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IT’S YOUR DECISION — That’s what SCON A XVIII
has been all about and was what plenary speaker Nicholas
(St. Nick?) Johnson tried Thursday to get across to dele
gates to the annual affair.
Paranoiac Alternatives?
Editor’s Note: The following
was written by Miss Gloria Duf
fy, a sophomore political science
major at Occidental College in
Los Angeles, Cal. A SCON A
delegate, Miss Duffy is also the
editor of her school paper, THE
OCCIDENTAL.
Ralph Nader’s world is peopled
by devious lobbyists, evil attor
neys and grafting politicians,
freeloading at the taxpayer’s ex
pense, and controlling the individ
ual through the citizen’s abdica
tion of his right to make his
representatives accountable t o
him.
L. Patrick Gray’s world is that
of lawless men who will arise to
threaten the security of the citizen
if the society in any manner eases
its restraints on the potential
criminal.
Do these two men symbolize the
alternative futures for our soci
ety ? A choice between the hyper-
aware supercitizen and the autho
ritarian? Or are these men just
polemic varities of the same
species—the paranoid ?
SCONA XVIII is, essentially,
Vs. Gray:
defining paranoia. Are we now at
1984, minus 11 and counting? Or
do we actually suffer any abridge
ment of our right as free individ
uals as a result of the controls
we have imposed upon ourselves
to provide social order? For in
stance, can we name concrete,
specific instances when we have
felt un-free? Are we not more
prosperous, mobile and secure at
this time than in any other point
in our history ? Are we indulging
in alarmism to hold a symposium
on the threats to our individual
and collective freedom?
If we agree that the single most
important right of man is his
liberty as an individual, then the
questions we are asking are the
most important of our era. And
in answer to the question of
whether we are unduly alarmed
about the abridgement of our free
doms, SCONA can only conclude
that the concern is justified.
The definitions of control itself
are flexible. Professor Arthur
Miller of the Harvard Law School
detailed the dangers of the Justice
Department keeping files not only
on criminals, but on citizens who
have been involved in peaceful
protest situations. Credit bureaus,
national foundations, government
bureaucracies and the Army all
know a great deal more about the
life of the individual than ever
before.
A different sort of control is
the shaping of the individual by
his environment and his society—
subtle, but nevertheless a control.
And still another control—the lim
itation of the citizen’s right to
know the activities of its govern
ment through the media and the
government itself. It is an irony
that we are now more free than
ever before in terms of posses
sing the wealth to buy leisure
time, mobility and comfort, yet to
obtain this freedom, we have be
come liable to more controls than
ever before. And these are con
trols that not only have the po
tential of being turned against us;
they already have been used in
ways we never intended.
At the root of the question of
how much control is necessary to
preserve social cohesiveness and
protect the citizen, is the question
of who determines the controls.
The purpose of establishing a
government is to provide a body
not influenced by transitory
whims and alarmism that can be
objective enough to determine the
degree of control necessary in a
society at a given time. In our
society, of course, the design was
for a representative democracy,
directly accountable to the public.
Due to technical developments,
philosophical reconsiderations, the
realization of our diversity as a
nation and our fragmentation,
that government has become un
satisfactory in its present form.
Nader says that this is a result
of our lack of concern for the
actions of the government. After
Watergate, ITT, the Vietnam
War, we can no longer assume,
as we have in the past, that the
system will take care of itself,
no matter what the degree of
flexibility of our constitution.
Someone once devised a plan
to make democracy truly represen
tative. The federal government,
he said, should purchase the state
of Kansas. There on the plains
it should build a huge stadium
covering the entire land area of
the state, with a seat for every
man, woman and child in the
United States. Periodically, the
citizens of the nation would come
together to decide the policies of
its government by majority vote.
Such a plan would end the pos
sibility of legislators being in
fluenced by the lobbies—what lob
by would be energetic enough to
try to influence the majority of
200 million people ? What’s more,
we would at last find some use
for the state of Kansas.
