Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
June 29, 1977
Dorm fire policies need review
Fiery tragedies are becoming common in our
headlines. And those tragedies could repeat
themselves on the Texas A&M University cam
pus.
Sunday 42 people died in a smoke-filled Ten
nessee jail, most of smoke inhalation, when a
teen-age inmate set fire to his padded cell. Four
weeks ago a Kentucky dinner-club burned to the
ground, killing 158 people.
Early yesterday morning an arsonist set fire to
two paper-filled garbage cans in an upstairs bath
room of one of the old Corps dorms on campus.
The resulting blaze scorched the inside of the
bathroom, but was stopped before it spread be
cause somebody had to go to the bathroom at 4
a.m. and found it in time.
Over 200 students are living in that dorm and
most were asleep when the fire was set. Had the
fire spread that firebug could have been a mur
derer many times over.
Because small fires like this one are set as
pranks periodically, without major damage or in
jury, we slip into secure belief that a major fire
couldn’t happen here. Don’t be too sure.
The older Corps dorms present the most
danger. Their stony exteriors are impervious to
fire. But there’s plenty inside that isn’t.
“People say they won’t burn,” College Station
Fire Marshal Harry Davis said. But once inside a
room, fire can engulf beds, furniture and clothes,
generating enormous heat, he said.
“It could gut these things out,” Davis said.
“And you’d have a heck of a time getting out.”
The newer dorms on campus have internal fire
alarms and stand pipes, which are water outlets in
the dorm walls to which firemen can directly
hook their hoses. The pipes save the time and
labor of dragging a water-laden fire hose up three
flights of stairs to fight a fire.
But the stand pipes in the Corps dorms are
either shut off or have had their valve handles
removed, rendering them useless to a fireman
without a wrench. The handles were removed to
keep pranksters from turning the high pressure
water valves on. But now its time to reevaluate
that decision, to decide if that precaution is worth
the danger it could present during a major fire.
University safety officials need to reevaluate
the present fire safety equipment and techniques
available, to be certain those measures are
adequate. Let’s be certain the protection we have
is the best it can be.
Let’s hope it doesn’t take a tragedy of our own
to tell us we re not protected.
Washington powers ready to accept truce
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — For all the rhetori
cal volleys rocketing between Capitol Hill
and the White House, a relationship is be
ginning to evolve between President Car
ter and the Democratic Congress that is
less than intolerable to both.
One has to express it in that curiously
negative way. It is certainly not the rela
tionship that Carter envisaged in those
countless campaign speeches on the Pres
ident and Congress working together “in
harmony for a change.”
And equally it is not the relationship
that many congressional Democrats, frus
trated by the years of veto battles with
Presidents Nixon and Ford, hoped would
evolve when they had one of their own
again in the White House.
The hopes of Carter and the Capitol Hill
Democrats depended on a meeting of
minds, a mutuality of goals, along the
length of Pennsylvania Avenue. That
plainly has not occurred.
But what has developed is an unofficial
understanding of how far the President
and the Congress can extend their conflict
ing wills. It is a contemporary set of checks
and balances, reflecting what is probably
the best available truce terms between an
independent, assertive Congress, blooded
by eight years of cambat with the Execu
tive, and a new President whose motto is,
“I do not intend to lose.”
The limits of the relationship are well-
illustrated by what has been happening to
the congressional water projects and to the
President’s energy program.
Carter is coming out quite well in the
fight over the dam and reclamation proj
ects. When he first moved to halt con
struction on 18 of these politically sacred
projects, the Senate majority leader told
him that he was being “stupid.”
The Senate quickly passed a resolution
rejecting his position. And the old heads
in Washington chortled that Carter and
his boys were about to receive a lesson in
the realities of pork-barrel politics.
It has not worked out that way. The
House of Representatives came within 30
votes of giving Carter a complete victory
— close enough to signal the certain effec
tiveness of a presidential veto, if it came to
that. The Senate Appropriations Commit
tee has scrapped half the projects and, as
this is written, has acknowledged that the
rules of the game have been changed by
providing no funds at all for new starts.
