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THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1980
Page 9
rain dealer complains about embargo
it
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Brice Harris,
grain dealer based in Watonga,
Dkla., may be typical of grain
levator operators across the nation
'ho are intensely worried about the
jpnsequences of President Carter’s
grain and soybean embargo.
Harris says he does not usually
rite letters to federal officials, but
last week he wrote a letter to Ag
riculture Secretary Bob Bergland to
lomplain that "this time the action
/ou have taken is having far too big a
aegative effect on us as a country
grain dealer and on our grain pro
ducers. '
He told Bergland that administra-
ion officials “do not realize the bur
den you have placed on the agricul-
:ure industry of this nation and the
ar-reaching effect it will have on the
conomy unless you come up with a
method to spread this tremendous
costout over the nation as a whole.
Harris, who is president of
Wheeler Brothers Grain Co. Inc.,
told Bergland that the firm faces a
potential loss of $200,000 to
$300,000.
The firm has six country elevatbrs
in northwest Oklahoma located
within a 30-mile radius of Watonga,
and seven elevators in the Texas
Panhandle near the towns of White
Deer, Pampa and Groom.
Harris said the 13 elevators
handle 6.5 million bushels of wheat
and 2.5 million bushels of grain sor
ghum each year directly from area
farmers.
At close of business on Jan. 4 — a
few hours before Carter announced
an embargo of 17 million tons of
grain and 1 million tons of soybeans
— Wheeler Brothers’ elevators
owned 405, (MX) bushels of wheat and
114,(MX) bushels of grain sorghum.
Harris said the firm owned that
much grain because it was unable to
get rail cars or trucks to move it.
Describing a Catch-22 dilemma,!
he said, “We could not contract
ahead for sale because we had to
give delivery dates, and we could
not because we couldn’t get the
cars. ”
Harris told Bergland, “We know
that nearly every country elevator in
the nation owned some grain as of
Jan. 4, 1980, and stand to lose quite
a bit of money because of this ac
tion.”
A week after the embargo, Harris
was unable to sell any of the firm’s
thousands of bushels of grain which
he estimated to be worth $1.5 mil
lion.
The firm is paying about 15.5 per
cent interest to hold the grain, or
$19,375 every 30 days.
He estimated that the grain even
tually would be sold at a 75-cent per
bushel loss.
Grain producers are “complaining
about this embargo and they are
getting very, very angry,” Harris
said. “Some of these producers will
end up by going broke. There’s no
doubt about it.”
Farmers were having a hard time
before the embargo, but now they
face a cash flow problem and may
not be able to get credit, he said.
“In about five months, we will
have another wheat harvest, ” Harris
said. “The question now is: Where
are we going to put it?”
Officials insist there is sufficient
GRAi N
EMBARGO
storage capacity.
In his letter to Bergland, Harris
suggested that government officials
have ignored the impact of the em
bargo on many people who will Ixj
“badly damaged or ruined. ”
The administration has offered to
assume contracts which grain ex
porters had with the Soviet Union at
an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. In
turn, the exporters are to honor
their contracts with, country
elevators who are tq pay their con
tracts with farmers.
One purpose of the takeover of
contracts was to remove grain from
the market so that supply and de
mand would be the same as before
the embargo. But, of course, there
will be no payments to elevators
that had no contracts for grain
bound for Russia.
Harris said to Bergland: “We feel
that the in-between grain dealers
and the grain producers that we
serve are entitled to a full explana
tion of how your plan will work to
really protect them from the disas
ter you have suddenly created.”
in-C|j[,
six ode
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"After |
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it to
Greatest space
energy is found
-hou
ithePu
lacaoaa
United Press International
WASHINGTON — An as-
jnomer announced Wednesday
helpof he discovery of an immense “su-
bubble” of hot gas that stores
more energy than anything else
k ; mown in the Milky Way galaxy.
Dr. Webster Cash of the Univer-
aty of Colorado said the glowing
liere is 1,2(X) light years in diame
er and an estimated 6,(MX) light
ears from Earth. A light year is
ambtii jwut5..9 trillion miles, the distance
tlebnsi igbt travels in a year.
Cash and Dr. Philip Charles of
nanai*! 16 University of California at
15 and| lerkeley discovered the bubble
ndyln virile examining X-ray readings
es ,4 nade by a space agency satellite ob-
xnn.Hi ervatory launched in 1977. The
ediatd drenomenon is centered in the
said ll )r 'gbt summer constellation Cyg-
“isix
“It is clear that we hav e discoy-
red a magnificent example of the
lediatel dolent interstellar medium at
3mb,tll Cash told a meeting of the
dgrtu, American Astronomical Society in
in Arm ^ an Francisco.
