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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1971)
THE BATTALION Page 2 College Station, Texas Friday, November 19. 1971 CADET SLOUCH by Jim Earle Listen up Bonfire is defended, Sbisa gets comment iltm Biemofit SLOUCH 1953' I© 71 Editor: This letter is in response to the many letters to do away with Bonfire. Perhaps I should first state that I am a “non-reg” as this seems so important to the long hairs and hippies who set up housekeeping around the trees. Every year the cutting area is set up in an area where the trees need to be cleared and would be regardless of the Bonfire. The Bonfire has been a part of A&M for many years and ex presses our desire to beat the Hell out of t.u. and our undying love of Texas A&M. It is cer tainly clear that these people who demand change and student rights may go to school here but are certainly Aggies. Changes are necessary and progress is a must for A&M but we can’t allow a regression into an atrophied t.u. complete with freaks and “peaceful??” rioters. The Aggies want the Bonfire to stay and we’ll do what is nec essary to keep it. Kenneth Curtis ’72 ★ ★ ★ Editor: I am writing in response to Jerome Hansmann’s letter in the Tuesday Battalion. If Mr. Hans- mann were truly interested in the Bonfire and the controversy about it, he would know the cut ting area will soon be covered by a lake. I refer to a first page story in the same edition of the Battalion which says: “The cutting area this year is located 15 miles from the cam pus on Sandy Point Road, the proposed site of the new Bryan Lake.” I ask Mr. Hansmann this: How would you like to be boating around the new lake and have your fishing line snagged by a tree that could have gone on the bonfire? The only thing that a tree could do on the bottom of the lake is rot. Brian Ehni ’74 ★ ★ ★ Editor: I, like many others, am losing a considerable amount of money each semester due to the univer sity’s policy of requiring students to pay for meals which they may or may not eat. I am not really complaining about the situation, but rather am asking for a choice. I propose that the university make avail able meal tickets or cards so the student is given the option of selecting his meal schedule. For example, give the student a choice of buying, say, five breakfast tickets (or ten lunch, or thirty supper, etc.). These tick ets could be made non-transfer- able simply by having the pur chaser endorse each and present the ticket along with the l.D. card each time the ticket is used. The tickets could be used at any time during the semester that they are purchased, and the stu dent would be paying for only what he actually used. I realize that this method would have many imperfections, but at least it pro vides a choice. Steven Oualline ’74 ★ ★ ★ Editor: Today at lunch I sat across from a young man who took one bite out of his vegetables, his cherry pie, his lemon pudding, left one and one-half glasses of tang, and left forty percent of his meat and potatoes. I watched another person go back and get [Texas foot seconds on meat and potatoes m|L w- leave his two desserts untouched in A Ever since I have been at TeXm. in A&M University I have bXine bothered by this senseless wasXe char of food. I don’t expect everyorXrns ar to clean their plates but the leaXd in one can do is think how muchyoilThe Te can eat before taking two des L sen 6 serts, four glasses of milk, ajthe old three slices of bread. The faXrsus a that one pays for his meals doXool. not give him the right to wasXte be thirty percent of each meal In11947, eats. If one cannot see the morsllexas ha aspect of this ludicrous request,!., then think of it this way: Sfallhe la has a budget and the cost of the Las w food which is wasted shrinks this ittision. budget. If the shrinkage was re.Ln, 47- duced to maybe one-half of what I it is now, Sbisa would have more I money to spend on tender roar ^ beef and quality steaks. Vance Driscoll Steve Hayes [jr MIC The cost of federal predator control [Eattalio Darrel [:' Texas Lgies Ire SW off!’ ‘After 18 years and 2,500 cartoons, I deserve today Black awareness This issue and the last three issues of The Battalion have carried articles dealing with blacks on campus. We have seen that A&M still remains an almost totally white university. Despite recruitment by the Black Awareness Committee and the university’s open and fairly equal policy, we still have less than a one per cent black student population. This is in a state with 12.7 per cent black population. We have seen that while we are a university for the State of Texas, we have attending this university six times as many foreign students as blacks. We have also seen a strange difference between the administra tion’s views of blacks and views of the blacks themselves. We have seen that Dean Hannigan says the policy is wide open toward blacks while the Black Awareness Committee’s newspaper—Liberator—says that Dean Hannigan was a reason the blacks had such a hard time getting an on-campus organization. We have seen that the Corps has a “color blind” policy while a black junior in the Corps considers it “99 per cent white-oriented.” To put it mildly, there seem to be some inconsistencies present. There seems to be, at the very least, a communications breakdown between the blacks and the administration. It is a stated goal of the Black Awareness Committee to create an awareness of blacks among the administration and this we are convinced they are trying to do. There