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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1977)
The Battalion ,|. 71 No. 54 Pages Tuesday, November 15, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Inside Today: A Bert Lance affair by any other name . . . p. 2 Women’s Year delegates may hear from Klan, p. 3. Good old-fashioned football, p. 7. Jadat, Begin ready for peace talks United Press International Egyptian President Anwar Sadat says he will go to Jerusalem to address the |Sr aeli Knesset parliament within a week if he is invited. Israeli Prime Minister llenahem Begin says he will greet him at the airport. Both Sadat and Begin said they would rely on the United States to convey a ormal invitation from Israel to Egypt, since the two countries are still technically war and do not have diplomatic relations. Sadat’s proposed trip apparently would be the first official visit to Israel by an irab head of state since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. I’m just waiting for the proper invitation,” Sadat told CBS television news in interview broadcast Monday night. “I’m looking forward to fulfill this visit at he earliest time possible.” CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite asked il that could be, say, within a week?” “You could say that, yes,” Sadat answered. Begin, in a separate CBS interview, said the Israelis “really want the visit of President Sadat, we really want to negotiate peace, to establish permanent peace. The dramatic breakthrough in the search for a Middle East settlement over shadowed a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Tunis and, for the moment at least, the diplomatic effort to reopen the Geneva peace talks. It also apparently caught the Carter administration by surprise. Earlier in the day. State Department officials said Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was consider ing new talks with Arab and Israeli leaders. Later, the officials said Washington had not received official notification of a proposed Sadat-Begin encounter but one added: “Obviously, we welcome any kind of direct negotiations. ” Sadat said he wanted to discuss the Middle East conflict with Begin and all 120 members of the Knesset. “We are in a crucial moment. There has never been a suitable moment in the Arab world to reach genuine peace like we are now,” he said. In reply, Begin told Cronkite: “Any time, any day he is prepared to come I will receive him cordially at the airport.” He said he would ask U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis to transmit a letter to the U.S. ambassador to Egypt inviting Sadat “formally and cordially. The Egyptian leader, who first brought up the proposal for a visit to Israel last week, said his only condition was that he be allowed to “discuss the whole situa tion with the Israeli Knesset and put the full picture and detail from our point of view.” In Tunis, the Arab League foreign ministers called an Arab summit meeting for next February in a move that conference officials said would give Egypt a free hand to work toward a peace settlement for the next three months. The ministers also condemned last week’s Israeli air raids into southern Leba non. Reports from that area said Israeli and Christian rightists shelled Palestinian positions Monday, killing two people. \ - : . ' Or so thinks Tiffany Jacobson as she reaches for the ball during a playground game at Wee Aggieland day care center in College I’ve got it! Station. Tiffany catches the ball, then decides it’s too hot to wear her sweater. When she takes it off, her sleeve seems to catch the ball instead. She has what happened. witness, but we can’t be sure that’s Battalion photos hy Larry ('handler. Author says national health insurance needed By TOUMONAVA MULLIN A national health insurance program is needed, says the co-author of the Kennedy-Corman national health care bill and a representative of the American Med ical Association (AMA) who supports House Resolution 1818. The particulars of each bill were dis cussed Monday night by Dr. W.J. Man gold, vice chairman of the AMA council on legislation, and James C. Gorman, U.S. representative from California, co-author of the Kennedy-Corman bill. Great Issues and Political Forum spon sored the debate in the Rudder Theater before a gathering of about 50 people. Connan said there are two big groups who never get adequate care: the poor and the elderly. Two federal programs, Medicaid and Medicare, were adopted to care for them, he said. He also stressed that people should get health care when they need it and that it should cover everybody all the time. However, the national health care bill is not “socializing medicine,” he stated. “About