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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1979)
The Battalion played his ('anitfev >rs might’ve fcjtov that’ll happen it Vol. 72 No. 74 Monday, January 15, 1979 News Dept. 845-2611 ' n s a lot at stj 16 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611 id Ham. HELD-up’ by schedule? Having a hard time figuring out what those building abbrevi ations on your class schedule stand for? A quick phone call will solve your problem. The student locator has a list of the abbreviations and the build- ings they represent. The on- campus number for the student locater is 7, but dial 845-4741 off-campus. Also, the office of Admissions and Records, at 845-1031, can help. dly, though, hi is assignment all, enjoy himself as end L.C. Oreetn it was just likel, 1 hing lot playiti laughed Greeiiw were times Battalion photos by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Bad night in Goodwin Hall Water spewing from a broken hot water line flooded three floors of Goodwin Hall Sunday night. The building, one of the oldest on the Texas A&M Uni versity campus, sustained water damage in most oflices on the building’s north end. A similar broken water line had flooded the south end of the building two weeks ago. Parks & Recreation Department students and professors, whose offices were flooded by the water, worked from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. mopp ing up the water and surveying the damage. Univer sity maintenance officials had not determined a cause for the broken line last night. \e says she s still alive lomputer ‘kills’ woman, checks 69 United Press International :| BURLINGTON, Iowa — Christena mth returned to life this week, several ii! bnths after a Medicare computer “killed’ Ijjr and refused to change its mind. f|i“It feels pretty good to be alive again,’ id the 79-year-old woman, who finally iillpived a check Thursday to pay doctor Sills due since May 1978. ® “At first I thought it was a joke,” Mrs. S hith said. “But it went on and on and on I f and then it was no joke. I owe the doc- ::| is nearly $500 and when Medicare stops lying, so does Blue Cross. ” One of the letters “to the estate of Christena F. Smith” said Mrs. Smith’s son, Richard, could collect $255 in death bene fits if he sent his mother’s medical and fu neral bills to Des Moines. The letter also asked Smith to sign a statement that his mother, who lives next door, was dead. While Medicare and Blue Cross acted as though Mrs. Smith was dead, she still re ceived her Social Security checks. And her dilemma persisted for months, despite her efforts, and work by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, to correct the problem. “I’m surprised this thing has gone on so long without being resolved,” said Bob Watterson, director of community rela tions for Blue Cross of Iowa. “We are going to send her a check.” Watterson, who said his firm has been trying since July to straighten out Mrs. Smith’s accounts, said the firm now will try to get the computer corrected so Blue Cross can be reimbursed. A medical assistant for Mrs. Smith’s doc tor said she was “disgusted” by the com puter problem. “You wonder how many old people there are out there who this might have hap pened to and they just sat back and were afraid to say anything,” she said. tjnlikely killer — molasses — remembered ON United Press International | BOSTON — On Jan. 15, 1919, a tidal | five of sweet, sticky death gushed through | 'Ston’s North End leaving 21 dead, 150 ured and homes and businesses crushed [ heath tons of brown, sugary syrup. •Today is the 60th anniversary of The I eat Boston Molasses Disaster, truly one the most bizarre disasters ever to happen ||ywhere. In its day, news of the accident | Imporarily made larger headlines than the ■ ris Peace Conference and the events in . ’ yolution-torn Russia. ^roostonians working and shopping in the Iw’s commercial waterfront area were il jlying a rather warm afternoon for ' |puary when disaster struck at about 12:30 ■un. Commercial Street and Atlantic Av- I ue were busy with Model T cars and ! icks and horse drawn wagons were clat- " nng over the cobblestones. |j,Nearby, Boston patrolman Frank IjCManus had just checked his pocket l|i®h and was calling his precinct station . * >m a signal box at base of Copps Hill. jiNot far away from McManus stood the ’ -foot high, 90-foot wide cast iron tank of J je Purity Distilling Co., a subsidiary of the s S. Industrial Alcohol Co. Inside it was dging 2.2 million gallons of gooey molas- At the time molasses — used in making rum — was as much a part of Boston as the baked bean. The Boston waterfront was a center of the molasses trade and ships by the dozen moored on the waterfront. There was no warning except for a rum ble which shook a two-block area. Suddenly the tank burst open, sending a wave of molasses two stories high down Commercial Street. The tidal wave of goo, which weighed about 12 pounds per gallon, was traveling at about 35 mile per hour as it swept over and through everything in its path. Patrolman McManus, who was probably the first eyewitness to the disaster, screamed into his call box. “Send all availa ble ambulances, all police, everybody!” Like the ancient volcanic explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii, men, women, children, horses, cars, trucks, stores and homes became smothered in