corporacion de Obras Sanitarias
(CORPOSANA)
Asuncion, Paraguay
Western Merchandisers, Amarillo,
Texas
American Bank and Trust Co.
Orangeburg, S. C.
Nippon Kangyo Kakumaru Securities Company
Tokyo, Japan
Grange Mutual Life Company
Nampa, Idaho
Jaffe Shoe Corp., Seville,
Ohio
Lester Industries, Bedford
Heights, Ohio
Louisville Title Insurance Co.,
Louisville, Ky.
Silver Eagle Trucking Co.
Portland, Ore.
Museum of Science and Industry,
Chicago, Ill.

Applications including an Item Processing System
(IPS)i installment and commercial loans; demand deposit, mortgage and trust accounting, foreign letters, general ledger, etc.
(system valued at over $1 million)
Helping financial and other business institutions
relate their corporate planning, cash flow analysis,
loan and deposi t forecasts, portfolio decisions, etc. ,
to economic development
(system valued at over $2 million)
Administrative functions and calculating scientific,
technical and engineering problems leading to development of advanced communications networks.
(system valued at $1.7 million)
Supervising and monitoring network of remote pumping
stations i replaces existing computer of another manufacturer
Payroll, programming labor and material costs, accounts payable, inventory of tools and equipment and
cost reports
Jointly operated time-sharing service, by Mitsubishi
and Mitsubishi Office Machinery (Honeywell Bull licensee in Japan), for both company use and as commercia 1 servi ce
(s stem valued at about $4 million)
Management reports, route analysis, inventory control, dail re orts and eneral led er
Aiding the independent fisherman in managing his
finances; later will determine trends in crab
catches alon the southern South Carolina coast
Uses ranging from tracking production to scheduling
truck deliveries of the baker su 1 firm
Control of ad production in newspapers i also accounting activities associated with direct billingaswell
as a wide variet of other accountin functions
Expanded computer operations including a Central File
for bank customersi includes all internal bank accounting functions, commercial/mortgage/installment
loans, savings and checking accounts, etc.
Expanding services for Blue Cross and Blue Shield
subscribers
Speeding the processing of over 4 million orders annuallYi system handles order entry, credit authorization and a large number of other applications
Processing 710,000 accounts daily from a state\\ide
network of 113 branches
Core of firm's nationwide DP operationsi implements
automated processing system for homeowners and automobile policiesi replaces two smaller computers
(system valued at $3.5 million)
Demand-deposit applications, loan processing and payroll preparation
Handling various accounting and statistical problems
for CORPOSANA which is in charge of all water and
sewage services in Paraguay
Complete inventory listing, weekly, identifying the
artist, title, manufacturer, vendor, retail price
and dealer's cost for each recording in stock
Meeting its expanded data processing requirements
Applications which include keeping records of shares
and certificate transactions, sales on credit bond
business, customer records, and investment information service and records of deposits for safekeeping
(system valued at $1.9 million)
Insurance premium billing, commissions, production
and persistency reporting, accounting
General accounting, inventory control and sales analysis
A specialized payroll program dealing with piece
rates, invoicing and an efficiency analysis program
Billing of agents for premiums, policy inventory and
general accounting
Revenue accounting, freight billing, sales statistics,
administrative data and payroll processing
Performing function for Chicago Park District, i.e.,
keeping track of equipment and services needed to
maintain 500 parks and many ball fields, swimming
pools, gymnasiums, bandstandsi also as educational
exhibi t for--v-is-itors
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

MONTHLY COMPUTER CENSUS
Neil Macdonald
Survey Editor
COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION
The following is a summary made by COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION of reports and estimates of the number of general purpose electronic digital computers manufactured and installed, or to be manufactured and on
order. These figures are mailed to individual computer manufacturers
from time to time for their information and review, and for any updating or comments they may care to provide. Please note the variation
in dates and reliability of the information, Several important manufacturers refuse to give out, confirm, or comment on any figures,
Our census seeks to include all digital computers manufactured anywhere. We invite all manufacturers located anywhere to submit information for this census, We invite all our readers to submit information that would help make these figures as accurate and complete as
possible.

