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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1975)
r Weather Mostly cloudy Thursday ith occasional breaks in e overcast. Strong N-NE inds 8-15 gusting to 20 ph. High today 45 de- ees; low tonite 24 de- ees. Gradual clearing to tly cloudy Friday with a igh of 49 degrees. Che Battalion Vol. 68 No. 69 College Station, Texas Thursday, February 6, 1975 Inside Favorite vices CIA probe Foreign workers .... P- 7 Aggie recruits P-9 ouse strikes; brd’s oil tariff ay be halted W | WASHINGTON (AP) — Chal- —- longing President Ford’s energy program and bidding for time to In construct its own, the Democratic- * mminated House voted Wednes- 5&d.i\,309 to 114, to halt Ford’s tarifl | on imported oil. ~ The bill the House passed and bnt to the Senate would suspend pr 90 days the authority Ford (aims to impose by presidential per a $3 a barrel tax on foreign oil. ! $1 tax imposed Feb. 1, the first irun Bfthree planned increments, would be cancelled. ^ Ford is expected to veto the hill if tclears the Senate. The vote by which the House pas- ed it was greater than the two- jiirds that would he required to [verride a veto. Forty-two Republi- ans joined 267 Democrats to pass ' bill. In a second blow to Ford’s over- 1 economy-energy program, the Jenate joined the House in passing legislation to kill an administration llan to raise the price of food stamps I'larch 1. The stamps are bought by needy ersons and redeemed for a greater foliar amount of food. The Ford proposal would have replaced a slid ing scale with a flat charge of 30 percent of adjusted net income for the stamps. The 76-8 vote sent the bill, passed Tuesday by the House, to Ford for signature or veto. A third measure sought by the administration to increase the fed eral debt limit was passed by the House, 248 to 170. It would in crease the limit to a record $531 billion to accommodate borrowing expected through next June 30 as government spending continues to outpace revenues. The Treasury Department had reported that the debt would ap proach the present $495 billion by Feb. 18, bringing the threat of a fiscal crisis if Congress had not acted by then. The debt hill now goes to the Se nate. Despite the setback on the tariff hill, a White House spokesman said “The President was encouraged by the size of the vote and he felt that he had come a long way since he began his meetings with members of Congress. He plans other meet ings with members of Congress to continue the explanation of his pro gram.” Passage of the tariff-delaying bill came after a flurry of White House activity and reports and denials that compromise might be in the wind. Ford entertained about 100 Re publicans at dinner Tuesday and about the same number of Democ rats, largely from the South and Southwest, at breakfast Wednes day, with briefings by high officials on energy and economic matters. Chairman George H. Mahon, D-Tex., of the House Appropria tions Committee, one of those who attended, said Ford “made the point he had been waiting for Con gress to take definite action and he felt he had to take steps to bring it to a head, so he took the initiative by imposing the oil tax.” Mahon also said Ford indicated he would be open to suggestions, hut did not intend to back down (See FORD page 4) Cram it Photo by Douglas Winship These people aren’t creating a new fad, they are participants in the MSC Car Cram sponsored by the Recreation Committee. The contest was held Wed- S98 million Senate passes state school bill 0 69* 1” 69* 9?i ADS I IN (AP) — Texas senators ried Wednesday to offset inflation nd rising enrollments by approving >ov. Dolph Briscoe’s request for an Ktra $98 million for public schools nd junior colleges. The House is expected to com- jete legislative action Thursday on tatwo proposals appropriating the honey. h°th passed the Senate on 290 Wes without debate. e Senate approved and sent to e governor a resolution permit- in 8 Him to spend $500,000 approp- Wed in 1973 for disaster relief for ood victims. The federal govern- hent will match the state money $3 to $1. u also tentatively approved, i^TO, a hill establishing standard Procedures for hearings before state (gencies. Sen. Oscar Mauzy, ■Dallas, protested that it would a ^ e awa y the right of a person to Teague succeeds Kennedy 0|*e S t INGT0N (AP, “ Re|1 I j Teague, R-Tex., has been e c ed chairman of the hoard of the hgressional Office ofTechnology y! s ossment, was announced Wednesday. S en. Clifford P. Case, R-N.J., ^chosen vice chairman. ea gue, chairman of the House ■ence and Technology Commit- ee, succeeds Sen. Edward M ennedy, D-Mass., and Case suc- R Q h s ^ e p. Charles A. Moser, Tk e 12-member hoard is a lawmaking body overseeing ac- * 1 les °f the Office ofTechnology Se ssment, which advises the ong r ess on technological de- Velo Pment. s Jeague, a member of the House Committee since it was ' n 1959, played a role in the ls ation f or the U.S. manned Spa R Ce Aightprogram. ^ s ^ a l u t e , the board leadership reopen the entire matter in court after a hearing examiner has made a ruling. One of the educational hills pro vides $80 million in state funds for local school districts. The money is earmarked for maintenance and operation—not teachers salaries. Witnesses have testified that school budgets are suffering from rising utility and gasoline costs, and some districts also began new prog rams in anticipation of the emergency funds. The average amount