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today in low 80s. Low tonight
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of the
News
Campus
THE SECOND INSTALL-
IENT board payment for the 1976
allsemester is due on or before Oct.
The amount due for the 7-Day
loard Plan is $143.05 arid $128 for
lif5-Day Board Plan. The install-
nent should be paid at the Fiscal
(fice, Richard Coke Building or the
ishier’s Office in the main lobby of
luckier Center.
THE FILM “Last Days of Man on
iirth" will be shown tonight at 8 and
0p.m. in Rudder Theater. It is
■l po ed by Cepheid Variable.
THE JUNIOR CLASS will have
Is second meeting of the year to-
ight in MSC 212 at 8 p.m.
POETRY AND PROSE readings
ly Janet McCann and Frank Peirce
rescheduled for tonight at 8 p.m. in
ludder Forum. The readings are
sponsored by the Arts Committee.
HOUSTON POST columnist
Jonald Morris will speak on the his-
»ry of Africa tonight at 8 p. m. in 224
ISC. The program is sponsored by
)e Black Awareness Committee.
VT.-W
IS
it
on
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Texas
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o(
THE HOBBY COMMISSION
las again by-passed the difficult job
fdeciding whether to recommend a
nerger of the three Texas water
igencies. It decided yesterday,
hough, to recommend passage of a
iunset law or constituitonal amend-
ent to limit the lives of state agen-
es. A sunset law or amendment
ould end automatically the life of
agency unless the legislature de-
ided to extend it.
MRS. JUNE MENDOZA, direc-
rof the federally and state funded
fnotty Pine Community Treatment
Center in Corpus Christi, was ar
rested Tuesday on a charge of pos
session of marijuana, causing at least
one state agency to take its clients
out of the drug rehabilitation center.
Drug Enforcement Administration
agents confiscated 26-1/2 pounds of
Mexican brown heroin in an Austin
motel room where Mrs. Mendoza
was staying. Other state agencies are
(flnsidering removal of their clients.
SEN. JOHN TOWER, R-Tex.,
has outlined a policy for the Texas
Shrimp Association to prevent a re
currence of an incident where Mexi
can shrimp boats seized in U. S.
waters were released without pen-
. The association's position is that
fines imposed on Mexican violators
should be equal to those levied
against American boats when seized
in Mexican waters.
A HOUSTON law firm has sub
mitted a bill for $393,945 for legal
services in handling the affairs of the
late billionaire Howard Hughes. The
bill outlines the accounting and tax
[services performed by 26 attorneys
in the firm since Hughes death April
THE FLIGHT RATES dispute
between Texas International and
Southwest Airlines continues as
Southwest’s President M. Lamar
Muse said earlier this week in Hous
ton that Texas International’s pricing
was a violation of the Civil Aeronau
tics Board. The rate war began when
Texas International announced new
fares for stand-by passengers rang
ing from $1 to $14 for flights from
Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport
to Houston’s downtown Hobby Air
port.
National
CONGRESS, seeking to wrap up
its business and go home for the
year, today decides whether to over
ride a presidential veto of a $56.6
billion appropriation bill for the de
partments of Health, Education and
Welfare and Labor. They will also
study the revenue-sharing package.
This will determine whether Con
gress meets its weekend deadline for
adjournment.
JOHN CONNALLY, former
Texas governor, arrives today in
Oklahoma to launch a three-city
campaign for Republican candi
dates. Connally will not only be
campaigning for President Ford, but
also for two Republican congres
sional nominees.
JOHN MACREADY, who in
1926, as an Army lieutenant, flew to
40,800 feet without exploding his
plane (which scientists had pre
dicted would happen), today was in
ducted into the International Aero
space Hall of Fame at San Diego.
J
Cbe Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 18 Thursday, September 30, 1976 ^ News 845-2611
8 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Battalion photo by Kevin Venner
Things are stacking up
The cables framing the smoke stack at the main campus’ power
plant, seem to be stabilizing the structure so the crane can move
it. Actually, the boom and cables are stationary because workers,
who are constructing additional power plant facilities, have gone
for the day. Work began again this morning though, and will con
tinue several more months.
Syrians push guerrillas
from Mt. Lebanon
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian troops and
tanks forced Palestinian guerrillas from a
20-square-mile salient east of Beirut today
in a major loss for the guerrillas and their
Lebanese leftist allies in Lebanon’s civil
war.
A guerilla communique conceded the
fall of all positions held by Palestinians and
Moslem leftist militia north of the vital
Beirut-Damascus highway.
