| M. 73 No. 40
2 Pages
£ Battauon
Friday, October 26, 1979 USPS 045 360
College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
Houston midnight yell
Midnight yell practice will be held tonight in
Houston. Head Yell Leader Pete Greaves said prac
tice will be in the parking lot of Rodeo, a Houston <
club, at the intersection of Westheimer and Hill- .
croft.
Shah’s prognosis
for recovery ‘good’
United Press International
NEW YORK — The exiled shah of Iran
is spending his 60th birthday today in a
hospital bed recovering from a gall bladder
operation and suffering from cancer, but
optimistic he will be cured.
A spokesman for New York Hospital-
Cornell Medical Center said the hospital
planned to send a cake up to Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s room today,
but wasn’t sure whether the ailing shah
would be able to eat a piece.
“But don’t you think it would be a nice
gesture?’ he asked. “We kicked it around
at an administrative staff meeting and we
thought it would be nice.”
Doctors Thursday said they expect the
deposed monarch’s cancer can be cured if
he stays in New York for at least six
months of intensive chemotherapy.
Dr. Morton Coleman, in charge of
chemotherapy programs at the hospital,
said doctors “assume” the shah’s lym
phoma has spread.
Lymphoma is cancer of the spleen and
lymph nodes, the body’s disease-fighting
network. Once cancer afflicts the system it
normally spreads quickly throughout the
body.
But Coleman added, “This is a cancer
we can make a real impact on. We have
the potential to cure him. ’ He said pa
tients with the shah’s type of lymphoma
have a “60 to 70 percent long-range survi
val rate.”
But Coleman cautioned that patients
often face complications from
chemotherapy such as infection, loss of
hair and internal bleeding. He added,
“The possibility exists that the shah will
die from chemotherapy.”
However, Coleman said he was optimis
tic about the shah’s chances of recovery
because he responded well to the past
treatment.
On Wednesday the shah underwent 2 1 A
hours of surgery to remove his gall bladder
to correct painful jaundice. Surgeons also
removed a tissue sample from a lymph
node in his neck to study the shah’s
cancer. French doctors have been treating
the shah for cancer for six years.
Library to open formally
though still unfinished
The increasing number of students at Texas A&M
University means more pedestrians and bicyclists
on campus, creating a distinct traffic problem. An
U42 billion revenue foreseen
increasing number of bicycle-pedestrian collisions
have been reported this semester.
Battalion photo by Sam Stroder
Dedication ceremonies for the Sterling
C. Evans Library will be at 10 a.m. Nov.
17 on the portico, even though the library
expansion has not been completed.
The contractor, Spaw-Glass, Inc. from
Houston, had set a completion date of
July, 1979, but library director Irene
Hoadley said it probably won’t be finished
until sometime next semester. Construc
tion on the $12 million expansion was
started in August, 1977.
“I’d really like to think I’m wrong,
and that they’ll finish before then,” Hoad
ley said.
Glass must still be installed to replace
the plywood wall on the north side of the
building. From that side, a doorway will
be built to the reserve room for 24-hour
access during finals week. The door will
remain locked during the rest of the year.
“There is still a lot of electrical work to
be done,” Hoadley said. “We’ve also had
massive problems with the clocks. By that,
I mean none of them worked.”
All of the clocks have been taken out,
she said, and the manufacturer was here
this week to check out the problems.
Workers lack 600 yards of carpeting,
and it will take four to six months to get it,
Hoadley said.
Meanwhile, the sunken reading rooms
on the second floor are not open while
workers wait for delivery of carpet and the
floor-to-ceiling mirrors. In the older part
of the library, the fire alarm system has not
been completed.
Fortunately, the dedication plaque has
been completed. It will be unveiled dur
ing the two-day ceremonies with Sterling
C. Evans, Class of 21, in attendance.
UAW gives Chrysler break,
bmmittee approves windfall tax gets seat on directors’ board
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate Finance
imittee Thursday approved a $142 bil-
on windfall profits tax on oil companies.
The move came on a voice vote and
jmmittee Chairman Russell Long,
said the bill will be ready to be
ken up on the Senate floor by Nov. 5.
Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska., has
areatened a filibuster. But committee
lies said that, barring such action, floor
action on the legislation could be com
pleted by Thanksgiving.
| The committee acted after approving on
2,15-0 vote a plan by Sen. William Roth,
R-Del., that would use some of the oil
windfall general fund revenues to pay for
the steep Social Security tax hike due in
1981. It could save U.S. workers an esti
mated $11 billion.
The committee also approved a revised
heating fuel tax credit that would allow
homeowners and renters who burn heat
ing oil, propane, or Canadian natural gas a
minimum $20 credit per household in
calendar year 1979, and $30 per household
in 1980 and 1981.
