Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
April 3, 1978
Getting tough
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In extremely tough talk to the Soviet Union, President Carter has warned,
“We will not allow any nation to gain military superiority over us” and will, if
necessary, match Moscow’s “massive” buildup in armed might.
Reacting immediately and angrily, the Kremlin accused the president of
having veered from the policy of detente and resorted to “a course of threats
and a buildup of tension.”
And so, Soviet-American relations have dropped to the coldest point since
Carter’s inauguration.
Despite this situation which does neither country any good. Carter is not
to blame. His early attempts at accommodation were taken as “weakness” in
Moscow, and he had no alternative but to speaking frankly and publicly
about the dangers of Russia’s adventurism in Africa.
The Soviet leaders think they can compartmentalize relations with the
United States. They wish to sign a treaty limiting strategic arms, on their
terms if possible, and to import advanced Amercian technology on easy
credit. At the same time they intend to keep knocking off targets of opportu
nity, as in Angola and Ethiopia, and to frighten our allies in Europe with
overwhelming armed forces.
Such a schizophrenic policy is possible only in a dictatorship. No one can
ask the Politburo, “How can you expect the Americans to believe in a SALT
agreement with us when we are trying to undermine their interests all over
the world?”
Carter, on the other hand, leads a democracy where issues are linked,
whether he likes it or not. For example, there isn’t the slightest chance that a
SALT treaty, even a fair one, could pass the Senate when Russia and its
Cuban mercenaries are running wild in Africa.
So Carter wasn’t threatening the Soviets, as they pretend. He was simply
stating a fact: the American people will not trust arms control and will not
permit economic and scientific cooperation unless the Kremlin restrains its
weapons buildup and its trouble-making in the Third World.
Moscow can have the kind of relations it wants with this country, mutally
beneficial ones or a replay of the cold war. It must understand that Ameri
cans are willing to cooperate, but not to roll over and play dead.
Scripps-Howard Newspapers
‘Don’t want no poor people’
By WILLIAM RASPBERRY
WASHINGTON — Randy Newman in
furiated millions of diminutive Americans
(and probably stands to make millions of
diminished dollars) with his scathing rock
putdown of “Short People. ”
would be just as happy to have a substan
tial part of the town’s dependent popula
tion pack up and leave.
Don't want no poor people...
"They got grubby little fingers and
dirty little minds.
They gonna get you every titne.
Don’t want no short people.
Don’t want no short people.
Don’t want no short people round
here.”
Commentary
There’s another putdown being played,
not on the air but in communities across
America. The words aren’t articulated, but
the meaning is clear: Don’t want no poor
people ’round here.
Some local examples:
What used to be known as “inner-city
rowhouses” in Northwest Washington are
being renovated into “restored town-
: houses” at a pace to make your head swirn./?
' The most notable effect of the process is tQ..
‘ convert a major stock of low-income hoi'
ing for blacks into residences for affluent
or up-and-coming whites.
Don’t want no...
The city government, though ostensibly
concerned for the plight of the displaced
poor, appears to be more concerned about
the windfall real-estate taxes generated by
the changeover. As a result, next to no
thing is being done to provide alternative
housing opportunities for the displacees.
In fact, one senses that the city fathers
One of the pioneers in the move to con
vert from slums and near-slums into
upper-income neighborhoods took the
pragmatic view that the area, with its
charming Victorian brick and brownstone
residences, is “too good” for the people
being driven out by the conversion. She
doesn’t want to be offensive, but her view
is that if people wish to live in slums, they
have options all over town. Or as she put
it, “They don’t have to live in a historic
district.”
Don’t want no poor people round here.
Across the Potomac River in Alexandria,
the ShirleV-Duke apartments, which ac-
for nearly 30 percent of Alexajidrifi s
t HWOnre4«5ttSing, are-beirrg shut down.
Other low- and moderate-income units are
either being closed or transformed for the
well-to-do.
Transformation of Alexandria’s charm
ing “Old Town” district from low-income
to rich is virtually complete. The low-
income families not being forced out di
rectly are being squeezed out indirectly
through rocketing real estate taxes result
ing from trebled and quadrupled property
values.
