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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1977)
I Page 2 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1977 Viewpoint The Battalion April 28, 1977 Texas A&M University Thursday Save water. Share baths By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — The pioneering spirit in this country is not dead, just dor mant. When adversity strikes, the traits of perseverance and sacrifice that carried American frontiersmen over rocks and rills and an occasional templed hill still come to the surface. Evidence of the way our hardy heritage lives on may be seen now in the Pacific Northwest where a severe drought is test ing the mettle of the citizenry. It was reported the other day that Ore gon Gov. Bob Straub and his wife Pat were setting an example of indomitability by using the same bathwater. That’s the sort of coping with hardship that has made this country great. “Double-dipping,” as the sharing of bath water is called, requires real fort itude. Particularly if one person bathes in the morning and the other at night. Or if one bathes on Tuesday and the other on Thursday. Bear in mind that the Straubs are saving not only the water it takes to fill the tub a second time but also the energy it takes to heat the water. Thus their exercise in con servation has relevance for the entire country, including areas that are waterlogged. It has not been revealed in the Presi dent’s energy program whether he will make double-dipping an instrument of na tional policy. But with summer coming on, that would be one sure way to get re sults. In the summertime, second hand bath water saves energy two ways. First you save the energy that would be used heating fresh water. Then you save the energy that would be needed to cool off the house as a consequence of the second bath. According to an environmental magazine, a tub of good hot bath water produces 10,000 BTUs of heat, which is enough to keep a well-insulated three bedroom house warm for one hour when the outside temperature is 10 degrees above zero. In the winter, that’s good, for it takes some of the load off the furnace. But in summer, it’s bad for it adds to the drain on the air conditioner. There used to be, and may still be, a rock group called “Three Dog Night” that took its name from the old custom of using canine body heat to warm the bed in winter. Nights that required sleeping with a trio of hounds were deemed about the ulti mate in severity. In that tradition, the Carter administra tion might wish to devise a similar scale for summer bathing. An evening with a high degree of balm iness would be designed as a “Two Ring Night” — meaning it was hot enough to make sharing the bath water environmentally prudent. Or you could just forget the whole thing and take a cold shower. Editorial Countdown By JAMIE AITKEN Battalion Editor It will be very interesting to watch this country and its people’s attitude as the next few years unfold. It is becoming clear that regardless of any alleged stockpiling of oil reserves by the petrol moguls the day is coming quickly when even big bucks won’t fill the tank. Raising the cost of a visit to the neighborhood gas station is bound to be come nothing more than an annoyance to the American who has grown up with the internal combustion engine. Like the apathy associated with get-out-the-vote drives, individuals will rationalize, “what can I do as one out of over 200 million?” With businesses refusing alternatives for fear of losing a dollar and three-car families going their daily ways in ones and twos, it is apparent there is little the government can do short of establishing marshal law or wait ing for the pumps to go dry to get the people’s attention. It will be a bitter and fearful day if either action results. I hear, “we’ll pull it out somehow.” But the fact is, we’ve built our entire civilization on a barrel of oil. The time and sacrifice to rebuild are great, but inevitable. The sobering question is can we pull out that pioneer spirit in time to solve the crisis before it becomes a catastrophe? Commentary Carter, O’Neill formidable pair By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — They are definitely the odd couple. One is the bluff, profane, street-smart operator whose girth and vis age make him almost a caricature of the big-city pol. The other is the prim “out sider” with the quiet voice and the adver tised aversion to back-room politics. And yet if there is any hope for a na tional energy program being passed by this Congress — and there is — it lies in the political alliance between the old pol. House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill of Massachusetts, and the prim new Presi dent, Jimmy Carter. Two months ago, no one would have given a plugged nickel for the chances of there being such an alliance. The two men viewed each other across a vast gulf of cul tural and political differences — and with great suspicion. When the newly declared candidate from Georgia informed O’Neill on Jan. 10, 1975, that he would be the next President of the United States, O’Neill had no trou ble containing his enthusiasm at the good news. A Kennedy man to the core (he holds JFK’s old House seat), and an old-fashioned meat-and-potatoes Demo crat, he instinctively supported Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.) and Udall’s con ventional liberalism over Carter and his managerial-moralism. Even after the election, there seemed almost no communication between the in coming Speaker — a product of the hard ball politics of the Massachusetts Legisla ture and the House — and the President elect. At one meeting, O’Neill offered Carter a friendly suggestion that “you keep your