* \ opinion Battalion/Page 2 April 19, 1982 Washington serves as political excuse by Arnold Sawislak United Press International WASHINGTON — There was a mini flap in these parts recently when Sen. Ted Stevens, the second-ranking Repub lican leader, vented his spleen on the na tional capital. “I detest it,” said the Alas kan in one of his milder comments. Stevens’ observations upset a number of locals, but those who know the city’s history shrugged it off as yet another politician trying to divert attention from some shortcoming of his own by beating on Washington. Washington has been a whipping town for more than a century. It prob ably began when the first bureaucrats ar rived in 1801 to set up shop in the new national capital, but in any case the idea of blaming Washington certainly had taken hold by 1814 when the British burned the town. Local militiamen were accused of cowardice then because they ran away from the Redcoats at Bladensburg out side Washington. That did not quite ex plain how the British got to the suburbs 6f the national capital practically uncon tested, which was because the profession al military geniuses in charge fortified the Potomac River approaches to Washington and forgot about the over land route, which the British used. (The Japanese did the same thing to the Brit ish at Singapore in World War II.) < In any case, Washington continued in bad odor (literally) past the middle of the 19th century, getting no money for such civic adornments as a sewer system until the 1870s. The city’s historians note that this was the period when many members Of Congress from Northern states were down on it because it had a lot of South ern sympathizers among its residents. The coin flipped in this century when Southern legislators wallowed in horror stories about the effects of racial integra tion in Washington. Seldom mentioned was the fact that these same people re sisted nearly every effort to improve the situation. More recently, Washington lis tened to Richard Nixon calling the city “the crime capital,” to which reputation he contributed with Watergate. Which brings us to the senator from Alaska, who put the knock on Washing ton’s air quality, street cleaning and crime. The Washington Post then noted that Stevens has lived in and around the capital for 21 of the last 31 years and suggested no one was holding him cap tive. Stevens got the last word, accusing the paper of taking a “cheap shot at a senator from far away who really does not like to be away from home in a city like this.” Touching. But it did not address the original issue, which was a tax deduction of $75 for each day of session for every member of Congress. This tax break pro vided members of Congress with deduc tions of $ 19,000 in the tax return due last week. Some people thought that might be a bit much for people who are paid more than $60,000 a year plus good benefits and perquisites, but they didn’t have a chance to say so until after it became law. It may be a cheap shot to point it out, but Congress slipped the deduction into an unrelated bill during the pre- Christmas adjournment rush and pop ped it through to passage with practically no debate. It was during an effort to re peal that bit of legislative legerdemain that Stevens found it relevant to attack Washington. Slouch Earle By Jim ‘It’s not an armadillo hat, it’s an armadillo.” The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference 1 Editor Angelique Copeland ' City Editor Denise Richter l Assistant City Editor Diana Sultenfuss ’’ Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb •i Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff ' Assistant Focus Editor Nancy Floeck \ News Editors Gary Barker, Phyllis Henderson, Mary Jo Rummel, Nancy Weatherley Staff Writers Jennifer Carr, ' Cyndy Davis, Gaye Denley, Sandra Gary, Colette Hutchings, Johna Jo Maurer, Hope E. Paasch Daniel Puckett, Bill Robinson, Denise Sechelski, John Wagner, Laura Williams, Rebeca Zimmermann 'r Cartoonist Scott McCullar / Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr. J Photographers Sumanesh Agrawal, David Fisher, Eileen Manton, Eric Mitchell, Peter Rocha, John Ryan, Colin Valentine Editorial Policy * The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news- » paper operated as a community service to Texas AScM ' University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions ex- * pressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M University administrators or faculty mem bers, or of the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography clas ses within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter should be directed to the editor. C Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must also be signed, show the address and phone number of the writer. Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and are not subject to the same length constraints as letters. Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Uni versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (713) 845- 2611. The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M’s fall and spring semesters, except for holiday and exami- nation periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semes ter, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Adver tising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. is the first t Reagan fumbling federal cost artment has 1 ad program. tudents will stu al systems of t by David S. Broder WASHINGTON — The cynics are being proved right about one thing, at least. The federalism initiative which President Reagan made the centerpiece of his State of the Union address seems to be going nowhere. Negotiations between the White House and the governors over a prop osed swap, in which the states would take over food stamps and welfare while the federal government took all of Medicaid, have reached an impasse. Work on the other half of the Reagan proposal — plans for a turnback of dozens of federal programs and the tax sources to support them — is far behind schedule. Congres sional action in 1982, which always looked chancy, now is unlikely. ity lends a bittersweet quality to two re ports that crossed the desk last week. One, published by the National Gov ernors Association, cites examples of programs that are under way in many states to spur technological innovation and productivity growth. That effort has been encouraged