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Viewpoint The Battalion Thursday Texas A&M University July 27, 1978 Some only take. never give By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — When Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal came back from the economic summit con ference in Bonn, he felt that the meeting had not only achieved greater substantive results than the skeptics had expected, but had served to reaffirm a too-easily- forgotten point about the American Presi dent. “Willy-nilly,” he said a day later, “there was a clear turning of eyes toward the United States and an expectation of lead ership. The sense that the U.S. President has to be in the lead and set the tone was just as much there as ever.” THAT CAME AS a relief to Blumenthal and such colleagues as Ambassador Henry Owen, who had managed the preparatory work for the Bonn meeting. Like others, they had wondered how much the slump in Carter’s domestic fortunes and the im passe over his energy program in Congress might damage his influence with his European and Japanese counterparts. But at the moment both men describe as the turning-point of the meeting, when Carter met that expectant gaze from his colleagues and asserted that his govern ment would achieve the goals it has set for curbing inflation, energy consumption and balance-of-trade deficits, the president passed his test. Carter, from all accounts, convinced the other summiteers that he could keep his commitments. And, on the basis of his as surances, the Germans went further than had been expected in pledging to spur their economic growth and the Japanese did the same with their pledge to reduce their trade surplus. BLUMENTHAL WENT off to Capitol Hill on Tuesday “feeling fine. There, he was reintroduced, bluntly, to the quite dif ferent realities of Washington. He reviewed five basic pieces of admin istration legislation with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Al Ullman, D-Ore., and learned that “not only are all five facing problems, they are tied in knots. ” He also reviewed the prospects for the administration’s tax-cut measure with House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, Jr., D-Mass., and got more bad news about the fractionated Democratic factions on Ways and Means. By the time I saw Blumenthal, late in the day, the ebullience of Bonn was plainly beginning to wear thin. He proba bly would have been a lot gloomier, though, had he known that a key piece of the President’s anti-inflation strategy had been struck down that very day by tbe un expected vote-switch of a Chicago-area Democratic congressman. Without a word of warning to the ad ministration, the House leadership or his own committee chairman. Rep. Martin A. Russo, D-Ill., a 34-year-old second- termer, decided to vote to gut the hospital cost-control bill. Carter has made it a cen terpiece of his effort to cap the exploding health care sector of consumer prices. Russo told me, the next morning, that although he had supported the administra tion up to that point, he had decided over the previous weekend that the bill was "becoming a regulatory nightmare” and should be scrapped. His vote killed man datory controls and substituted a “volun tary” plan. WHEN ASKED IF he had felt any obli gation to communicate his doubts to any one in the House leadership or the admin istration, Russo said: “They don’t come to me when they have any doubts, so I don’t see why I should reverse it. I don’t feel any obligation to them.” Last March, however, Russo was happy to have Vice President Mondale come to Chicago and appear at a fund-raising breakfast which netted, he said, $20,000 for his campaign. He was pleased to obtain James T. McIntyre, Jr., the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as a speaker for an auto convention in his dis trict. But he felt no compunction about keep ing, as a personal secret, the decision that cost the administration 16 months of work on a major Carter bill. In his attitude and action, Russo is anything but unique. Like other young Democrats elected to the House in recent years from previously Re publican districts, he is ready to bend to what he takes to be the prevailing anti government, anti-tax sentiments. The Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, who buried Carter’s proposed tax reform and are balking at the oil tax the president promised his Bonn partners he would get passed, are playing the same game. They are taking Carter for what they can get, and ignoring him when it suits their purposes. IT IS EASY to be critical of the presi dent’s leadership shortcomings, as I have often been. But there is something strange about a situation in which foreign heads of government turn automatically to the •president for their cues, and junior mem bers of his own party in the House feel no such inclination or obligation. Both Blumenthal and Owen remarked on the fact that, at the economic summit, the leaders decided to look beyond the domestic political troubles almost all of them face, and seek such strength as they could find in reaffirming their common purposes. Something of that attitude would be welcome among the Democrats on Capitol Hill. (c) 1978, The Washington Post Com pany The John Browns’one-of-a By ROBERT MUSEL United Press International LONDON — The parents were of course delighted, the doctors naturally proud. But the birth of the world’s first test-tube baby brought with it a new di mension to a controversy already perplexing both church and state. The 5-pound, 12-ounce daughter delivered by Caesarean section at Oldham mid District Hospital to Mrs. Lesley Brown, 30,‘'.iji^ jicnfectly- formed and ap pears quite normal. During the delivery, husband John, 38, paced the floor like any other father and arranged to hand out cigars. Analysis But there the resemblance between their daughter’s arrival on earth and that of any other child