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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1975)
f Today’s high 46 Today’s low 26 Tomorrow’s high 56 Tomorrow’s low 32 Chance of precipitation today None Chance of precipitation tomorrow None Vo. 69 No. 50 College Station, Texas Wednesday, Nov. 26, 1975 Clear, cold and windy Wednesday. Continued fair and cold Thursday. Campus THE SPIRIT LINE will form Friday at 12:05 p.m. March-in will be at 12:40 p.m. The order of march-in will be: Army, 1st and 2nd Brigades; Air Force, 1st and 2nd Wing; Fish Drill Team Cavalry. The reviewing officer will be Gen. Sa muel Jaskilka, assistant commandant of the Ma rine Corps. The track will be cleared by 1 p.m. and the game begins at 1:50 p.m. BACHS CHRISTMAS ORATORIO will be performed at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Rudder Theater by the Bryan-College Station Chamber Orchestra and the A&M Century Singers. The groups are being sponsored by the Arts Committee of the MSC and the A&M Women’s Club. The Chamber Orchestra performed earlier this semester with a number of classics in shows in the student lounge and the Rudder Theater. Century Singers is a mixed chorus of 68 stu dents. The Orchestra will be directed by Dr. Charles Johnson and the Singers by Robert Moore. Texas SEN. JOHN TOWER, R-Tex., hinted at a news conference in Dallas yesterday that he may quit as President Ford’s Texas campaign manager unless the President vetoes the energy bill that provides for an oil-price rollback and the common site picketing bill. He also said that he anticipates President Ford to go into the National Republi can Convention with 60 per cent of the delegates. • RICHARD C. WHITE, U. S. Representative from El Paso, has been challenged for the Demo cratic Party nomination by Jack Gregory, owner of an El Paso travel agency. • THE SAN ANTONIO LIGHT’S Washington Bureau reports that a confidential memoranda released by the Senate Intelligence Committee shows that FBI agents used anonymous letters protesting free love at the University of Texas in 1968 to fight the New Left. In a plan approved by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI would send letters that ap peared to be from irate parents to university officials, wealthy donors, members of the le gislature and parents of students active in New Left matters. In a memo. Hoover said the letters might “be of value in forcing the university to take action against those administrators who are permitting an atmosphere to build up on campus which will be a fertile field for the New Left.” • REP. GREG MONTOYA’s trial on charges of misapplying state funds has been indefinitely postponed due to a judge’s illness. State District Court Judge Mace B. Thurman broke an arm in a fall from a deer stand last week. Complications from the break will keep die judge in the hospital for another week and a half, his doctor said. Montoya, a Democrat from Elsa, was to have gone on trial Dec. 1. The trial has been post poned several times. The lawmaker is accused of using his legisla tive employes to do personal work and of hiring individuals whom he knew were unqualified for their jobs. He has pleaded innocent. NEW YORK CITY’S major banks, city employe union leaders and the state legislature have taken painful new steps designed to con vince Washington that the city deserves federal help and there are now indications that President Ford may respond favorably'. Ford administration sources told the AP the White House would soon announce, perhaps today, that Ford now favors federal aid to avert default. HENRY A. KISSINGER, Secretary of State, is actively considering a meeting in Moscow with Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev in an attempt to put nuclear weapons negotiations on course again. But if his health allows him to, Brezhnev will attend a Communist Party congress in Cuba next month, and Kissinger or President Ford may meet with him in the Caribbean. While waiting word from Moscow on these feelers, U.S. officials are moderating their public expressions of irrita tion with the Soviets for rejecting the last U.S. weapons proposal in September and not coming forward with an offer since. PEARL BAILEY made her debut in the Un ited Nations with a clash with the Cuban delegate yesterday. She took an assignment last week as special advisor to the U. S. delegation with the intention of taking part in the discussions that interested her. The first was the annual debate on colonialism yesterday. She came armed with a speech replying to the anticipated annual Cuban attempt to bring the Puerto Rican independence movement into the debate. The Cuban delegate said she would have done a better job if she had sung her speech. World National WOMEN