IThe Battalion
Vol.71 No. 103
14 Pages
Wednesday, February 22, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Wednesday
Sailing Club seeks new waters, p.
10.
Baseball team beats McNeese State
13-3, p. 12.
Basketball team ends season with
81-75 win over Rice, p. 13.
Indiana governor asks
for federal intervention
Vtaynard Ferguson and his 13-piece orchestra brought an electrify
ing jazz concert to Rudder Theater Tuesday night, and more than
2,000 attended. Please see related review, page 10.
United Press International
The governor oflndiana — “astounded”
at lack of congressional action — de
manded immediate federal intervention
in the coal strike that is slowly strangling
his state’s economy.
But governors of four other coal-
producing states urged Congress to keep its
hands off the explosive issue and allow the
negotiating process to run its course.
For 160,000 striking members of the
United Mine Workers, shipments of “scab
coal” from non-union mines spawned rage
and violence as the creeping paralysis of the
79-day-old walkout spread.
The Tennessee Valley Authority re
ported coal stocks down to a 24-day supply.
A new snowstorm howling across the state
threatens rapid depletions. TVA’s power
famine was futher aggravated by indica
tions that a voluntary 20 percent reduction
sought in electricity usage is falling short of
the mark.
Industry officials said they could not
make such a reduction and stay in business.
“We cannot come close to 20 percent
without shutting down and sending people
home, said Dan Ash, an assistant vice
president of Rohm & Haas at Knoxville.
“We intend to avoid getting into the layoff
stage if at all possible. ”
“You’ve got to run these units or not,”
said Howard McCutcheon, general man
ager of Knox Iron. “You either melt steel or
you don’t.
In hard-pressed Indiana, Gov. Otis R.
Bowen fired off an angry telegram to the
White House demanding immediate fed
eral intervention to end the strike.
“I was astounded to learn today of the
attitude of the congressional leadership,
which, according to news accounts, is one"
of hesitancy to do anything until disaster
actually is upon us, he said.
Even as Bowen called out 250 more Na
tional Guardsmen to ride shotgun in de
fense of non-union coal shipments to the
state’s power plants, merchants in Terre
Haute announced the closing of three
shopping malls and most of the city’s
downtown businesses every Tuesday until
the strike is ended.
Mandatory power cutbacks left Indiana
school children wearing coats in chilly
classrooms and school officials trimming
the school week.
As coal mine operators and UMW offi
cials returned to the bargaining table, the
governors of West Virginia, Ohio, Ken
tucky and Pennsylvania took issue with
Bowen’s call for federal intervention. They
demanded, instead, that union and man
agement officials get down to business and
settle their differences.
Kentucky Gov. Julian Carroll said fed
eral intervention would aggravate rather
than settle the strike. The best way to settle
this is through the bargaining process.”
Govs. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia,
Milton Schapp of Pennsylvania and James
A. Rhodes of Ohio endorsed the stand.
In Springfield, Ill., where city officials
won a court order limiting picketing aimed
at non-union coal shiments, miners were
outraged. About 200 of them showed up at
a City Council meeting where purchase of
10,000 tons of such coal from Kentucky was
approved.
“We want all the scab coal to stop coming
into Illinois from Kentucky and other
states,” said UMW official Dennis Skeldon.
About 600 pickets closed non-union op
erations in three Ohio counties Monday
night, even as state police escorted a seven-
truck convoy of coal to Columbus.
“Private individuals and private com
panies are being terrorized to the point
they can’t even operate,” said Rex Corns, a
member of the convoy.
Eastern states, where most of the na
tion’s deep-mine coal is produced, were
prime victims of the strike’s violence and
electrical shortages. But UMW pickets
were out in Colorado and a union official
there said it will take more than the Taft-
Hartley Act to get his men back in the pits.
“We ve stayed out for three months now
and we can stay out for three more,” said
Frank Karnely, of Somerset.
Probe confirms count
of drug trafficking
razos county deputies
15 of 60 warrants
erve
BY TERESA HUDDLESTON
Iteen hot check writers were taken by
rise Monday night as Brazos County
Sty constables conducted another raid
llect on area hot checks,
le deputies last raid was on Jan. 26.
Re started with 60 warrants this time
vere only able to serve 15 of them,”
Stable E.W. Sayers said,
ft he said that people are beginning to
jthem seriously. Last time they sent
summonses and only 15 percent
answered on time.
[his time we mailed out 140 sum-
Ises and over 50 percent were an-
red,” Sayers said.
