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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1978)
Viewpoint The Battalion Wednesday Texas A&M University April 19, 1978 Sharing revenue Several times we have questioned just how long this federal revenue sharing program can continue. The asnwer, of course, depends on how long we can continue as municipalities to send our money to Washington where a considerable amount remains for administrative costs, and we get back a laundered refund. It is very tempting to look at federal revenue sharing funds and say, “Ah, there’s the money we need to make ends meet next year, to give all employees pay increases and to buy cars and trucks and all sorts of neat things.” But that truly is the easy way out. Such temptation must be resisted. All other avenues must be explored, and thoroughly, before even thinking about using federal revenue sharing money for the general operating budget. If a city has been losing population, and if the tax base is not growing, then government officials must look hard at the option which most politicans dislike: trimming the bureaucracy. They dislike that choice because it’s not the political thing to do — or at least they seem to think so. It’s true they might make a few bureaucrats mad. But they might be surprised at the positive reaction the taxpayers would exhibit if genuine efforts were made at making government more efficient. Any governmental unit would be well advised to be very careful before plunging into use of federal revenue sharing funds for recurring expenses. The Parkersburg W.Va. News Jim Crawley Ringside for the and headaches NW^I GReat MDNKOTS Daniel-White fight Price Daniel, Jr.’s name is familiar to many voters in Texas. Your parents remember his father- politician. Democrats know him as the former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. The labor union mem bers remember his effort to get a “right to work” law part of the state constitution. Mark White knows the name because Daniel is his opponent in the May 6 pri mary for Attorney General. White also knows that Daniel is leading the race. The older voters of Texas are familiar with the Daniel family name. The original Price Daniel was a three-term Governor of Texas during the late fifties. The Texas labor unions remember a 1974 effort by Price Daniel, Jr. who was presiding over the constitutional revision convention to get a “right-to-work” clause into the revised constitution. The labor unions were livid and fought against the proposed changes. Since then the labor forces have withheld the support they d previously given Daniel. Now we come to Mark White. He was the Secretary of State under Governor Dolph Briscoe before resigning to run for the Attorney General’s position. A friend of Briscoe’s White was appointed by him in January 1973. Since then, White has run the office efficiently. Politics Since October, White and Daniel have been in battle over the seat of present A.G. John Hill. The giantkiller Hill is cur rently taking on Dolph Briscoe in an at tempt to unseat the governor. Because of certain pragmatic stands that the candidates have taken, each is drawing voters from sources that would normally oppose a candidate of their respective ideology. White, an avowed conservative, is drawing the support of the liberal labor union. In opposite corner Daniel, a moderate, is trying to tell voters that he is pro-business. The race is starting to resemble a boxing match, albeit a near-forgotten one. The only difference being that the voter is the referee and the boxers are trying to slip punches by the voter-referee. The result is a confusing, behind-the-back political bat tle. The labor unions are out to get Daniel because of the 1974 constitutional revision he headed. So they decided even a con servative puppet of Briscoe would be bet ter than Daniel. So White wins one round. Daniel fights back with the pitch that he is pro-business. He does own several weekly newspapers and is a part-owner of two banks. He wants to cut bureaucratic red tape, but so does every other politi cian. The second round goes to Daniel. Mark White has friends. Dolph Briscoe is one. And with a friend like Dolph you can expect to be receiving big money con tributions. White has a large bounty to spend in the last weeks of the campaign. But Daniel holds his own with his better name identification. The Daniel name is probably the best thing his father ever gave Price, Jr. so the third round is a draw. Score is now: Daniel, 1, White, 1, with one round a draw. The issues of the campaign are the duties of the office. Here is where the legend of John Hill comes to bear. Hill, consumer advocate extraordinaire, is going to be a hard act for either candidate to follow. On this point, Daniel has taken the driver’s seat. His campaign is aimed