Don’t want no poor people round here.
Ask city officials what is supposed to
happen with the refugees of former slums,
and you get either blank looks or pieties.
They don’t mean to be cruel, of course,
but how can government officials charged
with raising revenues for city services ob
ject to a rapidly expanding tax base?
What they really expect is that the poor
people will move to either of two areas:
Southeast Washington, which is becoming
the catchbasin for the city’s low-income
families, or Prince George’s County,
virtually the only suburban jurisdiction
with any significant low-income housing.
Naturally enough, these two areas aren’t
exactly hankering to have poor people
around.
For instance, there was instant dismay
last week when HUD announced its inten
tion to rehabilitate the boarded-up Baber
Village low-income housing development
in Prince George’s County. There were no
racial implications this time. The yelps
came from residents of adjacent Pepper-
milrwulage, a middle-clase black de
velopment, who had been promised that
Baber Village would be razed rather than
restored.
“We were hoping that County Execu
tive Winfield Kelly would keep his prom
ise to raze the buildings,” one Peppermill
resident said. “The appearance of the
place, the littered streets and grounds and
the buildings themselves, were bringing
down property values.
“Many of the apartments had far more
children than were supposed to be there,
and the result was worn-out lawns, gullies
washed in the embankments, over
crowded schools. Also, my boys got beat
up a couple of times.
“(HUD Secretary) Pat Harris says it’s
going to be different this time, but it never
will work with all low-income people and
nobody to supervise. You ask the last 20
families to move out of Peppermill, and
they’ll tell you it’s because of Baber Vil
lage.”
County Executive Kelly was quoted as
saying he wants to “close the county’s
gates to the poor.
“They don’t build neighborhoods, join
church congregations, participate in
schools. That s a bit of a problem. I want a
solid middle-class county with pride, with
family ties, with stability.”
Baber Village, built by a church-related
group less than a decade ago as a promis
ing social experiment, was foreclosed by
HUD and finally boarded up two years
ago. The place had become an eyesore
and, worse, a cancer eating away at adja
cent property values.
They got grubby little habits and
dirty little minds.
They’ll get your property values
every time.
Don’t want no poor people round
here.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post
An alternative presidential election
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Ninety years ago,
the American people went to the polls and
the man who got the second largest
number of votes was elected president.
This had happened before, but under
circumstances that tended to take the elec
toral vote system off the hook. This time
the system produced a clear absurdity.
In 1824, Andrew Jackson got the largest
popular and electoral vote but John
Quincy Adams became president — but
that was a case when none of the four top
candidates had an electoral college major
ity and the House of Representatives had
to elect the president.
In 1876, Samuel Tilden led Rutherford
Hayes in the popular vote but lost the
presidency in a gigantic battle over the
award of electoral votes that included
shady dealings on both sides that got down
to the last electoral vote.
So, although there also was evidence of
hanky-panky in 1888, it was the election in
which the system itself created a conflict as
big as the White House: the loser had a big
popular vote plurality but wasn’t even
close in the electoral vote contest.
Washington Window
Republican Benjamin Harrision de
feated Democrat Grover Cleveland, 233 to
168 electoral votes, a clear majority and
plurality of 65. But the popular vote in the
same election was Cleveland, 5,534,488,
Harrison 5,443,892, or a 90,596 plurality
for Cleveland.
Could that happen again? Easy. Had a
total of 8,000 votes cast for Jimmy Carter
in Ohio and Hawaii gone to Gerald Ford in
1976, Ford would have had an electoral
majority and Carter would have been the
loser with a popular vote plurality of about
two million votes.
There are many who think the country
would be in real trouble today if it elected
a president without a popular vote plural
ity. Some question whether a president in
that situation would have any leadership
influence, either with Congress or the
people.
So now comes a new proposal to avoid
such situations. Developed by a task force
supported by the Twentieth Century
Fund, the plan simply would award the
popular vote winner of presidential elec
tions a “bonus” of electoral votes that
would almost surely guarantee an electoral
majority.
