Opinion
Misery,
here’s company
We’re not exactly sure why 673 people signed a letter to
Ma Bell that was posted around campus.
We suspect each one had his own reason(s), but maybe
your Monday will be a little happier knowing that some
body else shares your occasional disgust with this particular
phone company.
DEAR MA BELL;
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The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
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Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
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MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Liz Newlin
Managing Editor Andy Williams
Asst. Managing Editor Dillard
Stone
News Editors . .Karen Cornelison and
Michelle Burrowes
Sports Editor Sean Petty
City Editor Roy Bragg
Campus Editor Keith Taylor
Focus Editors Beth Calhoun and
Doug Graham
Staff Writers . . Meril Edwards,
Diane Blake, Louie Arthur,
Richard Oliver, Mark Patterson,
. Carolyn Blosser, Kurt Allen
Photo Editor . . .Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographers Lynn Blanco,
Clay Cockrill, Sam Stroder,
Ken Herrerra
Cartoonist Doug Graham
Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-
supporting enterprise operated by students
as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
October 1, 1979
Carter’s wit abounds at town meetin
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Backstairs at the
White House:
candidate and seems to be happy cam
paigning — even if he isn’t calling it that.
— President Carter says he will formally
announce his intentions to run for re-
eection “later in the fall. ”
But the only surprise will b© if be
doesn’t announce.
Carter has set up the Carter-Mondale
Campaign Committee.
He told a “town meeting” in New York
that he plans to run in every presidential
primary.
And Mrs. Carter’s aides are handing out
cards on the campaign trail asking suppor
ters if they would like to have neighborood
fund raising parties the day the president
announces for re-election.
Carter has discussed the date with Vice
President Walter Mondale and his senior
staffers. So far the word on the date has
not leaked.
The president probably will be an
nouncing a little sooner than he had
planned because he is under pressure of
his supporters. But more and more he is
acting like a candidate and talking like a
— Cabinet officials who got booted out
of the administration are crying all the way
to the bank.
Several are on the lecture circuit, com
manding as much as $10,000 a speech.
Former White House chief of staff Ale
xander Haig, who apparently has presi
dential ambitions, is asking for $12,000 an
appearance — the same amount as his
former boss, Henry Kissinger.
— The president does not hold
economists in too high esteem, especially
since he has been in the White House. To
him they do not have the ready answers to
the most troubling domestic issue of the
day — inflation.
A young man told Carter at the New
York “town meeting” that he was studying
economics and accounting.
“I want to be a politician,” he said.
“I don’t know which is worse right now,
to be an economist, or a politician,” Carter
quipped.
Carter’s wit often comes through during
the “town meetings.”
The New York session was opened by a
man who said: “Mr. President, this is a
great honor. My name is Nicholas Gray. I
live in Manhattan and I own a store there
called Gray’s Papaya. We are famous for
our better filet mignon frankfurters. ”
“My name is Jimmy Carter,” the presi
dent replied. “I am president of the
United States. I grow peanuts, so eat
peanut butter.”
Carter told the audience not to be
“timid” with their questions, but one
questioner was nearly hooted out of the
auditorium when he asked about Carter’s
more running contests. TBephotojj
Carter being held up by hisdocte
Secret Service agent was not the
they are trying to project for him
Sports Illustrated paid a hefty tsp
for the photo in a field where then
many press bidders.
jogging.
“Welcome to New York, Mr. President.
You look great,” he said.
“I wonder if you would take a couple of
minutes to tell us about your jogging hab
its and how you are feeling in general since
your (foot) race in Maryland last week.
Carter, who suffered heat exhaustion
and had to drop out of a 6-mile race, said
he ran as much as 5 miles a day and had no
plans to stop.
There are indications that some of Car
ter’s aides prefer he not participate in any
— A White House policeman\il|
guards an area where the presideal
pass to get to the Oval Office got as
the other day.
For two years, Carter has
without a nod of recognition or
morning. ”
But on this day, Carter gave t
hand wave.
The policeman turned aroundtos
was meant for someone else,
— The Secret Service agents
guarding Sen. Edward Kenned;
their way around. There are no rooli
the detail.
Soon many of the presidential
dates will have agents guarding
the agency will be taxed formanjw
it is every four years.
DICK WEST
Anthony silver dollar goes over
like a lead balloon (and a $2 bill)
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The new Susan B. Anthony silver dollar, which is made of
copper and nickel, has, from all reports, bombed.
The coin, minted with such fanfare a few months ago, is proving about as
popular as the $2 bill, the latest paper money flop.
I gather that if someone conducted a popularity poll, the Anthony dollar would
run about even with President Carter. And perhaps for similar reasons.
Political analysts say Carter doesn’t act “presidential” enough. And in Las Vegas
and other financial centers, monetary analysts are saying the Anthony coin isn’t
sufficiently “dollarish.
They say the coin’s size, slightly larger than a quarter but smaller than a half-
dollar, militates against its acceptance. In the logical order of progression, a dollar
would be bigger than a 50-cent piece, they point out.
But if logical progression were vital to a coin’s popularity, what of the dime?
Our 10-cent piece is smaller than both the penny and the nickel, yet is universally
loved and admired.
The problem with a bureaucratic miscalculation of this sort is that is is rather
difficult to cover up. When currency lays a egg, there is ,no place to hide. So the
Treasury Department has decided to tough it out.
A Treasury task force recommended last week that the $1 bill be retired, thus
giving the Anthony dollar and the $2 bill a clear field.
