The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 73
14 Pages
Wednesday, December 14, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Today:
Christmas in Aggieland, pgs. 10-11.
The computer may be the newest
household pet, p. 8.
Ags prepare for Bluebonnet Bowl,
p. 13.
ji
ornado kills
ouston dazed
United Press International
6r«liuiJ ^HOUSTON — As was his custom, G. J.
Jartin, 77, sat on the front porch to col-
jkt his morning thoughts, concerned
incipally with his chewing tobacco and
e spitting distance of the nearby coffee
spittoon.
11 was quiet and still on a rainy Tues-
in December, but then he heard that
e — a roar which another witness de-
udent-atUjribed as “an old buzz saw” — screaming
ough his neighborhood.
Mama, it’s a cyclone for sure,” he
it strictly| outed through the screen door to his
pros, C-jf-year-old wife.
1,1 JMesmerized, they froze as a surprise
WOn Ill ®nado ripped across their line of sight
pdinto the wooded countryside northeast
u .' “^■Hcuston. One person died and about 40
mi .'l hers were injured in the brief but in-
1 Slll ?* t i l 11 nse storm produced by a morning thun-
11 " ar . e irstorm.
re football „
er sport ^ a P a was sitting on the front porch. He
nique am ‘t ^1- J us t sat there and watched,”
Whileit j ^ rs> Martin, who was changing a
000 (hint ttbulb when the house started shaking,
isnotonlij light bulb is sitting where I left it.
widest pi t matter. Got no electricity, anyhow,”
esaid after the storm.
The storm created havoc among rush-
drivers.
Billy Hester Burton, 54, died of a skull
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the storm flipped his truck in the 5700
block of Oats Road.
The huge thunderstorm covered south
east Texas with heavy rain and hail and
later produced two more twisters. The
first struck near the small town of Crosby
to the east; the second, the eastern edge of
downtown Houston.
At Frank Lawrence’s American Auto
Parts store no one was injured but those
who gathered after the storm joked ner
vously and recalled their impressions of
the minute-long ordeal.
“This is the first tornado I’ve been
through,” said Lawrence, 39, “I’ve often
wondered what it looked like up close. I
got a bird’s eye view this time.
“It was black and whirling. It was very
dark. The whole thing started out about 10'
after eight. Then it got quiet for a second.
Then it sounded like an old buzz saw
cranking off.”
For the next minute or so things got a
little confused around the auto parts store
that sits at the intersection of Liberty Road
and what locals call the Old Beaumont
Highway.
“That’s when the glass came flying
through the office. I didn’t have to tell
anyone to hit the floor, but everybody did.
I did, too,” he said.
“I don’t think we got the full force of it,
judging by other damage. I believe we’d
been dead, if we got hit hard here. We got
the fringe of it rather than the full center.
It scared the dickens out of everybody.
But there’s a lot of people worse off than
we are.”
Ambulance Division Chief L. O.
“Whitey” Martin of the Houston Fire De
partment said an estimated 600 buildings
were damaged in some way by the twister.
The twister first struck along U.S. 90
about five miles from the middle of
downtown, and moved on the ground
northeast in a straight line five miles long
and 100 to 500 feet wide.
Law enforcement officials said looters
descended quickly and Harris County dep
uties cordoned off the area while tele
phone and utility company personnel
worked in a second rainstorm to restore
power and other services.
“There’ll probably be at least 60 to 80
offduty policemen out because people
arent’ people anymore,” said deputy Ron
Genovese. “They got to steal.
Don Wernly, spokesman for the Na
tional Weather Service in Fort Worth,
said there was some indication of severe
weather, but not enough to issue a tornado
watch or warning.
“Right around sunrise is a minimum
period for this kind of weather,” he said.
“There wasn’t a watch out. Then the tor
nado was sighted and a warning was is
sued.”
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barter plane crashes,
lasketball team killed
United Press International
IeVANSVILLE, Ind. — Two minutes
jftcr takeoff Tuesday night, with no time
to get off a radio message, the chartered
i PC-3 carrying the University of
V€ aO i l ansv i\i e basketball team plunged into a
og-shrouded ravine, killing all 29 on
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vice.
mourning and cancelled classes for its
3,000 students.
“It’s a tragedy that defies description,”
said university President Wallace Graves.
Authorities originally reported 31 per
sons aboard the plane Tuesday night on
the basis of a Federal Aviation Administra
tion passenger manifest. But one of those
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Only one lived long enough to reach a
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is Greg Smith, 18, of West Frankfort,
generated hill., died early today in an Evansville hos-
nientionrifital.
