Weather
Sunny and warm today with a
high in the mid-80s. The low to
night in the high 50s. Winds
will be blowing from the south
at 5-8 m.p.h. Partially cloudy
tomorrow. No rain is expected.
Cbe Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 110 College Station, Texas Wednesday, April 21, 1976
University Archives
Muster 1956
State Land Commissioner Earl Rudder speaks to
a crowd in front of the Memorial Student Center
as the Singing Cadets, A&M President Dr. David
H. Morgan (hand on chin) and other officials
watch. The group was gathered for Texas A&M’s
traditional ceremony to honor friends who have
died in the past year. A&M’s centennial Muster
observance begins at 5:30 p.m. in G. Rollie White.
McClure says
Ags open-minded
By LISA JUNOD
Fred McClure is a bit amused by all the
attention he’s been receiving as the first
black to be student body president at Texas
A&M.
“Had it not been for the fact that I am
black, then the election at Texas A&M
would have been a regular election all over
again,” McClure said.
“I’m definitely proud of my heritage and
the fact that I am black. Although A&M has
a reputation for being an extremely con
servative university, I think that this elec
tion is a sign of the open-mindedness, not
only of students at Texas A&M, but the
open-mindedness I think young people
have today.
“I think it’s the beginning of a change of
attitude, especially when it comes to racial
lines that might have separated people in
the past.
“Hopefully, today’s young people are
looking at individuals for what they can
contribute and for what they stand for, as
opposed to what color their skin might be,
how long their hair might be, or what in
stitution they might attend. I think that’s a
very good sign,” McClure said.
McClure, a junior agricultural econom
ics major from San Augustine, was elected
student body president last week by an 855
vote margin over his closest opponent.
McClure was surprised and pleased at the
voter turnout, one of the largest in recent
FRED McCLURE
Student Body President
A&M history, and views it as a ‘go ahead’
sign from the students.
“Evidently the young people here on
campus also believe in some of the things I
believe in, and think that I might be able to
get things done.
“I guess the major factor that encouraged
me to run is that I, hopefully, can help the
students of Texas A&M. I felt that I would
be able to, in some way, make life at this
institution a more meaningful and viable |
experience.”
Making academic life meaningful to ;
more than 24,000 students will be a dif- ;
ficult task, but McClure has had plenty of ;
experience in diplomacy and public rela- ;
tions.
McClure began his political career when ;
he was elected president of his seventh I
grade class, and has since held dozens of 1
elective offices.
McClure believes that he received his ,
most valuable experience while working j
with the Future Farmers of America.
While in high school, McClure served as
president of his local, district and area FFA
chapters. Then, in the summer following
high school graduation, McClure was
elected state president of the FFA and
postponed his college studies to spend a
year traveling around the state.
The following summer McClure started
college at A&M, but dropped out in Oc
tober when he was elected national secre
tary of the organization. As a national offi
cer, McClure spent a year traveling across
the United States, a year which he believes
gave him a broader outlook on the opinions
of young people nationwide.
Had it not been for his involvement with
the FFA, McClure might never have come ,
to A&M. He had planned since elemen
tary school to attend the University of
(See McClure, Page 5.)
ilThree-month inflation is
I
K
IAS '
Associated Press
( Falling prices at the gasoline pump and
he third big monthly drop in grocery costs
held the rise in consumer prices to two-
tenths of a per cent in March, the govern
ment said today.
■he March increase compared with Feb-
■uary consumer price rise of one-tenth of
a per cent and an increase offour-tenths of a
)ei cent in January. The January-to-March
igures left consumers with the lowest
three-month inflation rate in almost four
years.
The Labor Department said the increase
for the three months ending in March — a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.9 per
cent — was the smallest three-month in
crease since June 1972. It compared with
an average increase of about 7 per cent for
each calendar quarter in 1975.
Lower beef prices led the decline at
grocery counters where prices fell another
1.2 per cent in March. Grocery prices fell
1.5 per cent in February after a decline of
four-tenths of a per cent in January.
Gasoline prices fell 1.3 per cent instead
of moving up as they usually do in March.
The cut in the nation’s inflation rate has
exceeded even the most optimistic proj
ections, but the Ford administration had
cautioned that the declines in food and fuel
are not likely to be sustained.
Despite the slowing of inflation, the pur-
smallest
chasing power of the average American
worker fell seven-tenths of a per cent in
March because weekly earnings were held
back by a reduction in working hours.
However, over the year purchasing power
was up 4.3 per cent.
The Consumer Price Index stood at
167.5 in March, meaning that it cost con
sumers 8167.50 to buy the same variety of
goods and services purchased for $100 in
1967. Over the past year, prices have risen
in four years
6.1 per cent, the smallest gain in any 12-
month period since the year ending July,
1973.
