e Battalion
Inside Today:
HOORAY ,
WF WON l
Farmers fight too much, p. 2.
Aggies tithe too much, p. 9.
A&M scientists can’t research
enough, p. 6.
Wednesday, January 11, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Police arrest 40 farmers
for blockading in Laredo
An empty nest
Battalion photo by Jamie Aitlcen
A campus resident through the Christmas break casts an eye over
increasing activity near the University library as vacationing stu
dents return this week in preparation for the spring semester.
United Press International
LAREDO-SherifFs deputies and police
Tuesday arrested 40 striking farmers who
refused to lift a tractor blockade of a cold
storage plant near the Texas-Mexico bor
der.
The strikers were booked at the Webb
County Jail on misdemeanor charges of
blocking a public roadway and blocking
access to a business. All were released on
their personal recognizance before night
fall.
District Attorney Charles Borchers said
the farmers were given every opportunity
to disband from the plant and were shown
the law against blockades, but still refused
to leave voluntarily.
“We gave them every opportunity in the
world,” Borchers said. “They just wanted
national attention. We tried to avoid all
that, but we couldn’t.”
The South Texas farmers parked tractors
in two entrances to the Laredo Cold Stor
age Co. Monday morning and refused to
move them despite a temporary restrain
ing order issued by District Judge James
Kazen. They were arrested after they ig
nored a 45-minute ultimatum issued by
Police chief W.V. Weeks.
Weeks and Sheriff Mario Santos or
dered the arrests and the formers offered
no resistance.
When a large crane arrived to drag off a
big tractor continuing to block the plant’s
main entrance, a farmer mounted the trac
tor and drove it away voluntarily to avoid
damage to the vehicle.
“We re back to normal,” said Danny
Barrera, manager of the plant. “We didn’t
want to resort to this action but they
(farmers) just didn’t want to cooperate. ”
The farmers blockaded the plant to pro
test imports of frozen beef carcasses,
strawberries and other commodities from
Mexico. They said imports of Mexican
beef alone cost American farmers $67 mil
lion a year.
The same goup of farmers on Monday
also blockaded the import area at the
busiest U.S.-Mexico border crossing and
turned back several truckloads of meat and
other produce. Police and U.S. Customs
officials said the farmers did not renew the
border blocade Tuesday.
As many as 100 farmers brought 20 trac
tors and numerous other vehicles to
Laredo on Sunday in the first major strike
lu epidemic a certainty,
Jjealth center staff waiting
Dr. Claude Goswick
By JAMIE AITKEN
Battalion Editor
When some 29,000 students return for
spring classes Monday, they will bring
along with them enough influenza to start
an epidemic that is expected to last until
mid-March. And the staff at the Univer
sity s A.P. Beutel Health Center is wait
ing.
The influenza strains currently sweep
ing the nation - A-Texas and A-Victoria
that have been discovered in 25 states in
January alone - will, be so concentrated on
the Texas A&M University campus next
week that a community-wide epidemic is
certain, says Health Center Director Dr.
Claude Goswick.
Goswick says flu patients will begin fill
ing the health center waiting room the
second week of the semester.
“It will take a week or so for it to get
around,” Goswick says. “Most students
are at home now healthy. But with the
weather we have, we’re not getting the
sun’s ultraviolet waves’ sterilizing effect,
'old spell may affect
upply, cost of fuel
c
By GLENNA WHITLEY
Battalion Staff
Ithough this winter has been milder
ilastwinter, the recent cold weather in
Brazos Valley could affect the supply
cost of gas and electrical power,
f it stays severely cold for a period of
it does affect the supply because
lie use more,” said John West, credit
accounting supervisor of Lone Star Gas
ipany. Lone Star Gas provides gas to
lents and area power plants.
'eople will be using it faster than you
pump it to them” West said. “You may
the supply but you can’t get it to them
enough."
the weather does get severely cold for
xtended period of time. Lone Star Gas
reduce its supplies to large industrial
■s of gas, West said. The gas supply to
er plants producing electricity for
an and College Station will be cur-
id, and the plants will have to bum
e expensive fuel oil to produce the elec-
ty needed.
