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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1978)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Monday December 4, 1978 Candidates’ subsidy way to equalize races By DAVID S. BRODER SAN FRANCISCO — Contrary to pub lic impression, there is too little, not too much, money being spent on politics in the United States. Inordinate attention has been paid in the press to the relative handful of races in which exceptionally large sums of money were spent. We have been told so much about the "$6 million man” — a reference to the campaign treasury of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) — that we have come to believe that such sums are characteristic of our bloated, dollar-gorged democracy. It just ain't so. Two years ago, the Fed eral Election Commission (FEC) asked pollsters Peter D. Hart and Richard Wirth- lin to survey the spending by congressional candidates. They found that the vast major ity of them had run campaigns that Hart characterized accurately as “mom and pop” operations. Fewer than one-third of the House can didates in 1976 said they had professional campaign managers and fewer than one- fifth spent as much as $100,(XX) on then- entire campaign. Looking at the FEC records for this year’s campaign, it appears that, despite the report of increased giving by corporate political action committees and political parties, most House races are still those “mom and pop" affairs. And, unsurpris ingly, once again more than nine out often incumbents on the November ballot won. According to my highly unofficial calcu lation, in most congressional districts the sums available amounted to less than one inflation-shrunk dollar per voter. Of the 1,662 House candidates who filed with the FEC, only 301 reported spending more than $100,000. Those reports cover all the primaries and the general election up through Oct. 27. Doubtless, the number of $100,000 campaigns will increase slightly in the final accounting, but the general pic ture of skimpy campaign resources will re main. The problem becomes more apparent when you focus on the money available to challengers. It appears that only 53 people in the whole country challenging House incumbents in November had as much as $100,000 to spend in the entire 1978 cam paign. The others in that charmed $100,000 circle included 124 incumbents up for reelection, 64 candidates for open seats, and 60 people who spent more than $100,000 to lose in the primary. These figures make it clear that the real goal of any campaign “reform” legislation in the new Congress should be not to elimi nate or harass the occasional $6 million man, but to make it possible for more than a few dozen challengers to be able to spend a dollar a voter. The goal should be not to lower the ceil ing on a few extravagant spenders, but to provide a decent campaign base for a lot more candidates. The best way to do that is to provide a direct cash subsidy from public funds. Theoretically, that subsidy should be available to anyone willing to give up a year of h is or her life to campaigning. But as a practical matter, the subsidy probably has to be limited to candidates strong enough to receive a major party nomination or those who can demonstrate by some other means a broad base of public support. That kind of subsidy from public funds is fully merited by the service candidates provide by injecting a degree of competi tion into an overly protected congresssional system. As everyone knows, the subsidy is really needed by challengers, not incumbents, and in an age of tight budgets it should be limited to those who need it. The incum bents already enjoy generous public sub sidies for their staff, district offices, travel, newsletters, broadcasts and corre spondence. They also have greater access to private contributions. These advantages can be justified, but only if the incumbents are prepared to vote for a measure of equity for their opponents th rough a substantial subsidy of their cam paign costs as well. The task before Congress is not difficult, but it is one that requires a certain degree of self-sacrifice. The legislators do not have to write new limits on private contributions or decide the spending ceiling for congres sional campaigns. All they have to do is recognize a clear duty to provide a decent financial base for the non-incumbents who now barely keep the competition for House seats alive. (c) 1978, The Washington Post Company Life after kick-off By DICK WEST WASHINGTON — What’s wrong with this country is that too many people don’t take football seriously enough. They laughed when George Allen, former coach of the Washington Redskins, said losing was like dying. It s only a game,” the philosophically defective scoffed. That fits right in with what we read about the prevailing public attitude toward death. I must have seen this very year at least a dozen articles on the same theme — that people are refusing to face up to their mortality, changing the subject when it is mentioned and otherwise trying to sweep death under the rug. These undoubtedly are the same people who try to tell you football is only a game. There has been in recent months a flurry of books and magazine pieces about per sons who supposedly