is only one place left to point the finger. We do not mean to say that the administration is intentionally disregarding the blacks. Such a policy would be folly for any college today. We do say that the administration needs to study the inconsistencies—there is a problem, and it must be resolved. Since 1940 the cost of the pre dator control program has increas ed by more than 800 per cent, while at the same time the num ber of animals taken in in control programs has decreased. In Colo rado, for example, the kill num ber dropped 20 percent from 1967 to 1970, while the budget rose $30,000. In addition to this, the eco nomic losses attributed to preda tors have frequently been less than the cost of the programs to prevent these depredations. In Montana the loss reports by wool growers is annually between 4000 to 5000 sheep, which is equal to about $120,000 annually, but the yearly cost of the predator control program is over $300,000. In Utah, the total cost of livestock and poultry loss in 1970 was put at $74,830, but predator control costs were $187,937. California and Ne vada are two other states showing excessively large cost deficits of this nature. The funding of control has ap parently extended beyond existing need in many instances. Perhaps cost-benefit analyses by impartial agencies should be made in each state to search for statistical trends in depredations, and to limit unnecessary disruption of the environment. The technological development of predator control has produced sophisticated methods for facili tating the destruction of millions of wild animals. With the devel opment of extremely lethal toxi cants and with new means of dis- See here Two skin flicks-and Hoffman By D. P. FONTANA Umm, Umph, Umm! There’s quite a dilemma in reporting the flicks which will be -showing in B-CS this weekend. So, I’ll just call ’em like I see ’em, and the devil can take the hindmost — which is what you see plenty of at the Palace theatre this week end. There one can see two really big-budget, dreadful flicks which will probably be great audience pleasers for the soft-core porno- for-lunch bunch. Beyond the Val ley of the Dolls and The Seven Minutes — both Russ Meyer flicks — will probably appeal to anyone who reads Playboy and believes it. The former film, now several years old, has not mellowed with aging. The only thing grosser than this footage was Meyer’s new re lease The Seven Minutes. It’s just too bad that while Mr. Mey er was casting for faces, breasts and other anatomical considera-' tions, he couldn’t have tried to throw in a little T-A-L-E-N-T. (or maybe a decent scriptwriter) What you have is a rather bor ing montage of soft-porno. There is also an unbelievable amount of presumptuous sermon izing on “freedom of speech,” sexual reality, and other topics which would be dear and near to the heart of any ex-porno pro ducer turned respectable (only through the size of budgets he now commands). So, essentially you have a scantily clad skin-flick with pret tier bodies and faces than one is usually want to see and elabor ate sets which make California look as though every room in the state had been done by an in terior decorator who usually spe cializes in royal cathouses. (Cal ifornia looks good, but not like this!) Film G.P.R. = 1.0. The Seven Minutes, in which you will recog nize about half the cast of the first film, is just more breasts and revolves around an alleged rape instigated by a college stu dent reading a book supposedly published in the 1930’s. Any stu dent who has made it through junior high and doesn’t find this movie ludicrous probably de serves to watch it a second time. Anyway, the Film G.P.R. = 0.9. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is the story of a poor little, all girl band which goes to Califor nia where one of the chicks just happens to inherit (?) about half a million dollars. This movie also has some scenes of the most “plastic” super-*parties of all time. If vagueness is the one thing you can’t stand, this is the show for you; and it deserves a Playing at the Campus is an altogether different type of movie. Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? is really a pretty fine film, but one which I have very little doubt will not appeal to the average bonfire builder. Dustin Hoffman controls a rather good, semi stream of consciousness portray al of a phenomenonally successful pop song writer who — at the very peak — runs out of what ever it takes to keep the sky from falling. If you take your movies seriously, you’ll like this film. Film G.P.R. = 2.8. Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the student uniters only. The Battalion is a non-tax- supported, non profit, self-supporting educational enter prise edited and operated by students as a university and community newspaper. The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, liday periods, September through Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, Septem May, and once a week during summer school. editor must be typed, double-spaced, 300 words in length. They must be LETTERS POLICY Letters to the and no more than 300 words in length. They must signed, although the uniter’s name will be withheld by arrangement with the editor. Address correspondence to l isten Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77S13. MEMBER The Associated Press, Texas Press Association The Associated Collegiate Press Mail subscriptions are $3.50 per semester; $6 per school year; $6.50 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Members of the Student Publications Board ar^: Jim Lindsey, chairman ; H. F. Filers, College of Liberal Arts ; F. S. White, College of Engineering; Dr. Asa B. Childers, Jr., The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for " s dispatchs credited to it paper and local news of spon Rights of republication of all other reproduction otherwise credited in the of all news dispatchs credited local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Kighti matter herein are also reserved. t. S. White, College of Engineering; Dr. Asa B. Childers, Jr., College of Veterinary Medicine ; Dr. W. E. Tedrick, College of Agriculture j and Layne Kruse, student. