Viewpoint
Thursday
April 20, 1978
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Panama’s puppy bares his teeth
Ever have a dog that was a sweet, whimpering puppy while he was begging
for food, but ripped open your hand as soon as you gave him a bone?
That’s the kind of reaction the United States received from Panama’s
dictator Omar Torrijos when the U.S. Senate approved the final Panama
Canal treaty Tuesday.
Torrijos said Tuesday night that Panamanian troops were posed to attack
and seize or destroy the canal by Wednesday morning had the Senate not
approved the second canal treaty. He also vowed to “destroy the canal” if U.S.
troops ever invade Panama to defend it.
That is in direct violation of the first canal treaty, approved by the Senate
March 16, which gives the U.S. the right to defend the canal forever, which
military action if necessary. How fast the puppy dog bares his fangs when he’s
gotten what he wants.
The days of U.S. imperialism and Teddy Roosevelt’s “big stick diplomacy”
ot-<=> ornnf 3 ?. The oeoole of Panama have as much right to sovereignty over the
territory within their borders as any other nation. But should the United
States bow to the whims of a dictator like Torrijos, to whom the phrases “good
will” and “neutrality” are only tools to fool a U.S. whose president may be too
eager to appease and too quick to agree.
Consider Gen. Torrijos’ comments Tuesday night:
“If we are invaded, we will destroy the canal. We are capable of destroying
it. The National Guard has the capability of destroying it and we don’t intend
to lose that capability. Yes, they (U.S. troops) can intervene, but when they
get here, they’ll find that the canal has been destroyed.”
This is the man into whose hands we have given the canal for safekeeping?
L.R.L
Nuclear face-off certain
By BRYAN SILCOCK
International Writer’s Service
LONDON — For more than three
months last year, Britain’s nuclear industry
underwent an unprecedented ordeal as a
special government commission grilled its
representatives on a plan to build a mam
moth reprocessing plant at Windscale, in
northern England. That the hearings were
held at all was considered a triumph for the
foes of nuclear energy.
But the commission’s report, just pub
lished, has dealt a bitter blow to the anti
nuclear forces by coming out in favor of the
project. And the report, which is virtually
certain to spurt British government ap
proval of the project, may also lead to a
clash with the United States, since it
bluntly challenges President Carter’s ef
forts to block nuclear proliferation.
The Windscale project, due to start con
struction in two or three years, will engage
in large-scale reprocessing of nuclear
waste, including waste from foreign coun
tries. The operation produces plutonium,
which can be used in the manufacture of
nuclear bombs.
President Carter’s anti-proliferation pol
icy, announced last year, strongly opposes
reprocessing for that reason. As* the non-
Communist world’s biggest source of nu
clear fuel, the United States can enforce its
Raspberry
Teaching skills.
Countries with nuclear energy pro
grams, the commission said, are bound to
seek ways of reprocessing their fuel as they
pursue the goal of energy independence.
Should they be denied reprocessing
facilities, they will inevitably construct
plants of their own.
So, the commission concluded, the re
sult of efforts to stop reprocessing could
well be to increase rather than diminsh the
threat of nuclear proliferation.
These points may not appear to be con
vincing in Washington, but they carry
weight here in London, Paris, Bonn and
Tokyo.
So the decision to support the Windscale
project means that Britain is going to push
ahead with its reprocessing plant, as will
the French. The real test, however, may
not emerge until the early 1980s, when the
Japanese request American permission to
have their fuel reprocessed in Britain and
France.
If the United States gives Japan the
green light. Carter’s policy will have
changed. If not, a conflict within the Atlan
tic Alliance is inevitable. The showdown is
still a few years away, but rarely has an
event of such importance been so certain.
(Silcock writes on science and technology
for the London Sunday Times, the British
weekly newspaper.)
reality at same time
policy, which insists among other things
that no fuel it supplies can be reprocessed
without Washington’s permission.
Politics
But the West Europeans and even Japan
disagree. France has decided to go ahead
with a new reprocessing installation at La
Hague, on the English Channel. Britain is
following suit at Windscale. The West
Germans are looking for a site. And the
Japanese are negotiating reprocessing con
tracts with both the French and British.