will get a chance at U.S. Air Force non-combat flying assignments for the first time later this year Joe McAnally of the Air Transport Command at Randolph Air Force Base said. He said the first class of female flyers, which will begin next summer or fall, will be drawn from women officers already on duty. CLARENCE M. KELLEY, FBI director, said in an interview in Washington yesterday that he probably won’t punish agents involved in a harassment campaign against thousands of Americans if the Justice Department doesn’t pro secute the agents. On other subjects in the hour- long interview, Kelley said that he has urged FBI agents to protest orders they consider illegal or improper and to bring their complaints to him if th^ wish to do so. Kelley said he has “absolutely no thought in my mind” about resigning, al though he did recent^ consider leaving his job. High spirit mmm Staff photo by Douglas Winship Those who happen to look up at the west window of the Ocean ography and Meteorology Building observation deck will see this spirit sign for the upcoming A&M-UT football game. The sign is made of computer printout paper. Judge reconsiders Fromme’s charges A FORMER New York housewife is among 14 former Nazi death-camp guards who will go on trial in Duesseldorf today for the multiple mur der of Jews at Lublin, Poland. Hermine Braunsteier Ryan, 56, who married an Ameri can after the war, was extradited to face charges of helping to send more than 1,700 camp inmates to their deaths. Her conviction by the Duesseldorf state court could mean impris onment for life. The Polish government also wants her for concentration-camp crimes punish able there by death. KING JUAN CARLOS began his reign with a general amnesty that government sources say may free about 1,000 political prisoners and shor ten the terms of about 700 others. The amnesty will not apply to about 250 persons held on charges of terrorist activity, but he did promise that terrorists awaiting trial for political murders will not be executed. COMMANDOS loyal to the Portuguese gov ernment battled rebellious military police near the presidential palace in Lisbon today as Presi dent Francisco da Costa Gomes tried to crush a pro-Communist revolt in the armed forces. Of ficers of the MP regiment said one of their men was killed when the police fired on commando units from their barracks and the commandos returned the fire. Rebellious paratroops and air force men were holding out at one of the four air force bases they seized early yesterday, but the rebels at the other three surrendered, apparently without bloodshed. THE SECOND SON of Prince Souvanna Phouma, the premier of Laos, swam across the Mekong River before dawn today and asked for refuge in Thailand, according to the governor of the border province to which he fled. Prince Panya, 32, apparently fled from his country be cause of the controls imposed on it by the Com munist Pathet Lao, which took control of the Laotian government last spring. Prince Souvanna Phouma, an anti-Communist neutralist, is still premier, but Western diplomats in Vientiane say that he is virtually powerless. Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An apparently deadlocked jury in the Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme trial had the judge’s approval today to consider the lesser charge of assault rather than attempted assassination of a president. U.S. District Court JudgeThomasJ. MacBride told the jurors they could decide whether Miss Fromme merely committed assault rather than tried to kill President Ford during his visit here Sept. 5. The maximum penalty for attempted assassina tion of a president is life in prison. The maximum for assault is 10 years. The eight-woman, four-man jury recessed Tuesday night after about 12 hours of delibera tions in two days. They reported no progress toward a verdict and showed indecision on the assassination at tempt charge by seeking new instructions from MacBride about assault. MacBride earlier told them not to take up the assault charge unless they first found the Charles Manson follower innocent of trying to kill Ford. Apparently, the jurors were having trouble ag reeing on whether Miss Fromme meant to kill the President when she pointed a loaded pistol at him as he was shaking hands in a crowd. “It’s hard to speculate as to what they’re think ing,” said defense lawyer John Virga. “But this would indicate to me logically that they are hung up” on the attempted assassination charge. Virga said in his closing argument that the jury should find the 27-year-old defendant guilty of assault on the President “because that’s what she did.” He never asked for a verdict of innocent. The government contends that tiny, red- haired Miss Fromme intended to kill