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising vices, Inc., New York City, Francisco Services, Inc., New York Chicago, Los Angeles and San EDITOR HAYDEN WHITSETT Managing Editor Doug Dilley News Editor Sue Davis Sports Editor John Curylo Assistant Sports Editor Bill Henry tribution, the airplane, snowmo bile, and trail bike have brought all remote wilderness areas with in the reach of federal control. Unless indiscriminate poisoning is restrained, these programs will decimate all species of wild ani mals that cannot quickly retreat from or adapt to man’s onslaught. The Division of Wildlife Serv ices has responded to criticism by stating that only the most selec tive, effective and humane toxi cants are used. However, if the federal program employs methods that have little effect on the envi ronment, it seems unusual that the DWS is one of the few agen cies that has not filed an envi ronmental impact statement in compliance with Section 102 of the National Policy Art of 1969. The major methods used by the DWS to control predators are shooting, denning, trapping and poisoning. Shooting is a selective method of removing troublesome individuals without persecuting gassing of animals and their young in dens), and poisoning are the non-selective methods of control which unnecessarily per secute entire species, predators and non-predators. The four poisons primarily used are strychnine, thallium, cyanide, and sodium monofluoroacetate (1080). Over six million tablets of strychnine have been sown over the last 10 years. Strychnine is completely non-selective and will kill almost any animal that eats the bait, or the poisoned carcass of an earlier victim. A scented wick acts as a trigger that re leases the poison by spring-pro pelled force into the animal’s mouth, when the wick is bitten or pulled upon. Compound 1080 in water solu tion is injected into an animal carcass as a bait for wild canines. It too can cause secondary poi- in control programs in 1967, and it is banned from interstate ship ping, the eagle kills in Wyoming in May, 1971, were caused by thallium illegally purchased in Colorado. [Bowl t : There are several alternatives to the present program. In Kansas and Missouri, where no federal predator control programs are allowed, farmers are instructed individually in controlling preda tors without non-selective poisons. Damage in Kansas was reduced by $16,000, and at one-nineteenth the cost of the federal program in adjoining Oklahoma. In Mis souri losses were reduced by more than 80 per cent, and it was done without poisons. These programs are effective because they are aimed at individual predators causing damage. Unfortunately efficiency and economy have sel dom been synonymous with gov ernment-political programs. soning. It is highly toxic to all an entire species, but few stages animals, including birds, have given ‘game’ status to pre- Although thallium is so danger- dators. Trapping, denning (the ous that its use was discontinued In summation, grazing of domes tic sheep on our federally owned public land is the principal reason for the widespread effort to kill coyotes, and killing coyotes is the Lild ri principal reason for the continued|ihe Ag existence of the Federal Preda tory Mammal Control Program. [Day foo The idea of a public trusteeship I For tl for our wild lands and animalaliwld U rests upon three related princi-Idefensiv pies: 1) Certain resources are ofMd such importance to the people of |md opt the United States as a whole that ping th it would be unwise to place them jiovicto under private ownership. 2) Then This entail so much of the bounty of podeh nature that they should be avail-ply see able, freely, to all people regard-P? esc less of financial status. 3) Itisjpew the primary function of the gov-Prback ernment to promote the general P?out welfare of the public rather than pr se to redistribute public goods from PS&inst broad public uses to restricted Jlbnnie private benefit. By American tra- J^st 1 dition, supported with legal pre- jlhanksi cedent, our wildlife is public pos-1 Wigg session. PP ress It is questionable, indeed, Ag whether the poisoning of public domain and the subsequent de struction of remifte habitats are justified by vested interest such < ^ as the wool growers. | teday pel 'WHEN YOU CALL ON US FOR MEMBER ii 846-3773 VISIT OUR NEW OFFICE . . . MSC, JEW ( fSHED menti , ' V: n plow as »two, ratj. A Fen Pr ap 1> a fe pS3102, c wrtm: BCVEItUY BRAUY IMIYUtSinf TRAVEL. nv,, jm. Iwo b ■« to ft' 1 1TTEN nm fur itcy. i * fishin <£&yrM£ \V Ov ttpxf. 1? ' HBMn ^ atmoi ^ or a «22-i GOi UT PEANUTS By Charles M. Sch^^ BY THE TIME 10E 6R0U) UP, THE METRIC 5Y5TEM WILL PROBABLY BE OFFICIAL.. ONE INCH 15 2.5Y CENT1METER5., ONE FOOT 15 0.3048 METERS ANP ONE MILE 15 1.60? KIL0METER5 . i'll NEVER MEA51/RE ANYTHING A6AIN AS L0N6 A5 I LlVt Whs 'Vlv