Viewpoint
The Battalion Wednesday
Texas A&M University March 14, 1979
Balanced budget may
be double-edged plea
Tax may be profitable
way to find energy
National energy policymakers would be well advised to pay careful
attention when a governor of Texas advocates a windfall profits tax to
accompany an abolition of federal price controls on oil.
Washington has been taking a socio-political approach to its energy
problems for five years now and has wound up with little more than the
prospect of having to ration gasoline.
It is far past time to switch to the practical — all-out development of
domestic supplies with other considerations taking a back seat. All those
other considerations which fret Washington so much and which have so
hampered energy development are going to loom pretty insignificant if
this country gets into the nightmare of a real energy crunch, as recent
events have shown could so easily happen.
Being practical means, having the wisdom and courage to abolish price
controls on the essential fuel — oil — and requiring that the resulting
profits be plowed back into research, development and production of
more domestically controlled energy supplies. “Domestically controlled
energy supplies” is a fancy phrase for not letting somebody else call the
tune and this country having to dance to it.
This is the common sense approach which Gov. William P. Clements
was urging in Washington the other day: free the oil prices and put all that
money into new energy. If it isn’t put into new energy development, take
away a windfall profits tax.
That would be doing something about energy instead of wringing hands
and finding reasons why things can’t be done.
Houston Chronicle
Business associations
politically active powers
By LeROY POPE
UPI Business Writer
NEW YORK — For years business
trade associations in the United States
were organized mainly to have fun.
This was particularly true in the Prohib
ition era. Businessmen welcomed the an
nual or semi-annual meeting of their trade
associations as a chance to get away for a
wet and high old time they wouldn’t con
sider at home.
The trade associations did a little lobby
ing in Washington and state capitals,
gathered some statistics and made some
effort to disseminate technical informa
tion. But in contrast to the in-depth and
hard-sell programs of the professional as
sociations of physicians, lawyers and scien
tists, the business trade associations were
very low key.
£ No more.
, The modern business trade association
is dynamic, sophisticated and staffed by
thoroughly skilled professionals, says the
New York management consulting firm.
Main, Jackson & Garfield, Inc., in the cur
rent edition of its house organ “Manage
ment Practice.”
The number of qualified professional
trade association executives is growing
rapidly. James Low, president of the
American Society of Association Execu
tives, said its membership is growing by
10 percent a year and now stands at 6,000,
many of them working for business associ
ations.
The modern business association seeks
recognition from the news media and from
local, national and even foreign govern
ments, Low said.
The metamorphosis of the associations
from “semi-marching and chowder
societies” to vigorous, sophisticated bodies
was forced by the rapid rise of local and
government regulation of business, said
William E. Smith of Smith, Bucklin & As
sociates, a Chicago management consult
ing firm that specializes in serving trade
associations.
“In an age when companies literally can
be legislated and regulated out of busi
ness, the trade association has become the
first line of defense,” Smith said. “The old
politically passive trade association no
longer makes sense.”
Another dramatic change in trade as
sociations is greater specialization and
concentration. Main, Jackson & Garfield
noted that the National Association of
Manufacturers, “whose members account
for 75 percent of the country’s industrial
output, used to scatter its shots, but now
the NAM concentrates its efforts almost
totally on federal legislative issues and in
teraction with government agencies.”
Letters to the editor
It moved its headquarters from New
York to Washington a few years ago to fur
ther that aim.
Another significant trend is bigger
budgets and bigger staffs for the more ef
fective trade associations. In ten years, the
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association
doubled both its budget and its working
force, for example.
The 102-year-old American Bankers As
sociation buckled down to come to grips
with the gigantic problem of electronic
fund transfers.
The Textile Manufacturers Institute fol
lowed the NAM’s example and moved to
Washington in order to concentrate bn
doing battle with the regulators. The Edi
son Electric Institute and the American
Association of Advertising Agencies felt
constrained to set up large Washington of
fices.
Economist Peter Drucker said the
metamorphosis of the business trade as
sociations has progressed to where they
can be called “a third sector of the
economy,” because many of them are
neither strictly private nor strictly public.
They serve such enterprises as hospitals,
libraries, symphony orchestras as well as
business.