Tdore warrants are issued, the hot
Ik writer has several chances to pay his
Alien a hot check comes back from the
the merchant will notify the writer
Nome in and pay. If this fails, a regis-
Id letter is sent to the writer telling him
Hie has 10 days to come in and pay.
I If after 10 days the check still has not
i paid, a copy of the registered letter is
nt to the county attorney. The county
Orney’s office gives it to the justice of
ice court.
jnie Justice of peace court sends sum-
pses to everyone who has been sent a
jtr. After 10 days, arrest warrants are
[ed for anyone who has not paid his
cks.
IThe summons is just a courtesy,”
Sayers said. “We don’t have to send them
out.”
After a summones is sent, a $27.50 fine
is charged to the hot check passer. If a
warrant is issued, an additional $7 charge
is added. After three warrants have been
sent, $10 is added for each additional war
rant.
Two of the fifteen people served war
rants Monday were arrested because they
were unable to pay the check and the fine.
One was released a few hours later when a
friend paid the debt. The other is still in
jail and has the option of posting bond or
remaining in jail until money arrives.
If someone is unable to pay he can sit in
jail for $5 a day until he has paid the bond
oft. For the usual bond of $200 that would
mean spending 40 days in jail.
Deputies set out to collect $3,900 in
Monday night’s raid, but were able to col
lect only $1,000 in checks and fines.
Sayers said that four of the people they
had warrants for had moved out of state.
“There is nothing we can do to them
now but beg them to make restitution,”
Sayers said.
Those who paid their checks and fines
will not have the incident put on their
police record.
Those who were not found will have a
record connected with their driver’s
license number. If they are stopped any
where in the state by police and their
driver’s license checked , the officer will
find they are wanted in Brazos County.
They then will be held until they pay the
check and fine.
Sayers said the worst problem they had
in serving the warrants was bad addresses.
“Merchants try to handle the checks
themselves because they think that it is
going to cost them a lot of money,” he
said. “By the time they send a letter to the
county attorney, the person has usually
moved.
“If they (merchants) filed right away
they would get good results. It only costs
them the money for a registered letter and
we can do a more efficient job.”
Sayers said that the county will conduct
the raids as often as the hot checks stack
up in the future.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Panama’s Gen.
Omar Torrijos has known for years of drug
trafficking by Panamanian officials. Traf
ficking which prompted the Nixon admin-
sitration in 1973 to consider assassinating a
key Panamanian official, the Senate has
been informed.
The Senate was going into its second
day of secret sessions today to continue
scrutinizing persistent drug allegations
against Torrijos family members and other
high Panamanian officials.
The Nixon administration plot for the
“total and complete immobiliztion” of one
unidentified Panamanian official in Janu
ary and February 1973 was never carried
put, the Senate was told Tuesday by Sen.
Birch Bayh, D-Ind., the chairman of its
Intelligence Committee.
Bayh said although the assassination
idea was dropped, other devious efforts to
pressure Panama into cracking down on
drug traffickers were put into effect.
A public version of Bayh’s report did not
identify the assassination target. But a re
cent two-month UPI inquiry into the ding
allegations indicated it probably was Col.
Manuel A. Noriega, chief of Panama’s in
telligence services.
A Justice Department official aquainted
with details of the plot declined to com
ment.
Bayh’s report corroborated various of
the drug allegations uncoverd in the UPI
investigation.
Senate reaction to the Intelligence
Committee revelations was generally low
key among both treaty supporters and op
ponents.
“They’ve placed no ' smoking gun’ in
Omar Torrijos’ hand,” Sen Allan Cranston,
D-Calif., said. ‘And he won’t be the
Maximum Leader by the year 2000 any
way. I don’t think the drug issue will have
any effect at all on the Senate vote. The
trend in the Senate — as in the country —
is still in favor of the treaties. Today we
reached the 60 mark in committed votes
for it.”
“Nothing’s been said this morning that
has not been in the public domain,” Sen.
Jesse Helms, R-N.C., a fervent opponent,
said.
Meanwhile, a federal judge refused to
rule whether the House had a right to vote
on the Panama Canal treaties. U.S. Dis
trict Judge Barrington Parker dismissed
suit by 60 congressmen who claimed Pres
ident Carter violated their constitutional
right to vote on disposal of U.S. property
by sending the treaties only to the Senate
for ratification.
