Viewpoint
The Battalion # Texas A&M University • Tuesday • July 3, 1979
Gas lines long,
tempers short
Gasoline has become more an integral part of American life than ever before. But
instead of hopping into the RV and cruising down to Galveston for a day of fun in the
sun, people are packing a picnic lunch and preparing to spend the better part of their
day waiting in their favorite neighborhood gas line.
Instead of the usual small talk, your friends are asking you if you are odd or even. And
years from now, when you are telling your children and grandchildren about the
hardships you suffered, you can add how you sat in a gas line for three hours one day
just so you could drive 30 miles to school.
The lines have arrived in College Station. Friday, a few stations ran out of some
brands while others manuevered a steady stream of traffic through the self-serve lanes.
Although the supply situation is far from critical, it could get much worse if more gas in
not available by the time more than 30,000 A&M students arrive in August.
Odd-even rationing may arrive with them, although it seems to have done little to
decrease long lines and spot shortages in Houston. Cars begin queuing up at 4 a.m. in
front of stations that do not begin pumping until 6:30. Daily gas allotments dry up
quickly, leaving angry drivers cussing everything from the greedy oil companies to the
even greedier OPEC nations.
Local newspapers claim that most Houstonians are ready for some sort of rationing
program. This would seem to be a viable short-term answer to the shortage. Drivers
would be assured of a specific number of gallons each day and certainly it would reduce
the “running on empty” syndrome felt by many Texas drivers.
However, it is still only a short-term alternative. OPEC has proven it cannot be
depended upon either for consistent oil exports or for stable prices. Government must
encourage the development and use of other energy sources or we can all stay home
and freeze in the dark.
—K.L.R.
Independence Day celebration ironic
By DAVID BRODER
WASHINGTON — There are times in
the history of this great Republic when the
alterations of mood and circumstance seem
almost too swift for comprehension. Was it
only three years ago that we celebrated our
Bicentennial in the near-euphoria of “the
tall ships” coming?
This Independence Day finds us in a
very different frame of mind. The holiday’s
very name seems to mock us. What we
sense is not our independence, but our
growing dependence on those distant
foreign powers from whom we thought we
had severed our fate 203 years ago. The
very oceans on which we relied to protect
our freedom, as an infant nation, we now
scan anxiously for the arrival of the oil tan
kers on which our economic survival de
pends.
The personal disquiet that is bred by the
spot shortages of gasoline is but a symptom
of a larger disturbance to the national
psyche: a growing frustration with the
seeming impotence of our government and
our society to respond to what has been,
after all, one of the best advertised and
most widely predicted problems of the con
temporary era.
If one cannot drive, one can read. I have
found myself rereading a small book whose
contents are as timeless as its title: “The
Public and Its Problems,” by John Dewey.
If it does not fill the tank, it at least focuses
the mind on the direction we need to go.
Adapted from lectures the educator-
philosopher gave at Kenyon College in
1926, three years before the onset of the
Great Depression, it has a strikingly con
temporary tone. “Political parties may
rule, but they do not govern,” Dewey said.
“The public is so confused and eclipsed that
it cannot even use the organs (of govern
ment) through which it is supposed to
mediate political action and policy.”
Dewey found the basic cause for the frus
tration of public policy in his time in the
profound alteration of the social setting of
American democracy. The American Con
stitution, he noted, was a product, not only
of abstract ideas, but of a country with
“genuine community life, that is, associa
tion in local ans small centers, where indus
try was mainly agricultural and where pro
duction was carried on maily with hand
tools. It took form when English political
habits and legal institutions worked under
pioneer conditions ... (that) put a high
premium on prsonal work ... and
neighborly socialbility. ”
“We have inherited,” Dewey said, “local
town-meeting practices and ideas. But we
live and have our being in a continental
state ... The local face-to-face community
has been invaded by foreces so vast, so
remote in initiation, so far-reaching in
scope and so complexly indirect in opera
tion, that they are, from the standpoint of
the members of local social units, un
known.”
