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VOLUME 64, Number 41 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1968 Telephone 845-2226
Good Future Seen
In Texas Novels
By JANIE WALLACE
Battalion Staff Writer
Terry Southern is the best
novelist of Alvarado, Texas, ac
cording to novelist Larry Mc-
Murtry. But the Lone Star State
probably did not inspire the much-
banned novel, “Candy”.
Speaking to a standing-room-
only audience here Thursday,
McMurtry, whose novel “Horse
man,, Pass By” became the movie
“Hud,” discussed Texas literature
in the first presentation of the
Contemporary Speakers Presenta
tion of the Literary Arts sub
committee.
McMurtry’s critique centered
around what he termed the “Big
Three” of Texas literature: Roy
Bedichek, W. P. Webb, and J.
Frank Dobie.
Ag Rifle Team
To Go Against
TU Marksmen
Texas A&M engages the Uni
versity of Texas at Austin Satur
day in the Southwest Rifle Asso
ciation match.
A&M is 3-1 going into the
match, defeating Rice last week
end by 1,307 to 1,160.
Army Capt. Bob Whittington,
adviser, said the same five-man
team that defeated Rice will fire
against the Longhorns.
Chris West of San Antonio
shot 268; Wayne Jordan of New
Boston, 257; Tom Mayes, Fort
Worth, 271; Danny Huddleston,
Falls Church, Va., 253 and Joseph
Toelle, San Antonio, 258. Pat
Bailey of Trona, Calif., will fire
in the sixth position.
The Aggie riflemen placed
sixth among 14 college division
teams in the recent University of
Texas at Arlington Invitational.
UTA won with 2,202; Houston
teams took second and fourth;
Oklahoma State, third, and Ar
kansas, fifth. West paced the
2,014 point A&M effort with 534
of a possible 600.
A&M team wins were over
Rice, Prairie View A&M and Trin
ity and the only loss was to the
University of Houston.
“THE WORLD outside never
heard of Bedichek, hasn’t read
Webb, and isn’t particularly in
terested in Dobie,” he said. The
world inside doesn’t read much
and doesn’t read well, but the
three men were loved and hon
ored here.”
McMurtry compared the old
generation of the “Big Three” and
the generation that is developing
now.
“Bedichek, Webb, Dobie revered
nature,” he noted. “For my gen
eration, the reverse holds true.
I doubt we could scrape up enough
nature-lore between us to organ
ize a decent picnic.”
McMurtry pointed out that one
can love nature without the rural
way of life. Life in the country
now usually means life in or near
the small town, and the small
towns do not enlarge one’s char
acter—they shrink it, he said.
BUT IF small towns shrink
one’s character, how can the pre
sent generation be accounted for?
“Such communities as Chilli-
cothe, Archer City, Stamford,
Clarksville, Floydada, Groesbeck,
Alvarado and Dundee have pro
duced novelists and can no longer
be considered intellectually vir
gin,” McMurtry said. “Some, of
course, may have been victims
of intellectual rape.”
The only answer McMurtry of
fers is: “If these creative writing
courses aren’t stopped, every
town in Texas will have its nove
list within a decade.”
Another facet of the difference
between the “Big Three” and the
present is the lack of introspec
tion.
In conclusion, McMurtry gave
an incentive: “Texas writers are
sometimes so anxious to avoid the
accusation of provincialism that
they will hardly condescend to
render the particularities Of their
own place, though literature
thrives on particulars.
“If this is the era of the Ab
surd, then all the better for the
Texas writer, for where else can
one find a richer mixture of ab
surdities ? Literature has coped
with physical aspects of Texas,
but our emotional experience re
mains largely unexplored, and
therein lies the drama, poems,
and novels.”
‘Union Gap’ To Follow Bonfire
A musical phenomenon of the
last 22 months, The Union Gap,
charges into G. Rollie White Coli
seum Tuesday for a Town Hall
special.
The Union Gap was organized
in January, 1967, and took its
name from a historic town of
South Central Washington state.
Affecting military titles and Civil
War uniform dress, the five-mem
ber group assaulted clubs and
colleges from Washington into
Southern California and attracted
a large following.
