Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
July 11, 1979
Carter comes around
At last. President Carter has seen the light. He
realizes for the first time why his administration does
not have the respect of the American people.
The nation’s confidence in him has declined to a
meager 28 percent according to the lastest poll. People
across the country curse him as they watch inflation
climb to new heights and morale to a new low. To most
voters. Carter is a one-term president. It’s just a matter
of time before they prove their forecast in the 1980
elections.
He was quoted Tuesday as saying he had “lost con
trol of the government and did not have real leadership
among the people.” He also admitted that he had failed
in an area in which he was supposed to be strong —
management. But more importantly, he is asking fel
low politicians where he went wrong and what, if any
thing, he can do to remedy it.
Perhaps Carter’s most severe handicap was his inex
perience. His campaign began as a model of sophistica
tion and efficiency, but it soon became tangled with
explanations, retractions and side issues.
When a poll indicated he may be too liberal, he
swung around and tried to become more conservative.
He contradicted himself. He talked of ambitious new
programs on one hand while talking of balancing the
budget on the other. And some accused him of painting
too gloomy a picture of the economy. He even had to
apologize to Mrs. Lyndon Johnson after linking
Johnson and Richard Nixon as presidents who had de
ceived their countrymen.
But Jimmy Carter polished his campaign techniques,
met with then-President Gerald Ford in a series of
televised debates and bested him not only in there, but
in the 1976 election.
But his lack of knowledge of foreign and domestic
affairs would soon become evident. He had served only
as governor of Georgia. He had had no opportunity to
get hands on experience
He surrounded himself with equally unqualified
Cabinet members and some, like Bert Lance, managed
to lose any credibility they may have gained from the
President’s endorsement.
Issues like the Panama Canal, the Middle East peace
treaty and the questionable practices of his peanut
business further eroded the public’s confidence in him.
And when affairs at home like the energy crisis and the
economy became too pressing to ignore, Carter finally
seemed to turn his eyes homeward only to let himself
become involved in a treadmill of conferences and
speeches, but no action.
Carter’s “tell me what’s wrong” attitude is a step in
the right direction. But let’s hope he doesn’t get in
volved in even more advisory meetings that leave the
American people holding a bag of hot air and little else.
—K.L.R.
the small society
by Brickman
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7-Z5
Gas rationing
not best answer
People are starting to tell pollsters that they would prefer formal
gas rationing to waiting in long lines at service stations.
This is beginning to change minds on Capitol Hill, where the
House roundly defeated President Carter’s bill for standby rationing
authority last May 10. The White House is encouraged and is think
ing of reviving its plan.
Before the country jumps from the frying pan of service station
lines into the fire of rationing, it ought to take a hard look at what it
will be getting into.
For one thing, rationing would be expensive. The Department of
Energy says it would have to spend $53 million to put a bureaucracy
together. It would cost $350 million to start the system and $400
million to run it each three months. Those are funds that could do
some good if invested in the search for new energy supplies or in
making synthetic oil from abundant coal reserves.
Carter’s plan calls for mailing gasoline “entitlements” to owners of
registered vehicles. This would produce a new growth industry:
mailbox theft.
Many people already have bought junk cars to qualify for higher
rations. If rationing comes, selling junkers will be another growth
industry.
Carter’s entitlements will have to be taken to banks and exchanged
for coupons. Some estimates are that banks will need twice their
current counter space and tellers if bank lines are not to replace gas
lines.
Proponents say it is fairer than removing controls and rationing gas
by price than the present system, rationing by inconvenience. But
many poor and near-poor persons have to drive long distances to get
to their jobs. Since coupons would be bought and sold a coal miner in
Appalachia would indirectly buy coupons from a Wall Street broker
who takes the subway to his office.
There would be a huge transfer of income from rural areas, where
residents must drive long distances, to urban areas which are served
by mass transit and where incomes are higher. This is fairness?
That adds up to a deeply flawed plan. The public has a right to
expect better from the administration. The energy bureaucrats even
could start by scrapping their allocations and regulations that admit
tedly are making the shortage worse.
Scripps-Hotvard Newspapers
Group says country
moving back toward
liberal point of view
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The declaration by
Americans for Democratic Action that the
country is moving back toward liberalism
brings to mind James Thurber’s descrip
tion of his efforts to use a microscope in
high school biology class.
Told to draw what he saw in the lens,
young Thurber was called to the front of
the room and chewed out for turning in a
sketch of his own eyeball.
ADA President Patsy Mink’s jubilant
announcement that “the country’s move to
the right is over” and “support is growing
for the kind of solutions for which liberals
have always stood” is no surprise to stu
dents of the group’s recent history. ADA
has been looking at the political scene and
drawing its own eyeball for years.