The plane, owned by National Jet Serv-
ng taxpaiffice Inc. of Indianapolis, went down about
A lot ofpei^S miles east of the main runway at Dress
igional Airport in this Ohio River city.
“The plane disappeared into the fog and
ut a minute and a half later I heard the
igine cutting out, and it went down,”
dRick Notter, an airport worker. “I saw
explode in flame.”
Airport manager James Stapleton said
e plane struck below the crest of the
all hill at a time when visibility was
ee-quarters of a mile, but fog was heavy
places.
“Bodies in the front were melted into
wreckage,” said Stapleton, who rushed
the crash site. “Some of the bodies were
ised into a gully. It was a tragic, grue-
|me scene. ”
Killed in the crash of the vintage, twin-
ipeller plane were all 24 passengers and
e crew members. Among the
issengers were Coach Bobby Watson,
ortscaster Marvin Bates and executives
the charter firm.
The team was flying to Nashville,
inn., for a game tonight at Middle Ten-
issee State at Murfreesboro.
tmrn*9j^ e University of Evansville, once a
lidwestern small college basketball pow-
| | house which moved into major college
l/fil impetition this season, declared a day of
owerhouse
Iream ended
or the Aces
United Press International
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A dream died
uesday night.
The University of Evansville basketball
am, long a power in NCAA Division II,
ined the “big boys” in Division I this
ason with great expectations for the fu-
ire.
But the latest in a long list of air sports
agedies wiped out the Aces and new
>ach Bobby Watson when their chartered
ne crashed in dense fog shortly after
eoff and burst into flames.
The team was en route to Nashville,
[enn., and was scheduled to play Middle
[ennessee tonight.
Watson, 34, took over from the retired
rad McCutcheon this fall and recruited a
am that included eight freshmen. They
ropped three of their first four games,
ut Watson didn’t seem to be too dis-
irbed. He was convinced he could sell his
ogram and build the Aces into a pow-
house once more.
During McCutcheorv s 30-year coaching
ign, the Aces won the Division II cham-
ionship five time — in 1959, 1960, 1964,
165 and 1971. The 1964 team featured
Wy Sloan, later of the Chicago Bulls,
ho last spring agreed to take the
vansville coaching job, then abruptly
ranged his mind.
on the list, student radio announcer Mark
Moulton, decided to skip the trip because
he had the flu.
Witnesses said the aircraft plowed into
the 50-foot hill, snapping both wings and
the fuselage. Bodies, duffel bags, sporyi '
equipment and college leather jackets
were tossed onto the slope.
Sunny studies
Wildlife and Fisheries graduate student Shad
Wendorf finds that open-air studying beats the
crowded conditions in the library during finals
week. The library will close at midnight tonight,
ending this week’s continuous operation.
Battalion staff photo
Strength of farm strike questioned
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United Press International
There will be no quick way to measure the impact
of the first nationwide farmers strike, but — except
for the strikers themselves —- most agricultural ob
servers are skeptical about the farmers’ chances for
success.
The strike apparently is limited to grain farmers
and veteran grain speculators doubt that if the mar
ket rises the farmers will stick to their pledge not lo
sell their crops.
The timing of the strike should prevent its effects
from being felt for at least several months.
With the harvest past and the winter wheat
planted, the cold months of the year usually find
farmers in the kitchen talking low and warming
their hands around a coffee cup.
“I don’t expect we ll know anything until spring,”
said Tom Sand, a spokesman for Agriculture Secre
tary Bob Bergland.
The strikers, led by a maverick group called
American Agriculture, say they’re going broke. A
bushel of wheat costs about $5 to grow. It sells for
$2.45.
Thousands of farmers have said they won’t sell
any more crops until they get at least a break-even
price for crops. No one, not even strike leaders,
knows how many farmers will keep their promise,
or for how long.
“We would be fishing if we tried to say what will
happen,” said Jordan Hollander, a director on the
Chicago Board of Trade. “We don’t have an an
swer.”
Milk farmers, poultrymen, cattle ranchers and
hog producers are not expected to join the strike.
“We have perishable products,” said Wray Fin
ney, immediate past president of the National Cat
tlemen’s Association. “Were in much the same
situation as people in the milk and poultry busi
ness.”
Wheat farmers are a different story. Fall harvest
in the West was good, and grain storage bins are
full. More than two billion bushels of wheat were
harvested in the nation during 1977, and one-fifth of
the crop is under federal price support loans.
Therein lies what American Agriculture farmers call
their “ace in the hole.”
If their plans work, the federal government will
find itself in the position of partly financing the
strike.
“The way this new farm bill is set up, it gives the
family farmer an out,” said organizer Bob Keenan in
Denver. “He can get government loans on his grain,
and he can give that money to the banker or his
financing company and take some of the pressure
off.”