Ford when she went to a park near the capital with a .45- caliber semiautomatic pistol strapped to her leg. The questions stem in part from Miss From me’s being the first person ever tried under a presidential assassination law enacted after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “The law is somewhat ambiguous,” Virga said. The jury, in effect, has been asked to read Miss Fromme’s mind, a task made more difficult by her refusal to testify on her own behalf and her absence during most of the trial. The key issue is not what she did— point a gun at Ford — but what she intended to do. Officers said the pistol had four live rounds in the magazine but none had been injected into the firing chamber. Miss Fromme refused to participate in the trial after the judge declined to bring convicted mass murderer Manson to court with other members of his cultish family. Asst. U.S. Atty. Donald Heller, after Tues day’s deadlock indications, said that if a convic tion is obtained on the assault charge, the gov ernment probably would not seek a new trial. Both sides agreed that Miss Fromme’s motive Sept. 5 was obvious — she wanted attention and a neiy trial for Manson. California fires continue Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Fierce winds swirled flames across more than 68,500 acres of brush- land in two separate fires near Los Angeles early today, threatening at least 100 homes and forcing evacuation of more than 600 persons. The Mt. Baldy fire 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles spread over about 10,000 acres in a few hours late Tuesday as 50-mile-an-hour winds off the deserts raked the slopes. Two ranger sta tions and four penal camps were abandoned as the blaze grew to 23,000 acres, making it the second biggest brush fire in the nation this year. Meanwhile, the biggest, a fire twice that size. Regents approve flared up again in spots in the Big Tujunga Ca nyon on the northeast edge of Los Angeles and forced residents to flee several homes. Fire has already destroyed at least 20 homes and damaged 30 others there. Firemen on both fronts declared the new flare-ups contained, meaning fire lines were es tablished, but the fires were not yet under con trol. The Santa Ana wind conditions — hot, strong and dry — subsided early today, aiding abatement efforts. There were no new reports of injuries or prop erty damage. Weather forecasters said they expect a break in the wind conditions today, but fire fighters aren’t sure what effect it will have. “If the wind turns around on us, all the unpro tected flanks we’d thought were safe will be in danger,” said one Forest Service spokesman. “It could be a whole new ball game.” Most of the firemen on the line early this morn ing were saying they expect to be on the slopes for Thanksgiving in any case. Panhandle hit by snow storm Associated Press A bitter norther blasted across Texas today in a wintry storm bringing snow and ice to some sec tions, boiling thunderstorms to others and chil ling cold to all but the extreme south. The Thanksgiving eve onslaught was blamed for at least one highway death. Striking first in the Texas Panhandle, the norther assailed the town of Dumas with winds hitting up to 70 miles per hour, and the tempera ture there plunged to 8 degrees above zero be fore dawn. Despite the wind’s near-hurricane force a police dispatcher said, “There was no real damage.” One to two inches of snow whitened the Panhandle from the Canadian River northward, and at times blowing snow halted travel on roads into that section from New Mexico and Oklaho ma. Six miles east of Adrian, in the Panhandle west of Amarillo, Brefene E. Baggett, 18, of Oklahoma City was killed shortly before midnight Tuesday when his car apparently hit a slick spot on In terstate 40 and overturned. He was the son of former Oklahoma state Sen. Bryce Baggett. By this morning the snowfall had spread southward past Lubbock and Wichita Falls while tapering off farther north. Ice coated bridges and overpasses in some areas as the storm advanced. The nasty weather surged southward behind an arctic front that was advancing past a line from Tyler in East Texas to Laredo on the Mexican border before daylight. Ahead of the approaching front fierce thun derstorms churned the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas coast and thundershowers or light rain spread inland over the east and central parts of the state as far as Austin. Hail the size of marble accompanied a brisk shower at Beaumont. Temperatures at other points dropped to 12 degrees at Dalhart, 14 at Amarillo, 18 at Lubbock and 19 at Childress in the Panhandle-Plains sec- A&M may offer theatre arts degree Court delays voter registration decision A SOVIET warship was within camera