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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1978)
Battalion Thursday, April 13, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Inside Thursday: A&M unit gives tornado alerts, p. 3. Parents’ Weekend highlights, p. 8. Bryan’s all-American Rudy Woods signs with A&M, p. 9. Crop destruction vowed by defeated farmers Building those muscles! ve rs. Growing into his warm-up pants may just gi Tommy Bohannon, 5, son of Mr. and Mr Tommy Bohannon of Bryan, enough leg power to impress his daddy by lifting 500 pounds. Tommy was trying to build his leg muscles on the universal machine at DeWare Fieldhouse on the Texas A&M University campus. Battalion photo by Carolyn Ellis derailment cleanup under way United Press International Striking farmers responded to House de feat of the emergency farm bill with a promise to destroy the year’s wheat crop and told America to start planting back yard vegetable gardens. “There is no reason to let us go broke and let the foreign investors come in and take our land. It just isn’t fair,” American Agriculture spokesman Herb Brown said Wednesday. “If people want to get food, they had better start planting vegetable gardens now. It’s just a hard blow for the farmers. The country doesn’t think it needs us, so why should we produce cheap food, he said. The measure, approved by the Senate, would have raised 1978 grain and cotton supports and included a flexible parity plan to give individual farmers a chance to get higher support levels by idling large portions of land. The House defeated the bill 268-150. American Agriculture, which called a strike Dec. 14 to demand 100 percent par ity and organized a plow down of the winter wheat crop March 21, had agreed to produce half the normal crop this year if the farm bill was passed. “It was about what we expected,’ Brown said. “Some of them congressmen said they was going to vote for it, but they lied to us. We elected those politicans to do a job for us, but the paycheck is the only thing they worry about. ’ The strike movement has called for farmers to halt planting the spring wheat crop and to plow under more of the winter wheat crops. Brown estimated approxi mately 20 percent of the winter crop was already turned under. Openness for accuracy Participating farmers have only planted 50 percent of their normal spring crop and will turn that land over to pasture, he said. Farmers will resume plowing under the winter wheat crop or turn the land over to grazing. Bell trades with media 3 01., Workers control propane danger United Press International J B 0 '9f MEMPHIS, Ark. — Railroad workers ^ Wednesday righted an overturned, de- BtiT'MM tan k car an d sealed off a liquid pro- Bie leak which earlier forced evacuation fcmbout 400 residents of this Mississippi 0 J River town, including 78 bedfast hospital Jiatients. $ ■ The danger is over, a Rock Island spe- irfal agent said. “Once the propane tanker \I/2|ivas put on the tracks, the danger was out way.” he tank car, containing 30,000 gallons, was one of three cars to derail early Wed nesday near a petroleum plant. Officials were doubly concerned because the de railment occurred within 300 yards of a 400,000-gallon liquid propane tank and also hear a ditch which led directly to the city sewer system. Larry Cummings, district field inspec tor of the state Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, said there had been concern that the propane might enter the sewer system and mix with sewer methane, causing an explosion. .9 9- 150ij : 9 5 Cull 15 Oi. .Cons .33 Just what is the typical Aggie? !<M Co«s in.' “jt I By KAREN CORNEUSON Next time you hear a joke about the “typical Aggie,” consider these statistics. The 29,414 students that make up Texas A&M’s student population come from all over Texas, the United States, and the world. All kinds of races, cultures, and back grounds are represented, according to statistics compiled by the regis trar’s office and the international student office about the students registered last fall. There are 26,453 Texas A&M students from Texas. That’s 89.9 percent of the Aggie population. A spokesman for the registrar’s office said that because Texas A&M is a state supported school, priority for admission goes to the Texas stu dents. Of 254 counties in Texas, all but three are represented at Texas A&M. They are Loving, Col lingsworth, and Hardeman coun ties. The Texas county which con tributes the most students is Harris County, with 6,049. That’s 22.9 percent of the students from Texas. Brazos County is the second biggest contributor, with 2,481 students at A&M, and Dallas County runs a close third, with 2,198. There are Aggies from all 50 states, as well as the District of Co lumbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Is lands, and the Canal Zone. Besides Texas, Louisiana has the largest representation, with 198 students. Other states with many students at A&M are New York (162), California (140), and Virginia (100). The registrar’s office spokesman said the percentage of students from Texas and other states at Texas A&M is about the same as for any other state-supported school. There are 917 foreign students from 73 countries at A&M. That’s 3.1 percent of the Aggie population. Corkey Sandel, international stu dent adviser, said, “A&M is proba bly about on the national average as far as percentage of foreign students to total student enrollment.” He also said the percentage of foreign students at A&M has declined in the past few years because of the rapid expansion of the University. “The number of foreign students hasn’t kept pace with the total enrollment growth,” he said. “We have a good mix of students. No one country has more than 100 students (at A&M).” The Republic of China