Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1977)
Page 2 Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Tuesday September 27, 1977 Bagging safety United Press International It’s not surprising the auto industry hasn’t rushed out and equipped all cars with air bags even though the devices have been available for a number of years. Even after car manufacturers installed seat belts, many motorists refused to use them. There is nothing to say that the public will be any more prone to accept the air bags even if these safety devices do become standard equip ment on all motor vehicles. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that more than half the 27,000 auto accident deaths each year result from crashes in which air bags or automatic seat restraints woidd prevent fatalities. So Transportation Sec- retary Brock Adams has ordered automatic crash protection devices installed in all new cars by 1984. But persuading the public to utilize them will be another matter. Parkersburg VV. Va., News The score: Insiders 1, Carter 0 By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON—The end of an affair is always an awkward moment, and that was surely the case with the Lance affair. The President of the United States did all that he could to enable his friend, Bert Lance, to leave the administration with a degree of dignity and decorum. His emotions evident, despite his usual tight discipline. Carter said not one word to add to the pain that his first and closest appointee, the budget director, felt at his involuntary departure. By maintaining his composure under evident strain and dis playing his loyalty. Carter probably sal vaged for himself whatever could be sal vaged from the whole unhappy business. But no one on a White House staff that was both sobered and saddened by the events of last week made any ettort to dis guise the pain of the first major crisis of confidence in the new administration. On at least three different levels, they Realistically had to reckon the Lance affair a costly one for themselves and the Presi- 'dent. * First, it marked a major setback to their •struggle to carve out a place for their Pres- !ident safely out of reach of the waves of [cynicism that have eroded public trust in [so much else in government. » For weeks, some of these men and women had empathized with the anguish Ithe. President felt as he was driven to jehuose between applying the stern • Letters to the editor standard of disinterested public service he had promised for his administration, and his human impulse to believe that his closest colleague in government could do no wrong. For weeks, many of them had known that in the end, the President must sac rifice Lance if he was to preserve the first premise of his administration—its claim to public trust. The financial manipulations that had gone undetected when Lance was selected and confirmed were—whatever Lance or Carter might say—serious enough to provoke continuing official and press investigations. Only by separating Lance from the ad ministration was Carter able, belatedly, to spare himself from becoming increasingly, defensively involved in Lance’s effort to avoid prosecution. At a second level, the Lance affair was costly to the administration—not in terms of image or ideals—but in the very real world of political power. More than most new Presidents, Carter had come to town with elbows out, ready to challenge the Congress, the bureaucracy and the press for control of the policy process. Lance, for all his ingratiating manner, left no doubt whose side he was on in that struggle: He was the President’s enforcer. Thus, when rivals in the power game began raising questions about Lance, the President and his men inevitably reacted as if their authority were being challenged—and not just the sincerity of their campaign statements. Had they not fought to save Lance, they would have earned the contempt of politi cal Washington. But having fought and lost, they now pay the price—at least for a while—of ceding points to the bureau erats, the Senators and the journalists they tried to checkmate through the save- Lanee strategies. In crude terms, the scoreboard reads: Insiders, 1; Georgians, 0. And that brings the final point. What the Lance struggle showed once again, was how thin the ranks of real Carter loyalists are. Reporters who covered the Carter campaign learned that he was something of a tactical genius in getting maximum impact from the handful of polit ical lieutenants in his command. But they really were a handful. In the early primaries, where they could concen- Correction We goofed In the Friday, Sept. 16 Battalion, a story by Karen Rogers entitled “Humane society seeks funds for new shelter incorrectly reported that the Brazos Valley Humane So ciety failed to receive funds for a new animal shelter. The correct name of the organization is the Humane Society of Brazos County. The Battalion regrets the error. trate on one or two states at a time, Carter did well. But his performance slumped, because his human resources were in adequate, in the closely bunched late primaries. And in the general election, he barely held on to win. The paucity of his