he Battalion
Vol. 72 No. 105 Tuesday, February 27, 1979 News Dept. 845-2611
10 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
... hotdogs, apple
pie
The field may have been
soggy, but the Aggies played
ball — finally. And they played
well, taking two for two from the
LSU Tigers. See page 9.
American vanishes;
[ran says arrested
United Press International
|HRAN — An American and three
is working in an Iranian desert gas
have vanished after a revolutionary
io announcement that “four Ameri-
{ had been arrested “while trying to
e,” a company spokesman said
lay.
Ipokesman for the Iranian subsidiary
Fluor Corp. of California said the
Hican and three Britons were the only
Iranians among the 200 workers at the
fcation plant near Aghajari, southeast
mvaz, one of the main oil cities in
western Iran.
ley were due to travel to Tehran
ay for repatriation,” said spokesman
Itn Shambayati. “When we heard the
S announcement we tried to contact
lien by radio from Ahvaz but were
hey had already left. ”
e radio said that “last night four
ricans working for a foreign company
'hajari were arrested while trying to
le. They were handed over to (Ayatol-
Euhollah) Khomeini’s -staff by Islamic
ution fighters.”
ambayati said the non-Iranians due
ipatriation were American John Cas-
md Britons W. Walsh, P. Detrez and
hompson.
ie spokesman said that attempts to get
fication from Khomeini aides in
Tehran and in the area of the reported ar
rests had proven fruitless.
British embassy officials, meanwhile,
tried to secure the release of two British
civilian armored school instructors impris
oned at Tehran’s grim Ghasr central jail.
Two other Britons detained who have
Iranian wives were allowed to leave
Tehran for London this morning on a regu
lar British Airways flight.
The government radio originally an
nounced the Britons were being held for
“misappropriating national funds,” but
diplomats indicated two are being ques
tioned about the tanks on which they were
giving instruction.
The British community in Iran has
dwindled to about 1000 and the American
community to some 4,000 since the evacua
tion ordered after the assault on the em
bassy. There were once 41,000 Americans
in Iran.
In Tehran Sunday, Khomeini said
ousted Premier Shahpour Bakhtiar has
fled the nation, and revolutionary sources
announced the formation of commando
hunt squads to bring “criminals” back from
abroad, including the exiled shah.
Khomeini, the 78-year-old leader of
Iran’s revolution which ousted Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, gave no details
of Bakhtiar s escape, but said simply: “He
has fled. ”
In a talk with a delegation from Lebanon
Sunday, the Moslem leader branded
Bakhtiar a “criminal” and appealed to
foreign governments to hand him back.
He accused Bakhtiar, who eluded a na
tionwide manhunt, of issuing orders for a
massacre. “He himself claimed that no
thing was done without his orders,” Kho
meini said of Bakhtiar.
Bakhtiar’s escape may ease a dilemma of
Premier Mehdi Bazargan, who in pre
revolutionary days was a close friend of the
former premier. Leftwing spokesmen had
accused the premier of shielding Bakht
iar’s whereabouts.
A spokesman for the revolutionary gov
ernment said it planned to send the “right
kind” of men to bring back the shah from
his closely guarded hideout in Morocco.
Only four days before Khomeini was
scheduled to retreat to the holy city of
Qom, he took the occasion of a meeting
with Soviet Ambassador Vladimir
Vinogradov to warn foreign powers to
keep their hands off Iran.
To stem the exodus of persons fearing
more bloodshed, the government said
only certain categories would be allowed
to leave the country, including those
under 18, students at foreign universities
and the sick who cannot receive adequate
medical treatment in Iran.
United Press International
AUSTIN — Texas House members have
killed their first legislation of the session,
and come within a step of handing Repub-
lican Gov. Bill Clements his first disap
pointment in dealing with the Democrat-
dominated Legislature.
House members Monday overwhelming
rejected a proposal by Rep. Forrest
Green, D-Corsicana, to make political
candidates subject to a $2,000 fine and
one-year jail sentence for advertising
endorsements without written consent of
the persons involved.
And a resolution initiated by Clements
authorizing a study of the Restoration of
the Governor’s Mansion narrowly escaped
House defeat, surviving only after a Re
publican legislator stopped debate on a
parlimentary technicality.
