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No. 63
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, January 20, 1971
Thursday —• Clear to partly
cloudy. Winds southerly at 10-15
mph. 42 0 -68°.
Friday — Partly cloudy to
cloudy. Winds southerly at 15-20
mph. 51 0 -74°.
845-2226
Mutscher implicated
government suit
AUSTIN (.dP)—House Speaker
Gus Mutscher and two of his top
aides acknowledged Tuesday they
bought and sold shares of a stock
the federal government alleges
was used as an inducement to
win passage of a state deposit
insurance bill.
Dr. Elmer Baum, state Demo
cratic chairman, said he and Gov.
Preston Smith also bought shares
of National Bankers Life Insur
ance Co. stock in 1969.
Smith was expected to issue a
statement about the purchases.
The U.S. Securities and Ex
changes Commission filed a civil
suit in Dallas Monday against
National Bankers Life, Sharps-
town State Bank, Frank Sharp,
former State Atty. Gen. Waggon
er Carr, Austin lawyer John Os-
rio and others. The SEC asked
for an injunction against alleged
violations of securities laws.
The suit alleges that a plan was
put through the legislature to al
low private insuring of state
Senate to hear
Williams tonight
Texas A&M President Dr. Jack
K. Williams will address the Stu
dent Senate at a special meeting
tonight at 7:30 in the second floor
library conference room.
"He will speak on what he
wants to do for A&M and student
government and what he thinks
student government should be
doing,” Student Senate President
Kent Caperton said.
Also on the agenda is the ap
pointment of seven Student Seiw-
ice Fees Committee members. The
committee was established recent
ly to make recommendations to
the university president concern
ing student seiwice fees, Caper-
ton said.
Caperton will also appoint two
students to fill vacancies made by
seophomores Nanette Critchlow
(Soph-Ed) and Mark Jarvis
(Soph-Eng) who have left school.
The Constitutional Revision
Committee which met during
Christmas vacation will report,
Caperton added.
hank deposits. To get the bill
passed, “certain legislators, leg
islative employes and members of
the executive bi-anch” were loan
ed lai-ge amounts of money to
buy stock in National Bankers
Life, the SEC petition claims.
According to the suit, the stock
later was sold for the men at a
profit.
During the second special leg
islative session in 1969, a bill
passed by both houses would have
permitted private, nonprofit cor
porations to insure state bank de
posits that exceeded the $15,000
federal deposit insurance.
Smith vetoed the bill Sept. 29,
1969, saying it would lead to a
large number of small, weak de
posit insurance corporations
“which would not provide the
protection anticipated.”
Mutscher; one of his aides,
Rush McGinty; and Rep. Tom
my Shannon of Fort Worth, house
sponsor of the deposit insurance
bill and Mutscher’s right hand
man in administering the House,
all said they bought National
Bankers Life stock in 1969.
Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes; his top
advisor, Frank Erwin Jr.; and
former Sen. Jack Strong of Long
view, who sponsored the bill for
a time in the Senate, all said
they had not bought any of the
stock.
Mutscher said he lost money
on the stock deal; McGinty said
he took a loss on some of the
stock and made money on some
of it; Tommy Shannon said he
made a good profit.
All three House officials de
nied any connection between the
deposit insurance bill and the
stock transactions. All three said
they felt the deals were free of
any taint.
Mutscher and McGinty said
they were not sure how much
of the stock they bought, how
(See Mutscher, page 3)
C of C invites
Williams as
IGNORING THE DANGER presented by his big teeth, three turtles known as red
eared sliders take a ride on the back of an alligator at Memphis, Tenn. Overton Park
Zoo. Their apparent philosophy is, why swim yourself when you can let somebody else
to do it for you. The incident is also rare but balmy weather in Memphis has brought
them out, because turtles are usually in hibernation at this time of year. (AP Wire-
photo)
dinner speaker i ,. 1 . 1 . ^ ,
Dr. Jack K. Williams, president IlllUfif -IclStS Ulltll AUCSClclV
of the Texas A&M University t ^ w
Dr. Jack K. Williams, president
of the Texas A&M University
System, will be featured speaker
at the annual Bryan-College Sta
tion Chamber of Commerce Ban
quet Thursday.
