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The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 34
20 Pages 2 Sections
Thursday, October 18, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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ationwide protests ask
jor oil, gas price controls
United Press International
te organizers of “Big Oil Protest Day”
rdinated demonstrations in 103 cities
lughout the nation Wednesday to pres-
the government into re-imposing
controls on domestic oil and natural
he protests included a demonstration
me American Petroleum Institute in
lliington, signing “Big Oil Discredit
ps in Cleveland and Chicago and a
n-hour honk-in at Carter-Mondale
Ipaign headquarters in Concorde,
lere was even an evening candle vigil
company facilities in Detroit.
Campaign for Lower Energy
s, made up of consumer, labor and
lie
senior citizen groups, orchestrated the
protests “to bring grass-roots pressure on
President Carter and Congress to re
impose price controls on domestic crude
oil, natural gas and home-heating oil,” said
spokesman Tom Blanton.
The first demonstration was called at
API’s headquarters in Washington by el
derly people worried that many elderly on
fixed incomes may suffer because they will
have to scrimp on oil.
A lunch-hour demonstration was called
in Cleveland to distribute petitions urging
either government takeover of the domes
tic oil industry or at least creation of a
government-run oil company to compete
with private industry.
And a citizen-labor group said it would
collect “Big Oil Discredit Cards” signed
by Clevelanders to express “massive dis
trust and resentment against the oil com
panies.” Chicago cabbies also were dis
pensing the cards, which read, “The oil
companies’ credit has run out with me.”
In New Hampshire, motorists staged a
rush-hour “honk-in” Wednesday night in
front of Carter’s Concord campaign head
quarters to denounce his decision to de
control domestic oil and natural gas prices.
Elsewhere, pickets planned to demon
strate at oil storage tanks in Palm Beach
Fla.; union leaders called a candle-lit vigil
Wednesday night at Amoco and Mobil
facilities in Detroit, and the state AFL-
CIO convention in Charleston, W.Va.,
was expected to join mine workers in a
march on the state capital.
Blanton said the nationwide protest was
organized because “domestic oil and
natural gas supplies should serve as a buf
fer for the American economy against
OPEC price increases until we become
more energy-efficient.
“But under decontrol the U. S. oil com
panies are going to get the OPEC price
when it only costs $2 a barrel to produce
domestic oil,” Blanton said.
On the other side, pro-big oil demon
strators held a rally Tuesday in Midland,
Texas, the very heart of oil country, to
mark “Oil Appreciation Day.” Up to 1,500
people spent their lunch hour hearing and
applauding speakers who denounced Jane
Fonda and cited the oil companies as bas
tions of free enterprise.
1
I
it sponsors expected more donors
ggie blood drive breaks record
By MARGARET JOHNSON
Battalion Reporter
texas A&M University students broke
Ither record this semester with the
lie Blood Drive, although sponsors felt
I turnout was low for a university this
last year only 1,343 pints of blood were
lated. This semester the Wadley Blood
Ik received 1,521 pints. The Student
fernment Association, along with the
ega Phi Alpha and Alpha Phi Omega
i organizations, sponsored the blood
jit was really satisfying that this many
Iple turned out for the drive, said
Roger Lind, an APO spokesman. “We
were really pleased.”
In spite of the increase in donors, the
turnout was not as great as anticipated.
“We expected a big turnout because of
all the publicity,” Lind said. “I talked to
other organizations and dorms and they
were really pushing the drive. However,
the turnout was still poor for the amount of
students at this university.”
Many students who planned to donate
blood were turned down because of medi
cal reasons. Others did not want to wait
30-45 minutes in the long line at the
Memorial Student Center.
“We’d like to have two locations set up
for the next drive. We’ve considered the
Harrington lounge, but it is small and
doesn’t have all the facilities,” Lind said.
“We are going to work this and the long
line problem out with the Wadley people
before next semester’s drive.”
Lisa Bartling, OPA blood drive co-
chairman, was also pleased with the out
come of the drive.
