Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 1980)
A i The Battalion Vol. 73 No. 80 Wednesday, January 16, 1980 USPS 045 360 16 Pages College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611 Minuti XIV, 'ghestni, Sas prices reach dollar mark ;v erybo4 n many local service stations By RICHARD OLIVER General Assignments Reporter Although the price of gasoline has top ed the one dollar mark for the first time in iryan-College Station, one local gas station wner feels the United States is still fortu- Nash’s station is selling regular gas for $1.01-a-gallon, one cent over the average rate for Bryan-College station service sta tions. ate. Boyd Nash, owner of Nash’s Self Service jnoco station at 200 N. Texas Ave., said ompared to other countries in the world, he U.S. still ranks as one of cheapest in gas trices. “Iwas in Europe in 1965, ” he said, “and hey were selling it for more then than I’m elling it for now. And the main point was he fact that the average wage then for a uropean was $35-a-week." In a survey of 20 gas stations in the local area, the average price per gallon for self- service regular gas is $1, and for unleaded, $1.11. For full service, the average is $1.07 for regular, and $1.11 for unleaded. Orus Morgan, the general manager of D&B Oil, said prices are continuing to rise, and he expects no let-up in the rate of in crease. on the 8th of this month. ” I foresee a gen eral trend in the same direction in the fu ture.” Tom Anderson, owner of Anderson Truck and Trailer Rental at 2010 S. College Ave., agrees. “I would think it will get worse before it gets better,” he said. “Your guess would be as good as mine as to how far up it will go. All I can see is a jump upward, though. “Prices are continuing to spiral upward, ” he said. “They went up five cents per gallon “The oil companies are out for them selves,” he said. “The prices keep rising, and there’s nothing we can do about it. When I started in this business, I sold gas for 18 cents. Now it’s $1.04. That’s a big jump. uel prices vary from nation to nation KV By United Press International A motorist in Kuwait can tank up his conditioned Cadillac at 21 cents a gal- [in, but the latest oil hikes have sent the ice of premium gasoline to more than $3 some European countries. A survey by United Press International few significant changes in national riving habits or drop in sales, however. In France, where the national oil bill is p 100 percent over a year ago, gasoline w costs $3.20 a gallon and motorists are ding the bite. “A few more oil price increases and we II be out of business, ” said a spokesman rcompanies running the tollpaying super ighways. But Britain, gripped by 17 percept infla- m, reports brisk sales with a gallon of gas $2.65—expected tojump soon to $2.90. Italy’s pump price is up 10 percent to $3.27 a gallon. But while there were long lines outside gas stations the night before the latest increase, economists say Italians will keep buying. Romans refused to abandon their cars even when city fathers experimentally of fered free bus rides four years ago. In Spain, premium gas jumped 14 per cent this month to $3.21 a gallon and $2.96 in neighboring Portugal, prompting a 48- hour strike by Madrid cab drivers and simi lar protests elsewhere. Yet Spain is the only country in Europe to use more gasoline in the first half of 1979 than in the preceding six months, despite government warnings that failure to con serve will mean cuts in living standards. In the Soviet Union, with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, gasoline is sold only by the state — for $1.31 a gallon, although it is 93 octane and not suitable for American cars. There are occasional long lines at gas stations, but lines are a way of life in Russia. Iceland, with its hot springs, has the world’s handiest supply of natural heat. But gasoline, 75 percent of it bought from the Soviets, now costs $3.50 a gallon. And use of cycles has soared. Stockpiles have cushioned many Asian oil-importing countries, but the latest price increase hit motorists, public transport and utility bills. In Japan, which is nearly totally depen dent on imported oil, a gallon of gasoline is $2.37, up from $1.70 a year ago when the government first ordered gas stations closed on Sundays and holidays. U.S. wants to move 1980 games United Press International Student Andrew Womack fights the high gas prices by riding a motorcycle. Photo by Terry Roche WASHINGTON — The United States is considering several proposals to deny the Soviet Union the 1980 Olympics, includ ing possibly paying a large share of the costs to hold the games elsewhere, White House officials say. