Page 2
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, APR. 15, 1976
Improved services for consumer
latest campaign drive by Soviets
Associated Press vice, the message obviously still Fifteen million foreigners came h«
Associated Press
MOSCOW — On March 19,
Moscow s evening newspaper pub
lished a glowing report about the city
taxi drivers of Motor Pool 15. They
had pledged themselves to "excel
lent service, had posted little signs
to that effect on their dashboards and
praise from customers was rolling in.
But on a recent night outside
Moscow s biggest hotel, the model
drivers of Motor Pool 15 were
nowhere to be found and the surly,
more traditional cab drivers ol
Moscow were, as always, demanding
exorbitant fares and insulting anyone
who complained.
The contrast points up the difficul
ties the Soviet government is having
with its latest drive to improve ser
vice in taxis, restaurants, stores,
government offices and other banes
of the long-suffering consumer.
The controlled press, aided by the
Communist party and the Young
Communist League, has no trouble
finding model citizens to write ab
out. But when it comes to convincing
the ax erage worker that he has some
thing to gain from giving good ser-
ice, the message obviously still
hasn’t gotten through.
This year’s campaign is not the
first time the Soxiets haxe tried to
perk up the serx ice industries, but
the stakes in the current campaign
are higher than exer.
The 1976-80 economic plan calls
for a 27-29 per cent increase in retail
turnoxer, aimed at getting more
money into circulation and moxing
the goods and serx ices that many
citizens consider the best test of how
well their gox ernment is taking care
of them.
If citizens aren t satisf ied with the
assortment of goods, perhaps smil
ing serx ice xvill com inee them to buy
something anyhow. A.' , M C U) h.bt-
soxa, a department head at
Moscow’s Detsky Mir children s de
partment store, said in a newspaper
article: “Our goal is to gixe such
good serx ice that no ones leax es our
store without buying something.
The Sox iet image abroad also de
pends increasingly on what kind of
treatment foreign x isitors get in re
staurants, taxis, hotels and shops.
Fifteen million foreigners came here
in the past fixe years and 37 million
are expected to come between now
and 1980.
Particularly in 1980, when
Moscow hosts the Winter Olympics,
officials don’t want the thousands of
x (siting sports fans and corre
spondents to go home with stories of
insolent waiters and organizational
fold-ups.
So the campaign is under way.
One tool, as usual, is the barrage of
press publicity.
More substantixe techniques,
though, are also being tried. The
number of self-serxice stores is in
creasing, as opposed to the still
widespread Soviet system of the cus
tomer waiting in three lines: one to
see goods, one to pay for them and a
third to pick them up.
Customers are also being urged to
order hard-to-get goods — such as
certain vegetables or new x'olumes in
sets of books — in adxance. This may
decrease the long, excited lines that
form in Soviet cities whenever
scarce products go on sale.
Briscoe wants electronic surveillance
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Legislators
xvill be asked next January to ap
prove court-ordered and court-
supervised electronic surveillance ih
the war against organized crime,
Gov . Dolph Brisoe said Wednesday.
The governor said in a speech be
fore a district convention of Rotary
International that battling crime
wovdd be the No. 1 legislative prior
ity of his administration during the
next session.
Briscoe said his organized crime
legislation package would:
V Define organized crime and
make engaging in organized criminal
activities a felony.
Allow court-ordered and
supervised electronic surveillance in
investigation of organized crime.
V Permit a defendant to be tried
for all organized criminal activities at
one trial.
The governor said his staff was
drafting legislation to reduce non-
organized crime as well, including a
measure on repayment of xTctims by
convicted criminals and tougher
parole laws.
His suggested legislation woidd
be aimed mainly at habitual offen
ders and those who commit certain
serious crimes.
Gov. Briscoe said he would rec
ommend also that juries be permit
ted briefings on parole laws before
sentencing.
“It’s time to take the blindfold off
the jury and give them the same in
formation a judge has when he sen
tences a criminal,” he said.
Another proposal would require
supervision of offenders released
from prison, regardless of whether
they had served their full time.
Che Battalion
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Editor J err y Needham
Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain
City Editor J* 111 Peters
Sports Editor Paul McGrath
Photo Editor J im Hendrickson
News Editor L1 oyd Lietz
Contributing Editor St eve Gray
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Humphrey gets through
Pickets stop presidential hopeful;
By DON McLEOD
AP Political Writer
WASHINGTON — Hubert
Humphrey and three Democratic
presidential candidates ran into a
picket line Wednesday, but avowed
noncandidate Humphrey got
through to steal the show.
Humphrey, often mentioned as a
possible compromise candidate this
year, was the only one of the quartet
to keep his date as a speaker at the
American Society of Newspaper
Editors convention.
“To prove I am a noncandidate,”
Humphrey quipped, “the pickets
left when they heard I was coming.”
But, really, the pickets had with
drawn before Humphrey’s arrival in
compliance with a court order.
Sen. Henry M. Jackson, Rep.
Morris K. Udall and former Georgia
Gov. Jimmy Carter, however, did
not make it because of the picket line
before the Shoreham-Americana
Hotel. They addressed the meeting
through a telephone hookup.
When the candidates learned the
hotel was being picketed, all three
refused to cross the lines. However,
they learned later that the National
Labor Relations Board had ruled the
picketing an illegal secondary
boycott and a federal judge had is
sued a temporary restraining order
limiting the pickets to a single entr
ance.