“From the standpoint of the
usual long climb to the top for
a pop artist, the Union Gap has
made it in half an hour,” com
mented Louis Adams, Town Hall
chairman.
As a special attraction, the
Tuesday night performance will
admit all patrons on a single
event ticket only, Adams added.
Tickets are available at the Me
morial Student Center Program
Office.
THE UNION GAP general,
Gary Puckett, has a sergeant,
corporal and two privates in the
outfit he organized in San Diego,
Calif. Lead singer-songwriter-ar-
ranger Puckett is proficient on
the guitar, piano, organ and blues
harmonica.
Sergeant Dwight Bement plays
tenor sax; Corporal Kerry Chater,
bass guitar; Private Gary (Mu-
tha) Withem, woodwinds, piano,
and Private Paul Wheatbread,
drums.
‘ “Our general is Gary, our cor
poral is Kerry so they call me
Mutha,” notes Gary Withem. “Be
sides, I love pickles and ice
cream.”
The easy, danceable beat and
Puckett’s singing made their de
but Columbia single a likeable
combination to more than a mil
lion record buyers.
ALSO WITH “Woman, Wo-
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.
—Adv.
man” in gold record status is
“Young Girl.” Both are feature
pieces in the Union Gap’s two
LPs containing a number of songs
written by members of the group.
“Lady Will Power” and “Over
You” are also Union Gap hits.
Three members are California
natives and all have musical
backgrounds. Puckett, bom in
Minnesota and raised in Wash
ington, has 30 compositions to
his song-writing credit.
Bement and Chater were col
lege music majors, Withem taught
music and Wheatbread played
formerly with “The Hard Times,”
a regular on Dick Clark’s TV
program “Where the Action is.”
Chater was bom in Vancouver,
Canada.
Benson Succeeds
Crash Victim As
C-l Commander
James C. Benson of Dallas, a
senior history major, has been
named commanding officer of
Company C-l in the Corps of
Cadets.
The command change was ne
cessitated by the death of the
C-l commander, John W. Groves
of Lovington, N. M., noted Col.
Jim H. McCoy, commandant.
Groves and two C-l freshmen,
George W. Reynolds of Orange
Grove and Donald Coward of
Corpus Christi, were killed in a
Nov. 9 auto accident north of
Fort Worth.
A cadet major, Benson pre
viously was First Battalion exec
utive officer. He is intelligence
officer of the Ranger Company
here.
McCoy said Dennis J. Guill of
New Canaan, Conn., was shifted
from First Battalion adjutant to
exec and Charles F. Schwab Jr.
of San Antonio was transferred
to battalion staff as adjutant.
Senate Backs Proposals
On Board Payment Hike
PROPOSAL TALK
Howard Vestal, director of management services, explains a chart showing expenses
which will necessitate fee increases. Vestal briefed Student Senators Thursday on his
office’s three proposals for increase methods. The Senate endorsed the ideas, which will
be presented to the A&M Board of Directors Wednesday. (Photo by Larry Frisk)
Local Statutes Can Harass
Citizens, TCLU Chief Says
By DALE FOSTER
Battalion Staff Writer
Be careful how you wear your
hair when driving through West
Texas, warned Texas Civil Liber
ties Union Executive Director
Doran Williams Thursday night
at the Unitarian Fellowship.
“Anybody who looks like a hip
pie, even just with long hair, will
be picked up for vagrancy or
some similar charge. This hap
pens no matter how much money
a man might have in his pocket
or how nice a car he is driving,”
he commented.
“An example of this is a case
in Potter County, where the
sheriff arrested a young man for
vagrancy, put him in jail, brought
in a television camera, and show
ed the prisoner’s head being
shaved for the enjoyment of area
residents,” stated the long-haired,
moustached lawyer.
GUEST SPEAKER at the an
nual meeting of the Brazos Civil
Liberties Union, Williams noted
that certain local and state stat
utes are often used to arrest
and subsequently harass law-abid
ing citizens for their social or
political activities.
“One of the major problems
we have encountered in most of
the cities where we have affili
ate chapters in the broad inter
pretation of statutes that are
very vague in their intent,” he
added.
