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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1974)
Today in the Batt Small towns p. 3-5 Consolidated ISD p. 3 Local testimony p-6 Che Battalion \ Weather Fair and mild Friday with light, variable winds. High today 83°; low tonite 57°. Clear to partly cloudy Saturday with a high of 85°. Vol. 68 No. 28 College Station, Texas Friday, October 18, 1974 Inflation tops GNP; real value down again ti« ik* * SB WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Ford prescribes anti inflation medicine for the economy, the symptoms of a recession are growing more pronounced. The real value of the goods and services churned out by the economy showed the third consecu tive quarterly decline. The face value of the gross na tional product for July through Sep tember rose 8.3 per cent projected at an annual rate, to $1,114.6 bill ion, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Yet inflation sapped the dollars of 11.5 per cent of their value in the same period, so the real value of the economy’s output shrunk by 2.9 per cent. That left the output just slightly ahead of where it was in 1972. It was the first time since the 1960-61 re cession the output dropped in three successive quarters. The most re cent recession, that of 1969-70, was marked by only two consecutive quarters of decline. There are other symptoms, such as a maximum drop of 1.9 per cent in industrial production so far, which are less severe than in the most re cent recessions. Yet even before the latest na tional product figures came out. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur F. Burns and other SIGNS OF CONSTRUCTION are everywhere. The fences lo cated around the academic core of the campus herald landscap ing to come. Water pipes are being laid across the intramural field. Several construction projects are now underway in antici pation of the centennial of A&M. (Photo above by David Kimmel, photo below by Chris Svatek) Board asks insurance hike; but request may be trimmed economists dubbed the current economic slump a recession. The administration’s contention, repeated anew by Commerce Sec retary Frederick B. Dent and his top economists, is that the decline in the economy’s output is the pro duct of isolated quirks. The Arab oil embargo, higher oil prices, overeager stockpiling by industry in anticipation of inflationary price in creases and a home building indus try staggering under high interest rates are examples. “It appears to me the economy is actually moving sideways at the cur rent time,” said economist James L. Pate. “We’re talking about sideways waffling,” said Dent; Economists such as Leif H. Olsen of New York’s First National City Bank argue that inflation’s doom al ready is sealed and the nation “now confronts a decidedly new situation with new and different complica tions. ” fMRI IIJM ’TV. ik..,., By LEE JONES Associated Press Writer AUSTIN, Tex. (AP)—The State Insurance Board might trim the 16.8 per cent average car insurance rate increase recommended by its staff. Chairman Joe Christie hinted Thursday. Christie said at the board’s annual car insurance hearing that recent accident data ignored by staff calcu lations will be considered when the board makes its final decision. Insurance industry spokesmen requested an even higher 18.3 per cent average statewide increase in private passenger car rates. Both proposals would add in the neighborhood of $170 million to the insurance companies’ Texas auto premium collections, boosting them over the $1 billion level. In 1973, Texans paid $889 million for car insurance, industry figures show. Christie noted that the accident and claims statistics used by staff actuaries stopped at Dec. 31, 1973—a few weeks before speed limits were reduced from 70 to 55 miles per hour and prior to the worst of last winter’s gasoline shor tage. He said the board would consider more recent data “to determine if driving less, driving slower and hav ing fewer accidents has helped off set this upward trend” in medical and car repair costs. The board will announce its deci sion toward the end of November, with new rates taking effect Jan. 1, Christie said. Staff actuaries recommended these average statewide increases in the major categories of private pas senger automobile coverage: —Full coverage comprehensive, 22.3 per cent. —$100 deductible collision, 25 per cent. —Bodily injury liability, eight- tenths of 1 per cent. —Properity damage liability, 21.4 per cent. —No-fault medical payments, 2.8 per cent. The only major category for which a decrease was recom mended was uninsured motorist coverage, a 20.1 per cent—or $l-cut. Each driver’s premium varies ac cording to the county where he lives, his driving record, age and the uses to which he puts his car. The average driver, carrying a While supporting the spending programs in the President’s economic proposals, Olsen said in a recent speech that the proposed 5 per cent surtax “is ill-timed politi cally - as