The dilemma for the United States was
summed up in a recent letter to President
Carter from a group of American senators
and congressmen. It said:
“Once vast sums have been committed,
our own options will decisively deteriorate.
To grant reprocessing approval for foel of
U.S. origin . . .would be to make a mockery
of our policy. To disapprove in the face of
multi-billion dollar investments by our al
lies would be to court trouble.”
The West Europeans and Japanese are as
hostile as President Carter is to the possible
spread of nuclear weapons. But why they4^
rejected his initiative ofa year ago is spelled
out in the British commission’s report on
the Windscale plan.
In the first place, the world’s principal
obstacle to the spread of nuclear arms is the
Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, whose
signatories pledged not to acquire such
weapons in exchange for help in developing
peaceful nuclear energy.
But, the commission said an attempt by
the United States or any nuclear power to
prevent others from reprocessing their
waste amounts to a-breach of the treaty.
Moreover, it contravenes the spirit of the
treaty by dividing its signatories into nu
clear “haves” and “have-nots.”
A main point is that most countries, in
contrast to the United States, possess no
uranium of their own. The plutonium they
can recover through reprocessing nuclear
waste in fast breeder reactors could in
crease the energy extractable from a given
amount of uranium 50 to 60 times.
This offers, over the long term at least,
the prospect of almost total independence
from imported sources of energy. For the
West Europeans and Japanese, who rely
heavily on Middle East oil and remember
its recent steep price rise, this is a powerful
argument for reprocessing.
But is it powerful enough to counter the
potential dangers of nuclear proliferation?
Speaking to this question, the British gov
ernment commission made some further
points.
WASHINGTON — While Americans
are busy with their efforts to push public
education “back to basics,” one basic ap
parently being ignored is that of teaching
children something of what the real world
is like.
There’s no insurmountable difficulty in
teaching basic reading, writing and math
skills, although I have serious misgivings
about making such skills the be-all-and-
end-all of education (I’ll have more to say
about that another time).
We also seem capable, when we put our
minds and resources to it, of teaching the
basic craft skills.
What we are failing to do in an astonish
ing number of cases is to help young people
toward a realistic understanding of what
their-training is likely to produce in terms
of money.
I first encountered the problem among
young people who enroll in nebulous but
high-sounding courses in community
colleges on the expectation of quickly land
ing jobs in the $25,000 range. This same
unreality is starting to seep into the trade
schools.
Jack M. Grimes of Austin, Tex., knows
what I’m talking about. Grimes is white,
which may not be relevant to what he has to
say. He teaches both in an all-white school
district and in a mostly black and chicano
Job Corps center, which is relevant.
He is struck by one significant difference
between the two groups of students. “Al
most without exception,” he told me, “the
Job Corps students have incredibly un
realistic expectations of salaries, benefits
and the standard of living they will be able
to immediately achieve.
“It is ironic to me to see sons and
daughters of $50,00-100,000-per-year
families willing (if not exactly eager) to ac
cept $2.65-an-hour jobs to provide extra
spending money for themselves or save for
college costs. In some instances, they will
even pass up college and start careers as
meat-cutter trainees, grocery trainees and
so forth for $4 and $5 an hour.
“This week, for an unfortunately too-
frequent example, two of our graduates
were placed as welders for Hughes Tool
Co. in Houston, beginning at $5.96 an
hour. This was permanent, stable employ
ment with a good firm, beginning at almost
$50 a day base salary — not too bad for
18-year-old dropouts, one would think.
“Neither of the two showed up for the
first day’s work. Both elected to return
home’ to broken families on welfare rather
than work for so low a salary. Their demand
seemed to be $15 ^n hour or nothing, and I
fear nothing is what they will get. I repeat
that, while this is probably not the norm, it
is far from being unique, or even excep
tionally unusual.
What’s going 9n? Have these young
people been misled by counselors and re
cruiters? Have they run across one
plumber making physician’s income and
concluded that such pay is normal? Or is it
the fact that when there aren’t any skilled
workers in the household, it’s hard to get a
realistic sense of what skilled workers earn?
Grimes has weighed the theories, rang
ing from “instant gratification” to the tele
vised “good life,’ And concluded that all the
theorization is as Useful as speculation on
angels’ feet and pinheads.