experienced “clini cal” death and lived to tell about it. Permit me to quote some descriptions of dying as recorded in the book “Life After Life." “I was in an utterly black, dark void. It is very difficult to explain, but I felt as if I were moving in. a vacuum.” I stayed in shock for about a week, and during that time all of a sudden I just es caped into this dark void. I was so taken up with this void that I just didn’t think of anything else.” “I had the feeling that I was moving through a deep, very dark valley.” To me, this sounds almost exactly like how it feels to lose a football game. I spent Thanksgiving afternoon watching the Dallas-Washington game with a group of people who had the proper attitude. Some of them started dying even before the opening kickoff. It was beautiful. By the time Dallas had scored its first 20 points, my friend Phizbeam was, by all physiological criteria, done for. Eyes glazed. Pallid flesh. No pulse or other vital signs. But football also can be marvelously re storative. When I saw Phizbeam this week a few days after USC, his alma mater, had overtaken Notre Dame, he was functioning at 67.8 percent above normal. I asked him to describe what football moribundity was like. “At first, I felt kind of a sinking sensa tion," he recalled. "It was like being drawn down into a black hole. My chest felt tight, there was a fluttering in my ears like the beating of plover wings and I was visually aware of jiggling movements." George Allen was right. Football truly is what life is all about. I suspect, however, that some of the sen sations Phizbeam described were caused by televised close-ups of the Dallas cheer leaders. French law curbing drunk motorists By FRANCOIS DEPUIS PARIS — The French have two loves that mix badly — automobiles and alcohol. But now, in a revolutionary move, the police here are enforcing a new law that cracks down severely tipsy motorists. Hailing the tough measures, which are already producing salutary consequences on the roads. Minister of Justice Alain Peyrefitte recently said: "The French for merly had the right to roll under the table and roll along in their cars. Now they can no longer enjoy both rights simultaneously.” Predictably, the curbing on drinking and driving are opposed by the owners of bars and cafes as well as bv elements of the wine industry, who complain that the stiff’regu lations are killing their business. Not long ago, the head of one wine-growers’ associa tion proclaimed the law to be a “violation of civil liberties,” and he threatened to resort to “illegal” action against it. Surprisingly, though, opinon surveys show that the public overwhelmingly ap proves the effort to improve safety on France's highway. The largest proportion of those in favor are young people. The new law, which was passed by the French legislature’ in July, authorizes the police to stop drivers at random and re quire them to take balloon tests that mea sure the alcohol content in their blood. Motorists whose blood contains 0.80 grams or more of alcohol per liter are liable to lose their licenses and may face prison terms of up to four years as well as a fine of nearly $5,000. The decision to introduce the law stem med from two factors — the carnage on French roads and the significant drop in accidents that followed two earlier innova tions. The slaughter broke all records in 1973, when highway fatalities in France reached 15,500, or one death every 20 minutes. That massacre prompted the government to make the use of seat belts mandatory and to impose speed limits, ranging from 54 to 78 miles per hour, depending on the road. The change was instantaneous. The number of highway deaths declined to 13,500 in 1974 and to 13,170 in 1975 de spite an increase in traffic during those two years of about 7 percent. The lack of prog ress after that, however, led the govern ment to consider rigorous steps to prevent drunken driving. In studying steps that might be taken, researchers found that only 3 percent of all motorists could be classified as excessive drinkers. Yet they accounted for 40 percent of fatal accidents in daytime and 50 percent of road deaths at night. The answer, quite obviously, was to dis courage driving and drinking. Hence a bal loon test of the kind that has long been common in countries like Sweden, where tough regulations have drastically reduced road accidents. But one problem that has still not been solved is how much liquor is too much. In order to dramatize the problem, the Paris daily newspaper, Le Figaro, invited four people to a meal designed to assay their capacity to absorb alcohol. The quests consisted of a woman weight ing 112 pounds, a skinny man of 141 pounds, an average Frenchman of 154 pounds and a fat fellow who tipped the scales at 194 pounds. Their luncheon, which lasted 90 minutes, featured fish, meat, cheese and dessert. Each guest was requested to drink an aperitif beforehand and two half-bottles of wine, one white and the other red, during the meal. An hour later, they were conducted to a laboratory for blood tests, and the outcome was astonishing. Only the little lady went over the legal limit with 0.92 grams of al cohol per liter of blood. The fat fellow’s alcohol content, in contrast, was only 0.05 grains. Any physician could