Witnesses said only sporadic shots were
heard in the area as Syrian forces mopped
up in the pine woods on the slopes of
Mount Lebanon, a resort area 15 miles east
of the capital.
The two-day Syrian operation touched
off a new flurry of Arab mediation efforts to
arrange negotiations for an overall settle
ment of the sectarian conflict.
Arab League mediator Hassan Sabri
Kholi traveled to Damascus with an offer
from the guerrilla-leftist alliance to
negotiate an immediate ceasefire with the
Syrians and right-wing Lebanese Chris
tians.
Sources close to the Egyptian mediator
said he was empowered by the leftists to
offer a new formula to regulate the guerrilla
military presence in Lebanon.
Right-wing Christian commanders
vowed to carry the war into traditionally
Moslem territory unless the guerrillas turn
over their heavy arms and return to refugee
camps in Lebanon.
The Syrian mountain push has secured
the southern border of the 800-square mile
Christian enclave along the Beirut-
Damascus highway and extends a Syrian
buffer zone between Moslem- and
Christian-populated territory to within 10
miles of Beirut.
The Syrians are believed to be ready to
give the Palestinians a breathing spell now
so that they can ponder the original offer of
Syrian President Hafez Assad that Syria
should act as the sole guarantor of
guerrilla-Lebanese peaceful coexistence.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia, however, are
reported pressing for an urgent Arab sum
mit conference at the request of guerrilla
chief Yasir Arafat to work out a settlement
of Lebanon’s 17-month war.
There has been no dependable assess
ment of Syrian or guerrilla casualties dur
ing the two-day mountain battles.
U.S., Soviets trying
for new arms treaty
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS, N Y. — With
strategic arms limitation negotiations
stalled, the United States and the Soviet
Union have begun a new prdbe to see if
they can move toward a treaty by the end of
the year, according to high-level U.S. offi
cials.
The critical test of how well the two
superpowers may do, these officials say,
will he Friday’s meeting at the White
House between Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei A. Gromyko and President Ford.
The officials are skeptical of an imminent
break-through, but reporting late last night
on Gromyko’s dinner with Secretary of
State Henry A. Kissinger, they credited
the Soviets with genuine interest in mov
ing ahead.
Kissinger was scheduled to give a major
foreign policy address to the 31st U.N.
General Assembly meeting. It is expected
to include an accounting of his African dip
lomacy and the administration’s position on
curbing terrorism. West Germany has
called for the drafting of an international
convention to ban the taking of hostages
and to provide for the punishment of per
petrators.
We were wrong
Yesterday the Battalion incor
rectly stated that Wilbur Sennette is
the only black member of the Texas
Aggie Band.
‘Farming,’
not same.
‘agriculture’
scientist says
A major problem in applying agricultural
technology to underdeveloped nations is
the failure to see the difference in farming
and agriculture, said soil scientist Dr.
Charles Kellog to about 100 Texas A&M
students and faculty members in a Centen
nial speech in the Rudder complex Wed
nesday afternoon.
What people fail to see, said 76-year-old
Kellog, is that the man working in a
machine shop building a tractor is as much
a part of agriculture as a farmer.
Only the proper combinations of soils,
farming practices, marketing and storage
facilities will produce the food crops and
animal products needed to feed the world,
he added.
A good example of how technology can
fail is “the green revolution,” in which
break-throughs in plant breeding resulted
in high-yielding, fertilizer-responsive
grains. These new grains are good, said
Kellog, but other factors such as fertilizers,
water management and pest control must
be taken into account. The old varieties of
grains do just as well in parts of India and
other nations where these factors are not
taken into account, he added.
There is a key axiom here — interaction,
said Kellog. Great yields in crops rarely
result without interaction of all phases of
agriculture, he said.
Kellog said another reason technology
fails in underdeveloped nations is a lack of
understandings of the motivations and de
sires of the people of the nations.
Many cultures say the individual has a
right to own land, he said. But, if the indi
vidual cannot make a living off of the land,
he is entitled to the right of a job so he won’t
starve.
What is really needed are dedicated
specialists with knowledge of other fields,
said Kellog.
They must also have an understanding of
the religious and social organization of the
nation, he said. Most of all, they must find
out what the people want, he added.
Money would be a big help, too, Kellog
said. “We waste money on bombs and
buildings and all that stuff' to fight one
another, but I guess we can’t help it,” he
said. But Kellog chuckled and added, “I
vyouldn’t want to live in this country if
everyone else had all the bombs.”
