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The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
September 6, 1978
Try for a new start
Tonight’s the first Student Government meeting of the school year — the
start of a new year with a new crop of student representatives.
Last year the organization accomplished two major things for students —
the student purchase program, offering discounts at area stores, and the
fledgling intra-campus shutde system.
However, Student Government could have done so much more.
Long hours of pointless debate and politicking bogged down results
elsewhere. And many times the meetings were just a waste of time for them
and their constituents.
Hopefully representatives this year will heed the past and truly start anew.
And for students — who rarely even see one Student Government meeting
during their year’s at Texas A&M — tonight’s meeting will be at 7:30, 204
Harrington. You might check it out. K.T.
KXIPVITHAT
mjLMKE!
Governors not what they used to be
By DAVID S. BRODER
BOSTON—If the folks who are govern
ing the American states today had been
governing the American colonies 200 years
ago, you have to believe there never
would have been an American Revolution.
Instead, they would have met in Boston
and resolved to demand greater adminis
trative discretion from the Crown and a
larger shipment of gold in the next brig
that left Southampton.
THESE GLOOMY REFLECTIONS
on the character of American governors
are almost inevitable, given what took
place here last week at the annual meeting
of the National Governors Association.
Despite the rich reminders of the glorious
past that fill this city, this was as feckless a
meeting of the leaders of the sovereign
states as anyone can remember. There
were no revolutionaries or bold adventur
ers in this group—just a lot of men and
women trying to figure out how to hang
on.
Part of the queasiness that afflicted their
gathering can be explained by the fact that
half of them are facing elections this fall.
They came here feeling a bit out of sorts
with the Carter administration, the Con
gress and their own constituents, and they
found not much consolation in each other’s
company.
What passed for policy debate was more
dispirited than usual, and the social life
that had been a traditional part of these
meetings succumbed to the twin virtues of
Puritanism and Proposition 13.
In the past, the pervasive boredom and
occasional tensions of the business jessions
at the annual meeting were relieved by
the state dinner, which gave the governors
and their spouses a change to dress up,
step out and dance.
THIS YEAR, the state dinner was can
celled by the wet blankets who feared the
voters would turn their wrath against any
one who profaned the spirit of austerity by
demonstrating a capacity for having fun.
Instead, a giant New England clambake
was scheduled in a park on Boston harbor.
Regrettably, rain forced its removal to a
nearby hockey rink. If our idea of a good
time is picking at lobster with a plastic fork
while sitting in the penalty box, it was a
helluva party.
On a somewhat more substantive level,
the name of the game was, “Don’t rock the
boat.” The Democratic governors were
tiptoeing around, trying not to add to Pres
ident Carter’s problems by voicing pub
licly the kind of criticism of his administra
tion many of them are only too eager to
make in private. The Republicans were
similarly chary of reopening the civil war
in their ranks between progressives and
conservatives.
The truth of the matter is that the gov
ernors find their present political position
somewhat embarrassing. For years, all of
them have been making speeches about
the desirabilty of putting a governor in the
White House. Well, they’ve finally got
one in Jimmy Carter. Moreover, he is a
Democrat, just as three-fourths of them
are.
DOES THAT MAKE them proud and
happy? Not exactly. The only thing that
might please them less would be if Carter
were succeeded by the most eager of their
present company, California Gov. Ed
mund G. (Jerry) Brown.
A visitor to these conferences inevitably
develops, over the years, a certain sym
pathy for the governors. Many of them are
able public servants, but the best of them
have rarely been able to expand their in
fluence or reputations beyond the borders
of their own states. The governors most
admired in recent years within the
group—men like Republicans William G.
Milliken of Michigan and Robert D. Ray of
Iowa and a bit earlier. Democrat Calvin L.
Rampton of Utah and Republican Daniel
J. Evans of Washington—were and are
virtual unknowns outside their states.
