A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Thursday, July 29, 1982
Reagan stresses economy
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan says “nothing is more pain
ful” to him than the slow progress of
his economic recovery program, but
insists “we are working our way back
to prosperity.”
At his nationally broadcast news
conference Wednesday, Reagan re
quested patience and vowed to stick
with his plan despite mounting critic
ism and rising deficit projections.
“We’ve begun to rescue this eco
nomy, but it’s only the beginning,” he
said. “I think we’re going to see an
improvement in the second half of
this year.” He declined to predict how
much, however.
Economic questions dominated
the 12th news conference of Reagan’s
presidency, but he also was touched
on a number of other topics — most
of them involving foreign policy.
He said he remains optimistic ab
out Middle East peace efforts; ex
pressed “no second thoughts” about
,his ban of U.S. technology to the
Soviet Union; said he would soon
announce whether a grain export
agreement with the Soviet Union
would be extended, and said he wants
to foster relations with China without
abandoning Taiwan.
The news conference followed by
one day a projection by the director of
the Congressional Budget Office the
federal deficit is likely to swell to be
tween $140 billion and $160 billion
for each of the next three years —
even if Congress makes all the spend
ing cuts and tax increases it is consid
ering.
Reagan said deficits cannot “be laid
at any one person’s door,” but if the
Congress had passed his “full supply-
side economic program” of sharp
budget and tax cuts last year, the de
ficits would be smaller now.
House Speaker Thomas O’Neill,
D-Mass., in a statement after the news
conference, charged Reagan “is
trying to hide from his own record.”
He said Congress last summer
“passed the Reagan tax bill, the
Reagan budget, and the Reagan re
conciliation bill.”
“He promised to balance the
budget by 1983. Instead he has pres
ided over the highest federal deficits
in history,” O’Neill said. He said the
president’s program “has thrown 3
million more Americans into unem
ployment.”
Reagan reeled off a string of eco
nomic statistics — a rise in real per
sonal income, increase in retail sales
and a slight drop in interest rates — to
buttress his assertion recovery is
knocking at the nation’s door.
And he told reporters, “I’m not
through with cutting in spending —
I’m going to ask for more, I’m going
to ask for more cuts.”
Said Reagan, “Slowly, surely we are
working our way back to prosperity.”
He said, “Some of our people are
still suffering and nothing is more
painful to me than the slowness of our
progress.”
He called for support and patience
and said, “We must have the courage
to believe in ourselves.”
On another matter, Reagan said he
will announce his decision shortly on
whether the U.S. will extend for one
year the grain sale agreement with the
Soviet Union.
Evangelist, 11 others killed
Plane crashes in east Texas
staff photo by Octavio Garcia
The disasters of war
Margaret Hansen, a junior premed major from Dallas,
observes the details in one of the Goya etchings on
display in the Rudder Tower. The etchings are part of
a 50 to 60 piece Goya collection. The etchings show
Spain during Napoleon’s invasion. The exhibit ends this
week.
United Press International
VAN — The sudden, violent death
of Keith Green rocked the evangelical
enclave northwest of Tyler in east
Texas where he and other nationally
prominent evangelicals moved for a
tranquil alternative to big cities.
Green, 28, two of his children, and
nine others died Wednesday, seconds
after a twin-engine plane, leased to
his organization, Last Days Ministry,
crashed into a towering stand of trees
500 yards beyond the end of the
ministry’s airstrip.
Eight of the victims were members
of the John Smalley family of Simi
Valley, Calif. The family was visiting
the ministry compound when the
crash occurred.
In a recent interview, Green said
the Last Days Ministry fled what they
considered the hostile environment
of Los Angeles for the rolling coun
tryside near Van, 20 miles northwest
of Tyler.
“Texas is like another country com
pared to that,” Green said.
Green, also one of the country’s top
contemporary Christian music com
posers and performers, said he was
attracted by the fellowship of his
friends in the other ministries, and
the lack of big city headaches like zon
ing, building codes, and the high cost
of living. The central location was also
a lure.
Though spacious and equipped
with modern amenities, the Last Days
Ministry compound reflects the spar
tan, evangelistic resolve that drove
Green and other charismatic leaders
to chose northwestern Smith County
as their staging ground.
The 2,640-foot dirt airstrip leads to
a lodge which together with two dor
mitory-style buildings gives the facil
ity the appearance of a summer camp.
About 80 people staff the base
which turns out 150,000 Christian
pamphlets weekly on its compute
rized, $1 million typsetting, printing
and folding system. A mission train
ing school also is operated.
Near the Last Days Ministry com
pound are other bases of such groups
as The Agape Force, World Chal
lenge, Calvary Commission, Youth
with a Mission and the organization of
evangelist Dave Wilkerson, author of
“The Cross and the Switchblade.”
In a recent interview, Green said all
the groups, from those that publish to
those that perform, share a desire to
see large numbers of people con
verted.
“All have an intensive desire in
seeing the world come to Jesus
Christ,” said Green. “While many
have this desire, we are very intensive
about it. We are fed up with the fai
lure of church as a whole to represent
Christ. We feel God has called on us to
do some shaking. We want to do more
than just the fellowship. We want a
24-hour burning desire to serve the
people.”
ease-fire ends week
of fighting in Beirut
5!