at showing the voters that Daniel will con tinue John Hill’s battles and improve Texas for the future generations. White has spent much of his time telling the vot ers how he will protect the state from the modern-day carpetbaggers of the oil- thirsty North. Too bad the attorney gen eral can’t do much in that particular fight. The state legislature has more domain in the oil battle. So Daniel wins a big round and pulls into the lead. The last round of the campaign is now in progress. White, with a well-run and or ganized media campaign, is beginning to tell the voters of the state on the wholesale level achieved through TV ads. Daniel is using his ads in an effort to consolidate his lead. The last round will be decided by the voter-referee. This round nullifies all pre vious rounds; the voter’s decision on May 6 is final. While Daniel holds a substantial lead over White, the voter must remember that all is fair in love, war, and politics. SEE Dick West The diagrammatical woman United Press International WASHINGTON — The wonderful folks who brought you “Man’s Body: An Own er’s Manual” have now published a com panion volume. Its title is, yes, “Woman’s Body: an Owner’s Manual,” and like its predecessor it contains “over 1,000 drawings, diagrams and charts” that show how the crazy thing works. I am reasonably familiar with the ex terior design of the female body, but I have never looked under the hood, so to speak. Some of those drawings, diagrams and charts were, therefore, quite a revela tion. Talk about your Rube Goldberg in ventions! Portions of the bodily mecha nism illustrated in this handbook appear to be the anatomical equivalent of a Chinese fire drill. For comparative purposes, dig up your auto owner’s manual and turn to the dia gram of the wiring system. Bewildering, eh? Well, the woman’s body diagrams show about twice as many fuses, triple the number of switches and four times more circuit breakers. If these illusrations are accurate, I don’t see how the owner of a woman’s body ever gets it out of the driveway. Many of the parts are obviously obso lete. I’m sure it would never pass inspec tion. One chart that caught my eye traces the “stress situations” a woman’s body is likely to encounter along life's highway. There’s one at nearly every intersection. Here are some of the stress points: childhood, puberty, menopause and old age; leaving home, taking a job and losing a job; marriage, cohabitation and living alone; becoming pregnant, having an abor tion, remaining childless and parenthood; divorce, widowhood and losing a love; re marrying and being a single parent; chil dren leaving home, living with children and institutionalization. The next question is: what else is there? I counted no fewer than 37, which means the female body has three times more stress points than erogenous zones (12). There’s an old saying that a camel is an animal that was put together by a commit tee. The female body apparently was put together by a panel similar to the congres sional conference committee on energy. Just as the energy conference has been deadlocked for months over natural gas deregulation, the woman’s body confer ence must have bogged down in a dispute over erogenous zoning. How else can one explain the com promise that zoned such inconvenient re gions as the backs of knees for erogeneity, but excluded such suitable terrain as the spine, elbows and fronts of knees? This is not to say, however, that the book is without redeeming social value. If you have any man friends who are consid ering sex change operations, send them copies and I’ll virtually guarantee they’ll change their minds. Letters to the editor Thank goodness for good oY grass Editor: After four years at A&M I’ve finally found a good reason to write the editor. Yesterday, I saw something I can never recall seeing here at A&M: stacks of grass along West Main. I’m not talking about the smoking kind either — I’m talking about good ol’ St. Augustine. For once, instead of that fool prairie film, someone has decided to cover the earth with some thing natural. Too bad I won’t be around next year to enjoy it, but others will. Maybe, if we are lucky, they’ll start tear ing out some of that prairie film and re placing it with the real thing on other parts of the campus. —Kenneth M. Kuhr, ’78 Ban cars? Editor: This may be a headline in the near fu ture: Cars Banned at Texas A&M. The traffic on campus during the day is toe much for the streets to handle. Along with the heavy traffic, inconsiderate drivers compound pedestrians’ problems of get ting from class to class. The automobile traffic on campus is usually heaviest during the day. With in creased traffic and inconsiderate drivers, a student can risk his safety in crossing a street during the day. Just before spring break, I dropped my calculator, and it was