he Battalion
Vol. 72 No. 8
14 Pages
Tuesday, September 12, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
The Greeks are growing
Sororities and fraternities are ra
pidly growing at Texas A&M. Al
though not officially recognized, they
play a big role in University activities.
For a focus on the issues, see page 8.
w| i to posted
Rainy days and Mondays
« '||s hard enough adjusting to another week of classes, and Monday’s
■ain only added to the gloomy atmosphere. Doug Tomlinson, a senior
ivil engineering major from Houston, takes a solitary walk through
4- tie COrpS Squad toward Duncan Dining Hall. Battalion photo by Paige Beasley
,..,icaragua opens
4ill-scale civil war
United Press International
kNAGUA, Nicaragua— Government
as under orders to kill guerrillas “until
last man battled for every block in
Vagua’s second largest city and parts of
capital Monday in full-scale civil war in
South American nation. A third city,
iaya, was in flames.
le mounting death toll reportedly was
[he hundreds in the fighting between
U.S.-trained army of President Anas-
Somozaand the Sandinista guerrillas,
) last month staged a dramatic com-
ido operation at the National Palace,
he government placed Masaya and Es-
under martial law after a Cabinet
eting of Somoza and his minsters.
communique suspending constitu-
Ihal guarantees in both cities was issued
the “bunker” — Somoza’s headquar-
S — amid the sounds of gunfire in the
ital.
id
In a separate communique, the gov
ernment again claimed order had been
reestablished in Managua and Leon, the
country’s second-largest city, and called
on Nicaraguans in those cities to go to
work normally Monday.
Despite government claims to the con
trary, the 2-day-old offensive by Marxist
Sandinista guerrillas trying to give the tot
tering regime of President Anastasio
Somoza a final push continued unabated
on several fronts in the capital and in pro
vincial cities.
“The National Guard maintains control
and order in all of the republic, Col.
Aquiles Aranda, the Guard’s public rela
tions chief, said in his latest communique
Sunday. He praised all of the members of
the Central American nation’s 8,100-man
U.S.-trained army “for their high morale
and efficiency in the missions ac
complished.”
if
ing Gulf storm
:auses no damage
. . United Press International
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Light to
bvy rains over southeast Texas Monday
pmpted weathermen to issue flash flood
rnings for that section of the state, but
rains from a slowly-dying tropical de-
'ssion caused no property damage or
eat to dams in Bandera County.
[The National Weather Service said sev-
al weeks of heavy rains had weakened
e dams but the new rainfall Monday was
expected to cause flooding similar to
at which swept across the area last
Dnth killing almost 30 persons.
That flooding was caused as tropical
irm Amelia broke up and drifted across
uth and West Texas, dumping up to 30
hes of rain on the Medina and Brazos
t'ers.
: A spokesman at the Baytown police de-
totment said skies were overcast, but a
tinshower that filled streets with water
8rlier Monday had ended, allowing
padways to drain. The system “sort of pe-
ted out, he said.
The rainfall caused minor flooding at the
police department and patrolmen were
hampered in parking their cars. Texas 146,
near Loop 201 in Baytown, was closed for
a time Monday due to rising waters.
The rain moved north and with it flash
flood warnings which were extended to in
clude the southeastern portion of North
Texas. Some very heavy thunderstorms,
with rainfall rates to 2 inches an hour,
were reported southeast of Austin to near
Corpus Christi.
A broad band of rainfall continued to fall
in counties east of San Antonio. At Edna, a
Jackson County Sheriffs Department
spokesman said the Navidad River was up,
though there was no immediate threat of
flooding.
The storm moved ashore in northeast
ern Mexico Sunday, gathering strength as
it passed into Texas. But landfall reduced
the storm’s strength and the possibility of a
replay of last month’s floods which ravaged
a portion of the Hill Country, a Depart
ment of Public Safety spokesman said.
Bryan city council tables
property evaluation plan
By LYLE LOVETT
Battalion Reporter
A new property evaluation program for
updating the city’s four quadrants was ta
bled Monday by the Bryan City Council.
The Bryan city staff proposed a four-
year evaluation program whereby one
quadrant would be revalued each year.
Every two years, tax assessments on the
revalued quadrants would be updated.
Councilman Henry Seale proposed that
one quadrant be revalued per year, and all
four quadrants assessed at their respective
appraised values at the end of the four
years. He met opposition from council
members who said taxpayers would face
skyrocketing tax increases under such a
plan. Seale withdrew his propasal.
Councilman John Mobley suggested the
evaluation question be postponed for one
year, but Mayor Richard Smith argued
that immediate action was needed. He
said property evaluation must be kept cur
rent to prevent 500 to 600 percent in
creases that can occur after long periods of
no evaluation. The proposal was tabled
until the next meeting.