United Press International
U.S. envoy Philip Habib worked to-
ay to get a firm commitment that
ornered PLO guerrillas will leave
?est Beirut where a U.S.-mediated
ase-fire stopped a week of deadly
sraeli air, land and sea bombard-
ents.
As the cease-fire began late
Wednesday, police and security
urces said at least 18 people were
illed and 200 others wounded in
Lebanese newspapers called
|i
Hhat
t:
> [the 13 hours of inferno” that im-
|| | nediately preceded the truce.
5 Habib arranged the cease-fire af-
r returning to Beirut Wednesday at
he end of a week-long tour which
ook him to Syria, Israel, Egypt, Bri-
ain and Italy.
Reports from Israel said Habib’s
nost pressing objective was to obtain
in unequivocal pledge from the
Palestine Liberation Organization
a r- '■ laying it would leave Beirut. The re-
Ig^lj »rts said Habib was hoping to get his
iledge by the weekend.
But Abu Saleh, a member of the
Antral Committee of PLO leader
Passer Arafat’s A1 Fatah group, said
lismen will not leave Lebanon until
e Israeli army withdraws.
“We will continue our struggle and
will not drop our weapons until
Israeli troops leave Lebanon,” Abu
"aleh told his men during an inspec
tion tour of guerrilla positions in be-
iieged west Beirut.
Just before Habib arranged the
war’s seventh cease-fire Wednesday
between Israel and the remnants of
the Palestine Liberation Organiza
tion, an Israeli rocket hit a deserted
wing of the Makassed Hospital in west
Beirut.
Other late shelling set parts of the
city ablaze as an Israeli official warned
that if the guerrillas attempt to stall
and use the lull in hostilities as a cover
to launch attacks, “They are going to
get hell.”
Habib met Lebanese President
Elias Sarkis and Prime Minister Che-
fik Wazzan on arrival from Israel,
where he promised to tell Prime
Minister Menachem Begin by Friday
whether the PLO will make an “une
quivocal commitment” to withdraw.
A senior Israeli official said Israel
“was setting no deadlines and issuing
no ultimatums. The two days was
Habib’s own initiative. But no one is
going to watch Philip Habib with a
stopwatch.”
In a televised news conference
Wednesday, President Reagan said
he was “optimistic a solution is going
to be found.” The alternative was an
Israeli invasion to lake west Beirut by
force, despite a predicted huge cost in
lives.
Wazzan, after meeting with Habib,
agreed with Reagan’s assessment.
“There are some positive signs a
solution may be possible,” he said.
But Hani al Hassan, chief political
adviser to PLO leader Yasser Arafat,
indicated there would be no evacua
tion of the 6,000 guerrillas trapped in
west Beirut until Israel pulls back its
forces.
Spokesmen for the PLO said Habib
appeared to have nothing new to
offer them.
The first attempt Wednesday to si
lence the guns that traded fire with
out respite for 35 hours in Beirut was
ignored.
In one burst of shelling, Israel
struck the empty doctor’s section of
Makassed hospital, the city sports
palace and several locations in sub
urbs west and south of Beirut.
The rightist Phalange Radio re
ported numerous fires had broken
out and said in the northern city of
Zogharta, a booby-trapped car ex
ploded, killing three people and
wounding 35.
By late evening, however, the
blacked-out western half of the city
was quiet.
Lebanese government officials re
ported Habib had received condition
al pledges from Syria, Jordan and
Egypt to grant asylum to PLO guer
rillas.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubar
ak told a U.S. congressional delega
tion Wednesday Egypt will give re
fuge to as many as half of the guerril
las in exchange for U.S. support for a
Palestinian homeland.
Sweet anniversary
Blue Bell Ice Cream celebrates
its 75th anniversary with an old-
fashioned birthday party. Their
celebration came complete with
kids, a picnic lunch, a clown/
magician and, of course, ice
cream. The party was held at Sul
Ross Park in Bryan.
staff photo by Octavio Garcia
inside
Classified 8
National 8
Opinions 2
Sports 9
State 3
Whatsup 5
forecast
Partly cloudy with highs near 100;
low in the upper-70s. Friday’s fore
cast calls for more of the same.
Fire equipment
consultant dies
John W. Vermillion of Sulphur
Springs, a 67-year-old equipment
consultant attending the world’s
largest firefighting school as a guest,
died early Wednesday morning after
suffering a heart attack in his dormi
tory room on the Texas A&M
campus.
Vermillion had regularly attended
the annual Texas Firemen’s Training
School as a representative of com
panies which manufacture firefight
ing and rescue equipment.
Officials emphasized that Vermil
lion had not taken part in any of the
strenuous firefighting drills that are
conducted in the afternoons as part of
the training.
Col. Thomas Parsons, director of
traffic and security at Texas A&M,
said Vermillion was pronounced
dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan
at about 3:20 a.m. Parsons said rescue
personnel were summoned to Hobby
Hall by Vermillion’s roommate.
Vermillion’s death is the first that
has occurred during the program in
several years, said Chief Henry
Smith, head of the organization
which conducts the school. Smith said
there have only been about three
deaths during training since he joined
the Fire Protection Training Division
more than 30 years ago. The organi
zation now trains about 20,000 fire
fighters a year, including more than
4,000 during the annual three-week
fire school now under way.
Funeral arrangements are being
handled by the Tapt Funeral Hot^ie
in Sulphur Springs.