half of the dollars spent will be spent in the last six months to prolong a person’s life,” Gorman said. “We need to spread out those resources and a national health program would do this. “But it must be universal and must be mandatory, he said. If there are no dollars spent out of people’s pockets, they will go to the doctor too much, he said. “Some go too much now. “A doctor would use his best judgment because he would be paid the same no matter who it is,” Corman said. He added that people generally do not visit a doctor until they are critically ill. Mangold, who is both a doctor and a lawyer, said the AMA bill is based on a series of 17 guidelines essential to a na tional health insurance plan. “Basically, the plan must provide com prehensive coverage for the entire popula tion,” Mangold said. “HR 1818 would do this. “Our plan includes co-insurance. For every dollar, 20 cents is paid by the pa tient.” He added that the limit is absolute —regardless of a person’s income. “To be effective, the plan must be ac ceptable to the patient and must provide freedom to choose the form of care, ” Man gold said. He stressed that any plan has to have quality and cost controls. “The cost of health care is our biggest problem and there’s no simple answer.” Mangold said the present system is in generally a good one, but the AMA is working to make it better. “Medical manpower is increasing, he said. “The number of medical students has increased from 33,000 to nearly 60,000. Mangold pointed out that there is no thing in the national health insurance pro gram to eliminate pollution or to stop smoking. “HR 1818 is a solution to some of these problems,” he stated. Mangold disagreed with Corman on the concept of having the program “totally public.” The American people are not ready for it,” he said. “If we took both bills and tore off the page on funding, it would be tough to tell them apart,” Mangold said. “Either system is going to cost a lot,” Corman said. “But we both agree there must be universal coverage.” James C. Corman W. J. Mangold uilding use fee unfair’ to some Commissioners discuss fire protection % CAROLYN KEMMERER ^ ome students pay up to $90 in building l&V? 65 ’ yet seldom set foot on the Texas HrlW Universit y campus. Most Texas ol i Stu< ^ ents i n this situation are in- 0 filftl) 0 stuc ^ ent teaching, and are trying tojor rec l u i rem ents as education He t ^ Shutes, head of the depart- ( n , 0 ' educational curriculum and in- vo sa ^ wee k that he has been ln g on the problem for about three- j Q ° ne 'half years, and was told that ac- tolvt? chan § e the current fee policy could le e * a k en by the Texas A&M Board of j)r en * s - Shutes said that before he could ' the Board of Regents, the Texas miitetiug Board of Colleges and Uni- 0(1 ^ les Passed a ruling that all university S i_ 0 ®’ cam P us as we h as on-campus, &ord' . Ve to P a y the same fees. The j 0n r . lna t* n g board controls higher educa- )f.L ln J ae state of Texas and is a superior e Board of Regents. *ntl UteS t ^ le coor dinating board re- mi y re yised its decision and now allows wv *fi? S to decide whether they will 3 Adding use fee for courses taken n f 0r "’Pus. However, Shute said he was till . *^ a * because student teachers re gister on the Texas A&M campus this new ruling does not apply to them. Student teachers studying secondary education are required to register for 12 hours at Texas A&M the semester they student teach. Elementary education majors are required to register for 15 hours the semester they are student teach ing. Most of these hours are not spent on the A&M campus. Shutes said students who teach locally attend a seminar for a few hours each week on the Texas A&M campus. Student teach ing elsewhere attend weekly seminars with their advisers which are held in their teaching areas. Only the last few days of a student teacher’s semester are spent on the Texas A&M campus. David Shanley, president of the Student Education Society, said that he first learned of the building use fee situation through complaints of other education majors. Shanley originated a petition this semester for student teachers who oppose the six dollars per semester hour. The petition states that student teachers spend about six hours a month on campus, and should be exempt from the fees. Shanley said he also is trying to get Stu dent Government to take action on the situation. By SCOTT PERKINS A fire starts out in the county. The Bryan and College Station fire departments both respond to the call. And a month later the county receives bills for $150 from Bryan, and $794.40 from College Station. This was a part of the problem of rural fire protection discussed Monday morning at the