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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1979)
•v:' ?;< _ . Battalion photo by Larry Parker The ice of Texas (Avenue) This sign in front of the MacArthur Motel on Texas Avenue held true inside and out Sunday after a weekend ice storm. The ice thawed throughout Sunday and temperatures in the 50s were forecast for today. seen on iy Carsot v Griifin 7 Le y Thomoi drinks ib Battauon Vol. 72 No. 99 10 Pages Monday, February 19, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Grizzly cartoon Vietnam is at war again, and the Asian conflict may involve the United States, especially if Russia steps in. See page 2. ]ramm talks Chith a, IRS i Ab-M visit By SCOTT PENDLETON Battalion Staff lecognizing the People s Republic of na as the government of Taiwan was a take, freshman Congressman Phil imm said in College Station Sunday. I don t think you make new friends by ning your back on your neighbors and rold friends,” the representative from liege Station said. ne bill Gramm is co-sponsoring calls the recognition of the Republic of ina as the legitimate government of wan and for the United States to reaf- its military commitments there. He III If Ithat recognition of the communist re- le as the government of the mainland all right, since it was merely recogniz- reality. Juramm met with reporters Sunday at ip Memorial Student Center to discuss ■ activities in the 96th Congress so far. |t was his first visit to Brazos County cehe took office Jan. 15. Sramm, a Texas A&M University pro- sor of economics, was granted a leave of sence to run for the 6th Congressional strict seat vacated by Olin E. Teague, io retired. I feel things are going well,’ Gramm jd. Most of the things I have tried to do pfar have been successful. ■Gramm is co-sponsoring several pieces legislation. One is a “Taxpayer’s Bill of pts. It would require the Internal |venue Service to use due process in its pings with citizens. • [For instance, taxpayers being audited I the Internal Revenue Service would | v e to be notified of the fact, advised of pr rights, have the right to counsel, and }ve a right to a “day in court” if they have ;grievanc^ with the IRS. iGramm is co-sponsoring two bills to re- ke bureaucratic regulations. The first Puld give the appropriate congressional mmittee the power to veto regulations W exceed the law. The bureaucracy, Gramm said, has be- lue less subject to the executive and F e like a fourth branch of government. f me federal agencies even have legisla- ^ e > executive and judicial powers. The proposed bill would keep the bu- ttucracy from making rules not founded f" 1 the law. The second bill would grant states an tension of the deadline for compliance ith Environmental Protection Agency ''inclines. In order to end the boom and bust cycle at the beef market goes through, _ ramm said he is co-sponsoring a bill to ^ quotas on beef imports. The quotas rr“ f* 6 enlarged when demand is high, Pn diminished when demand is low, thus cping the price stable, ranun is working to extend federal grams designed to increase medical ponnel, especially nurses, in areas that mor e. He called Carter “penny-wise Pound-foolish” for cutting that item in L^^ et Proposal. Gramm pointed out ■ : exas has one in twelve of the nation’s •spitals. ^ r ^ Irirn introduced a balanced budget L jj me nt, his number one priority, on fen session. Since then 11 ails e f en ^ at i ves , including five Republi- j .j /’ om districts ranging from California q ° ama > are cosponsoring the bill. . n *he strength of this sponsorship, ^ has asked the House Judiciary puttee to favor his amendment over j! j r 0n es. Nine balanced budget 0n ^nts have been proposed this ses- Q iys S ’ t ^ le s hortest among them, 'Us a, L^ on & r ess shall make no law that i 0n es ^ United States to spend more ; p. e ^ ^han it receives in a fiscal year, ex- ln hme of war or national emergency. i en j arnrn Predicted that, if his amend- tifv > etS ° Ut 0 f Congress, 38 states would ’j'jj 1 "'hhin two years. , dcr e ain endment would cure inflation in” an officiency displacement sys- n, Gramm said. That sys- u d l .. ,c h would include zero-based lake an< ^ SUn set legislation, would fcis nfu rarns com pete for funds on the ig Se w hich does the best job of provid- Miller: agencies may ruin country Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Last week Rep. Phil Gramm made his first trip home since taking office in the U.S. House of Representatives in January. Sunday he was in College Station and said he’s pleased with his first two months in Washington. China stops invasion United Press International BANGKOK, Thailand — China’s inva sion force has stopped six miles deep in Vietnamese territory, but military analysts said today they were unsure if Peking or dered its troops to halt or if the attack was thrown back by Vietnamese defenders. “There is no sign the Chinese are pul ling back, but they aren’t advancing either,” said one source. Hanoi claimed to have halted the inva sion, but there also are signs the Chinese halted their own drive even before Moscow warned it would honor the terms of its military pact signed last November with Hanoi. A two-paragraph statement Sunday from the Kremlin said, “Those who decide the policy in Peking should stop before it is too late. In a related development, a Vietnamese official