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Opinion
A giver receives
Some of them are just looking for a clean place to die.
Others want food, medical care or schooling.
Whatever they need. Mother Teresa gives.
But now she is the recepient — of the 1979 Nobel Peace
Prize.
The committee explained its decision this way:
“Poverty and hunger and distress also constitute a threat
to peace.” Normally the award goes to people who have
somehow prevented conventional wars.
Mother Teresa, 69, fights another war, the war against
poverty.
The hallmark of her work, the Nobel Committee added,
“has been respect for the individual human being, for his or
her dignity and innate value. The loneliest, the most
wretched and the dying have at her hands received com
passion without condescension based on reverence for
man.
Not surprising, Calcutta’s “saint of the gutters” will
spend the $190,000 prize on building more homes for the
destitute, especially lepers.
This year’s award was a special one — and one well
deserved.
Another tradition falls
Women worked in the Bonfire cutting area this weekend
— worked, and not just passing out cookies.
The decision, made just last week, changed a tradition.
In the past, women have not been allowed to cut down and
carry out the trees needed to build the Bonfire.
Men have been more equal than women here for some
time. Maybe they won’t be much longer.
the small society
by Brickman
Woo-Zo^!
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The Battalion
US PS 045 360
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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, Nancy
Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver,
Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt
Allen, Debbie Nelson
Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographers Lynn Blanco, Sam
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Cartoonist Doug Graham
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
those of the editor or of the writer of the
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University administration or the Board of
Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-
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Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
VIEWPOINT
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
October 22, 1979
Analysis
West Germany: Put your foot down
(on the gas pedal) and don’t look bod
By WOLFGANG WAGNER
HANNOVER, WEST GERMANY — If
you’re eager to push the accelerator to the
floor and try to break the sound barrier
without worrying about cops, then come
to West Germany. This is the only country
in Europe, perhaps in the world, without
speed limits on its freeways.
Indeed, the government here recently
decided after contemplating the subject
once again that is has no intention of impo
sing restrictions on motorists — as long as
they stick to the autobahns, as major West
German turnpikes are called.
On other roads, the legal maximum is 60
miles per hour, and it is half that speed in
towns and villages. But on the big
turnpikes, drivers can go as fast as they
please.
Over and over again within recent
years, politicians, police officials and
others have raised the question of whether
to slow down West German motorists,
partly for safety reasons and also because
of the gasoline shortage. Predictably, the
partisans of unbridled speed carried the
day.
For one thing, they argued convinc
ingly, very few drivers go above 80 miles
per hour, the speed proposed by those
who favored limits. This is because day
time traffic on the highways is so dense
that going faster is impossible.
Trucks and buses, which consume the
largest quantities of gasoline, usually
cruise at between 60 and 70 miles per
hour, which is considered reasonable
here.
Besides, it has been difficult for advo
cates of curtailed speed to use the gasoline
shortage as an issue, since there is no
visible scarcity of fuel in West Germany.
Not even during the summer months,
when the routes were clogged with va
cationers, did I observe lines at service
stations.
To be sure, the West German govern
ment has been appealing to citizens to
conserve energy. But instead of raising
threats of rationing, it has used two de
vices in its approach to the problem.
In the first place, it has issued what
might be called “moral pleas, counting on
the disciplined West Germans to disci
pline themselves. And secondly, it has
boosted gasoline prices by some 10 to 15
percent in the hope that this would deter
motorists.
Depending on quality, gasoline here
now costs in the neighborhood of $2 per
gallon. That is relatively low compared to
the prices in Italy, Spain, Greece and
France, where many West Germans go on
vacation.
But even though they regard them
selves as relatively well off, West Germans
have in fact been behaving more
moderately on the autobahns because of
fuel costs.
Underlying the government’s reluc
tance to restrict speeding, moreover, was
another factor. West German’s automobile
manufacturers were cool to the idea.
The automobile industry here has for
years been producing too many cars for
the local market, which is packed as well
with other European and even Japanese
models. Many young people in particular
are partial to French and Italian cars,
which are cheap to buy and to operate.
West Germany turns out small vehicles
such as the Volkswagen, which are popular
abroad. But in order to be able to continue
exporting big cars, like the Mercedes, it
must also build them the way West Ger
mans want them — strong, solid and fast.
In other words, a car like the Mercedes
would not be constructed for export unless
West Gennans found it to their taste. And
it would not satisfy buyers here unless
they could drive it at limitlesssm ,
least in theory.
Since the government here i!
mined to push exports, onwhiclitlr
German economy is heavilydepeai
has l>een sensitive to the viewsot 1
tomobile makers.
This is not to suggest that Wei
many’s big corporations are c
the gasoline shortage becamechtia
public might well exert pressure ion
restrictions as an economy measiin
But this has not been thecaseunti
and all government has done to
been to put out mild “recommei
to motorists to take it easy. Asb
know, nobody has been punish
speeding or even warned.
So if you want to feel the po«t
engine hurtling you downaliigl
West Germany is the place. Excel
you will probably find that here,
home, you’ll be stuck most of the
traffic jams.