ends. Baby Brown was conceived in a piece of laboratory glass. Around the tiny form, the living proof that concep tion can take place outside the body of the mother, gathered the hopes of thousands of childless women. But many churchmen, politicians and scientists fear that man has unlocked one of the doors that, without adequate safeguards, someday could lead to a race of manufactured human beings. No one questions that the successful birth marks a milestone in the science of reproduction. But does it also mark the beginnings of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World — where man will be able to order up superior “Alphas” for leadership and dronelike “Epsi lons ’ designed for servitude? There is the chance, of course, that baby Brown is not only now unique, but will remain that way. Patrick Steptoe, the highly regarded gynecologist who pioneered the technique, is reported to have had at least 100 failures before succeeding with Mrs. Brown. But might it happen in the future that other scien tists, encouraged by his success, will experiment with genetic engineering and cloning — the reproduction of identical human beings from master cells? “The test-tube baby could be the first step towards the creation of a Hitler-style master race,” said Leo Abse, a member of Parliament. He has asked the gov ernment to hold a special debate on genetics in the House of Commons. The Roman Catholic bishop of Middlesbrough, the Rt. Rev. Gerard McClean, believes the medical break through is “unlawful” in the eyes of the church. “It is not the conception of a child as nature intended and I am opposed to it. Artificial insemination was con demned in a ruling from Rome some years ago by Pope Pious XII. What we are talking about now is the same sort of thing and must be covered by the same deci sion.” The Church of England, however, is not opposed to the new methojl. “I can see nothing theologically wrong with it,” said Prof. Robert Berry, who is a Church of England spokesman. “There is a warning in the background,” said one scientific commentator. “Clones and genetic engineer ing may be light years away so far as the expertise and the desire for such a step in humans is concerned. Yet a fertilized egg in the laboratory at least capacitates their development to some extent and the potential cannot be ignored.” kind-baby Top of the News State Power agency settles tangles Texas Municipal Power Agency has settled two legal tangles over a planned Grimes County power plant and, among other things, has agreed to make payments in lieu of taxes to the county and three school systems. In U.S. District Court in Houston, TMPA Friday committed itself to obeying environmental restrictions in the plant, but it won court recognition of its right to challenge those restrictions administratively or in court. Waco police hold suspect Although police in Waco are holding a man for investigation as a possible suspect in the killing of six Oklahoma City steakhouse em ployees, Oklahoma authorities say they do not believe the man being held is connected with the case. Police arrested a Fort Worth man Wednesday they believe may have been involved in the killings at the Sirloin Stockade restaurant. Children freed A Texarkana man whose three youngest children were found locked in a chicken-wire cage has given up all his children to a special care home in Oklahoma where he spent part of his own youth. In an emergency hearing two days prior to a scheduled custody hearing, James J. Vfilliston, 57, of Hooks, Texas, surrendered the three chil dren found June 29 caked with their own filth in an outdoor cage. He also voluntarily gave up custody of four older children and relin quished all claim to two unborn children now being carried by his legal and common-law wives. Nation Non-Indian vendors banned The Santa Fe, N.M., district attorney has put non-Indian vendors on notice they are barred from the portal of the Palace of Governors beginning Wednesday. The move follows a federal judge’s ruling last week that the Museum of New Mexico policy in allowing only Indians to sell jewelry and crafts outside the palace was constitutional. U.S. District Judge Edward Mechem found the policy was based on cul tural considerations and not racial discrimination. One-room school closed A one-room school house, founded 102 years ago on the south- central Nebraska prairie, will be closed because only two brothers are enrolled for the fall session. The Hartman School District 34, located northeast of the city, will be consolidated with the Center School District 28, officials decided. At its prime in 1936, the school had 10 grades and about 30 pupils. It currently has seven grades, including kindergarten but only two students were enrolled for the fall term. As a ■y, Heei sei o pfcv' ■'1> I)UJ tht tui 1C Anthony may be on new $1 coin Susan B. Anthony has been suggested as the emblem for a new $1 coin, rather than the symbolic Miss Liberty. The TreasuryDcpart- ment pushed Miss Liberty, but women’s groups lobbied vigorousl) for the image of an actual woman. The full banking panel is expected . to consider the bill before Congress recesses Aug. 18. The Treasury | estimated that issuance of the coin will save the government millions ! of dollars annually in printing costs. The new metal dollar will replace] the unpopular Eisenhower version. It will be smaller than a half dollar but larger than a- quarter. FBI fugitive suspected Oklahoma police Wednesday sought an FBI fugitive whose crimi nal activity pattern closely parallels the robbery of a roadside steakhouse in which six employees were herded into a freezer com partment and executed. Investigators said the man usually works with an accomplice, strikes restaurants just before closing time, and habitually herds his victims into walk-in freezers. However, he was not believed to have killed any of his previous holdup victims. £ World Suburb