TODAY'S A BIG DAY IN HISTORY FOR MISSOURI CONSERVATION

At Monday's Rotary Club meeting, we had a barn-burner of a debate on the question of whether flag burning is protected free speech under the First Amendment. As we reported in Tuesday morning's edition, Cape Girardeau attorney John Cook took the affirmative; yours truly took the negative. The debate was videotaped and will be re-broadcast tonight at 7 on Channel 13. Should you tune in, I think you'll find it thought-provoking and informative on some tough First Amendment issues.

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This morning, at a news conference at a Department of Conservation nature center in St. Louis, leaders of that department and Nature Conservancy officials will make an announcement of historic significance for the cause of conservation in Missouri. The announcement will concern the largest single land sale agreement in Missouri in the 20th century, possibly ever.

The announcement concerns approximately 81,000 acres of land in Shannon and Carter Counties in the Ozarks, plus approximately 1,700 acres in Wayne County. The seller is Kerr-McGee Corporation, and the buyer is the Nature Conservancy.

Over the next five years, the Conservancy will deed the ground to the Department of Conservation (DOC), which will be involved with other state and federal agencies in determining what use to make of the various different tracts. The Conservancy will be reimbursed its costs by DOC. Some lands will end up in U.S. Forest Service hands, and some in expanded state parks and state forests, perhaps. Much of the acreage will remain with the DOC.

Missouri Conservation Commission Chairman John Powell, of Rolla, and Nature Conservancy Board of Trustees Chairman Mike Keathley, of Dexter, will join other officials to make the announcement and celebrate. Chairman Powell will note the transaction, one of the largest ever in North America, as one of the three most significant events in the history of the conservation movement in Missouri. The others are: 1) the establishment of the Commission as a separate agency free from direct political influence during the 1930s; and 2) the passage in 1976 of the one-eighth-cent sales tax for conservation.

Two Sundays ago, we were in Columbia for a Conservancy board meeting, at which final arrangments were being nailed down for this morning's announcement. This one has been in the works for a long time. It's a great day for Missouri conservationists.

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"Don't Gamble

"A lot of states are thinking of legalizing gambling as a way to boost revenues. But two professors say that gambling actually causes revenues to decline.

"Earl L. Grinois, an economics professor from the University of Illinois, recently conducted a study of off-track betting parlors in Champaign, Ill., one of 14 such sites that the state is permitting. Grinois found that in return for $436,000 in projected annual revenues, the local economy would sustain a direct annual loss of $4.8 million and an additional indirect loss of between $8 million and $12 million.

"Because people are gambling, says Grinois, they will have less money to spend on other things. That alone will reduce the city's sales tax revenue by $200,000 to $250,000.

"In the case of Illinois, betting parlor operators keep 77 cents of every $1 that is bet. Only 1 cent goes to the city, and 3 cents go to the state and county.

"There is another problem. `Once states open the floodgates to gambling, the attraction for outside business capital to move into those states diminishes significantly,' said Professor John K. Kindt. `Hoped-for economic spinoffs are a mirage.'"

John Crudele, syndicated columnist for the New York Post