TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

By JAMES L. GRAFF

With Chicago's ability to host a peaceful Democratic Convention at stake, it's hard to imagine anyone worrying about a lousy T shirt. But this isn't just any T shirt. "It's cop humor," shrugs Pat Gutkoska, whose print shop is across the street from the Chicago Police Eighth District Station. "The cops that see it know it's a joke." The department's official take on the shirt is offhand disdain. Some police say the word has come down from Mayor Richard M. Daley that wearing or selling the T shirt could lead to disciplinary action (a police spokesman denies the threat). 'When asked about it by a local TV reporter earlier this summer, Daley muttered, "It's just some guy trying to make a buck." "That's it exactly," says Gutkoska. By conversion time, he figures, he will have sold 5,000 shirts, which retail at $12 a pop. While he says police are buying them, they may well be doing so for their fathers; only about 7% of the city's current officers were on the force in 1968. Still, there are other takers. Says Gutkoska: "Had a couple of Secret Service guys in here. They bought four shirts."

--By James L. Graff/Chicago