The most touching moment of this
rather tedious conference came when Mil
liken, the association’s chairman, noted
that this was the last such meeting that will
be attended by Reubin O’D. Askew, D.,
the retiring governor of Florida. Askew
has been for eight years a model of
courageous, constructive leadership in his
state.
The standing ovation he received from
his colleagues was a gesture of the respect
and affection his integrity and good sense
command.
Perhaps the harshest thing one can say
about the Governors Assocaiton is that it is
an organization which takes great pride in
canceling a party and does almost nothing
to let a country know what a man like Re
ubin Askew has contributed to its well
being.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post Company
Hurricane season
F@a*<g! Ikuss o
By STEVE GERSTEL
United Press International
WASHINGTON — As summer rambles
into fall. Congress approaches its most
treacherous season.
Although the time of the year coincides
just about exactly with the hurricane
period, it is not the high winds and tower-
, „ „ „ ing waves that pose the danger.
' Rather, it is the potential — shared b\
The low-tar myth
By PATRICK A. MALONE
United Press International
BOSTON — Despite a report to the
contrary, recent studies suggest smokers
who’ve soothed their guilt by switching to
low-tar and nicotine cigarettes shouldn’t
feel too comfortable.
One study, conducted by a smoking re
search project at Harvard, found that
smokers tended to inhale deeper and hold
the smoke in their lungs longer if smoking
a low-nicotine cigarette.
By an unconscious breathing process,
they seemed to be getting roughly the
same dose of nicotine from a low-nicotine
cigarette as from a high-nicotine one. The
Harvard Tobacco and Health Research
Program now is conducting further tests
— by measuring nicotine in the blood —
to pin down the suspicion.
Health
Thirty people who smoked a pack a day
were involved in the Harvard study, di
rected by Dr. Gary L. Huber of the Beth
Israel Hospital.
They didn’t know whether they were
smoking a high or low-nicotine cigarette,
but 80 per cent held their breath longer
when smoking a low-nicotine, low-tar
type.
The project also found four types of
smokers: “Deep inhalers” took puffs that
were two to four times greater than the
amount of air they took in while breathing
normally. “Breath holders” did just that,
somewhat similar to the way marijuana
often is smoked. “Purgers” emptied their
lungs vigorously after a puff, and “shallow
inhalers” barely took any smoke into their
lungs.
Lung diseases involving difficulty in ex
haling relate directly to those breathing
patterns, Huber said in an interview.
The preliminary finding that smokers
seem to have a natural nicotine intake
level correlates with British findings that
people who switch to low-tar and low-
nicotine brands tend to smoke more ciga
rettes.
Between 1955 and 1975, the amount of
tar in an American-made cigarette was cut
by more than half, and the many new low-
tar and low-nicotine brands now comprise
a significant portion of the sales and adver
tising of the $20 billion-a-year U.S. ciga
rette business.
Dr. Gio Gori of the National Cancer In
stitute recently suggested the average
American might safely smoke some of
those new low-tar and low-nicotine ciga
rettes daily without exceeding a “tolera
ble” risk level of lung cancer or other dis
ease.
His report drew immediate fire from top
federal health officials. They said Gori’s
statement was misleading and premature
and overlooked the adverse effects of
smoking on heart disease. /
Going on the assumption that lowered
tar and nicotine means less disease
danger. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
D-Mass., and others have proposed a
higher tax on the high-tar and high-
nicotine cigarettes to encourage smokers
to switch away from those brands.
Huber believes that proposal is “not
only premature, but it might be more
harmful” if their current research shows
what is suspected about the dangers of
low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes.
Huber also noted that tar content has
been decreasing slowly over the past 25
years, while cigarette sales have been in
creasing at a similar rate, and the inci
dence of lung cancer has failed to show any
decrease in response to lowered tar.
Furthermore, there is not that much
solid evidence that tar, the part of ciga
rette smoke which precipitates into a
sticky solid, actually is the cancer-causing
component of smoke.