“We are very happy about this semes
ter’s turnout but there are some things
that will have to be smoothed out,” she
said. She said one reason she thought the
turnout was better this year was because
kegs of beer were given away to the dormi
tory or organization that donated the most
blood.
“Next semester all clubs and organiza
tions will be required to submit the
amount of members in their club or
dorm,” she said. “We ll then take the per
centage of the amount of pints donated
from the total amount of members to de
termine the winning organizations.”
This semester the total amount of blood
given by a dormitory or organization was
used to choose the winner.
Aston Hall won three kegs this semester
donating 203 pints. Second place, winning
two kegs, was the Fightin’ Texas Aggie
Band, donating 156 pints. Squadron 12
won third place and one keg with 67 pints.
lass murderer given death penalty
er jury deliberation of 55 minutes
United Press International
CLAHOMA CITY — Convicted mass
|derer Roger Dale Stafford stood with-
smotion as he was condemned to die
|the murders of six restaurant em-
ees. But the Alabama drifter later said
las “cheated” by the state and if exe-
Jd he would die an innocent man.
lafford was sentenced Wednesday to
jh by lethal injection on each of six
Its of first-degree murder for the July
16, 1978, shooting deaths of the six work
ers. The same seven-woman, five-man
jury had convicted him less than an hour
before.
Referring to testimony by his wife,
Verna Stafford, that she saw her husband
shoot the victims, Stafford said, “I hope ...
either my wife admits the truth or they
find the right person who did the crime. If
not, I die an innocent man.”
Stafford made the comments moments
after stoically hearing his death sentence
read by District Judge Charles Owens,
who had earlier urged the jury to exact
“just a little bit of vengeance” in its delib
erations concerning the sentence. Staf
ford’s attorney, J. Malone Brewer, said his
client was prepared for the verdict.
“I have been cheated by the state,” Staf
ford told reporters.
He told the jury, “He (Stafford) thought
no more of taking these lives than you
would of stepping on an insect.”
The jury, which began hearing the case
seven days earlier, deliberated only 27
minutes before reaching a guilty verdict
and only 55 minutes before returning the
death sentences.
Stafford was convicted of herding four
teen-agers and two men into a meat locker
and shooting them during a robbery at the
southside Sirloin Stockade restaurant.
Come to Papa
John Karger, a certified falconer, shows his success in rehabilitating
birds by letting one of his former patients fly across the room. Karger
spoke at Texas A&M University Tuesday night on his work with birds of
prey. For more information, see page 3. Battalion photo by Sam stroder
Natural body protein
may be cancer-fighter
PEC expected to raise oil prices — again
United Press International
TOKYO — The Organization of Petro-
jiin Exporting countries will raise oil
fees at its next meeting in December,
: chairman of OPEC said Wednesday.
IChairman Nana Said Al Otaiba, in Japan
Ice Monday for talks with Japanese offi-
|ls, said “the price of oil has to go up.”
|An official source said the margin of the
increase will be fixed in Caracas, Ven
ezuela, in December.
The source said Otaiba’s statement was
made when the powerful oil minister of
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met with
International Trade and Industry Minister
Masumi Esaki Wednesday.
During the 50-minute meeting, Otaiba
also hinted of the UAE’s readiness to fulfill
Japan’s oil needs.
The oil minister reportedly told Esaki
“Japan can put its total faith” in the UAE
for supply in crude oil and natural gas.
Japan currently imports about 450,000
barrels of crude per day, or 10 percent of
its total oil requirements, from the UAE.
Otaiba also told Esaki OPEC would
“take responsible actions for the world
economy’’ at its general meeting
scheduled for mid-December in the Ven
ezuelan capital, Japanese officials said.
But the oil minister warned that oil
supplies did not necessarily meet de
mands. “Consuming nations have to try to
save oil to prevent the arrival of global
tragedy,” he said.