the onslaught. Eyewitnesses later testified they heard machine-gun-like noises as the tank burst its rivets. They said six children im mediately were swallowed up. Six city workers eating lunch at a public works yards were drowned where they sat. A fireman was killed as the wave swept into the harbor and turned a fireboat into splinters. One woman testified she watched as men in horse-drawn carriages tried to outrun the sticky wave. At its most destructive moments the mo lasses wave was 15 feet tall and 100-feet wide and after it was finished it covered a two-block area. The force of the bursting tank created a vacuum which sucked in pedestrians, horses and automobiles. A section of the towering tank crashed into nearby elevated railway tracks leaving it twisted and dangl ing. Only minutes before, a train had rum bled past. Buildings were knocked off their foundations and roads were impassable for days. The task of cleaning up and recovering bodies lasted days and involved hundreds of volunteers. Crews found a man and his wagon embedded in a mountain of molas ses. The driver and his horse were frozen and preserved — as if time had stood still. The cause of the disaster was debated for years. Some said it was the work of anarch ists or communists. It was the height of the Red Scare era. The more logical theory is the molasses had been fermenting and built up an explosive force too much for the tank to contain. Ticket pickup for basketball different now A new ticket distribution system for Texas A&M University home basketball games will go into effect this week, accord ing to Wally Groff, assistant athletic direc tor. Texas A&M students who have pur chased a season basketball pass must pick up game tickets at the ticket office begin ning on the workday immediately preced ing the game. There will be a limited number of tickets available for each game, so tickets will be distributed on a first-come basis. All general admission seats will be available to students and will not be sold to the general public unless students do not pick up all their tickets. For example, student tickets for the Ar kansas game Wednesday can be picked up by showing a season pass beginning Tues day at 8 a.m. and on Wednesday until game time or until all tickets have been distrib uted. When a home game is played on Monday, students can begin picking up their tickets on the preceding Friday. Students may purchase a date ticket for $1.50 at the time they pick up their own tickets. Also, students will be allowed to obtain tickets for other students as long as they have a season pass for each ticket. Those students who have not purchased season passes can do so through Friday in Room 113 of G. Rollie White. The remaining home schedule for the Aggies has them hosting Arkansas Wed nesday at 7:30 p.m., Texas Tech Saturday at 7:30 p.m., TCU Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., SMU Jan. 31 at 7:30 p. m., Houston Feb. 3 at 2:40 p.m., Texas Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Rice Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Reserved seat tickets are sold out for the Arkansas and Texas Tech games, but a few are available for other home games. Briscoe names 2 new regents AUSTIN — Gov. Dolph Briscoe Friday named Norman N. Moser of DeKalb and Royce E. Wisenbaker of Tyler to the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents and re-appointed Clyde H. Wells of Granbury and Dallas, who has served as board chairman for the past 10 years. Moser and Wisenbaker are both Texas A&M graduates and recipients of their alma mater’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the institution’s highest honor. Wells is a 1938 graduate of Texas A&M and a 1936 graduate of Tarleton State University, which is also part of the Texas A&M University System. Retiring from the nine-member board after one term are Richard A. Goodson of Dallas and Mrs. Wilmer Smith of Wilson. Wells was appointed to a fourth six-year term on the governing board for the statewide teaching} research and public service institution. He was initially ap pointed in 1961 by former Gov. Price Daniel and re-appointed by former Govs. John Connally and Preston Smith. He has been elected by his colleagues to an unprecedented five consecutive two-year terms as chairman of the board. Wisenbaker, a 1939 agricultural engineering graduate, is senior partner in Wisenbaker, Fix and Associates, a consulting engineering firm. He received his Distinguished Alumni Award in 1973, is a past-president of the Association of Former Students and the Aggie Club and was originator of the alumni association’s Century Club. Wisenbaker, 61, also was the architect of the University’s President Endowed Scholarship program, contributing the first $25,000 to honor Earl Rudder, then president of Texas A&M, and he has made three additional PES contributions. In 1972, Wisenbaker was honored by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for “extraordinary contributions to public health.” He served as the only non-medical directory of the department and also has served on a special state commission studying waste disposal. Moser, 65, is a 1937 agricultural administration graduate who received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1971. He currently serves as a director of Texas A&M’s Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise and has been active in alumni affairs. Moser