Final action on the resolution was de
layed until later in the session.
The proposal establishes a committee
composed of House and Senate represen
tatives, as well as members appointed by
the governor, to study restoration of the
mansion. Clements included $2 million for
mansion restoration in the budget he sent
to the Legislature.
Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, said
Clements’ demands for belt-tightening
and austerity in state government should
be applied first to the mansion, and of
fered an amendment preventing appropri
ation of any funds for the mansion project
until the general state budget for the next
two years is passed and becomes law.
“With $2 million, at $40 a square foot
we could build four govenor’s mansions,”
Wilson said. “I don’t think we re talking
about a matter of courtesy, we re talking
about a matter of economics and fiscal re
sponsibility.”
Rep. Bob Davis, R-Dallas, moved to kill
Wilson’s amendment but his motion
failed.
Rep. James Nowlin, R-San Antonio,
then blocked further debate on the resolu
tion, raising a point or order that the pro
posal was ineligible for House considera
tion because it had not been channeled
through the Local and Consent Calendar
Committee.
Speaker Bill Clayton quickly sustained
Nowlin’s objection, sparing the governor
United Press International
HENRYETTA, Okla. — An ordinance
banning all public dancing inside the city
limits was replaced Monday night by one
prohibiting such activity near schools,
churches and taverns and requiring dance
halls be licensed.
License fees under the new law range
from $300 to $500 and city officials de
creed no dance hall could be located
within 300 feet of any establishment sell
ing alcoholic beverages or 500 feet of a
church, school or residential neighbor
hood where more than 50 percent of the
residents object.
The ordinance also requires all build
ings used for public dancing be well-
an embarrassing defeat on a relatively
minor issue which had cleared the Senate
without objection.
Green said his bill would end the prac
tice of political candidates using the names
of prominent constituents in ads claiming
their endorsements, when the con
stituents had not given permission for use
of their names.
The bill failed 46-94 on its first House
vote, apparently killing it for the session.
It is the first bill since the Legislature con
vened Jan. 9 to reach the floor of either
house and then be killed.
lighted in all rooms and meet health and
safety regulations.
Private organizatons that operate dances
within their own premises for their own
members were exempted from the ordi
nance.
Controversy over the old ordinance
arose last summer after a businessman
from Eufaula spent several thousand dol
lars renovating a vacant downtown Hen-
ryetta building for use as a discotheque j
before he learned of the prohibition on ;
dancing.
City officials had said they planned to |
change the law because they feared the old
ordinance might be ruled unconstitu
tional.
|e old Board of Regents Quarters
d early this morning,
jre damaged offices of the Texas A&M
lersity Press and the apartment Dr.
iMrs. Jack Williams were living in. The
ner chancellor and his wife were not
|.
1. second floor and roof of the struc-
which were under renovation, were
umed. No formal cause of the fire has
found, but the College Station fire
lals say it started on the north side of
lecond floor.
Iliss McDonald, chief of University
le, said a University officer and a Col-
|tation officer both saw flames coming
the roof of the two-story house on
Iston Street about 2:45 a.m.
lie University officer, Michael
cek, broke open the door to the
ams’ apartment and told them to
uate, McDonald said,
icy were the only occupants of the
jcDonald said the College Station Fire.
Jartment controlled the fire by about
this morning.
re hits press
Chancellor’s home burns
The Williams are staying in the Memo
rial Student Center until a new place is
found for them, said Howard Vestal, Uni
versity vice president for business affairs.
“That building is a total loss as far as I
can see,” Vestal said. Plans for relocation
of the Texas A&M University Press are
still undetermined. Offices were on the
first floor of the house.
Vestal was unsure how much of the
Press’ materials were destroyed.
“I’m not too optimistic,” he said.
Firemen were able to salvage much of
the Williams’ personal belongings, moving
them to the sidewalk across the street.
Knesset to decide
if Begin joins talks
United Press International
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin said Monday he is not disappointed
that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat will
not participate in a forthcoming Middle
East summit.