Nader takes somewhat of the
same approach. He advocates the
politicization of the individual as
a counter to the controls. But,
if you have an entire nation of
citizen activists, then that nation
must have its contingent of acti
vist Patrick Gray’s, as well as it’s
activist Ralph Nader’s. And they
have fundamentally different
principles.
This is the dilemma the SCONA
meetings on the controlled society
(See Nader vs. Gray, page 2)
Che Battalion
Vol. 67 No. 217
College Station, Texas Friday, February 16, 1973
845-2226
Blasts Nixon For Idea Stifling/
Johnson Stresses Information Access
By LARRY MARSHALL
Staff Writer
The most un-American thing
anybody can do in this country is
stifle an idea, declared Feder
al Communications Commissioner
Nicholas Johnson Thursday.
This concerns the ideology of
democracy, Johnson told the
SCONA XVIII crowd, of the
founding fathers when they drew
up the Constitution. Yet the
trend of the Nixon administra
tion has been away from this.
“People need access to the
ideas of other people, but Presi
dent Richard Nixon has been try
ing to intimidate the news de-
SCONA And Other
Activities This Week
TONIGHT
8:30 p.m. Senator Walter F. Mondale, “The Controlled
Society,” MSC Ballroom
SATURDAY
8:30 a.m. Final Round-Table Session*
11:00 a.m. Dr. Rollo May, “Freedom In A Controlled
Society,” MSC Ballroom
12:30 p.m. Reception for Dr. May, MSC Assembly Room
7:00, 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30 p.m. “Reefer Madness” MSC
Ballroom, (admission one dollar, posters given away)
♦Roundtables in MSC Rooms 2A/B, 2C/D, 3B/C, 3D,
Birch, Assembly, Art and Social Rooms.
‘Student Sandwich’
To Be Televised
‘‘Student Sandwich,” a student-
written, directed, and produced
television show, will premier Mon
day at 9 p.m. on KAMU-TV, chan
nel 15.
The Sandwich will feature sev
eral segments, including Aspara
gus on Parade, Rap Session, Be
tween the Bread, and Political
Open Face. Asparagus on Parade
will feature well-known student
leaders in the “hot seat.” Ques
tions from a studio audience will
be directed to the student.
The rules are that he must an
swer only the question if he can,
and not try to avoid the question
or obfuscate the issue. If he fails
to answer the question, tries to
avoid it or otherwise indulge in
confusion, he gets a buzzer sound
ed on him. The effect is much
like a hot seat.
An award will be given in later
shows to the most deserving stu
dent on various issues. Recipients
of the award may be reminded of
the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate
Award presented on the popular
"Laugh-In” series.
Rap Session is self-explanatory,
but Between the Bread will deal
with campus topics in an inter
view format. The first interview
will be with George Future, a
very unusual student who has
some rather unusual ideas for the
future of A&M. Future shows will
feature such persons as drug ad
dicts and those who seek them
out, a computer programmer with
some minority opinions which are
rather startling to those unaccus
tomed to the intricacies of com
puter programming and other
guests. A Betty Boop cartoon will
be featured on some shows.
Political Open Face will fea
ture interviews with prominent
state and local people as well as
those of national stature.
Gary Reger, PRO Chairman and
overall coordinator of the project,
encouraged any interested student
to “come by the Student Program
Office in the MSC or call 845-1515
and make an appointment to hear
more about the details of the new
show.”
Student Injured, Wife Killed In Wreck
A Texas A&M student was crit
ically injured and his wife killed
in a two-car accident in Bryan
Thursday night.
Larry Dwayne Phillips of Car
thage, 22-year-old finance major,
is in the intensive care unit at
St. Joseph’s Hospital.
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.”
Adv.
His 22-year-old wide, Sandra,
was killed instantly in the 8:15
p.m. accident at Texas Avenue
and Carson.
The driver of the second ve
hicle, William Michael Vincik, re
reived minor injuries. He is a
junior majoring in wildlife sci
ence at TAMU.
Funeral arrangements for Mrs.
Phillips pend at Callaway-Jones
Funeral Home.
partments of the three major net
works to inhibit this,” charged
Johnson. “The battle over con
trol of issues about which you’ll
remain ignorant and those to
which you’ll become informed is
the number one political strug
gle in the world today.”