The following abbreviations apply:
(A) -- authoritative figures, derived essentially from information
sent by the manufacturer directly to COMPUTERS AND
AUTOMATION
C
figure is combined in a total
(D)
acknowledgment is given to DP Focus, Marlboro, Mass., for
their help in estimating many of these figures
E
figure estimated by COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION
(N)
manufacturer refuses to give any figures on number of installations or of orders, and refuses to comment in any
way on those numbers stated here
(R)
figures derived all or in part from information released
indirectly by the manufacturer, or from reports by other
sources likely to be informed
(S)
sale only, and sale (not rental) price is stated
X
no longer in production
information not obtained at press time

Part I of the Monthly Computer Census contains reports for United
States manufacturers. Part II contains reports for manufacturers
outside of the United States. The two parts are published in alternate months,
SUMMARY AS OF SEPTEMBER 15, 1971
DATE OF
NAME OF
NAME OF
FIRST
COMPUTER
MANUFACTURER
INSTALLATION
Part II. Manufacturers Outside United States
A/S Norsk Data E1ektronikk
NORD-1
8/68
Oslo, Norway
NORD-2B
8/69
(A) )Sept. 1971)
NORD-S
A/S Regnecentralen
GIER
12/60
RC 4000
Copenhagen, Denmark
6/67
(A (A r. 1971)
Elbit-10O
Elbit Computers Ltd,
10 67
Haifa, Israel
(A) Feb. 1971)
Series 90-2/10/20
GEC-AEI Automation Ltd,
25/30/40/300
1/66
New Parks, Leicester, England
3/68
(R)
S-Two
12/64
130
(Jan, 1969)
330
3/64
959
-/65
1010
12/61
1040
7/63
CON/PAC 4020
5/66
CON/PAC 4040
CON /p AC 4060
12/66
Atlas 1 & 2
1/62
International Computers, Ltd. (ICL)
Deuce
4/55
London, England
(A)
KDF 6-10
9/61
KDN 2
4/63
(July 1971)
Leo 1, 2,
-/53
Mercury
-/57
Orion 1
2
1/63
Pegasus
4/55
Sirius
-/61
503
-/64
12/60
803 A, B, C
1100/1
-/60
1200/1/2
-/55
1300/1 /2
-/62
7/62
1500
12/61
2400
1900-1909
12/64
Elliott 4120/4130
10/65
System 4-30 to 4-75
10/67
Japanese Mfrs.
(N) (Sept. 1970)
Marconi Co" Ltd,
Chelmsford. Essex, England
(A) (Jan, 1970)
N.V, Philips Electrologica
Apeldoorn. The Netherlands
(A)

(July 1971)

Redifon Limited
Crawley, Sussex, England
(A) (Sept. 1971)
Saab-Scania Aktiebo1ag
Linkoping, Sweden
(A) (June 1971)
Se1enia S.p.A.
Roma, Italy
(A) (July 1971)

2,0
4,0

p9200
P9200 t,s,
P800
ELXl
ELX2/8
DS714
PR8000
R2000
D2l
D22
D220
GP-16

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

8/68
3/68
3/70
9/70
5/58
3/65
-/67
1/66
7/70
12/62
11/68
4/69
7/69

o
o
o
o
o

(S)

2,3-7,5
3,0-20,0
4,9

56
5

o
40
16

56
5
0
40
16
225

(5)

65.0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

10-36
10-24
20.0

5.0
3.9
4.0
6.0
23.0
3-54
2.4-11,4
5,2-54

(Mfrs. of various models include: Nippon Electric
Hitachi. Ltd" Toshiba, Oki Electric Industry Co,.
Electric Corp,)
Myriad I
3/66
h36.0-=66,0
Myriad II
10/67
=22,0-=42,5