Painting tars on the skin of mice, which
smoking researchers have done since
1953, has provided the only clear link be
tween tars and cancer.
Some researchers believe that one or
more of the complex chemicals in the gas
part of smoke may be responsible. Low-tar
and low-nicotine cigarettes have just as
much gas as the high-tar brands.
Another researcher. Dr. Freddy Hom-
burger, head of the Bio-Research Insti
tute, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said
eventually there may be a diferent safety
standard for cigarettes from the tar and
nicotine measure, one which takes into ac
count the hundreds of chemical com
pounds in smoke which are lost to the air
when tar is solidified and measured.
hurricanes — for devastation, damage and
destruction.
As a Congress moves into its final weeks
before adjournment, a frenzy of activity
overcomes the leaders and the rank-and-
file as they seek to put the final touches on
two years of work.
As a result, legislation which would,
during a more leisurely period, receive
the utmost scrutiny is rushed to passage —
some time with only a handful of senators
knowing its content.
Other bills — perhaps worthy of consid
eration — are dumped because they
would take too much time.
And then there is the session-ending
“Christmas Tree” bill, most usually a tax
measure adorned with all sorts of goodies,
some of them for the most special of spe
cial interests.
An old Senate hand. Sen. William
Proxmire, D-Wis., has issued a warning to
taxpayers and consumers which will, al
most certainly, have no effect.
Get ready,” Proxmire said last week,
“for the bite from three pre-Thanksgiving
turkeys, specially garnished by Congress
and scheduled for stuffing after the Labor
Day recess.”
Although Proxmire singled out only the
water resources bill, the public works bill
and the compromise natural gas pricing
bill, he conceded that there will be more.
Every year, many bad pieces of legisla
tion are rushed through to final passage in
the closing days of a congressional ses
sion, Proxmire said.
The temptation to do as much as quickly
as possible is understandable, but not nec-
cessarily laudable.
Many of the bills still waiting to be
called up for action have been in the works
for two years.
They may be the products of countless
days of hearings, hours and hours of draft
ing and perhaps even passage in either the
Senate or the House, but not in both.
If they don’t make it in those closing
days when the business hours lengthen
late into the night, then the entire process
has to be repeated beginning next year.
Every piece of legislation — save
treaties — falls when the gavels rap the
final adjournment of the 95th Congress.
It is also understandable that Senate
leaders turn their back at this time of the
year on any measure which carries even
the taint of a possible filibuster.
Washington Window
No matter how Senate Democratic
Leader Robert Byrd may feel personally,
the chances are he will be hesistant to call
up such a bill — like the time extension for
ratification of the Equal Rights Amend
ment — unless sponsors can show him a
list of 60 senators willing to vote to cut off
debate.
At this time of the year, even a week is
precious.
Few have forgotten the session-ending
furor of a few years ago when the Senate
found itself embroiled in seven filibusters,
threatened talk-a-thons and even per
sonal vendettas that stalled legislation.
It was a brief time when the late Sen.
James Allen, D-Ala., the master of the Se
nate rules, also became its leader, in fact if
not in name. Nothing moved through
without his approval.
Some of the same could be in the offing
as Congress gets more and more eager to
go home as the elections nears.
The alernative — repugnant to almost
all — is a “lame duck” session after the
elections.
Slouch
by Jim Earle
RECKON TWE V HAVE A FIVE - hll&hl j3oM K T
Top of the News
Campus
Students' fall addresses needed
Students who did not notify the Registrar of their fall address du
ing registration last spring need to go by the Records Section on th
first floor of Heaton Hall to do so.