A big part of making democra
cy work, is the concept of the
First Amendment, guaranteeing
the freedom of the press, John
son said, “but we do not think
about this much any more.”
The media exposes people to
these ideas and, in effect, helps
them develop as people, Johnson
said. It brings in other ideas and
helps a person to develop toward
his full potential.
“But there is only one insti
tution with power left to com
ment on what is happening. The
three network news companies
are all we have left,” he said.
“And that is why the president
has to get them out of the way.”
“When there is a revolution in
South America,” Johnson com
mented, “what is the first thing
seized — the radio station. And
what do you think is the first
thing Richard Nixon tried to do?”
Many of the government activi
ties themselves are purposely
handled so as to create little fan
fare, noted the longish-haired com
missioner, like releasing news of
government action at a time
when very little immediate criti
cal attention can be paid to it.
Johnson cited the FCC action
in granting Bell Telephone a 1.3
billion dollar rate increase on
Thanksgiving Eve. “But you did
not hear too much about that on
television or read much about it
in the papers, I suspect,” he said.
“And this combination of where
the money comes from and where
the money goes explains an awful
lot about what it is, you and I
do not know, about what is go
ing on in this country,” Johnson
commented.
In a presentation generally
critical of the Nixon administra
tion, Johnson mentioned many of
the other less publicized actions
of the administration.
One of these was the declara
tion by the Department of Agri
culture that there would be no
increase in the price of milk. But,
VPA Applications
Being Accepted
The Memorial Student Center
and Directorate is accepting ap
plications for Vice-Presidential
Assistant.
VPAs work in many areas of
the MSC Council and often ad
vance to higher positions within
the Council and Directorate.
To be eligible, a student must
have a 2.5 GPR and may not be
on conduct probation.
Applications may be picked up
and returned to the Student Pro
grams Office in the MSC. The
deadline for applications is Mon
day.
Johnson noted, a week later the
milk people went to see Nixon
and donated $322,000 to his cam
paign. The next day they raised
the price of milk $700 million to
the consumer.
“It becomes pretty hard for a
President to represent the people
when he has just conducted a
nearly $50 million campaign with
money obtained from business,”
Johnson said.
Johnson also criticized Nixon’s
budget cuts. Some of the cuts
deal with areas like milk for
school children, where the cut will
save 72 million dollars and cut
backs in the hospital construc
tion program that will save 90
million dollars.
In contrast to these cuts, Nix
on has bailed out a company that
was selling cyclamates by giving
them 500 million dollars, John
son charged. He has also con
tinued the Maritime Subsidy Pro
gram, which Johnson formerly
headed, and increased its alloca
tion. This program had previ
ously been proven economically
useless, Johnson added.
NO NIXON LOYALIST by any sense of the word,
SCONA XVIII speaker Nicholas Johnson held delegates
spellbound by some of his prediction and anti-Nixon stories.
The colorful speaker warned of Nixon’s efforts to inhibit the
flow of information.
FBI’s Gray Creates A Controversy
L. Patrick Gray
By VICKIE ASHWILL
Staff Writer
The controversial acting direc
tor of the Federal Bureau of In
vestigation, L. Patrick Gray III,
lived up to his image in his
speech Thursday by creating con
troversy.
SCONA delegates’ and A&M
students’ reaction to the speech
seemed to confirm the statement
Alternative Features Service
writer John Jekabson (The Bat
talion—Feb. 6) said earlier that
the new director “has little to
say on matters of great impor
tance.”
During the question-and-an-
swer period Gray denied that he
is politicizing the bureau and
making it over to suit the Nixon
administration. He admitted he
was and is a Nixon loyalist, be
coming a part of the Nixon staff
in 1960.
The interim director said he
had one instruction from Presi
dent Nixon: “To keep the FBI
free of political taint.”
Student Journalists Will
Testify For Shield Laws
Interviews will be held
day through Thursday.
Tues-
The National Student Lobby
(NSL) has arranged for student
journalists to testify before the
U. S. Senate on legislation to
prevent the government from
forcing newsmen to reveal confi
dential information or the sources
of such information.