The higher cost of the fuel oil is repre
sented in fuel adjustment charges that
users sometimes receive.
“Texas is lucky because it doesn’t have
very cold weather over a long period of
time,” West said. “And this year’s winter is
much milder than last year’s. Several days
last year we set records in gas used.” He
added that the gas supply to area public
schools had to be curtailed last winter.
Interstate gas prices are regulated by the
federal government, but prices in Texas are
based on supply and demand. West said
prices have been escalating rapidly since
1971, so price increases due to the in
creased consumption during cold weather
are hard to predict.
“It’s hard to tell if it’s (increased con
sumption) is due to the cold weather or the
energy crisis,” West said.
But there is some good news. The more
gas you use to heat your home in the
winter, the less you pay per cubic foot. Gas
prices are based on a sliding scale, West
said. “You pay more per cubic foot in sum
mer because you use less.”
and students will be coming back into
these crowded conditions.
“It will last until spring break, and that
saves us.”
Although the epidemic is certain, Gos
wick says it is also predictable.
He estimates that by mid-March half
the Texas A&M population may be treated
for the flu a caseload he says is no worse
than last year at this time.
Hospital rounds were made twice daily
last year to discharge patients as quickly as
possible to make room for a waiting list of
incoming patients. The health center’s 44
beds were full the entire eight weeks be
fore the spring break dispersed students
and illnesses.
To cope with the expected flu patients at
the center this year, Goswick says an ex
press clinic will be set up at various hours
of the day to lessen waiting time. The “one
item or less” clinic, as Goswick refers to it,
will be used to treat patients complaining
of symptoms that can be diagnosed with a
minimum of time and effort, such as sore
throats, rashes and ear aches.
However, patients taking their flu to the
health center will find little more for what
ails them than can be received at home.
For that overall achiness, congestion and
fever, Goswick recommends flu sufferers
take aspirin for the pain, drink plenty of
liquids and get lots of rest. As a personal
New hours for the A.P. Be*
utel Health Center have been
put into effect beginning with
the spring semester 1978.
Monday - Friday: 8 a.m. to 4
p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. to 12 noon
Emergency treatment: 24 hours,
845-1511
preference, Goswick also recommends
drinking Jello, for the taste and nourish
ment.
Otherwise, he says, the health center
may dispense some additional antibiotics,
but only to combat secondary infections.
Goswick says antibiotics do nothing to
cure the flu.
“The flu is going to run its course,”
Goswick says. “We assume a student’s not
going to get the flu more than once (in the
next two months), and it should only take
two or three days to get over it in most
activity in South Texas.
In East Texas, between 35 and 40 trac
tors temporarily blocked entrances to the
Campbell Soup company in Paris, Texas.
The farmers allowed small vehicles to
enter the plant but stopped transport
trucks at the main gate.
A small group of farmers met with com
pany officials shortly after the blockade
began and within two and one-half hours
the tractors were withdrawn.
In the Texas Panhandle Tuesday, about
60 farmers filed application for food stamps
with the State Department of Human Re
sources in Morton, 40 miles West of Lub
bock. They said they would apply also for
free school lunches for their children.
In Lamesa, about 300 tractors rolled
through the two 60 miles south of Lubbock
and many farm related businesses shut
down in support of the farmers. Meetings
were planned in Olton and Muleshoe as
members of the American Agriculture
Movement were angered by statements
from Secretary Bob Bergland that their
demands for 100 percent parity would lead
ito a Soviet-style bureacracy.
Representatives of the South Texas
strikers were among a delegation of seven
farmers that went to Austn Tuesday to
meet with Gov. Dolph Briscoe and insist
upon a special session of the Legislature.
Craig Bryant of Elgin said the farmers
would seek the Legislature’s endorsement
of the strike and for legislation lowering
tax apprisals of agricultural land.
No special session to be called
Briscoe endorses farmers
United Press International
AUSTIN-Gov. Dolph Briscoe Tuesday rejected striking farm
ers’ requests for a special legislative session, but endorsed their
movement for break-even prices for farm products.
Briscoe said the present farm system was unworkable and
immediate federal action was needed to remedy it.