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — It is the official
judgment of the Carter administration that
the country is not headed for a recession.
That judgment is not provably wrong, but
there is a growing possibility that it may be
found in error. And if it is, not just this
government, but this country, faces a
rather wrenching readjusment in its think
ing.
To their credit, administration
economists have been saying for months
that the American economy will slow
down in 1979. They have been planning
for it and budgeting to bring it about. But,
unlike most outside economists, they have
denied there will be a recession — a
period of at least six months of stagnation
or shrinkage in jobs and output. But, at
this point, the risk of recession looks
greater than it did even six weeks ago,
when the Carter administration made its
forecasts for the year. Fuel and food pro-
ces have pushed inflation to even higher
levels; consumer confidence has been im
paired; some elements of the economy are
overheated, while others are cooling too
fast for comfort.
It may be that the administration and
the country — both of which are overdue
for a bit of luck — may avoid seeing this
fragile structure tip into economic decline,
but it would not be prudent to bet on it.
And a change in the economic outlook
would require major readjustments in
political rhetoric and strategy. Nowhere is
that more evident than in that current cen
terpiece of political debate, the balanced
federal budget.
President Carter has pledged to achieve
that goal by fiscal 1981. His critics, who
say they don’t trust him or the Congress to
keep that pledge, would like to nail that
requirement into the Constitution and
keep it there forever more.
But if a recession hits later this year, you
can forget about budget-balancing. As
Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine), the
chairman of the Senate Budget Commit
tee, has pointed out, “When unemploy
ment goes up only 1 percentage point, the
deficit swells by some $20 billion. ” And a 1
percent unemployment increase would be
a “mild” recession. A serious dip could
double or triple that figure.
Ironically, the public officials who are
most likely to get caught in a severe politi
cal bind if the economy slips into a reces
sion are the very ones who have been most
vocal in demanding the federal budget
balance its books.
I refer, of course, to the state legislators
who have been merrily passing resolutions
calling on Congress to initiate a balanced-
budget amendment or convene a constitu
tional convention for that purpose.
As Richard P. Nathan of the Brookings
Institution (a Republican who is no defen
der of Carter policies) has pointed out, the
clamor for fiscal conservatism has already
brought a significant turnabout in federal
aid to states and local governments. After
rising steadily for many years, “non
welfare grants from the federal govern
ment to states and localities are projected
(by the Carter budget) to decline in real
(inflation-adjusted) terms by 3.3 percent in
1979 and by 6.8 percent in 1980.”
“These declines,” Nathan says, “are un
precedented in recent experience,” and
Commentary
would put pressure on state and local
budgets even in a healthy economy.
But “ironically,” as he points out, “the
biggest reductions come in the programs
expanded in 1977 to fight the last reces
sion, just as the next recesssion is about to
poke its head up on the economic hori
zon.”
“The effect of these reductions, ” Nathan
notes, “is goii^jg to hit very hard about a
year from now if the 1980 budget in
enacted in close to its present form. As
suming there is a recession late this year or
early next, with rising unemployment,
lowered local tax receipts, and simulta
neously higher prices, these cuts in federal
grants are bound to cause especially se
vere problems for the nations’ most dis
tressed cities. This is so because the fed
eral grant-in-aid programs most affected
by the cutbacks in 1979 and 1980 are also
the programs best targeted on community
distress — CETA public service jobs, local
public works and the anit-recession fiscal
assistance program.”
It is not difficult to imagine 1980 politics
dominated by a different set of issues than
those which now dominate the economic,
debate — providing yet another challenge
to the agility of the Carter administration
and its rivals.
(c) 1979, The Washington Post
Company
IPIDDLEEPST^
wufio!^ V*AN ENER3Y CRISIS!
AQAIN.^/anpthe
WANTA
Prof s ‘gutsy’ stand commendable
Editor:
We applaud The Battalion for finally br
inging to light incidences which have been
kept in the dark for some time.
We, as Aggies, feel Capt. McNabb’s ef
forts to uphold the standard of Texas A&M
are commendable. It shows that there are
still a few that have the “guts” to stand up
for what they believe in, even if it is un
popular at the time.
We were taught when we came to this
institution, that an Aggie would never
compromise a moral principle or tolerate
anyone who did.
