Viewpoint
The Battalion Friday
Texas A&M University , April 6, 1979
Battalion endorses
campus candidates
Just as The Battalion finds it important to express views on issues that
are pertinent to its readers, it also finds it necessary to let the readers
know how it views the candidates for student elections — which candi
dates will serve the students’ needs and which will not.
Those members of The Battalion staff with experience in covering the
contested offices chose the candidates The Battalion endorses:
Student Body President — Wayne Morrison
Both Wayne Morrison and Ronnie Kapavik would make good leaders.
Morrison has demonstrated his ability to organize, manage and lead an
important Student Government committee — the Finance Committee.
His committee had to examine organizations across campus while dividing
up student service fees. Thus, he has a wide knowledge of the University.
Ronnie Kapavik’s involvement in school activities would be an asset,
but he lacks Student Government leadership experience. He’s also vague
on specific student service areas.
Wade Masterson, the third candidate, has good background with the
Memorial Student Center committees, but limited experience in Student
Government — a big handicap for someone who must direct that organi
zation.
Vice President for Student Services — Brad Smith
The keys to this race are initiative and experience. Brad Smith has
more new and specific programs in mind — in areas like parking, tickets,
an informational magazine, a car co-op — new ideas that can stimulate
student services.
Both Smith and John Groce ran their committee programs well this
year — Smith was in charge of the internal shuttle bus committee, Groce
the blood drive. Smith has had two years experience to Groce’s one.
Candidate John Stine, with no Senate experience, offers few changes
for the student services committee, and is exceedingly vague on specific
remedies to the problems he mentions.
Smith, with his ideas and experience, can provide effective leadership
for this important Student Government committee.
Vice President for External Affairs — Jeb Hensarling
Jeb Hensarling’s continued involvement in student government and
student lobby groups makes him more than qualified for this position.
Hensarling is heavily involved in national and state student organizations
— he is president and founder of one national organization. In fact, Hen
sarling’s only drawback is he should be as concerned with student issues
in the Bryan-College Station community.
His opponent, Andrew Cook, has no local Student Government experi
ence and is not well informed about state and national student-related
affairs. Cook’s international travel experience will not aid him in working
with local, state, or national officials about student problems.
Vice President for Academic Affairs — John C. Calhoun
John Calhoun and Leroy Startz both offer plans for the position. They
both have maintained low profiles in the Senate, and both offer virtually
the same ideas on how the Academic Affairs committee should be run.
But Calhoun is noted as being a level-headed, solid worker who knows
how to talk firmly with administrators. He’s got two years of experience
on the committee; Startz has one.
Calhoun by a hair.
RHA President — Barbara Thompson
Barbara Thompson has been extensively involved in RHA through her
work on the executive committee as RHA secretary. She is more familiar
with the major issues facing RHA, and has closely observed RHA-related
measures in Student Government.
Jim Cooper is a fine dorm president. He’s conscientious, but his RHA
ideas lack substance in comparison. Thompson’s ideas — her concern to
see board plan options such as cross-dining between cafeterias available
— are much more concrete and deserve serious consideration.
Thompson has more to offer RHA.
OSA President — Bruce Martin
Both Bruce Martin and Debbie May are actively involved in meetings
to merge OSA with the other off-campus group, Hassle-Free.
Martin has already been a vice president for programs of OSA, and
realizes first-hand the problems the new group will face.
May doesn’t have the same leadership, despite her enthusiasm for the
organization.
Martin has more enthusiasm channeled into the right areas.
Pollution naivete
distorts economy
By LeROY POPE
UPI Business Writer
NEW YORK — Naivete afflicts many
environmentalists, particularly those in
the federal government, if a recent survey
is to be believed.
The study, directed to the coal mining,
electric utility, chemical and paper indus
tries, was conducted by Research & Fore
casts, Inc., of New York for Equitable
Environmental Health, Inc., of Wood
bury, L.I.
There were 120 in-depth telephone
interviews, some lasting 90 minutes, the
company said.
Those queried said the anti-pollution
rules promulgated by the Environmental
Protection Agency and similar bodies are
inflationary, unreasonable and inflexible
and just won’t work for the most part.