In essence, by exploiting the anti
spending sentiments in the general public
and local environmental concerns. Carter
has demonstrated his ability to intervene
successfully in a traditional area of legisla
tive prerogative — the dispensing of pub
lic works plums. He has in effect turned
the parochial congressional pork barrel
into a national issue and broken up the
game.
Energy legislation demonstrates the
other side of the picture. This is no paro
chial concern, but a national issue which
Carter obviously thought called for a
“presidential” solution.
He put what he regards as the best
brain in the country — James Schlesinger
— to work on the problem and unveiled
his proposal last April in a television ex
travaganza worthy of a coronation.
The belief in tbe White House was that
Congress — with its fragmented commit
tee jurisdictions and flighty attention span
— would gratefully accept the President’s
design if he could just prepare public opin
ion for the necessity of some energy pro
gram.
Not so. Carter underestimated the ex
pertise and self-confidence that has de
veloped on the congressional committees
with energy jurisdictions. When their
scrutiny showed gaping holes in the hast
ily assembled Carter plan, they have not
hestitated to rewrite it in bold strokes.
This congressional “intervention” in an
area of presidential prerogative brought
howls from the White House just as loud
as the complaints that issued from Capitol
Hill about Carter’s “interference” in the
water project issue.
They will be equally futile. Congress
has plainly seized the initiative on the
energy issue. Carter can influence the
congressional process marginally by issu
ing critical comments, just as Congress
was able to save some of the water projects
from his ax.
But he can no more afford to veto an
energy bill that will represent the main
work-product of a full session of Congress
than Congress could override the
threatened Carter veto of the water pro
jects.
Neither side may like it much, but both
are coming to understand where this
fragile balance of power lies.
(c) 1977, The Washington Post Company
British accepting life with expensive energy
By BRYAN SILCOCK
LONDON — Britain already has the
kind of expensive energy economy that
Americans will face if President Carter’s
national energy plan becomes reality.
Thus there is a constant search here for
cheaper sources of power.
Britain consumes about half as much
energy per person as the United States
does, and not simply because the standard
of living here is lower. The answer lies in
the fact that energy is so expensive here
that people are careful to conserve it.
The most obvious difference between
energy costs in the United States and Brit
ain is the price of gasoline. The cheapest
gasoline here is the equivalent of $1.50
per gallon and higher octane fuels are
more expensive. With such prices, heavy
taxes on gasoline-guzzling automobiles are
unnecessary.
But most British have been pleasantly
surprised to discover that higher energy
prices, which made conservation impera
tive, have resulted in real savings without
any particular hardships.
'Hie turning point here, as elsewhere in
the world, came in late 1973, when the
Slouch
by Jim Earle
“IT’S EITHER AN AGGIE JOKE, OR IT’S FOR PEOPLE LOOKING IN
THEIR REAR-VIEW MIRROR!”
Arab petroleum producers boosted the
price of oil in the aftermath of the Yom
Kippur war.
Tlie British government, faced with that
crisis, took no special steps to curb energy
consumption beyond appeals to the popu
lation to conserve fuel voluntarily. But the
spiralling price of oil alone was enough to
persuade people to save energy.
As a consequence, Britain’s energy re
quirements have dropped by an estimated
6 per cent, which could represent a reduc
tion in oil imports of close to $1 billion.
In contrast to the West Germans and
Scandinavians, the British have not gone
in for such projects as district heating
schemes or plants that combine heat and
power production, at least for residences.
This may be because the British are too
individualistic at home to share energy.
Nor has the energy crisis generated the
same enthusiasm here for innovations as it
has in the United States and other coun
tries. There are plenty of experiments in
Britain with solar energy and wind power,
but at best these would not contribute
more than 5 per cent of British energy
needs by the year 2000.
Given the cloudy skies that hang over
Britain much of the year, solar energy is a
particularly gloomy prospect.