proven staff resources was disguised somewhat by the impression of hundreds of new people moving into offices after Inauguration Day. Carter seemed for a time the general of an impos ing army. But, as has been said here before, it is only in the heat of the first crisis that one can measure the inner dynamics of a new administration. In the Lance crisis, it very quickly became clear that Carter relied principally on three other of his Georgia associates—Hamilton Jordan, Jody Powell and Robert Lipshutz, with lesser roles for two others of the group, Frank Moore and Griffin Bell. None of the three principal defenders avoided criticism for his performance even within the White House itself. And, in the end, of course, neither they nor Carter was able to save Lance, whose loss all of them, including the President, will feel every day. More than a month ago, one of those defenders said, in all earnestness: “Jimmy Carter will not be as good a President as he is capable of being if he loses Bert Lance. Now he has lost him, and the ranks of the Carter guard are even thinner. (V) W77, The W'tisliin^lriri rn\i ( ompany Student government a necessary evil * Editor I As I have submitted my resignation as a [member of the Student Senate this morn ing, 1 would like to commend those who •do remain serving in our Student Gov ernment. I From what I have seen in my very lim- jted stay in the Senate, I would say these [students for the most part deserve our ap preciation. That so many obviously intelli gent people would bi-monthly subject •themselves to what often turns into a less- Sntelligent form of verbal bantering is be- Rond me. As I suppose Student Govern- nfient is a necessary evil of our University •system, I am thankful to those students Avho will make decisions concerning the Jhirty minutes of actual business along \vith listening to the three hours of psuedo-legislataive, political discourse. ►. I make no claims of knowing a better [hay of running a student government. I Jmagine people will be people in whatever capacity they are serving. I think it’s sad, However, that so much valuable time is continually wasted in our Senate by a few individuals who enjoy hearing themselves [•peak at others expense. —Beth Krugler • Editor’s note: Amen. Why blackouts? Editor: The first power failure in College on September 7 inconvenienced a lot of people but was tolerable. This latest one is nothing but a headache. As I write this letter by candlelight, my Timex shows that the lights have been out for 7-1/2 hours. And I don’t plan to stay up all night and wait for them to come back on. Obviously, something’s wrong. I was under the impression that when Gulf States was decided on by the City Council to provide electricity for College Station, that they could provide this service. How ever, in the few months they have been here, at least 40% of College Station has had not one but two blackouts. A company can be expected to have problems starting up in a new area, but this is ridiculous. Students and residents lose valuable time in a blackout; not to mention the in convenience of being without power. Businesses in the effected area suffer even more. City Manager Bardell asked us after the first failure to cut our energy use. Even if it wasn’t cut and that caused the failure, there still seems to be more than just a transformer problem here. Has College Station let itself over build while power capacity has not kept up? Did College Station switch over from Bryan Utilities too early? Who is going to pay the cost of the blackout? What can we expect in the future? All of these questions need to be considered by the city. In light of these two blackouts, maybe Bryan Utilities wasn’t so bad after all. In the three years I have lived in this area, the lights have not been out for more than an hour when Bryan supplied the power. And what can I say for G.S.U.’s service? Nothing! —Dale Campisi Editor’s note: A private electrical con sulting firm is investigating the reason College Station’s substation shorted out, causing the first blackout, city manager North Bardell said last night. The firm is trying to determine whether some un known fault in the transformer or some defective part caused the transformer to short out, he said. A final report on that investigation is expected in the next two weeks. The failure last week occurred when a power line cross arm broke, forcing Gulf States Utilities to shut off their power through the line until the broken arm could be found. Finding that break and repairing it took almost eight hours of the blackout. Apparently, the same kind of problems existed with Bryan Utilities. College Sta tion had power outages when Bryan Utilities was providing all the city’s power, Bardell said. Another chance Editor: I have both questions and comments concerning the article in the Sept. 23 edi tion of the Battalion entitled, “Give a dog another chance. It is my understanding that a city pound picks up any stray animal, whether sick or aggressive, that is running loose in a neighborhood. I agree that a dog pound should protect a community from this type of animal. It is the pound’s policy to hold the animal for five days. If the stray