Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
June 15, 1978
The proposition
As the dust settles in California after the passage of proposition 13, the tax
cut referendum, the shock waves are rolling across the country. Whether
any city or state can just arbitrarily cut taxes by 60 percent and continue to
function remains to be seen.
It should be obvious to lawmakers on all three levels of government —
city, state and federal — that the taxpayer is fed up with waste and ineffi
ciency. How to translate these sentiments to specific actions is going to be a
lot more difficult than just getting people to vote “against” taxes.
One cannot revolt against taxes on one hand and protest about terrible
roads, inadequate police and fire protection, and second-rate schools on the
other.
There is a middle ground to be sought between the extremes of revolt and
extravagance with tax money. Every single appropriation, whether it’s be
fore the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the General Assembly or the Con
gress, must be weighed prudently. There is no room for experimentation.
There are other factors which must be considered, and the most important
is inflation. Government, especially at the national level, does more to con
tribute to it than control it.
Norwalk (Conn.) Hour
California taxpayers have revolted, and the rest of the country is going to
watch carefully the results of that revolution. With the overwhelming ap
proval of Proposition 13, the Golden State voters cut their property taxes by
57 percent.
Californians had seen those taxes triple and quadruple during the last five
years. Many homeowners faced the loss of their homes because their prop
erty taxes were too high.
There have been gloomy warnings that the passage of the tax cut will
result in closed schools and crippled public services since property taxes
provide much of their financing.
Proposition proponents contend the cut will force government and public
services to operate more efficiently. They deny the state’s services will grind
to a halt.
Everybody is watching to see which faction was right. Both sides probably
will see some of their predictions come true. There will be reductions in
services and schools will suffer. But government will cut out some of the fat
and deadwood.
We may not see a taxpayers’ revolt here, but no doubt there will be
resistanvx xing the bill for an increasing array of public services and projects.
Huntington (W.Va.)Advertiser
Indochina on the brink
By R. MUCHONTHAM
According to the UPI correspondent
Joan Hanauer (Battalion, June 8, 1978),
the CBS News Special on “What Hap
pened to Cambodia?” was frightening and
thought-proVoking. One couldn’t have
.agreed with her more..
. *< It would be interesting to find Out, how-
—pver, if one could, what kind of thought it
has provoked among the viewers, if at all.
But such—as one can see—would be an
overly-burdensome undertaking.
There is no question that what is hap
pening in Cambodia is frightening. It
frightens those who see it happen. It is
also frightening, particularly to students of
the Indochinese affairs, precisely because
of the prospects that the whole In
dochinese peninsula might one day be
turned into a Cambodian-like situation
with Marxist-Communist domination.
This is by no means new, ex nihilo ap
prehension. Most of us, although some
may refuse to, remember John Foster
Dulles and his Domino proposition. It
would be interesting indeed if one could
ask Mr. Dulles for comment and his feel
ing on the recent development in In
dochina. But that is impossible.
And, to the students of Indochinese af
fairs, no matter how great our apprehen
sion, if there is any, it can by no means be
greater than that felt by those few remain
ing free Indochinese countries, who watch
helplessly through their back doors the
maniac atrocities committed daily by their
new Communist neighbors and, ponder
over the time when John Foster Dulles
apprehension will be fulfilled in In
dochina. Now that is frightening.
Readers Forum
Thailand, a case in point, is only a stone
throw away from Communist Laos and
Cambodia. The recent tidal waves of
Communism which swept through Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia have given a tre
mendous morale boost to the underground
Communist Party of Thailand whose
membership has been increasing at a rapid
rate. It has resulted at the same time a
proportionate drop in morale among the
country’s top business, political and gov
ernment leaders. Their morale was so low,
it was known at one point that almost
everyone of them possessed an exit
passport.
This is understandable because in addi
tion to the many problems which have
burdened this fledgling country, the re
cent development has turned everything
to the worst. Foreign investment in the
country has dropped drastically. The al
ready low subsistent per capita income is
further strained by the influx of hundreds
of thousand of refugees. And the country is
now also burdened by constant border
conflict with the Red Cambodians. If there
is a single word to describe her outlook it
is certainly not hopeful.
And if the future does not look bright for
Thailand herself, it is certainly not bright
also for the rest of free Indochina.
Thailand at the moment is the largest
free Indochinese country left. Her 42 mil
lion people and 200,000 square miles
serve as the last floodgate that stops the
red waves from flooding the rest of the
peninsula (e.g., into Malaysia and the
end). Her friendly front door neighbor,
Malaysia, as opposed to her fervent revo
lutionist back door neighbors who are
ready to march through her door, is only
slightly better off by perhaps $300 per
capita income above the Thais.
At any rate, be that as it may, there is
always hope even in the least hopeful situ
ation like this one. We hope that Thailand
will solve her wretched social and eco
nomic situations in due time. Among her
priorities will be to solve the immediate
refugee problem and on down the list.