PlOOO

NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS
In
Outside
In
U.S.A.
U.S,A.
World

AVERAGE OR RANGE
OF MONTHLY RENTAL
$(000)

6
7
58
1
59
13

17
30
22
16
83
22
68
196
110
4
2000
160
160

Co" Fujitsu,
and Mitsubishi
(S)
(5)

0
0

37
17

13
1
2
9
1
8
1
0
9
5
6
7
58
1
59
13
17
30
22
16
83
22
68
196
110
4
2000
160
160

Total:
4150 E
37
17
60
300

7.2-35,8

9
22
27
27
23
12

0
0
0
0

38
29
11
71

12,0
6-21

7.0
15.0
10.0
10.9

(S)

NUMBER OF
UNFILLED
ORDERS
31
13
1
0
3
50

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
C
C
C
Total:
400
Total:
800 E
9
12
60
50
3
60
8

Secretary Laird has explained to the U.S. Congress
that $390 million dollars per year is being spent in
Laos for illegal, unauthorized, concealed warfare,
bombing, etc., that kills thousands and thousands of
~sians.
And yet the United States government cannot
find even one million dollars to keep this great library openl

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIVISION OF THE
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TO CLOSE ITS DOORS
ON JANUARY 1, 1972
Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor
Computers and Automation

The New York Public Library, 5th Ave. and 42 St.,
New York, N.Y., has announced that it will be forced
to suspend all public service as of January 1, 1972,
in its Science and Technology Division because of
lack of adequate financial support.
This is the division that includes computers and
data processing, and all the periodicals serving the
field of computers and data processing.
"Thi s cu tback is part of a li brary-wide program
caused by reduced government budget allocations and
increase of costs." The Library is short over
$1,000,000; the necessary expenditure cuts can only
be achieved by "curtailment of public service." "Curtailment of public service", I have learned, includes
"curtailment of private service" (there is none) and
equals "curtailment of all service" I Acquisition
and cataloging of materials is to continue as usual
so that the ST Division will be able to function
adequately again i f and when funds are again available.
The New York Public Library is one of the four
greatest libraries of the world -- the other three
being the Library of Congress in Washington, the
British Museum in London, and the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris. Inquiries directed to the New
York Public Library, and research taking place there,
arise from allover the United States and the world.
(Other great libraries such as those of universities
are essentially not open to the public.)
The suspension of public service implies that at
least 300 readers from all levels of professional
and lay life will be turned away each day; at least
100 telephone reference questions will not be answered each day; letters with reference questions
from all around the world will have to be returned
unanswered to their senders; etc.
To me, this closing is an unmitigated horror. I
have used this great library often, for over 45 years.
Currently in the 'newspaper I have read how Defense
NAME OF
MANUFACTURER
Siemens
Munich, Germany
(A)
C(Ju1y. 1971)

USSR
(N)
(May 1969)

NAME OF
COMPUTER
301
302
303
304
305
306
2002
3003
4004/15/16
4004/25/26
4004/35
4004/135
4004/45
4004/46
4004/55
4004/150
4004/151
404/3
404/6

BESM 4
BESM 6
MINSK 2
MINSK 22
MIE
NAIR 1
ONEGA 1
ONEGA 2
URAL 11/14/16
and others

DATE OF
FIRST
INSTALLATION
11/68
9/67
4/65
5/68
11/67
6/59
12/63
10/65
1/66
2/67
7/66
4/69
12/66

11/6<]

All our readers are invited to send contributions
(and also suggestions and ideas) to:
Temporary Commi t tee for the N.Y. Public Library
c/o Computers and' Auto~'ation,
815 Washington Street
Newtonville, MA 02160
In this emergency, no contribution is too small for
this most worthwhile purpose. (Please make checks
payable to the New York Public Library.)
Macdon~ld