range and may have photographed the collision bet ween the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy and the missile cruiser Belknap as well as the ensu ing fire and the entire rescue operation last Saturday, a U. S. Navy source said today. A Theater Arts degree, different from the al ready conferred English degree, is on its way to being available from A&M. The Board of Regents approved the addition of the degree Tuesday. The Theater Arts division of the English depart ment has been fighting in excess of three years to establish a degree program of its own. The measure must now be approved by the Coordinating Board. A possible roadblock to the major program receiving approval from the Coordinating Board is the already existing drama programs available at other Texas universities. The board also approved an educational radio station to be built and put onto the Federal Communication Commission’s books. Presently A&M offers only an educational television station and no student-oriented radio. Next semester both Student Radio and Corps Radio will go on the air. These two student-run operations grew out of a need for electronic- media training grounds that had not been offered by the A&M campus for 20 years. The Board also changed two incoming student fees. The room deposit was lowered from $75 to $65. The orientation fees were raised from $3 to $5. The Board also agreed to several sales of prop erty through a “setting-a-price-and-taking-a-bid” system. Board member S.B. Wittenburg was honored by the board. A new veterinary facility in Amarillo was given his name in honor of his en deavors. An Olympic contender, Deborah Sapentier was officially recognized for athletic achieve ment. She has represented the United States in numerous European track meets and has run for the United States in the Pan American games, the World University games and at the AAU and women’s national meets. She is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University. Associated Press AUSTIN, Tex. — A three-judge federal court has delayed until Dec. 6 a final decision on whether to prohibit the mailing of voter re registration forms to Texas voters. The court said Tuesday it would continue a temporary injunction blocking the mailing until it conducts a hearing on a permanent injunction Dec. 6. The court said, however, the injunction would be void if the U. S. Justice Department approves the new Texas law authorizing the re registration procedure in the next two weeks. The Texas Civil Liberties Union filed the suit to block the mailing of new registration forms to voters until the Justice Department has approved or disapproved the new law. Secretary of State Mark White formally sub mitted the registration law to the U. S. Depart ment of Justice, as required by the federal voting rights act, on Oct. 29. That was the day the TCLU filed its suit. David Richards, TCLU lawyer, told reporters the main reason for fifing the suit “was to get their attention. It had begun to look like they were never going to submit it.” The measure requires county tax assessor- collectors to mail new registration forms to each registered voter. The mailings would be non- forwardable, giving the election officials a mechanism to remove from the rolls voters who have died or moved away. Mailings were to have begun Nov. 5, but that was blocked by one member of the court, U. S. District Judge William Wayne Justice of Tyler. Tuesday’s hearing dealt with whether his order should be extended. Tax assessor-collectors have a Dec. 15 deadline to get the notices in the mail, and Richards said officials in the Justice Department told him they expected to act on the registration law by then. White said the new law resulted from the inef ficiency of the old registration system, under which a voter kept his registration merely by voting once every three years. A number of vot ers were mistakenly removed from the rolls through that system, he said. Several county election officials testified that under the present law, hundreds of thousands of Texans have been purged from the voting lists because they did not take part in a primary or general election during a three-year period. Jerrie Reynolds, Tarrant County voter regist ration chief, said that under the old registration law, people “are not sure whether they are regis tered to vote or not.” Samuel Jackson, a black attorney with the Texas Department of Community Affairs, and Maverick County Clerk Enrique Lopez of Eagle Pass both said the new law should result in higher minority registration. Bonfire and protect-the-campusitis ID appreciated during bonfire By MYRON R. S. FEXASTUCKT Contributor Ever thought you wasted three dollars for an activity card? I had often thought so, until re