the Battalion
; e and fv
e9 Wi| Vol. 67 No. 65
Cool
and
fair
College Station, (Texas
Tuesday, January 25, 1972
Wednesday — Clear to partly
cloudy. Easterly winds 5-10 mph.
High 71°, low 38°.
Thursday — Partly cloudy to
cloudy. Southerly winds 10-12
mph. High 74°, low 48°.
845-2226
TC will file
complaint against
cereal producers
He
onti
vor
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WASHINGTON The Fed
eral Trade Commission an
nounced Monday that it will file
a complaint charging the four
largest cereal producers with
monopoly of the industry, false
advertising and price fixing.
The proposed complaint alleges
that for the past 30 years the
"Big Four” of the cereal manu
facturers have dealt in actions
which have resulted in a high
ly concentrated, noncompetitive
market in the production of
ready-to-eat cereals.
The cereal manufacturers
named in the proposed complaint
were Kellogg Co., Battle Creek,
Mich.; General Mills, Inc., Min
neapolis, Minn.; General Foods
Corp., White Plains, N.Y.; and
The Quaker Oats Co., Chicago,
111. The FTC said these four
companies control 91 per cent of
the domestic sales of ready-to-
eat cereal.
Consumer advocate Ralph
Nader welcomed the FTC an-<
nouncement. He said the com-
Dorm rent up
for those in
single rooms
Students living alone the spring
semester will have to pay one and
one-third room rent unless con
solidation with another student
is impossible.
This charge may affect de
cisions on room changes.
A student who wishes to change
rooms within his hall may do so
by contacting his head resident
advisor on Wednesday or Thurs
day of this week.
A student who wishes to switch
halls should report to the housing
office on Tuesday or Wednesday
of next week. The vacancies will
be assigned on a first-come-first-
served basis. All moves will have
to be made within 24 hours and
if additional fees are owed, they
must be paid before new keys will
be issued.
Refrigerator
claims now
being taken
Students who have received
1 damaged refrigerators have until
j Feb. 2 to file a claim. If the claim
Q is not filed within this time, the
student renting the refrigerator
will be held responsible for the
damage.
Those who rent refrigerators
beginning today will have one
week from the day they accept
it to file a claim for damages.
To file a claim, a student should
go by the Refrigerator Office and
talk to Joe Hughes.
More refrigerators are avail
able. These are white and have
locks. They will cost $35 a semes
ter.
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.”
—Adv.
plaint, “if successful and wide
ly applied, would be one of the
most important developments in
antitrust enforcement in the last
decade ... a necessary first step
toward removing from our eco
nomic system the cancer of mon
opoly power.”
In its complaint the FTC said
these firms established and main
tained a noncompetitive market
structure and shared monopoly
power through proliferation of
brands and trademark promo
tion, artificial differentiation of
products, unfair methods of
product promotion, restrictive re
tail shelf space control programs
and acquisitions of competitors.
“All four firms’ advertise
ments create the impression that
ready-to-eat cereals enable chil
dren to perform physical activi
ties depicted, but a child’s ability
to perform such activities de
pends on many other factors such
as body build, exercise, rest, diet
and age,” the complaint said.
It also charged that Kellogg,
General Mills and General Foods
falsely advertised that their
products are effective and ade
quate in controlling or losing
weight.
“Kellogg’s and General Mills’
ads featuring athletes misrepre
sent the effect of their ready-to-
eat cereals on their athletic per
formance,” the complaint
charged.
Through advertising directed
particularly at children, the FTC
said, the cereal manufacturers
have promoted their brands by
exaggerating trivial variations
such as color and shape of their
products.
Ceiling on federal
spending called for
by President Nixon
WASHINGTON (A 3 )—President
Nixon called upon Congress Mon
day to promptly agree upon, then
abide by a rigid ceiling on federal
spending.
“It is vital that the executives
and the Congress act together to
stop raids on the Treasury which
would trigger another inflation
ary spiral,” the Republican Presi
dent said in a statement issued
as he sent his new red-ink budget
to the Democratic Congress.
Although there was little im
mediate response from Capitol
Hill, Nixon’s move seemed certain
to be challenged by Democrats
as an election-year maneuver to
shift the responsibility for the
whopping fiscal 1972 and 1973
deficits—now calculated at more
than $64 billion.
Nixon said his $246.3-billion
budget for fiscal ’73 will be non
inflationary “only if spending is
limited to the amount the tax
system would produce if the econ
omy were operating at full em
ployment.”
“Those who increase spending
beyond that amount,” the chief
executive said, “will be respons
ible for causing more inflation.”
Therefore, Nixon said, he is
“urging the Congress, before it
considers any appropriations, to
enact a rigid ceiling on outlays
that will prevent the government
spending more than the $246 bil
lion requested in his budget.”
“That ceiling on expenditures,”
he continued, “should apply equal
ly to the Congress and to the
executive branch.”