by conferences held the last two years, under NGA auspices, by a task force headed by two of the brightest of the retiring governors, Michigan’s William G. Miiliken (R) an California’s Edmund C. (Jerry) Brown Jr- (D). to provide a to solve pro .S. school system dents will coi As the magazine published by the Na tional Conference of State Legislatures notes, the states may do well to hold the authority they now have. There are a number of major bills pending in Con gress — some with administration sup port— which would extend federal legis lative and regulatory authority and preempt state initiatives in these fields. From Georgia’s Advanced Technolo gy Entrepreneur Center to Arizona’s Center for Engineering Excellence, Brown’s survey found at least 88 separate initiatives under way with state leader ship. Many involve public-private part nerships. All of this may seem of no great matter in a time of severe recession and threats to peace. But it strikes me as regrettable that this President, like all his predeces sors back to and including Richard, is losing the opportunity he might have had to sort out the jumble of responsibilities that have accumulated in Washington and transfer some of them to states and localities. The recognition of that lost opportun- This is the kind of creativity the Reagan initiative was designed to capture and to spur in a wide variety of domestic program areas. The second survey, published in Stale Government quarterly, confirmed my subjective view that there is more and more qualified leadership to tap at the state level. The survey of the background and training of state agency heads was reported by professors F. Ted Hebert of the University of Oklahoma and Deil S. Wright of the University of North Caroli- na-Chapel Hill. It clearly demonstrates the growing professionalism of state gov ernment: — The agency heads in 1978 were sub stantially younger, better educated and more professionally their predecessors in a series of surveys going back to 1964. To take a few of the 1964 comparisons, the proportion of heads with less than a college dropped from 34 to 11 percent! with graduate degrees rose fromlj cent to 58 percent. * — I he tradition of career serJL .. growing at the state level. AboutluM l 1 T" 1 agency neads began work in statego i- 11 L4 1 ment before they were 30,andmottB half reached the top of their ageiioB fore they were 50, most often byol ^ e 1 line promotion within their owna; Texas A& or from another agency in the saint Club annual w; The numbers of women and mil: make a splash in tl among them, while still smalNatatorium at 8 p growing. through Saturday This does not guarantee theirelfflp he show will cy or sensitivity, of course. AsHeber®^.’ tnos an< ‘ 8 ; ii, with instrumental Wright say no absolute ansvle ® . each rou given to the question of vvn^tbf t i rec | u g w j|j p er p ( states (are) ready to assume greal;|j?i veo f t h e jq n sponsibility...But it is certain thatstAquatiains’ Club the arguments of an earlier day sufife fourth nation ing transfer of functions to the lionized Swim I government — arguments that University 1 the representativeness and profesilr Jhe te am plac character of federal administrate®^^ 11 tust may eventually be undercut by ti| I ^ adonal co undei way m the* states. twimmers are ju My own, less cautiousjudgmentii™ the public is ahead of the politic! this question. Voters understand! cially at tax time) the costs of overte the federal bureaucracy. Somei issue will be grasped, not fumble President, to his political benefit. Letters: Symphony review lacking I* N Tin Pi M Editor: The “review” of the Fort Worth Sym phony Orchestra’s performance which appeared in Wednesday’s Battalion was more a synopsis of the program notes and the audience’s reaction than a critical analysis of the performance. Whether the FWSO received a standing ovation from some concertgoers and “lengthy applause” from still more is a trivial point. The OPAS-event audiences will clap for almost anything (as Miss Zim merman noted), never mind that it’s not the end of the ith movement, where i less than N = number of movements in a par ticular piece of music. Can the Aggie OPAS audiences be persuaded to hold their eager applause until after the end of a musical work? If they get lost in a multimovement piece (assuming that they have read the prog ram), they can always wait until the con ductor turns around to receive their ap plause, or until the pianist stands to com mence their enthusiastic clapping. Perhaps OPAS could include a “guide to decorum” in their season ticket mailing, since a sizable proportion of the audience lacks either the sophistication or the sen sitivity to realize that they perform a great disservice, both to the artist(s) and to the rest of the listeners with their clap- happy behavior. As for the performance on stage, I was disappointed. Maestro Giordano failed to maintain control of the orchestra; focus, tempo, texture, impact and subtle ty all suffered. Some members of the brass section were particularly remiss, coming in late and off-pitch in the Brahms. The FWSO did perform the task of bringing serious music to this technical institute; for that, I applaud them. Rodney J. Simmons Doctoral Candidate Chicks stolen Editor: This letter may not seem very impor tant to most people but I am deeply dis turbed by the thievery that goes on at Texas A&M. I realize that leaving a bike or backpack alone for any length is a temptation for some people but what I had stolen is not of the same kind of value. I am an Animal Science student taking Animal Nutrition 304 which entails a three-week experiment with chick ter the experiment is over each ft must arrange for the removal oi chicks. I thought honesty was a i I teristic of all Aggies but apparentlfi $ wrong. I had made arrangements^ : f chicks to he well takencareof And® more, they were my responsibility These chicks are invaluable ton* cause I fed and cared lor them loti! weeks, including weekends. 11# attached to them and I havebeendtt what I was told was my option whomever stole my chicks, theyatf distinguishable — each chick has a# of lines on his right foot. Ifyouwotil kind enough to return themlwonl very grateful. My phone number id 3402 after 5 p.m. No questions" 1 asked. FI BE Free 1 6 P.p Renee Hi College SU the small society by Brickmoi H#?- fc>Y! 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