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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1972)
Page 4 College Station, Texas Wednesday, November 15, 1972 THE BATTALION [HE McGovern Aides Knew Of Eagleton’s Problem Before Selection WASHINGTON (A?) — Sen. George McGovern’s top aides learned that Thomas F. Eagleton had been hospitalized for exhaus tion even before the Missouri senator was selected as the vice presidential nominee, interviews with The Associated Press dis closed Tuesday. Within hours of Eagleton’s nomination, two top McGovern aides, Gordon Weil and Frank Mankiewicz, received confirma tion from Douglas Bennett, Ea gleton’s administrative assistant, but failed to pass the word to McGovern until a few hours later. At that point, “it wasn’t a seri ous problem,” Mankiewicz said. Mankiewicz and Bennett agree that Eagleton never mentioned that he had undergone electric shock treatments until nearly a week later, after an anonymous tipster gave that information to a Knight Newspapers executive and to two McGovern aides. Bennett said, however, “there was never any effort to conceal the shock treatments.” Eagleton, however, omitted mention of them on July 25 when he detailed his medical history for reporters, though subsequent questioning brought it out. The interviews, conducted in the wake of McGovern smashing election defeat, confirmed for the first time the extent to which the McGovern camp knew of Ea gleton’s medical history, both be fore and immediately after he was nominated as the No. 2 man on the Democratic ticket. Those involved put blame for the incident, from which McGov ern says his campaign never re covered, on Eagleton’s eagerness for the nomination, the haste with which he was picked and the initial feeling, in both Mc Govern and Eagleton camps, that his medical history did not pre sent a serious problem. As early as the Wednesday night of the convention, before McGovern himself was even nom inated, Mankiewicz and Kirby Jones, the senator’s deputy press secretary, received word in the candidates’ trailer of a report circulating on the convention floor that Eagleton had been in the hospital with a mental prob lem. Cal Tech Prof To Speak On Learning Centers Dr. James Olds of the Califor nia Institute of Technology will present the Sigma Xi-RESA Na tional Lecture, “Learning Cen ters of the Brain,” Thursday at A&M. The TAMU Sigma Xi chapter presentation will begin at 5 p.m. in lecture room 102 of the Zachry Engineering Center, according to the chapter president, Dr. James G. Teer. Dr. Olds is the Bing Profes sor of Behavioral Biology at Cal Tech. He also taught and con ducted research at Harvard, Mc Gill University, UCLA and Mich igan. The Sigma XI speaker was educated at Amherst College and Harvard. The lecture deals with his in- j vestigations disclosing four dif-1 ferent “learning centers” in the i brain. Dr. Olds localized them j by implanting fine-wire micro- 1 electrodes and recording action potentials from individual neu rons during Pavlovian condition ing. His data suggest that different kinds of learning, obeying dif ferent laws of learning, go on at the same time in these cen ters. To some degree this repre sents a division of labor and a redundancy that supplies the brain a safety factor. Dr. Teer said the lecture is open to all interested persons. ALLEN Oldsmobile Cadillac SALES - SERVICE “Where satisfaction is standard equipment” 2401 Texas Ave. 823-8002 PAWN LOANS Money Loaned On Anything Of Value. Quick Cash For Any Emergency. See Us For Ready Cash Today. Texas State Credit Pawn Shop 1014 Texas Ave., Bryan Weingarten Center David Schoumacher, a televi sion correspondent now with ABC, said the McGovern aides dismissed it as “one more of the nutty things you hear around the convention,” but that Mankiewicz said it had better be checked. Jones said he circulated around the hall and in the press galleries but never heard any more. Weil, who was unavailable for questioning this week, was de tailed to check reports that Ea gleton had a drinking problem, and according to Mankiewicz and legislative assistant John L. Hol- un reported back that the Mis sourian had been hospitalized for exhaustion, not drinking. “It was an answer to the alco holism charge. That’s what we were looking for,” Holun re called. “No one really thought of it on its own.” Mankiewicz said he doubts that McGovern was told. “Why shouldn’t the senator go into the hospital for exhaustion?” he asked. “So have a lot of people. That’s like saying he had polio when he was a kid.” Later that afternoon, after White was considered, and ac cording to some accounts, Ken nedy again indicated interest, Ea gleton was selected and McGov ern phoned him with the news. After a brief conversation, in which the Missouri senator said he would accept, McGovern turned the phone over to Man kiewicz, who said he asked “if there was anything in his rec ord” that would present a prob lem. Jones, who was seated next to Mankiewicz, agreed that Man kiewicz asked a follow-up ques tion indicating he meant “booze, dames” or anything such as legal difficulties. “It was pretty black and white what Frank was asking about,” Jones said, adding “he was ask ing for any specifics without mentioning hospitalization or ex haustion.” Eagleton has said his negative answer was based on the fact that he didn’t regard his past treatments as a problem since his health has been excellent since the last hospital stay in 1966. Early Friday morning, July 14, just hours after the convention ended, Bennett said Weil ap proached him at a victory party to report that McGovern’s had picked up rumors of pitalization for drinking, that l, didn’t believe them but that tb might have to be faced. “I told him, ‘Those rumors at( false. What he was hospital for was exhaustion and de sive tendencies’,” Bennett Weil told Mankiewicz, who c tell the nominee before he ] e f t Miami Beach to return to V ington. An of to sU P course f be off® Meteorc Dr. 1 went h dents n ogy course, for fou: Eithe COMPLETE ONE STOP SHOPPING WITH LOW LOW PRICES BEGINS WITH.. CORNING WA DUET SET 16.90 OPEN STOCK VALUE 2 QT. COVERED SAUCEPAN 10 INCH COVERED SKILLET CORNING vc WARE # PRODUCT* ROYAL FAMILY SE1 15 TO 18 LB. PORCELAIN ENAMEL GENUINE CORNING WARE OVAL ROASTER C0RELLE DINNERWARE 4 LARGE PLATES-4 MEDIUM PLATES-4 BOWLS 4 CUPS AND 4 SAUCERS 20 PC. SET ZNAl. CORNFLOWER DESIGN