The bonus idea came from historian Ar
thur Schlesinger Jr., a task force member,
who was looking for a compromise be
tween those who think presidential elec
tions should be decided by the popular
vote and nothing else and those who want
to retain the present system, which re
flects the balance between state sover
eignty and the popular will inherent in the
makeup of the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives.
Under the task force plan, there would
be a “pool” of 102 electoral votes — two
per state plus the District of Columbia —
that would go to the popular vote winner.
Had it been in effect in 1876 and 1888,
both Tilden and Cleveland would have
been elected, but it still would not have
given Jackson an electoral majority in
1824.
The task force solution for that situation
is a runoff election between the two top
vote getters within 30 days, thus eliminat
ing an election in the House which might
completely flout the will of the public.
Letters to the editor
Abortion ad protest
Slouch
by Jim Earlei
Editor:
My roommates and I wish to protest
The Battalion’s publishing of the adver
tisement for “Pregnancy Terminations.”
We never expected to see an ad for child
murder in such a fine publication. Abor
tion is immoral and should be illegal. But,
of course, convenient is the key word
nowadays, isn’t it? Feel depressed? Take a
pill! Some lousy unborn child threatening
your life style? Terminate him! Who cares
that he never asked to be created and has
certain unalienable rights as guaranteed in
our Constitution? What’s next? Senior
citizen termination? Mentally retarded
children termination?
Most people don’t even know the full
extent of the abortion laws. Fathers, do
you know that if your wife gives birth to a
mongoloid child and decides she wants it
“terminated” you have no legal say so in
the matter-at-all? Open your eyes.
— Micfrael Walters, ’80
Doesn’t happen here
for pregnancy terminations. I wonder how
many Ags seeing this ad will include an
abortion on their list of things to do this
Saturday — take the car in for alignment
early enough and it might be finished in
time to drive to Houston for a simple abor
tion, you might even get back soon enough
to study for that big exam on Monday.
The Battalion is read primarily by
TAMU students making this ad pointless
to say the least — there just couldn’t be a
market that big for abortions in a commu
nity of intelligent university people. I be
lieve that an individual who by chance has
become impregnated has the ability to find
an abortionist, if she feels it so necessary,
without the help of The Battalion.
The only effect of such an advertisement
is an assault on the senses of persons —
such as myself — who feel that abortion is
the unjust murder of an unborn human
being. Stick to pushing wheel alignments
and tuneups — human mechanics aren’t so
simple.
— Mark Terry, ’79
Editor:
This afternoon I was relaxing, reading
the March 29 issue of The Battalion and I
came upon quite a shocking advertise
ment. On page 10, right along with ads for
wheel alignments and tuneups, apartment
placement, and ceramics, there was an ad
Editor’s note: The Battalion isn’t “push
ing” any of the advertised goods and serv
ices. They are paid advertisements. And I
could take issue with your statement that
it couldn’t happen here. I believe a little
research would prove that it does, even
among intelligent university people.
“THERE ARE SOME FRESHMEN ITSTMY OUTFIT WHO ARE
GOING TO PAY FOR THIS APRIL FOOL FOOLISHNESS — IF
I EVER GET MY CLOTHES BACK!”
Top of the News
Campus
Threat evacuates library
A bomb threat caused the complete evacuation of Sterling C.
Evans Library Friday night. Campus building and utilities division
alerted campus police that they had received a call at about 6.08 p.m.
Friday in which a female voice told them a bomb was in the library,
Thomas R. Parsons, director of campus security, said. Parsons said
the caller did not say where the bomb was located or offer any other
information. He directed campus police to evacuate the library. Ap
proximately 75 students, employees and cleaning personnel were in
the building at the time. Campus police searched the entire building,
but did not find any semblance of a bomb. Parsons said. He said he
thought the threat was a “kook thing,” but did not want to take any
chances. “This sort of occurrence is unusual these days. Five or six
years ago, we got bomb threats frequently,” he said. Texas A&M
University has a contingency plan which details various procedures to
be taken in the event of an impending disaster. The disaster plan for
bomb threats was implemented Friday night and campus police sim
ply followed a checklist which kept any panic to a minimum, Parsons
said. He praised the library occupants for the efficiency of the evacia-
tion. “We don’t have any problems with our students; they cooper
ate,” Parsons said. “Thank God for Aggies.”