The council also tabled a request from
the Downtown Merchant’s Association for
foot patrolmen to help curb shoplifting in
the downtown area.
Switzer Deason, owner of Central Texas
Hardware, told the council he has done
everything in his power to discourage
shoplifting in his store without making his
‘good customers feel like common
thieves.” He said a foot patrolman on the
sidewalk would help discourage shoplift
ing.
Billy Hodge, president of the
Downtown Merchants Association, out
lined a program that would provide for a
foot patrolman, along with the replace
ment of burned out lights in the downtown
area. He said 30 lights are currently
burned out in downtown Bryan. He also
requested meeting with a council commit
tee every four to six weeks to discuss prob
lems of downtown merchants.
Acting City Manager Hubert Nelson
said the city is presently five patrolmen
short. Smith referred the matter to Nelson
to be resolved at the next meeting.
Iranians tense,
but avoid clash
United Press International
TEHRAN, Iran — Troops who fired on
demonstrators at point-blank range Sun
day in the third straight day of martial-law
crackdowns stood guard with machine
guns Monday, but another protest march
against the Shah fizzled.
Shops remained closed in the riot-torn
bazaar of southern Tehran for the fourth
day but the march, intended to mourn
those cut down earlier by the military,
never materialized.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers
guarded the tense Parliament square, a
few hundred yards from the scene of a
bloody clash Friday between de
monstrators and army troops, and streets
leading to the bazaar further south.
Machine gun-toting soldiers patrolled
the sidewalks amid a thin crowd of pedest
rians, including veiled women out for the
day’s shopping.
Earlier, some Iranians said they ex
pected the march to touch off further dis
orders in the expanding violent opposition
to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s gov
ernment.
President Carter telephoned his sup
port to the shah’s royal palace Sunday, but
it was not certain what effect the United
States’ gesture of support for its oil-rich
ally would have on the turbulent domestic
situation.
Nine members of Iran’s Parliament
walked out at the same time, charging the
government’s “hands were stained with
blood” by the troops’ machine-gunning of
demonstrators.
An estimated 250 people have been kil
led in the past three days of violence.
The government says from 58 to 95
people were killed in the clashes that
began in Tehran Friday, after the govern
ment declared martial law and banned
public demonstrations in the capital and
11 other cities.
The martial-law rules, including a
dusk-to-dawn curfew, were the latest step
in the government’s efforts to control con
servative Moslems and other anti-shah
protesters.
Demonstrators defied the ban Sunday in
the holy city of Qom. Troops again fired di
rectly into a crowd of protesters and one
person was killed. Radio Iran said.
The nine members of parliament walked
out Sunday when Premier Sharif-Emami,
who has been in office only since Aug. 27,
pleaded for unity and solidarity and time
to continue the liberalization of Iran.
“Your hand is stained with the blood of
your countrymen,” they shouted, leaving
the hall. “You’ve killed so many in so short
a time.”
The protests against the shah’s attempt
to liberalize and modernize Iran were
begun by conservative Moslems who de
manded a return to Islamic law.
But other elements opposed to the shah
have joined the protests in the strongest
challenge to the shah since he assumed
power in 1941.
Carter, in his telephoned message to
the shah, said he hoped the liberalization
would continue. He expressed “deep re
gret over the loss of life and his hope the
violence would soon be ended,” a U.S.
spokesman said.
The statement reaffirmed the impor
tance of Tehran’s continued alliance with
the West, since Iran has been a major
supplier of oil to the United States and one
of Washington’s staunchest allies in the
Middle East.
, > '
PEPPERS
PARKING ONLY
ALL OTHERS WILL BE
CRUSHED ^MELTED
More parking lot levity
Local businesses seem to be following Texas A&M’s decision to take a
lighter solution to local parking problems. This sign, one of several
like it in the parking lot of Pepper’s Hamburgers, on South Texas Avenue,
is an example. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Hodge said he was satisfied with the
council’s action, adding, “There are some
things you can’t do overnight.
The council also deferred action on a re
quest by residents of Rockwood Park Es
tates for sewer service. It was the second
time the issue has been tabled in as many
months.
Smith told residents of the subdivision
that sewer service can be obtained
through the city or the surrounding
municipal utilities district. Residents fa
vored annexation of the community by
Bryan, with Rockv/ood supplying sewer
lines and the city supplying service.
Smith reiterated an opinion he expres
sed earlier this summer, saying that ser
vice to Rockwood would hinder develop
ment within Bryan. Based on this and
hook-up problems involved, Smith said
sewer service to Rockwood would not be
advantageous to Bryan.
The council voted to take up the matter
again at a later date.
In other action the council adopted a
resolution acknowledging appreciation for
services of Richard B. Lopez, a Bryan
fireman who was killed in a recent apart
ment fire. The council also adopted a re
solution to dedicate the new fire station on
Briarcrest Drive in honor and memory of
Lopez. Smith presented Mrs. Lopez with
$3,586.21, raised by the Bryan Firefigh
ter’s Association.