ADA apparently comes to that conclu
sion in the following way:
First, in Mink’s words. Sen. Edward
Kennedy “according to almost all public
opinion polls, is the country’s first choice
for president.” (He also is ADA’s first
choice, which may have something to do
with what comes next.')
Second, Kennedy “is also the foremost
liberal voice in the U.S. Senate.”
Conclusion? “The country has not re
jected liberalism; people are instead re
jecting leadership that is inept and ineffec
tual. ”
To conclude that the polls which show
Kennedy ahead of other presidential con
tenders 18 months before the 1980 elec
tion are the harbinger of a liberal renais
sance requires more than logic. A blind
leap of faith may be more like it.
ADA is supposed to be an issue-
oriented organization. In its 32 years of
existence, it has been out front in the fight
for liberal policies and programs and, all
things considered, has a fair batting aver
age. But when presidential years ap
proach, ADA seems to become exceed
ingly flaky.
The group’s experience in 1968 is an
example. It was so eager that year to retire
Lyndon Johnson that its national board
endorsed Eugene McCarthy for the Dem
ocratic nomination without waiting for an
expression of opinion from the rank and
file membership or for the first primaries
to sort out the political situation.
By the time ADA held its national con
vention that May, Johnson was out of the
race, McCarthy was beginning to fade,
Robert Kennedy was moving up and
Hubert Humphrey was getting ready to
join the contest.
ADA, like Gaul, was split in three parts
and found itself reaffirming its McCarthy
endorsement while praising both Kennedy
and Humphrey, who was one of its found
ers. By October, ADA came around reluc
tantly to endorsing Humphrey.
It is no one’s business but ADA’s who it
endorses for president. But it really
doesn’t have the best record in the world
for selecting sucessful candidates, and
perhaps we may be excused for suggesting
that Mink’s line of reasoning based on
ADA’s early choice for 1980 may be more
of an exercise in wishffil thinking than
political shrewdness.
Utility hill fliers provide
unique communications
Letters to the Editor
Locker break-in bad news
Editor:
To the person who raided basketB72 in
the women’s locker room: I waited until I
calmed down slightly before I wrote this
letter, because the profanity would have
prevented it from being printed. Still, I
am furious! How dare you (and how did
you?) break my lock and steal my P.E.
clothes and my $32 running shoes!
Perhaps you didn’t realize the extent of
the consequences of your act. First, I had
a racquetball skills test and a game, and
not having shoes forced me to borrow a
pair that didn’t fit. Try running around in a
pair of shoes that are too big for you and
see well you play!
Secondly, I was so mad I couldn’t con
centrate on playing anyway, so I lost the
game and did poorly on my skills test.
Thirdly, I loved those shoes! They were
barely a year old and I had worn them just
enough to where they were comfortable. I
also can’t afford to replace them anytime
soon.
Last, and most definitely not least, the
total charges for the P.E. clothes you took
is $14.50. You didn’t even leave the towel!
Frankly, I don’t have the money to pay it.
Since registration is this week, I will have
to pay tuition, buy books, etc.
You have also put a big dent in my faith
in human nature, and especially in Aggies.
I used to be a fairly trusting person. Now I
look at every girl’s feet with suspicion.
To those who haven’t been warned:
Don’t leave anything in your basket you
don’t want stolen. A combination lock is
apparently no protection. Also, there is no
attendant on duty from 5 until 6:30 p.m.
when the doors are locked. So there is
every opportunity for a dishonest person
to take advantage of you. Beware! Texas
A&M has decided those socks cost $2 and
it goes up from there. When you sign that
card saying you take responsibility for your
P.E. clothes, that means paying for them if
they are stolen. If you’re feeling guilty,
call 845-4892 and I’ll offer you a chance for
redemption (if I get my shoes and my
$14.50).
—Cheryl Richardson
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — There is more to a
utility bill, usually, than a mere statement
of how much the customer owes.
Accompanying the main bit of bad news
will be one or more pieces of ancillary lit
erature, most commonly a pamphlet set
ting forth the company’s rationale for the
latest rate increase.
Despite increased use of utility bills for
educational or propaganda purposes, their
potential as a communication medium has
never been fully exploited.
One direction future billing information
might take was pointed to last week at a
House hearing on civil defense aspects of
nuclear power plant accidents.
Chairman Joseph Hendrie of the Nu
clear Regulatory Commission was asked
how the public could be made aware of
possible radiation dangers without causing
undue alarm.
“We may want to wind up using the litle
fliers in utility bills,” Hendrie replied.
I can hear it now.
“We interrupt this program to bring you
a bulletin from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. Due to a malfunction in the
reactor, a small amount of radioactive gas
has escaped from the Tinkerbell Atomic
Generating Plant. For further details, see
your next months’s electric bill.”