Center dedicated today
Formal dedication of the new Robert Justus Kleberg, Jr., Animal
and Food Sciences Center at Texas A6tM University, is set for 4 p.m.
today with Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, the featured speaker. Hobby will be
joined in dedicatory remarks by Clyde H. Wells, chairman of the
Texas A&M University System Board of Regents; Chancellor Jack K.
Williams; President Jarvis E. Miller, who will preside, and Dean of
Agriculture H.O. Kunkel, who will formally accept the building for
the University. Response will be by Mrs. Helen Kleberg Groves,
daughter of the man in whose honor the building is named and a
member of the board of directors of King Ranch, Inc. The $9.4 mil
lion facility named in honor of the late Robert Justus Kleberg, long
time leader of the legendary King Ranch, was opened to faculty, staff
and students in January. The dedication was timed to coincide with
the Texas Animal Agriculture Conference which is expected to attract
to the campus approximately 1,000 cattlemen and persons in related
fields. The two-day meeting begins today. Housed in the 165,000
square-foot building are the Animal Science and Poultry Science De
partments and temporary headquarters for the Texas Agricultural
Extension Service’s 4-H and other youth programs. Students will
conduct guided tours of the five-floor facility following the cere-
Poetry, fiction featured
Poetry and short fiction will be read on Wednesday, April 5 in
Room 226 of the Sterling C. Evans Library beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Students and other interested persons are invited to bring their own
contributions to read after the scheduled program. A reception will
follow the reading, which is in celebration of National Library Week;
admission is free.
Science, engineering fair set
The fourth annual Brazos Valley Science and Engineering Fair will
be held Wednesday, April 5 and Thursday, April 6, at Zachry Engi
neering Center on the Texas A&M campus. As a regional science fair,
this exhibition is open to participants from as far away as Teague and
Buffalo and as close to home as Caldwell, Hearne, Navasota,
Huntsville, Snook and Calvert. There are thirty school districts, pub
lic and private, in the region served by the Fair, including those in
Bryan and College Station. The Fair is divided into two divisions, the
Junior division for seventh and eighth grade students and the Senior
division for students in grades nine through twelve. There are five
categories for judging — Botany, Behavioral-Social Sciences, Life
Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Applied Sciences. Many special
awards will be presented by individuals and groups representing
science-oriented clubs, businesses and the armed forces.
Nation
Fire kills five children
Five young children, left alone and asleep while their mother ran
errands, died late Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. in a fire at a house
that firemen delayed entering because they thought it was empty. “If
we had had any idea there were kids inside we would have broken
right in,” said one fireman. The five children — ranging in ages from
9 years to 4 months — apparently suffocated in the dense, black
smoke created by the small fire. All appeared to have died in their
sleep. “They really weren’t burned or charred at all,” said coroner’s
office investigator Mike Williams. “You could see in a couple of their
mouths the soot where they had inhaled it. Firemen said the cause
of the fire might have been a candle the family used for light. The
mother, Terry Lynn Green, 28, who said she walked to a small gro
cery store and was shopping when the fire started, had had her
electricity turned off two weeks ago because of an unpaid bill.
Park goes public
Tongsun Park, who has testified for weeks behind closed doors
about his payments to congressmen, goes public with names and
figures for the first time starting today. But Park’s scheduled three
days of public testimony before the House Ethics Committee may be
anticlimactie, simply putting on the record much of what already has
been leaked to the press since the indicted rice dealer began testify
ing in January to teams of federal investigators.
Weather
Mostly cloudy this morning becoming partly cloudy this eve-
nhg. Continued warm on Tuesday. Slight chance of showers
today, tonight and tomorrow. High today low 80s, low tonight
mid-60s. High tomorrow mid-80s. Winds from the south-
southeast at 10-15 mph. 20% chance of rain today, tonight
and Tuesday.
The Battalion
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