Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1978)
Viewpoint The Battalion Monday Texas A&M University September 11, 1978 Andy’s talking again Again, we wonder what makes U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young think and speak the way he does. In a little-publicized speech in the Dominican Republican, Young told a group of U.S. Peace Corps workers that a “mood of isolationism ’ back home keeps people from volunteering for service. “We complain that there are Cubans in African,” Young said. “There are 20,000 Cubans in Africa doing the kind of things you are doing.” He said the U.S. has 6,000 Peace Corps workers around the world and that “we ought to have 50,000.” To compare U.S. Peace Corps workers with Cuban revolutionaries in Africa is absurd. Omaha World-Herald Red tape strangling U.S By JOHN F. SIMS UPI Business Writer NEW YORK — Ground beef is a simple foodstuff. It wouldn’t seem to need much regulating. The next time you eat some, bear in mind the follow ing: a recent one-year study of the federal, state and local regulations covering production and distribution of ground beef revealed that there were 200 statutes, 41,000 regulations and 110,000 court cases involving ground beef. The cost to the consumer was estimated to be 4.3 cents per pound. The consumer always pays the bill for government regulation: he pays twice, paying for government through taxes and then again at the supermarkets and stores. Howard W. Blauvelt, chairman of Continental Oil Co., told a meeting of the American Institute of Chem ical Engineers that we also pay in other ways. “To the direct cost of administration and compliance must be added the indirect cost of stifled initiatives, reduced productivity and misdirected capital flows, he said. “These consequences of federal regulation are more subtle and harder to measure, but they may be far more costly to society than the direct effects. G. David Hughes, professor of business administra tion at the University of North Carolina, wrote of these other costs: “There are the psychological costs of anxiety and frustration associated with overlapping organizations, duplications of information required, insensitive gov ernment officials and incomprehensible instructions. There is the social cost of the misallocation of resources to the regulatory process rather than to programs.” Several universities now are studying regulation, try ing to quantify the hidden^Cosjs. •Putting a dollar cost o;ft regulation as difficult enough. The Joint Economic COmmitt'ee bf‘Congress said federal safety and environmental regulations this year added $666 to the price of a new car. The price of a new home increased between $1,500 and $2,500 because of federal, state and local regulations, according to its study. The Commission on Federal Paperwork estimates federal paperwork costs $100 billion a year, or about $500 per person. The Center for the Study of American Business of Washington University at St. Louis, Mo., put the total cost of government regulations at $65.4 billion a year — almost $1,200 for each family in America. Blauvelt, citing other studies, said the total cost of government regulation will rise 57 percent from 1976 to nearly $103 billion for fiscal 1979. Obviously some regulation is necessary. Even the most virulent of business objectors admits to the need for some controls. Dow Chemical in 1975 began calculating the cost of various forms of government regulation, categorizing them as appropriate, questionable or excessive. In 1976, it calculated, total cost of regulations was $186 million, up 27 percent from 1975. Paperwork in 1976 alone cost the company more than $20 million. But of the $186 million total, Dow judged that only $103 million was “appropriate. The remaining $83 million, up 38 percent from the 1975 figure, was spent on complying with “questionable ’ or “excessive’ regu lation. There is not a single legal business pursuit that is not governed by some kind of federal, state or local gov ernment regulation. Henry Ford II, chairman of the automobile com pany, said earlier this year: “As I look at our country today, I see a powerful but uncertain and unsteady giant being trussed up in a growing web of rules and regulations to the point where it can no longer exert its strength freely and effectively . “Maybe it’s only a coincidence that the recent period of rapidly-rising government spending and roughshod regulation also has been a period of high unemploy ment, slow productivity improvement, slow growth in personal income, soaring government deficits and un precedented peacetime inflation. But 1 don’t believe it’s a coincidence at all', .“Despite a mounting record of failure and frustra tion, our leaders have failed to grasp the fact that too much government inevitably leads to economic delay. Koppers Corp., in its annual report, rather coyly invented a mythical "academic to say what Koppers feels about relations with government. “Ah, the agencies,” says the mythical dean. “They have a life of their own and have a penchant — if I may borrow a phrase — for “fixing things that ain’t broke.’ “They are especially good at drawing the noose of regulation ever more tightly around the corporate . businesses neck, calling for that last ounce of compliance which sends costs out of sight without much improving per formance. ” Every industry has its own horror story about what it considers excessive regulation. Like two regulatory agencies in the construction in dustry. One decreed that a bulldozer on a construction site should have a bell to warn workers when it was reversing. The other ordered all workers on construc tion sites should wear ear covers to shut out the noise of the bulldozer and, presumably, its bell. Criticism recently has concentrated on the Depart ment of Energy, the fastest growing of the regulatory agencies. Energy regulation, Blauvelt said, is “a textbook case of regulatory momentum, inefficiencies and undue costs for consumers. President Carter promised to cut red tape and his spokesmen say that while in office he lias reduced fed eral paperwork by 12 percent Reducing controls in the airline industry certainly has improved