Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1978)
Viewpoint The Battalion Tuesday Texas A&M University August 1, 1978 Who decides? Is there any difference? On rare occasions a child’s birth is heralded with great fanfare and public attention. But seldom has a birth received more attention than that of John and Leslie Brown’s baby girl. The little girl, from all early reports, seems different from all other babies in only one respect. She was conceived in a glass laboratory vessel rather in her mother’s body. But what a furor that one difference has raised. Doomsday prophets decry this “test-tube birth ”, which is really a test- tube conception, as the beginning of a dark new era in biological engineer ing, manipulation of human life and “cloning’ exact duplicates of human beings. They warn that once scientists start tampering with the creation of human life, no element of humanity will be sacred. Any radical new scientific procedure is met by alarmists. People once thought smallpox vaccine would turn people into cows. The day of the clone is still far away. Like any other far-reaching and potentially dangerous scientific advance ment, the in vitro form of conception which produced the Brown baby is only dangerous if it’s abused. But beyond any practical scientific danger lies the shadowy no-man’s-land of morality. Is it right for a baby to be conceived outside his or her mother’s body? God didn’t design things that way. That’s the argument used by most churches that have openly opposed test-tube conception. “If God had meant for us to be conceived in glass, he would have equipped us all with Petri dishes. Period.” It’s not that simple to a man and woman who want a child of their own more than anything in this world, but who for reasons they can not control, can not. For these couples, proponents argue, test-tube conception provides an only chance for happiness. Both sides have powerful arguments. But the final decision must rest with the man and woman who must choose between such a procedure and never conceiving children. The pat answer, “Just adopt,” just won’t satisfy some of these. The final moral decision must remain with them, between them and their God. Inevitably, the choice between using test-tube conception to better man kind and using it to doom humanity rests with individuals — people. No scientific procedure is any more inherently good or bad than any tool, any word or any man. The final result will be as good or bad as the people who make those decisions. L.R.L. Mr. Nice Guy hires an ‘enforcer’ By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter’s White House has acquired an enforcer and if he has his way, it’s going to be no more Mr. Nice Guy President. The new “policeman” on the presidential beat is a plainclothesman whose official function is as Carter’s media adviser and image- maker. Gerald Rafshoon, the curly-haired At lanta advertising man who hooked up with Carter in his bid for governor of Georgia and rode to the top with him, sold his business and joined the White House stall last month, largely at the behest of Rosalynn Carter. Rafshoon’s arrival has been greeted with snickers among those who think Carter’s problems lie more in the area of perform ance than in that of public relations. Rafs hoon has turned the joke around by hang ing a self-mocking sign in his West Wing office, proclaiming it the headquarters of Doonesbury’s famous “Secretary of Sym bolism.” But the intense Texas transplant has a more urgent role in mind for himself than orchestrating the efforts to improve the public perception of his long-time client. His purpose, as he might put it, is to deal with the people who are “jerking the pres ident around.” In Rafshoon’s view, that includes a fairly broad cross-section of Washington and the political world. It includes congressmen who accept presidential favors and then sabotage his important bills. It includes federal officials who put their own priorities ahead of the president’s. And it includes interest groups and the politi cians who pressure the president to squander his time, energy and credibility on causes that are important to them but not to him. Against all such double-dealers, detrac tors and dilettantes, Rafshoon would like to invoke a concept that has not been visible in the first 18 months of the Carter administration. His is the familiar cry: Let’s get some discipline in this outfit. Like any good company commander, he has checked first to see how tough and loyal his top sergeants are. And he has dis covered, along with others on the White House staff, that Carter almost “gave the government away when he let his Cabinet secretaries pick their own assis tants at the start of his term. Noting the doubtful loyalty of some of these depart ment officials, Rafshoon has concluded that the Russians knew what they were doing when they put a political commissar in each regiment. As an early Carter loyalist, he is trying to demonstrate by example that Carter, however quiet his own voice might be, is not averse to his aides cracking the whip on his behalf. But Rafshoon is not finding that demon stration easy. When he decided to knock presidential assistant Midge Costanza off a television talk show she had accepted without clearance from him, he found himself the subject of unflattering front page stories. When he told a meeting he convened of top departmental press secretaries that he wanted to hear the Cabinet doing more bragging about the president’s success in reducing unemployment, he found him self challenged by one unabashed assistant secretary who argued that there were still too many jobless for anyone of good con science to be smug or satisfied. Rafshoon swatted those gnats, but he has yet to tangle with the tough guys of the administration, the Congress or the political-interest group world. As he him self concedes, it is uncertain whether there is enough internal coordination within the White House to keep the re wards and punishments from falling on the wrong heads. But there is larger question about his plan. What Rafshoon is proposing is no thing new in government. Strategies for funneling “good news” announcements from the White House and “bad news” from the departments have been tried be fore. So have efforts to control the speeches and public appearances of all administration big