He said the finding will help as-
ronomers better understand star-
bmring processes.
“It’s going to change our picture
• Oxfor of how the interstellar medium
claiiw dynamics happen," he said.
Cash said the hugh cosmic bub-
:he nan
most it
rsive
Turliis
:>ing WtlgmSm
Mom ble, orhalo, had never been spotted
rinericii before because it packs so much
ban K |ergy that it cools by emitting
X-rays, instead of radiation visible
through optical telescopes.
The NASA satellite, the High
Energy Astronomy Observatory 1,
scanned the universe for X-ray
sources in more detail than ever be
fore.
Cash said parts of the bubble had
been seen before in brief X-ray
glimpses, but no one knew what it
was. One part was thought to be a
remnant from a massive exploding
star.
He said the cooler outer edge of
the bubble emits visible light. Such
"filiments have been seen with op
tical telescopes for years, but not
understood.
Other bubbles are known to exist
in the galaxy, but Cash said this is
by far the largest ever seen. And the
bubble is still growing at a rate of
about 18 miles a second.
At 3.5 million degrees
Fahrenheit, the sphere contains
enough gas — primarily hydrogen
to create 10,p<)0 Jieyy stays Jikt;
the sun. Its energy output is an es
timated 10 times that emitted by the
sun since its formation 5 billion
years ago.
Cash said there are no other
known astrophysical processes in
the galaxy capable of supplying this
much energy.
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration said, “What
puzzles scientists is finding an an
swer to how this huge amount of
energy got locked up in this gigantic
halo in the first place.
Cash suggested the superbubble
may have been created by a series of
star explosions during the past 3 mil
lion years.
OH, FLIDOS(U
CARTER DKOPS HI5 LATEST bombshell.... ^SrraUa
X chromosome makes women stronger sex
United Press International
CHICAGO — Forget all that
nonsense about women being the
weaker sex. Two physicians say
females are equipped with chromo
somes that make them naturally
immune to certain male diseases.
“Females, who have one more X
chromosome than males, are less
likely to get some infectious diseases
and certain forms of cancer, Drs.
David T. Purtilo and John L. Sulli
van wrote in the current issue of the
journal (Vf Diseases of Children.
The two researchers said males
show a decreased survival rate
vmcn
JUCEK
throughout the life cycle. Although
there are 5 percent more male
babies born, women outlive men by
eight years on the average.
“In addition to accidents, severe
infectious diseases are responsible
for many deaths in males, ” the doc
tors wrote. “Severe respiratory in
fections with para-influenze show
male preponderance.’
They said studies show males also
experience more staph infections
than females. During recent
epidemics of so-called Legionnaire’s
disease, three times more men than
women fell victim to it.
Pink Floyd has been
building up to this.
“The Wall.”
On Columbia
Records and
Tapes.
Off-Campus Aggies
1st General Meeting
Guest Speaker:
Dr. Jarvis Miller
(President of Texas A&M)
(■l
Jon. 27
thru
Feb.7
Monday, January 21
Rm. 108 Harrington
6:30 p.m.
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Run Lili* M«M/Com»or1*bly Numb
Another Bock In The Well (Pert II)
Young Luet/Nobody Home
'Columbia" is a trademark of CBS Inc.
PHOTOGRAPHERS
WANTED!
The Battalion is hiring a limited
number of staff photographers for
the spring 1980 semester!
Experience with B/W processing, printing
essential. Portfolio requested.
Contact Lynn Blanco, 845-2611
Rm. 216, Reed McDonald Bldg.
GIVE A HOOT!
DON'T POLLUTE
J
Woodsy
Owl.
aMIMSC AGGIE CINEMAMMmtt*
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WANT FREE MOVIE TICKETS?
JOIN AGGIE CINEMA
GENERAL MEETING
MONDAY JAN. 21
7:15
701 Rudder Tower
An Aggie Cinema member may ...
— take tickets at the door
— sell tickets at the box office
— treat a friend or a date to a movie with 2 complimentary tickets
— help layout Battalion Ads and Fall Calendars
— help plan contests and promote movies
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j/ CHURCH
I Announcing
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Begins....Mon. Jan.21,
Time. ...7:30pm
Place... .St. Mary’s
For interested
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