national
Battalion/Pi
April 12,
Car inventories drop;
fewest built since 1958
United Press International
DETROIT — Automakers
have a 59-day supply of new cars
on hand, marking the first time
since last fall that inventories
have dropped below the indus
try’s optimum level, according
to a trade publication.
Ward’s Automotive Reports
also said Friday that U.S. manu
facturers will build only 5.1 mil
lion cars in the 1982 model year
— the lowest production since
1958.
Inventories on March 31
were 11 days below the 70-day
level recorded Feb. 28. A year
ago, however, end-of-March in
ventories stood at 44 days.
This is the first time since last
summer backlogs have been be
low the 60-day level — the mark
at which the industry considers
itself adequately stocked.
The number of cars on hand
totaled 1,247,000.
The smaller inventories appa
rently are due to automakers’
production cuts in the first quar
ter plus the extensive rebate
plans offered by all five firms in
March.
Ford Motor Co. had the in
dustry’s lowest supply of cars —
51 days — followed by General
Motors Corp. with 59 days and
Chrysler Corp. with 62 days.
American Motors Corp. had
81 days worth of cars on hand
while Volkswagen of America
had a 95-day supply.
Ward’s said, nowetti,
lories are likely tocliml]
as automakers prepart
traditional spring sell
The trade journal ils
price hikes could fol
achievement o! lower
levels. It said GMI
announced it was up|i
prices an average
percent. Ford held
announcement until Mil
The publication
production reports
5.1 million units to be
year are 23 percent
year’s 6.6 million cars
From bluegrass to bluebonnets
photo by Jane Hollingsworth
Bluegrass music by the Skillet Lickers set the
mood last week at a Brazos Center agricultural
economics banquet for Brazos County farmers,
the band was formed three years ago when the
members met in Dunn Hall. From left to right,
the band members are Irwin Sivin, a senior
marketing major from Rockwall; Dale Whittaker, a
junior agricultural economics major from Shiloh;
Jim Wagner, a senior pre-med major from Dallas;
Steve Vogel, a junior petroleum engineering major
from Tampa Bay, Fla.; and Dale Tibodeau, a
senior industrial engineering major from Dallas.
Polish crackdown worsens economy
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Poland’s
martial law has dimmed chances
for its economic recovery, it was
reported to Congress Saturday.
The Polish economy has been
devastated by a huge debt to the
West, falling exports, raw-
material shortages and labor un
rest. the report said.
“If present cash flow prob
lems can be solved, the economy
reformed and labor peace re
established, Poland has a chance
to get its economy back on the
track,’’ Commerce Department
officials said in the report to
Congress’Joint Economic Com
mittee.
“But, at this time,” the report
said, “the outlook for the
achievement of these prere
quisites is bleak.”
The 39-page report was writ
ten by Gary Teske of the depart
ment’s Office of East-West Poli
cy, who cautioned he was not
stating official administration
policy.
“Martial law has not post
poned the regime’s labor prob
lems. It has only postponed the
day when the government again
will have to confront them,”
Teske said.
Rep. Henry Reuss, D-Wis.,
chairman of the committee,
noted that Poland’s economic
problems have been building
since the mid-1970s and said the
political crisis sparked by the
emergence of the Solidarity
labor movement in 1980 and
1981 was a result, not a cause of
those problems.
“Martial law will therefore
compound, not cure, the Polish
economic crisis,” Reuss said.
As for the outlook through
1985, the study said, it is difficult-
if not impossible to predict Po
land’s trade performance and
hard currency imports — the
key to its economic well-being—
because of the uncertainties sur
rounding the martial law re
gime.
“Obtaining financing for
hard-currency imports will be
Poland’s major difficulty in the
next few years,” the study said.
“Since the imposition of martial
law, Poland’s financial situation
has become even more uncer
tain.”
The study said the reduction
in Western credits already has
forced Poland to import most of
what it needs on a cash-only
basis. This will force it to buy
only vital goods and the result
ing shortage in raw materials
may lead to further industrial
slowdowns.
“In turn, such a development
could lead to an intensification
of the present domestic econo
mic and political turmoil,” the
report said.
Poland’s economic problems
stem from a development policy
of the early 1970s that backfired
before the end of the decade.
The idea was to expand
rapidly capital investments and
consumption through massive
purchases of Western goods and
equipment financed by Western
credits.
The credits were to be paid
back with hard-currency earn
ings from the exports the Polish
government hoped would be
generated by the Western-
financed industrial moderniza
tion.
But bureaucratic mismanage
ment and bottlenecks in con
struction and supplies — com
pounded by the Western reces
sion of the mid-1970s — caused
that strategy to sour.
lIFGoodrich
BRAZOS TIRE SERVICE
AN AGGIE OWNED BUSINESS SINCE 1952
J. N. HOLMGREEN CLASS OF ’44 R. J. HOLMGREEN CLASS OF 47
MIKE A. HOLMGREEN-MANAGER-CLASS OF ’77
2707 TEXAS AVE. BRYI
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Chlorine gas leak
in West Virginia
forces evacuation
United Press International
BELLE, W.Va. — Toxic-
chlorine gas leaking f rom a che
mical plant formed a thick yel
low cloud that sent 12 people to
hospitals and forced nearly
2,500 area residents to flee their
homes for nearly three hours
Saturday.
Almost all the inhabitants of
the southwest W’est Virginia
town of Belle, along with resi
dents of three nearby hollows,
were evacuated due to the leak
at a Diamond Shamrock Co.
plant. Major highways near the
scene were closed.
“Everything’s under control
now,” Belle Police Chief Larry
Conley Saturday said. “We’re
just fortunate we didn’t have no
wind to amount to anything.”
The potentially deadly gas
cloud formed when a line car
rying liquid chlorine ruptured
in two spots and was dispersed
with water, officials said.
Three chemical company em
ployees and nine firefighters
were taken to hospitals 10 miles
away in Charleston after being
overcome by the chlorine, which
can be fatal if inhaled in high
concentrations.
Most of those affected were
treated for chlorine inhalation
and released. But one plant em
ployee, Cornelia Hutchinson,
29, of Charleston, was admitted
to the hospital. She was listed in
stable condition at the Charles
ton Area Medical Center.
The leak was reported shortly
after 7 a.m. and officials im
mediately began evacuating re
sidents of the Kanawha River
town, using loud speakers
mounted on police cruisers.
The leak was brought under
control after about 90 minutes,
Tom Burns of the West Virginia
Office of Emergency Services
said.
Enter the Seven & Seven
Weather conditions — cold
and damp with light winds —
helped authorities to neutralize
the cloud with water, he said.
“The wind is with us today,”
said one unidentified firefighter
at a roadblock on U.S. 60. “If the
wind had picked up heavily and
gone east or west, it would have
ate this valley up.”
500 T-shirts, that is. We’ll be raffling
them off at College Expo ’82. Just bring
this form to our Seagram’s 7 booth to enter the raffle.
The good times stir at Fort Lauderdale, March 17-20,
and Daytona Beach, March 22-26.
So come on down and enter our Seven and
Seven 500. You could walk away with a free Seven
and Seven T-shirt.
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