Battalion
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Ponderous and cardboard jaws
Going on the theory that his pa
trons aren’t particular about the
quality of his wares, a Canadian fu
neral director is doing something
about the high cost of dying. His cus-
tomers can now be buried in
cardboard coffins, which he says re
duce the average cost of a funeral
from $1,500 to $850. The idea, he
says, won’t be buried and forgotten.
See page 3.
Oil co. ‘kickbacks’
worrying Carter
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
Monday accused Congress of preparing to
“hoodwink the American people’’ by pass
ing a windfall profits tax with multibillion-
dollar kickbacks to the oil companies.
It was one of the strongest attacks against
Congress to date by Carter, who has pro
posed allowing oil companies to raise prices
sharply — while making sure windfall prof
its wind up in exploration for petroleum
sources.
He said that instead of outright opposi
tion to the proposal, Congress intends to
pass a tax “designed primarily to provide
loopholes so the oil companies will get
another $4 or $5 billion in unearned profits
on top of the $6 billion they would get
under decontrol with an honest windfall
profits tax.”
Carter’s remarks were prepared for early
afternoon delivery to the annual meeting of
the National Academy of Sciences.
“They will try to pass this charade off on
the American people as a ‘plow back’ provi
sion,” he said.
“But it isn’t a ‘plow back’; it is a ‘plow
under’ and a ‘kick back,’ and what is going
to be plowed under is the Energy Security
Fund with its aid to research and the poor.
And what is going to be kicked back to the
oil companies is the money that would be
used to finance those necessary programs.”
Carter said that the Energy Security
Fund, which he proposed to set up with
windfall profits from decontrol of oil, “faces
a difficult passage through the Congress.”
“But we are making progress because the
public supports our proposals,” he said.
“Many of those who only a few weeks ago
were dedicated to killing outright the
windfall profits tax have now given up on
that fight.
“But the battle is far from over. Their
new strategy seems to be to try to hoodwink
the American people by passing a windfall
profits tax that is in fact a charade.”
He urged the scientific community to
support his battle “to pass an honest
windfall profits tax to finance a real Energy
Security Fund for our nation.”
He said the fund will “provide relief to
those least able to pay for more costly
energy, and large sums to go to finance
projects that are important to our energy
future — including a regional petroleum
reserve, better mass transit, coal and oil
shale development and new incentives for
solar techniques.”
O’Neill’s Ireland trip
infuriates British
Joe, Johnny, Rocky and La Familia,” a
Mexican-American dance band, gave a concert
JAcmday uvgjvt to a half-filled Rudder Auditorium.
The group was sponsored by the MSC’s Committee
for Awareness of Mexican-American Citizens
(CAMAC). It played a variety of music from Mexi
can folk to Country and Western. .
Battalion photo by Lyle Lovett
Jryan city employees to get
5 percent wage increase
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By JUDIE PORTER
Battalion Staff
an city employees have some good
vd and some bad news after Monday’s
ily Council meeting.
The good news is that the council
[opted a resolution for a basic salary in
ease for all city employees.
The bad news is that it is only a 3.5
ircent increase. So an employee making
100 a week will only make $3.50 more a
eek.
He salary increase will be given to all
ity bmployees excluding the City Man
ger It will go into effect retroactive to
ipril 1 for all salaried employees and April
for|all who are paid hourly wages.
He resolution stated the increase was
veil to lift the morale and general welfare
[city employees. Also, it is hoped the
icrease will help curb the high turnover
ite in city jobs.
Tl|e increase was also granted to help
flsel the rise in the cost of living.
The salary increase will be funded by
“oney already allotted for employee
Varies in the current city budget. The
udget for salaries is currently 7 percent
original estimates.
In other action, Colleen Jennings Batch-
H requested the council enact an ordi-
jane that would prohibit the selling of
joholic beverages within 300 feet of a
Urch, school or hospital.
Batchelor, the assistant system attorney
for the Office of Vice Chancellor for Legal
Affairs at Texas A&M, said the reason for
her request was the rumor of a Seven Ele
ven store to be built on the comer of Has-
well and 29th.
Batchelor said she felt such an ordinance
would protect the Bryan public from an
unfair burden in the residential areas,
especially the older sections of town.
