Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1977)
The Battalion Vol. 70 No. 125 Monday, June 13, 1977 News Dept. 845-2611 8 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611 The Battalion is now taking appli cations for staff photographers and reporters. Applicants for the photography position should have their own basic- photo equipment and should be able to work on a daily or weekly assignment basis. Interested students should apply in the Student Publications Office, Room 216, Reed McDonald Bldg. Mty. Gen. Hill stresses nergy proposals in speech resident Jimmy Carter’s energy pro- 1s are basically unfair to Texans, Atty. i. John Hill said last week, larter’s proposals were one of many cs Hill answered questions on follow- his Law Day address in the Rudder him. His appearance was sponsored by as A&M University’s Political Forum ooperation with the Brazos County Bar aciation. "lam extremely disappointed with sev- aspects of the so-called Carter energy wsals. I am particularly distressed by advocacy of mandatory controls over ation of intra-state gas,” Hill said, ill said that the administration should that last winter Texas cooperated intarily in moving oil to sister states. needs friends in politics and people ither states need a better understand- ofwhat Texas has done to help out in viding energy for this nation and the Id, he said. If I’m not able to convince by logic and ion, the administration to adopt a more derate and advisable course I will lertake to stop it,” Hill said, nother aspect Hill did not like about proposals was the proposal to place controls on the intra-state gas market. This measure would be self-defeating from the consumer standpoint, he said. The free market in pricing must be trusted, he said, because when it is not trusted the con sumers are hurt. There is no reason for placing an eight dollar tax on old oil, Hill continued. Con sumers would be paying that over the $5.25 they pay now, he said. Most of the money will be sent to Washington, Hill said, with Texas receiving only a small part of it. Hill also answered questions about charges against Judge Donald Yar borough, the recent Anita Bryant con troversy, legalizing marijuana, and the Howard Hughes will. “There is pending at this time, a dis barment proceeding against Judge Yar borough, he said. “The charges against the judge, if true, are severe. If they are true And if true, they would certainly be grounds for his removal from the bench. If he were dis barred I would undertake to remove him immediately.” The controversy surrounding Anita Bryant should not have any effect on her {ill still non-candidate or Texas governor By LEE ROY LESCHPER JR. Battalion Editor |nan age of anti-heroes and non-events, as Atty. Gen. John Hill is getting a lot ittention as an unannounced candidate governor. lill has criss-crossed the state for some raths making public appearances and minding voters he hasn’t decided pther he’ll run for the top state post nst incumbent Governor Dolph Bris- he governor announced Saturday he seek re-election. |ut in his public comments Hill has vinced all but the most skeptical that will be running against Briscoe in vember 1978. lill’s local press conference last week is ise in point. rVhen Hill first said that he would not lounce his decision to run for governor il later, he said he did not want to add a rmy governor’s race to the chaos in the te legislature, which was then in regu- session. He has now said he won’t an- mce any decision until after the legisla- e special session on financing state icaton expected this July. But the local news media representa- es at the conference concentrated on it potential race. I want to expose my views to as many ople as possible,” Hill said, answering e question about his unannounced cam- ign. “I want to touch base with my sup- rters.” It’s “always possible” that unfavorable spouse from voters could discourage a from the race, he said. But he left Je doubt he doesn’t expect that to hap- “I have traveled a great deal the last couple of months and all of the response that I’m receiving is fextremely encourag ing,” he said. He admitted that he’s concerned now with organizing support and raising funds, but said he’s “always been reasonably suc cessful” in those areas. The attorney general couldn’t pass up one or two opportunities to criticize Bris coe’s performance in recent months. He said that had he been governor he would have put more emphasis on the state education bill which failed when the legislature ran out of time during the regu lar session. The education bill should have received at least equal billing with the state highway bill which passed under Briscoe’s encouragement, he said. He also criticized Briscoe’s response to President Jimmy Carter’s energy conser vation program. But Hill agreed that pro gram could hurt Texas as an energy- producing state. Briscoe earlier this year said he might consider cutting off natural gas to other states