have forecast that rich foods lessen the impact of alcohol. The results, therefore, would have been differ ent had the guests simplv eaten steak and salad. But the experiment, by proving that the effects of alcohol on individuals vary widely, has furnished ammunition to those who argue that the present balloon test is too liberal. They assert that the critical level for drinking drivers ought to be low ered to 0.50 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. In any case, the new law has demon strated that monitoring motorists can work effectively. As early as August, only a month after the legislation had gone into effect, the highway accident rate had drop ped 12.6 percent compared to the same period a year before, and road fatality 14.2 percent. Nobody regards it as unusual that special interest groups, like the liquor business, are squawking. What is unusual, however, is that France as a nation is adapting to a radical regulation that, in times gone by, might have caused culture shock. (Dupuis writes on social issues for Le Nouvel Observateur, the French weekly.) Letters to the Editor Other schools deserve Highway 6ers Editor: I finally decided that it was time to join the prestiged rank of mindless idiots who write letters to the editor of the Battalion. Making the last statement (one that is de rogatory to the Ag tradition of writing unin telligent letters to the editor) entitles me to join yet another prestigious rank: Those who are directed to that bastion of knowl edge in Austin by way of the infamous bi directional Highway 6. Which brings me to make a minor criti cism, Ags. Why must you be so repititous when instructing two-percenters where to go? Why always tell them to go to t.u.? Why not o.u.? Or u.s.c., m.i.t., l.s.u., or u.c.l.a.? Come on, 102 percenters, there’s plenty of other schools that these bad Ags can reach via Highway 6 so that we needn’t bombard the halls of t.u. with all of them? Let’s show some of that Ag creativity, Army. —Mickey McDermott, ’78.5 Editor’s note: Jeff Hancock, head yell leader, participated in the “ransom.” Need a friend Thanksgiving spirit S\JZ, , Sue Editor: Dear: Sue Hodge, assistant area coor dinator, Pam Freeman, Mosher Hall treasurer, Joanne Xavier, Mosher Hall president On behalf of the 12 needy families that you helped with your generous donation of Thanksgiving grocery items, please accept our most grateful and sincere thanks. You cannot imagine the joy and happiness that yoU brought to these less fortunate families that would not have had a blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day, had it not been for the energetic efforts of the residents of Mosher Hall and the good-natuled kinness of the Aggie yell leader who agreed to be “kidnapped for ransom.” Our most grateful thanks to this young man as well. We do not know his name, but please convey to him our sincere gratitude. I am truly proud to be a former student knowing that TAMU students are so very concerned about the needy children and families in this area. Again, thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. —Irma A. Benavides, ’73 Social Services Worker II State Department of Human Resources Editor: My name is Duane P. Harris, I am 29 years old and my residence is the Southern Ohio Correctional facility. I am writing you this letter as an agent of appeal for correspondence and friendship. Loneliness in a place like this is almost unbearable. It is very much like a quiet drama that keeps building and building, seemingly without end. The experience of such a feeling has to be felt to be fully understood. I have no wish to remain just a faint echo of a hidden soul. In a desperate effort to emerge from the internal prison of lost despair, I have writ ten you this letter in an attempt to reaquaint myself with the outside world, and to become associated in a more honest and valid relationship with reality. I am seriously at work on qualifying my self and consciously working minute by minute to assemble, coordinate and bal ance out the bits and pieces needed to con struct and maintain a progressive personal ity devoid of unreality and complacency. I would like to correspond with anyone who is lonely and in need of affection and understanding and possible love. —Duane P. Harris 138632 Box 45699 Lucasville, Ohio 45699 Top of the News CAMPUS Western artist featured here An exhibit by sculptor George Lundeen will go on display today in Texas A&M University’s Memorial Student Center Gallery. The free exhibit will run through Dec. 13. The Texas A&M artist-in-residence described himself as a western artist, and believes his work represents the western art of today. In conjunction with his duties as artist-in residence, Ludeen also teaches a basic design course and will teach a class in sculpting during the spring semester. MSC Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. University pledges $34,000 Texas A&M University fund-raising efforts on behalf of the College Station United Fund and the Bryan-Brazos County United Way have yielded contributions of $34,246.29 at campaign’s end, according to campus chairman Chuck Cargill. Of contributions received through last week, $16,547.33 was designated for the Bryan campaign and $17,698.96 was donated to the College Station