The Battalion
telion% ’
Sobers fi-
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Monday, October 11, 1982
Reagan to visit Dallas
United Press International
SANTA BARBARA — President
Reagan, facing a barrage of criticism
for an upsurge in unemployment, in
tends to stress his “dramatic progress”
in lowering interest rates and infla
tion in the waning weeks of the con
gressional campaign, aides indicate.
After spending a relaxed weekend
at his mountaintop ranch, Reagan
flies to Dallas today for two political
appearances in support of Republi
can senatorial candidate Rep. James
Collins, who has an uphill battle
against incumbent Democrat Lloyd
Bentsen.
Afterwards Reagan will head back
to Washington, where he will spend
the rest of the week, highlighted by a
nationally broadcast “progress re
port” on the economy at 7:30 p.m.
EDT Wednesday.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes has labeled the address “non
partisan,” but speaker Thomas
O’Neill already has made a protest to
all three major networks for giving
Reagan time for what he calls “a pa
tently political address for an elec
tion.”
NBC said it will air the address, but
a spokesman for CBS said “no final
decision” had been made although it
was “likely” the network will carry the
address. ABC said it was undecided.
The harshest criticism for Reagan
Sunday came from AFL-CIO Presi
dent Lane Kirkland.
“Never before in history have two
crack-brained theories like supply-
side economics and cultist monetar
ism had a more extensive trial and
been proved so wrong, to the great
harm of so many people so quickly,”
said Kirkland during an appearance
on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Chief of Staff James Baker said in a
broadcast on ABC-TV Sunday that
Reagan deplores the 10.1 percent un
employment “and we’re going to do
what we can to remedy that situation.”
But, he added, “We’re making dra
matic progress on two fronts — infla
tion has been reduced by over 50 per
cent, and interest rates are down by
some 40 percent.”
Baker also insisted that the 11.3
million people out of work would not
be a dramatic election issue or “a
watershed event” as far as the ballot
ing on Nov. 2 is concerned.
He said the administration does
not believe it will be hurt badly be
cause it had been anticipated for some
time that the jobless rate would top 10
percent.
Furthermore, he said that “the 99
to 100 million Americans who are em
ployed are considerably better off
than they were two years ago by
reason of increased purchase power.
“Their taxes are down and infla
tion is down, and they’ve got more
real take-home pay,” he added.
Reagan’s political advisers and the
GOP campaign committees were
working out the final stages of the
president’s participation in the cam
paign.
So far, only one other date has been
set for the president to travel. He will
fly to Peroria, Ill., Oct. 20 for an
appearance in support of Rep. Bob
Michel, the House Republican leader,
and the following morning will fly to
Omaha, Neb.
Tense am
staff photo by Octavio Garcia
Smokey and The Fireman
;Smokey the Bear and Wayne Stack, a College Station
fireman, were strolling through Post Oak Mall Friday as
| part of a demonstration the College Station Fire
I Department had for Fire Prevention Week. The
demonstration included a display of a fire rescue unit
with all its equipment used for first aid.
Imprisoned leaders protest
ban of Solidarity by Poland
h
ageCen-
mtinues
lerform-
day at 8
depicts
a well-
neering
o is de-
\ptizei.
:hem<i
is wife,
• adults,
id $2.50
nforma-
ter is at
College
imunity
season,
e year.
Synagogue attack
kills 1, wounds 34
United Press International
ROME — Terrorists firing
[machine guns and hurling hand gre
nades attacked worshippers leaving
Rome’s main synagogue Saturday,
killing a 2-year-old boy and injuring
34 other people in the worst anti-
Semitic attack in Italy since World
War II.
E An angry, wailing crowd of Jews,
some waving bloodstained garments
of the victims,, gathered after the
attack at the synagogue on the Tiber
River in the center of old Rome. Some
^assaulted reporters, accusing them of
|fanning anti-Semitic feelings through
pro-Palestinian articles, and shouted
insults against Pope John Paul II and
Italian President Sandro Pertini.
■[ The jews said meetings the pope
and president held with Palestine
Liberation Organization leader Yas
ser Arafat last month triggered the
attack. Others accused the press of
arousing anti-Semitism.
Witnesses told officers the attack
ers were “dark skinned,” a state police
chief said. Police said the attackers
|may or may not be Arabs,
gf No one claimed responsibility for
the attack, Italian officials said.
B Witnesses said four or five attack-
f^rs walked by the synagogue’s side
entrance as 250 worshippers were
leaving services marking the feast of
the Simkhat Torah, a New Year holi
day which includes a blessing of chil
dren.
The men sprayed worshippers
with machine gunfire and witnesses
said the attackers, who escaped in a
waiting car, hurled at least five gre
nades at the congregation but only
two or three of them exploded.
“The spectacle outside the synago
gue was terrible,” said M&rco Zarfati,
an Israeli doctor visiting Italy who was
in the synagogue when the congrega
tion was attacked.
