conomists argue role of government
Samuelson, Friedman disagree on basics
By MERIL EDWARDS
Campus Staff
Nobel Prize-winning economists Milton
Friedman and Paul Samuelson both took
issue with the title of the program, “The
Economic Responsibility of Government,”
that featured them Tuesday night.
The two men spoke before a packed Rud
der Auditorium at Texas A&M University
and an additional hundred or so people
watched them on closed-circuit television.
The program was sponsored by the MSC
Great Issues Committee.
Friedman began his 30-minute presenta
tion by poking fun at the title with a story
about two youngsters from the boondocks,
maybe from College Station or Bryan,
Friedman joked, who go to New York.
“They finally work up the courage to go
to dinner in a fancy restaurant,” Friedman
said. “They have soup, the entree, every
thing and then the waiter brings them fin
ger bowls. They can’t figure out what to do
with them, they’ve already had soup and
drinks, so what can they be for?
“One guy wants to ask the waiter what
the bowls are for, but the other one says
that would make them look silly. But, the
first guy does ask the waiter who tells them
they’re finger bowls. And the other guy
says, ‘See, I told you, ask a foolish question
and you get a foolish answer.’ Well, that’s
the same way I feel about the title for this
session.”
Friedman said not to ask the question:
“What is the economic responsibility of
government?”
“Government has no responsibility,” he
said, “Only people have responsibility and
the government is not a person. The right
question to ask is: ‘What things do we want
to do through government?’
“Government is the means we use to
achieve our objectives. It adds up to the
problem of how do we keep it from becom
ing our master.”
Friedman listed six traditional functions
of the government: to preserve law and
order, to preserve the nation against fore
ign enemies, to establish a framework of
rules through legislature, to mediate dis
putes and provide a judiciary system, to
provide a monetary system and to provide a
paternalistic element as a last resort for
people who cannot take care of themselves.
“In the past 50 years,” Friedman said,
“we’ve been expanding the role of govern
ment, particularly in monetary controls
and paternalistic activities. And as the gov
ernment has expanded its scopes, it has
performed the traditional functions less
and less well.
“And economic progress is not possible
anywhere, anytime unless there is some
relatively stable structure of law and rules
and regulations under the security of the
First Amendment promise.”
The most rapidly expanding area of gov
ernment spending is the paternalistic area,
Friedman said. He said the total spending
on various programs that are supposed to
redistribute income, eliminate poverty and
transfer income to the needy have grown
by leaps and bounds.
“These programs have had the opposite
effect though,” he said, “and instead have
imposed burdens on the poor. My objec
tion with government programs has to do
with
(Continued on page 3)
Milton Friedman
Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 125
16 Pages
Wednesday, March 26, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
■cord to 24!
n Southwest
and tiedS
ison. The
an Marcosin
s 2-2 in a
1.
fficials examine
ause of wreck
By NANCY ANDERSEN
City Staff
— An investigation is being conducted to
|C s (j, termine the cause of a train derailment
’ a t ur daysgSi fe es j 0 f th e Texas University campus
: Tuesday morning.
rfeatedandsoj There was no danger or damage when
' n S a „ re j live Soutem Pacific railroad cars derailed
said. WesnoMjjn th e tracks running parallel to Well-
It should Pj),),,! Roafi 0 n the west side of the Texas
likeit'v®f »&M University campus,
lave to be ste® xhe cars, carrying salt, grain, and farm
ly physical thqujpment, were being pushed onto a side
and the U-lrack at about 8:30 a.m. when the derail-
it 1 p m. SaWB en t occurred, said Tony Aleman, a SP
Bokesman. None of the cars overturned,
ipd the main line was not blocked, he
ded.
Workers at the scene of the accident said
was caused by a broken rail.
“This is something that always happens
t ITQ j- anytime you use something a lot it’s
IN I O buna wear out,” said a worker who would
lot identify himself.
[College Station Fire Chief Douglas
andua said the department was called ab-
mt an hour after the derailment, and there
vas no danger.
“It was a minor incident — it happened
an a side track and the cars were going
RD
n’s
ility”
able
y Oaks
Sunday I
slow,” he said.
As for what could happen if cars carrying
toxic gas derailed, Landua said it would
depend on the circumstances — whether
or not there was a leak, what kind of car,
and the direction of the wind.
Dr. Chuck McCandless, vice president
of Academic Affairs, is the University rep
resentative for the Metropolitan Planning
Organization. MPO was formed to study
improved railroad safety in College Station
and Bryan. It contracted a Houston en
gineering firm to study possible relocation
and other alternatives, the costs involved
and possible sources of funding.
McClandless said the University wants
the tracks moved, but admitted this would
be expensive and somewhat complicated.
