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.
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Editor Kim Tyson
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