If that was true of his America, flushed by
the false prosperity of the Twenties, how
much more true it is of our American, beset
by the vagaries of an international economy
in which we are only one of many players.
Dewey described, and perhaps under
stated, the perplexity of today’s Anericans
when he wrote of his own contemporaries:
“At present, many consequences are felt
rather than perceived; they are suffered,
but they cannot be said to be known, for
they are not, by those who experience
them, referred to their origins.”
If that analysis is relevant, then the in
ference is clear. No task is more important
than bringing home to the communities of
this country a knowledge and understand
ing of the complex forces in which our pre
sent problems are rooted.
Whatever understandings the President
has reached with foreign leaders in Tokyo
will be rendered ineffectual — unless he
devotes himself, with equal industry, to
improving the understanding of ordinary
citizens in Tacoma, and Texarkana and
Tow son.
But it is not his responsibility alone. The
members of Congress who are now on
another of their “district work periods”
(a.k.a. recesses) really do have their work
cut out for them in their districts, in bring
ing to their constituents a realistic under
standing of the constraints the world
economy places on us.
We in the press have largely botched the
job of public education on these questions.
And so have those who make their livings in
Dewey’s own profession as educators.
It is time for town-meetings and teach-
ins again. The message I take from John
Dewey this Independence Day is that we
have to learn from each other and teach
other, if we are going to celebrate future
Fourth of Julys in less perplexity and frus
tration than we feel this year.
(c) 1979, The Washington Post
Company
More hull sessions being scheduled
‘Cattle shows’ new campaign technique
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — There is a new
phenomenom in political campaigning: the
candidate cattle show.
It really began in 1976 when the Demo
crats had as many as a dozen recognizable
candidates for their presidential nomina
tion. Now the Republicans have nine hope
fuls announced or expected to do so for the
1980 nomination.
The cattle show, of course, has more po
lite names that are used by the people who
sponsor them. They are called “joint ap
pearances,” “candidate forums” and “meet
the candidate” nights.
Cattle shows generally are sponsored by
two kinds of groups.
The first is civics-minded organizations
— the League of Women Voters, for exam
ple — that believe bringing all the candi
dates together would be a service to voters.
The second kind of sponsorship often is
political — a local, state or even national
party organization that wants to jazz up its
own convention or meeting with an ex
travaganza that will get on television and
into the papers.
The motives for both of these are com
pletely legitimate, and in many cases the
groups have achieved remarkable results
with cattle shows.
But candidates often see these appear
ances differently. Their interest is in what
the catde show might do for them, not how
it would inform voters or liven up a state
party convention. So some candidates don’t
take part in cattle shows and some partici
pate in every one that is held.
It should be no surprise that the candi
dates who like the shows usually are those
whose poll ratings are low. For them, a
cattle show is a marvelous way to let some
one else gather a crowd.
But for the candidates who already are
established, cattle shows may be regarded
as a waste of time. So it was recently in
Minneapolis, where Ronald Reagan, John
Connally, Howard Baker, Robert Dole and
Philip Crane did not show up for a Republi
can National Committee candidate forum.
All of the above save Crane sent rep
resentatives to the meeting and one of
them explained why the candidate was not
there: “There are no votes here for him. It
would be like preaching to the saved. What
he wants is audiences where the votes still
are undecided and where he can persuade
some people to come over to him.”
However, that does not mean the cattle
shows are a dying institution. As the
primaries approach, even if the field gets
larger, most candidates will find it in their
best interests to start showing up for cattle
shows. For one thing, the shows in primary
states usually get statewide tv coverage and
bring together most of the national press
following the campaigns.
And cattle shows do help unknown can
didates get recognition. In 1976, Sen.
Henry Jackson, apparently thought he was
well enough known to be able to skip many
of the shows. Jimmy Carter had no such
illusions — he was ready to go anywhere
enough Democrats were gathered to kill
the echo in an auditorium.
And, of course, Jackson was right there
in the audience when Carter accepted the
v Democratic presidential nomination.
