(FORTUNE Magazine) – A former apple orchard . . . across the street from the White House (is) known as Lafayette Square. (In) August . . . the National Park Service complained of ''visual blight'' in the park and . . . proposed rules that would limit the size and number of protest signs in the park . . . The proposed rules would not apply to hand-held signs. But . . . protests of | fewer than 100 persons would be restricted to a small ''soapbox'' platform, rather than a stage . . . According to John Steinbach, a member of the Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington, the proposed stage restrictions . . . would make it difficult to present theater or musical groups as part of a protest. -- From a news report in the Washington Post.