Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
May 8, 1978
Junket know-how
By STEVE GERSTEL
United Press International
A matter
By JIM CRAWLEY
John Hill did it.
He beat Dolph Briscoe and received the
Democratic Party gubernatorial nomina
tion without the need of a run-off.
The attorney general squeezed past the
50 percent mark that meant the difference
between a rematch between him and Bris
coe, and a first-ballot victory. Many politi
cal observers thought that Preston Smith’s
candidacy would push the battle between
Hill and Briscoe into the June run-off.
THE RACE BETWEEN the incum
bent and Hill was hard fought with verbal
barbs being shot by both candidates. Each
accused the other of causing the state mis
ery. Briscoe said that Hill’s proposals
would force a state income tax and in
crease taxes. Hill rebuked that Briscoe had
failed in defending the energy needs of
Texas in Washington. Hill also cited Bris
coe’s lackluster career as governor.
The primary campaign was one of rec
ords. Each candidate spent enormous
sums of money in their attempt to win the
nomination. Briscoe borrowed and re-
Politics
ceived campaign contributions totaling
over $3 million. Hill trailed Briscoe’s cam
paign chest by a mere $1 million. This
primary saw more money spent for the
gubernatorial seat than any previous cam
paign. Both candidates knew that the elec
tion was a do-or-die battle. Second place
didn’t matter.
Another other record that played a
prominent role in the election was Bris
coe’s attempt to set a new record for the
longest term in the governor’s mansion. If
he had won the nomination and the elec
tion in November, Briscoe would have be
come the first governor in Texas history to
hold office for ten years.
HILL AND HIS supporters used that
“record” against Briscoe. They said ten
years in office was too long for anyone. Hill
said that because the governor selects
one-third of the membership of almost
every state board every three years Bris
coe would have created a dynasty within
the state government.
The last record of concern in the cam
paign was the Dolph Briscoe’s record, or
the lack of one.
Briscoe has been repeatedly criticized
for his absenteeism from Austin, for his
failure to appoint people to state boards
and commissions, for his appointment of a
By JAMIE ROY JACOBY
and JEFF BERGER
If you ask an American these days what
some of the worst social problems are he
will surely include unemployment.
Unemployment is definitely a serious
problem. The accepted normal unem
ployment rate is four percent but the U.S.
suffers from seven to eight percent. Since
very little, if anything, is being done to
increase employment we have come up
with a suggestion which should prove
quite effective.
OUR SUGGESTION is that all persons
who remain unemployed for one year or
more should be placed in subjugated in-
denturement. Some bleeding-heart liber
als might call it slavery. Ignore them. The
manner in which an unemployed person is
placed in subjugated indenturement is
through a governmental agency. This in
itself will create some jobs.
When a person has been unemployed
for one year a personal profile, height,
weight, build, sex, age etc., will be sent to
the government office organized to per
form this operation. The personal profile
would be placed in a book circulated
Readers Forum
weekly to corporations, private individu
als, or anyone else who might be willing to,
contract labor.
The unemployed are then contracted by
the government to the client for an indefi
nite period for $500 to $1,000. The client
then has the responsibility of feeding, clo
thing, and sheltering his new worker.
You may be asking, how could a man be
forced to work under such a contract, and
even if he could, is it not un
constitutional? First we will deal with re
taining the worker. Precautions would be
taken to keep him from departing his new
home and job, such as: he would be
branded on the right cheek (each em
ployer having a different brand,) and iden
tification number would be tatooed on the
back of each hand. If these precautions
still fail then the worker will be terminated
before his peers when he is apprehended,
yet another precaution against unau
thorized departure.
THE SECOND ISSUE, the one of
Constitutionality, could be solved by legis
lation. At the time subjugated indenture
ment is authorized by the Congress a Con
stitutional amendment would also be
passed. This amendment would release
subjugated indenturement from all cen
sorship by previous Constitutional
Amendments.
Now that the problems are out of the
way we can discuss the advantages of this
proposal. The first advantage is of course
that unemployment would be reduced to
nearly zero. This near full employment
would relieve the welfare burden which
the taxpayer now struggles under.
The second benefit is that it would
provide food, clothing, shelter, and work
to persons who previously had trouble get
ting these essentials.
Another blessing bestowed upon our
of records
dead man to a state board, for his lack of
leadership, and for his failure to influence
national energy policy.
Hill used these criticisms to gain the
nomination from the Democrats. He used
his own record as attorney general to illus
trate how he had helped Texas, both on
the state level and the national level.
Hill repeatedly told voters throughout
the state that he had protected them from
the big corporations. He reminded them
of his efforts to get Howard Hughes’ will
probated in Texas so that Texas would re
ceive taxes from the estate. This
combination — telling the voters of Bris
coe’s liabilities and Hill’s assets — proved
to be the key to the Hill campaign.