of additional aid under the hill will he $32.60 per pupil. The other hill increases state aid to public junior colleges by $18 million-$12 million for vocational- technical instruction and 6 million for general academic programs. Spokesmen have told legislative committees that junior college en rollments have risen by 29 per cent since 1972, when they last re quested state money, based on a projected enrollment increase of only 18 per cent. nesday near the MSC fountain. Winners received gift certificates for food at McDonald’s. Veterans’ benefit bill approved by Senate AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) — A Senate committee approved three bills Wednesday to benefit veterans hut balked at allowing disabled veterans to fish and hunt free in Texas. All the measures were sponsored by Sen. Lindon Williams, D-Houston, who is in charge of legislation for the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and dis abled veterans. The hill included: • A measure giving preference to retired war veterans, as well as those who have been honorably dis charged, in hiring state employes. • A proposal exempting honora bly discharged veterans with service-connected disabilities from the $1 state park fee. • A proposal reducing from 70 per cent to 60 per cent the percen tage of service-connected disability required in order for a veteran to get free auto license tags. The bill exempting disabled vete rans from buying hunting and fish ing licenses was sent to a State Af fairs subcommittee after the com mittee chairman. Sen. W. T. Moore, D-Bryan, complained, “This is going to cost a lot of money.” A fiscal note stated the state would lose $194,922 in revenue over the next two years. Enrollment up again OPAS brings Bach Photo by Tom Kayscr Entertainment was provided in the Rudder Auditorium Wednesday by the Bach Aria Group. The production sponsored by OPAS featured a program of cantatas and arias from the cantatas of J. S. Bach. TAMU’s spring enrollment is a record 20,585. Registrar Robert A. Lacey said registration is up 15.8 per cent over the same period last year. This spring’s enrollment includes 5,276 women, for an increase of 1,287 over the 1974 spring semes ter. The total enrollment includes 205 students registered at TAMU’s Moody College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Resources at Galves ton. The figures represent TAMU s enrollment as of Tuesday, the 12th class day of the semester and official reporting period for the Coordinat ing Board, Texas College and Uni versity System. Spring enrollment is traditionally lower than in the fall, Lacey noted. He pointed out, however, this semester’s drop is smaller than usual, being only 878 below last fall’s all-time record 21,463 stu dents. A mid-term record 1,074 students were graduated in De cember. SenV-*^ ^ etwe en the House and Hv n 6 * n a ^ ern ate Congresses and, W^edent, they are filled on a the lsan basis with a chairman of man ma J°, rit y P art y and a vice chair- an of the minority party. ' ' ' m ■**11 * a ■ P k \ No joke Synthetic concrete aggregate used in offbeat racing canoe « w m jffft n a . i* l 1 * ^ ? ■ mm Joe Haynes displaying new concrete canoe. *■*'**■■ By ROXIE HEARN Staff Writer Have you heard about the Aggies who built a concrete canoe? It’s no joke. Two graduate students, Joe Haynes and Wayne Schoen, and a senior Civil Engineering major, Neil Fisher, compose one of two Aggie teams entering a concrete canoe race the first week of April. And would you believe one ofthe rules of the contest states that the canoe must float while completely filled with water? The canoe, 14 feet long and 3 feet wide, is made of a synthetic, light weight, concrete aggregate. Blown glass, rocks that float, and other light materials compose the aggregate, creating a craft which Haynes said weighed approximately 250 pounds. “First, a frame is built and co vered with wire mesh,” Haynes ex plained. It’s shaped and then plas tered with concrete. “The frame is removed and the canoe goes through ‘curing’ for a minimum of seven days,’’ he said. The curing is completed in a vault while water rains continually on the overturned craft. After curing, said Haynes, “the canoe is sanded and painted — we use an epoxy paint.” Award-winning concrete canoes travel about 10Ms miles per hour. Preliminary tests have been made on the concrete, but not on the canoe itself. “We re thinking about taking it out to Municipal Lake,” said Schoen. He said the main problem they faced was keeping its weight down. The contest, part of the upcoming national convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers in San Antonio, is open to C. E. majors and Naval Architecture majors. A university may enter two canoes, each to be paddled by two students, both of whom must have contributed to its construction. The convention is hosted by the University of Texas at Austin and entry acceptances have come from UT at Arlington, the University of Houston and A&M. Concrete-canoe races are ex tremely popular in the East, said Haynes and Schoen, and this race is an attempt to spread it to the South. Only Southern schools have been invited,” said Schoen. “I think that after it gets big here the idea is to have competition between schools in the East and schools in the South.” Haynes called the background of concrete sailing vessels “very old. “In fact, concrete was used quite extensively during the second world war because of the shortage of steel and iron,” he said.