Congress has previously im
posed limits on federal spending,
but applied them only to the
executive branch. Such ceilings
were described by Nixon’s top
budget advisor, director George
Schultz of the Office of Manage
ment and Budget, as “rubbery”
and riddled by loopholes.
Schultz, who read Nixon’s six-
paragraph statement to reporters
at the White House, said the ceil
ing sought by the administration
would “not provide any escape
hatches whatever.”
The President said in a state
ment that “we urgently need an
absolute limit on government
spending. Only thus can we end
inflation, stabilize the economy
and provide employment and real
prosperity for all.”
UT jazz group appearing
for Thursday performance
V"
NOT FOR SALE and slanted for destruction is Mitchell Hall, one of the older dorms on
campus. The hall is empty and waiting for demolition so that a new Health Center may
be built in the spot. (Photo by Mike Rice)
Jazz ranging from the tradi
tional big-band sounds to Latin
music and rock innovations will
swing Thursday at A&M.
It will be produced by the Jazz
Ensemble of the University of
Texas at Austin in an Artist
Berrigan trial underway,
kidnap plot acknowledged
HARRISBURG, Pa. <A>)_The
Rev. Philip Berrigan and six
others went on trial Monday on
charges they conspired to kidnap
Henry Kissinger as part of an
antiwar plot. In an interview,
Berrigan acknowledged that there
was a discussion of such a pos
sible kidnapping.
He added, “It’s not a priority
of ours to win acquittal, but to
conduct a political trial and get
the issue before the American
people.”
U.S. District Court Judge R.
Dixon Herman outlined the
charges to a panel of 144 men and
women and told them not to dis
cuss the case or read about it.
“This trial will probably last
several months and very likely
the jury will have to be seques
tered, which means you will not
be allowed to go home,” he said.
“I know many of you felt you
wanted to get out of it, but this
is part of your obligation of citi
zenship. The courtroom is one of
the few places where laymen can
participate in the administration
of justice.”
In the afternoon Judge Herman
denied defense motions for a
change of venue and for separate
trials. In the morning session,
Herman directed reporters not to
report the names of prospective
jurors nor the questions and
answers during the selection.
Herman said that if newsmen
violated the instructions, he
thought he was justified to con
tinue jury selection in his cham
bers.
When court adjourned for the
day there were 82 prospective
jurors left. Of these, 46 have
told Herman that they had no
prejudice either for or against
the government or the defend
ants. The others have not been
asked this question.
The other defendants have been
accessible and able to talk freely
and they held a news conference
before the trial opened.
Asked about the charges, Ber
rigan said, “It’s a catch all, high
ly fabricated, utterly untrue.
Everything we’ve done we’ve ac
knowledged publicly. We don’t
need the government to issue an
indictment to tell us that we’ve
done certain things that we’ve
admitted.
Berrigan, who calls himself a
revolutionary priest, is accused
of writing a letter while at the
federal penitentiary at Lewisburg,
Pa., that outlined a plot to kid
nap Kissinger, who is President
Nixon’s national security adviser.
The plot included plans to blow
up heating tunnels in federal
buildings in Washington and to
vandalize draft board offices
across the nation, the government
charges.
Berrigan was serving a six-year
term for burning draft board rec
ords and pouring blood on files
in Baltimore and Catonsville, Md.
The letter apparently was smug
gled out by an inmate-informer
attending classes at nearby Buck-
nell University.
Asked during the interview
about the charges, Berrigan said:
“There was no planning. There
was a discussion. We were trying
to determine, as millions of other
people do, whether the political
kidnapings in Quebec and in Uru
guay were possible in the United
States.
“The only sane response by our
movement was whether we should
do something. Part of this dis
cussion is to investigate the feas
ibility of it. I’ve been in federal
buildings all over the East.
“If you are a peace movement
person, you try to find out what’s
going on, to see if you can do
what others are doing. Like those
kidnapings in other countries, and
to see whether you should plan
to do it.
“Millions of people have these
kind of ideas at sometime or
other. It doesn’t mean they would
act or want to act, but
why shouldn’t they think about
it and even investigate it.”
Berrigan supporters promised
continued activities outside the
courtroom. They started the day
with a news conference and then
carried a black plywood box
shaped like a coffin a block and
a half to the courthouse where
a Catholic mass was said.
Tradition Singers
to hold tryouts
Tryouts for the New Tradition
Singers are scheduled today and
Thursday of this week.
Times for these auditions sho\ild
be arranged with Robert Boone
at the Singing Cadet Office. The
auditions will be held from 6:30-
7:30 p. m. in room 119 of G. Rollie
White Coliseum.
Anyone who can play an in
strument and is interested in
accompanying the group should
also contact Boone. The organi
zation is open to both men and
Showcase presentation.