Mr. Ford himself acknow ledged - and it is far worse timed economically.” Dent rejected any notion that the proposed tax increase endangers the economy. “It was not offered to deny purchasing power to the economy, but to redistribute it,” he said. Commerce also reported that starts on new houses edged upward in September by four-tenths of 1 per cent to a level at which 1.120 million units would be built over a year’s time. The figure is off by 55 per cent from the industry’s peak activity of 2.509 million units in October 1972, however, and both industry and government officials expect no revi val in homebuilding before new year. Railroad poses problems to west campus expansion By ROXIE HEARN Staff Writer A&M administrators agree that the Southern Pacific railroad poses a problem to westward expansion ol the campus. However, according to N. E. Allphin, the company’s local agent in Bryan-College Station, the prop osed relocation is “strictly in the talk stage.” “The only logical direction the university can academically expand is to the west, ” said Clyde Freeman, executive vice president for ad ministration of the TAMU System. President Jack K. Williams spoke to the Chamber of Commerce this past summer and called the railroad the major obstacle involved in new development. He urged the com munity to support the university in its efforts to move the railroad. “Southern Pacific is not adverse to moving the tracks, Allphin said, “but I think people should re member that it was here before Bryan was.” The railroad’s relocation is prop osed in the city’s 701 Plan, a de velopment plan being devised for the entire city and seeks to move the rails one-half mile west, adjacent to the west bypass. The plan explains that the present location of the railroad interferes with newly installed navigation aids on the runway of Easterwood Air port. William Koehler, College Station city planner, said the railroad re stricts expansion of the campus to the west and creates a barrier bet ween the circulation of the two cities. According to Allphin, crossings and traffic seem to be the major dif ficulty in keeping it running through the city. “There are 12 rail road intersections in town,” he said. “Four of these are major, with traffic signals and six are minor.” Roy McWhirter, > assistant superintendent of Southern Pacific, gave estimates on the cost and time factors involved. “The move would roughly involve a 19-mile line with a 7- or 8-mile spur. The cost would roughly be over $1 million a mile, ” he said. He based this figure on purchas ing private property and leveling Preliminary plans complete for new agriculture center By BARBARA WEST Staff Writer The west campus is being de veloped for agriculture and related sciences. Ground was broken Saturday for the first two buildings of the com plex. They are located across FM 2154 from the main drill field and west of Old College Road. A 165,000 square foot Animal Sciences and Food Science Building and a 153,000 square foot Soil and Crop Sciences and Entomology Center are scheduled to be built first. “After these two are built we don’t expect any more for a couple of years after that,” said Dr. L.S. Pope, associate dean of the College of Agriculture. Bids have not yet been taken on the first two centers but a set of preliminary drawings have been completed. Pope said he hopes that bids will be taken in January for the Soil and Crop Sciences Center and for the Animal Sciences Building shortly after that. “It will be at least March of 1975 before construction can begin,” he said. Pope said both buildings, which will eventually become part of an eight to ten unit complex, were carefully researched. “We visited at least four other campuses,” he said. “These two should be two of the best in agricul ture in the United States. They are oriented not only toward research needs but to use by the students.” Pope estimated the cost of the two buildings to be about $19% mill ion, the Animal Sciences Building being the more expensive of the two. The auditorium of the building has a capacity of 350 and will be equipped to accommodate carcass demonstrations. The laboratory facilities will house meat chemistry, immunogeneties, blood studies and work with artificial rheumen. “There are still some problems to be worked out, ”he said. He pointed out the possibility of having to pro vide some form of transportation from the. main campus to the new facilities. the roadbed as well as drainage, signal systems, bridges, ground stabilization, trestles, rails and ties. “Of course, it’s only in the pre liminary talking stage now, but a project of this sort could take bet ween five and 10years,” McWhirter said. Funding for the project could come from federal sources, he said, but only if a public necessity can be established. Actual implementation of the move is far from reality, however. “There are many different entities which are all involved,” said Koehler, “the railroad, Texas Highway Department, Federal Department of Transportation, both