That credit would be available only to
persons whose adjusted gross income is
less than $18,000 in 1979, rising to less
than $20,000 in 1980 and 1981. Commit
tee aides estimated the credits would cost
the Treasury $1.5 billion in fiscal 1980 and
$2 billion in fiscal 1981.
In addition to those tax credits, the
committee also agreed to provide $3 bil
lion in energy assistance for the poor in
fiscal 1981 and 1982.
The House has approved a windfall tax
projected to raise $273.4 billion in new
revenues by 1990. The Senate Finance
Committee is completing a $141.7 billion
measure, which aides said could reach the
Senate floor Nov. 5.
Police gun down bystander
n case of mistaken identity
United Press International
DALLAS — An innocent bystander,
aken hostage by a gunman, was shot and
filled by police as he tried to run for free-
flom.
t Police said they thought he was the man
who kidnapped his estranged wife and
3-year-old son Thursday after breaking
Into a house and dragging them out.
Police identified the dead man as Lee
Douglas Page, 36, forced to take part in a
desperate attempt by Larry Butler, 24, to
cape from police.
But officers shot Page, mistaking him for
die armed assailant, saying he refused or
ders to halt.
Police said Butler was walking his wife
and son down a sidewalk at gunpoint as
police arrived at both ends of the street
and held their distance. Apparently un
aware of the standoff. Page suddenly
walked out of his house and toward his car.
Police said Butler quickly corralled the
man and ordered him into the driver’s seat
while he, his wife and son crawled into the
back seat.
Butler, waving the gun out the window
and firing at surrounding officers, ordered
Page to pull out of the driveway and es
cape, but the car stalled.
Page suddenly jumped from the car and
started running. Officers thought Butler
had gotten out of the car and ordered the
running man to halt. Page kept running.
however, and was shot.
Butler, still holding his wife and son
hostage in the car, was talked into surren
dering within 10 minutes of Page’s death.
The officers involved in the shooting
were suspended immediately pending a
formal investigation.
United Press International
DETROIT -7- The United Auto Work
ers union has traded $203 million in con
tract concessions for a major breakthrough
in U.S. labor history — a seat on Chrysler
Corp.’s board of directors.
More than three hours after a noon
deadline, the UAW and Chrysler Thurs
day announced tentative agreement on a
new national contract asking Chrysler
workers to forego some of the gains won
earlier this year at General Motors Corp.
and Ford Motor Co.
But their interests will be promoted at
Chrysler board meetings by UAW Presi
dent Douglas Fraser, who under the
agreement will be nominated for a direc
torship in May 1980.
At varying times during the three-year
pact, the 101,000 UAW-represented
Chrysler workers in the United States will
be earning less than their counterparts at
Ford and CM, while pensions for Chrysler
retirees will be 30 percent lower.
But full wage, pension and benefit par
ity will be achieved by the end of the
agreement, union and company officials
said.
William O’Brien, chief negotiator for
Chrysler, said the company had no qualms
about electing Fraser to the board but
added the post will not necessarily be ex
tended to future UAW presidents.
The $203 million represents money
Chrysler would have had to spend if it had
matched the CM and Ford pattern agree
ments, which are worth an additional
$10,000 in wages over three years for the
average autoworker.
In addition, the UAW earlier agreed to
allow Chrysler to defer a $200 million an
nual pension fund payment — amounting
to $403 million in union aid for the struggl
ing No. 3 automaker.
A pledge of union aid to the company
figured heavily in Chrysler’s bid for fed
eral financial help.
The firm, which is expected to lose $1
billion this year, is seeking loan guarantees
from the government to tide it over until it
introduces a new 1981 car line it sees as its
salvation.
“The burden now rests on the Congress
to act promptly to assist Chrysler, as well
as on the banks, supplier companies and
others with a stake in this matter,” Fraser
said.
A 29-hour bargaining session was re
quired to put finishing touches on the pact
Fraser said he expects will be approved.
It will be submitted to the UAW’s
rank-and-file Chrysler Council next Wed
nesday in Kansas City. If endorsed by the
council, it will be passed down for a gen
eral ratification vote concluding Nov. 15.
Run-offs set Wednesday
for freshman class officers
The results of the student government
freshman elections have been officially an
nounced and a run-off for class officer posi
tions will be Wednesday.
Students elected to senate positions are:
Te Starr, Tim Timmerman, Gigi Bre
wer, Donna Zimmerman, Debbie Grob,
Chris May and Mary Ann French. These
results are final and no run-off is neces
sary.