The program begins at 7 p.m.
in the Ramada Inn.
Tickets are available at the
chamber office, 401 S. Washing
ton Ave., Bryan.
Applications for five top posi
tions in the Memorial Student
Center Council and Directorate
are now being accepted from
Texas A&M students, announced
Don B. Mauro, MSC executive
vice president.
Applications must be turned in
to the MSC Student Program Of
fice by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Applicants for the 1971-72
council president and chairmen of
the Great Issues, Political For
um, Town Hall and Contempor
ary Arts Committees will be in-
tex*viewed Jan. 28 by the nomi
nating committee.
Mauro said minimum require
ments for council president are
an overall 2.5 grade point ratio
and a 2.5 or higher in the previ
ous semester. Committee chair
men must carry an overall 2.5
GPR and not less than 2.4 for
the previous semester.
Applicants cannot be on any
type of probation in either case,
Chamonix skiing, seeing, late parties—10-day life for some
By GARY MARTIN
Special Correspondent
Santa Claus was good to lots
of people, but probably none were
graced more by the holidays than
we good Ags who spent part of
those days in Europe on the MSC
Travel Committee sponsored Ski
the Alps ’71 trip.
An unlikely but fun-loving
combination of some 180 A&M
students, faculty, staff, former
students, and their immediate
families left Houston at 1 p.m.
on New Years Day. After a shox-t
stop in Cincinnati to pick up 70
kids from the University of Ken
tucky, our 250-seat chartered
DC-8 headed out across the At
lantic. Since our transistor radios
could not be used because of their
interference with the aircraft’s
instrumentation, the pilot kept in
touch with the ground periodical
ly to come over the plane’s public
address system with play by plays
of the Cotton Bowl.
Somewhere over Iceland, just
after the second round of drinks
had been served, rumors spread
in board that the pilot was con
sidering cutting off the engines
the rest of the way to, Geneva,
sin^e everyone inside was already
flying so high. At aqy rate, it
was one happy bunch of people
who got off that plane at 9 a.m.
on Jan. 2.
Our first glimpse of Europe
as we stepped off at Geneva in
cluded an all too obvious force
of Swiss Army guards who pa
trolled the airport with very
painful looking machine guns in
hand. They no doubt were there
to remind everyone that you could
go only where your ticket said
and that unscheduled side trips
to Egypt and Israel were frowned
upon by the Swiss Government.
Very effective reminders, to say
the least.
Author Gary Martin sits on a marker designating the
Ffench-Swiss border. He said the marker on a mountain-
top could be reached by a 400-yard uphill walk on skis.
Fondue and wine were popular fare for the Aggie partygoers. From left to right,
Sammye McPherson, Jim Summers Herman, a Swiss acquaintance and Glenn Head.
Geneva is where everyone went
their separate ways. Those who
went along only for the plane ride
cut out, reminded only that we
would leave without them if they
weren’t back in 10 days. These
same instructions went to the Car
Rental Option people as they
picked up their Avis Rent-a-Bugs
at the airport and frantically
tried to recall the meanings of
the various European road signs.
There was confusion, however,
as we heard later that someone
had mistaken a stop sign for a
parking zone sign and — well,
that’s another story.
Those of us brave enough to
travel this far just to taunt our
insurance men by skiing were
fortunate enough to spend a night
in the French corner of Geneva
before risking our necks in the
snow.
Its’ an understatement to say
that this first night was a mem
orable one for everyone. We stay
ed in such classic places as
L’Hotel de Savoie, the Terminus,
and the Pax Hotel (because of
the feather pillows, soon renamed
the Chicken Pax). Bathroom
down the hall and endless flights
of stairs — the hotels left every
one with insight into a part of
real Europe.