Briscoe and House Speaker Bill Clayton met with eight repre
sentatives of the American Agriculture movement who had
asked for a special session to consider a constitutional amend
ment giving tax breaks to formers. The formers discussed their
problems with state officials after a lamb dinner at the governor’s
mansion. v
Texas Agriculture commissioner Reagan Brown said earlier
Tuesday that the tax break could wait until the next regular
session in January 1979.
“At the present time, I do not anticipate a special session,”
Briscoe said. “It will be useless to call such a session unless we
are assured we could pass such a constitutional amendment.”
Attorney General John Hill ruled last year that a bill taxing
agricultural land on productivity, rather than market value was
unconstitutional. Hill said such a measure would have to take
the form of a constitiutional amendment to be considered by
voters.
Briscoe said he and Clayton would issue a statement Wednes
day urging immediate action by Congress and the Carter admin
istration in support of 100 percent parity and better market
prices for farm goods.
The governor said he will poll House and Senate members to
gather support for farmers.
“1 think the important thing to stress is the urgency of the
situation,” Briscoe said. “I have started to make appointments
for them in Washington to meet with congressmen and adminis
tration officials.”
Gerald McCathern, a Hereford, Texas, former and strike
spokesman, said the group felt the meeting was successful and
was encouraged by Briscoe’s support of the movement for 100
percent parity.
“We feel the governor understands the problem and will help
us achieve our goals,” McCathern said. “What we were con
cerned with was getting a commitment from the government of
the state of Texas to get their understanding and support. ”
The farmers said they would conduct a tractorcade demon
stration to the state capitol Wednesday morning before they
attend a meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture
which invited their testimony.
Road weary
Battalion photo by Jamie Aitken
You meet a lot of friendly people but there’s also a
lot of cold, windy waits hitch-hildng this time of
year, confessed Cathy Edwards, 21, on her way
out of College Station Tuesday. Her sidekick,
Brandy, seemed to agree to the latter as he looked
for a more promising way out of town.
Two routes available
Buses start Monday
Trial intra-campus bus service linking
the main and west campuses of Texas
A&M begins Jan. 16 at 7:05 a.m.
Two routes, known as Green and Red,
begin each morning at the comer of Lub
bock and Bizzell streets on all regularly
scheduled class and exam days during the
spring semester.
Buses will be at each stop about every
10 minutes until 5 p.m.
The service is free, but riders may be
requested to show a student, staff or fac
ulty identification card.
Green Route moves north to parking lot
50, west to the College of Veterinary
Medicine and south to the new College of
Agriculture buildings. It serves lots 56 and
61 before returning to campus and stop
ping near Rudder Tower. The bus then
returns to its point of origin.
Red Route proceeds to Rudder Tower,
south to Jersey Street and across the rail
road to lots 56 and 61 and the agriculture
class buildings. It then enters Wellborn
Road and travels to the College of Veteri
nary Medicine. Returning on University
Drive to the main campus. Red Route
stops at Milner Hall and goes back to its
starting place.
Both routes make one off-campus stop
on University Drive.
The free trial intra-campus buses will be
in addition to regular off-campus shuttle
service for which there is a charge.
Court award woman $15,000
in Michigan alimony ruling
United Press International
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan
Court of Appeals has ruled a woman who
puts her husband through school deserves
a financial reward if the marriage goes bad
— even if he has not yet started to earn big
money.
The court’s decision, announced Tues
day, came in the case of a couple divorced
after seven years.
“This case presents the not uncommon
situation of a wife who, having worked so
that her husband could obtain a profes
sional education, finds herself left by the
roadside before the fruits of that education
can be harvested,” the appeals court said.
The wife, Susan J. Moss, worked as a
guidance counselor while her husband,
Lee, was in medical school. The court said
Moss currently is a surgical resident in
Maryland.
Although the couple acquired no sub
stantial assets during the marriage —
partly because of the husband’s education
costs — a trial court judge awarded the
wife $15,000, to be paid in three install
ments beginning six months after the
judgment was entered.
Both parties appealed that ruling. The
wife said the sum was not enough — that
she should get $60,000 — and the husband
said she shouldn’t get any alimony since
she currently is earning more than he is.
The appeals court upheld the alimony
award.
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