Top of the News
CAMPUS
Calender to be ready by fall
The All-University Calender for the Fall Semester will be available
for all students during the first week of classes in September. Organiza
tions wanting information included on the calender may come to Room
221 in the Memorial Student Center no later than noon Wednesday,
July 25.
STATE
Power failure hits San Antonio
A power failure Monday blacked out Trinity University in San
Antonio for most of the morning. The pre-dawn electrical blackout
struck a 100-block area adjacent to the university for 15 minutes, but
City Public Service workers restored power to most customers at 4:30
a. m. However, at mid-morning the university still had no electricity. A
CPS dispatcher said the exact nature of the failure had not been
determined, but a campus security guard said he heard a loud noise
and saw a flash of light near a transformer which recently had been
replaced.
NATION
Firefighters harassed in Toledo
Firefighters in Toledo, Ohio were harassed throughout Sunday
night and early Monday morning with trucks blocking routes to fires
and a fire hose being cut after municipal employees, including police
and fire workers, went on strike. The unions called the strike after
rejecting the city’s offer of a 4.5 percent salary increase over three
years. Several noneconomic issues also were in dispute, including one
that would have police officers submit to lie detector tests. Mayor
Doug DeGood, 32, collapsed at 7:30 a.m. Monday after all-night
negotiations. He was taken to St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center
by ambulance where a hospital spokeswoman said he is in good condi
tion and in the cardiac care unit for observation.
Old and feeble stopping evil
Two gunmen who tried to rob a senior citizens’ dance in Denver
Friday night soon discovered their elderly victims had other ideas.
Police said the masked men entered the Steele Community Center
waving guns and yelling, “This is a stickup. Most of the dancers
thought it was a joke until the robbers started collecting purses and
wallets. At that point, one of the dancers hit a bandit, who fired a shot
into the floor. The gunman then was chased to a stairway by another
dancer, who wrestled him to the floor. Several participants took the
man’s gun away and tossed it to another senior citizen. The second
gunman then fired a shot over the dancers heads and was grabbed by
Fay H. Ferree, 78, who was shot in the leg and hospitalized. Inves
tigators said while Ferree and the second gunman were fighting, the
first robber confronted the dancers with a large board and demanded
his gun back. When the dancers returned the weapon, the robbers left.
Navy recovers body from wreck
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The U.S. Navy has recovered th& lastJb9fiuil$k>diee of American
crewmen from an anti-submarine aircraft that crashed in Philippines
waiters, the Navy Said Sunday. Navy divers retrieved the body out the
U.S. Navy P-3B Orion aircraft at the bottom of Subic Bay where the
four-engined turbo-prop plane plunged Wednesday shortly after tak
ing off'from the Cubi Point Naval air station. A base spokesman said
names of the crewmen will be released in Hawaii where they were
based.
WORLD
Dayan to be released today
Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, recuperating from an operation last
week to remove a cancerous growth from his large intestine, is feeling
fine and will be released from his Tel Aviv hospital Tuesday, hospital
officials said Monday. Dayan underwent surgery June 24 to remove a
“localized malignant growth in the large intestine. All nearby organs,
including the liver and stomach were examined and “clean,” Goldman
said.
Wright to visit German mines
House Majority Leader James C. Wright, D-Texas, arrives in Bonn,
West Germany Monday for talks on energy research and development
with Volker Hauff, Minister of Research and Development, and on
security with Hans Apel, minister of Defense. Wright heads a delega
tion of congressmen who also will visit lignite strip mining operations
between Cologne and Aachen, and a hydro gassification plant near
Bonn.
Mexican party leader confident
Mexico’s ruling political party has claimed victory in the first con
gressional elections to include the Communist Party in more than
three decades. Local election authorities reported long lines at the
polls and a turnout as high as 80 percent in the states of Guanajuato,
San Luis Potosi and Puebla. Ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party
president Gustavo Carvajal Moreno said preliminary counts in 206 of
300 congressional districts indicated an “indisputable triumph” for his
party. The final results are expected by midweek. The PRI currently
controls 196 out of 237 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the Con
gress’ lower house, with the rightist National Action Party a distant
second with 20 seats.
The Battalion
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