Brazos County Commissioners’ meeting. “And the problem is getting worse as time goes on,” said Commissioner H.L. “Bud” Cargill. Cargill is in favor of using volunteer fire departments to make the in itial response to rural fires, and for them to call for assistance from the city depart ments if they are needed. But representatives from the local Farm Bureau Office questioned the effective ness of the volunteer forces. J.C. Miller said he felt that the em phasis should be on educating the rural people on fire safety and the proper way to report fires, rather than cutting off county protection. He added that most calls were false alarms. “We feel very strongly that rural resi dents need (professional) fire protection, he said. Arthur Olden, also with the Farm Bureau, said, “People are always jumping on rural people for everything, like the food prices.” He claimed that city resi dents who move to the country are re sponsible for 99 percent of the fires. Cargill explained the difference in the rates for fire services by Bryan and College Station by pointing out that Bryan charges a flat rate for calls while College Station charges by the man-hour and engine-hour. “It costs too much for what we re get ting,” said County Judge William R. Vance. Vance also said that there should be a fire truck and volunteer organization in every precinct in the county, and that the county was willing to supply those organi zations with the truck and equipment, as has been done in Precinct 3. Precinct 3 is so far the only one with a volunteer group. Miller, however, doubted that any other part of the county could set up the same type of organization, because of the lack of interest by the city people who now live in the other rural areas. “You cut their money off, you get their attention,” Cargill replied. No decision as to whether or not to cut off funds was reached, and the commis sioners said they were sure the problem would continue to come up in future meet ings. In other related actions, the commis sioners paid Bryan $1,800 and College Sta tion $3,415 for rural runs by their respec tive fire departments. The commissioners were told by County Clerk Frank Boriskie that there was a turnout of only 6.53 percent of the regis tered voters for the constitutional amend ments elections November 8. - Pet. 1 Commissioner Bill J. Cooley also recommended that the commissioners send a letter to the Missouri Pacific Line railroad requesting that they take greater fire precautions when traveling througK the county. Cooley said it cost the county $2,197 to fight fires in his precinct caused by passing trains. ‘Biko attacked questioners’ United Press International PRETORIA, South Africa — A South African police officer has testified that black leader Steve Biko attacked his white questioners and “fell with his head against a wall five days before he died of head injuries. Maj. Harold Snyman, testifying Monday on the first day of an inquest into Biko’s Sept. 12 death, said Biko was kept naked in a jail cell for 19 days. He was then bound with leg irons and handcuffs and chained to the bars of an interrogation room where he was kept for 50 hours. When the restraints were removed Sept. 7, his eyes suddenly took on a “wild expression” and he attacked his captors with a chair, Snyman said. Snyman, Biko’s chief interrogator, said the 30-year-old black leader threw the chair at him, threw “wild punches at me and others in the room” and was “beside himself with fury” while he wrestled with several policemen. “The wrestling lasted several minutes ... in a confined space and as a result we knocked against tables and a wall.” He said in an affidavit read in court: “Af ter some furious wrestling Biko fell with his head against a wall.” Snyman denied police wrong-doing in the death, which has caused an interna tional outcry against South African secu rity laws. “Biko was not assaulted by anyone in my presence,” Snyman told Martinus Prins, Pretoria’s Chief Magistrate who presided at the inquiry. The official autopsy report was submits ted in evidence and showed there was exi tensive brain damage and an abrasion on Biko’s left forehead. The report said this led to blood circulation problems, coagula tion of the blood and acute kidney failure^ The police officer said following the Sept. 7 incident, “Biko still had a wild exj pression in his eyes and I noted he had a noticeable swelling on his upper lip. He also spoke incoherently and with a lisp.” He was left in the room — shackled and chained — until the next day. “The degree of force used on Steve Biko on September 7, 1977 to bring him under control was reasonable, and only as much as was needed to pin him to the floor and handcuff him,” Snyman said.