- Continued from page 40

It may be that handwriting reveals personality (which

I believe is likely to some extent) - or that creases in
the palm of one's hand reveal one's past and future life
(which I cannot believe) - or that combinations of the
locations of the planets and the zodiacal constellations
imply specific varieties of good advice to apply in one's
life (in which implications I have no belief whatsoever).
But there undoubtedly is a place for non-verbal, nonmathematical testing, which is not culture limited, not
occupation limited, and not background limited - and
which would enable finding and employing many useful
people who do not have American, middle-class backgrounds. Perhaps the readers of C&A and their friends
and acquaintances might well be a good area to discover
and explore such tests.
Participation

If you think this is interesting, and would like to
participate in this survey, send us what you do on this
test. We will respond either in the pages of C&A by
reporting, or to you individually.

We plan to publish additional tests like this one from
time to time.
0
AVERAGE OR RANGE
OF MONTHLY RENTAL
$(000)
0.75
1.3
2.0
2.8
4.5
6.5

13.5
13.0
5.0
8.3
11.8
17.1
22.5
34.0
31.3
41.0
51.5
1.9
4.1

NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS
Outside
In
In
U.S.A.
World
U.S.A.
82
28
70
63
93
39
32
99
54
185
248
10
22
10
22
10

C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
Total:
6000 E

NUMBER OF
UNFILLED
ORDERS
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
Total:
298
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C

Total:
2000 E

COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

CALENDAR OF COMING .EVENTS

Oct. 4-6, 1971: International Electrical & Electronics Conference & Exhibition, Automotive Bldg., Exhibition Park, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada / contact: Conference Office, 1819 Yonge St., Toronto 7,
Ontario, Canada

Nov. 3-5, 1971: 25th IEEE Northeast Electronics Research and Engineering Meeting (NEREM), Sheraton-Boston Hotel and the John B.
Hynes Auditorium, Boston, Mass. / contact: IEEE Boston Office,
31 Channing St., Newton, Mass. 02158

Oct. 4-7, 1971: 26th Annual ISA Instrumentation-Automation Conference
& Exhibit, McCormick Place, Chicago, III. / contact: Daniel R. Stearn,
Public Relations Manager, Instrument Society of America, 400 Stanwix St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222

Nov. 4-5, 1971: 1971 American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS) International Conference, Chase Park Plaza Hotel,
St. Louis, Mo. / contact: Henry F. Sander, American Production &
Inventory Control Society, Inc., Suite 504 Watergate Bldg., 2600
Virginia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037

Oct. 6-8, 1971: Conference on "Two-Dimensional Digital Processing",
Univ. of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Mo. / contact: Prof. Ernest
L. Hall, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia,
Columbia, Mo. 65201
Oct. 10-12 1971: First Annual ASM Southwest Division Conference
(sponsored by Assoc. for Systems Management, Div. Council 18),
Jung Hotel, New Orleans, La. / contact: Albert J. Krail, 636
Baronne St., New Orleans, La. 70113

Nov. 7-11, 1971: 34th Annual Meeting of the American Society for
Information Science (ASIS), Denver Hilton Hotel, Denver, Colo. /
contact: Miss Sheryl Wormley, ASIS, 1140 Connecticut Ave., N.W.,
Suite 804, Washington, D_C. 20036
Nov_ 16-18, 1971: Fall Joint Computer Conference, Las Vegas
Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev. / contact T. C. White, AFIPS
Headquarters, 210 Summit Ave., Montvale, N. J. 07645

Oct. 12-14, 1971: Input/Output Systems Seminar '71, The Regency
Hyatt House-O'Hare, Chicago, III. / contact: C. A. Greathouse,
Exec. Director, DPSA (Data Processing Supplies Assoc.), P.O. Box
1333, Stamford, COni!.: 06904

Nov. 30·Dec. 3, 1971: Systems '71, Munich, Germany / contact: Andre
Williams, BIC·938, Commercial Exhibitions Div., U.S. Department of
Commerce, Washington. D.e. 20230