Various Senators and Con
gressmen have introduced legis
lation following the U. S. Su
preme Court’s 5 to 4 decision
June 29, 1972 that the First
Amendment, which guarantees
freedom of the press, does not
entitle newsmen to conceal their
sources of information from
grand juries.
At least four persons who re
fused to disclose their sources
have been jailed as a result of
last year’s decision, and others
have been arrested and are await
ing trial.
In 1966, the University of Ore
gon’s Daily Emerald Editor Ann
ette Buchanan became the first
modern American journalist ar
rested for not revealing the
source of a story.
Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.),
Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.),
Cong. Jerome Waldie (D-Calif.)
and Cong. Alphonzo Bell (R-
Calif.) have introduced broad leg
islation to prevent such arrests
in the future. The Cranston-
Waldie bill was introduced at the
request of the American News
paper Publisher’s Association and
endorsed by Sigma Delta Chi,
professional journalism society.
Cranston-Waldie offers unquali
fied protection from both state
and federal governments. Cong.
Alphonzo Bell has introduced a
similar bill. Cong. Ed Mezvin-
ski (D-Iowa), who defeated an
incumbent with student votes last
fall, believes unqualified bills
such as these, which he supports,
can not pass unless students and
others put strong pressure on
Congress.
The Hatfield bill protects news
persons in all Federal proceed
ings except libel cases.
Hatfield, Cranston, Waldie and
Bell intend for their hills to pro
tect student journalists as well
as established professionals. At
NSL’s suggestion Sen. Hatfield
will make this clear during the
arguments for his bill.
Sen. Walter Mondale (D-Minn.)
and Cong. Charles Whalen (R-
Ohio) have introduced more qual
ified bills which prevent forced
disclosure to Federal authorities
except in libel cases or when a
court believes the undisclosed in
formation is (1) relevant to a
specific crime, (2) unobtainable
by other means, and (3) of com
pelling and overriding national
interest. The bill’s authors in
tend for all three circumstances
to be met rarely.
Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.)
has offered a bill similar to the
Mondale-Whalen except that it
would also force disclosure in a
number of specific major crim
inal cases even if the information
was not judged to be of overrid
ing national interest.
Sen. Hatfield stated the vague
“overriding national interest”
provision makes the integrity of
these bills fluctuate with the feel
ings of individual judges. “I
doubt very much that it was in
(See Student Journalists, page 2)
He denied that his 60,000 mile
tour of 14 states during the Nix
on campaign was politically ori
ented and it could be proven
“that not one single speech was
political.” He maintained that
his travels were to “become ac
quainted with FBI personnel of
the nation, and to let them eval
uate me.”
“We, the American people,
have continually sought ways and
means to preserve that delicate
balance between the security of
the community and the freedom
of the individual,” began Gray in
his speech entitled “FBI in a Free
Society.”
“We can control crime, have
security against lawless men,
protect our citizens and not be
come a “controlled society” as
long as people maintain interest
in our free society, issues fac
ing us and make efforts to be
come aware of the facts on each
issue,” continued Gray.
He maintained that “the peo
ple must be informed of the facts
in order to exercise that power
wisely in the national interest.”
Based on his experience as act
ing director Gray said the FBI
follows constitutional require
ments and their performance is
based on standards of public serv
ice.
“I have found no evidence at
all that the FBI has investigated
beyond its jurisdictional perim
eters,” said Gray.
“We are the principal investi
gative arm of the Department of
Justice,” he continued. “We are
not policy makers. Even though
we investigate . . . we do not
prosecute the alleged violators.”
He said the FBI is not a na
tional police force nor is it an
enemy of civil rights. Instead, it
“is a vital force working against
the type of controlled society we
all so deeply detest.”
“The very first page of the
FBI’s Handbook for Special
Agents stresses the absolute
necesssity of protecting the con
stitutional rights of our citi
zenry.”
Gray protested misunderstand
ings about the National Crime
Information Center (NCIC) and
FBI use of electronic surveil
lances.
The NCIC computer and its na
tionwide terminals system is “in
(See FBI’s Gray, page 2)