left hand high” when dealing with a certain sneak-punch legislator. To his surprise, he had to explain to Carter what the expression meant. Carter, for his part, seemed almost to go out of his way to disconcert O’Neill. The first two Massachusetts appointments in the new administration went to a card- carrying Republican and a recent convert from the GOP. The first choice — quickly abandoned — as Carter’s hostess at the Clinton, Mass., town meeting was a woman who had apposed the Speaker’s son in a Demo cratic primary. But after the rocky start, the two men have begun to understand each other. Some at the White House credit a private luncheon with Carter, O’Neill and their wives for improving the climate. More plausibly, O’Neill, who learned to spot a lot of phony intellectualism from some of his Cambridge constituents, came to understand that, in Carter, he had a Presi dent with genuine “smarts.” And Carter learned that O’Neill was a man who could deliver what he promised. The Speaker made — and kept — his commitments on congressional reform. O’NEILL the economic stimulus package and gov ernment reorganization. Carter was im pressed. “Today,” says one White House aide, “I think O’Neill has more influence here — whether supporting or opposing some thing — than anyone else in Congress.” As evidence, he cites the fact that when O’Neill gave the President a list of House members he wanted briefed on the energy program, James Schlesinger contacted every one of them personally. While Carter was dominating the news last week, O’Neill was moving quietly to accomplish something that may ultimately be more important than Carter’s rhetoric in getting an energy program passed. The Speaker created an ad' hoc energy committee in the House to ride herd on the complex legislation Carter has submit ted. It is a measure of O’Neill’s power that two years ago, when Speaker Carl Albert tried a similar move, he was blocked by the opposition of the chairmen of the standing committees which shared the energy jurisdiction. Their feuding caused the Democratic energy program to col lapse. This year, the Hous unanimously approved O’Neill’s ad hoc energy commit tee. The pieces of the energy program will be written in the standing committees. But the ad hoc committee will handle it on the floor and represent the House in con ference with the Senate — which really means O’Neill will be in control all the way. According to House Democratic Whip John Brademas of Indiana, O’Neill said “no” to more than 100 aspirants for the 25 Democratic seats on the new energy committee. He waited until House Minority Leader John J. Rhodes of Arizona had named the 12 Republican members, then picked Democrats who would give him “at least a 19-18 vote on everything that counts,” Brademas said. As chairman of the committee, O’Neill named Rep. Thomas L. (Lud) Ashley of Ohio. He is as feisty and combative a character as there is in the House, and a man whose earthiness makes even O’Neill seem prim. Ashley kept urging O’Neill to put the tough antagonists — the screaming liberal critics of big oil and the smartest spokes men for the energy and auto industries — on his panel, “so I can meet ’em in com mittee, rather than having them ambush me on the floor.” For the most part, O’Neill agreed. Tip O’Neill and Lud Ashley are more natural companions for Billy Carter than for brother Jimmy. But Jimmy Carter can probably count himself lucky he has them as allies in this fight. (C) 1977, The Washington Post Slouch by Jim Earle “A GUY WORKS AND PRACTICES ALL YEAR, AND SOME PROFESSOR WANTS HIM TO GIVE UP TH’ FRISREE FOR FINAL EXAMINATIONS! I MAY NEVER REGAIN MY CHAMPIONSHIP FORM!” Rights need clear definition Editor: I am writing in reference to Mr. Williamson’s piece in Tuesday’s Readers’ Forum. In it, I, as an American citizen, was called ignorant, apathetic and lethar gic. This image did not sit well with me, and I decided to disprove it by sending in something myself. Without making any vitriolic and hys terical harangues against Mr. Williamson, I would like to remind him of the actual situation. A gay organization has applied for recognition, it would gain a few minor privileges such as use of University meet ing rooms, use of display facilities, and perhaps the allocation of some funds. These are privileges, not fundamental rights. The University exercised its pre rogative and refused the gays recognition. The gays then filed suit to gain recognition. The gays on this campus, whoever they may be, have been denied certain privileges. They have not been denied the right to peacefully associate with one another, nor have they been denied the right to express their group’s views. I venture to say that they are probably not the only group which has been denied recognition by the University. Will we allow Mr. Williamson to redefine “non recognition” as “repression” for us? Mr. Williamson writes of the “tyranny of the majority over the minority,” and of totalitarian regimes. I would like to ask, what would be the result if any small or ganization could gain its ends just by going to court, regardless of the views of the much larger number of people those ends would affect? What about the rights of the many at this university who, as is their unalienable right, may want nothing to do with homosexuals and do not want to wind up paying, through allocated funds, for a gay group’s activities? What about the all- too-familiar form of tyranny, that of the minority over the majority? Yes, we should indeed fight, for Liberty and Free dom for ALL. — Clayton F. Jones ’79 Readers’ Forum Guest viewpoints, in addi tion to Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces sub mitted to Readers’ forum should be: • Typed