run over before I had a chance to pick it up. Was this on High way 6, or 2154? No, it was on campus — the corner in front of the post office. This was only a financial loss; it could have been worse. Some day a student is going to be hit by a car on campus. Two causes of such an accident are that it is the driver’s fault, or that because of the heavy traffic on campus students have to take chances to cross the street. This could be avoided by banning stu dents with automobiles from campus dur ing the day. Only faculty, employees of Texas A&M and the handicapped would be allowed to drive on campus during the day. Students who commute to campus by car can park at the parking lots at the edge of campus and take an intra-campus bus the rest of the way. If students are banned from driving on campus during the day, the intra-campus bus system will have to be expanded, to include more buses, and more stops at the parking lots. What comes first: The safety of students or an individual’s convenience? —George Rowe, ’79 Shelters need sides Editor: I am a day student living in an apart ment off campus and in the past few months I have noticed an area of the shut tle bus system at Texas A&M that might be improved. I feel that the bus stop shelters situated around the campus are inadequate for the winter months. They serve their purpose well in the spring and summer or on rainy days, but do nothing to block the freezing wind and cold of December through Feb ruary. Although the buses are usually are prompt, there are still many times when students must wait 10 to 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive. This may not seem like along period of time now, but in 30- degree weather it certainly does. Isn’t there some provision the school could make to seal the shelter temporarily in the winter months without a great deal of ex pense? Although spring is here, I feel that this problem should be examined now as it will continue to effect off campus students at tending TAMU in the future. —Kipp Shackelford, ’80 ‘Start your engines’ Editor: Championship auto racing has not been successful in Texas, although Saturday’s crowd attendance at Texas World Speed way revealed that interest in the sport is on the rise in this area. Every year, the promoters at TWS sponsor at least three major events, both in the stock car and the champ car divi sion. Unfortunately, attendance at past events has been poor. Richard Conole, Mike Connor and George Martin should be commended, however, for not losing interest in the sport themselves. TWS is a very small operation, although the above-mentioned men work every bit as hard promoting auto racing as do the rac ing geniuses at Indianapolis. The best drives in both the stock car and champ car divisions think enough of TWS to race here every year. Mario Andertti even found a loophole in his Formula One schedule to run here Saturday. The United States Auto Club (USAC) feels TWS is one of the safest tracks on the racing circuit, and supports its events 100 percent. The 33,000 fans who attended Satur day’s Coors 200 shoud be commended too, for taking advantage of an extremely fine facility. The race was another truly excit ing event; I challenge those who were not in attendance Saturday to give auto racing a try in the near future. Perhaps one day the words, “Gentle men, Start Your Engines” will mean as much to racing fans in Texas as they mean to the 350,000 people that support the In dianapolis 500 every May. —Pat Edmondson, ’78 Top of the News Campus Big volleyball game in Kyle Field An estimated 10,000 people are expected to participate in an at tempt to set a new Guiness record for the world’s largest volleyball game at Kyle Field on Saturday. The game, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., will feature an oversized net stretched across the football field and a standard volleyball. “We re looking for school spirit to make this thing a success,” said Paul Jackson, a freshman from Rockport who is coordinating the event. “It’s spring and we thought this would be a good way to let off steam.” Jackson said the rules will be changed slightly to accommodate the size of the crowd. T-shirts will be on sale to help participants commemorate the event. Pet Adoption Day this Saturday The Humane Society of Brazos County is holding another Pet Adoption Day. Anyone having an animal available for adoption is asked to take it to Hensel Park on Saturday between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. All animals accepted for adoption must pass a free health exam ination. Animals then return home with their owners and are brought back to Hensel Park at 9 a.m., April 29, to be put up for adoption. Humane Society members encourage students who are leaving for the summer or moving permanently and do not wish to take their pets with