shots. The file drawers are full of old plans to populate the senior departmental agency staffs with presidential loyalists. All these were part of the recent past. The heavy- handed excess with which past presiden tial assistants, also wedded to the idea of discipline, wielded their power has not been forgotten. Rafshoon may operate with a subtlety and skill his departed predecessors in the age of the Imperial Presidency lacked. But as someone coming to play hardball on Jimmy Gai ter’s softball team, he is guaran teed only one thing: controversy. (c) 1978, The Washington Post Com pany White-collar criminals start to be ‘in’ By LEROY POPE UPI Business Writer NEW YORK — There are eight main reasons why Americans are becoming a na tion of thieves, says Saul D. Astor, a New York business security expert. They are: — Stealing makes the thief an accepted member of the “in” group. — Stealing enriches the thief and im proves his standard of living. — Stealing provides “kicks”, which are essential to many persons well-being. — If your boss is devious and sly, steal ing from him puts you on his level. — Stealing restores pride and self esteem that may have been diminished when the worker was demeaned by the boss. — Stealing from the company often is regarded as compensation for failure to get a deserved promotion or merit raise. — Workers and executives think no body really loses when you steal from the company. — Stealing is easy because nobody cares. Astor said popular psychologists have contributed to these attitudes and even preached “that employee dishonesty is a tolerable and even a psychologically- necessary fringe benefit.” He said the most important all pervasive aspect of executive and worker dishonesty is the “in group” psychology. “Don’t spoil it for the rest of us,” an advertising executive tells the newcomer Business to the agency in explaining that expense accounts always are padded at least 30 percent. “Honesty is intolerable in a dishonest atmosphere, Astor concluded and the executive or worker who tries to be honest is likely to be shoved aside and even fired — “you cannot identify with an immoral boss by being moral. ” Astor unhesitatingly puts the blame on management for the rise in business crime. There may be more dishonest ordi nary workers than executives, but it is management dishonesty that sets the tone and prevents effective steps to stop the stealing, he said. Inflated expense accounts, dummy in voices for goods and services never deli vered, off-balance sheet slush funds, kickbacks, payments for phony legal, pub lic relations and promotional activities to relatives and cronies, plus wholesale con version of company funds to personal use cannot be concealed forever from the rank and file and the workers set out to get theirs too. Business has to do the job of stopping white-collar crime itself, Astor insists. Government can’t help much. The only so lution is very tough management, a de termined willingness to prosecute and a return to rather puritanical honesty at the top, he implies. Bonding people, he said, does little good. “Very few persons are individually bonded today and in the present business and legal climate it is extremely hard to collect a claim from a bonding company for a lot of technical reasons. ” Screening of applicants for executive and other jobs to determine if they are basically honest, on the other hand, can be quite successful. William Brodbeck of the Brodbeck Supermarket chain based at Platteville Wise., recently told the convention in Dal las of the Food Marketing Institute that the honesty test developed for jobs by the Reid Institute of Chicago about ten years ago has worked so well for his company that since adopting it, only one employee who had passed the test had been “discov ered dishonest” and there were extenuat ing circumstances in that case. The Reid test takes time, though. The applicant has to answer 90 general ques tions in addition to personal questions. The answers then have to be sent to Chicago to be evaluated by the Reid Insti tute according to its own formula. This takes two or three days. Letter to the editor Fireman returns thanks -A 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 V J Editor: As a volunteer fireman, I think I speak for all firemen when I thank you for the Viewpoint article, July 26,1978. This is the first time I know of that we as a whole have received recognition from the public press. Usually it is the story of a fire with one sentence naming the de partments that responded. All volunteers respond immediately no matter what we were involved in when the whistle or phone called us. We leave meals, families, yardwork, ballgames, and sometimes our jobs, to rush to the station to go to a fire. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small grass fire or a major building or traffic ac cident with torn bodies lying in the high way. We still go. Many of us are trained medical person nel who do double volunteer duty as am bulance attendants. Sometimes we all re spond together to an accident or house fire or we may go to separate incidents. Most of the time our lives are in danger from emergency driving, possible ex plosions and sometimes crowd control. We receive no money or maybe two dol lars a run in some departments. We spend our own money buying personal supplies and emergency equipment. We are ridiculed sometimes when we can’t find the fire, as in a wrong address or false alarm, and this happens more than a citizen would think. But I don’t think there is one fireman in the country who doesn’t believe that we are very necessary. Most of us wouldn’t leave the department for anything. We enjoy the service and we ourselves know the importance and danger of our thank less job. Or was thankless until we read an article like yours and that makes it all worth while. Thank you for the recognition, A volunteer fireman and ambulance attendant Top of the News Campus Parking permits on sale Texas A&M University parking permits for the 1978-1979 semester are on sale at the University Police Department located at the comer of Houston and Jersey Streets. Students must have fall semester fee slips to pick up the permits. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Students are asked to register their vehicles early before the fall semester rush. Silver Taps scheduled Silver Taps ceremony will be conducted Sept. 5 for four Texas A&M University students who died since mid-May. Robert Graml- ing, 19, sophomore biomedical science major from San Antonio; Al bert Bottehsazan, 20, junior mechanical engineering major from Iran; David Bell, 20, senior mechanized agriculture major from Mission, and John Voorhees, 25, a graduate assistant in math from Dallas will be remembered in the ceremony. State Socialist candidates qualify Secretary of State Steve Oaks said Monday in Austin that the Texas Socialistic Workers Party has qualified to have its candidates on the ballot for the November election. Oaks said that the TSWP filed petitions with sufficient names to permit the party to file a full slate for the offices of U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attor ney general, treasurer, railroad commissioner and three congres sional races. Oba the elephant dies Oba the elephant has died at the Houston zoo despite transfusions of blood from pachyderms in the circus and other zoos to help fight an intestinal infection. Bonnie Storm, zoo veterinarian, said the iyear- old male had been ill for 10 days with what appeared to be an intesti nal bacterial ailment. Zoo personnel maintained a 24-hour vigil until the end Sunday. “They look like big, tough guys but they’re not, Storm said. "It’s real sad. Their digestive systems are very delicate. The tenacity of life is really amazing, but it can go so quickly.” Initiative and referendum fails Proponents of a move to give Texas voters the power of initiative and referendum failed to win the necessary margin of approval by the Senate State Affairs Committee in Austin Monday. Sen. Walter Mengden, R-Houston, won a 6-4 vote in favor of the proposed con stitutional amendment but under Senate rules at least seven mem bers of the 13-member committee must vote for a measure for it to be sent to the Senate for consideration. Mengden argued unsuccessfully for his plan to give Texas voters the right to force statewide votes on critical issues and enact statutes or constitutional amendments di rectly without legislative action. Decision expected on phone rates The Public Utility Commission will announce its decision Wed nesday on Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. ’s request for a $214 mil lion rate increase. Officials in Austin have announced plans for a final hearing on the case Wednesday. The staff of the state regulator)' agency has recommended the rate increase be held to $116 million. Southwestern Bell last week lost a court battle to force the Utility Commission to allow larger rate increases. Nation Fire fighter s family awarded The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in Washington will award $50,000 in benefit payments to the survivors of volunteer fire fighter Richard Maynard Stone of Nixon, Texas. Stone died June 4, 1978, while fighting a fire, and based on the official report of his death, the LEAA determined the eligible survivors were entitled to the award under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Act of 1976. Escaped inmates still missing Sheriff’s deputies promised a quick capture of four prisoners — described as extremely dangerous — hut 24 hours after their escape the inmates still were missing. “We haven’t caught anyone yet,” said Capt. Jim Vetcher of the Lafayette, La., Parish Sheriff’s Department Sunday night. The four men, being held on charges ranging from bank robbery to first degree murder, escaped through a 15-inch triangular hole in the ceiling of the jail. World Statue, ancient coins found Weather Mostly cloudy this morning becoming partly cloudy this af ternoon and Wednesday. High today in the low 90s and low tomorrow in the mid-70s. Probability of precipitation 50% today, 30% tonight and 40% daytime Wednesday. Sc h jThe ftnt vii BtilK] ■Texa Bnul p ■ scho Knore ■irk or Bident le i of > l”I thi ■th wh |k1 B\ ps hoi ftrtant ®use tl student f of deali Stud problei surve\ Nation; that air — pub! tacked 1977-78 I High tjacher Bvsica Rooks j A farmer plowing a new field unearthed a marble statue of a wo man, remains of a temple and coins dating from Greek colonies of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., antiquities officials said Sunday. An tiquities department officials said the finds were made hy a farmer turning over a new field about nine miles outside Manfredonia, a town on Italy’s Adriatic coast. They said he unearthed the marble statue of a woman about one foot below the surface and later digging turned up temple stones and coins, including one that contained an inscription dedicated to the Greek philosopher Diogenes. The Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. ) the University administration or the Board of Regents. The United Press International is entitled exclusively to®' Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise oper- use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited tojj ated hy students as a university and community newspaper. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein res ^\ Editorial policy is determined by the editor. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 7# LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are ME MB ER subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The Texas Press Association editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does Southwest Journalism Congress not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be Editor Debbv Kren^ signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone Sports Editor David Bo#; number for verification. News Editor Lee Roy LeschperJ r Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The City Editor MarkWil Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Campus Editor FlaviaKro^ Station, Texas 77843. Photo Editor p a t O’Malfc Represented nationally by National Educational Adver- Copyeditor Sarah Wh# tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Reporter Scott Pendlet# Angeles. Doug Crabtf 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 Student Publications Board: Bob G Rogers. Chnina‘ through Thursday. Joe ArTedond<K Dr Ganj H<dtl . r char l e , McCmit* Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rue. Director of Stutd school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished Publications: Donald C. Johnson.