is president of the State Bank of DeKalb, served as a director of the First National Bank of Texarkana and is a director of the General Telephone Co., the Texas Livestock Marketing Association, the Umnak Co. Inc. of Alaska and the Nationan Finance Corp. Moser initiated the screwworm eradication program for the Southwest when he served as president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. While chairman of the National Livestock and Meat Board, he successfully com bined its efforts with those of the Beef Council to make one organizations: Dallas native Moser attended the University of Cincinnati and the North Texas Agricultural College prior to enrolling at Texas A&M. Tract©rcade begins today on protest roll to capital United Press International WASHINGTON — Members of the American Agriculture Movement plan to begin their second parade of tractors from the heartland of America into Washington today to lobby for higher farm prices. Members of the radical farm group, which sprang up in Colorado fields in De cember 1977 after wheat prices hit rockbot- tom, predicted their lobbying effort would C lements takes oath Tuesday United Press International AUSTIN — Thousands of Texans will jam the Capitol Tuesday to see William Perry Clements Jr. sworn in as Texas’ 42nd governor and first Republican chief executive in more than 100 years. Ecstatic Republicans will begin celeb rating a day ahead of time with a $125-a- person victory reception and $25-a-plate dinner Monday billed as a “Texas Heritage Festival.” The festivities will bring together at least two Republican presidential aspirants — former UN Ambassador George Bush and ex-Gov. John Connally, who switched to the GOP after serving as President Nix on’s Treasury Secretary. Democrats, hardly aglow at losing the state’s top post to the GOP, will gather for a “rump victory party” hosted by Lt. Gov. William P. Hobby Jr. Hobby, 46, will be sworn in for his fourth term in the same ceremonies when Clements, 61, will be inaugurated at noon Tuesday on the south steps of the Capitol. Chief Justice Joe R. Greenhill will ad minister oaths to both men using a sheepskin-bound Bible that dates back to the days when Texas was a Republic. The Dallas oil drilling contractor, who wrote a new chapter in Texas history books with his Nov. 7 victory, will alter the tra ditional inauguration custom somewhat to have his wife, Rita, hold the worn Bible. Then Clements and his family will go to the Governor’s Mansion for lunch after the ceremony — the outgoing governor tra ditionally leaves a meal prepared for his successor. Gov. Dolph Briscoe’s press secretary said he is expected to leave the Capitol before the inauguration and depart for a European vacation. Barbecue will be served in the Capitol for the public. Clements and Hobby, with their wives, are scheduled to ride at the head of an inaugural parade up Congress Avenue at 2:30 p.m. and make a round of joint ap pearances at an ice cream party for chil dren on the Capitol grounds at 4:30 p.m., a special symphony performance at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library 5 p.m. and five separate inaugural dances between 7:30 and midnight. be less emotional and more sophisticated than last year. One farmer said they have learned more “tricks of the trade,” such as the impor tance of lining up support from the most powerful senators and congressmen. Already farmers from the West Coast have gathered at seven points in mid continent. Tractorcades were to begin at sunrise, marking the day Congress convenes, in Amarillo, Abilene and Houston; Goodland, Kan.; North Platte, Neb.; Mitchell, S.D.; and Bismarck, N.D. The tractorcades plan to reach the Wash ington area the weekend of Feb. 2-4 and enter the capital Feb. 5. Other farmers will head to Washington by air, train, bus or car. Some agricultural leaders said the movement has lost momentum and that only the hard core of the movement would converge on Washington. Prices of cattle, wheat and cotton have increased substan tially from last year, and might be enough to keep some farmers at home. However, movement leaders said farm ers were still suffering financially and would return. Wheat and cotton prices are up in part because of an emergency farm bill enacted after thousands of farmers lobbied Con gress last winter. Feed grains prices are up, but are lower than wheat prices. “They just tossed us a bone to keep us happy, ” said Sam White, a grain and cattle producer from Stratford, Texas. “We want a piece of meat.” White and other leaders declined to pre dict how many farmers would return, but White guessed anywhere from 50 to 50,000. About 2,000 protesters converged on Washington last January for a four-day rally. The District of Columbia hotel industry said thousands of farmers staying in hotels made 1978 prosperous for industry. This year, AAM leaders said, farmers will try to cut costs by living in campers and cheaper accommodations outside Washington. The tenet of the movement has been that farmers should receive prices high enough to keep up with inflation in costs of living and producing crops. A familiar sight The start of a semester brings some of the same old chores, such as moving in. Bill Hall, right, and Bill Riley lent a helping hand Sunday afternoon to Hall’s sister, a Mosher Hall resident. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. I i , I I I I ! I i I I I