“As a pragmatist,” he says, “I am less
interested in esoterical treatises on ‘why’
than mundane answers on how.’
“How — if my observations have any
basis of validity — do we change the situa
tion? How do we make the underprivileged
realize that a basic education and employ
able trade are not an immediate panacea for
all the ills of their lives; that, in reality,
most middle-class whites do not sail around
on 100-foot yachts or sit around in glisten
ing resorts being served endless delicacies
from some unkown cornucopia; that a job
paying a livable wage is merely the basis for
beginning a life which will involve innum
erable problems and sacrifices but, if pur
sued reasonably, can lead to acceptable re
wards?
I don’t know the answers. Most children
from middle-class or working-class families
grow up with a fairly realistic idea of what
sort of lifestyle can be supported by what
sort of career. It’s enough to look at what
Dad and Mom do for a living and see what
kind of creature comforts their jobs can
produce. Maybe children from non
working families miss out on that common
knowledge.
Even so, shouldn’t it be obvious that an
income of $3, $4, or $5 an hour will buy a lot
more than no income at all? What produces
the expectations and attitudes that Grimes
and others encounter with such distressing
regularity? Grimes admits he hasn’t a clue.
“But I do assure you,” he said, “that it is
awfully depressing and frustrating to work
very hard for much less money than I might
be making to convert a grade-school drop
out and functional illiterate into a capable,
employable tradesman — only to see him
angrily reject his potential and blindly rage
against me.”
(c) 1978, The Washington Post Company
Letters to the editor
Lawyer deserves credit
Editor:
I would like to commend a service
provided by the University that I feel de
serves a lot of credit. That service is the
Student’s Legal Advisor. This office
provides free advise and legal service to
students and recognized student organiza
tions.
After recently having trouble with an in
surance claim, I turned to this office and
was amazed at the professionalism and effi
ciency with which my case was handled.
My claim is now settled and I would like to
thank this office for their assistance.
—Charles W. Auten III, ’80
A bum ‘deaV?
Editor:
Being to my first “Casino” last Friday, (I
missed my first two years), I had the best
time ever at a school fonction besides dates
at football games.
This gathering provided something dif
ferent than the usual and also proved to be
somewhat exciting. The outfits worn by the
saloon gals were very stimulating also.
However, the gambling didn’t seem worth
while as in the auction everyone began
pooling their money. I thought the point of
it all was to see how well one individual
could do with his or her gambling prowess.
Personally, I thought I was doing fairly
well by increasing the initial $3,000 to
$10,500. This amount was worthless at the
auction since so many people were pooling
it or begging in order to buy. I finally gave
up and ended up giving my money to a cute
saloon gal so she could pool it herself.
This seems to defeat it’s purpose as it is a
question of who you know and not how well
you can gamble. Another problem is how
are you going to divide a bicycle between a
whole dorm and who finally gets it without
making someone foel cheated?
Like I said, this function was still a blast
but it would be eV^n more fun if the pooling
was somehow stopped.
—Bruce Kalapach, ’79
Things go wrong
Editor:
I would like to talk about two things.
First of all I wish to thank Connie Burke for
the apologetic letter on the misprint in
Monday’s Battalion concerning the Corps
awards given Sunday. I folly understand
the difficulty in organizing a newspaper and
mistakes do happen very easily.
Now my second item. This concerns the
letter in Tuesday s Battalion “class un
sealed.” I think Mr. Looper has no right to
complain about the gift. First of all, I know
he was not in the committee that developed
the project. I have plenty of background
working with construction and I think
everyone should understand that there are
times when things just go wrong.
I think the most important point is that
our class tried to give a gift which reflected
well upon the school and I am sure that we
are going to do something about it. How
ever, these things take time and coopera
tion from the students.
—Clark A. McMurtry, ’78
Commanding Officer SQ. 10
Editor’s note: David Looper’s letter com
plained about the mosaic University seal
the Class of ’78 bought for the floor of
Academic Building rotunda.