cently when I had to use it to save my life four times within a brief ten-minute span. In traversing the campus at a late hour I was accosted uncounted times by several Aggies suf fering from a severe malady common after the first wintry north winds blow through Brazos County. That ailment? Redneck-Bonfire-and- Protect-the-C ampusitis. I thank heaven time after time during the tradition-laden football season for having the good sense to be an Aggie. In Aggieland as nowhere else (although inferior imitations exist) I know that if anyone should attempt to paint the buildings I paid my $84-a-semester building fees for, they will get beaten to a bloody pulp. And furthermore, Ags being the agricultural lot they are, will leave such visitors in just good enough shape for them to return to the vegetable collec tions of their respective universities. It is for such reason that I never venture out without my ID card. I learned my lesson two years ago when after work, heading home, I was run into a curb by a pickup full of security forces, each with his whittled, autographed “Walking Tall” stick. I rolled my window down, asked what was goingon, and was asked for my ID. I asked whether the honest looking gent with the stick was a policeman (to be polite of course) to which question I received a negative answer. How about staff or administration? No. I then casually explained that I had no reason to fork out an ID while my bladder urged me other wise. I was told that I would then have to speak confidentially with the growth rings on the former tree branch beginning to creep into my vehicle. I responded that I was just checking them out to see if they were doing their job. CIA (Campus Intelligence Agency) and all. I showed my ID and then hightailed it for KK headquarters. Once there, I requested to press assault charges on the ornery stick-wielders for which I had positive ID, license plate number, vehicle description and all that other Kojak stuff which I remembered from my Dick Tracy Sunday comic crimefighter series. Could I wait while the dis patcher called IHOP to get an officer here who could do something? Sure, I guess? Sorry son, but they’re helping us do a job here. Well, yes sir, officer sir, sorry to interrupt your coffee and banana pancakes. Justice lives. I just get a kick outa teasin’ them now. Can’t go ten feet without some CT (fake or real) stepping out of the bushes with a walkie talkie. 10-4, all clear, 10-4, forty-niner, smokey passing through, over and out, roger mayday. Can spot ’em a mile away. Military or black leather jacket, steel-tip boots, handy-dandy sheath knife, walkie talkie (with seldom anyone on the other end) and a deep gruff voice with tobacco stains that knows only two phrases: “I’m with security here,” and “ say buddy let’s see an ID.” Used to be you were roped and tied and frisked when you got within 100 yards of the bonfire itself. But this year on my first visit I just walked right up to the dad-blamed pile o’ logs, no ques tions asked. Strange. Course I don’t know why it was guarded so well in the past anyway, except maybe to keep some of the “I’m with security here” types off the street. I mean after all, what teasip’s gonna walk up to the stack, stuff in a little kindling, light a match and expect the whole thing to go up as though napalmed. Even if some crazy walks in with a flamethrower, you know as well as I do that any number of die-hards would rather get burned to a crackly crisp trying to tackle the guy than let their wood burn (which it’s gonna do anyway). The sips know when they got a good thing going. Being an ecologist by major, I guess I’m sup posed to rant and rave about how the thing is a threat to humanity, the ecology, etc. But I won’t. The burning and smoke production is negligible, although the local laundries must make a fortune over the weekend, I sometimes question the use of trees, but usually they will be put to some other ridiculous anti-ecological use (like stuffing for cow-hide benches) if they’re not burned at the stake in front of 40,000 witnesses. But what gets me besides that burning desire crap is how these guys can work for weeks putting it together (all that blood and sweat) so they can treat the football team and the campus to all that raw orange energy enveloping that outhouse. Symbolic? Definitely a bad dream. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be there. With my blanket and coppertone and then I’ll leave the football game once again to the skills of the team. Then I’ll rest assured that Turkey Day and burned orange and the color of burning oak are merely coincidental and even enterprising Ag gies would have been hard put to manufacture green flames had Baylor been our chief rivals through some quirk of fate.