The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 16, 1982, Image 16

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    (
features
Battalion/Page 2
September 16,1!
Now you know
United Press International
NEW YORK — Crows have
“an extra helping” of bird
brains, according to an article in
the August issue of Sports
Afield magazine.
As evidence that crows are
smarter than most birds, even if
they are not liked by farmers,
the article notes:
The crow in Charlottesville,
Va., who reportedly followed a
milkman on his rounds, pried
the cap off bottles he left, and
drank the milk as far down as its
bill would reach, then went on to
the milkman’s next stop; the
Scandinavian crow who watched
ice Fishermen until they went for
coffee, then pulled up their lines
when the red flag popped up,
and ate the fish; and the winter
Cryts took action against law,
now hero to other farmers
crow roost in Fort Cobb, Okla.,
where crows migrating south for
the winter stop after going just
far enough to assure a winter
food supply.
K&M
SEEKING SCHOOL
OF HAIR DESIGN
All work done by
Senior Students
at reduced
salon rates!
693-7878
“K&M Sebring School of Hair Design”
693-7878
1406 Texas Ave. Down from Gibsons
United Press International
PUXICO, Mo. — Wayne
Cryts led a quiet life on his Mis
souri farm until the events that
made him a hero to many far
mers, a symbol of the American
farm movement.
“Before we got involved with
this, our lives were built around
farm and family,” is how Cryts
puts it. “We spent most of our
time around the farm and we
didn’t even associate with that
many people. We were quiet and
shy.”
No more. Now he is one of
the nation’s most prominent
farm activists.
This turnabout, this conver
sion from stay-at-home Booth-
eel farmer to a strong leader
who has gone to jail twice in sup
port of what he believes is right
began on Feb. 16, 1981. That
day Cryts led a band of farmers
on a raid against a bankrupt
grain elevator.
Cryts was enraged that a fed
eral judge had ordered the ele
vator closed and the grain inside
impounded until claims by cre
ditors were resolved. He had
31,000 bushels of soybeans in
side the Ristine grain elevator.
He wanted — and took — them
back.
Since the Ristine raid, the 36-
year-old farmer has engaged in
a running battle with that judge,
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Charles
W. Baker, who twice has
ordered Cryts to jail. Cryts and
members of his family have filed
a lawsuit against Baker and
others for $35 million.
Cryts charges Baker caused
him to default on farm loans and
“We need a bankruptcy
law simple enough that
if two lawyers took it
into separate rooms
they’d come out and syit
says the same thing. ” —
Wayne Cryts.
subjected him to public humilia
tion.
Appearances before farm
groups throughout the South
and Midwest leave Cryts less
free time than he had while run
ning his 1,500-acre farm.
His all-consuming campaign
now is to change bankruptcy
laws concerning farmers.
ADD-A-BEADS & CHAINS
14K Gold Beads
3 mm - 53*
4 mm - 83C
5 mm - $1.46
6 mm - $2.36
7 mm - $2.96
8 mm - $3.7)
Add-A-Bead Chains
Semi-Precious Beads
•Pearls»Garnet*Lapis
*Malachite*Many More
Layaways
m
M-F 9-5:30
Sat. 9-5
16”-$27.75
18”-$29.96
20”-$33.71
24”-$39.71
All Sizes
Available
(FINE JEWELKT)
415 University
846-5816 ...
Formerly Cowarts JewpRy
“We Now Accept American Express”
The company that owned the
Ristine elevator declared bank
ruptcy in 1980. Baker, of Little
Rock, Ark., ordered the soy
beans stored at the elevator be
included in the assets of the its
owner, James Brothers Farm
Center of Corning, Ark.
Cryts, whose 1979 soybean
harvest was stored at Ristine, did
a slow burn as months went by
with no determination of own
ership.
On Jan. 15, 1981, he gave a
one-month deadline for the
bankruptcy matter to be settled
to the farmers’ satisfaction or he
would break into the elevator
and remove his beans.
Hundreds of farmers, many
with empty grain trucks, arrived
at Ristine on the deadline day to
help Cryts take back his beans.
Ten federal marshals also were
there to uphold the order of the
bankruptcy judge.
The night before the planned
raid, a sympathetic lawyer called
the motel where Cryts was
staying and gave another farmer
a message of defiance for Cryts
to deliver to the marshals.
The farmer scribbled the
words on a napkin and gave it to
Cryts. The next morning, Cryts
stepped up to one of the mar
shals, who informed the farmer
he was in violation of Baker’s
order.