Many are utterly impossible to comply
with, the respondents said.
“We are not stonewalling the EPA;
we’re doing our best to comply but we
can’t afford to let some of these interpreta
tions go unchallenged,” was a typical
judgment by a coal mining company
executive.
“There’s got to be a place to put waste
— you can’t just make it disappear,” said a
chemical plant director. “If you take it out
of the air, you’ve got to sink it in water or
on land. If you take it out of the land,
you’ve got to dispose of it in water or the
air — that’s the Catch 22.”
One manifestation of naivete on the part
of government officials, the respondents
said, is the haste with which they pursue
the proliferation of new regulations and
give industry little time to comply with
them or study them. They demand the use
of unproven, faulty pollution control
technology that is costly and ineffective.
By Dick West
Thunder on
WASHINGTON — When the history of
modem warfare is written, it almost cer
tainly will include a chapter on the amaz
ing ability of U.S. military bases to with
stand attack — by the Pentagon.
The Defense Department, from all re
ports, has enough firepower to wipe out
enemy installations anywhere on earth.
But when if tries to eliminate its own
facilities, the department frequently
encounters insurmountable resistance.
Just last week, in an economy move, the
Pentagon announced plans to close or
downgrade 157 bases, for a projected sav
ing of $264 million a year.
Already, it appears, the offensive is in
trouble. Military analysts are predicting
that some of the installations on the hit list
can hold out almost indefinitely.
For reasons of national security, I am
not in a position to reveal how these stron
gholds have become so impregnable.
As a theoretical exercise, however, let
us examine the Alamo-like stand of the
168th Barrage Balloon Battalion located at
Fort Molehill.
Toward that end, an interview with Sen.
Burnside Templehair, a leading authority
on military appropriations, might be in
structive.
Q. Senator Templehair, you have been
in the forefront of the congressional move
to reduce government spending, cut taxes
and balance the federal budget. You must
have been delighted by the proposed mili
tary base shutdowns.
A. If you are talking about base closings
that will help bring the federal deficit
under control, ease the tremendous birr-
“The rules are too sweeping because the
EPA actually is a very immature agency,”
was another comment.
The inflationary impact of the regu
lations results, on the other hand, from a
paradoxical indecisiveness by the EPA.
Companies face long delays and much red
tape in getting the necessary permits
when they attempt to comply with the
rules. These delays are costly in them
selves and the worse because
environmental compliance diverts capital
and operating funds from productive to
non-productive outlays.
Excessive zeal on the part of the
environmental officials was given as
another example of naivete.
“They don’t seem to appreciate the law
of diminishing returns,” commented a
paper company executive. “You can clean
up most of the pollution in a manufactur
ing process rather reasonably, but you will
spend three times as much trying to make
it 100 percent clean.” He said that raises
the question of how much the economy is
being distorted by excessive
environmentalist zeal that yields little or
no real additional benefit.
High additional staff costs, expensive
consulting services and, as a final resort,
costly legal battles are forced on com
panies in their efforts to comply with naive
and unreasonable environmental rules
many of those queried said. The electric
utility men said these costs are a prime
factor in the many rate increases utilities
have been forced to seek.
A not infrequent comment was that, if
things keep going as they are, many more
American manufacturers simply will pull
up stakes and move their operations to
foreign lands where the rules are more
reasonable.
home front
den of the poor, downtrodden taxpayer
and reduce the bloated bureaucracy, I am
indeed delighted by it.
If, however, you are talking about clo
sures that deprive honest, hardworking
civilians of employment, that wreak havoc
on the local economy of communities
where the bases are located and that
weaken America’s first line of defense,
then I’m against it.
Q. In which of those categories would
you put Fort Molehill?
A. As the home of this nation’s only bar
rage balloon training center, Fort Molehill
Humor
is an indispensable part of our effort to re
tain military equality with Russia. It must
be kept open at all costs.
Q. But aren’t barrage balloons, which
were left over from World War I, now ob
solete?
A. In the thermonuclear age, it is vital
that the United States retain a conven
tional warfare capability.