Oct. 14-20, 1971: Interkama '71, Dusseldorf, Germany / contact: I. A.
Stader, Dusseldorfer Messegesellschaft mbH NOWEA - 4 Dusseldorf, Messegelande

Dec. 7-10, 1971: Applications of Simulation, Waldorf Astoria Hotel,
New York, N.Y. / contact: Joseph Sussman, MIT, 77 Massachu·
setts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139

Oct. 18-20, 1971: 27th Annual National Electronics Conference and
Exhibition (NEC/71), Pick-Congress Hotel, McCormick Place, Chicago,
III. I contact: NEC, Oakbrook Executive Plaza #2, 1211 W. 22nd
St., Oak Brook, III. 60521

Dec. 16-18, 1971: IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (including
the 10th Symposium on Adaptive Processes), Americana of Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, Fla. / contact: Prof. J. T. Tou, Univ. of Florida,
Gainesville, Fla.

Oct. 18-20, 1971: International Computer Forum & Exposition, McCormick Place-On-The-Lake, Chicago, III. / contact: International
Computer Forum & Exposition, Oak Brook Executive Plaza #2,
1211 West 22nd St., Oak Brook, III. 60521

Feb. 2·4, 1972: 1972 San Diego Biomedical Symposium, Sheraton
Hotel, Harbor Island, San Diego, Calif. / contact: Norman R. Silver·
man, M.D., San Diego Biomedical Symposium, P.O. Box 965, San
Diego, Calif. 92112

Oct. 20-22, 1971: ACM/ IEEE Second Symposium on Problems in the
Optimization of Data Communications Systems, Palo Alto, Calif. /
contact: Dr. P. E. Jackson, Room 2B-434, Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J. 07733
Oct. 21-22, 1971: ADAPSO 33rd Management Conference-Annual
Meeting; lst Software Management Conference (concurrently),
Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colo. / contact: Association of Data
Processing Service Organizations, Inc., 551 Fifth Ave., New York,
N.Y. 10017
Oct. 22-23, 1971: First National Computer Art Symposium, The
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. 32306 / contact: Randolph B. Luttrell, Coordinator, Computer Art Symposium, The
Florida State Univ., Center for Computer Assisted Instruction,
Tallahassee, Fla. 32306
Oct. 25, 1971: Second Annual SIGCOSIM (ACM Special Interest Group
on Computer Systems Installation Management) Symposium, Washington, D.C. I contact: I. Feldman, Wiley Systems, Inc., 6400
Goldsboro Rd., Bethesda, Md. 20034
Oct. 25-29, 1971: IEEE Joint National Conference on Major Systems,
Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. / contact: Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 345 East 47th St., New York, N.Y.
10017
Oct. 25-29, 1971: Systems Science & Cybernetics Conference & 1971
ORSA (Operations Research Society of America) Meeting, Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. I contact: Dr. Michael W. Lodato, Xerox
Data Systems, 701 50_ Aviation Blvd., EI Segundo, Calif. 90245
Oct. 29, 1971: Sixth Annual ACM Urban Symposium, New York Hilton
Hotel, New York, N.Y. I contact: Gerald M. Sturman, Parsons
Brinckerhoff, 111 John St., New York, N.Y. 10038
Nov. 1-2, 1971: Computer Science and Statistics: Fifth Annual Symposium on the Interface, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater,
Okla. / contact: Dr. Mitchell o. Locks, Oklahoma State Univ.,
Stillwater, Okla. 74074
COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for October, 1971

