For the Record

■ Mister In-Between in the Panama Canal controversy is Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker. . . . “He’s squirming like a worm on a hot brick,” comments Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who, with Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, is leading the anti-Treaty forces. … A U.S. News nose count shows 38 senators leaning toward the treaties, 31 leaning against, 31 undecided. Many of those 31 may follow Baker. . . . Baker himself says he hasn’t made up his mind, and won’t, until after the Senate Foreign Relations hearings, scheduled to start September 26. Baker professes to be worried about the big hoopla that accompanied the signing ceremony. By overplaying the ceremony, says Baker, Jimmy Carter may have hurt efforts to win approval in the Senate. . . . One plus and two minuses for the President: Archishop Joseph Bernardin, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the Catholic bishops will support the Treaty; but Sens. Barry Goldwater and John Stennis (he’s chairman of the Armed Services Committee) have now joined the nay ranks. . . . Even Majority Leader Robert Byrd refuses to be committed. He, like Baker, says he’ll wait for the hearings.

■ Facts & Figures Dept.: The new school year opened with 300,000 fewer Americans attending school this year than last (60.3 million as against 60.6 million), but HEW reports their education will cost $12 billion more than that of last year’s crop. … If you think the rich don’t pay their taxes, think again. The Tax Foundation reports that the top 10 per cent of U.S. taxpayers (earning $23,000 a year and up) paid nearly half of the $132.2 billion the Feds collected last year. . . . The incessant media and congressional attacks on the intelligence community have resulted in a 50 per cent decrease in the amount of intelligence received by the Secret Service (that’s the organization that protects the President), and the quality of that intelligence has dropped by 20 to 25 per cent, according to Secret Service Director Knight. . . . The New England Journal of Medicine reports that the single largest cause of death among young (25-to 34-year-old) non-white males in urban America is murder. In Cleveland, the test city, 344 of every 10,000 young blacks have died “of intentional violence.”

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■ Mister In-Between in the Panama Canal controversy is Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker. . . . “He’s squirming like a worm on a hot brick,” comments Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who, with Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, is leading the anti-Treaty forces. … A U.S. News nose count shows 38 senators leaning toward the treaties, 31 leaning against, 31 undecided. Many of those 31 may follow Baker. . . . Baker himself says he hasn’t made up his mind, and won’t, until after the Senate Foreign Relations hearings, scheduled to start September 26. Baker professes to be worried about the big hoopla that accompanied the signing ceremony. By overplaying the ceremony, says Baker, Jimmy Carter may have hurt efforts to win approval in the Senate. . . . One plus and two minuses for the President: Archishop Joseph Bernardin, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the Catholic bishops will support the Treaty; but Sens. Barry Goldwater and John Stennis (he’s chairman of the Armed Services Committee) have now joined the nay ranks. . . . Even Majority Leader Robert Byrd refuses to be committed. He, like Baker, says he’ll wait for the hearings.

■ Facts & Figures Dept.: The new school year opened with 300,000 fewer Americans attending school this year than last (60.3 million as against 60.6 million), but HEW reports their education will cost $12 billion more than that of last year’s crop. … If you think the rich don’t pay their taxes, think again. The Tax Foundation reports that the top 10 per cent of U.S. taxpayers (earning $23,000 a year and up) paid nearly half of the $132.2 billion the Feds collected last year. . . . The incessant media and congressional attacks on the intelligence community have resulted in a 50 per cent decrease in the amount of intelligence received by the Secret Service (that’s the organization that protects the President), and the quality of that intelligence has dropped by 20 to 25 per cent, according to Secret Service Director Knight. . . . The New England Journal of Medicine reports that the single largest cause of death among young (25-to 34-year-old) non-white males in urban America is murder. In Cleveland, the test city, 344 of every 10,000 young blacks have died “of intentional violence.”