Q. Would the fact that Fort Molehill is
in your home state have any influence on
your judgment?
A. Geography is nothing to do with it.
As long as I am a member of the military
appropriations subcommittee, I shall do
everything in my power to see that funds
are available to protect our cities from
strafing attacks by the Red Baron.
Letters to the Editor
First Amendment— freedom to locate truth
Editor:
I’m responding to Chuck Sullivan’s let
ter appearing Tuesday, April 3. Mr. Sulli
van criticized the Civil Liberties Union
statement in The Battalion of March 28
that encouraged individuals to use their
First Amendment right of free expression.
Mr. Sullivan arbitrarily picked several
controversial topics at Texas A&M (“We
don’t need a student body in which a
Corps of Cadets is left out. We don’t need
special rights for fags. We don’t need
female yell leaders”) and inferred the CLU
is backing changes in these areas. I saw no
mention of these topics in the CLU state
ment.
In the statement, the CLU backed the
right of free expression. The right of free
expression is basic to our form of govern
ment. Without free expression, we would
be repressed.
The assumption behind the First
Amendment, as I know it, is that with a
multitude of freely expressed ideas, the
truth must surely surface. And in a democ
racy, it is up to the people to locate that
truth. This is our system.
Without a multitude of expressions,
would the truth always surface for us to
pick?
While I am not a member, I strongly
support the Union’s stand on the First
Amendment.
The title of the CLU statement was “To
Dispel a Myth.” Mr. Sullivan created a
myth. Next time, he should read only
what is written.
—Tim Raven, ’80
Review not ‘attack*
Editor:
Everybody has their own taste in what
kind of music they think is good and what
kind of music they think is bad. Obviously,
the UFO album “Strangers in the Night”
is bad because Jim Closmann says so.
That’s ridiculous.
Mr. Closmann did not get the point of
Duke Watson’s letter. Mr. Watson was not
giving his opinion on the UFO album, he
was giving his opinion on the way the k
album was reviewed.
After reading these album “reviews” for
several weeks now, I couldn’t agree with
Mr. Watson more. In Mr. Sylvia’s album
reviews, he does not review the album but
attacks the group of the album. Especially
rock groups.
Album reviews should concentrate on
the album content, not the groups make
up. Also, if guitar solos are “too hot to
handle” for you Mr. Closmann, I suggest
buying a Bee Gees album next time you
shop for music.
—Larry Chasen, ’81
Going an extra mile
Editor:
I would like to express my appreciation
to Mr. Tom Baxter, who is the theatrical
electrician of the Rudder Theatre Com
plex. On March 24 I lost my wallet while
in Rudder Auditorium. I noticed my loss
at midnight on Saturday.
I went back to the theater where the
midnight movie was playing and explained
my problem to Mr. Baxter. He helped me
look for my wallet in the auditorium. Al
though we did not find it at that time, I
found out later that he had gone back to
look after the midnight movie was over.
On Monday morning I was notified that
my wallet had been found. Thank you
again Mr. Baxter for your help.
—Gary McFadyen
College Station
Whooping rude
Editor:
I went to a movie in Rudder Theater
recently, and am angry and disappointed
with my fellow Aggies. I have never seen
such a display of mass inconsideration, and
never expected it from Ags.
The dialogue of the show was vital for
the plot to be understood, but it was inau
dible over the din of the audience. People
were constantly talking, whooping at parts
of conversations, laughing at parts that
were not funny, and rendered the entire
show worthless.
Whooping it up is great at a football or
basketball game, but not in a theater. The
MSC does a great job of bringing in some
really good movies, and it’s a shame that
they get ruined by the audience.
—David Coleman, ’81
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Top of the News (
CAMPUS
APO launches pledge project
Texas A&M University students in Alpha Phi Omega, the national
service fraternity, will paint the interior of the gymnasium at the
Lincoln Community Center Saturday as their pledge class project
Active members and pledges of the Xi Delta chapter, about 45 in ai,
will pitch in, said Damon Crenshaw, in charge of the project. The
chapter, under President Cary Wilkins, conducts other service
projects on campus and in the community.