Only an economically strong nation can
resist the Marxist and Maoist revolution
ary fever which, we know, feasts on the
poverty-ridden masses and the remaining
free Indochinese countries are most vul
nerable to it in this crucial time.
The survival of Thailand will be the sur
vival of the rest of free Indochina. We
hope the floodgate will be strong enough
eventually to stop Red tidal waves from
spilling over and wash away what is left of
free Indochina.
Muchontham is a graduate student in
economics.
'Protection from such protection’
By HANS-ULRICH SPREE
International Writers Service
BONN, WEST GERMANY-At the be
ginning of this year, legislation went into
effect to shield German citizens against in
vasions of their privacy by computerized
data banks.
A govenment spokesman hailed the new
law as the most comprehensive in Western
Europe. But a leading newspaper editor
commented: “Heaven protect us from
such protection.”
This devergence of views underlines the
difficulties that face West Germany and
other modern societies as they strive to
defend civil liberties in a world of increas
ingly powerful technology.
THE QUESTION RAISED by the new
West German law is whether the com
puter can be controlled completely-or
whether, given its sophistication, any at
tempts to curb its use are necessarily going
to be less than satisfactory. Thus the pres
ent legislation, while riddled with
loopholes, may be better than no protec
tive legislation at all.
Under the law, known as the Federal
Data Protection Act, government agencies
and banks, insurance companies, mail
order firms and other private enterprises
are forbidden to gather and store informa
tion on individuals without their permis
sion..
The law also restricts the sale of data on
individuals and its use for market or opin
ion research. In theory, companies are not
supposed to furnish each other with the
credit rating of their customers.
In addition, firms that have collected
and stored information are required to re
veal it to individuals at their request and
advise them how it has been employed.
And now a company may not gather data
on an individual without his authorization.
Commentary
According to the legislation, a special
commission will report on the effective
ness of the law next January, after it has
been in operation for a year. Already, the
evidence suggests that its shortcomings
will make it vulnerable to criticism.
For one thing, the provision that allows
individuals to obtain stored data about
themselves does not apply to information
held by government agencies like the
domestic intelligence sevice, the internal
revenue department, the police, the pub
lic prosecutor’s office and the criminal in
vestigation bureau. As a consequence,
citizens are far from protected against gov
ernment snooping into their privacy.
CITIZENS CAN COMPLAIN to a so-
called “computer ombudsman,” Hans
Peter Bull, a 41-year-old former law pro
fessor who was recently appointed to
handle public objections to the system.
But Bull and his 19 assistants function
under the Ministry of Interior, which con
trols West Germany’s federal security ap
paratus, and it seems doubtful that they
are going to be entirely independent from
government pressure.
Indeed, Bull took the job only after two
other candidates rejected it, in part be
cause they were uncertain about the de
gree of real autonomy they would enjoy.
Meanwhile, there also appears to be
flaws in the data protection law’s capacity
to impose controls on the collection and
possession of information by private com
panies.
For example, a private firm is under no
obligation to divulge to an individual that
it is holding personal data on him if that
information was in its possession prior to
passage of the legislation. The law is
equally ambiguous regarding the matter of
transmission of data from one company to
another.
It stipulates that information may be
transmitted “if this does not curtail the
interests of the person concerned. It does
not specify, however, who is going to de
cide whether the “interests of the person
concerned have been curtailed.
Presumably, this task is to be carried
out by “information protection representa
tives’ assigned to the staffs of all com
panies that have five or more employees
involved in processing computer data. But
these representatives, who are paid by the
companies, seem unlikely to stand behind
the consumer in a conflict with the firm.
STILL ANOTHER WEAKNESS in the
law is its lack of jurisdiction over data
banks that are based outside West Ger
many but can easily communicate informa
tion across the frontier. Even before legis
lation was passed, several West German
firms dealing in credit information and
other data set up branches in Switzerland
and Luxemburg, and their computers are
beyond the reach of this country’s law.
These loopholes mirror the fact, of
course, that there was intense lobbying by
various government and business interests
against the Federal Data Protection Act
prior to its passage. The law itself, accord
ingly, is a compromise.
But it is bound to be amended and re
fined, and improved in the process. So it
offers hope that the privacy of citizens may
be better preserved in the future.
(Spree covers social issues for the
Deutschlandfunk, a West German radio
network.)
FEEM
by Doug Graham
f ^
Readers’
Forum
Guest viewpoints, in addi
tion to Letters to the Editor,
are welcome. All pieces sub
mitted to Readers’ forum
should be:
• Typed triple space
• Limited to 60 characters per
line
• Limited to 100 lines
J
Top of the News
H
Campus
Si
Adult driver education offered
CO’.
The Safety Education Program at Texas A&M University will spon
sor an Adult Driver Education course during July. Four phases of
instruction will be included: classroom instruction, simulation, mul
tiple car and on-the-street instruction. The multiple car phase in
cludes driving exercises in an off-street area. Cost for the course is
$50.