Wagner is editor of the Hanm
Allgemeine Zeitung, the Wes(&
daily.
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By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Edwin Paget, 78, a
retired speech professor whose idea of a
glorious summer vacation has been run
ning up and down Pike’s Peak 41 times,
believes it is never too soon to improve
body and mind.
His theories about oxygen stimulating
human brain cells have never been scienti
fically verified.
Nevertheless, a man has got to think
about something during the long dashes to
the summit, and this summer, in the
course of making his 866th career ascent of
the Colorado mountain, Paget got to think
ing about the International Year of the
Child.
In particular, he got to thinking about
all those millions of infants lying there in
their cribs, doing nothing much of any
thing except drooling on their bibs.
In his mind’s eye, Paget could see their
little brains deteriorating from inactivity.
And that is when he hit upon the idea of
promoting an exercise program for babies
less than a year old.
“Soon after birth, the brain of the typi
cal baby begins to decline in effective
ness,’ the peripatetic pedagogue says.
“Vigorous exercise will correct this defi
ciency, and will usually increase the men
tal efficiency.’’
Paget seemed a little vague as to how
anyone who hadn’t even learned to walk
and talk, much less do push-ups, could be
motivated for strenuous regimens. But he
insisted there were “various things’’ par
ents could do to raise infant exertion
levels.
“Cribs are much too small, too station
ary,” he said. “Babies are forced to spend
most of their time in almost a comatose
state.”
Paget was asked if it might be feasible to
attach elastic bands to a baby’s armsij 111 ? the vol
when it sucked its thumb it alsow>fl 00 j o ud fo
developing its biceps. B the groi
“That’s certainly a possibility, au <hble a
plied with notable lack of enthffi a ' n ly to
“Once the public becomes aware; PJ a y e d up
need, all kinds of suggestions wlBP ens e ol
pouring in. B^ft Pab
Well, then, might bis proposalcpB ou P> on
door to commercial exploitation,ft)* et her. T
the market with Adidas diapers,wpted in
warm-up suits, special kicking booteeB 11 - 8 et
the like? Wether.
Paget responded with what so'Jr ” a tig
like a snort of indignation. B 8 3 0 ^ ru
sar, the
BeRios w;
Letters
’64 alum didn’t want football tickets:
‘Bellard’s a winner, A&M’s a joke’
crowd thr
an impre;
(Wizardry t
tive and
both.
Ocean
Editor:
This new “wide open, exciting brand of
football that you and a couple of rich
alumni were so anxious to have at A&M
prompts me to write this note. For the
first time in 20 years, I didn’t order any
A&M football tickets. My instincts cer
tainly proved correct.
Personally, I enjoyed being in the Top
10, going to bowl games and winning 8 to
10 games a year. I guess what people find
“dull” is a matter of definition. I notice
Oklahoma and Alabama don’t find the
wishbone dull — but what do they know.
When you treat a man of Coach Bel
lard’s caliber as you did, it usually comes
back to haunt you. As expected, he has
remained a winner and a highly respected
gentleman while A&M — on the other
hand — is a joke.
— J. Barnes, ’64
Editor’s note: This letter was sent origi
nally to Jarvis Miller. Copies were sent to
Emory Bellard and the Battalion
In each of those games, decisions by the
coaching staff have cost us what otherwise
were imminent victories. Case in point,
the decisions to go for a first down on
fourth-and-one situations late in both
games, with victory on the horizon. If
Emory Bellard were coach, his decision in
those two instances would have been
“punt“. His decision to punt would have
come, as the old adage goes, “quicker than
90 gars could skin a minnow.” But, we do
not advocate his return as coach, nor de
bate who is or should be head coach.
It is not only the things happening on
the field but those off the field as well.
Why was a 218-pound tight end who has
no experience as a quick tackle, playing
against the likes of Hosea Taylor and
Leonard Mitchell, both 6’5’ and 270
pounds or better, and potential All-SWC
as well as All-American? Why is it that
such talented, experienced, and bigger
players as Tim Ward, Thomas Gregory,
Curtis Jennings, Kyle Golson, Mike Rob
bins, and last but not least Doug Holmes
(an All-SWC pick last year) sitting on the
bench? Confront the offensive line coaches
with this inquiry. Decisions to play
younger and/or inexperienced pbjtl
the offensive line instead of expo
and and All-SWC players does not
good football sense.
Somewhere along the line, polifcj
favoritism have reared their uM
and affected the decisions and oiM
related to Texas A&M football.
Armchair quarterbacks we are;']
tented A&M football fans we are not (
— Doug Joseph
Editor’s note: This letter was i
panied by two other signatures.
Thotz
" AWRIGHT/ BRING-ON THE BABES,
X GOT ME
by Doug Grala;
gamut, fi
a,| d loud
More unhappy fans
Editor:
Fellow Aggies, we are witnessing the
downfall of A&M football. In our*six years
here, never has A&M’s reputation as a
football power been so tarnished. Why is
this so? Witness the first and sixth games
of the -season.