There’s no sight more comfort
ing to an American in Europe
than to see a fellow American
having more trouble than himself
in communicating. My seventh,
eighth, and ninth grade French
turned into a handy tool around
suppertime. Three girls at the
table next to me ordered what
they thought to be ham sand
wiches from the menu, but an
hour later, after I had ordered,
finished my meal, and lingered
with a quiet bottle of red wine,
they were somewhere between the
third and fourth course of the
royal banquet and had yet to see
an oink of ham.
But as everyone found out that
very first night, one of the most
enjoyoble things about France is
the wine. Red, Rose, or White, at
30 cents a bottle, it’s a cheap
drunk’s heaven. One of our Aggie
self-proclaimed wine experts im
mediately defined the difference
between the cheap wines and the
fine French fermentations — the
really good stuff sold for 60 cents
a bottle. But wine was wine to
most of us, and my not-so-instant
recall of the little French I ac
tually knew was aided immeas
urably by those grapes. My flu
ency increased with my fluidity,
and by the end of that first night,
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.”
—Adv.
I was communicating like a na
tive. I was feeling much better
about the whole thing.
And then there was Bernard,
a Swiss soldier on a weekend pass
who met us in the hotel bar and
somehow managed to find enough
friends with cars to shuttle at
least 40 of us to a French version
of the KC Hall some 10 miles
away, after midnight. But that,
too, is another story.
With the morning came the bus
ride to France’s Chamonix Valley
located within five miles of the
Italian and Swiss borders. But
that morning also brought rude
awakenings for some of the girls
who found out that the French
220 volt DC current just wouldn’t
run an American 110 volt AC
hair dryer. So after a puff of
white smoke and some bitter
words, a bus full of rollered heads
hooked it for the hills.
Hills is an understatement. As
we rolled into our apartment com
plex parking lot and off the bus,
we were surrounded by the most
magnificent display of the gods’
fury and Mother Nature’s pacify
ing hand I could have ever imag
ined. From the floor of the valley
where we stood, nothing but omi
nous white peaks piercing a crys
tal blue sky surrounded us. And
towering above it all was Mont
Blanc, the white mountain, the
highest peak in all Europe, cover
ing the entire valley with its
shadow. Excuse the poetic de
scription, if you will, but I can
find no other words to do justice
to the spectacle. Fantastic is too
subtle. Overwhelming might come
close. But if there is a God, this
place must surely be his home.
Hit the slopes is the term, but
we added new meaning to it as
the kids and cowboys did just
that, we literally hit the slopes.
The ski instructors were tops, but
those six foot ice cream sticks
had a very bad habit of not going
where you wanted them to. By
the end of that first day, the
A&M delegation had found the
exact location of every tree, rock,
stump, and pole on the ski runs,
and as we straggled in, we had
more bruises than a stalk of man
handled bananas. But true Ags
we were, as fatigue stepped aside
for fun, and parties spread night
ly like the virus. There would
be time for rest later was our
rationalization.
We didn’t fly 6,000 miles just
to sleep. Besides, who could sleep
with a party going on down
stairs. The apartments were ul
tra-modern, brand new, and spac
ious. Split level jobs with three
twin beds upstairs (I guess with
three, though, they must have
been triplet beds), kitchen and
bathroom down, with fireplaces
and twenty feet of glass for one
wall that left only the mountains
for wallpaper. And perfect apart
ments they were for parties.
There was plenty of head room
and a high ceiling for popping
corks, plenty of places to sit,
stairs to set wine bottles on, a
balcony to cool off on.
And parties there were, every
night. They often moved around,
and usually wound up at the hotel
night spot where a surprisingly
good five piece French band
played nightly. The organist was
the best of the lot, I suppose, and
where he dug up a Leslie speaker
in the middle of the Alps we
never could figure out. But the
showman of the group was the
bass player, and lead vocalist, who
became well known for what he
no doubt considered a very sexy
rendition of Suzy-Q, but which
more closely resembled a stereo
(See Ski trip, page 2)
A&M students saw much Old World beauty, such as this church in a valley near the
Chamonix ski area.