The railroad has been cooperative in the
study, he said. “But probably the only way
this would happen would be by using gov
ernment funds.”
If moved, the tracks might follow FM
2818, and another alternative would be to
make modifications in the present location,
McCandless said.
The firm, Wilber Smith and Associates,
is in the final phase of the study and plans to
have the final report out by the summer,
McCandless said.
Board increases
en t, board fees
p.m-
lompte*
By ANDY WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
A proposal to raise rent in residence halls
y 10 percent and board fees by 8 percent
as passed at the Texas A&M University
oard of Regents meeting Tuesday.
Rent increases will range from $18 in
otard (from $175 to $193) to $50 in the
ommons area ($496 to $546).
Board rate hikes are $35 for the five-day
(from $427 to $462) and $39 for the
ven-day plan (from $478 to $517).
Student shuttle bus passes will also be
creased, from $30 to $38. The changes
11 take effect this fall.
In other action, 11 men were appointed
top-level positions in the Texas A&M
Jniversity System.
Almost all of the appointments resulted
irectly or indirectly from the reorganiza-
ion of the system that took effect March 1.
hose revisions made Chancellor Frank
V.R. Hubert responsible for supervising a
lumber of agencies and offices previously
mderthe direction of University President
arvis E. Miller.
The regents also appropriated $385,000
ar preliminary design of two women’s dor-
litories at Texas A&M. They gave uncon-
itional approval to proceeding with con
duction of one dorm but asked for further
tudy of the location of the second.
The board had no quarrel with the prop
osed site for a 300-resident dorm. It will be
milt between the Commons complex and
he band’s drill field.
But some members objected to building
240-bed residence hall west of Fowler
fall on Jones Street. Regent Joe Reynolds
if Houston said the land was one of the last
open areas on the west part of the east
oampus.
“We might as well build on the drill field
ond the golf course, ” Reynolds said. “Let’s
ust go out and cut down all the trees.”
The board asked University officials to
uvestigate the possibility of putting the
lorm in what is now a parking lot near
'uryear Hall.
In an attempt to eliminate mold in the
University’s first two modular dormitories,
^10,000 was appropriated to a $250,000
instruction project.
The work is aimed at lowering humidity
n the dorms. Among other things, it in-
tolves installing exhaust fans in the crawl
bate between the bottoms of the dorms
and the ground and putting humidistats in
the rooms.
R.B. Butler Inc. of Bryan was the low
bidder on a construction project that will
build a turf practice field and more parking
spaces at Kyle Field. The bid was $753,254.
The 11 men and the positions they were
appointed to are:
— Dr. Dean C. Corrigan, dean of Texas
A&M’s College of Education. Corrigan is
currently dean of education at the Univer
sity of Maryland. He will fill a position
which was left empty when Hubert became
chancellor last year. Dr. P.C. Limbacher
has held the job on an interim basis since
then.
— Robert G. Cherry, assistant chancel
lor. Cherry was formerly assistant to the
chancellor. He will continue to serve as
secretary to the Board of Regents.
— Dr. Perry Adkisson, deputy chancel
lor for agriculture. Adkisson has been uni
versity vice president for agriculture until
that office was phased out by the chancel
lor’s proposal.
— Dr. O.D. Butler, associate deputy
chancellor for agriculture. He has been the
University associate vice president for agri
culture.
— Dr. Fred J. Benson, deputy chancel
lor for engineering. Like Adkisson, Benson
was a university vice president for his area
before the office was eliminated.
— W.A. Porter, director of the Texas
Engineering Experiment Station. Porter
has been the station’s assistant director and
is a professor of electrical engineering at
Texas A&M. He will replace Benson.
— Heston Cherry and Edwin Fenner,
associate deputy chancellors for engineer
ing. Cherry’s responsibilities will involve
plans and operations and Fenner’s will be
administrative. Both have been associate
vice presidents for the University.
— Stanley H. Lowy and Terry E. Shoup,
assistant deans for Texas A&M’s College of
Engineering. Lowy is a professor of aeros
pace engineering at Texas A&M. Shoup is a
mechanical engineering professor at the
University of Houston and will assume his
new position July 1.
— Robert L. Smith, assistant executive
vice chancellor for administration. He is
now assistant to the executive vice chancel
lor for administration.
Continued on page 16
Texas A&M President Jarvis Miller eyes some of the
railroad track damaged when five Southern Pacific
rail cars derailed on the University campus Tues
day. Please see related story at left.
Staff photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
U. S. envoy fails to gain
concessions from Israelis
United Press International
President Carter’s Middle East envoy
Sol Linowitz has failed to win concessions
from Israel that could induce Egypt to pro
long the Palestinian autonomy negotiations
beyond the target date of May 26.