State
Grand jury hears Davis evidence
A Tarrant County grand jury Tuesday began considering evidenJ
in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme by millionaire T. Cullen Davis
and officials indicated formal indictments may be returned by the end
of the week. Davis, currently jailed without bond, is charged with'
soliciting capital murder and possession of an illegally equiDDedl
firearm, a 22-caliber pistol with a silencer attached. Tolly WilsT
chief prosecutor in the case, said he presented essentially the same'
evidence to the grand jury that he presented in a l>ond bearing last
week that resulted in Davis being held without bond on thechara^
attempt to present all the appropriate evidence to the grandjuiy'
within two days so that indictments could be returned as early as
Thursday or Friday. Davis was arrested Aug. 20 and, under Texas law
for a person being held without bond, must go to trial within 60
days. Wilson said that because of the speedy trial law in Texas he
would.
Nation
Ford cars in trouble again
A government warning that says some Ford vehicles may ha\e
potentially deadly automatic transmissions has deluged the Demer
office of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will
reports of accidents involving Fords. “The phone has been ringing^
the hook ever since the report came out,” said Brad Marks oftie
administration's Denver office Saturday. Marks said in just two day,
12 accidents involving transmissions were reported. He said some if
the accidents occurred five years ago. The federal governments
investigating allegations from car owners that 777 accidents, 23
deaths and 259 injuries have resulted from the alleged defect.
KKK leader gets new trial
The Louisiana Supreme Court in New Orleans Tuesday reversal
the inciting a riot and simple battery conviction of Ku Klux Kk
leader David Duke and granted him a new trial. Duke, 26, was
convicted of stirring a group of KKK followers to threaten and haiass
Jefferson Parish sheriffs deputies who were observing and photo
graphing them outside a 1976 Klan meeting. The incident took place
in the parking lot of the motel where the meeting was held. Duke,
self-proclaimed Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Kb.
received a six-month jail sentence. However, it was nullified bytk
Supreme Court’s reversal.
Copter crash kills seven
}U<
Seven people were killed and 18 others injured when a helicopter!
hired to drop prizes into a holiday crowd plummeted to theground
The helicopter had been hired as a special first-time treat at tk
annual St. Joseph’s Church and School Labor Day Festival in Dem
Pa. A witness. Bill Blair, 14, said the helicopter had made twopasstf
over the parking lot dropping pingpong balls marked with pro
numbers into the crowd. TTie helicopter fell into the crowd ontk
third pass. Eleven people remained hospitalized — twooftheBB
critical condition. Federal Aviation Administration representatives
were en route to try to determine the cause of the accident.
Firemen get blaze under control
Firemen put under control a 1,900-acre range fire Monday in 1
jagged-walled canyon about 40 miles southwest of Twin Falls, Idab
Five helicopters and four planes dropping water and fire re j®*jT
along with 150 firefighters and eight ground tankers had battled t
lightning-caused blaze for five days. The Bureau of Land Manage
ment said no structures were damaged and there were no injuries.
Forest Service lookout spotted the flames last Wednesday burning 1 ”
the canyon situated near the Nevada border. The land is used or
cattle grazing and is covered by grass, brush and juniper trees.
nary
sual
World
Rhodesian guerrillas kill ten
an ex
Rhodesian troops searched rugged bushland Tuesday for guerrillas
who massacred 10 survivors from a plane which the insurgents sai
they shot down. Thirty-eight of the 56 persons on the flight ro
Kariba to Salisbury were killed in the crash. The survivors, who i
in the bush all night, said those massacred included two an
11, and seven women, one of whom was shot and bayoneted. ^ 0 i j
co-leader of the Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance, said in Lusaka
men from his Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army were respo
sible for shooting down an Air Rhodesia plane Sunday- B u
Rhodesia Manager Pat Travers rejected Nkomo’s claim that the
had been shot down. There is at present no evidence to sugges
the aircraft was brought down by hostile action,” Travers^
the last message from the crew explicitly stated that the plane,
starboard engines were out of action.
Weather
Mostly sunny and hot today. The temperature high in the
upper 90s and low in the low 70s. Slight variable wind at
5 to 10 mph.
The Battalion
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