IN THE HOTLY-CONTESTED 6th
Congressional District Democratic pri
mary, Phil Gramm and Chet Edwards will
face each other in a run-off next month.
Edwards did much better than many
observers believed. Gramm had earlier
taunted that he would win the nomination
outright. Most of the polls and many of the
district’s newspapers favored Gramm and
his conservative opinions.
The youthful Edwards ran a low-key
campaign stressing not the issues, but his
ability , and experience in handling the
needs of the district s constituents.
Gramm and the other candidates stressed
the issues of taxation, government spend
ing, and the farmer’s plight. Gramm pres
ented himself to the voters as a candidate
that would bring his expertise in eco
nomics to Congress.
Although Edwards may eventually lose
to Gramm, his campaign has to be termed
a success. He battled from the ranks with
little money and little support from local
leadership to close the gap between him
self and Gramm, who had run a heavily
financed, year-old campaign.
IN BRAZOS COUNTY, Edwards ran
better than both Gramm, a College Sta
tion resident, and the four other candi
dates. Gramm spent much of the cam
paign concentrating on the Dallas-Fort
Worth area, where the majority of the dis
trict’s voters live. In his effort to win the
north half of the district, Gramm ne
glected the Bryan-College Station area.
This made it possible for Edwards, an
A&M graduate and former Teague aide, to
slip into the county and draw a load of
much-needed votes.
Another factor that pushed Edwards
into the run-off was Teague’s endorsement
of Edwards late in the campaign. This may
have convinced many fence-sitting former
Teague supporters to vote for Edwards.
t ' r
unemployed by this plan would be a com
plete halt in their proliferation. It is a
known fact that unemployment leads to
overpopulation, which in turn leads to
more otiose mouths to feed. We propose
to solve this overproduction problem by
mandatory sterilization of anyone being
placed in subjugated indenturement.
The fourth service is an improved
economy. This better economy comes in
an indirect manner. First, due to the
cheaper labor, production costs would be
lower, a savings passed on to the con
sumer. Second, there would be more
competition for available jobs, resulting in
higher efficiency and in another savings
passed to the consumer. Third, inflation
would be curbed due to lower production
costs and to a decline in unnecessary wage
hikes.
THE FIFTH ADVANTAGE would be
to reduce the illegal alien labor population
of the U.S. There would be fewer illegal
aliens because the workers under subju
gated indenturement would be cheaper
labor and easier to communicate with than
are aliens.
The sixth convenience would be the
personal improvement offered to the con
tracted worker. He would be allowed a
chance to learn a skill or receive further
education. If the worker proved industri
ous he would be freed to return to the
general labor force.
The seventh advantage would be the tax
break which this worker offers his em
ployer. He is of course an exemption as a
dependent and when the worker is freed
to the general labor force the employer
receives a very large tax break. This would
help to alleviate the middle-class tax bur
den.
There is of course under this system
room for abuse, even abuse of the con
tracted worker. In view of this problem
arising an organization much like the
Humane Society would be set up, maybe
it would be called the Society for Humane
Treatment of Indentured Humans (or
ganized under the auspices of HEW). Its
job would be to make sure that none of
these people are overly mistreated.
THERE ARE OTHER alternatives,
but they are all ridiculous to the point of
being ludicrous. One such alternative is
the allotment of federal money for public
work programs. Another would be easier
accessibility to technical schools for de
prived individuals. Yet another possibility
would be an increase in the number of
public employment agencies. But we will
not dwell on these useless alternatives
when it is clear our suggestion would be
more effective and could be instituted
much sooner.
The choice is yours. I only bring this
proposal to your attention out of a sense of
patriotism. If you want full employment all
you have to do is contact your con
gressman and urge him to adopt this plan.
If you think the unemployment rate now is
acceptable all you need do is remain quiet.
Jacoby and Berger are both freshman
accounting majors. This commentary rep
resents the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily those of this newspaper.
WASHINGTON — Sen. S.I.
Hayakawa, California Republican, wants
to go to Africa.
Most senators love to travel at taxpayer
expense, so Hayakawa’s overseas foray
would not be unusual.
Because of his deep interest in foreign
affairs, Hayakawa plans a 10-day trip to
Rhodesia, Zambia and Bostwana.
Washington Window
In a news conference, the always-candid
Californian explained how these trips ■—
sometimes called junkets — are arranged.
Hayakawa said he was applying for the
funding of the trip to one of the two major
committees on which he serves.
“Which one,’’ he was asked.
“Since Human Resources backed the
last one, I guess I have to ask Agriculture
this time,’’ Hayakawa replied.
“What would be the tie-in with agricul
ture,” the questioner persisted.
“I’ll have to examine palm tress,” the
senator said.