Under federal price support loans, a program
which started in the New Deal, farmers use their
stored grain for collateral.
Money from the federal loans would be paid to
banks and finance companies holding notes on
farms, like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Travis
Waller, president of the First National Bank in the
small rural town of Springfield, Colo., says it will
work.
“The farmer can put his products in government
loan and get almost as much as he could by selling
them,” said Waller. “Plus, he is still retaining con
trol of his product, holding it off the market. And
there is no problem qualifying for the federal loans.
Waller, whose bank has $14 million out in loans to
farmers, said he believes the farm strike will at least
alert the American public to the plight of the
farmer. “To say I wasn’t worried at all would be
somewhat of a misnomer,” he said. “But I’m still
able to sleep at night.”
Small rural banks that have loaned up to their
legal limit pass off some of the loan notes to larger
banks, such as the Colorado National Bank in Den
ver. Charles Kirk, vice president at Colorado Na
tional, says the money from federal price support
loans should keep both farmers and small banks out
of financial trouble.
Much of the skepticism about the strike’s chances
for success derives from the belief farmers will not
stick together.
A long-time observer of the grain markets,
Rodericck Turnbull of the Kansas City Commodity
Market, said farmers lack the solidarity necessary
for a successful strike.
“It’s hard for me to believe that all farmers will
cooperate,” he said. “This is farmer against farmer.
You’ve got to remember that the fellow who raises
corn is one fellow and one who raises hogs and buys
the corn to feed them is another.”
Some grain speculators in Chicago say even if the
farmers withhold grain long enough to force prices
up a bit, some farmers will quietly begin selling
their grain bringing prices down again and breaking
the strike’s back.
“We had such a big wheat crop last fall that some
body, somehow, is going to sell grain,” said Hollan
der. “If the market is forced up, somebody will sell
quietly. It’s going to be awful hard to keep a finger
on the effects of this strike.
“It won’t be a fast moving thing,” said Hollander.
“We re running into the Christmas season now so
we don’t have a lot of selling anyway. We’re just
sitting back and seeing if it develops. ”
John McLenathan of the Illinois Grain Company
in Chicago said the strike will face its most serious
test in the spring. “If they still plant the big crops
this spring the affect of the strike could be pretty
minimal.”
None of the large farm organizations in the coun
try have officially endorsed the strike, although
many members said they would participate in an
effort to save the family farm, traditionally the
backbone of American agriculture.
A national farm strike in this country is without
precedent, but farmers once called for a strike in the
Midwest during the Great Depression. Farmers
marched on state capitals in a demand for relief and
moratoriums on foreclosures. The strike failed.
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Semblance of snow
Krueger Hall residents Leslie Coulter and Allyson Arnett have
decided to replace their door with a snowy window, despite the
warm weather outside. Battalion staff photo
Home-cooked meals offered
campus-bound internationals
By ROBIN LINN
Christmas for many students
means a good meal at home with
friends, but for some international
students who can’t make it home it’s
a chance to eat a holiday dinner with
local residents.
The program, a joint effort of the
Baptist Student Union and the
international students office, will
operate from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2.
They now have 30 families waiting
for international students to sign up
to eat a holiday dinner with them.
Texas A&M has some 1,000
international students enrolled from
75 countries, said Corky Sandel,
international student adviser.
“It is too expensive for some
international students to go home,
so this is a chance for us to share
some of our culture with them,” said
Bill Barnett, coordinating the pro
gram for the Baptist Student Union
(BSU). He added that many interna
tional students are hesitant when
they find out it’s a church sponsored
program.
Barnett said sponsors vary in their
religious denomination, even
though the program is worked
through BSU.
“My concern is getting commu
nity families who want to help, I
often don’t know what denomina
tion they are,” he said.
The first program this Thanksgiv
ing placed 20 students with local
families for turkey dinners with
dressing as well as a chance for
international students to find out
what the American family is like.
“We are trying to provide some
type of activity for international stu
dents so they can see how the
American family lives,” Barnett
said.
The service not only provides a
meal, but a chance to go out and do
things with the family. Students and
family are provided with a calendar
of events for December in the
Bryan-College Station area which
includes notes on interesting things
to do over the Christmas holidays.
Sandel said international students
add another dimension to A&M,
and are neglected as an educational
source for the local community.
Presently, Sandel is attempting to
form an “International Speakers
Bureau” which would involve the
international student in local affairs
by having them speak to classes at
public schools about their country.
Eventually, he hopes to set up a
hospitality committee to work with
international students.
Sandel said that international stu
dents that are interested in eating
dinner with a local family for
Christmas can sign up on the second
floor of the MSC.