has more students attending Texas A&M than any other foreign country — 88, or about 9.6 percent of the foreign stu dents. Other countries which con tribute a large number of students to A&M are Iran and Venezuela. _ Students from the Latin Ameri can countries comprise about one third of the foreign student popula tion. About six percent are Euro pean, and six percent are from the Arab countries. Sandel said that in the past few year there have been more students from the Middle East and Latin American countries. “We’ve never had a lot of European students, ” he said. “They have good universities to attend over there.” Loyd Taylor, associate director of admissions, said there is no limit to the number of foreign students the University accepts, but foreign stu dents must meet the three basic re quirements of academic qualifica tion, English proficiency, and finan cial capablity. According to information given to the registrar’s office by students themselves. 111 of the Aggies, or .38 percent, are black. There are 231, or .79 percent American Indian stu dents at A&M. There are 138 orien tal Aggies (.47 percent), and 244 Ags (.83 percent) have a Spanish sur name. That leaves about 97.5 per cent of the students that belong to none of the above minorities. There are 19,281 male students going to school on the main campus at Texas A&M, and 9,552 female students. This means there are about 2.02 males for every female. The freshman class has the most students, with 7,107 or 24.6 percent of the Ag population, followed by juniors, sophomores, seniors, and graduate students. More students have a major in the college of engineering than in any other college — 7,271, or 25.2 per cent of the A&M students. The col lege of agriculture follows, with 18.9 percent. Out of 148 possible majors to choose from the most popular one is accounting, with 1,341 students (4.6 percent), followed closely by educa tional curriculum and instruction. Mechanical engineering is third. The college with the least amount of students is the college of medicine with 32 students (0.1 per cent). But workers slipped steel slings aroung the huge tanker, and, with the aid of spe cially equipped bulldozers, righted it. The same procedure was planned for the other two railroad cars. The derailment forced evacuation of about 400 residents. Seventy-eight pa tients from the Crittenden County Hospi tal were taken by ambulances — at one point lined up at the hospital ramp — to various facilities in nearby Memphis, Tenn. Some of the patients were in wheel chairs, others on stretchers and roller beds and at least one under oxygen. Rock Island Division Officer Gerald Bozich had said even before the tanker was righted he did not believe there was a great danger of explosion, “But you never know what’s going to happen.” Bozich said the derailment occurred while the train was backing into the switching yard at the Phillips Petroleum plant at “walking speed. ” He said cause of the derailment had not been determined. But he said the tracks in the area were scheduled for maintenance last Sunday. Bozich said there was no damage to the outer shell of the propane tank but a small leak did occur around the pressure relief valve. There were 30,000 gallons of pro pane in the tank and the two other de railed tankers contained 20,000 gallons each of diesel fuel oil. “The fuel oil is leaking but it’s being dammed up and hopefully will be kept out of the sewer system,” Bozich said. The derailemt occurred inside the city limits, about five miles from downtown. About 400 persons were asked to leave but a handful refused to. go even though they were warned of the danger of possible ex plosion. Classes at a nearby elementary school also were cancelled for the day. “Police came banging on our door be fore dawn,” said John Pitman, a machinist who was evacuated. “I took one look at those tankers and that was enough for me to leave. ” The derailment occurred two weeks after one on March 29 at Lewisville in Southwest Arkansas, where the entire town of 1,700 was evacuated when a de railed tank of vinyl chloride exploded. There were two other train derailments in the state Tuesday — one near the Okla homa border in Northwest Arkansas in volving a Kansas City Southern train, and the other at Marion, which is about 10 miles from West Memphis, involving a Frisco train — but there were no hazard ous chemicals involved in those. United Press International WASHINGTON — Attorney General Griffin Bell is trying to do some horse trad ing with the “wary and sometimes hostile” news media. Bell told the American Society of News paper Editors Wednesday he will conduct the Justice Department as openly as pos sible, within limits set by law and legal ethics, but wants the news media to be responsible for accuracy. “Since the days of the first president, press and government have been wary and sometimes hostile adversaries,” Bell said. “No one with any pretension to serious understanding of this complex political process would wish to change that.” But, he added, “the media must be held responsible if it prints false or inaccurate information.” “I am today adopting a new policy,” Bell said. “Henceforth, you will be advised by me in writing of any substantial inaccuracy in any story or column about the Justice Department carried in your newspapers.” Bell singled out a recent UPI series about drug connections in the family of Panama’s Gen. Omar Torrijos. “UPI recently carried a story that I had placed certain documents concerning the Torrijos family in my office safe to keep them from the Senate,” Bell said. “That was a blatant lie. “UPI was so advised and the story was killed after being run over the night wire. The point was that I was not asked if the story was true. Most reporters and all of our