The 1966 graduate of the Uni
versity of Texas Law School,
speaking on “The Past, Present,
and Future of the Civil Liberties
Union in Texas,” said that most
of his time in the coming year
will be spent organizing new com
mittees in areas such as McAllen,
Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Wa
co, and Wichita Falls.
COMMITTEES ARE organ
ized in cities where there are not
enough members to support a
full chapter. New committees are
presently being formed in Ama
rillo, Denton and Lubbock.
At present, although there are
more than 2,000 members state
wide, the TCLU has only eight
chapters. The two newest are
in Brazos County and the Sabine
area which includes Beaumont.
Both were formed in the past
year. Other chapters are located
in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San
Antonio, El Paso, and Fort
Worth.
“Cases that the TCLU chapters
Bryan Building & Loan
Association, Your Say
ings Center, since 1919.
B B & L —Adv.
have taken in the past year have
included ones on civil rights dem
onstrations, church - state rela
tions, military court-martial, and
political activity,” the former
Starr County United Farm Work
ers Counsel told the more than
40 people present.
DURING THE business ses
sion, chairmen of four commit
tees gave reports on investiga
tions of local cases ranging from
racial discrimination to police
brutality. In most of the cases
the committees reported the char
ges unfounded.
One case, which has since been
dropped, concerned the validity
of the A&M administration’s
blocking the enrollment of Stu
dents for a Democratic Society
Chapter President Jeff Daniels
this fall. The committee arranged
an on-campus hearing, but Dan
iels didn’t show up and is now
enrolled at the University of
Texas at Austin.
Another committee is now in
vestigating the complaint by a
group of A&M Negro students
that they are unable to organize
on campus.
A new member of the Brazos
Community Services Council, a
federation of local public service
organizations, the Brazos CLU
has more than 70 members in
Brazos and surrounding counties.
President of the group, whose
motto is “Bringing the Bill of
Rights to the Brazos Valley,” is
Paul A. Tryxell.
FIRST LOG
Dale Odum, left, and Steve Smith perch atop a 35-foot log
brought in for the Bonfire by a crew from Walton Hall
Saturday. Odum arranged for cutting of the 2*4-foot-
thick oak at a friend’s property near Liberty. Still to b
worked out, according to Walton President Andy Scott,
is how to get the log to the Bonfire area across campus.
(Photo by Marty Amadio)
By DAVID MIDDLEBROOKE
Battalion Staff Writer
The Student Senate Thursday
endorsed three fee-increase pro
posals to be considered Wednes
day by the Board of Directors.
If passed, the proposals would
take effect next September.
Howard Vestal, management
services director, conducted the
three-hour briefing at a special
called meeting of the Senate.
Vestal was assisted by Tom
Cherry, vice-president for busi
ness affairs; James P. Hannigan,
dean of students, and Ed Cooper,
civilian student activities director.
THE FIRST two proposals,
concerning room, board and laun
dry fee increases and room de
posit increases, were endorsed by
a large majority of the Senators.
The third, concerning a charge in
some cases for the privilege of a
single room, was endorsed by a
bare 19-12 majority.
Vestal explained that expendi
tures for residence halls will in
crease by $339,000 next year.
Food service costs will rise by
$250,000 and laundry by $35,000.
Most of the residence hall cost
increase is due to a $133,000 in
crease in bond payments, he ex
plained. Another large portion
will be used in new programs for
civilian residence halls. Here, the
cost is mainly more student sal
aries for residence hall advisors.
The rise in food service costs,
Vestal continued, is mainly due
to higher labor costs. Texas A&M
now comes under the Fair Labor
Standards Act and must pay more
in wages.
The laundry fee increase, he
said, is also mainly due to rising
labor costs. He added that all new
equipment was installed in the
laundry plant earlier this year.
For students in non-air condi
tioned dorms, with or without
telephones, the fee increase per
semester would amount to $39
for people on the 5-day plan and
$43 for the 7-day. For those in
air-conditioned dorms, the in
creases are $48 and $52.
THE SECOND proposal con
cerned room deposit. Currently,
Vestal explained, the room de
posit is $30. If a student fails to
register, he forfeits the deposit
and the university keeps it. The
cost of the empty room, though,
exceeds the deposit.