All three candidates and Hum
phrey were asked by a panel of re
porters why they had honored a pic
ket line adjudged illegal. The three
candidates said they hadn’t known
about that part when they made the
decision.
Members of the National Associa
tion of Broadcast Employes and
Technicians, on strike against the
National Broadcasting Co. since
April 1, threw up the picket line in
front of the Shoreham-Americana
Hotel in an effort to keep NBC cam
era crews from covering the event.
Carter told the editors that the
furor over his use of the term “ethnic
purity” in relation to residential
neighborhood integration had been
good for the country by bringing the
issue out for discussion.
While Carter has apologized for
the term “ethnic purity,” he said “I
don’t have any apology to offer for
my position on housing. ” He said he
still thinks the federal government
should not deliheratelv destroy what
he now calls the “ethniccl
neighborhoods.
All three candidatese\[t
sentially the same stain
neighborhood issue by 9
opposed discrimination a
but also disliked having!
ment breaking up neighla
placing large, lovv-incomt
projects in them.
Humphrey still noncommittal on candid
By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — How do you
introduce Hubert H. Humphrey to
an audience? That has become one of
Washington’s most perplexing, if
least important, problems.
Eugene C. Patterson of the St.
Petersburg, Fla., Times, handled it
this way on Wednesday:
“Our speaker today, he told the
American Society of Newspaper
Editors, “is a former vice president,
was the mayor of Minneapolis at one
time, is a former presidential
nominee, a leading senator, a happy
warrior, and we can’t rudely disre
gard his insistence that he isn’t run
ning for anything.”
Humphrey, who says he is not a
candidate for anything but another
six years in the Senate, was then
questioned by the ASNE panel.
He said he didn t know why, as a
noncandidate, he was visiting the
editors, who represent newspapers
from all over the country, except that
“someone sent me an invitation and
I’m a creature of habit.
There was the inevitable question
of whether his decision not to allow
his name to be entered in any presi
dential primary was final.
“That’s my present judgment,
said Humphrey.
“Could it change before. . .
began the questioner, William
Eaton of the Chicago Daily News.
The audience roared. Humphrey
repeated, “That is my present judg
ment.”
“In the next two weeks? I low long
do you think it will be in the pre
sent, Humphrey was asked.
“Most of the time, I imagine.
"You thinking it over?
“Not particularly,” said Hum
phrey.
He explained that never is xerx
finite in politics, “but I’m a political
man and I know the pressures that
are brought to bear on you and I
don t expect to yield."
1 lumphrey was askedi
about a Democratic convei
xvith no clear favorite. He.
something startling happt
upcoming Pennsylvs
none of the candidates*
the nomination from theil
He said, "I feel perfertl
physical 1 y, emotionally,
and politically ol eonducti
campaign if 1 needed to
question is do I want tod«|
isn t because of arty phi
tion. You go up to the
take a look at xvhat you y,
and take a look at me. 11
And about that HumJ
President Committeerepiif
operating? "I don t kiwi
committee. I’ve authol
committee . . . norhasamU
authorized to speakforn
me, talk for me, orembn
Period, Humphrey sail
that for myself.’’
Whether it be a pretty plant, an
Easter basket of cut
flowers, or corsage—
£
we can take care of it
A<j(jodafid
Flower & Gift Shop
209 University
RON G0DBEY
WILL BE ON CAMPUS
April 15, 1976
7:30 P.M.
Room 137 MSC
FULL-TIME REPRESENTATION
For Congress
Paid for by Elect Ron Godbey to Congress Campaign Com
mittee, 5733 Wharton, Ft. Worth, Texas. Bob Taft, Chair
man. Gary Wiley, Treasurer. A copy of our report is filed
with the Federal Election Commission and is available for
purchase from the Federal Election Commission, Washing
ton, D.C.
Texas Aggies:
We can help elect PHIL GRAMM to the U.S. Senate. Dr.
Gramm was an economics professor here for eight years
before taking leave of absence to run for U.S. Senator. Phil
wants to be Senator from Texas, not President or Vice-
president. He is raising funds from individuals all over Texas.
He has no federal funds to run for office.
Dr. Gramm believes in America, Texas, and Texas A&M. He
believes in free enterprise, private business, and agriculture.
He believes that the federal government should balance its
budget just as individuals have to do. The federal deficit
reduces the amount of money available to private industry,
agriculture, arid individuals for expansion, homes, and other
goods and services.
We can help by 1) Voting for PHIL GRAMM — in the May 1
Democratic Primary. If you need to absentee vote, write the
county clerk where you are registered. Ask for an absentee
application and ballot. Absentee voting is open from April
12-April 26. Time is running out. 2) Support PHIL GRAMM —
write your parents, relatives, friends, and associates. Tell
them about PHIL GRAMM. Urge them to vote for Phil and tell
their friends and neighbors about him. Let’s put someone WE
can talk to in the U.S. Senate, Aggies. Vote for and support
PHIL GRAMM.
Aggies for PHIL GRAMM
Van P. Steed ’78
M. Brent Futrell ’76
Kathryn G. and John C.
Oeffinger ’76
Nancy Lewis ’78
Jim Bob Mickier ’76
Lawrence H. DeLong ’78
Frank Butler ’76
Mark Snider '77
Dean Williams ’77
Bryant Brundett ’76
Carl S. Luker ’77
Norma Shepard '77
Mike Flores ’79
Ronald Krobot ’79
Gary Fuchs ’78
Jerry Krenek ’77
And many others
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