Capt. McNabb was quoted in The Bat
talion as saying, “I have conducted myself
in the only way in which my integrity and
moral responsibility would allow me.”
This statment rings true now as it did more
than 100 years ago when Emerson stated,
“A little integrity is better than any
career.”
Due to upholding his integrity, Capt.
McNabb’s career is in jeopardy. We, as
students, believe what Capt. McNabb has
done upholds the principles upon which
this university was founded, and we sup
port his stand.
—Lee G. Haefner, ’79
Michael K. Inman, ’79
Plants do it best
Editor:
Greg Jacobs and several other people
responding to my previous letter opposing
nuclear power seem to have missed my
point entirely.
As pointed out by Steve Peppers, (Bat
talion, March 7), my estimation of 500,000
years of radio activity from nuclear waste is
a bit more accurate than Mr. Jacobs esti
mate of 500 years. Even if I am wrong and
he is right, I wonder if he is willing to risk
releasing radiation into the atmosphere for
even 500 years?
Mr. Jacobs mentioned the amount of
radiation within our environment. I am
well aware of the amount of natural radia
tion around us everyday, midst this bom
bardment of natural tradiation, I fail to see
any reasoning behind the addition of more
radiation to our environment.
If it is true that the more potent forms of
radiation can be diverted by several inches
of concrete or lead, why then are the “ex
perts” having so much trouble figuring out
how to store nuclear waste?
You suggest storing nuclear waste
underwater to prevent escape of radiation
into our environment. Well my friend,
just because you and I have no gills does
not mean that water is not an intricate part
of our environment.
You may argue that special lakes not
open to public used could be used for stor
age purposes. However, if you have ever
studied anything about soils and geology,
you might have learned that water perco
lates down through the soil into the water
table from which our public water supply
comes. I do not particularly care to drink
radioactive water.
Even though it is highly unlikely, do
you, Mr. Jacobs, realize what would hap
pen if the temperature of our oceans was
raised by one or even by one half of a de
gree? If you don’t know, I suggest you find
out because it may scare the hell out of
you.
As mentioned in several letter, it seems
as though you nuclear engineers feel as
though nuclear power is the best way to
mass produce electrical power. Mass pro
distribution which leads to monthly pay
ments to a utility company.
It seems to me as though solar power
has the potential to be applicable to every
individual building and residence so that
all one would pay for his electricity is the
initial cost of the solar equipment and
what little maintenance there may be
necessary. Maybe this is what seems to
have nuclear engineers so fearful of solar
power.
The most efficient form of energy con
version known to man is a process known
as “photosynthesis” whereby plants use
natural radiation to make carbohydrates.
By this process they are essentially self-
sustaining. I feel we could be the same by
relying on these two resources, the sun
and plants.
—Charles Cody, ’78
100 Grove St.
Letters to the Editor
The Battalion
Room 216
Reed McDonald Building
College Station, Texas 77843
Top of the News!)
CAMPUS
A&M joins ag project in Sri Lank
By
Texas A&M University, Pennsylvania State University and Virginii;
Polytechnical Institute are participating in a $5 million, seven-yea The
agricultural education contract at Peradenyia University in the Relush,
public of Sri Lanka. E. Paul Creech, director of the InternationalP rnel
Programs Office, is campus coordinator for the project. Texas AMs|frhe
involvement in the program will be over $1 million. iants
Infl
itere
lade
th<
Miller to detail A&M food policy nd ”
eopl<
ut tl
Texas A&M University President Jarvis E. Miller will be thtHniMi
speaker at a dinner sponsered by the Altrusa Club of Bryan-College||^ s
Station March 22 at 7 p.m. in Room 206 of the Memorial Student™™
Center. Miller will speak on ” The World Food Problem: Texas AW|
icom
ry ho
University’s Postion. Tickets for the dinner are $7 and can be pur-
chased at City National Bank, First National Bank or by telephoningILl
Shirley Plapp at 823-5543. The Altrusa Club, organized in 1917, isanF* ^
international women’s service club for executive and professional
business women. H|||
LOCAL
) rise
Loc
ew h
uarte
icrea
AN'
American Legion to observe 60th
indei
jlty i
tw in
ercer
The Earl Graham Post of the American Legion in Bryan will cele- «gisla
brate the 60th birthday of the American Legion Saturday. A buffet) 12 ]
supper and dance are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Legionppro\
Hall, Waco Street and Highway 21 East. Veterans and their spouses Savi
are invited, and they do not have to be a member of the American iakin
Legion to participate. A special invitation is extended to veterans U m
from the Vietnam era. Harry Ledbetter, special assistant to Phil Its,
Gramm, will speak.