if the Carter plan was implemented. “I think we have to have strong opposi tion, but not just empty rhetoric, and not just emotionalism,” Hill said. But Hill emphasized that he “has been working hard at being Attorney General. ” He listed a schedule that includes pushing for an early trial date in the Howard Hughes will, tomorrow arguing in an ap peals court against televised executions in Texas and Wednesday, giving supporting testimony before a congressional commit tee considering the prisoner exchange treaty with Mexico. right to entertain as a professional per former, Hill said. The State Bar of Texas recently invited Bryant to perform al though she is currently involved in a dis pute about the rights of homosexuals. People have their own personal feelings about this issue. Hill said. He proposes no change in present laws, he added. Marijuana laws are ridiculous if the pub lic does not support them’ Hill said. He is not encouraging people to use marijuana he explained, but he would not encourage the use of alcohol either. Hill said he will testify Wednesday in Washington, D.C., for ratification of the Prisoner Exchange Treaty between the United States and Mexico. This treaty would assist American prisoners in Mexico who have payed the price of their crime. He is working for a drug-free society, he said. Pie does not expect laws to go further toward legalization of marijuana at this time, he added. Hill said his main ob jective is to dry up the heroin traffic, which is a much more severe problem. The money spent in court proceedings over Howard Hughes’ will may well be the finest money Texas has ever spent, Hill said. “We are building up a fine case for this good old Texas boy,” he said. In his brief opening address Hill called America a great experiment to preserve freedom and order. The success of the ex periment depends on the degree of dedi cation to its success that individual Ameri cans have, he said. If justice is not produced in every case it is not the fault of the system, but of faulty minds and indifferent hearts, he said. Hill said America, even with its imperfections, offers more freedom and justice and op portunity for all people than any other sys tem of government ever devised. Battalion photos by Steve Goble Left, Attorney General John Hill. Right, Hill is greeted by local officials at Easterwood Airport Wednesday. James E. Ray after 54-hour caught manhunt United Press International PETROS, Tenn. —James Earl Ray, the confessed assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was captured early today by a bloodhound-led posse in the rugged Cumberland Mountain country where he eluded authorities for 54 hours as Ameri ca’s most wanted fugitive. Ray, muddied and exhausted by his bid for freedom from a 99-year jail term, was arrested within 10 miles of the fortress like Brushy Mountain State Prison. He and five other men escaped Friday night while fellow-inmates distracted guards with a faked fight and other incidents. Stevens builds case against obscenity law United Press International WASHINGTON — Justice John Paul Stevens is steadily stepping up his cam paign to steer the Supreme Court away from what he considers an unwise and unworkable approach to obscenity. During the court term, now ending, he has written three opinions sharply dissent ing with the majority’s continuance of the “community standards” test for determin ing what is obscene and what is not. Since the 1950’s, the court has been try ing to develop an obscenity standard that would allow prosecution of pornography peddlers, while avoiding conflict with the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment. The result so far: more and more cases, more and more headaches for the justices. Stevens says this approach will not work because one person’s obscenity may be another one’s art. Or, drawing on an opin ion from a bygone era: “A nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place — like a pig in the parlor instead of the barn yard.” He believes hard-core pornography should be controlled through civil laws regulating the place and type of distribu tion, rather than by sending booksellers and movie house operators to jail. Stevens, 57, has moved more and more in this direction since coming on the court in December, 1975, as Gerald Ford’s re placement for the ailing William O. Doug las. The former federal appeals court judge from Chicago needs to win over just one member — possible Justice Lewis Powell — to break the court away from criminal obscenity guidelines in effect since 1973 and in earlier forms since 1957. Already, Justices William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and Potter Stewart routinely dissent from most decisions in this area. They and Stevens generally are lined up against Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Powell, Byron White, Harry Blackmun and William Rehnquist. Stevens said in an opinion last month, “In my judgement, the line between