animal is not claimed within this time period, it is taken to the Texas A&M vet school to be destroyed. After the animal has been de stroyed it is then used for experimental purposes merely for the name of medical science. Surely the Bryan dog pound em ployees could take the time to find a home for the stray animal, or if it is sick, have special facilities for certain cases. The Bryan dog pound does not particu larly sound as if it is doing an adequate job. The article states, “The pound is unsuper vised much of the day, the only visitors being the animal control officers and the sanitation department worker. No one is there at night. If the employees are not on hand during most of the day, why can’t they use the time to find a future home for the captured stray animal? The residents of Bryan had the chance to vote for monies to be allocated toward a new pound but voted against this propo sal. If the proposal had passed, perhaps the captured animals would not be de stined to be destroyed. Perhaps a service could have been set up to provide a new home for the stray animal, instead of hand ing the life of the animal over to the vet school. —Susan Welih Class of 1979 An all-time low Editor: I am writing in regard to an incident that occurred during the Texas Tech game last Saturday night. I, like a lot of loyal Ags who didn’t get tickets, was watching the game on closed circuit television in G. Rol- lie White. In the first quarter, the Red Raider quarterback Rodney Allison was seriously injured and to my amazement, the crowd around me went wild! I am shocked to think our level of sportsman ship and fair play at A&M has reached such an all time low. There have been Aggies in my family for years and I remember the concerned si lence that used to sweep the stands whenever a player went down and the heartfelt applause he received when re moved from the field no matter what color jersey he wore or what the score. It was respect. It was tradition. There have been many changes at A&M in recent years but I shudder to think the Twelfth Man is losing the spirit and good sportsmanship that has set us aside from the rest of the conference for years. Rapid growth does hot mean we have to forget the things that make us Aggies and I sin cerely hope, for one, that this was only an isolated incident on our way to the Cotton Bowl. —J- Erskine Class of ’79 Bikes bar ramps Editor: Having just read the front page article in the 9/21/77 Battalion entitled “Ramp con struction meets needs of handicapped, I find it necessary to point out a few flaws concerning these ramps. I am not a handicapped person myself but I find it very disturbing when I see the ramps built for the handicapped persons blocked completely by parked bicycles. I have on numerous occasions seen wheel chair students solicit help from others to move these parked bicycles in order to use the ramps. This is totally unnecessary. Bicyclists should realize on their own that j they should not park in these areas, but, since they are apparently unwilling to cooperate, they should be penalized, i either by impounding the bicycles or tick eting, just as vehicles are when parked in unauthorized areas. Feeling certain that the expense in volved in providing these ramps was not nominal and that they were not provided for the convenience of bicyclists, regulations should be provided and/or enforced to ensure that these areas will remain acces sible to the handicapped persons on cam pus. If they continue to remain blocked, what is the purpose in providing them? —Kathy Weaver Slouch by Jim Earle “Wanna make some people happy? Just say Texas Tech when you pass them!” Top of the News Campus Silver Taps set tonight Silver Taps will be held tonight for Texas A&M University graduate student Wayne D. Peevey, 35, who died early Sunday inhis home here. The central campus flag will fly at half-staff for five Texas A&M staff members who died during September: Dr. William R. Smith, psychology professor and former department chairman who died Sept. 23 of a gunshot wound. A ruling still pends in the case, Peace Justice B. H. Dewey Jr. said Monday. Rites were held Monday. Col. John F. Oliver, professor emeritus of accounting who retired in 1971. He died Sept. 19. Roy C. Bell, former baseball coach and Texas A&M’s first All-American athlete. A 1972 retiree, Bell died Sept. 14. Dr. Stephen S. Chen, chemical physicist with the Ther- modymanics Research Center until his death Sept. 9. Dr. Tyrus R, Timm, professor emeritus of agricultural economics who retired in 1975. He died Sept. 3. State Teague still undecided Olin E. Teague (D-Texas) has not decided whether he will run fora seat in the United States Congress. "I have not discouraged any single individual, nor have I decided as yet whether or not I shall run. It is the American system and each and every individual has a right to run for public office. Because of the provisions of the Federal Elec tion Laws, I have advised each and every member of my staff that if they become involved in any campaign of any individual, even my self, that they will be removed from my payroll. < L iini isit; \ is Co rec : ins be en gn M( W i gei soi the pr< E. Co w i: p.. till