Senate begins
gas bill
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate Mon-
day opened debate on compromise legisla
tion to end federal controls on natural gas
prices amid intense vote counting on the
measure considered a key to President
Carter’s 17-month-old energy program.
A showdown vote could come Wednes
day. The bill that emerged from a House-
Senate conference committee would phase
out price controls on newly produced gas
by 1985 and extend controls for the first
time to sales of gas within the state of pro
duction.
“I am convinced that the natural gas
conference report is a sound compromise
that will be good for the nation and that we
must pass it,” said Senate Energy Com
mittee Chairman Henry M. Jackson,
D-Wash.
“Rightly or wrongly, events have made
congressional action on natural gas policy a
serious test of our ability to deal with
major national problems and halt the ero-
debate
sion of confidence in our economic and
political institutions.”
Debate, although on a serious topic,
opened on a humorous note. The bill, ab
sorbed into a piece of minor legislation for
parliamentary convenience, was titled “a
bill for the relief of Joe Cortina of Tampa,
Fla. When the clerk read the caption
opening the momentous debate, there was
chuckling from the galleries.
Debate is expected to continue inter
mittently, perhaps into evening hours,
until sometime Wednesday when a vote is
expected on a move by opponents to kill
the measure.
A filibuster is expected to follow if the
compromise survives the first test. Should
the Senate pass the compromise, it still
must clear the House.
A coalition of 15 senators, led by Sen.
Edmund S. Muskie, D-Maine, and repre
senting a broad spectrum of political opin
ion endorsed the compromise before de
bate opened.
C, T 7 r j 7N Metric costs
Frotest oj snan
planned in U.S. eas ^ * 0 S au § e
United Press International
INDIANAPOLIS — Iranian stu
dents will demonstrate in downtown
Indianapolis today to protest gov
ernment violence against traditional
Moslems in Iran, a spokeswoman for
their organization said.
The woman identified herself as
Havr Than, speaking for the Or
ganization of Iranian Moslem Stu
dents. She said she is a Purdue Uni
versity student at West Lafayette.
The demonstration, she said,
would protest “massacres ’ by the
shah of Iran.
Between 70 and 100 students,
some of them masked to prevent re
taliation by authorities against their
families in Iran, are expected to par
ticipate, she said.
Than said it will be the organiza
tion’s first demonstration in Indiana.
WASHINGTON — Although the nation
will not go metric anytime soon, the gov
ernment is about to spend another $2 mill
ion to help you prepare for meters, kilos
and liters.
The United States is one of only a few
countries in the world still using the En
glish measuring system of inches and feet,
ounces and pounds and pints and quarts.
Most other countries use metric mea
surements.
The Department of Health, Education
and Welfare awarded 66 grants Monday to
local education agencies, colleges, non
profit organizations and state facilities to
train children and adults in metric conver
sion.
Congress passed the National Metric
Conversion Act in 1975, but set no specific-
date for a changeover. Instead, a very
loose goal of 10 years was planned for a
voluntary change to the metric system.
Federal court rules
oil company innocent
of antitrust violations
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — The Continental
Oil Co. is innocent of antitrust charges al
leging it sold gasoline bulk facilities to its
jobbers in restraint of trade, a federal ap
peals court ruled Monday.
The ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals overturns a lower court
decision that awarded the oil company’s
commission agents about $8.4 million in
triple damages.
A U.S. District Court jury found Con
oco guilty of violating the Sherman (antit
rust) Act by selling the gasoline bulk plants
to the jobbers and by not giving the com
mission agents the opportunity to purch
ase the facilities for themselves. Conoco
had told the agents they could continue as
commission agents for the jobbers, the
new owners, or go out of business.
But Circuit Judge John C. Godbold held
that that Conoco was innocent of anti-trust
violations because the trial court in
structed the jury to consider a legal test
that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled
erroneous. Godbold also said the
“Schwinn” test was incorrectly used to de
termine if Conoco was guilty of restraint of
trade.
“The judgment must be reversed be
cause of prejudicial errors committed by
the district judge (Phillip B. Baldwin),
Godbold ruled. “Also, the district judge
did not ask the jury to make a finding of
the relevant market but, as best we can
tell, intended to make his own finding de
fining the relevant market.
“The district judge did not clearly ap
prise the jury of what he had found the
relevant market to be,” the judge said.
“Second, whatever his finding, there was
not sufficient evidence to support any de
finition of the geographical market. There
was insufficient evidence to support the
jury’s finding that the challenged re
straints actually restrained trade in that
product market.
A consortium of Conoco jobbers finally
bought the oil company’s bulk plants for a
total price of about $22 million in Max
1975.