From a climatic viewpoint, Britain is in
a much better position to exploit wind
power, but here too the prospects are
dim. In order to compete with conven
tional power stations, wind-driven electri
cal generators would have to be installed
on sites with average wind speeds of 20
miles per hour or better. This would mean
covering hilltops with huge windmills — a
notion that would certainly arouse wide
spread esthetic opposition.
One experimental windmill, about 60
feet in diameter, is being used at present
to heat glasshouses. It does not generate
electricity, but pumps oil through a closed
loop of pipes, thereby producing heat by
friction. But this is a specialized item that
is not going to make a major impact on the
overall energy picture.
In the Severn estuary, which separates
Wales from southwest England, is one of
the best sites in the world for a tidal power
station. But the costs of constructing such
a station are prohibitive.
On the other hand, wave power as a
source of energy is provoking a good deal
of official interest, and serious research
programs have been launched to explore a
potential that could be enormous.
Britain has been lucky, however, to
have hit oil and natural gas in the North
Sea, and these will be able to carry the
country for a couple of decades ahead. But
the production of North Sea oil and
natural gas is expected to fall in the 1990’s,
arid the energy scene then will again look
bleak.
Thus, it seems to me, the development
of nuclear energy is going to be inevitable.
Fortunately, the British now have the re
sources to develop secure nuclear installa
tions at their leisure.
Over the longer run, though, the chal
lenge to Britain resembles the challenge
to the United States. It is to conserve as
much energy as possible while exploring
new sources of energy — and that suggests
that both sides of the Atlantic will con
tinue to be obsessed by energy for as far
ahead as anyone can imagine.
(Silcock writes on science and technology
for the London Sunday Times, the British
weekly neivspaper.)
Don’t throw away those old laws!
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Every now and then
some newspaper or magazine will piint a
roundup of seemingly archaic or extrane
ous laws that clutter up the statute books
of this broad land.
In Sump City, Miss., it’s against the law
to polish a watermelon within 10 feet of a
flagpole. In Small Beer, Wyo., it’s against
the law for a licensed beautician to sham
poo a buffalo.
That sort of thing.
There’s a tendency among casual
readers to wonder why such ordinances
have never been repealed. More to the
point, I think, is why they were enacted in
the first place.
The latter curiosity arose again a few
days ago when a New York judge dismis
sed all charges against George Willig, the
skyscraper alpinist who allegedly scaled
one of the 110-story World Trade Center
towers last month.
You might think the police would have
had some trouble deciding how to book
him. But such was not the case. Among
The lighter side
other counts, Willig was charged with un
authorized building climbing.
I was impressed, as I imagine others
must have been, that there was a specific
law to fit his crime.
No one, I’m sure, would question the
wisdom of such controls. Unless there is
an orderly flow of building ascensions, the
situation could quickly get out of hand.
In the circumstances, it does not seem
duly burdensome to require that a build
ing climber drop by the Bureau of Edifice
Escalades and pick up a permit.
Even so, the anti-climbing law reflected
more foresight than one might have ex
pected for a city as otherwise imprudent as
New York. I would be interested to know
how many other municipalities, counties,
states or nations have regulatory measures
of that nature.
And it would be even more interesting
to look up the legislative history and see at
what point the need for building-climbing
permits first became apparent.
I was talking to a lawyer friend about
this and he said it was his understanding
that the first such ordinances were
adopted after a hotel elevator operators
strike in Chicago in the 1920s.
During the strike, as he recalled, hotel
stairs became so crowded that some guests
started climbing up and down the outside
walls.
This practice was deemed undesirable
on two counts: it made it easy for male
guests to sneak women past the hotel de
tective, and departing guests could leave
without checking out.
Ergo, there arose a clamor for building
climbing restrictions.
Be that as it may, the Willig affair dem
onstrates why a city or state shouldn’t be
too hasty about expunging statues that
might seem rather far-fetched.
You never know where building clim
bers are going to strike next.