Re Mental patient falls 3 stories A 24-year-old mental patient jumped or fell from a third-story mezzanine in the Capitol rotunda Monday and was reported in criti cal condition. The man was identified as Glen Dave Knox, a resident at Austin State Hospital. Two eyewitnesses said Knox climbed over the waist high railing and jumped, but another witness said befell accidentally. Nation Loner ranks increase The number of bachelors living alone is growing faster than the number of women living by themselves, but there are still far more women maintaining their own households. The Census Bureau re ported Sunday that the number of men living alone has risen 60 percent in the past seven years, while the number of women living done is up 35 percent. Among persons under 25, the number of men living alone tripled since 1970 and the number of women living alone has doubled. Although the number of men living by themselves has increased rapidly since 1970, women still represent 64 percent of persons living alone. No beer in Oklahoma tic ve s si a C01 Te leg Oklahomans couldn’t buy strong beer made by Coors or three other major breweries if they wanted to Monday, because there’s not a bottle left in the state. The director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said Coors notified the Ixiard it has ceased strong beer sales as of last Saturday because of a district court ruling that a brew ery must sell to all wholesalers rather than only those franchised bv the,brewery. The court opinion, which has been appealed to the state Supreme Court, was based on a constitutional reejuirement that all manufacturers of hard liquor, wine or strong beer must sell on the same price basis and beer. C<x>rs contended it had to limit outlets to control quality. Folgers introduces flaked coffee The Folger Coffee Co., Monday announced plans to expand the market for its economical flaked coffee and give consumers more relief from high coffee prices. Folger s flaked coffee, designed for use in automatic drip coffeemakers, increases the amount of coffee ex tracted from each roasted particle. The flaked coffee is “significantly more economical to use without any sacrifice in quality,’ Folger said. The product now will be sold in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. sta TP Tu rot Bu Th AT Tu p.i Bu of “Si La of p.i Bu ing tis pai at En World C7. N. debate begins in New York Presidents, heads of state and foreign ministers of 149 nations began converging on New York for the opening Monday of the 1977 General Assembly debate, with the United States playing a key role in behind-the-scenes negotiations. Speakers from nearly all of the member nations are to take the podium to express their views of the world and each other . President Carter will address the assembly next week. On the United Nations agenda this year are 126 items ranging from the Middle East, Southern Africa and Cyprus to Grena da s request to establish a special U.N. committee to investigate the “possibly hostile’ intentions of UFO’s. Pope Paul reaches 80 years Pope Paul VI marked his 80th birthday Monday, fearing his ap proaching death and final judgment in the eyes of God. Pope Paul set a somber tone for his birthday celebration in an address to 60,000 persons gathered Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. Despite talk of death, the Vatican has said the pontiff is in relatively good health for a man of his age and work habits, though he is known to suffer from arthritis. wil p.i Dt “0 Pil of: a i Tr r. Weather Partly cloudy and hot with southerly winds 10-14 mph. No chance of rain. High today and tomorrow mid-90s. Low to night mid-70s with winds diminishing to 2-5 mph. The Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the whter of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Re gents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and com munity newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. LETTERS POUCY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to Ifeing cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from September through May except during exam and holiday periods and the summer, when it is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 ft school year; $35. (X) per full year. Advertising rates ^ nished on request. Address: The Battalion. Rubin Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas United Press International is entitled exclusively toll* use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited lid Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein rcsiW Second-Class postage paid at College Station. TX 7TM) MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Jamie Ailh 1 Managing Editor Man Aliee WoihIIu® Editorial Director Lee Hoy Leselipn) Sports Editor Hanl Anrf News Editors Mai n* 1 lomeyer. Uaml Mejff Reporters Rusty Cawley, kim Ty.vd Clcnna Whitley. Darrell Linford. Ijz.Vuto Photographer Ken llrrnfl Student Publications Board: Bob C. Rogers. Chainim Joe Amdondo: Dr. (buy Halter. Dr. John U. 11(111# Robert llaiTcy: Dr. Charles McCandless: Dr. CliiilM .1 Phillips: Rebel Rice. Director of Student hihliailm' Donald Jidmson. Production Coordinator: \\. .W Sherman J I