them to take the animals to Pet Adoption Day. Students can vote on constitution The student government proposes to redistribute the power in the revised student body constitution, which is up for approval today. Senators okayed the new document at their last meeting with little debate, but students must ratify the entire constitution by a majority vote before it can take effect. Students may vote today from 9 p.m. until 5 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center. Copies of both con stitutions will be available. State Fire in Galveston warehouse Firefighters Tuesday watched the smoldering remains of a fire which raged through a concrete and steel cotton warehouse at the Port of Galveston late Monday. More than 80 firefighters from Gal veston and surrounding cities fought the blaze. The warehouse, owned by the Port of Galveston and leased to the Bluebonnet Warehousing Corp. of Galveston, was packed with 6,000-7,000 bales of cotton worth more than $200 each. The fire was contained before midnight Monday, but firemen said it could be weeks before it is completely out. Officials said about 20 firefighters suffered smoke inhalation and 30 or 40 more had eye injuries or irritation from smoke and burning cotton lint. The cause of the fire is not yet known. Nation Tornadoes sweep Louisiana Roofless homes, damaged trees and mounds of litter were left Tuesday by a tornado that cut through a low-income neighborhood in Shreveport, La. High winds damaged houses and trees elsewhere in Louisiana as a line of turbulent weather moved through the state. The tornado touched down in Shreveport Monday night, causing wide spread damage and nine minor injuries. Most of the damage was confined to the Mooretown area, although some broken trees, downed power lines and signs were reported downtown. Another tornado touched down near Lisbon, La., damaging trees and houses. No injuries were reported. In Natchitoches Parish, high winds dam aged two trailers and a barn and caused one injury. World Search conducted in Italy A purported Red Brigade communique announced Tuesday that kidnapped former Premier Aldo Moro had been “executed” and his body dumped at Duchess Lake, 50 miles northeast of Rome. Hun dreds of police, rock climbers, firemen and skin divers arrived to search for the body of Moro, kidnapped March 16 by Red Brigade terrorists. But search efforts were made nearly impossible by the more than 12 feet of snow surrounding the lake. Nearby residents said roads leading to the lake had been impassable all winter. Troops prepare in Canal Zone American troops in the U.S. Canal Zone were put on an “increased readiness” status Tuesday to guard against possible violence stem ming from the Senate vote on the main Panama Canal treaty. An estimated 100 leftist students attacked the U.S. Embassy Monday and splashed it with red, white and blue ink to protest the pact. Soldiers broke up the protest with tear gas and there were no reported injuries or arrests. U.S. military spokesman Air Force Col. Anthony Lopez said an undisclosed number of troops in the Canal Zone had been put on what he called an “increased readiness posture” to guard against trouble. “We don’t expect any violence or civil disturbances,” Lopez said. He would not specify what the “posture” involved but declined to characterize it as an alert. Weather Fair skies today, tonight and Thursday with warm afternoons and cool nights. High today low 80s, low tonight mid-50s. High tomorrow low 80s. Winds from the north at 5-10 mph. No precipitation through the weekend. Daylight savings time begins at 2 a.m. April 30. Dr. F ■ved a ijor in: tor ol alth, sity a dicin' exas iller sa jjffecti' ingi in the chool rolled Stone, dean nt of salth •ves a: iinmit! nt co dical ih Asso Tde se anal I jifhesd; |vious e pre Unix he t sity dicin |‘Dr. ! provi me unat< Pre ;s an 1 ual jc )eriei lorsei gues ; Stone light \ all inve bustor ousto Jwspaj |The r The Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise oper ated by students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. 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Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Kim Tyson Managing Editor Karen Roger* Sports Editor David I News Editors Carolyn Blosser, Debbie Parson* • City Editor Gary Weld 1 I Campus Editor Liz Newlin j Assistant Campus Editor Andy William* I Editorial Director Lee Roy Leschperjf •Photo Editor J. Wagner Tyne* Staff Writers Mark Patterson, Paige BeasleVi Andrea Vails, Michelle Scudder, Sean Pell) Photographers Susan Webb, Ben Cartoonist Doug Grahail Student Publications Board: Bob G. Rogers. Chairmn- foe Arredondo, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. Charles Mi'Candlesi' Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rice. Director of Studrt 1 Publications: Donald C. Johnson.