Mar. 20·23, 1972: IEEE International Convention & Exhibition,. Coli·
seum & N. Y. Hilton Hotel, New York, N. Y. / contact: IEEE Head·
quarters, 345 E. 47th St., New York, N. Y. 10017
April 5.8, 1972: "Teaching Systems '72", International Congress,
Berlin Congress Hall, Berlin, Germany / contact: AMK Berlin,
Presse
und
Public
Ausstellungs-Messe-Kongress-GmbH,
Abt.
Relations, D 1000 Berlin 19, Messedamm 22, Germany
April 25·28, 1972: Conference on Computer Aided Design, Univ. of
Southampton, Southampton, England / contact: lEE Office, Savoy
Place, London W.e. 2, England
May 15-18, 1972: Spring Joint Computer Conference, Convention Ctr.,
Atlantic City, N.J. / contact: AFIPS Headquarters, 210 Summit Ave.,
Montvale, N.J. 07645
May 16-17, 1972: liT Research Institute Second International Symposium on Industrial Robots, Chicago, III. / contact: K. G. Johnson,
Symposium Chairman, liT Research Institute, lOWest 35 St., Chicago, III. 60616
May 22-26, 1972: Fifth Australian Computer Conference, Brisbane,
Australia / contact: K. Arter, Honorary Secretary, Australian Computer Society, Inc., P.O. Box 63, Watson, A.e.T. 2602 Australia
May 24-26, 1972: Second Annual Regulatory Information Systems Conference, Chase-Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. / contact: William
R. Clark, Missouri Public Service Commission, Jefferson City, Mo.
65101

MORE ABOUT THE FRONT COVER PICTURE

Pictorial Reasoning Puzzle - To produce "Puzzle" a random number generator was used to place the figures in the
order shown and to choose the particular number to be repeated. "Puzzle" was programmed in FORTRAN IV on a
CDC 3300. The plotter was a Calcomp 765 Digital Zip
Mode plotter. For more information, see page 5.
57

Who's Who in Computers and Data Processing
A CONTINUING PUBLICATION:
FI FTH EDITION AND SUPPLEMENTS ~ SIXTH EDITION

Who's Who in Computers and Data Processing is published jointly by Quadrangle Books (a New York Times Company) and
Computers and Automation.
In view of the financial depression in the computer field, the Who's Who will until further notice be published as
the FIFTH EDITION plus a number of SUPPLEMENTS.
The First Supplement (26pages, over 1,000 entries) was published in the June 1971 and July 1971 issues of Computers
and Automation. The Second Supplement will be published in the next few months. Each supplement consists of entries
that update existing information, and entries of capsule biographies for computer professionals not previously included.
Every supplement is free on request to each purchaser of the set of the Fifth Edition (3 volumes, hardcover, over
1,000 pages). This edition contains over 15,000 capsule biographies of computer professionals. Price, $75.00, including
all supplements as issued.
If you wish to be considered for inclusion in the Who's Who (or if information for you has been previously published
and requires updating), please complete the following form or provide us with the equivalent information.
WHO'S WHO ENTRY FORM
(may be copied on any piece of paper)
(Please print) _______________________________________________________________________

Name?

Home Address (with Zi p) ?______________________________________________________

Organization?____________________________________________________________________________

Its Address (wi th Zip)? _________________________________________

Your Title? ______________________

Your Main Interests?

Logic
Management
Applications
Mathematics
Business
Progrannning
Construction
Sales
Design
Systems
Year of Bi rth ?______________ 8.

Year Entered Computer Field?_________ 10.

11.

Other (please specify)

Educa ti on and Degrees ?________________________
Your Present Occupation?______________________

Publications, Honors, Memberships, and other Distinctions?_____________________________________
(attach paper if needed)

12.

Do you have access to a computer?
a.

If yes, what kind of computer?

Yes

Manufacturer?______________.Model ?______________________

Address?________________________________________________
Co
do
13.

Please explain,__________________
Is your access: Batch?
Time-Shared?
Other?
Any remarks?__________________________________________________________________________

In which volume or volumes of the Who's Who -Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3

(a) Have you
been included?

(b) Do you think
you should be included?

Systems Analysts and Programmers
Data Processing Managers and Directors
Other Computer Professionals

14.

Do you subscribe to Computers and Automation?

15.

Associates or colleagues who should be sent Who's Who entry forms?

rYes

) No

-- to The New York Times?