Mayor Richard Smith advised the coun
cil to hold a public hearing on the matter to
gain citizen’s opinions before making a de
cision.
City Attorney Charles Bluntzer said no
ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcoholic
beverages within a certain distance exists in
the present city code. But, he added, state
law does give local governments power to
enact such ordinances.
Batchelor said she would not like to see a
time lapse in enacting the ordinance and
requested an emergency ordinance be
passed until a formal document could be
agreed upon.
She said the residents in that area “feel it
is a major commercial intrusion” upon
them.
Fannin Elementary School is located
near the proposed location for the business.
During the regular workshop session
Monday afternoon, the council discussed
starting a public awareness program ex
plaining utility costs to the citizens of
Bryan.
Mayor Smith suggested some type of
fliers be placed in monthly utility bills ex
plaining fuel costs or adjustments, city
costs for buying natural gas and other such
subjects.
Smith also suggested asking the local
news media to help inform the public.
Councilman Wayne Gibson said “Utili
ties are such a large concern today, we
should have some way to put the informa
tion before the people.”
The council also passed an ordinance al
lowing ambulances involved in patient
transfer between Bryan and other cities to
make such trips without a permit.
United Press International
SHANNON, Ireland — House Speaker
Thomas “Tip” O’Neill Monday flew home
expressing hopes for peace in Northern Ire
land but leaving British lawmakers and
newspapers fuming over his calling the
province London’s “political football.”
British newspapers and legislators
lumped O’Neill into an Irish-American
“gang of four:” himself, Sen. Edward Ken
nedy, New York Gov. Hugh Carey and
Sen. Daniel Moynihan.
Both Kennedy and O’Neill are Massa
chusetts lawmakers while both Carey and
Moynihan are New Yorkers.
The Massachusetts Democrat, ending a
controversial five-day visit to the Irish Re
public and Northern Ireland, said in a
statement before his departure for the
United States:
“We leave with great fondness for the
people of Ireland and a fervent desire that a
political solution can be found to end the
violence in the north. We hope that at last
peace will come to their lovely land.
“The journey through Northern Ireland
gave my colleagues and me an opportunity
to talk to political leaders from all sides and
gain first hand impressions of the dimen
sions of the problem.”
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs
Michael O’Kennedy said after O Neill’s
departure: “Mr. O’Neill’s visit was helpful.
But there can be no Camp David-type con
ference about Ireland. The main responsi
bility rests with the British and Irish gov
ernments.”
An Irish politician played down the idea
of Camp David style summit by President
Carter to bring peace to the province. The
summit idea had been talked about in the
British and Irish press.
Britain’s politicians said the four should
mind their own business and brush up on
the facts of the troubled British province.
Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald, the leader of Ire
land’s opposition Fine Gael party, de
fended O’Neill in a lengthy letter to the
Irish Times, The Daily Telegraph and The
Guardian newspapers. He called the at
tacks on O’Neill by British politicians “in
defensible even in the heat of an election
campaign” and urged them to apologize to
the U.S. speaker.
He said O’Neill “in a moving speech of
nobility and compassion” had condemned
the IRA and called on Americans to with
hold aid to the outlawed organization.
Ireland’s Foreign Affairs minister
O’Kennedy also defended O’Neill in an
interview with the Irish Times, saying the
government believed O’Neill’s speech was
“accurately reflecting the views of Presi
dent Carter.”
“He is very close to the President. With
his weighty experience in politics, it is un
likely that he would say anything out of
line,” O’Kennedy said.
The Financial Times conceded O Neill’s
remarks in Ireland “achieved what all the
IRA bombs have failed to do: he got British
political leaders to talk about Northern Ire
land.”
Conservative opposition leader Mar
garet Thatcher, who will be prime minister
if she wins the current general election,
said, “Events (in Northern Ireland) are too
deeply tragic for any of us to do that.”
Outgoing Labor Education Minister
Shirley Williams said Irish-Americans
were buried in the past. “The Irish Ameri
can community has very little idea of the
truth of the position in the Republic of Ire
land or in Northern Ireland,” she said.
Lord Hailsham, a Conservative Party
elder statesman, accused O’Neill of “trying
to win a few Irish votes. We resent these
people electioneering in their own country
by speaking in ours.”
The Daily Express called O’Neill “a log
rolling, Irish-American politician” allied
with Kennedy, “his infernal colleague,”
and told him to go home.