in Bangkok indicated his nation would not call for direct Soviet interven tion but said Vietnam appreciates Russia’s moral support. Chinese Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-ping said today his country will not prolong or expand the Sino-Vietnamese war and reit erated that China has no territorial ambi tion, according to a Japanese news report from Peking. The Kyodo News Service said Teng made the statement during a meeting with Alejandro Orfila, secretary-general of the Organization of American States. The dispatch quoted Teng as saying “The combat action this time is a limited one and retaliation for provocations (by Vietnam). It will not drag on or expand in any form.” , In one day, the invasion, which began Saturday, had overrun scores of villages and at least two key towns along the bor der, reports said. Hanoi claimed to have checked the invasion, knocked out 80 Chinese tanks and “put out of action 3,500 troops, including routing 12 battal- 10 A delayed official report Sunday from Peking — its first actual battle dispatch — reported fighting at the northwestern cities of Lao Cai in Vietnam and Hekou in China. It said the fighting was continuing with Chinese troops “forcefully beating back the Vietnamese aggressors. In Bangkok, Thailand, Western intelh- eence specialists said the possibility of Soviet intervention in the China-Vietnam war could not be ruled out. The Soviet Union has a small flotilla of warships in the South China Sea near the Paracel Island held by China, but claimed by Vietnam. There also have been reports that Soviet troops on the China frontier have increased their readiness. By JANE LYON Battalion Reporter Dr. Jarvis Miller, president of Texas A&M University, said Saturday that at titudes and inspection procedures of gov ernment agencies will kill the United States, and termed false most of their re ports warning of possible dangers of foods and other substances. Miller made the wrap-up speech Satur day morning for the 24th Student Confer ence on National Affairs in place of Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, who was prevented from coming to College Station by the weekend ice storm. J. Wayne Stark, director of the Memo rial Student Center, said Miller spoke with about 15 minutes advance notice. Stark said the University had planned to send a plane to pick up Hobby, but de cided that would be too dangerous be cause of the weather. Miller said the attitudes and “harass ment” inspection acts of regulations, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Occupational Safety and Health Ad ministration would kill the country. “We have people in this country con vinced that everything they eat is harmful, that everything they eat is going to cause them problems later in life.” He said that almost all reports of this nature are untrue. He named food dyes and DDT as examples of items found rela tively safe in recent detailed studies. “We, in the guise of attacking the prob lem, have created a real monster,” Miller said. “Certainly there are problems, and certainly we need realistic solutions, but we do not need partial solutions which create bigger problems than the ones we had. “We have loose in this country now what I call the ‘know-nothing’ attitude. We seem to have a rebellion against sci ence and technology ... and some of the same forces that are tearing other coun tries apart are tearing our country apart in the same fashion.” Miller illustrated the attitude with examples in the areas of food, safety, wel fare, and energy. In the name of trying to feed hungry people. Miller said we are entering a mas sive worldwide welfare program that will ultimately waste the country’s resources without finding the solution to world hunger. “Nuclear science is under attack by the same forces in a time that we desperately need every type of new knowledge,” Mil ler said. He added that the regulations being imposed are completely unrealistic in terms of stimulating and promoting the development of safe energy. “Because Americans are afraid of some thing, we automatically try to regulate its use,” including research on the subject, he said. “We have too much emphasis on the sensational. We have too much emphasis on the partial solution.” Miller concluded, “We must have a broad, comprehensive approach to these problems defined as national problems and items of national priority. “We must develop and implement real solutions to these problems.” Also speaking Saturday, Texas Secretary of State George W. Strake, said he wanted to try to reduce the present budget or op erate under the one already predicted. The Legislative Budget Board recom mended a 22.5 percent increase in the budgets for all agencies across the state over what they received last time, Strake said. But he said the increase will actually be smaller than that. For fiscal year 1980, Strake estimated the budget will increase 2.25 percent over what was spent in 1979, and 1.18 percent in 1981. These percentages are too high, he said. “What I think we got in the November election,” Strake said, “was the people sending a message that the people want a man who represents less government, bet ter performance by their public officials, less taxation, and more discipline among their people. “We re faced now \xfith the survival as a free people,” Strake said. “I am convinced that between Propositon 