“The issues are between the two coun
tries, not the individuals,” Begin told a
avors
signs
a memory, and would be ab
lesigns. One control unit coi ''
it Center that advertise
chronic display signs.
il, said the purchase of
' has not been submit-
t ... I a keyboard
to project words, pictures and
to 16 signs at the same
se of the control unit and two outdoor signs
.10,000. The system could be leased for $1,800 per
valkway signs for student organi-
e free for them,” Daniels said.
11NH MRHHHR ... - Imfrustration Ron Woessner said
there is a great demand for the signs. People could buy the space as
an alternative to radio and newspaper advertising, he said, and the
signs could also be used to advertise athletic events and the food
service menus.
offered by American Sign and Indicator
used by several universities in Texas, in-
fexas at Austin.
talked to the people at UT about their system,
4th it.
3W mechanical difficulties but the maintenance
. Woessner said.
x to those used in newer football stadiums, are
her than American Sign and Indicator Corp.
yersity would take bids on the job if the propo-
University would then accept the lowest bid on
ifications.
jns have been presenting problems for
without much benefit,
of the signs,” Daniels said. “They are left
ie events happen. We also are very limited in the
we have for the signs.”
problem with the walkway signs is painting
s now painted on the cement apron outside the
ition office and are left there to dry.
for their signs, many times they find them
by a forklift.” '
new signs would probably be placed near the’
implex. The signs will be unbreakable so there
with vandalism, he said.
cost of the system is justified by the greater
that will be generated when more messages reach more
people. He added that he is not sure where the money for the elec
tronic signs will come from, but that funding will be decided if the
-»ew system k appmveiL
group of visiting Dutch newsmen.
Begin seemed to imply he would accept
President Carter’s invitation to attend a
summit with Egyptian Prime Minister
Mustapha Khalil, but that the decision re
sted with his Cabinet. The Cabinet will
convene in special session today.
Begin was asked by a reporter whether
he was disappointed Sadat would not par
ticipate in another summit as he had at
Camp David in September; he replied:
“No. Why should I be disappointed? It’s
up to President Sadat to come or not to
come.”
Asked whether Sadat’s participation was
necessary. Begin said, “I don’t think it’s a
question of anybody’s personal particpa-
tion. In our country there is a democracy.
The government and the Knesset make
the decision. In Egypt, of course, Presi
dent Sadat is the man who makes most of
the decisions.”
Egyptian sources said Carter’s bid to ask
only Begin to the negotiations puts the
onus on Israel in the Middle East peace
negotiations.
Teachers
upset with
Clements
United Press Internationa]
AUSTIN — Gov. Bill Clements’ deci
sion to eliminate a proposed 5.1 percent
teacher pay raise from his budget recom
mendations proves he does not under
stand the problems of education and could
result in chaos in the public school system,
a teacher representative said Monday.
Virginia Allred Stacey, president of the
Texas State Teachers Association, said
Clements conceded in his budget message
that inflation was 9 percent last year and is
expected to be the same in 1979.
“Yet he eliminated the minimal 5.1 per
cent annual pay increase proposed by the
Legislative Budget Board, saying the
teachers already will get lower raises
under existing law,” she said.
She said TSTA was seeking a 9.8 per
cent pay raise for teachers in fiscal 1980,
and an additional 5.2 percent in 1981.
She said Clements proposals to limit
local school districts’ ability to raise local
revenue and return state funds to the dis
tricts would effectively put caps on both
state and local revenue sources.
“Ultimately, we would have poverty
and chaos in a school system which is al
ready under financed.”
She said Texas teachers in 1977-78 re
ceived an average salary of $12,534 per
year, compared to the national average of
$14,247, ranking Texas 31st among the
states in teacher pay.
Mooned near the Academic Building
Dr. Claud Lacy, a Texas A&M physics professor,
shows passers-by the last solar eclipse to be visible
in North America in the 20th Century. The moon
began passing in front of the sun Monday just after
Mansion narrowly escapes House
sunrise in the eastern Pacific. The moon passed
directly between the Earth and sun and reached a
total eclipse at 10:09 a.m. CST. Please see related
Story page 5. Battalion photo by Jeanne Graham
Governor avoids showdown
Henryetta dance halls
take a few steps forward