Gov. Carey said in Sunday’s New York
Daily News that British policy was “an af
front to the entire world community.”
Conservative Party candidate Robert
Ardley retorted: “It is the likes of Mr.
Carey, Mr. O’Neill and Sen. Edward Ken
nedy who are the sole remaining allies of
the IRA . Mr. Carey is a latter day political
Al Capone.”
The Daily Express said in 10 years of
battling with “IRA criminals” in Britain,
the total death toll is 1,903. “In the State of
New York of which this man is governor,
there were in 1978, in one year, 1,809
murders.”
Consol releases tentative budget
By ROBIN THOMPSON
Battalion Reporter
The A&M Consolidated School Board re
leased the first draft of its proposed 1979-
1980 budget Monday night.
The tentative budget calls for total reve
nues of $7,142,387 and total expenditures
of $7,031,465.
Olie C. Grauke, Assistant Superinten
dent of Finance, presented the budget. He
said there was still a lot of unsettled ground
concerning it.
Because of impending legislation con
cerning teacher’s salaries, he said, “it must
be revised, it must be updated.”
He said he would know more about the
revisions in May.
The council also approved $11,722 in
improvements for the South Knoll
Elementary playground, including a crea
tive play area for pre-school children and a
kindergarten play area.
School Board member Ann Jones said, “I
would not have voted if I couldn’t see it
would be beneficial to the children. They
need to learn to be creative.”
The passing of the plans for improve
ment of the elementary school was greeted
by applause from the audience.
The school district was granted allocation
from the Texas Education Agency for five
new full-time and four part-time vocational
and technical instructors.
Smarter convokes memorial for victims of Holocaust
men* I
United Press International
^Washington — Battle-weary
Wiican troops marched into the Dachau
Oifentration camp in April 1945 and
•oled with horror, shock and tears at the
Ip evidence of the Nazi holocaust.
me 34 years later. President Carter
ity convened a somber ceremony of
Nembrance for the 6 million Jews and 5
■ion other people murdered in infa-
|is Nazi death camps such as Dachau,
ifnenwald, Auschwitz and Treblinka.
must never forget these crimes
Bnst humanity,” the president said
Re weeks ago in calling on the American
Hple to observe today as International
Hpcaust Commemoration Day.
^ne date chosen to observe the
Holocaust — the 27th of Nissan, 5739, on
the Jewish calendar — marks the 1943 up
rising of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.
In addition, Carter proclaimed Saturday
and Sunday — the actual 34th anniversary
of the American liberation of Dachau — as
twin “days of remembrance” for the
victims.
As part of nationwide observances, the
president invited some 1,000 people, in
cluding congressmen, jurists, cabinet
members and diplomats, to the Capitol
Rotunda to remember “the terrible fruits
of bigotry and hatred. ”
Under Constantino Brumidi’s fresco of
George Washington attended by Liberty,
Victory and Fame, Carter led the Ameri
can people in a ceremony called to ensure
that “the world must never permit such
events ever to occur again.”
Besides Carter, the observances fea
tured speeches by Vice President Walter
Mondale and Holocaust chronicler Elie
Wiesel as well as prayers by Christian and
Jewish clergymen.
Hungarian-born Wiesel, the chairman
of the President’s Commission on the
Holocaust, spent the war in Auschwitz and
Buchenwald, where his parents and
younger sister died.
In his book “Night,” he describes the
death of his father at Buchenwald: “There
were no prayers at his grave. No candles
were lit to his memory.”
“I did not weep, and it pained me that I
could not weep, ” he wrote in his terrifying
account of captivity. “But I had no more
tears.”
One of the most poignant moments of
the ceremony was the appearance of the
Atlanta Boy Choir — encircled by the
rotunda’s eight giant historical paintings
— to sing songs based on the poems of
children put to death by the Nazis.
One poem by Franta Bass, who died at
Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 14, com
pared a little boy to a flower growing in a
fragrant rose garden:
“Ah, when that blossom comes to
bloom.
Ah, the little boy
Will be no more.”
Photo courtesy of Tierra Grande
Foreign investment
Houston’s Pennzoil Place, a multi-million dollar German investment, is
just one such foreign purchase in the state. The Battalion will look into
state and local foreign investments in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s issues.