Run-off elections will be for all the class
officer positions:
Rocky Path and Dan Stedham for presi
dent, Pam Baldwin and Mike Lawshe for
vice-president, Cindy Smith and Kathy
Bartholomew for social secretary and
Diana Horadam and Jeff Cantrell for
secretary-treasurer.
orps Trip scheduled
v or Houston Saturday
I* By MIKE BURRICHTER
Battalion Reporter
■The Texas A&M University Corps of
sEadets will take the first of two annual
Rorps Trips Saturday when it goes to
■ouston for a parade before the Rice-
fftexas A&M game.
B More than 2,000 uniformed Aggies will
inarch 17 blocks routed north on Main
Street from Clay and Bell Streets. The
fcute includes right turns on Texas and
ifannin streets to return to its starting
•foint.
The march, led by Corps Commander
|ill Dugat of Weslaco, will begin at 9:45
/ |.m.
M United States Navy Rear Admiral
l Joeseph J. Barth Jr. will review the march-
Cjftg Corps units from a platform at Rusk
and Main Streets. Barth is the chief of
naval air training at the Corpus Christi
Naval Air Station.
The Corps schedules its trips in congru
ence with the football team’s schedule.
This year the Corps will march in Hous
ton and Fort Worth because the Aggies
play Rice and TCU away. Next year when
the Houston and SMU games are away,
the Corps will in Houston and Dallas.
Corps trips trace back to 1878 when the
Texas A&M student body took a train to
the San Jacinto Battlefield where mock
battles were staged. This practice con
tinued through the turn of the century,
when the excursions began to be centered
around football.
The Fort Worth trip will be Nov. 24.
Detective work leads art professor
to paintings by once-famous artist
United Press International
FORT WORTH — A professor’s
persistence in uncovering the past of
a now obscure painter who was once
compared to the best European ar
tists of the 1800s led him to an old
trunk in New Jersey and a closet in
Philadelphia.
The painter was Peter Rothermel,
Philadelphia’s leading history painter
in the mid-1800s but who faded into
obscurity after his death in 1895.
Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, an art
history professor at Texas Christian
University, was intrigued about the
lofty subjects and deftly-applied col
ors of the 19th century artist.
“His are the kind of paintings that
tended to be in American history
books up into the 20th century — pic
tures of the pilgrims landing, Patrick
Henry delivering his speech before
the House of Burgesses, Sir Walter
Raleigh laying down his cloak for his
queen,” said Thistlethwaite.
“Rothermel read the history books
and tried to be factual, but he tended
almost always to move the paintings
into a romantic kind of attitude in
which the emotions run very high.
He liked scenes of confrontation.”
Rothermel, said the TCU profes
sor, helped give the country “a sense
of identity by making history “more
alive and dynamic.” His pictures be
came the highest form of American
art until the late 19th century, captur
ing intense public interest for 100
years.
But history painting fell out of fash
ion, replaced by landscape scenes —
its death knell sounded by the advent
of photography.
“Now,” said Thistlethwaite, “even
most historians don’t know who he
is.”
The paintings of Rothermel were
almost always 6 feet wide, hard to
hide in a corner. But it was a major
task this summer to track down both
the paintings and more background
on Rothermel.
Thistlethwaite, working on a sum
mer stipend, spent three months in
Washington D.C., Pennsylvania,
New York, New Jersey and Rhode Is
land.
He spent weeks in libraries, scan
ning 19th century newspapers and
periodicals. He haunted the Ameri
can Archives of Art in Washington to
see if he could learn where Rother-
mel’s paintings were located.
“A lot of them were lost, and no
body knew where they were,” he
said. “It was a matter of tracking them
down again like detective work,
gathering information and following
up clues.”
Rothermel’s painting of Sir Walter
Raleigh was found crated and stored
in the closet of a Philadelphia YMCA.
The art sleuth also located evidence
of Rothermel’s past in a trunk owned
by a New Jersey couple. It contained
original Rothermel sketches,
engravings and even photographs of
Roman buildings which
Thistlethwaite believes the artist used
as the basis for background scenes in
his classical history works.
“The trunk’s contents are worth
several thousand dollars, and they
paid $4 for it,” he said.
Rothermel’s great-grandson, Peter
Rothermel IV, was found teaching
history at a Newport, R.I., prep
school.
“He didn’t actually know much
about Rothermel, but he did have a
couple of paintings and sketches
which were interesting to me,” said
Thistlethwaite.
The key point of the study, he said,
was to show that Rothermel’s works
are important visual documents show
ing the way artists in the 1800s inter
preted the past.
“His name and those of other his
tory painters are largely forgotten,”
said Thistlethwaite, “but their roman
tic work made an impact that may af
fect the way Americans think about
American history even today.”