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was quoted Wednesday saying he has set a deadline of no later than mid-February for the Soviet Union to withdraw troops from Afghanistan or face the likelihood of an American boycott of the Olympics. Both Vance and President Carter are op posed to U.S. participation in the Moscow Olympics while the Soviets remain in Af ghanistan, Vance said in an interview with the New York Times. Vance added he did not expect the Russians to meet the mid- February deadline. The New York Daily News reported in today’s editions the administration’s first choice was to have the games moved out of Moscow. The paper said if that failed, the United States was willing to subsidize “counter-Olympics’ in another country. White House officials indicated the United States would be willing to bear a hefty share of the cost of not holding the games in Moscow, where preparation has been under way for many months, in retali ation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. “A lot of things are being discussed, ” one administration official said Tuesday night. “No one wants to repeat the 1936 Olym pics.” Thousands of Soviet troops prepare for Afghanistan winter United Press International Thousands of Soviet trucks carrying coal, firewood and arms are pouring into Af ghanistan over pontoon bridges in a mas sive effort to provision Russian invasion troops for a winter stay, Moslem rebels said. Rebel leaders near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan said Tuesday the Russians put up pontoon bridges at the river port of Hairatan over the Amu River on the Afghan-Soviet border. Thousands of trucks started rolling last week across the bridges into Afghanistan, carrying huge amounts of coal, firewood and other winter supplies necessary to keep an army warm in the harsh Afghan climate. Most of the trucks have been covered, however, and the rebels say they suspect some are carrying anus and ammunition for the estimated 85,000 Soviet invasion troops and 56,000 Afghan government forces fighting the Moslem guerrillas. There was no independent confirmation of the rebels’ accounts but in Washington, White House press secretary Jody Powell said Tuesday the Russians have about 25,000 troops within 70 to 100 miles of the Iranian - Afghan border along “the tra ditional invasion route” for Tehran. “They are participating in efforts to sup press Afghani nationalist forces in western Afghanistan, ” Powell said. “There is no way of determining with precision for what other purposes they may or may not be there.” At the State Department, a spokesman said the troops appear to pose no im mediate threat to Iran’s oil fields, which are some 600 miles to the south. Rebel leaders reported the Russians also are beefing up their supplies in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Western diplomats in the Pakistani capi tal of Islamabad said they have no reports of any major notion by either side for the past few days and believe the Russians have the military situation well in hand, controlling all important towns and highways. There have been repeated reports of fighting on the fringe of the town at night, however. Pakistan waits for word from Washington rillero" s or instant 1 ! neck ^ bey 2 ■9 2 9 Students on grants wait for next month RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq says he is still waiting for American offers of military aid to help offset the Soviet invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. But the military president added, at a press conference Tuesday, he hopes such aid would come with no strings attached. Zia is anxious to preserve Pakistan’s status as a nonaligned nation and has said he has no immediate plans of putting his rule of martial law to a democratic vote. “Frankly speaking, we have not yet heard exactly what the United States is planning, ” he said when asked to comment on the results of talks his foreign affairs adviser, Agha Shahi, had in Washington on the propsects for resumption of U. S. aid to Pakistan. “We have had preliminary discussions and all the rest is speculation, he said. “We have not asked the United States for any weapons as yet,” he added later. “We have not asked any country for weapons . . . Those who are going to assist us will assess in a very pragmatic manner exactly what our requirements are and I leave this to their judgment. ” Part of the problem in resuming aid from the American viewpoint is Zia’s failure to return democracy to Pakistan. The presi dent has twice postponed parliamentary elections and the widow and daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose death sentence Zia refused to com mute last year, remain under house arrest. Iran Some Texas A&M University students ill not receive their Basic Educational Opportunity Grants until Feb. 15, Dawn Eppers, financial aids systems analyst, said Tuesday. “The fiscal office has the grants in, ” Ep pers said, “but they’re not going to give the money to the students until drop/add pro cedures have been completed. By holding the grants, the fiscal office will save money and time in revising the grants and changing the amount according lothe number of hours a student is enrolled in, Eppers explained. The fiscal office also hopes to guard against students getting their grants and then unofficially dropping classes or just leaving the University,’ Eppers said. “The fiscal responsibility is strict because the grants are federal funds. ” Holding the grants is a fiscal office policy that stems from their new way of billing BEOG recipients. This semester instead of giving students grant checks in the Rudder Exhibit Hall along with other grants, scholarships and loans, the fiscal office subtracted the grant money from total fees on the fee slips. So some students have and will receive grants on time. If the figure in the amount box of a fee slip has a minus sign next to it, then the student will receive a refund. A positive figure indicates the fee which remains to be paid to Texas A&M. Refunds may be picked up in the Exhibit Hall. Eppers said short term loans are availa ble in the Y. M.C. A. Building room 303 for students experiencing financial hardship due to the delay in giving