Linowitz’s failure to gain Israeli conces
sions on the definition of the Jewish state’s
security and promise to free settlements on
the occupied West Bank for two months
came on the eve of today’s first anniversary
of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace
treaty.
But Linowitz said Tuesday after an hour-
long meeting with President Anwar Sadat
in Cairo he thinks the “many problems” in
the negotiations on Palestinian self-rule can
be resolved if Egypt and Israel show deter
mination to reach “permanent answers.”
The American envoy later flew to the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria where he
will meet today with Prime Minister Mus
tafa Khalil, leader of the Egyptian side at
the stalemated talks. The next round of the
autonomy negotiations is scheduled to
open there Thursday.
Before he came to Egypt, Linowitz met
three times with Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin in Jerusalem but failed to
win his consent for a freeze on the estab
lishment of settlements in occupied terri
tories and the creation of a committee to
define Israeli security.
Khalil mentioned both last week as
“positive signs” that could encourage
Egypt to prolong the negotiations.
“I discussed with Mr. Begin the possibil
ity of a freeze on the establishment of set
tlements but I did not get a favorable
answer,” Linowitz said. “On the other
hand, I cannot say there was a rejection.
Perhaps, it is still being considered.”
Asked if agreement was reached to set up
the security comittee, Linowitz said: “I did
not say that. I said the security issue will be
discussed and I hope we will find a mutual
ly agreeable way of doing it. ”
Khalil has complained Israeli negotiators
use security as a pretext, stalling the nego
tiations. He recently said it would be futile
to continue the negotiations beyond May
26 if Israel does not agree to the establish
ment of a committee that would define
what security means exactly.
Linowitz is laying the groundwork for
next month’s summit talks between Carter
and Sadat and between Carter and Begin in
Washington. Sadat told reporters he will
travel to Washington April 8 and spend
three days there, conferring with Carter
and congressional leaders.
Sadat and Linowitz pronouned them
selves in agreement and said they would
meet again after the Alexandria talks.
CS police
investigate
rape claim
By BECKY SWANSON
City Staff
College Station police are investigating
reports by two Texas A&M University stu
dents that they were taken from a local bar
Saturday night to an apartment where they
may have been drugged before one of them
was raped.
One of the women was taken to St.
Joseph Hospital in Bryan and examined
Sunday morning.
Police reports said tests showed that the
woman had had sexual intercourse, but re
sults of the blood tests from the two women
to check for the presence of drugs were not
yet available.
The women said they were drinking with
friends in Rosewood Junction and sat down
at a table with four men to talk.
One of the women told police that she
drank 4 to 6 shots of tequila at the bar and
the other said she drank 6 to 8.
Both women said that they did not re
member leaving Rosewood Junction or
much of what happened afterward. They
said they were taken to Travis House apart
ments on Highway 30 where they were
offered LSD by one of the men.
The women told police they refused the
LSD, but said they may have been given
some other drug without their knowledge.
The man, known only as “Don,” was de
scribed as being white, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches,
190 pounds with long, wavy blond hair
and a bushy beard.
One of the women said she woke up
about 2:30 a.m. Sunday on a mattress in the
living room of the apartment and could not
wake the other woman, who was also on the
mattress. The woman said her friend was
nude.
The other woman said she woke up at
4:30 a. m., put her clothes back on, and was
driven back to her dorm in a light blue
pickup with California license plates by a
man described as a small-built white man in
his early 20s with black hair.
The woman told police that she did not
remember having sexual intercourse, but if
she did, it was against her will.
College Station detectives say they have
no suspects in the case.
Abduction,
beating
reported
A Texas A&M University student said
she was kidnapped and beaten Monday
night.
The woman reported that she was
abducted at approximately 9 p. m. by three
men in a pickup truck as she was walking
through an open field on Holleman Drive
on the way to meet a friend.
She said she was forced into the bed of
the truck by the men, who told her they
knew she was supposed to meet a friend in
that area, so they would have to take her
somewhere else.
She said she was taken to Dexter Park in
College Station, where the abductors told
her they were going to play a game.
They told her they would turn her loose,
and if they caught her they would beat her,
the woman reported.
She was caught, beaten, turned loose
and recaptured many times, but was finally
able to get away from her abductors and
was picked up and taken home by a passing
driver at about 11:30 p.m.,she said.
Pohce report the woman was hysterical
after the ordeal and would not speak to
police officers, but would talk about it only
with her brother and a friend, who re
ported the details of the incident to the
police.
According to College Station Police offi
cials, there are no suspects in the case.
However, the woman was able to give a
description of the truck driven by her
abductors, and Bishop said police are look
ing for the vehicle.