In an effort to curb cancella
tions, Vestal said, a deposit in
crease to $75 is being proposed.
This would “make a man think
twice” before not showing and
forfeiting. If he does register,
$45 would be applied toward pay
ment of fees. In effect, registering
students would pay only a $30
room deposit.
THE THIRD proposal read,
“During the second semester and
summer sessions, residence hall
students may be offered a single
room provided they pay one and
one-half times the per-person
rate; those not desiring to pay
the rate may be required to oc
cupy a similar room with another
student.” This proposal would go
into effect at mid-term.
“For every room occupied by
one man,” Vestal said, “the uni
versity’s cost is the same as if
two men lived there. We feel
that the student desiring the
luxury of a private room should
help pay the cost.”
This does not mean, he pointed
out, that every student living
alone would be charged the pro
posed rate. If a student’s room
mate were to die, or if he were
simply stuck in a room alone, for
example, he would not be charged
the proposed rate.
THE SENATE then considered
each proposal separately. After
some discussion, the first pro
posal was endorsed unanimously.
On the second proposal, Student
Senator Bob Burford expressed
concern about a man being able
to afford the $75 initial cost,
which would have to be paid dur
ing the summer before he arrived.
The Senate did not consider
the problem too serious, however,
and endorsed the proposal 29-2,
with one abstention.
The third proposal produced a
heated discussion, with a sub
stantial minority feeling that the
idea was not acceptable to them,
at least in its present form. It
was endorsed, finally, by two
votes over the number required.
“I am pleased that the admin
istration would brief the students
on a proposal before submitting
it to the Board of Directors,” said
Bill Carter, Senate president.
“This is the first time the ad
ministration has done this, and I
hope it won’t be the last.
Fish Drill Team
To Perform At
Tonight’s Game
The Fish Drill Team gets an
other in-public workout tonight
at the Shrine football game be
fore heading into regular com
petition.
The rifle drill unit will perform
at Kyle Field in advance of the
7:30 p.m. Texas A&M Fish-Texas
Yearling football game. A Shrine
unit will march at halftime.
Senior advisors Mike Casey of
Washington, D. C., said 35 fresh
men will represent 90 cadets in
the unit for the six-minute se
quence. In command will be
George Barrientos of San An
tonio.
The Fish Drill Team has march
ed as a unit in two previous pub
lic appearances, at march-ins for
the Arkansas and Rice football
games.
Bonfire Ashes Can Hurt
Car Finish, Powell Warns
Chief Ed Powell of the Campus
Security warned students Thurs
day of the effect of Bonfire
ashes on the paint jobs of cars in
the area.
“In the past, students have
complained of spotting on the
finish of their cars,” said Powell.
“This is caused by the settling
of ashes on the car and, when dew
forms in the morning, it causes
Dining Halls Plan
Bonfire Schedule
A special meal schedule for
Bonfire weekend has been is
sued from the office of Col.
Fred Dollar, director of food
services.
Civilian students eating in
Sbisa Dining Hall will be served
breakfast from 5:30 to 8 a.m.,
lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 1:15
p.m. and dinner from 4:30 to
7:15 p.m.
Cadets eating in Duncan Din
ing Hall will be served break
fast at 5:30, lunch at 12, and
dinner at 7. The noon meal will
be issued in the cutting and
stacking areas.
the lye in the ashes to eat into
the paint.
Powell recommended that stu
dents either drive their cars a
short distance to blow the ashes
off or to wash their cars well as
soon as possible after the Bon
fire. Due to the change in wind
direction, virtually all the parking
lots in the Duncan area could be
affected.
“Cars beonging to residents to
the south of the campus will
probably not be affected due to
the distance,” said Powell.
“Also, visitors to the Bonfire
will not be faced by the problem,
since they will be driving their
cars immediately afterward and
the wind will remove the residue
from the fire.”
WEATHER
Thursday — Cloudy, occasional
rain afternoon. Winds Easterly
5 to 10 mph. High 63, low 46.
Friday—Partly cloudy. Winds
North 70 to 15 mph. High 62,
low 38.
Kyle Field — Partly cloudy.
Winds Calm. 58°.