A
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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
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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.”