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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 1978)
J.S. not ready tor atomic war n >■ <mly. Ca 2. UNITIES 1 akers United Press International the thick pine forests about a mile from where the Atlantic ^ers burst against the cliffs of Maine, Asa E. Phillips Jr. and his lyofblueblood patriots are ready to ride out a nuclear holocaust in ike a silent sentry on lookout for a nuclear doomsday, his cinder k fallout shelter waits beside the family's summer home. The | ter —30 feet long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet high — is filled with the ssities of life — canned food, drums of water — and some of the ries like decanters of the most expensive liquor, lere has been a Phillips in America since before the War of pendence and Phillips is determined his family will survive any — even one fought with ICBMs and fallout clouds instead of ket balls and cannon bursts. ivery patriotic American should have a fallout shelter,” or at least loiowledge of the use of one, said Phillips. "You know you don’t da complete shelter. You can make a corner of a basement into a ut shelter if you know what you're doing. think the danger is greater now than it was ever before. Eight But in the Armageddon of atomic attack most Americans uld be lucky to find a fallout shelter and if they did, they uld likely have little more than a few stale crackers to last \ through the hard rain of nuclear fallout, says an Illinois lorniutii dial M> Km pin Hirnuti strative eluding ; excel- , $732 or con- YMCA nines now have the bomb, " said Phillips, a Massachusetts lawyer past president of the Order of Patriots and Founders. You know, Russia is way ahead of us on this thing. They have whole s underground. ' alfway across the continent in the cornfield country of central iois, A. Webber Borchers also is ready to face the unthinkable, lurchers, a wealthy former state lawmaker who decries the current e of nuclear preparedness in the Unites States, built a vault-fallout Iter at his Decatur, Ill., home in the early 60s. We are not well prepared and we should he,” he said. The interest has fallen oft’and I think it's a mistake. In the olden syou never knew when the Indian attack would come but you still uld have a blockhouse. We re not civilized yet and should have our ckhouses. utin the Armageddon of atomic attack most Americans would be to find a fallout shelter and if they did, they woidd likely have more than a few stale crackers to last them through the hard rain uclear fallout. American civil defense measures peaked during the 1962 missile is and have been near-moribund since. rlilitary and civilian supporters for a marked increase in civil de- se claim that if the Soviets made an all-out first nuclear strike on the ited States now that half the U.S. population — more than 100 lion people — would die and another 35 million would require dical attention. "hese same sources say that under the same general war, “worst e” conditions, the Soviet Union would probably suffer a loss of only 5 percent of its 260 million people because of vastly superior civil ense and evacuation planning. he supporters of civil defense got a boost earlier this summer when ident Carter sent a message to Congress asking for the creation of a Fhe civil defense officials sadly contrast America’s state of diness with that of the Soviets, who give civil defense the \e priority they do their armed forces and reportedly spent ions on their civil defense program last year compared to the n million the Carter administration requested in 1977. ons Gatti by be feral Emergency Management Agency that would include an up- ded Defense Civil Preparedness Agency merged with groups han- g natural disasters. dministration officials say the agency woidd streamline the disaster eaucracy and save millions of dollars. Part of the agency’s purpose dd be to better to protect Americans in case of a nuclear war. he announcement pleased state civil defense and natural disaster anizations that say the nation’s civil defense capacity has dete- ated to a state akin to that of the nowmoldering survival crackers twere stored in public shelters in the early 1960s. Pretty sad,” was the way E. Erie Jones, director of Illinois’ ergency Services and Disaster Agency, described the United tes current state of civil defense preparedness. There s still a lot of rotten crackers and rusty water cans,’ he said ut current food supplies in Illinois’ fallout shelters. "You wouldn’t the crackers unless you were literally starving to death.” ivil defense officials in other states echo that view. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say we re at 2 compared to European ntries, said Bob Gregory, Nevada’s civil defense director, he civil defense officials sadly contrast America’s state of readiness h that of the Soviets, who give civil defense the same priority they their armed forces and reportedly spent billions on their civil ense program last year compared to the $80 million the Carter ninistration requested in 1977. Sources say the Russians have built hardened bomb shelters under st large apartment buildings in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev and je a contingency plan to evacuate the population of these cities to lective farms within 72 hours. the Soviet civil defense system even includes an estimated 100 J rs of instruction for Soviet school children on the effects of nuclear apons and civil defense procedures. ut while American civil defense officials are pleased with the new ntion their program is receiving from the Carter administration, everyone believes it is necessary or wise to increase nuclear Paredness. -ritics claim the United States and the Soviet Union, with their ear arsenals, have “assured mutual destruction and no adequate section is possible. “You think only God can make a tree? Try coming up with a mackerel.” Octobor- B &. 