— Mike Barnett
driver fatigue, stress
Tests show
Texas A&M University safety re
searchers have discovered that drivers in
contemporary autos are most comfortable
when cruising at about 70 miles per hour.
Dr. Ron Morris of Texas A&M’s Texas
Transportation Institute revealed details of
the study in a presentation at the 14th An
nual Symposium of the SAFE Association,
an organization of safety and survival
equipment, researchers, manufacturers
and users.
He and graduate student Charles H.
Berry formulated the test with the coopera
tion of the Texas Department of Public
Safety. The tests, to find the drivers’ most
comfortable speeds, were done on I.H. 30
near Texarkana in marked vehicles.
“The experiment clearly demonstrates
that the average comfortable speed is well
above the existing maximum speed limit of
55 m.p.h.,” Morris told participants. “Al
though, one should remember it is a very
limited study.”
The tests were done on an isolated por
tion of highway on clear, dry and sunny
days by 18 student volunteers. They used a
1973 Datsun 240Z, a 1973 Ford Torino sta
tion wagon, and a 1973 GMC sports van,
selected to represent the range of commer
cially available passenger vehicles.
In each auto the speedometer was cov
ered, with devices in the rear to record
actual speeds. The drivers were told no
thing about the actual purpose of the test
except to reach a comfortable speed and
drive the specified route.
“We disguised the experiment and even
went so far as to have an observer taking
“notes” of the driver, which had nothing to
do with the tests,” Morris explained.
“We expected the speed to increase
steadily but found instead that the drivers
went immediately to a constant speed in
about three miles and stayed there varying
only about three m.p.h.,” he added. “The
analysis of our data resulted in overall mean
comfortable speed of 69.4 m.p.h. with a
standard deviation of 4.425 m.p.h.,’’ he
said. “From this, it is reasonable to con
clude that the probability that the entire
population’s comfortable speed is 55
m.p.h. is essentially zero.”
Morris said this would also indicate that
people drive faster than they should, not
because they can’t estimate speed but
rather because they were uncomfortable at
the previous speed.
“We felt that a driver, in trying to stay
within the speed limit, would continually
be required to adjust his speed and keep an
eye on the speedometer,” he explained.
“The net effect of this mismatch would he
increased control effort by the driver and
consequently increased fatigue. Any re
laxation in the vigilance of the driver will
result in a return to the comfortable
speed.”
The experiment showed comfortable
speeds for each vehicle as 66 m.p.h. for the
station wagon, 70 m.p.h. for the sports car
and 77 m.p.h. for the van. They were all
tuned, aligned and equipped to factory
specifications.
“The comfortable speed demonstrates
that if the present speed limit of 55 m.p.h.
is to be continued, further research is
needed in areas of vehicle and roadway
design to establish more acceptable rela
tions between vehicle characteristics and
legal speed limits,” Morris added.
“If the difference between comfortable
speed and legal speed is large, the driver is
placed in a stressful and fatiguing situa
tion,” he pointed out. “This additional
stress can lead to exposure to greater acci
dent hazards. Further, the constant throt
tle correction will result in poor engine
performance and efficiency.
Computer firms cited in wiretaps
Associated Press
WASHINGTON—Private computer
companies seeking fat government con
tracts and federal employes who were sup
posed to investigate fraud in the Medicaid
program allededly were involved in
wiretaps, conflicts of interest and influence
peddling, according to testimony before a
Senate panel.
Employes from the Medicaid anti-fraud
unit at the Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare were to appear today be
fore the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations to address the charges.
After testimony yesterday that an HEW
employe had taken payments and services
worth nearly $10,000 from a consulting
firm and a computer company, HEW said
the employe had been transferred from the
anti-fraud unit pending a criminal investi
gation of “possible irregularities.”
Presidents of the two firms involved said
By JO SHANKLES
While Texas produces one-third of the
total energy of the U. S., cities such as Aus
tin are paying the 2nd highest electric
prices in the country, Texas Representa
tive John Wilson said.
In a speech given yesterday to a group in
the Memorial Student Center Ballroom,
Wilson discussed- such problems as the
need for tax reform and high energy costs in
the state.
The title of the speech, “The Public vs.
Utilities”, Wilson said, was phrased wrong.
\Ve all have an interest in good service at a
reasonable cost, he said. “But,” he added,
“I think utilities have interest in that just as
much as we do and deserve a reasonable
rate of return.” (The rate of return is the
amount based on the company’s capital in
vestments.)