communications which offend’ and those which do not is too blurred to identify criminal conduct. It is also too blurred to delimit the protections of the First Amendment. “In the end, I believe we must rely on the capacity of the free marketplace of ideas to distinguish that which is useful or beautiful from that which is ugly or worth less.” The 1973 standards mean local juries can convict under state obscenity laws if they find the “average person, applying contemporary community standards” would consider the material patently of fensive and lacking serious literary, artis tic, political or scientific value. The court also said in 1973 that no one would be prosecuted unless the suspect material was specifically defined in state law. But on June 9, the majority upheld the conviction of an Illinois man for selling sado-masochistic material, although this was not on the state’s forbidden list. Stevens said the court went back on its promise. But he saw the decision as weakening the court’s rigid position, and therefore as a promising development. Ray surrendered without a struggle near a gold mining camp called Coyote. Two of his companions remained at large today, but authorities canceled plans to call Tennessee National Guard units into the search and were confident they would have the remaining men in custody before the day was out. Ray, 49, damp hair smeared across his face, was clad in a muddy sweatshirt and pants and was hiding beneath a pile of leaves when two of the prison’s bloodhounds — “Sandy” and “Little Red” — sniffed him out. “James, are you all right?” asked Sammy Joe Chapman, a member of the posse. Ray said nothing for a minute, then re plied, “Yes, I’m all right.” He surrendered without a struggle at 2 a. m. EDT. An FBI spokesman in Washington said Ray was “in good condition, except tired. ” Warden Stonney Lane said Ray had tried to cover himself with leaves but could not escape the bloodhounds, who picked up his fresh trail three hours earlier when three men fled as prison guards ap proached them. Ray’s Brushy Mountain cellmate, con victed murderer Earl Hill Jr., 34, was among the three. He was captured almost immediately, but it was another three hours before Ray was trapped. “Gentlemen, we have Mr. Ray in cus tody,” prison spokesman Jim Henderson announced over a police radio at 2:35 a m. EDT. A blue and white state Corrections Department car wheeled through the prison gates with Ray in the back seat just a few minutes later. “We are extremely pleased at the cap ture of James Earl Ray, Gov. Ray Blanton said in a statement read to newsmen by prison officials. “This concludes one of the largest manhunts in the history of Tennes see.” Within hours of the escape, Ray was put at the top of the FBI’s list of “most wanted” fugitives, a position he held while leading police agencies on a two-continent chase in the weeks following the April 4, 1968, assassination of King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. The breakout was the first successful over-the-wall escape in the history of Brushy Mountain. Lane said Ray was captured “about 500 yards from where we picked up Hill.” He said, “They (the bloodhounds) ran him hard for three hours” after Hill was found. Lane said authorities believed they were closing in on the third man in the group, convicted murderer Douglas Shel ton, 32. Douglas Ray Caylor, 24, serving 51 years for armed robbery and assault with intent to murder, was also still free. Caylor, authorities said, apparently sepa rated from the other prisoners after the break and went off in another direction. Newsmen were unable to talk to Ray when he returned to the prison. “He doesn’t want any pictures taken and he doesn’t have anything to say,” a state trooper said. Ray was handcuffed and his head shifted from side to side as he was escorted along a 30-foot long sidewalk at the prison. He said nothing. Lane told how the dogs tracked him down. “We picked him up at an old gold min ing camp called Coyote,” Lane said. “When the dogs picked up the scent, we did not know it was James Earl Ray. The dogs picked up the scent to the river and down the west bank about 500 yards. “There,” Lane said, “he turned and went into a wooded area, crossed a log road, went back into a wooded area, came out on a power line, then came back out into another wooded area, a cleared woody area. “When they hit the log road, they hit a hot track.” 