STATE
Gramm opposes rationing plan
U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm said Thursday that he will oppose enact
ment of the Carter administration’s standby gasoline rationing plaj
and charged that the proposal is “rife with inequities that will cost
Texas consumers more than $2 billion a year.” The Sixth District
congressman, who is a member of the Energy and Power subcommit
tee which is currently holding hearings on the rationing plan, said the
administration’s proposal will penalize consumers in southwestern
states like Texas while creating windfalls for midwestern and north
eastern states. Gramm also charge'd that the cost of the rationing
coupons, added to the price of gasoline during a shortage, would
drive the cost of gasoline well above the free-market price which
would exist without rationing.
Denial of airline bids sought
A Civil Aeronautics Board administrative law judge Thursday rec
ommended denial of both the Pan American World Airways and the
Texas International Airline bids to control National Airlines. Admin
istrative Law Judge William H. Dapper said both bids violate antit
rust laws and would result in a wave of mergers in the airline industry
which would not be in the public interest. Dapper also urged the
CAB to require Texas International to divest itself of the 25 percentof
National stock it has bought. The full CAB will make a final decision
on both cases within a few months. The president will have the final
say on the Pan Am requests.
No bad concrete at nuke plant
Allegations that testing records were falsified to cover up the usage
of substandard concrete at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant south
west of Fort Worth were unfounded, results of two separate investi
gations showed. Dallas Power and Light and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission conducted the inquiries. Ray Ward, a spokesman for
DP&L, whose parent company — Texas Utilities Co. — is building
the plant, said Wednesday the allegations published in a Fort Worth
newspaper Wednesday had been made in March 1978 by employees
of the Chicago-based R.W. Hunt Co., which had contracted to test
concrete used at the Glenrose plant.
NATION
Truck strike cripples Chrysler
Chrysler Corp. President Lee A. lacocca says a crippling tie-up of
the nation’s truck lines “couldn’t have come at a worse time” for an
auto industry which Thursday edged nearer a total shutdown. He said
Wednesday all 41 of Chrysler’s assembly and parts manufacturing
plants will be closed Monday, idling the firm’s entire workforce of
85,000 hourly employees because of parts shortages resulting from
the nationwide trucking dispute. He said the dispute, touched off by
a Teamsters strike Sunday, came just as Chrysler was preparing to
launch a campaign to drive up sales and turn around a months-long
decline that has kept the company in the red.
]
Dry weather blacks out Florida
Three Florida Power & Light Co. generating plants shut down
without warning late Wednesday night, blacking out the Florida Gold
Coast and spreading into other areas of the state early Thursday. The
problem was not a lack of generating capacity, a company spokesman
said, but dry weather plaguing the high-voltage transmission lines.
Much of the Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas were
plunged into darkness and the blackouts spread over Miami. St,
Petersburg, Tampa and Orlando were also affected. Switching crews
shifted the load to Florida Power generators and customers in the
area had power restored within 30 minutes.
WORLD
Mexican oil up by $3 a barrel
Mexico has raised the price for its crude oil by 21.3 percent, more
than double the recent increase set by the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries. Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil com
pany, announced Wednesday that the the price of a barrel of Mexican
oil will jump from $14.10 to $17.10, making Mexican oil among the
most expensive in the world. Because Mexico now exports only
600,000 barrels a day — about 80 percent of it to the United States —
the announced price increase is not expected to have a great impact
on world oil prices. Mexico is not an OPEC member. A Pemex
spokesman said the price increase was “not an imposition, but an
agreement’’ with the company’s clients. The Pemex announcement
was made while a team of U.S. energy experts is in Mexico discussing
the sale of surplus Mexican natural gas to the United States.
WEATHER
Fair to partly cloudy skies with a high of 77 and a low of 47.
The Battalion
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MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor
Managing Editor LizN e ®
Assistant Managing Editor .Andy
Sports Editor .
City Editor Scott Pen*^
Campus Editor Stevff
News Editors Debbie
Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers Karen Rogers, ^
Patterson, Sean Petty, ^
Blake, Dillard Stone, RoyB^
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Photographer LynnPB
Focus section editor Gary "
VfJ
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