Wilson recognized the need for tax re
form in Texas. Residents of New York pay
four cents for 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas
from Texas, he said, whereas residents of
Texas pay 15 cents for 1,000 cubic feet of
the gas. “It’s ridiculous to penalize the
people of this state in our tax structure for
the severance of our own natural re
sources,” he said. “We must have some tax
reform for oil and gas taxes,” he added.
The rate of sales tax on public utilities,
Wilson continued, is four cents for state
and one cent for city sales tax. The sales tax
from utilities for the last biennium was $80
million, he said, and $200 million for this
biennium. “Governor Briscoe can get up
there and crow all day long if he wants to
about no new taxes, but he’ll have to ex
plain to me where that $120 million came
from on utility tax,” Wilson said. The $120
million was a new tax revenue, he ex
plained, and places a burden on those least
able to afford it; especially those with fixed
incomes.
“We need tax reform; were going to
have to come around in the Legislature. I
they paid thousands of dollars to Charles
Cubbler, a $32,231-a-year HEW employe,
writing checks to “D.C. Chambless,”
which is Cubbler’s wife’s maiden name.
When Cubbler learned that Senate in-
Medicare policy
Associated Press
WASHINGTON—Social Security offi
cials are scheduled to announce whether
there will be any change in the charge that
Medicare beneficiaries have to pay out of
their own pockets for the first day of hos
pitalization.
The announcement of the possible
change for the 25 million persons now eli
gible for Medicare benefits was scheduled
for today.
The Social Security Administration is
required to follow a federal formula each
year in determining the future cost of the
don’t care if we have new taxes or not,”
Wilson said. “I want the tax burden to be
placed where it properly belongs and
equalized, he continued. Wilson said the
tax structure has to be revised so that it
does not penalize those persons who are
forced to pay the highest prices and who
are also the least able to pay.
As for high energy costs, Wilson said a lot
of things can be done in Texas to lessen the
costs without regulation of prices.
“We have an abundant supply of energy
at a price. We don’t have an income tax —
our tax system has benefited those who use
it,” Wilson said. Hopefully, he said, with
the passage of the new utility regulations
bill, there is some happy medium that can
be reached between the consumer and the
utility company. The Utility Commission
isn’t going to bring cheaper utilities; it
should bring a higher grade of service for a
fair price, if, he qualified, the consumer
takes an active part in the proceedings.
“If you’re apathetic and don’t use the law
then you’re not going to reap much benefit
from it,” Wilson said. “It requires the par
ticipation of both utility and citizen repre
sentatives,” he added.
Until two years ago Texas was the only
state without a public utility commission or
a state regulatory body. Texas had only
municipal regulations of utilities, and rural
areas were totally unregulated, Wilson
said.
As of Aug. 31, 1976, the Texas State
Regulative Body came into being, after the
regulatory system of the previous two years
proved to be ineffective, Wilson said.
Records for that time show utilities in
Texas made a higher rate of return on in
vested capital than any other state in the
union, he said. Wilson said he felt the rate
of return should have been set according to
an average of the 50 states. He also said that
profit motivation accounted for utilities
making the high rate.
vestigators were checking the transactions,
the two executives testified, he asked them
to destroy copies of checks written to the
Chambless name and to forge new expense
account vouchers with his name omitted.
may change
program to recipients, with any increase in
charges to recipients beginning the next
Jan. 1.
A year ago the government raised the
cost to Medicare recipients almost 13 per
cent, from $92 to $104 for the first day’s stay
in a hospital. For the past year, the $104
figure has been considered to be the equiv
alent of one day’s hospital charge.
Under the formua, after the recipient
pays the first $104 of his hospital bill. Med
icare picks up the rest of the tab through
the 60th day. Beyond 60 days, the recipient
is required to pay more.
speech
Texas Rep John Wilson
Wilson is primarily responsible for the
strong utility regulations bill being passed
in the House of Representatives. “The
agency is late in coming,” he said, “and it’s
not perfect.” He said he didn t know how it
would work out in the long run.
Wilson said he wasn’t an expert on
utilities when he entered the Legislature
and had no specific philosophy about the
matter. He said he luckily got on commit
tees that dealt with the problem and was
able to hear public omplaints on it.'
A rancher and businessman from La-
Grange, Tex. in his 3rd term in the House,
Wilson is known for his fights against large
concentrations of economic power, such as
bankholding companies, road builders,
and utility companies.
His philosophy about utilities for the
public is now, “Expect the best, prepare
for the worst, take what comes.”
Energy issue tops