Name and Address

(attach paper if needed)
When completed, please send promptly to: Who's Who Editor, Computers and Automation.
815 Washington St., Newtonville, Mass. 02160

) Yes

) No

As "Grass Roots"
Goals Committee
Chairman, he's
battling the blamethe-computer
syndrome.
David Wollin, B.S. Engineering
Science, is a Senior Systems Analyst
with a ticket reservations systems
service, developing application
software. He joined ACM in 1966,
fresh out of college. "After four years,
I wanted more involvement as a computer professional," says Dave. "More
than meetings, lectures .and technical
publications. ACM seemed sort of
clannish. I felt the average member
wasn't encouraged to participate.
"Last October I wrote ACM President
Walter Carlson with some specific

suggestions. Now I'm heading the
newly-formed "Grass Roots" Committee. Our job is to critique ACM's
proposed goals on membership development, special interest activities,
EDP curricula and public education.
And come up with other goals we
think are just as important.
"This effort could mean a lot in the
next few years. I've wanted to speak
up on some things that have been
bugging me. Things I see ACM taking
a stronger stand on. Like people
blaming mistakes on the computer.

The need to cut down on hard copy
to avoid waste. The privacy issue.
The whole question of the computer's
impact on society, I guess."
Dave is only one of 27,000 members
of ACM, the oldest and most
respected professional association
in the computer field. He's enriching
his career. Making a contribution
to the computer profession. And
being heard.
Look into joining ACM. Fill out and
mail the coupon today.

Association for Computing Machinery
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
I would like to consider joining ACM.
Please send more information.
Association
for Computing
Machinery

Name

Position
Address
City

State

Zip

ALL OF US WANT TO PROVIDE
FOR OUR FUTURE AND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTUREWhat future?
We, the whole earth-load of us, face appalling problems all coming to a head within a few
years:
Nuclear missiles, targeted on "the enemy" and on us;
Global pollution of air, soil, and water;
Rapid depletion of fossil fuels and other natural resources;
Runaway population growth (3.7 billion now, 6.5 billion by 2000 A.D.);
in short, age-old human attitudes threaten to destroy us.
The national governments have shown themselves so far -- year after year -- unable to
solve these new, world-wide problems, unable to provide real security for any of us.
Therefore a world government is essential for human survival,.

What ahout the UN?
The UN has made outstanding contributions to the health and well-being of people allover
the world -- but the UN is not a go~ernment. And it is not responsible to us as individuals, but only to national governments, which often use it to jockey for power.
The Emergency Committee for World Government has a new approach •... which includes a
"by-pass" principle: in the case of world-wide problems, such as war and pollution,
every person in' the world would owe his highest allegiance directly to the world government, thus by-passing his national government. (This would be, in effect, a most constructive kind 'of loyalty to one's own country.) And the world government would have
authority only over individuals, likewise by-passing the national governments.

Is a world government practicable?
What is essential for human survival had better be made practicable. Through the mass
media and all:sorts of forums, we the people must get world-wide discussion going ...•
on the urgent 'need for world government, on ,how such a government can be realistically
planned, and how it can get off the ground. To do this will take information, time, and
money. Will you help? What better way could there be to provide for your own and your
children's future?

-"By-pass ing" and other principles are explained, with diagrams, in the pamphlet, Emergency
World Government" by Dr. J. H. C. Creyghton. Send $i.oO for a copy, postpaid, on approval.
Write to the address nearest you.
EMERGENCY COMMITTEE FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT
World Headquarters
Dr. J. H. C. Creyghton, Dir.
Frederik Hendriklaan 26
The Hague, The Netherlands

New York Area
Foster Parmelee, Sec-Trease
63 E. 9th St., Apt. 4-A
New York, NY 10003

North American Division
Boston Area
William Cary, Sec-Trease
Bolton, MA 01740

Western Region
Douglas Mattern, Dir.
424 Lytton Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94303

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