cities, the county and Texas A&M. “As yet, nobody has taken a clear lead. They all agree that it’s desira ble, but it’s still only in the talk stage.” The Southern Pacific line has been in operation in the Bryan- College Station area since 1870. It is the oldest railroad company in Texas, beginning in 1852 as a short line between Harrisburg and Al- leyton. A second company, the Missouri Pacific, arrived in the area in 1901. Only two miles of the Missouri Pacific track remains. Bryan-College Station averages 13 through freight trains daily. The B-CS area has not had rail passenger service since 1958 when the Southern Pacific discontinued its overnight train, The Owl, bet ween Dallas and Houston. Presently the rail line runs north alongside Wellborn Road through rural and residential areas. Behind the campus is a short team track used for loading and unloading cars by local merchants and for setting out bad-order cars. typical policy, would pay these premium increases if the staff re commendations are approved by the board: Houston, $44, Dallas, $33; San Antonio, $30; Fort Worth, $30; El Paso, $43; Corpus Christi, $34; Texarkana, $22; Lubbock, $31; Orange, $34; Abilene, $29; Laredo, $37; Sherman-Denison, $30; Amarillo, $31; Lower Rio Grande Valley, $43; San Angelo, $43; Wichita Falls, $32; Beaumont-Port Arthur, $36; Galveston, $25; Au stin, $35; Waco, $30; Denton, $35; Temple-Killeen-Belton, $24; Midland-Odessa, $33; and Longview-Tyler-Kilgore, $28. David Irons of the Texas Au tomobile Insurance Service Office said fairness dictates “substantial rate increases.” “It does not take an actuary to know what inflation has done to the American economy in the past year. You do not have to be an insurance statistician to know what has hap pened in recent years to the cost of new cars, automobile replacement parts, auto repair work, hospital bills and medical expenses,” Irons said. Rates have not increased since a 14 per cent boost took effect Jan. 1, 1971. A 2.8 per cent hike ordered by the board later that year was blocked by former President Nixon’s wage-price freeze. The board cut rates by 11 per cent in 1972, followed by a 4.3 per cent re duction Aug. 27, 1973. Christie said the board had the power to use intuition about the fu- ttfre course of inflation, as well as hard statistical data, in deciding on new rates. Ford’s veto stalls public access law WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Ford vetoed legislation Thurs day designed to strengthen public access to government documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Ford said he felt the measure could adversely affect intelligence secrets and diplomatic relations. In a veto message to the House, the President said he objected to the courts being permitted to make what amounts to “the initial classifi cation decision in sensitive and complex areas where they have no expertise.” He also questioned the time con straints in the bill by which agencies would have to comply within a cer tain period of time to requests for information. The President said he intended to submit proposals which he felt would dispel his concerns regarding the manner of judicial review of classified material, and “for mitigat ing the administrative burden placed on the agencies, especially our law enforcement agencies, by the bill as presently enrolled.” Ford said the present bill “is un constitutional and unworkable,” but that the legislation has “laudable goals” and he hopes that it will be re-enacted during this session of Congress with the changes he prop oses. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement the veto “is a distressing new example of the Watergate mentality that still pervades the White House.” The veto was promptly de nounced by Rep. John E. Moss, D-Calif., whose 11-year struggle produced the initial Freedom of In formation Act which this bill would amend. Moss predicted Congress would override the veto. “There is no validity to the fears expressed by the President,” he said in a tele phone interview from Sacramento, Calif. “The President is demonstrating an arrogance that would be believa ble if a man holding a mandate from the people occupied the office of the presidency. But it is unbelievable, almost incredible, arrogance for a man whose only mandate came from a single congressional district,” he said. A spokesman for the National Newspaper Association said Presi dent Ford, “who had promised us an open government, has slammed the open door in the face of the pub lic and greatly saddened the 6,000 community newspaper publishers who are members of NNA.” He said the veto “blunts years of hard work by Republicans and Democrats in Congress and organi zations, including NNA, who had forged a sharper tool enabling citi zens to dig out government secrets affecting them.” To F.M. 60 F.M. 2154 S' 2 5' O 3 < lr RAILROADS WILL SEPARATE the new west campus from the main A&M campus. The west campus will be directly across from the drill field and Kyle Field.