regulars have learned to ask before carrying the sensational. ” Grant Dillman, UPI vice president and Washington manager, said: “Contrary to Judge Bell’s information, our reporters tried several times without success to ob tain the Justice Department’s version of how the Torrijos files were handled in an ticipation of a secret Senate session on the matter. “The White House finally intervened after the UPI series moved on a hold-for- release basis and the result was four-hour session with press secretary Jody Powell — a session he later said might not have been necessary if the administration had been more forthcoming. “As a result of that meeting, we led the first piece in our series to incorporate new information, the second story required no changes and we moved a substitute for the third story to include the administration’s views. The information brought out by the Senate fully supported our findings on the drug traffic. Balanced budget top priority ? Grover says Apartments must be livable, court says AUSTIN, Texas,— Landlords give an implied warranty that apartments are in livable condition when they lease them to tenants, the Texas Supreme court ruled Wednesday. The court decision in a case involving a Dallas man’s suit against his landlord re verses lower court decisions and estab lishes the implied warranty rule in Texas for the first time. Wilford Kamarath filed the suit against C.C. Bennett, contending Bennett had breached their contract by failing to repair an apartment building he owned and maintain it in livable condition during the time it was rented by Kamarath. Kamarath said he did not detect the de fects in the apartment before he moved into it March 1, 1975. Dallas building in spectors checked the building 10 times be tween June 24, 1975 and November 1975, and said it had numerous defects that vio lated city building codes. They listed leaky pipes, faulty electrical wiring and structural defects causing bricks in the building to fall among the defects. Kamarath stopped paying rent on the apartment in July 1975, but did not move out until September of that year. A Dallas trial court ruled in favor of the landlord, saying Bennett did not bread his contract with Kamarath and did noi violate any duty owed to the tenant. A Civil Appeals court agreed with that rul ing, saying in the absense of fraud or de ceit there was no implied warranty on the part of the landlord that premises leased for residential purposes would be suitable for their intended purpose. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, reversed that decision and sent the case back to the trial court for a new hearing. The court decision said there is an implied warranty of habitability by the landlord that the apartment will be fit for living. In a separate case, the Supreme court upheld a state law permitting collection of sales taxes of lease of motion picture films to movie theatres. ABC Interstate Theatres, Inc., and Martin Theatres of Texas, Inc., joined by eight film distributors and more than 100 other theatres, had challenged the con stitutionality of the law. A trial court had ruled Interstate could recover $463,748 and Martin Theatres could recover $53,637 on contested taxes because the law was unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the vailidity of the law and ruled the state had the right to collect the taxes. By Ava King The No. 1 priority of the nation is to balance the budget, says Hank Grover, independent Republican candidate for the United States Senate. Grover voiced this view Wednesday night before a small group in Rudder Tow er. The event was sponsored by Young Americans for Freedom. A member of the audience asked why a man who served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives as a conserva tive Democrat and two terms in the Texas Senate as a Republican could run on an independent ticket. “Number one, I didn’t think I could beat (John Tower) in the general Republi can primary, replied Grover, “and number two, to run in the primary and to run in the general election would cost twice as much.” Most of the candidate’s talk centered around the man he considers his main op ponent, Sen. John Tower. He said Tower has been “very lucky in the past” because he has had “very poor opponnents,” citing “Barefoot” Sanders and George McGovern as examples. Grover also expressed dissatisfaction with Tower’s stand in the Republican party. “He has in my opinion, lined himself up with the northeastern wing of the party: the Rockefeller, Ford, Kissinger wing,” he said. Throughout his speech, Grover referred to the Republicans in the South and West as the “growing wing” of the Republican party, and to the North and East as the “dying wing.” Grover said that as an independent can didate, he has a chance because this is a Hank Grover non-presidential year. Off-years produce a low voter turnout, Grover said, and this gives less well-known candidates an op portunity to make their positions known. Grover’s position on current issues in clude opposition to the legalization of marijuana, opposition to abortion and fed erally funded abortion clinics, and opposi tion to gun control and firearm registra tion. He also declares “strong opposition” to the Panama Canal Treaty, calling it a “giveaway” proposition. Grover told his audience that “Social Security will have collapsed before the next generation.” He favors voluntary agencies. Grover’s record shows him winning seven elections and losing only two. He predicted that in spite of stiff competion from incumbent John Tower, the election will be a close race. Gotcha exclaims Hugh Stewart (right), who is helping Ira Duval (left) collect bugs for his Entomology 313 class. The project is to collect and mount 200 bugs. Ira Duval has 75 mounted with 125 to go.