Also, the Justice Department Tuesday
unsealed the secret May 1972 indictment
in the New York of Torrijos brother,
Moises Torrijos. A bench warrant for
Moises Torrijos arrest was issued May 16,
1972, for heroin smuggling into the United
States.
Omar Torrijos told two senators last
December and repeated to a visiting At
lanta journalist last weekend he would
put his brother in jail if the United States
provided proof of his guilt in drug traf
ficking.
“Some sources,” Bayh said, “have
provided intelligence which we view as re
liable and which we believe suggests that
General Torrijos knew about narcotics traf
ficking by government officials and did not
take sufficient action to stop his brother’s
activities.
“Intelligence reports also contain other
allegations asserting that General Torrijos
assisted his brother. However, our inves
tigation has turned up no conclusive evi
dence that could be used in court of law,”
Bayh said.
Congressman blasts
canal pacts. Carter
Mass transportation
priority is to increase
vehicle occupancy
Rf
orps of Cadets
fficers announced
Pobert J. Kamensky of San Angelo and
oft E. Patton of Sherman have been
med to top leadership posts in Texas
tM University’s 1978-79 Corps of
idets.
Kamensky will be corps commander,
tb rank of cadet colonel of the corps. As
puty commander, Patton will be a cadet
lonel.
They assume the posts May 6 at Final
iview, the Corps’ last formal military ac-
ity of the school year.
|Appointment of Kamensky and Patton
as announced by Army Col. James R.
ctodall, commandant, with the approval
Texas A&M University President Jarvis
filer.
A Naval ROTC cadet and nuclear engi-
;ering major, Kamensky will succeed
like Gentry of Huntsville. Patton, an ag-
pltural economics major and Army con
tract cadet, succeeds Ken Donnally of Gar
land.
They were chosen early in the spring
semester so they could select other Corps
officers for 1978-79 from next year’s senior
class.
Air Force Col. Kenneth W. Durham
and Marine Corps Col. Jack Ivins also were
involved in screening the new corps lead
ers. They head Texas A&M’s Air Force and
navel ROTC programs.
Kamensky has completed all three of his
NROTC cruises, a prerequisite to a com
mission in the U.S. Navy. Patton will at
tend Army field training this summer at
Fort Riley, Kan.
Both are active in numerous student or
ganizations and activities, have been dis
tinguished students and have better than
3.0 grade point ratios. Kamensky was corps
sergeant major this year; Patton, corps
supply sergeant.
By LYNN BLANCO
One “short term priority” of the mass
transportation system is to increase the oc
cupancy of vehicles in the 20th century,
said Dr. Ron Holder, program director of
Texas Transportation Institution.
In a speech presented by the Great Is
sues Committee Monday, Holder said the
average private vehicle carries 1.25 per
sons, while in 1955 the average was 4 ner-
sons. Holder also said by utilizing car and
van pools, and more buses, fewer vehicles
will be needed in the future.
“The automobile will continue to be the
backbone of the urban system. Cars have
become smaller and there may even be
electric automobiles in the future,” he
said.
“I think we will pay whatever price we
have to pay for gas before we give up the
automobile regardless of ecomonic im
pact,” Holder said.
One reason Holder believes Americans
will retain their cars, is that they afford an
“element of personal independence” not
found in public transportation. “The au
tomobile is very popular and it would be
tough to do away with it,” he said.
Holder also said it would take more than
25 years to change present forms of urban
transportation. There will still be conges
tion in larger cities.
“Congestion will be here as long as we
live. No technology we've come up with
yet has been able to eliminate it.” By
utilizing mass transportation however,
more people can be moved on the free
ways, he said.
He said some ways to motivate people
to ride buses and to participate in car pools
are:
• Utilizing unused frontage roads and
shoulders' of highways;
• Having a freeway control lane, with
special entry at the ramp for high oc
cupancy vehicles, through a system of
stop lights;
• Having reserve lanes (concurrent
flow) clearing traffic for bus flow;
• Having reserve lanes (contraflow)
where traffic flows in opposite directions
in the same section of the highway, and
• Having an exclusive bus-car lane.
Holder said plans in Houston were ap
proved in November for a reserve lane
(contraflow) system for the North Free
way. Even though traffic flows in the op
posite directions in the contraflow system,
there are fewer hazards than in the con
current flow system. In the concurrent
system cars are traveling at a slower speed
and cars that cross into the reserve lane
traveling at faster speeds cause many acci
dents.