The Agriculture Department reported
earlier this month that consumer food
prices on the average held steady early this
year, but cautioned shoppers to expect in
creases in the coming months, although at a
slower rate than in recent years.
The leveling off of food prices was largely
due to sharp declines in meat prices, which !
officials say have already started climbing.
Several major oil companies recently
announced increases in gasoline prices,
which had declined in late 1975. But Com- |
iez said gasoline prices usually rise at this
time of the year and unless the new in
creases are larger than the normal seasonal |
push they may not be reflected in the con
sumer price index.
LES
117
I
I
r
Index
| President Ford may ask for bigger
i Minutemen missiles. Page 5.
. Princess Anne was injured in a horse
show yesterday. Page 4.
Israel placed one West Bank town
under curfew as Arabs continue to
riot. Page 4.
; Fighting continues in Lebanon in
‘ spite of the President’s resigna
tion. Page 4.
|Can the Aggies win with the
Wishbone offense? Sports editor
Paul Arnett comments on its
strengths and weaknesses. Page
10.
Texas prisons are experiencing many
problems because of a 42 per cent
increase in the inmate population
over the last six years. Page 9.
o.:
Texas primaries bring comments and
wives to the forefront. Page 8.
Unanimous decision allows
Student senators
court-ordered low-rent housing
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal courts can
order the government to build subsidized
low-rent housing in predominantly white
suburbs, the Supreme Court ruled yester
day.
In an 8-0 decision on a Chicago case that
has been in the courts for 10 years, the
justices rejected government arguments
that court orders would unduly interfere
with local authorities.
The decision touched on a current presi
dential campaign issue stemming from
former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter’s re
mark he could “see nothing wrong with
ethnic purity being maintained” in
neighborhoods. He also said he would not
permit discrimination. He later apologized
for using the words “ethnic purity.”
The key question in the case was
whether the court’s 1974 decision that
judges may not ordinarily order busing of
pupils across school district lines also
applies to housing.
The court said it does not. Such a ruling,
it said, would erect “an arbitrary and
mechanical shield for those found to have
engaged in unconstitutional conduct.”
In an opinion by Justice Potter Stewart,
the court said the basis of the 1974 decision
was that innocent suburbs could not be
required to take steps to correct the faults
of cities.
It said the housing situation was different
because the federal Department of Hous
ing and Urban Development’s actions had
resulted in unconstitutional segregation by
concentrating public housing in black ghet
tos.
It said the “relevant geographic area” for
correcting this was “the Chicago housing
market, not the Chicago city limits.”
The court’s decision sends the case back
to a federal judge in Chicago with instruc
tions to consider, but not necessarily im
pose, a “metropolitan area order.”
During those arguments. Solicitor Gen
eral Robert H. Bork told the justices that
“court-ordered metropolitan relief in this,
no matter how gentle it’s gone about, no
matter how it’s framed, is bound to require
HLTD to ignore the safeguards of local au
tonomy and local political processes.”
Under a federal law passed in 1974,
HUD can contract directly with private
owners and developers for low-income
housing. Local governments have the right
to comment on proposed projects and to
require that they comply with zoning and
land-use restrictions.
learn duties y plans
By RANDY DUSEK
Newly elected senators were advised of
their duties by Fred McClure, student
body president and senate speaker,and the
vice-presidents of the five executive com
mittees at their first meeting last night.
There was no agenda for the meeting and
most of the time was spent getting ac
quainted. McClure informed the senators
of some of the parliamentary rules that
were used during the meetings. He also
explained the absence policy under which a
senator could be dismissed if he accumu
lated ten points under the plan. McClure
announced that a new speaker would be
elected at the next meeting to be held on
May 5. The speaker doesn’t have to be a
member of the senate but can be any stu
dent at Texas A&M with a GPR of above
2.5.
After the initial orientation, the senators
split up into groups and met with the vice-
presidents of the various executive com
mittees. Each one explained the duties of;
his committee and what was expected of
the senators serving on it.
Stan Stanfield, vice-president for
academic affairs,, announced that the pro
fessor evaluations the senate had been
working on would be published in the Bat
talion Friday. It was also announced the
Book Mart will be open during dead week
and the week of final exams. The Book Mart
is sponsored by the senate and will allow
students to receive more money for their
books when they sell them at the end of the
semester. They will also be able to buy the
used books for a lower price than in the
past.
T Busi-
lecom-
oritieS'
)0 Life
iesAv-
Bryan Council
changes city’s
fiscal year
Members of the Bryan City Council yes
terday agreed to change the city’s budget
from a 12 month period to 15 months for
1976-1977.