;tum
STATE
“Th(
:e ha
Dung
state
lly on
Tape heard in murder trial
iebo
ne sa
>rtwc
A judge Tuesday admitted into evidence over strenuous defense
objections a controversial tape recording in which a woman identified Bp
as mass murder defendant Linda May Burnett describes the shootin;
deaths of five persons last summer. Defense attorneys argued theBlp
admission of the tape, made in Houston last November would havea|h° v
devastating effect on all criminal defendants in Texas because it ah P r P
lowed prosecutors entry into the defense “camp. ” But District Judge I 1 Y 0
Larry Gist said careless treatment of the tape by the defense took it H
beyond the protected boundaries of attorney-client privilege. Bur Hlfl
nett, 31, a housewife and mother of three from Nederland, Texas,ismI
on trial for the July 1 slaying of Jason Phillips, 2, of Woodward, Okla Mpj
The child, his parents and grandparents were kidnapped from the ■
elder couple’s Winnie, Texas, home and slain during a weekend visit H
In the taped account of the slayings, Burnett says she shot the fou ; M|
adults but could not kill,the boy or watch as he was slain.
NATION
Nuclear plants ordered to close
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday ordered five atomic
power plants shut down immediately because their cooling systems
may be unable to withstand earthquakes. In an action with potentially
large implications for U.S. energy supplies, the NRC said an im
proper computer formula used to design the plants more than seven
years ago led to inadequate support for cooling system pipes. The
reactors ordered shut down were Beaver Valley at Shippingport, Pa.;
Surry Nos. 1 and 2 at Gravel Neck, Va.; James Fitzpatrick at Scriba,
N.Y.; and Maine-Yankee at Wiscasset, Maine.
WORLD
Idi Amin calls for holy war
Ugandan President Idi Amin, his regime propped up by Arab
troops and extensive military aid from Libya, called Tuesday for a
“holy war against Zionism.” In a speech to the opening of an Islamic
development bank conference broadcast by Radio Kampala, Amin
said Uganda’s armed forces are ready to join in the struggle to uproot
the “Zionist aggressors and free the holy land. ” Amin, himself a
Moslem, called on Arab and Moslem countries to help the people of
Uganda, who he said “at this very moment are being exterminated by
the Tanzanian aggressors, mercanaries and Ugandan traitors, paid by
imperialism, Zionism and racism.” Sources in Dar Es Salaam said
Tanzania had rejected the latest peace move to end the war and that
Tanzanian forces were making steady progress toward the Ugandan
capital of Kampala.
Kfar
Xffore
WEATHER
Partly cloudy and cool today with a slight chance of showers
or isolated thundershowers. High today 71 and the low to
night 47. Winds will be northeast at 15 mph with gusts up to
25 mph.
He,
Nan
ifow
Mink.
The Battalion
LETTERS POLICY
setters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
subject to being, cut to that length or leSs if longer. The
editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does
not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be
signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone
number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
'Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
Station, Texas 77843.
Represented nationally by National Educational Adver
tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los
Angeles.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from
September through May except during exam and holiday
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, Room 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. ,
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved.
Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Kiflff
Managing Editor Liz! |, '
Assistant Managing Editor .Andy
Sports Editor David ^
City Editor Scott Pe^
Campus Editor Ste' f
News Editors Debbie?^
Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers .Karen Rogers/
Patterson, Sean Petty, ^
Blake, Dillard Stone
Bragg, Lyle Lovett,
Taylor
Cartoonist
Photo Editor Lee Roy Lescbp'
Photographer Lynn ^
Focus section editor Gary
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-prof
supporting enterprise operated by siv 11
! as a university and community nevtfl
Editorial policy is determined by thed