Two other solutions Holder suggested
were to build more highways and stagger
work hours. He said that soon there will
be no more land available to build more
highways and in Houston alone there is
a two-and-a-half hour peak for work traffic.
BY MARILYN BROWN
President Carter has made many er
roneous and misleading statements to the
American public concerning the Panama
Canal treaties, says Congressman Philip
M. Crane, R-Ill.
Crane argued in opposition to the
treaties in a Political Forum debate here
Monday night. His adversary was Sen.
Donald W. Riegle, D-Mich. Crane was the
audience’s overwhelming favorite.
Crane criticized the President for stating
in the Ford-Carter debates that he would
never give up the Panama Canal. “The only
lie Jimmy told us was when he said he
would never lie. Crane said.
The Carter administration has launched
a massive campaign to win public support
of the treaties. It has lobbied every U.S.
senator and Carter has met with more than
1500 community leaders across the nation.
Crane referred to Carter’s statement that
the last four presidents have endorsed the
treaties and said, “I know that Jimmy has
unusual pipelines but how he communi
cated with Harry Truman, Dwight Eisen
hower and L.B.j., I just don t know.
President Carter said last October that
the United States “never bought it (the
canal zone), we never owned it, and we re
not giving it away.” Crane said that the
United States paid Panama $90 million to
obtain “free and unchallenge title to the
canal zone, as well as $10 million in gold to
obtain building rights for the canal. The
Supreme Court in 1907 declared that title a
“complete and total transfer of of that land
to the U.S. government” and upheld that
ruling in 1972, Crane said.
He said it was true that the United States
would not be giving away the canal if the
treaties were ratified.
“We are paying them to take it. Crane
said. The treaties call for the U.S. to pay
Panama about $2 million over the next 20
years to maintain the canal zone.
Sen. Riegle argued that the canal “is not
our property. It is true that we built it, we
manage it, and we payed for it, but that
doesn’t make it ours. Riegle did not sup
port this position.
Riegle said he thinks the key issue is not
who owns or operates the canal but that all
nations have unrestricted use of it and that
the United States have priority use of it in
times of emergency.
The Senate added two amendments to
the treaties to guarantee the United States'
perpetual right to protect the canal with
troops and to take first passage through the
canal in case of emergency.
“I don’t care who runs the canal as long as
I’m absolutely guaranteed that it will re
main neutral and in operation,” Riegle
said.
Crane called that neutrality in the zone
and U.S. right to intervention “contradic
tory goals.” He said U.S. security will be
jeopardized if the canal zone is given up.
“Once Old Glory goes down and the
Panama flag goes up, Torrijos (Panama s
leader since the 1969 revolution) can tear
the treaty tip at any time,” Crane said.
The United Nations and international
law uphold the right of nationalization.
International law transcends treaties and
agreements between nations, Crane said.
He said if Panama were to nationalize the
canal the only recourse the U.S. would
have to protect its l ights would be to send
in troops. That would be by definitin a dec
laration of war.
(See Carter, page 9)
Applications taken
for Aggieland,
Battalion editor
The Student Publications Board is ac
cepting applications for Summer and Fall
editorships ofThe Battalion and for 1978-79
editorships of the Aggieland.
Application forms may be obtained at the
Student Publications office, 216 Reed
McDonald Building, between 8 a. m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday.
Completed application forms should be
returned to Bob G. Rogers, chairman. Stu
dent Publications Board, 301 Reed
McDonald. Deadline for submission of ap
plications is 5 p.m. Monday, March 20,
1978.
Battalion summer editor will serve from
May 15 through August 24, 1978. Battalion
Fall Semester editor will serve from April
16, 1978, through December 1978 (with
the exception of the summer term.) Aggie
land editor will serve for the academic year
1978-79.
Qualifications for editor ofThe Battalion
are: 2.0 overall and major GPR at the time
of taking office and during the term of office
(all GPR references are to cumulative fig
ures). At least one year of experience in a
responsible editorial position on The Bat
talion or comparable student newspaper,
or at least one year of editorial experience
on a commercial newspaper, or at least 12
hours of journalism including Journalism
203 and 204 (Reporting and Editing I and
II) or equivalent. (The 12 hours must in
clude completion of Journalism 402 (Law)
or enrollment in Journalism 402 during the
semester served.)
Qualifications for editor of the Aggieland
are: 2.0 overall and major GPR at the time
of taking office and during the term of of
fice. At least one year in a responsible staff
position on the Aggieland or equivalent
yearbook experience elsewhere.