engulfed by fire Economic team beating inflation? By LEONARD CURRY UPI Business Writer WASHINGTON — President Carter’s economic team insists inflation will begin to ease before year’s end and jobs, factory and farm production continue to improve in 1979. Robert Strauss, the president’s top infla tion fighter, says the administration’s first problem already has been overcome. “People now recognize how serious in flation is,” said Strauss. “They were not so concerned a year, or even six months ago.” But Strauss admits the next battle will be more difficult. He told an interviewer reducing the inflation rate is largely a problem of psychology and emphatically ruled out any enforced restrictions through mandatory controls. “There is a tremendous cynicism that nothing voluntary will work,” said Strauss. “Those in the business community are the loudest voices. They say ‘We need less regulation, get them off our backs. ”’ But he said the business community also is the most critical of the administration’s attempts to get business and labor to re duce price and wage demands without government influence. “They’re the same people who say ‘Oh, this program won’t work. It’s voluntary,”’ FEEM Strauss said. He said business leaders “hang their heads like sheep-killing dogs” when he appeals to them for help in reducing infla tion. If the voluntary program won’t work, Strauss said, there are many in Congress Business and some in the administration who are just hoping government can get into the act through controls. Strauss said he tells business leaders “We can sure get the government into By SONJA HILLGREN UPI Farm Editor WASHINGTON — Annual farmland price increases, while still high, appear to have leveled off last year. American farmland prices rose an aver age of 9 percent for the 12-month period ending Feb. 1. It was the smallest annual percentage increase since 1972. The Agriculture Department predicts, in a report to come out Friday, that the average increase for the 12 months ending your business, pal. That’s easy. We’ve got people who want to do every single thing for you.” Combating inflation is largely a psychological war that will not be won in one pitched battle, Strauss said. “You can’t take our temperature every hour,” he said. “You can’t keep checking the pulse rate and asking How’re you doing now?” But the administration will have prog ress to show by late summer, Strauss said. His views are echoed by other members Feb. 1, 1979, will range from 6 to 10 per cent. Increases in many prime farm states were greater than the average. States with gains of 13 percent or more included Wis consin, South Dakota, Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky and California. Nebraska, with an average farmland price decrease of 4 percent, was the only state to show a decline. However, be- By Doug Graham of the administration’s economic team and the independent counsel of Federal Re serve Chairman G. William Miller. “My hope is that we are nearing a time that we will be at or near the top of the interest rate cycle,” Miller said. Strauss said private enterprise can curb inflation, if business and labor agree to moderate demands. But the next few months are critical. “If we don’t get a psychology that this program will work, it won’t work,” Strauss said bluntly. tween Nov. 1, 1977, and Feb. 1, land val ues also dipped slightly in Kansas, New York, North Carolina and West Virginia. The national average per acre was $490, with the highest average at $2,051 in New Jersey and the lowest average at $93 in New Mexico. The average farm increased somewhat in size during the 12-month period, so that the average value per farm increased by 9.7 percent. The average farm was worth $195,800. According to the survey, the total value of farm real estate was $524 billion, up $42 billion from last year. Building values ac counted for 17 percent of the total value. The rate of farm transfers dropped dur ing the survey period by 3 percent, to 41.7 tracts per 1,000 farms. Because the number of farms decreased, the total number of transfers declined 4 percent, to 104,500 farms. Farm enlargement accounted for 58 percent of farmland purchases in the last survey year. In the previous year, a record 63 percent of purchases were by farmers enlarging their land holdings. Credit availability has tightened, but lenders were still willing to lend money for ! real estate. Farm price skyrocket slowing Heavy weapons fire engulfed a southeast suburb between the pres idential palace and the Beirut, Lebanon airport Wednesday, shatter ing a two-day lull between Syrian peace-keeping troops and Christian rightist militiamen. President Elias Sarkis maintained indirect con tact with both sides in an attempt to end the worst Syrian-Christian clashes since fighting raged through the Christian eastern half of Beirut early this month, government sources said. Carter policy tough The Communist party newspaper Pravda said Wednesday Presi dent Carter was toughening his foreign policy line due to a sharp drop in popularity and an inability to cope with domestic problems. Pravda said Carter rapidly abandoned his election promises “and the haste with which the election manifestos were swept aside like fallen au tumn leaves, like rubbish, was amazing.” The newspaper said that from the beginning Carter yielded to pressure from right-wing forces. It said he promised to cut the Pentagon budget, but that it is steadily growing. Weather Partly cloudy with chance of showers and thundershowers today and tomorrow. High today and tomorrow low 100s. Low tonight mid-70s. Wind from the southeast 10 to 15 mph. 20% chance of rain today and 30% chance of rain Friday evening. 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 adtninistration 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. 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. 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