rates for passengers and increased com petition. And the Occupational Safety and Health Ad ministration has repealed 1,100 of its 10,000-odd rides. . But Washington contains 87 federal offices that regu late business and they still churn out new rules and explanations daily. Philip H. Abelson, editor of Science magazine, wrote: “We have created a regulatory machine that is unmanageable by the president and his cabinet offi cers. Businessmen, when they go along with the idea of regulation at all, usually suggest that the best way is for government to make it worthwhile for industry to com ply. David Mahoney, chairman and chief executive of ficer of the advertising arm of Norton Simon Inc., urged industry activism. .... “First we have to use the channels already available — such as communication with customers, employees, stockholders and suppliers, he told the annual meet ing of the American Association of Advertising Agen cies. “There is nothing more effective in dealing with gov ernment officials than the power of communications from constituents back home — the voters. “But don’t go to Washington as supplicants or advo cates — go as militants demanding equal rights for the free enterprise system,” he said. The law almost everybody’s breaking By JOSEPH GAMBARDELLO United Press International NEW YORK — Hundreds of colleges, clubs and fraternal and veterans organiza tions across the country are breaking a federal law everytime they use music for a dance, concert or other public perfor mance. They could be fined anywhere from $250 to $10,000 for each violation, which means each song. The violations stem from the 1976 Copyright Act, which took effect in January and which says those groups must purchase a license that guarantees com posers royalties for their work. But despite the violations, the organiza tions need not worry that their next social will be raided by a bunch of gun-toting G-Men. “We re not looking to trap anybody,” said Ed Cramer, president of Broadcast Music Inc., one of three organizations the new law authorizes to issue licenses on behalf of copyright owners. Cramer, a copyright lawyer, said the new law effects groups that were previ ously exempt under the old copyright law, which dated from 1909. BMI, like its competitor, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Pub lishers (ASCAP), is in business to protect and collect royalties for artists. BMI repre sents about 50,000 artists, among them such contemporary music writers as Barry Manilow, the Bee Gees, Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka. Under the 1909 law there were two 28- year terms during which the work was pro tected, Cramer said. “Under the new law, it exists for the life of the author and 50 years after his death,” he said. Most musical royalties — 85 percent — come from the broadcasting industry, “which pay us so much a year based on their advertising revenue,” Cramer said. That was not changed by the new law. The major changes, he said, involved the way the law related to juke boxes and so-called non-profit public performances, which were exempt between 1909 and January 1. For juke boxes, the owners have to ob tain an $8-a-year license from the govern ment. But, said Cramer, of the estimated 500,000 juke boxes in the country, “three out of four are not licensed, even though royalties from each box “amounts to peanuts for the individual song writer. But, what he called “a significant in equity under the old law was that non profit institutions — colleges, private clubs, church groups, veterans and frater nal organizations — did not have to pay royalties for music they used. “Every supplier of goods and services to non-profit organizations got paid. The telephone company, the electric company, the musicians. They (composers) should not be forced to subsidize music for non profit purposes,” Cramer said. After all, he said, most composers are not as commercially successful as the Bee Gees and Paul Anka and depend on their royalties for a living. “There are composers out there whose works are not going to be in the top 40, whose principal exposure is in the non- Letters to the editor Editor: How can a court of law pretend that the “lady” who murdered her own unborn child with a knitting needle is “innocent ”? (Battalion, Sept. 1978.) They knew she murdered her own unborn child and she should be in prison. If she was insane she sould be confined to an institution for the criminally insane. “Temporary insanity” is a cop-out. That plea in effect removes any sense of per sonal responsibility for her action. She lit erally got away with murder. Ray Quinn Say howdy Editor: Howdy, Aggies! Since many of you don’t seem to know, that is a tradition here at A&M. Aggies are supposed to greet other Aggies with a friendly “Howdy!”. That is something which makes the atmosphere profit area. And it is these people who need it the most who will benefit from the law,” Cramer said. The composers he was talking about were those — like BMI s 17 Pulitzer Prize winners — whose works are used by “col leges, universities, city symphony orches tras and so forth. BMI has reached an agreement through a national college organization by which each university pays cents for each full-time student to “cover all music dues — including college radio stations — ex cept for special concerts, Cramer said. But, he said, many colleges have not come through. Li censes for clubs, organizations and other non-profit groups would depend primarily on how much they budget for music each year. “A group using minimal music would probably only have to pay about $2 a week,” he said. “We are trying to convince these people that not only as a matter of law they have to pay, but that morally they should be paying because they’re using somebody’s product. Next time you hear a song ask: How does a composer get paid?” murder’ on this campus so different from about every other college campus in the nation. But in order for this tradition to con tinue, in order to keep A&M unique, everyone must uphold it. So, when you start walking around on campus, try to ex change some “Howdys,” to uphold a great Aggie tradition. Cathy O’Connor, ’80 