State
Bus company found negligent
The Texas Supreme Court Wednesday in Austin upheld a lower
court decision finding a bus company negligent for ejecting a
passenger who was killed by a vehicle shortly after the ejection.
Lucille Lee sued Continental Trialways for negligently ejecting her
father, Andrew Lee, from the bus. Lee was struck and killed about an
hour later by a vehicle near the location where he was let off the
bus.The bus driver claimed he ejected Lee because the passenger
was creating a disturbance.
No referenda power, no tax limits
With Texas voters unable to wield real power in referenda, it
would be difficult for the state to adopt tax limits similar to Califor
nia’s Proposition 13, says a state legislator. Sen. Walter Mengden,
R-Houston, said that California’s recently passed tax limitation mea
sure would never have been adopted if that state did not have the
initiative and referendum method of enacting legislation.
Nation
Cuba may exchange prisoners
The administration is exploring an indirect offer by Cuba to ex
change an American imprisoned in Havana for a Puerto Rican woman
convicted of a 1954 terrorist attack on the U ,S. Capitol, the Washing
ton Post reported Wednesday. U.S. officials are not certain about
whether the offer has the full backing of the Cuban government. The
Post said the White House is considering whether to have the State
Department make direct contact with Havana on the matter, which
comes in the midst of the increasing tension in U.S.-Cuban relations.
Embezzler denied tax refund
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to refund in
come taxes to a convicted embezzler for illegal money he returned to
the government. The appeals court Tuesday said in New Orleans that
Herman E. McKinney, who embezzled more than $91,000 from the
Texas Employment Commission in 1966, could not “be made whole
tax-wise” for returning the embezzled money to the government.
Police kill dogs trapped in house
Police say they had to kill more than 20 German shepherd dogs
trapped in a filth-caked house Monday in Flint, Mich., because offi
cers feared for their safety. Authorities said another 12 dogs removed
alive from the house also woidd have to be destroyed. Police were
searching for the woman who owned the house who apparently aban
doned it several days ago. Authorities found the dogs late Sunday
living in rooms packed with excrement. An animal control officer said
authorities tried to capture as many dogs alive as possible.
Police brutality hearings slated
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission will hold police brutality hear
ings in Houston, where several officers recently have been indicted
or convicted in prisoner deaths, a spokesman announced in Washing
ton Wednesday. The six-member fact-finding body which monitors
civil rights in the United States has no enforcement authority.“Both
the pros and the cons” of allegations against Houston police will be
aired at the Texas hearings scheduled for Dec. 11 and 12, the
spokesman said.
World
Coin collectors stampede bank
Zaire strike force to be trained
Weather
Hig
sts i
and n
g, o„ n ;
incres
sub-si
■ Hoi
even
ieade
ft Cc
Pre
planm
throuj
Partly cloudy and warm Thursday. Continued fair and mild
tonight and Friday. High both days in mid 90s. Tonight’s
temperature in low 70s. Winds from south-southeast, 5-10
mph.
i’acih
&M
ment
Ing ol
teriah
It i
mgm
Cl
Dr
Univ
Nath
:o cc
copy
duce
tein.
Su
n th
nms
does
tissu
“\
a tei
just
natr
hon
h
no
of $
billi
part
0
W
said
T
the
the
hare
fina
the
yea
C
jecl
con
abo
About 20 persons were injured in a stampede of 20,000 collectors
trying to shove their way into the Bank of Korea in Seoul, South
Korea, to buy commemorative silver coins, police said Wednesday.
Police said coin collectors began gathering at the central bank soon
after the midnight to 4 a.m. curfew ended Tuesday to buy silver coins
issued in commemoration of the 42nd world shooting championship
to be held in Seoul Sept. 24-Oct. 5.
France and Belgium will train an elite 15,000-man strike force for
Zaire, capable of carrying out hot-pursuit raids into neighboring
countries, military officials said in Kinshasa Saturday. The special
army unit eventually will replace the 2,700-man inter-African peace
keeping force now being flown in by U.S. transports and assembled
to protect the country’s troubled southern copper belt, the officials
said.
ste:
fed
the
thr
1
23$
use
pie
tar
ble
em
pre
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 Re
gents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting
enterprise operated by students as a university and com
munity 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. Each letter must be
signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone
number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
Station, Texas 77843.
Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25^
school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates fi
nished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 21-
Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas
United Press International is entitled exdusively to^
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited toi
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein resen^
Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 7/8#
Represented nationally by National Educational Adver
tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los.
Angeles.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from
September through May except during exam and holiday
periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday
through Thursday.
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor .
Sports Editor
News Editor Lee Roy Leschpeb
City Editor Mark"'-'
Campus Editor FlaviaKr^
Photo Editor PatOMifc
Copyeditor Sarah W#
Reporter Scott Pendk^
Student Publications Board: Bob G. Rogers, Choin^‘
Joe Arredondo, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. Charles McCandltf
Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rice. Director of Stub'-
Publications: Donald C. Johnson.