Top of the News
i
Campus
Services reduced for weekend
Services will be reduced at Texas A&M’s University Center dur
ing the July 4 weekend. The Memorial Student Center main desk
will be staffed for the entire weekend and the Aggieland Station
post office will be open for mail pickup. The Visitors Information
Center in the Rudder Tower and the Arts and Crafts Shop will
be open Saturday and Sunday but will close for Monday like
all other areas in the center.
Field day held July 7
The fifth annual Texas A&M University Plantation Field Day
will be held July 7 in Burleson County. The field day is open
to Brazos County farmers and ranchers. The day’s events will
include discussions on a variety of agricultural topics led by sev
eral specialists. A barbecue will close the field day activities. The
plantation headquarters is located on Farm Road 50.
State
Bilingual education grants given
Adult bookstores must move
Manson writings published
Nation
Space shuttle tested
The Space Shuttle “Enterprise, ” mated to the back of a Boeing
747, took off yesterday on its second manned test flight. Two
astronauts rode in the cabin of the space trunk which lifted off
11 minutes early. The flight included a planned 6,000 foot dive
from 19,000 feet. A spokesman for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration said that if this test went well, a final
manned-captive flight would be scheduled for July 8.
Nixon cant have tapes
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the govern
ment has control over Former President Richard M. Nixon’s White
House tapes and documents. Justice William Brennan, in a
56-page opinion said that the law passed does not violate the prin
ciple of separation of powers, the presidential privilege of con
fidentiality or significantly interfere with Nixon’s First Amend
ment rights to freedom of association.
Lawmen indicted for ambush
A county sheriff, his chief deputy and seven other officers of
Mobile County, Alabama have been indicted by a federal grant
jury for allegedly allowing a prisoner to escape and then killing
him in an ambush. Indictments specifically charged Deputy James
Sanford with killing Louis Wallace, a prisoner at the Mobile
County Jail on Oct. 12, 1976.
World
File-up in Brazil
Fourteen persons are dead and at least 110 injured as a result
of a 140-vehicle crash on a foggy highway near Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Police said a commuter bus slowing to a near stop on the road
caused the initial crash. The chain reaction left a four-mile pileup
on the Anchieta Highway. The' area where the pileup occurred is
often blanketed with smoke and smog from nearby oil refineries.
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Bilingual education grants to support a wide range of summer
programs for school personnel and students will total more than
$1.2 million, Texas Education Commissioner M. L. Brockette said
yesterday. Seven regional education service centers and 44 school
districts serving large Mexican-American students populations
were awarded short-term grants, he said.
Adult brxrk stores and theaters must locate further than 2,000
feet from a school, church or charitable institution according to a
city ordinance recently approved by Houston’s city council.
Mayor Fred Hofheinz said he believes the ordinance is uncon
stitutional and cast the only dissenting vote. An amendment to
the ordinance gives adult book stores 30 days to move.
Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum plans to publish, in
mid-July, several selections written by convicted murderer
Charles Manson while in prison. Editor Howard J. Perlstein said
the works are not being condemned or condoned but are im
portant as examples of prison writing. Manson is currently serv
ing a life sentence in a California prison for his role in the 1969
Tate-La Bianca murders in Los Angeles.
Hill files motion against Hughes' aid
Texas Attomey Gen. John Hill has filed a motion in Los Agneles
asking that former aid to Howard Hughes, Clarence A. Waldron,
be compelled to answer questions about Hughes’ use of drugs.
Recently Waldron and other aides have refused to give any infor
mation to lawyers seeking it. Several memos indicate that Hughes
took large amounts of valium and codeine. Hill said the type,
amount and manner of ingestion and injection of the medications
are relevant to determining the physical and mental effects such
medication may have had upon him.
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MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Lee Roy Lescliper Jr.
News Editor Marie Homryer
Campus Editor GIcnnu Whitley
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Copy Editors Sandy Russo.
Edith Chenault, Rusty Cawley
Reporters Toumoimvu Mullins
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Student Publications Board: Bob G. Rogers. Clwinm:
joe Arredondo: Tom Dawscty; Dr. Ganj Halter: Dr. Join
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lips; Jeni Ward. Director of Student Pit Mirations: (rtrlL
Cooper.
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