13 of California and the Clements election here in the state of Texas, that we can change the whole United States. “It’s not like 200 years ago where we had an island we could run to if we didn’t like what was going on,” Strake said. “This is the last island.” Washington’s holiday today Don’t try to cash a check today. It’s the federal holiday for George Washington’s birthday. All federal institutions, including the banks and Post Office, will be closed. Washington’s actual birthday is Thurs day, Feb. 22. Several years ago the U.S. government decided to celebrate most holidays that fell in the middle of the week on the Monday proceeding it — to create more three-day weekends. If the father of our country were alive, he’d be 247 years old Thursday, on his real birthday. A&M will keep special fund, official says By DIANE BLAKE Battalion Staff Dr. J.M. Prescott, vice president for academic affairs, told the Academic Coun cil Friday he believes that the Permanent University Fund will still be used to “pick up the requirements of all Texas A&M and University of Texas systems.” Prescott said he felt the ad valorem tax fund, which finances 17 other Texas uni versities, would be abolished. But in its place, he said, a state higher education as- Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Dr. J.M. Prescott, vice president for academic affairs here, says Texas A&M University and the University of Texas will continue to use the Permanent University Fund for expenses. Bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature that would change distribution of the fund, which annually supplies millions of dollars to the two university systems. sistance fund would be created. However, there is no source of money for the higher education assistance fund, Prescott said. “The question is whether the governor will allow a new dedicated fund to be created for the other institutions,” he said. The Permanent University Fund, as specified in the state constitution, is di vided between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. A number of bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature that would change distribution of the fund. Miller also said that Texas A&M is “making a strong pitch to increase funding for organized re search” to the Legislature. He said the four major state universities, Texas A&M, the University of Houston, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas, should get direct funding. Safeguards were needed for other universities, he said, because “there is no question that there has been abuse in some institu tions.” Near the close of the Academic Council meeting, Texas A&M University Presi dent Jarvis E. Miller said that he does not expect any changes at the System adminis tration level when a new chancellor is ap pointed. “I have been assured that the Texas A&M University administration will re main the same. There will be no change in operational procedure.” Miller said he doesn’t know how long it will be before the Board of Regents chooses another chancellor, but said, “I sense that they do not feel any pressure to make a decision.” In other action, the Academic Council approved proposals to change transfer re quirements for the College of Business Administration, to add members to the Library Council, and to stiffen require ments for allowing graduate students to take final exams. The Council agreed to lower the trans fer requirements into the College of Busi ness Administration from a 2.5 grade point ratio to a 2.0 GPR. Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, acting dean in the college, said this change is only tech nical — it will put business students who are listed on other college’s rosters into the business college itself. Last semester, Phillips estimated that about 400 students outside the College of Business Administration are, for practical purposes, business majors. They could not enter the college because of the higher transfer requirement. Now they can. Also passed was a proposal to include representatives from student services and a non-voting member representing library faculty in the Library Council. The Council approved a revision in final examination rules for graduate students to require a 3.0 GPR before being given a final exam. After the meeting, the Association of Former Students presented to department heads $33,500 in Departmental Enrich ment Funds. Each department will receive $300-750, depending on its size. This is the second year the Former Students have awarded this fund. Also announced was the dropping of a complaint filed with HEW by a woman charging discriminatory treatment in ad missions to the graduate school in the Col lege of Business Administration. Phillips later told The Battalion that the woman, who was denied admission two and a half years ago, filed the complaint last fall. She has since withdrawn her complaint. Prescott announced that a $250,000 interest-bearing trust has been set up for “quality students who are the grist for our mill at Texas A&M.” He said 28 students with grade point ratios of 3.8-4.0 had been given $500-a-year, four-year scholarships, and two students were given $750-year, four-year scholarships. Other “quality” students are given a free dorm room. Prescott also said 25 $1,000-year, four- year scholarships will be offered for “eco nomically disadvantaged, mostly minority, students.”