However, that proposal has drawn strong congressional opposition, including
an unkind comment by Rep. Frank Annunzio, D-Ill., who described the Susan B.
as a legal tender “turkey.”
In the circumstances, the Treasury might do well to consider an alternate plan
that I believe will satisfy all concerned.
Rather than quit making the ever-popular $1 bill, which has fan clubs all over
the world, what they should do is scuttle the $2 bill and convert the Anthony
dollar into a $2 coin. I don’t see how that could miss.
Or they can simply wait for a few more rounds of inflation, after which the
Anthony dollar and the quarter, already nearly equal in size, will be of almost
equal value — both practically worthless.
Slouch
by Jim Eai Vice
CONGRATULATIONS
CHANCELLOR
FRANK
HUBERT
An ag
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Window
Pope’s stand on abortion is more likely
to benefit Carter campaign than Kennedy
ive-wee
mblic ol
‘Our i
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Whatever the legal
merits of Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s objec
tion to the use of public facilities to ac
commodate Pope John Paul II, her politi
cal judgment about the pope’s visit seems
completely out of whack.
In announcing her constitutional chal
lenge to use of the Mall in Washington for
a Roman Catholic mass next Sunday, Mrs.
O’Hair said the pontiffs visit was timed to
“enhance the intended presidential candi
dacy” of Kennedy and to promote passage
of a constitutional amendment outlawing
abortion.
Mrs. O’Hair might be correct in assum
ing that the pope will speak out against
abortion during his weeklong visit to the
United States. But it is hard to see how
that could help Kennedy, who does not
favor the proposed constitutional amend
ment and is viewed as a pro-abortionist in
some quarters.
It might be argued that it would help
Kennedy politically in a Protestant major
ity country to be out of step with the pope
(just as John Kennedy opposed federal aid
to parochial schools), but that requires a
level of deviousness that not even presi
dential politics usually achieves. It is far
more likely that the senator would be just
as happy if the issue never came up.
It is easier to see, in fact, how the pope’s
visit will be more of a boost to President
Carter than to Kennedy.
According to Pat Cadell’s mea
surements, Southern Baptist activist Car
ter is not particularly liked by American
Catholics, who have been a traditional
heavy voting Democratic bloc.
Carter’s decision to become the first
president to invite a pope to the White
House can’t hurt him among the Catholic
electorate. The fact that Carter decided to
transform what could have been a quiet,
proforma event into a major reception can
only serve to increase whatever political
benefits the president might reap from the
visit.
Unless the pope changes the style he
displayed in his trips to Mexico and Po
land, he can be expected to bluntly ad
dress issues, political or otherwise, that
the church feels it has a stake in.
The church certainly feels it has a stake
in the abortion issue and if the pope ad
dresses himself to it, Kennedy is not likely
to be the hero of the piece.
Kennedy is no advocate of abortion on
demand, but like Carter, he is
the constitutional amendment route
favors making “alternatives’’ to ata
available to women who have uiw
pregnancies. This is totally unaccefi
to anti-abortion militants and Kenne)
one of the senators they have
under heavy fire.
An anti-abortion newsletter rrca P
said, “If Kennedy is IT next year, it*
merely mean one pro-abortionist repk ^ ( 101
another atop the Democratic tick
“Certainly nobody would quibble ^
calling Teddy proabortion: He’s the I seaie h e
sonification of the T’m personally opp*
but’ baloney, the Lifeletter oftheAd
Committee in Defense of Life said
in 37 votes on abortion, Kennedy cal
“solid pro-abortion votes.”
Letters
Hunters support the wildlife departmen
so don’t criticize them, buy a duck stam
Editor:
Now that hunting season is here again
the usual protests are starting to be heard,
fallacies such as: sport hunting is cruel,
sport hunting is destructive, sport hunting
leads to extinction of species, etc.
Those who sponsor such attacks are usu
ally urbanized “indoor” types who know
little of wildlife except through Walt Dis
ney films, and who recoil at the idea that
some “cruel” people perfer to collect their
own meat instead of having a tucher do it
for them (which is less cruel, of course).
These same people ignore the fact that
the nations first conservationists were
hunters, men such as the great naturalists
Ernest Thompson Seton and John J. Audi-
bon and President Theodore Roosevelt, to
name of few.
Anyone who wishes to make a lasting
contribution to the nation’s wildlife can do
so: buy a hunting license or a federal Mi
gratory Bird (duck) stamp. The money
hunters spend for their Texas hunting
licenses goes to the financially be
leaguered Texas Parks and Wildlife De
partment, whose major source of revenue
is hunting sales. Hunting license revenues
pay for wildlife biologists, enforcement of
ficers, habitat aquisition, scientific studies
and myriad other important projects. On
the national level. Duck Stamp revenues
pay for many of the same things as state
hunting licenses. Since 1937, duck and
goose hunters have provided over 300 mil
lion dollars for such things as migratory
waterfowl habitat aquisition, wetlands pro
tection and migration studies through
their purchase of the stamps.
Wildlife conservations requires large
amounts of money; buy a license orak
cu 11W HI 1L o IlH^llCY, IJLiy cl injdiac ui a" 1
Stamp and help out. If anyone isunw ave P<
bmi
to do this, at lease don’t attack us
we’ve been footing the bill for wildlife 1
servation for years.
— Gregory K.
THOXZ
HfyNiye/te,^
WELL, IF IT ISN'T
AGRICULTURE X
1X)N'T WANT TO
55 W‘
MESS WITH m
by Doug Graham
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