The 21-piece band directed by
Dick Goodwin will perform at
8 p.m. in the Memorial Student
Center Ballroom, announced Town
Hall Chairman Kirk Hawkins.
He noted that student activity
cards and Town Hall season tick
ets are good for admission to the
Artist Showcase performance.
There are no reserved seats.
Tickets for others are on sale at
the Student Program Office in
the MSC.
The UT Jazz Ensemble organ
ized in 1965 and has performed
in Mexico and throughout Texas.
Ensemble members are drawn
from many departments and
schools at UT. Some play profes
sionally with Austin jazz and
rock groups.
Non-music majors are studying
law, engineering, business and
liberal arts. Among the music
majors, the ensemble has had
performers working toward the
doctorate.
Well-known guest artists also
play with the group, which per
forms regularly on the UT cam
pus, tours other state cities and
participates in Dallas, Houston,
Austin and Corpus Christi fes
tivals.
A tour is made each year in
cooperation with the Texas Fine
Arts Commission, for concerts
and clinics to high schools and
Texas communities. Participation
in the American Cultural Week
program in Monterrey, Mexico,
in 1969 brought a return engage
ment the following year in Mon
terrey and Saltillo.
Variety keynotes the ensemble’s
program. Innovations and famous
jazz, such as Count Basie and
Woody Herman band sounds, are
blended. UT audience favorites
have been original arrangements
of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and
“Norwegian Wood.”
Basketball, catfish and DDT; sometimes they mix at the Brazos
-
Shelby Metcalf, head basketball coach at A&M, isn’t openly
admitting it, but he’s resting a little easier after hearing the results of a
Brazos River fish survey.
Insecticide residues, the study revealed, have been found in fish
from certain Brazos Valley waters but not in amounts deemed harmful
to the fish or to people who eat them.
Contamination of the waters has long been suspected because of
heavy use of insecticides on cotton pests. Area residents can sniff the
pesticides when they drive through the Brazos bottoms during the
summer.
Metcalf, a catfisherman of wide repute, says even if the survey
had turned out the other way, he would still muddy his shoes on the
Brazos.
“It wouldn’t have stopped me if the contamination had been
high. Those Brazos cats, bless ’em, just eat too good—better than any
beefsteak,” he said.
But the coach added that the study’s clean bill on the fish won’t
hurt his well known recruiting gimmick a bit. His system of inviting
promising basketball players on catfishing trips has been written up on
sports pages. Opposing coaches jeer about it, reporters type about it
and the Aggies cheer about it.
Productive? Rick Duplantis and Bob Threadgill, two A&M
stalwarts this year, were recruited on the Brazos River.
“I knew of Rick was going to be a good one when I saw how fast
he could put a crawdad on a hook,” Metcalf said. “Quick hands, that
boy.”
John Reynolds, a player in the mid-1960’s, was lured from the
suburbs of Possum Walk, Texas, to A&M via the Brazos.
“Coach,” he said after the treatment, “I like your river. I believe
I’ll go to your school.”
Back to the survey, Graduate Student Robert E. Kramer and his
advisor, Dr. F. W. Plapp of the A&M Entomology Department,
collected fish from the Brazos and Navasota Rivers and Somerville
Reservoir and analyzed them in the laboratory. Results showed very
low levels of contamination (all as DDT and related compounds) in fish
meat from Somerville and the Navasota. Readings were less than 0.1
parts per million (ppm) at both sites.
But Kramer found that Brazos River catfish, for example, were
more contaminated. Residues averaged 0.6 ppm total DDT. Metcalf
says he has been unable to detect any residues in his frying pan
analyses.
Plapp said the amounts are quite low in terms of allowable levels.
The Food and Drug Administration has set 5.0 ppm total DDT as the
“actionable” level. This is the point at which meat is seized as unfit for
human use.
“I seize all the catfish I can,” the coach said.
Fat analysis of the fish gave different picture. Navasota River
specimens averaged nearly 2.0 ppm total DDT in body fat, while Brazos
River fish average 25.0 ppm.
Therefore, Plapp pointed out, fat from these fish is considered
unsafe, but the meat appears to present no significant hazard.
“That’s OK,” Metcalf said. “A good catfisherman trims off the
fat anyway.”
The most contaminated river fish in the study was the gar, strictly
a meat-eating predator, Plapp noted. Channel catfish are omnivorous.
Like people, they eat just about anything.
The entomologist said the gar could prove useful as an indicator
species of pesticide contamination. Metcalf said he is glad to learn that
the gar is good for something.
Metcalf says coaches from other schools and brash sports writers
have hinted that his recruiting escapades on the Brazos haven’t always
been on the level.
“Those guys really hurt my feelings sometimes,” he explained.
“They said some of the fish were pre-hooked, and a few were even
hooked through the tail. One catfish, they said, was found with 69
cents stamped on it. That’s not true. It was 79 cents.”