Cryts told the marshal: “I am
a sovereign individual and a
citizen of the state of Missouri
and am operating under com
mon law. The court order is
without the weight of law and
does not have jurisdiction over
me.”
The marshals conferred then
stepped aside.
Since that winter day, Cryts
has been cited for contempt of
court, jailed twice, seen all of his
bank accounts garnished and
been forced to consider losing
»iV .
may know us
for our software programming
on the Space Shuttle’s
communications system.
We’re Computer Sciences Corporation.
If your talents, skills and education encompass the
computer software, hardware or communications
technologies, you should get to know us better.
As the computing partner with NASA, we
programmed and developed the launching of the
Space Shuttle. And we designed its global
communications network.
We’ll create, program and implement the software
and hardware for man’s first telescope in space,
carried aboard the Shuttle.
We handle equally awesome challenges on Earth.
Linking America’s defense communications.
Designing business systems for corporate America.
Our clients range from the smallest businesses to
Fortune 500 sized corporations both domestically
and overseas. We’re Computer Sciences
COrP w^.°b..„.. mp „. 9/30/82, 10/1/82
(see your placement office for details)
The problem solvers. Talk to us.
Computer Sciences Corporation, Corp. College
Relations, 650 N. Sepulveda Blvd., El Segundo, CA
90245.
An Equal Opportunity Employer
CSC
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION
Get to
us better.
his farm. He said he considered
the consequences before he
acted.
“The elevator didn’t go broke
one day and we jumped in the
trucks and go down there the
next day,” Cryts said.
He admitted his frustration is
growing. Cryts said lawyers for
the defunct grain company and
other creditors were dragging
out the bankruptcy proceed
ings.
“I hope I haven’t gotten too
cynical,” he said. ‘T he lawyers
have got themselves a gravy
train.”
To Baker and other author
ities, Cryts is a thief. The judge
has ruled that under existing
and use them to help a j K
“There was nothing that
judge could do to make
me back down.” —
Cryts.
bankruptcy laws, the grain in the
James Brothers elevators re
mains impounded until the legal
proceedings are completed.
By taking his full snare of the
soybeans, Cryts violated the law
and harmed the claims of other
farmers who have patiently
waited for the court to make a
decision concerning distribution
of James Brothers assets, Baker
said.
The judge’s most recent ac
tion involving Cryts cleared the
way for the Ristine trustee to
seize the farm activist’s assets
$287,()()() judgment again
Baker in August d«
motion to free Cryts
S taying for the beans lit
rom Ristine. The judgitit
eludes a $1,500 daily ptij
“That’s $1.04 a 1%.
Cryts said.
Cryts was declared in
of a Commodity Credit
loan from the Agricultt
partment. The farmera
officials refused to am
attempts to pay off thell
He said he will losehisi
forced to pay thejudgma
judge already had frozen
bank accounts andordett
elevators not to accept
crops to be harvested tits
H owever, the banl
were removed before tht
issued his order.
In the jail, 200 miles
his farm on the rollingki
flat delta land of soutnei
souri near the Mississippi
Cryts was resolute.
In August, he spei
nights in jail in Fort Smitl
after his arrest by feden
shals in the tiny m
Arkansas town of G
Cryts was grand marshal
town’s parade and autl
under $287,000judgmi
to seize the van, which hi
loaned to him.
After his bank accoui
frozen, Cryts said he
home one day to findtlul
of his farm machinery
hidden by f riends in case
issued orders that it be
W
Safety ignored
in tractor use
United Press International
COLUMBIA, Mo —David E.
Baker is facing the same prob
lem with farmers that most con
sumer .advocates faced when
they first tried to convince
American motorists to use seat
belts.
Nobody wants to listen about
safety. Accidents, they surmise,
always happen to someone else.
But 450 farmers were killed
and hundreds of others were in
jured last year on the nation’s
farms from the simplest of farm
accidents ,— a tractor turning
over. Baker, a University of Mis
souri extension safety specialist,
says most of those farmers could
have been saved if theirc K
were equipped witheithttl
bar or a cab.
The protective device]
available as options on mol
tractors today, but because!
tors are made so well andl I
long — and because oftij
depressed agricultural eco)
— farmers are buying
equipment and runnii
longer.
Tractors made prior
generally are not
accommodate protective
rollbars.
BOOKPACRS THAT LAST
^Lifetime. Guarantee^
SEE. OUR LAKQE SEL&Cj
Sefqre. you e>uy
00
OFF ANY PACK. IN
STOCK WITH THIS COUPON
<5000 THRU SEPT. 30.1961
WHOLE EARTH
PROVISION COMPANY
V 105 Boyett 846-8794
rrtrtT—