Correction The caption on the “Double Vis ion” photograph in the Thursday, Sept. 1 Battalion incorrectly iden tified the student pictured studying in the Memorial Student Center as Mark Gidlow. The student should have been identified as Charles Dunlap. The Battalion regrets the error. Slouch by Jim Earle “IT’S PRETTY TOUGH TAKING MY BUMPER OFF WHEN I PARK, BUT YOU CAN BET I WON’T LOSE MY PARKING STICKER THAT WAY!” It S still Top of the News Campus A&M United Fund Drive begins The 1978-79 Texas A&M University United Fund Drive begins today with a meeting at 4 p.m. in Room 301 Rudder Tower. The campus drive is on behalf of Bryan-Brazos County United Way and College Station United Fund. The 90-day university campaign will be aimed mainly at faculty and staff, said Chuck Cargill, campus drive chairman. A second phase of the drive will involve on-campus students. ALI’ r< b DI State CAN dt Former UT student on trial for kilim sot : ti [. E GH V [ N The capital murder trial of a 27-year-old former University of Texas student accused of killing a police officer last May is scheduled to begin today in Austin. David Lee Powell is accused of killing Ralph Ablanedo with an automatic rifle on May 18 after the police officer had stopped a car in which Powell was a passenger. Travis Count) Sheriff Raymond Frank said the defendant has told at least one other jail inmate that if he is found guilty, he "won’t be around for the sentencing. The sheriff said he interpreted that message as a possi ble suicide threat and would "take necessary precautions.” tii At A GOP approves 1980 primary I th I Hi FI1.N f H ' GOE I T< GOI Texas voters will get a say in the selection of the Republican nominee for president in 1980 even if the Legislature and Democratic Party do not want to hold presidential primaries in the state. The Republican State Convention voted unanimously Saturday to conduct a primary in 1980 and to select Texas delegates to the national GOP nominating convention of the basis of that popular vote. MON Nation High eyes to monitor pollution The space agency is preparing two advanced satellites for back-to- back launchings from California this month to expand the nations watch over pollution and the weather. One of the spacecraft, scheduled for launch Friday, is primarily equipped to give meteorologists a better idea of what is happening in Earth’s atmos phere and above it. The other satellite is the first designed to monitor man-made and natural pollutants in the air above us, including gases that may be a threat to the globe’s vital ozone radiation screen 15 miles high. It is scheduled to take off Sept. 18 on a smaller Delta rocket. Miss America first from Virginia Kylene Barker, a 22-year-old business administration studentfrom Galax. Va., was crowned Miss America for 1979 in the 58th annual pageant Saturday night. The blue-eyed blonde from Virginia — the first from her state to win the crown — said she couldn’t believe the news and that her life woidd become more complicated now. The graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University said she intends to go ahead with her original plans to earn her masters degree in business administration and open a ladies’ apparel shop. N World Cuban mission to UN bombed Classi Anti-Castro terrorists slipped past a 24-hour police guard at the Cuban mission to the United Nations Saturday and planted a power- fid time bomb that slightly injured three men, including a policeman and mission guard.The bomb planted in the mission doorway blew out scores of windows in posh townhouses on the East Side block. At 8:50 a.m., an hour after the explosion, a caller to United Press Inter national said the bombing was carried out by the right-wing terrorist group of Cuban exiles. Omega 7, which has claimed responsibility for a number of bombings, mostly in the New York area. Uni Willian assic di icretary Hand tc ig of the Military attacked in Nicaragua Shooting broke out in Managua, Nicaragua, and provincial cities Saturday night in what appeared to be a coordinated attack on milit ary vehicles and installations. There were reports of heavy fighting and casualties from several parts of the capital and from three cities in the interior. The attacks broke a period of relative calm in the trou bled Central American nation, where a general strike aimed at forc ing the resignation of President Anastasio Somoza Debayle was in its 16th day. I’ly fu I Uni The Ro Wem e ivish fu aimed v F Iranian troops shoot demonstrators Steel-helmeted troops fired into crowds of demonstrators in Tehran, Iran, for the second straight day Saturday and the army imposed press censorship, arresting dozens of journalists and opposi tion leaders as violent anti-shah protests continued despite martial law. The official government toll for demonstrations earlier in the week stood at 59 dead and 205 wounded. But cemetery officials and those who took the dead to their gravesites Saturday put the number of dead at more than 250. Weather Mostly cloudy with showers and thundershowers. High in the mid-80s and low in the low 70s. Southeasterly wind at 10 to 15 mph. Probability of rain 50% for today, 30% for tonight and tomorrow. 4 The Battalion LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being ctit 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 he 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. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Tile 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. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates fur nished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Editor Kind) Managing Editor LizV Assistant Managing Editor.,KarenK' Sports Editor David IK I City Editor JamieM I Campus Editor Andy News Editors Carolyn Bl® 5 Debbie Parsons Editorial Director L# 1 Leschper Jr. Cartoonist DougGr Staff Writers . . . .Mark Patterson, Ai Vails, Scott Pendleton, - Petty, Michelle Scudder, Marilyn Faulkenberry 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 Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit supporting enterprise operated b] as a university and communitij imW * * 1 Editorial policy is determined bj th? ^ .