out grants. “We realize this new procedure may put some students in a bind,” Eppers said, “and we want to do all we can to help. ” Eppers said students with questions should go to the Y. M.C.A. Building, room 015, or call 845-6553. American press begins to leave g! The almanac By United Press International Today is Wednesday, Jan. 16, the 16th tay of 1980 with 350 to follow. The moon is almost into its new phase. The morning stars are Mercury, Jupiter ^(l Saturn. The evening star is Venus. Those born on this date are under the ! ign of Capricorn. Famed American designer and wood ier Samuel Mclntire was born Jan. 16, On this day in history: In 1833, the Pendleton act went into ef- ffct, providing for creation of the U.S. Civil Wes Commission. In 1920, the United States went legally “dry” as prohibition of alcoholic beverages became effective under the 18th Amend ment to the Constitution. It was repealed in 1933. In 1942, screen star Carole Lombard, her mother, and 20 other people were killed in a commercial airliner crash near Las Vegas, Nev. Miss Lombard was the wife of actor Clark Gable. In 1974, the White House denied Presi dent Nixon personally made any erasures in the so-called “Watergate tapes.” A thought for the day: Ernest Heming way said, “As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” By United Press International On the first anniversary today of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s exile from Iran, the American press corps was sent packing by the Islamic government while the ousted monarch toured the cool mountains of Panama looking for a new home. The U.S. reporters, ordered out by Fri day, will leave behind the 50 American hostages who future seemed as uncertain today as on Nov. 4, the day of their capture by Moslem militants. But world support for Washington’s re sponse to the crisis gained slight momentum with Japan announcing it would join the United States in economic sanctions against Iran — despite Tehran’s threat to cut off its oil supply, government sources in Tokyo said. As Tehran hotels were a buzz with re porters and photographers collecting their belongings, the Chicago Tribune reported Iran and Panama have begun top-level negotiations on the possible extradition of the deposed shah. The Tribune quoted reliable sources as saying Panama’s President Aristides Royo tlephoned Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh twice Tuesday. In a dispatch from Tehran, the Tribune said the Tehran newspaper Bamdad re ported Ghotzadeh said his conversations with Royo “related to the letter of extradi tion.” The Iranian government last Saturday filed an official request with Panama for the extradition of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi “within 60 days after his arrest. Spokesmen for the shah said the ousted ruler and his wife, Empress Farah, were winding up an excursion to Chiriqui prov ince in Panama’s mountainous north and would return today to their house on Con- tadora Island, 35 miles southwest of Panama City. They said the shah traveled to Chiriqui Tesday, visiting officials and a elementary school in the city of David, where children clapped in delight at his promise to build them a new gymnasium. In its press expulsion order, the Ministry for National Guidance said the decision “covers all American mass media, includ ing news agencies, publications, radio and television institutions.” There are an esti mated 300 foreign correspondents, photo graphers, cameramen and technicians now in Iran, of whom about 100 are American. The government ordered American or ganizations to cease transmission of all news and photo reports as of midnight Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. EST. The journalists were given until Friday to leave, unless they could produce a “satis factory reason” for not meeting the deadilne. Bureau chiefs and certain other staffers will have a slight grace period to wrap up their operations, the Foreign Ministry said. In New York, ABC News reported Tues day Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini now con siders U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Wal dheim an acceptable intermediary in the hostage crisis. The report, citing informed U.N. sources, did not explain what changed Khomeini’s mind. The Islamic leader re fused to see Waldheim earlier this month during his mission to Tehran. In another step to bolster international support, the United States Tuesday reaf firmed its willingness to cooperate with its oil-dependent allies if they are hit by future curbs in Iranian oil exports. Lillian picks Reagan for GOP MONTGOMERY, Ala. — President Carter’s mother. Miss Lillian, predicted Tuesday Ronald Reagan would win the Re publican presidential nomination — “if he doesn’t die first.” Mrs. Carter, poking fun at presidential candidates in both parties, said she doesn’t anticipate a Republican uprising in her son’s native South during the 1980 cam paign. Reponding to a reporter’s question about who she expected to win the GOP nomina tion, Mrs. Carter answered, “Well, it looks like Reagan if he doesn’t die first. ” “I haven’t seen him since I saw him in a movie and that was 30 years ago, but the way the Republicans talk about him he’s on his last legs,” she said. Needling Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Mrs. Carter said, “I don’t know anything about issues and the two things I don’t dis cuss are the issues and Chappaquiddick.”