triple space • Limited to 60 characters per line • Limited to 100 lines Top of the News Campus Student Government positions open Applications for University Committees and Student Govern ment Executive Committee chairmen and membership will be accepted through Monday, May 2. Applications may be picked up at the Student Government office, room 216, Memorial Student Cen ter. Student Government Executive Committees include the fol lowing: Blood Drive, Election Commission, Refrigerator Manager, Campus Chest, Aggie Muster, Parent’s Day, and Fair Housing Commission. A complete list of University Committees will be available in the Student Government office. Interviews will be held Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (May 2, 3, 4) of next week. Texas Stockholders to expect recovery Although Union Carbide Corp. Board Chairman William S. Sneath says he is concerned with portions of President Carter’s domestic policy, he told stockholders he expects a strong recovery in the second and third quarters of 1977. Union Carbide yesterday reported first quarter net income of $81.5 million, 20 per cent less than the $101.5 million earned in the first quarter of 1976. The reduced income occurred despite the fact that sales during the first quarter were a record $1.68 billion, 11 per cent above the $1.51 billion reported in the corresponding quarter of 1976. Earning per dollar of sales declined to 4.8 cents, compared with 6.7 cents in the first quarter of last year. Prisoners may return soon The hundreds of Americans now being held in Mexican jails may be returning home by Sept. 1, according to Texas Attorney General John Hill, who recently returned from lobbying in Wash ington. Hill said yesterday most of the 604 Americans in Mexican jails would be eligible for immediate parole under U.S. law. He said influencial lawmakers have agreed to work for congressional ap proval of the U.S.-Mexico Prisoner Exchange Treaty. The agree ment would allow the American prisoners, most of whom are in jail on drug charges, to finish serving their sentences in the United States. The aqreement was approved by the Mexican congress last year. Hill said 136 Texans and 222 Californians were jailed in Mexico and that 75 Mexicans were behind bars in the Texas state penitentiary. National Nixon interviews begin May 4 Richard Nixon’s interviews with David Frost will start off with a 90-minute dis cussion on Watergate, the scandal that made Nixon the first American president forced to resign from office. The shows will end with a discussion of the former president’s final days as chief executive. The first of four interviews will be broad cast May 4, a spokesman for Frost said Tuesday. In the telecasts, Nixon talks “much more openly and personally than he is noted for, ” Frost has said. Following at weekly intervals will be “Nixon and the World,” “War at Home and Abroad” and “Nixon’s Final Days.” Nixon reportedly received $600,000 for the tapings from Syndicast, a consortium organized by Frost. Solar power may be developed A mammoth solar power plant satellite could be assembled in space to beam energy back to earth by the start of the 21st century, an aerospace engineer told the 14th Space Congress yesterday in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Aerospace Engineer Dr. Roger Johnson told the congress energy would be beamed to receiving antennas on earth by microwave at a price competitive with other energy sources. He said it would cost approximately $15 billion to $20 billion to develop a solar power plant by the late 1990s. He said such a solar plant probably could power a “reasonably sized city” in the year 2025. Such a plant, he said, might be five to seven miles square and weigh 75,000 tons. Eastern forest improvement urged Land “nobody wanted”—the 50 eastern U.S. national forest- should be expanded and restored as natural environments for urba nites, recommended the nonprofit Conservation Foundation in a statement today. Unlike western forests which show as bold blocks on the map, eastern forests are a splattering of small holdings in terspersed with private property. They cover 24 million acres in 23 states, and are within one day’s drive of 174 million Americans. The new report recommends the federal government acquire and re store abandoned stripmined land in and near the eastern forests. FBI indictments criticized by Bell Attorney General Griffin Bell thinks FBI officials should be prosecuted for il legal snooping in the pre-Watergate era but, he said yesterday, it is “a shame” that agents who are charged as a result must pay their own legal expenses. Testifying in support of his $2.3 billion 1978 budget, Bell said FBI Director Clarence Kelley had persuaded him to meet Monday with two groups of FBI agents who told him the recent indictment of a former agent had seriously hurt morale. “They told me that we had imposed a post-Watergate standard for a pre-Watergate activity, ” Bell said. “They thought that what they were doing was in the best interest of their country. ” World Runaway well to be capped Oil disaster experts battling a runaway well in the North Sea say they have completed the first stages of repair work and are optimis tic the 120-foot-high gusher may be capped today. “Practically all the preliminary work has been implemented and we can get on with the capping now, ” said Robert Archimbeault, engineering manager for Phillips Petroleum at a news conference last night. Three more pieces of equipment—already assembled and weighing nearly four tons—need to be put in place “and we will be in a position to close,” he said. With luck, the 28,000 barrels of oil spilling into the sea daily could be choked off this morning, Archimbeault said. NIXON