Top of the News
Campus
Vandiver, Williams to speak
Rice University Provost Frank E. Vandiver and Texas A&M Univer
sity Chancellor Jack K. Williams will share spring commencement
speaking honors at Texas A&M May 5-6, President Jack E. Miller
announced. Dr. Vandiver will address graduate degreee candidatesat
3 p. m. May 5, and Dr. Williams will speak at two ceremonies for
candidates for undergraduate degrees. The first program is setfor7:30
p.m. May Sand the second for 9a.m. May 6. More than 2,800 students
are expected to receive diplomas this spring. The May 5 afternoon
ceremony will be in Rudder Auditorium, with the other programs
scheduled for G. Rollie White Coliseum.
State
Texas seeking deepwater port
An official of the Texas Deepwater Port Authority said Wednesday,
Texas is seeking a government application for the construction ofa
deepwater port 26 miles off the coast of Freeport, Texas, to handle
supertankers carrying crude oil imports. Gerald Jackson, general man
ager of the Texas Deepwater Port Authority, said he will deliver a
letter of intent seeking the application to Transportation Secretary
Brock Adams. The state authority, organized after the oil company
consortium Sea Dock disbanded March 31 and dropped its application
for a similar project will seek to amend Sea Dock’s application for a
public-owned and operated project. The proposed Texas project
would provide docking for supertankers transporting crude oil, which I
would be delivered by pipeline to refineries on the state’s Gulf Coast, r
Nation
Leukemia victim must he treated
A Massachusetts judge ruled that 2-year-old Chad Green must
undergo chemotherapy for leukemia rather than suffer “immediate
and painful death” under his parents’ own care. Superior Court Judge
Guy Volterra issued a 30-page ruling Tuesday sharply criticizing the
boy’s parents, Gerald and Diane Green of Scituate, Mass., who have
waged a court fight since February to keep their son from undergoing
the “poisonous” treatments. Volterra said the Greens may stop the
treatment only if Chad suffers a relapse and doctors determine there is
no chance for a cure. The family lawyer, George Donovan, said he may
appeal the decision to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Man killed in ammonia leak
A pipe burst in three places during an ammonia transfer in Port
Allen, La., Wednesday, killing one man and sending a cloud of white
fumes wafting across the Mississippi River toward the state capital.
Thirteen other persons were injured in the accident, including two
state troopers. The dead man, Marion Himel, was a maintenance
supervisor at the sugar cane plantation where the accident occurred.
Officials said he warned his family about the leak and then rushed into
the fomes to try to close a valve and stop the spreading vapors. The
injured were taken to Earl K. Long and Baton Rouge General hospitals
and are in good condition. They are apparently suffering the effects of
ammonia inhalation, which is similar to smoke inhalation.
World
France explodes neutron bomb
France has exploded a neutron bomb in the Pacific in a top-secret
test of the controversial weapon, the newspaper France Soir and
Magazine Le Pont reported Wednesday. French military experts said
they believed it was the first time a neutron bomb had been set ofl
anywhere. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman declines comment
on whether the United States has previously set off a neutron warhead.
Sources at the Nevada Nuclear Test site, however, told United Press
International last year that at least two neutron bombs had been
exploded in underground tests at the desert site during the last several
years. Federal officals did not deny the UPI report. Barring accidental
“vents,” such underground tests do not release radiation into the
atmosphere.
Lebanese government resigns
Lebanon’s first post-civil war government resigned today, amid a
controversy over last week’s fighting between Christian militiamen
and the Syrian peace-keeping troops, the official Beirut Radio said.
The resignation of Prime Minister Selim al Hoss although rumored in
the press several days ago appeared to come as a surprise. Hoss and his
government of technocrats took over 17 months ago after 19 months of
civil war between Christians and Moslem coalition of Lebanese and
Palestina leftists. The resignation came after Israeli military sources
said Israel would surrender half of occupied south Lebanon within two
weeks and has no intention of retaining any part of the area if U.N.
troops can guarantee they will keep Palestinian guerrillas out of the
region.
provi
'T!
Weather
Partly cloudy today, tonight and tomorrow with warm after
noons and cool nights. High today mid-70s, low tonight upper
50s. High tomorrow near 80. Winds from the north at 5-10
mph becoming southerly late this afternoon.
The Battalion
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