6 Adult’ magazines could disappear from stores Rezoning of land granted by College Station Council Battalion photo by Steve Goble Dry Summer Days Groundsman Johnny Novosad applies a spray of water to part of a garden bed which is missed by the regular, built-in sprinkler system because of winds. Watering of the grounds at Texas A&M has been more frequent because there has been less natural rainfall. A step towards the construction of an 18-20 story apartment complex was taken by the College Station City Council last Thursday night. Alex Munzel, a Canadian architect and builder, was granted a rezoning of the land from residential to commercial property. The move allowed Munzel Holdings, Inc. to purchase the land along with adjoining property to build the complex by zoning the tract the same as the land. The more than 100 acres of land to be used for the construction is located on the south side of Harvey Road near the inter section of Harvey and Texas Avenue. Munzel told the council he plans to build five 18-20 story towers. The apart ments would offer short-term leases to its tenants, appealing to Texas A&M Univer sity students. Munzel told the council he needed an immediate ruling because he needed to close the deal the next day. Councilman Jim Dozier said Munzel was pressuring the council. He voted against the rezoning because he said he is tired of “having a gun put to my head.” Other councilmen said they doubted the project would ever come about, but that an island of residential zoned land should not be left in a commercial sur rounding. In other action, the council decided to allow the city’s comprehensive plan to show a connection between Kyle Street and Dominik Street other than Puryear. The plan will also show FM 2818 extend ing across Texas Avenue to the east by pass. There are no defenite plans for doing either. No one showed up for the public hear ing on the city’s proposed budget for 1977-78. A second hearing will be held June 23. The council also accepted a bid of $66,234 for sidewalk construction by Kavanaugh Contruction Co. ! weather , partly cloudy and warm with a chanca of showers and thun derstorms today and tomorrow. High today in the upper 80s, low tonight In the low 70s. Southeas terly winds at 5-10 mph. 30 per cent chance of precipitation through to morrow. iitriw By RUSTY CAWLEY Battalion Staff Playboy, Hustler, Oui and other adult magazines may disappear from magazine racks of College Station businesses in the next week. Or they may not, if they can be de fended as having serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors. The College Station City Council made it illegal last Thursday to sell pornographic materials to minors and to display the ma terials where minors can see them. The council orginally intended for the law to force grocery store owners to hide the covers of adult magazines with a paper wrapping that would show only the flag. But no such provision was written into the ordinance passed last week. The ordinance, as drawn up by City At torney Neeley Lewis, defines a minor as anyone younger than 17. It also defines “harmful material” in detail. “Harmful material”, according to the new law, depicts, describes or represents sexual conduct, sexual organs and private parts or torture. It must be found to be offensive to the adult standards of the community as to what minors should see and what they shouldn’t. Finally, the material must lack serious intent, whether it be literary, artistic, political or scientific, for minors. This last phrase is important, Lewis told the coun cil, because it allows for material such as textbooks on human sexuality. Phil Sutton, Texas A&M University’s student body vice president for external affairs and a non-voting member of the council, asked Lewis if a magazine such as Playboy could be taken as having serious intent. Lewis replied that such a decision would have to be made in court. He warned the council the law should be taken to court only on flagrant violations. The penalty is a $200 or less fine. Lewis admitted the wording of the law is loose, but said it conforms to the ac cepted legal standards for such a law. Work on the law began in April after Mary Bassett, a teacher for the A&M Con- soliaated School District, brought several adult magazines to a council meeting April 14 which she said were purchased at local stores. The council decided to do some thing about it. At a meeting April 28, the council in structed Lewis to consult with County At torney Roland Searcy and District Attor ney W.T. McDonald, Jr. in writing a law limiting the sale of pornographic materials to minors. Council members wanted to have adult magazine covers wrapped such that only the publication’s name would be dis played. It also wanted to set standards for the heights of magazine racks. The idea was to put the magazines where children could not reach them. Neither of these are in the new law. What the new law does is try to stop the display of adult magazines without serious intent in grocery stores, supermarkets, motels and other businesses minors are al lowed to enter. The magazines may be sold to adults, but they will have to be kept under the counter and out of the view of children. This practice is already in use in some local businesses. Stores that specialize in pornographic materials and do not allow minors may display the magazines as they wish. No one can sell the materials to a minor or employ a minor to sell them. The pen alty for violating the new law is a fine of $200 or less.