I would imagine the trick in preparing
such a flier would be presenting the warn
ing in a way that nobody gets alarmed. A
cartoon symbol might be helpful.
I can see it now.
A-cute little squat body shaped like a
reactor cooling tower. A face like a “Have a
Nice Day” button. A hat that looks like a
tiny Geiger counter. Arms and legs like
zigzag lightning bolts.
E) “ (Fim- exams)
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STATE
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Estes jury asks for definition
Jury members who have labored for the past four days over a
verdict in the complicated fraud and tax evasion trial of Texas swin
dler Billie Sol Estes in Dallas interrupted deliberation Tuesday to ask
a federal judge the legal definition of “reasonable doubt. ” Judge Gor
don Gray said the jury also queried him about the possibility of a
partial decision in the thick 22-count indictment. But the judge de
clined say what he told the jury and refused to speculate whether he
felt a verdict was near. Estes and Horton were charged last year with
collaborating to defraud three industrial leasing companies of about
$600,000 through an arrangement to market 36 heavy duty steam
cleaners used in oil field work. The government said the cleaners did
not exist. Estes also was charged with trying to conceal his assets from
the Internal Revenue Service at a time he owed $10 million in back
taxes.
Houston firm accused of bribery
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International Systems & Controls Corp., a Houston-based con
struction firm, paid $23 million in bribes to top government officials
and their associates and members of ruling families in Saudi Arabia,
Algeria, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Chile and Iran — including Nicara
guan president Anastasio Somoza — the government has charged.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in U.S.
District Court in Washington Monday which also said that J. Thomas
Kenneally, who resigned as ISC board chairman in March and owns
or controls 42 percent of the voting stock, used about $1 million in
company funds to buy, improve and furnish an 85-acre mansion near
Dublin, Ireland beginning in 1970. In addition, the SEC alleged that
executives of the firm started to shred documents that pertained to
the purported bribes after learning of the SEC investigation. The
SEC asked the court to order the firm to halt the payments and to
appoint an agent to seize custody of all company assets.
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NATION
Arthur Fielder dies of heart attack
Boston Pops Maestro Arthur Fiedler died Tuesday in his Boston
home was 84. Fiedler, the white-haired conducter familiar to millions
of Americans, was found sprawled in the bedroom of his home about
7:30 a.m. by his wife. He had been in ill health for some time.
Fiedler had been in and out of hospitals with various ailments since
last December, was unable to conduct the Boston Pops Fourth of July
concert along the Charles River last week for the first time in 54 yean
because of his weak condition.
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Illness delays Chi Omega trial Y^arU
The Miami, Fla., trial of Theodore Bundy, aexiused of slaying
Florida State University coeds Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, was
recessed Tuesday because of a juror’s illness. Mazie R. Edge, a re
cently retired assistant elementary school principal, apparently began
coming down with the cold Monday while prosecution witnesses
were painting a graphic word picture of the murder scene at Florida
State University in Tallahassee. She asked for water several times
during the trial.
Circuit Judge Edward Cowart did not indicate how long he would
permit the 62-year-old woman’s illness to delay the trial. There are
three alternate jurors.
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Rockets found; ignorance is Bliss
A flatbed trailer carrying three U.S. Army Hawk missile launchers
to Fort Bliss, Texas, was left in a parking lot in Jacksonville, Fla., fora
month and finally had to be picked up Monday from Waifs Auto
Salvage. Apparently no one knew the equipment was missing. Police
found the trailer Sunday. On Monday, FBI agents discovered the
missile launchers belonged to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and that
they were being transferred there from Key West. Then police re
ceived a phone call from a representative of the Lightning Trucking
Co. asking if they had custody of any missile lavxnelvexs. Tlve
man said the company had been forced to delay hauling the launchers
to Texas because of the truckers’ strike. They were left on the lot, he
said, because their regular storage facility was full. Late Monday,
police said, the launchers had been returned to the trucking firm and
were en route to Texas.
WORLD
Sandistas closing in on Managua
Sandinista guerrilla radio broadcasts monitored in Managua,
Nicaragua said the rebels have launched a general attack from all
sides on Managua, Anastasio Somoza’s last bastion defended by 5,000
national guardsmen. Washington, bracing for a possible “breakdown
of public order,” Monday placed three planes and two helicopters on
alert to evacuate U.S. Embassy personnel and other citizens from the
war-torn nation. Informed sources said Somoza’s soldiers were down
to a three-week supply 9f .50-caliber machine gun and heavy mortar
ammunition. The sources also noted that most of Somoza’s generals
had applied for and received U.S. visas for themselves and their
families.
The Battalion
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Editor Karen]
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