“I know what I’ll do,” he added. “I’ll
have to examine aquaculture. I just had a
big hearing on aquaculture. ”
“It isn’t difficult to find a tie-in because
there are obviously questions of agricul
ture in these developing countries which I
could inquire into, although the principal
interests so far have been foreign policies
and their future as a nation.
“But once the Agriculture Committee
decides they’d like to fund it, they’ll have
plenty of questions for me to ask when I
get there.”
Hayakawa was asked whether is
wouldn’t be more “straightforward and
easier” to get on the Foreign Relations
Committee.
“I suppose it would, but you know I ha-
Letters to the editor
Editor:
In reference to the article (Battalion,
April 25) about Davy Crockett:
For obvious reasons, I took an interest
in his legend at an early age and have read
a few accounts of his life. The very first one
I read had him being captured at the
Alamo instead of dying in the heat of bat
tle, so I wasn’t disillusioned by the article
in the least. Whether this detracts from
the “heroism” of his death or not depends
on how he surrendered and faced execu
tion.
I’ll spare you the details, but the version
this same biography gave was probably
more dramatic and heroic than any death
on the battlefield could be.
To say Crockett was ashamed of his re-
election defeat is a very poor choice of
words. He was disgusted with the tactics
that were used against him by the political
machine in Tennessee because he opposed
Jackson. He probably left for Texas with
intention to start anew. If he had survived
the war, he could have been a man of con
siderable prominence. This, rather than
the shame of political vengence as the arti
cle suggested, would seem to be a likely
reason for his venture.
By the way, people who go to fight in a
country that they have never even seen
before with no other motive than to die for
its liberty are pretty scarce.
Why Crockett came to Texas and how
he died seem to me to be irrelevant to his
“heroism,” anyway. What is important is
that he, like the rest of the Alamo defen
ders, chose to fight in the face of great
odds, perhaps 30 to 1. I imagine I would
have started looking for the backdoor as
soon as I saw how the odds were stacking
up.
—D.B. Crockett, ’80
ven t got much seniority around here, so
I’m perfectly satisfied to wait my turn,” he
replied.
Hayakawa said when he came to the Sen
ate last year, he actively sought a spot on
the Human Resources Committee because
of his background, and on Agriculture,
where he thought the state was badly
under-represented.
“I didn’t actively seek Foreign Relations
for one very important reason — I know a
little about foreign relations as regards to
Africa and Asia but I don’t know an awful
lot about Europe and I don’t know any
thing about South America.
“So, I’m not really prepared for Foreign
Relations assignment, until I am much
more broadly based in my knowledge of
the rest of the world,” he added.
Then Hayakawa was asked, “Senator,
what’s you argument as to why the tax
payers should pay for one freshman
senator to go over to Africa who is not even
a member of the Foreign Relations Com
mittee?”
“Well, I don’t know if there is any par-
ticularily great argument, except that I
think I can be very useful,” Hayakawa
said.
“Well, I thought you might have some
rationale to present to the committee,” he
was prompted.
“Well, committees are very obliging,
Hayakawa said. “They want their mem
bers to be as well informed as possible.
“The only reason I’m asking Agriculture
is that I asked Human Resources last time
when I went to Japan,” he said.
“And if Agriculture can’t make a
rationale out of it, I’ll go back to Human
Resources.”
One of the two committees is sure to
kick in, especially because Hayakawa
wants to go alone or with one fellow
senator at the most.
And an expedition to black Africa,
doesn’t sound anywhere as bad as those
junkets to posh spots of the world.
A ‘pro-Ai^M’ letter
Editor:
Several weeks ago in my journalism
class we were assigned to write a letter to
the editor. I was sure some issue would
arise on campus that would throw me into
rage and I could write a fervent “anti
something” letter.
No such luck. I have nothing to com
plain about. Possibly, the hottest issues
don’t effect me. I don’t have a car, so I don’t
have a parking problem. I have never
been run down in a pedestrian crosswalk
by a speeding vehicle. I think that
everyone should have ignored Blue Jean
Day. I am very much opposed to “preg
nancy terminations,” but enough has been
said and too much publicity has been de
voted to that subject. I think football tick
ets are distributed fairly well, but then
I’ve never been a senior who has gotten
tickets in the end zone.
Since I’m not profoundly against any
thing, my alternative is to write a “pro-
A&M” letter. A&M is a great university
and I’m a true Aggie. However, I’m not
blindly loyal.
Problems, aside from parking, do exist
on campus. Rapes do occur. A drug prob
lem exists. Cheating takes place.
The fiercely loyal Aggies won’t accept
this. Other already know it exists. How
ever, I don’t believe such problems are as
widespread here as at other universities.
I’m not apathetic. But, I’m content
here, and I’m sure that there are many like
me. So, consider this a letter from all of
those persons who never felt the need to
write a letter to the editor before.