campaign. Cargii requests that unit representatives check that all contributions have been turned in to campus treasurer Robert Smith. Assistant science dean named Dr. Omer C. Jenkins will assume duties Jan. 16 as assistant deanin Texas A&M University’s College of Science. Jenkins will retain his academic rank of associate professor of statistics in addition to his new duties. University officials said. A member of the faculty since 1965, he earned bachelor's and master’s degrees from North Texas State Uni versity and his doctorate from Texas A&M in 1972. Jenkins fills the position formerly held by Dr. Carlton J. Maxson, who recently was named to head the Mathematics Department. STATE Third man charged in murder The last of three 18-year-old McKinney, Texas, men charged in the shooting death last summer of country music promoter has been returned to Richmond, Mo., and was expected to be arraigned today. Stewart Stripling is charged with capital murder in the July 23 shooting death of George Barnett, 49. A warrant for Stripling's arrest was issued last summer, but he fought extradition until last week. Capital murder charges also have been filed against Kenneth Welbom and Jeffrey Hunter. Authorities said Barnett was shot to death as he slept in a trailer in rural Ray County. B- A child Ighten mTues< ade, s Divi: tion C pectin g W1 NATION Tornadoes hit Mississippi At least three tornadoes touched down in the Mississippi Delta Sunday, causing some property damage but apparently resulting in only one injury. At least two house trailers were overturned and several tenant houses and a cotton gin were damaged in Coahoma County. Sheriffs deputies in Sunflower County said what appeared to be a tornado turned over several trailers, downed light poles and caused roof damage to a farm shop when it touched down about 2:15 p.m. EST betweeen Indianola and Moorhead. No injuries were re ported. Uni JH0US1 lay to < Isentati Hen D« rder vi II infori ack Str cojproseci murch National Guard subs for firemen National Guardsmen filling in for striking firemen in Lake Charles, La., responded to several calls Sunday in their second day of duty. Mayor William Boyer said the next step in the strike will come today when he and union representatives meet for negotiations with a federal mediator. Sixty guardsmen, none of them trained in firefighting, were dispatched to the city early Saturday by Gov. Edwin Edwards at Boyer’s request. Before they arrived, one house burned to the ground before a makeshift crew of firefighters, filling in for the regulars, could extinguish what started as a small fire. Search continues for survivors Air Force rescue units Sunday continued their grim search near Cottageville, S.C., for more victims of the crash of a C-130 Hercules cargo plane that went down in flames by a soybean field Thursday. No survivors are expected to be found, said Maj. T. W. King, spokesman for the Carleston Air Force Base. Six crewmen were aboard the four-engine, turboprop transport plane. The aircraft crashed and burst into flames after being hit by lightning. No passengers or cargo wereon board the plane. King said. Nuclear plant to be protested Former Pentagon specialist Daniel Ellsberg said the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, 15 miles northwest of Denver, will be the central target among the nation’s seven nuclear bomb plants for major protest demonstrations. Ellsberg, one of 10 demonstrators convicted last week of criminal trespassing as a result of protests staged near Rocky Flats duimg the past six months, said it would be harder to organize at the other plants because of their remote location. Speaking in Golden, Colo., he said other facilities in the nuclear weapons complex are in Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Amarillo WEATHER 900 re F 693 We are experiencing a cold front with a low today of 31 and a high of 53. We will have mostly cloudy skies decreasing tonight. Winds will be northerly at 5 to 10 mph. The Battalion LETTERS POLICY Letter* to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to heinn cot to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the ri^ht to edit such letters and does Hot guarantee to finbllsh any letter. Each letter must he sinned, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Boom 216, Bred McDonald Build inn, Collenc Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Tlie Battalion is published Monday through Friday from September through May except during exam and holiduy 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 furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Boom 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. Bights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism CongreK Editor Kin 1 Managing Editor Ui Assistant Managing Editor Andy" Sports Editor City Editor Janus 1 Campus Editor Sle ( News Editors Debbie ft ^ Beth Calhoun Staff Writers Karen Patterson, Scott Pell* ! Sean Petty, Michelle ft 1 Diane Blake, Lee Roy If- Jr., Dillard Stone ...Dongfr I ....Ed» * Cartoonist Photographers Lynn Blanco Focus section editor Can " I 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-, , supporting enterprise Operalctl l>H^ as a university and conwniiiilij unf Editorial policy is deteniiiiiallHjlhi fi 9