7; 8 PfVL OARK STAR: IVNdnighfc, Oct. 7 & dj nuddar Auditorium PEC 'AL FEATURE: HARDWARE WAFtS MSC CERHEO VARIABLE what’s up? Wednesday AGGIE PLAYERS: Will open its 33rd season of theater with Moliere’s classic 17th century comedy “Tartuffe.” The production will run through Oct.7 in Rudder Theater. “Tartuffe,” takes place in France during the reign of King Louis XIV and concerns a confidence man and his plan to take a wealthy nobleman for all he owns. Tickets are $2 for students and $3 for the public and are available in the MSC Box Office. Tickets will also be available at the door the night of each performance. MOVIE: “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” starring Basil Rathbone as the immortal Sherlock Holmes who attempts to unravel the legend of the mysterious great hound who has haunted the Baskerville family for generations, will show at 8 p.m. in room 701, Rudder Tower. TAMU ROADRUNNERS: Will meet in front of G. Rollie White Coliseum at 6:30 p.m. For more information call Mike Fred at 846-6601. CZECH CLUB: Will hold their monthly meeting at 8 p.m. in room 607, Rudder Tower. ACT: The Ag Communicators of Tommorrow will discuss the Ag Section at 7:30 p.m. in the Reed McDonald Bldg. BAHA’I CLUB: Welcomes everyone to their monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. in room 141, MSC. SOCIAL DANCE CLUB: From 7 - 8:15 p.m. there will be a regular club meeting in room 266, G. Rollie White Coliseum and from 8:30 - 10 p.m. there will be exhibition group practice. SAN ANTONIO HOMETOWN CLUB: Will discuss activities for the year at 7:30 p.m. in room 110, Military Science Building. GOLF: The men’s team will play in the the Jim Corbett Invitational in Baton Rouge, Louisiana today and Thursday. The women’s team will play in the Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. today, Thursday and Friday. Thursday ROOMMATE SWAP SESSION: The Off Campus Center is holding a roommate swap session from 3-5 p.m. at the Off Campus Student Center. POLITICAL FORUM: Thomas DeFrank will speak on “The Carter Administration - A Press Reaction.” DeFrank is White House Correspondent for Newsweek Magazine and Texas A&M former student. He will speak at 8 p.m. in room 206, MSC. MOYTE: “Blazing Saddles,” a madcap comedy spoof of westerns, starring Gene Wilder and Harvey Gorman, will be shown at 8 p. m. in Rudder Auditorium. CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST: Will have a meetingat 7p.m. in room 302, Rudder Tower. W ATER SKI CLUB: Will have a meetingat 7 p.m. in room 230, MSC. BLACK ENGINEERS: The National Society of Black Engineers will meet at 7:30 p.m. in room 141, MSC. Everyone is invited and refreshments will be served. MSC RADIO COMMITTEE: Will have a meeting at 6:30 p.m. in room 410, Rudder Tower. VOLLEYBALL: The women’s team will play at Sam Houston State in Huntsville. - fl*> 4v>3 WM ,0 \ „ ,- r \ i > / 4 Friday MOYTE: “Oh, God, about God coming down from heaven in the cool, sharp form of George Bums. The person he picks to help him straighten out mankind is the assistant manager of a supermarket- -John Denver. The movie will be shown at 8 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium. ORGANIZATION OF ARAB STUDENTS: Will have a meeting in room 502, Rudder Tower at 7 p.m. A membership drive will be organized. TENNIS: The women’s team will play in the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, La. today through Sunday. CROSS COUNTRY: The men’s team will run in Arlington at 4 p.m. The women’s team will go to the Houston Invitational in Houston. Darwin not originator THE BATTALION Page 11 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1978 Evolution nothing new United Press International One hundred and forty years ago, a 29-year-old naturalist sat down in his London apartment to read an essay “for amusement.” His eyes moved over the words and an idea formed in his mind. The reader’s name was Charles Darwin, and his idea was the theory of natural selection — the mecha nism of evolution. No other theory has shaken scien tific thought more than Darwin’s: that the environment could modify living organisms, and the modifications could be passed on to the next generation. He waited 10 years to present his idea to the scientific community with the first edition in 1858 of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species by Natural Selection.” Its impact has been im measurable. Such thoughts were far from his mind when Darwin, as an easy going, 22-year-old Cambridge graduate, sailed on the HMS Beagle as ship’s naturalist on Dec. 27, 1831. He returned a scientist when the ship anchored at Falmouth on Oct. 2, 1836. The five-year voyage took Darwin around the world. He explored ani mal and plant life on Tahiti, Austra lia, the South American Coast and the Galapagos Islands. He noticed patterns. He saw 14 different species of finch-like birds with different sized bills in the Galapagos Islands, and he noticed mice on one slope of the Andes were different from those on the other. He later wrote, “It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could only be ex plained on the supposition that species gradually become modified, and the subject haunted me.” After his return, he spent the winter of 1836-37 in Cambridge pre paring his ’’Journal of Researches” for publication. In the spring he moved to London. His mind was oc cupied with variations of plants and animals. “I soon perceived that selection was the keystone of man’s success in making useful races of animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery to me.” On Sept. 28, 1838, in his bachelor quarters on Great Marlborough Street, came the chance reading: “Fifteen months after I began my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement “Malthus on Population”, and being well pre pared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these cir cumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved and un favourable varations would tend to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work.” In his notebooks, under the date of Sept. 28, 1838, Darwin made a note that determined the passage of Malthus that gave him the insight to conceptualize his theory: “It may safely be pronounced, therefore, that population, when un checked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio.” It wasn’t new. Malthus published his “Essay on Population” in 1798, and Darwin’s father read it before his son did. Malthus wrote about popu lation limiting itself through pesti lence and other hardships. To Dar win it meant that the strong survive, the weak perish, and species change. iSoft Touch 707 Texas / ^ 846-1972 Help us celebrate our first year anniversary r 1 Elegance in lingerie SUMMER MERCHANDISE /4 off Be sure to look over our new fall gowns and robes. MSC Great Issues and Black Awareness Pre sent “The Bakke Case and Affirmative Action’’ by Herbert Reid, dean of Howard University Law School. J ■■ J Rudder Auditorium | 8:00 p.m. I October 4 - Wednesday ■ Students - Free/Others I $-1 00 L I