United Press International
DALLAS — Interferon, a substance
produced by the body to fight off infection,
appears to have cancer-fighting prop
erties, but scientists say they cannot get
enough of the substance to do the amount
of research necessary to be sure.
“The world supply is very limited, yet
the interest in having interferon available
for research is very high,” said Dr. Nolan
Hill, president of Wadley Institutes of
Molecular Medicine, site of an interferon
symposium beginning today.
The supply of interferon is so limited
that Wadley is the only institution in the
United States currently producing it, he
said, although research on its medicinal
properties is underway in several loca
tions.
“Interferon is a naturally occurring
anti-viral protein which is produced as our
own natural defense against viral infec
tions,” Hill said. “There appears to be
some evidence it might have anti-cancer
activity.”
The substance is produced in the labora
tory from cultures of human white blood
cells that are obtained as a by-product
from ordinary blood donations, said Hill.
“They are challenged with a virus of the
flu family and in response, they release
interferon,” Hill said.
Hill said large doses of interferon have
been given at Wadley to patients with
“far-advanced” cases of leukemia who have
undergone all other known methods of
treatment.
“With a high dose there is been an im
provement in the leukemia, a definite re
duction. It has reduced the number of
leukemia cells dramatically,” Hill said.
H owever, Hill said only a minute
amount of interferon is obtained from each
culture and it would take 3,000 blood do
nations to get enough interferon to pro
duce a 15-month supply for a normal-sized
adult undergoing cancer treatment with a
high dose of the substance daily.
New Department of Education
4 will not usurp’ local authority
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
Wednesday signed legislation creating a
new, $14.2 billion Department of Educa
tion, and said the new department will not
usurp local school board authority.
The president, flanked by key members
of Congress who helped push the bill to
final passage, signed the legislation during
a ceremony in the White House East
Room.
In his remarks, Carter stressed that the
new department, which includes about
17,000 workers responsible for 150 or
more federal programs, will not usurp
local school board responsibility.
“The federal government is there, eager '
to help, ” Carter said, “but the real author
ity lies with parents and teachers at the
local level.
“Primary responsibility for education
should rest with those states, localities,
and private institutions that have made
our nation’s educational system the best in
the world,” Carter said.
“Education is our most important na
tional investment,” he said, adding that
three out of 10 people in the country are
directly or indirectly involved in some
educational pursuit.
He said the country spends $120 billion
a year on education, but until today (Wed
nesday), “There has not been an adequate
mechanism in the federal government by
which we could improve education in the
United States.”
As the audience of more than 200
people applauded. Carter said, “I hope
and I pray and I’m determined that we re
going to cut out unnecessary forms and red
tape” that dominated the past.
Carter made no mention of who will
head the department.
Midnight blaze guts Northgate cleaners;
owner will take claims early next week
Super-size surrealism
This five-foot inchworm (formed by person inside a
flexible duct) and his giant round playmate created
one of dozens of scenes presented by the Mum-
menschanz mime troup Wednesday night at Texas
A&M University. For a review of the group’s silent
antics, see page 3. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Fire destroyed University Cleaners at
Northgate early this morning.
Owner Bernie Gessner said all the
clothes were lost in the blaze.
He said he could not estimate how
much damage was done.
College Station Fire Chief Douglas
Landua said the department received the
call at 12:34 a.m., and the fire was out
about 40 minutes later. He said four pum
pers from College Station and two units
from Bryan were used.
No cause of the fire has been deter
mined, but witnesses reported sparks from
the electrical transformer and from inside
the laundry.
The Drafting Board, next door to the
laundry, suffered heavy smoke damage,
Landua said. No injuries were reported.
Gessner said people who had clothes in
the laundry probably won’t be able to do
anything until Monday.
“We will be set up and taking claims on
the clothes,” he said.
One Texas A&M University student,
Mary Jo Stine, said she lost two wool suits
in the fire.
Terry Byrd said he saw the sparks about
12:30 and ran to a nearby pizza store to call
the fire department.
“They responded in eight minutes,” he
said. “By then it was engulfed in flames.”