The city has been operating in the past
with a budget which runs from July 1 to
June 30 each year. In the special meeting,
council members decided on a fiscal year
ieginning each Oct. 1. In order to execute
his change, the 1976-1977 budget will run
om July 1, 1976 to Sept. 30, 1977.
Bryan Mayor Lloyd Joyce said an
i)ctober-based budget would allow the city
:o work in the same budget time span as
ther member cities in the Texas Munici-
ial Power Pool, and that this was one of the
easons for the change. He also said that
the delay between the election of council
members in April and developing the
gear’s budget in October would give new
lembers more time to develop a better
nderstanding of the budget.
The new ordinance will be brought be
fore the city council at its next regular
meeting April 27 for official consideration.
Watch
for evaluations
Ward system slated
for council discussion
Reconsideration of the ward system, re
zoning requests and liquor hours are a few
of the subjects on the agenda of tomorrow’s
College Station City Council meeting.
College Station Mayor Larry Bravenec
will ask for recommendations concerning a
re-evaluation of the ward system. This re
view may involve a straw vote, he said.
A public hearing is scheduled on a re
quest by Tri-County Teacher’s Credit
Union to rezone the area at the corner of
MacArthur Street and University Drive.
The credit union wants to change the zon
ing from Duplex Residential to General
Commercial.
The council will vote on the request fol
lowing the public hearing.
Another public hearing will be held con
cerning the amending of a current zoning
ordinance to allow fraternity or sorority
houses in certain commercial and apart
ment zones as a conditional use.
Pre-registration
class lists ready
Fall pre-registration schedules are now
available in the registrar’s office in the
Coke building. Pre-registration for the fall
semester 1976, will begin at 8 a.m. on
Monday, April 26 and end at 5 p.m. April
30.
Only students that are currently en
rolled for the present spring semester will
be allowed to pre-register during this time.
Jeff Dunn, former Texas A&M student
government president; Jerri Ward, vice-
president of external affairs; and Robert •
Harvey, engineering senator, will present
a request for extended liquor hours in Col
lege Station to the council.
Dunn said the request is the result of a
student government poll in which more
than 80 per cent of those participating pre
ferred a longer curfew. The extension re
quested is Fridays and Saturdays until 2
a.m. The liquor ordinance currently has
the curfew at midnight on Fridays and 1
a.m. on Saturdays.
Citizen interest
to be explored
Town Meeting ’76, acitizen involvement
project for residents of Brazos County, will
be held April 24 at Bryan High School from
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The purpose of the meeting, according
to coordinator Claude Skinner, is to give
the citizens of the county a chance to dis
cuss and define problems in the area and
develop solutions to these problems. The
results of the day’s work will be presented
to the local governing bodies as a form of
mandate of the citizens, Skinner said.
A $1 registration fee will include lunch.
Child care will also be available. The
Bryan-College Station Jaycees have do
nated $600 to the project. Volunteers are
needed and are asked to call David Beal at
822-4518 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
T exan army fought
for independence
140 years ago
Associated Press
SAN JACINTO MONUMENT,
Tex. — It began with a song and a
cannon shot. And 140 years ago
today — in a sense — we all became
those strange critters called Texans.
The battle between Gen. Sam
Houston’s rag-tag army and Mexico’s
Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
has been characterized by some his
torians as one of the most decisive
ever fought in this hemisphere.
On this oak-studded savannah be
tween Houston and La Porte one
finds scant evidence of what hap
pened to make San Jacinto the cradle
of Texas independence.
Houston’s army of about 800 men
had retreated to this ground on the
San Jacinto River and waited for the
Mexican army. Santa Anna’s army of
some 1,600 men arrived — worn out
from their long march — and they at
once set out to take an afternoon
siesta.
Santa Anna never heard the Tex
ans’ four-man band play the then-
familiar strains of “Will You Come to
the Bower?” just before the first
shots were fired from two six-pound
cannons.
The Texans fired several salvos of
grape shot (scraps of chain, nails,
miniballs) at the sleeping Mexicans.
The yell — “Remember the Alamo”
then became their battle cry.
The fight lasted 18 minutes. Hous
ton lost a handful of men. Santa Anna
lost 630, plus another 208 captured.
Little did the men who rode or
walked away from this humid,
mosquito-infested site, know what
they had started.
The 570-foot monument which
now stakes this plain permits visitors
to the top of the dome to see — on a
clear day — metropolitan Houston.
Beneath its spire lie hundreds of
acres of chemical plants, refineries,
freeways, smog, a ship channel tied
to the sea, the nation’s space head
quarters, and the USS Texas berthed
some few hundred yards away.
Beyond the smog and haze — all
the way to El Paso, north to the Red
River, south to the Gulf— are some
12 million persons who call them
selves “Texans.”