—Tina Linch, ’79
Defending Davy’s honor
Top of the News
Nation
Radicals near peace agreement
All members of the radical group MOVE wanted on arrest warrants
were expected to be arraigned by Monday, bringing to a close the
first stage of a complicated peace agreement with the city of Phila
delphia.
MOVE — founded in 1971 as the Community Action Movement
— rejects most modem conveniences, including sanitary facilities.
All members use the surname Africa.
Gail Simms Africa surrendered Saturday, the eighth member of
the group to do so. Under the agreement all MOVE members are to
be arraigned on various charges, release on their own recognizance,
and escorted back to the group’s blockaded home.
City officials said arraignments would continue through the
weekend. The first seven MOVE members, all of them women, sur
rendered Thursday and Friday. There are believed to be 19 adults
and six children in the group’s house.
Kent State programs marred
Many students and faculty at Kent State University had hoped the
eighth anniversary of the slayings for four Kent students by National
Guardsmen would be a time to heal, once and for all, the lingering
grief and anger from the Vietnam-era tragedy.
Instead tear gas and bitterness Thursday pointed out the still
festering wounds of the Kent State shootings.
There were separate memorial programs held at the university —
one sponsored by faculty and the other by the May 4 Task Force, a
group which was organized to raise support for the upcoming retrial
of the $46 million civil suit brought by parents of the students and nine
and nine students wounded by guardsmen.
The bitter smell of tear gas further marred the day’s activities, as a
small group of radical protesters tried to storm a gymnasium con
struction site near the spot where the May 4, 1970, shootings oc
curred.
Following an afternoon of speeches and singing, several hundred
demonstrators were peacefully marching around the campus when
about 25 persons broke from the group and tried to push down the
fence surrounding the construction project they feel dishonors the
memory of the shooting site.
Helicopter crash kills two
Two men were killed when a helicopter shuttling five people to
Shell Oil Co. ’s Pacesetter II oil rig from the New Jersey coast crashed
Sunday into the Atlantic Ocean, the Coast Guard said.
The two were trapped in the wreckage, 45 miles off Atlatnic City in
foggy weather, the Coast Guard said. The three survivors were im
mediately spotted in the water after the 12:20 p.m. crash, and were
taken to Atlantic City Medical Center, where they were reported in
serious condition.
The Coast Guard and the crash occurred 30 minutes into the flight
the rig that has been searching for natural gas and oil off the New
Jersey coast since last month.
The Coast Guard said the helicopter, owned by petroleum
Helicopter Inc. of Lafayette, La., crashed shortly after the company
lost radio contact with the craft.
Another PHI helicopter spotted the downed craft and the three
survivors. Divers, flown out by Coast Guard helicopter from Bader
Field in Atlantic City, later located the two dead men, who included
the co-pilot, Paul Perrino, 27, of Ludlow, Vt. and the pilot, Don
Gillam of New Orleans, La., the company said.
PHI would not release the names of the other three and did not
know the cause of the crash.
Gunman surrenders to end seige
A machine-gun-wielding gunman who took four persons hostage
and exchanged them for two police officials during a 12-hour seige
Saturday in Indianapolis “felt helpless,” because his world was
crumbling, authorities said.
The incident ended at midmorning without incident when Bob
Gibson, 33, a Vietnam veteran and night computer operator surren
dered to an FBI agent.
Authorities said the takeover and seige at the clubhouse of the
Nottingham Village apartment complex had been marked by some
gunfire — all by Gibson — but that no one had been injured.
It ended when Gibson walked out of the complex flanked by FBI
agent Steve McVay and two Marion County sheriffs officers who
spent more than seven hours with Gibson.
“The world simply fell in on Bobby,” said McVay, and FBI expert
in hostage negotiations.
“He felt helpless. We tried to give him hope for tomorrow,”
McVay said.
World
U.S. to keep military in Asia
Vice President Walter Mondale s tour of Southeast Asia is per
suading area leaders that Washington is committed to maintaining
the region’s military balance despite the Vietnam failure that “almost
tore us apart,” a senior official in his party said Saturday.
Mondale conferred with Indonesian President Suharto for two
hours Saturday and later met with prominant Indonesian citizens,
some of whom spoke critically of Suharto’s human rights policies.
He was to fly on Sunday to Australia and New Zealand after earlier
stops in the Philippines and Thailand.
A senior U.S. official briefing reporters on results of the Mondale
trip so far said the tour had focused on Southeast Asian concerns
about the level of U.S. military involvement in the area.
Weather
Mostly cloudy with fog this morning becoming partly cloudy
this afternoon with warm temperatures during the day and
mild nights. High today mid-80s, low tonight mid-50s. High
today mid-80s. Winds from the southwest at 10-15 mph be
coming light and variable daytime Tuesday.
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Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily
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