“Seven or eight people were lying
on the ground, some in very serious
condition. I tried to help the wound
ed with what means I had available.”
The pope sent a telegram conde
mning the attack as “a manifestation
of hate and blind violence.” Pertini
called the attack “vile and ferocious,”
leaders of Italy’s political parties and
other officials expressed shock and
Israel called for concerted interna
tional action against terrorism.
The PLO representative in Italy,
Nemer Hammad, condemned the
attack as “an aberrant manifestation
of anti-Semitism against our Jewish
brothers, guilty only of being Jews.”
United Press International
WARSAW, Poland — One day af
ter banning the Solidarity union
movement, Premier Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski told Parliament Saturday
the government was ready to lift mar
tial law and promised to release 500 to
700 political prisoners “soon.”
“There is still a blind opposition in
Poland inspired by the network of
foreign subversive radio stations,
ready to provoke bloodshed,” he said.
“But we have not been entrenched in
martial law. We maintain the inten
tion of suspending or even lifting it,”
Jaruzelski said.
In a letter smuggled out of the
internment camp of Bialoleka near
Warsaw seven leading Solidarity offi
cials said the outlawing of the union
Friday was against international labor
rules.
In Santa Barbara, Calif, President
Reagan said he was taking steps to
suspend Poland’s most favored na
tion trade status in retaliation for the
banning of Solidarity, which had been
suspended since martial law was in
troduced Dec. 13.
“According to the International
Labor Organization a labor union can
be disbanded by the members of the
union but not by the state author
ities,” the letter by the interned Soli
darity officials said.
They urged rank and file members
not to join the new unions, which the
government proposes to set up.
‘We are of the opinion that joining
of the new unions would be tanta
mount to supporting the outlawing of
Solidarity,” said the seven, all mem
bers of the union’s national commis
sion.
Jaruzelski addressed Parliament
one day after members voted over
whelmingly to outlaw the first inde
pendent labor federation in the
Soviet bloc.
In his address, Jaruzelski said
church-state relations were not “bad”
and the authorities were ready to fin
alize the date of Pope John Paul IPs
visit to his homeland. He said the date
of the papal visit could be set if Polish
Archbishop Jozef Glemp would meet
with him.
Church sources said the meeting
between Glemp and Jaruzelski had
been scheduled to take place a week
before Friday’s parliament session,
but that Glemp refused to attend to
protest the Communist Party’s plan to
ban Solidarity.
Jaruzelski expressed his sympathy
to the rank and file members of Soli
darity and the state-sponsored
“branch” and “autonomous” unions
also outlawed by Friday’s Parliament
session.
He stressed that new unions simul
taneously created by the bill would be
different from the old state-
sponsored unions and Solidarity,
which he called “an anti-socialist
group.”
Jaruzelski said the authorities had
been guided by good intentions in
their dealings with Solidarity •
unci mucin camp ui oidiuicKd neai government proposes to set up. Church sources said the meeting Jaruzelski s
Warsaw seven leading Solidarity offi- “We are of the opinion that joining between Glemp and Jaruzelski had been guided
cials said the outlawing of the union Q f the new unions would be tanta- been scheduled to take place a week their dealings
‘Flat earther’ says Columbus
proved the Earth is not round
s:imof locrir'
United Press International
LANCASTER, Calif. —
Charles Johnson insists he’s on the
level; the world is “flat as a penny.”
The 58-year-old president of the
2,000-member Flat Earth Society,
whose membership boasts several
“enlightened” airline pilots, spends
each day of the year trying to prove
the world is not round.
And Columbus Day gives him an
opportunity to point out the absurdi
ty behind the popular notion of
round-earthers. In fact, Christopher
Columbus, whose day it is on the
calendar today, is one of Johnson’s
super-heroes.
“Contrary to the history books,”
Johnson said Sunday from his five-
acre Mojave Desert ranch, “we claim
Columbus proved the world flat. It’s a
simple matter of logic.
“At the time Columbus made his
voyage everyone believed the world
was a ball, except for Columbus. They
were afraid they would fall off the
edge of the earth because it was
round, not flat.
“Columbus is one of our heroes be
cause he didn’t fall off — gravity
wasn’t invented yet. There was no
gravity in Columbus’ day.
“Every public school in America
says Columbus proved the world was
a ball. But that notion comes from
American writer Washington Irving,
who actually originated the claim that
Columbus proved the world is a ball.”
And Irving’s claim shook up the
scholarly world so badly, says John
son, that Isaac Newton was forced to
invent gravity to explain it.
“Newton hatched the idea of grav
ity to explain Irving’s round-earth
claim.”
Johnson was born and raised in
Texas before his family moved to San
Francisco and then 25 years later to
the Southern California desert. In
deed, from Johnson’s porch over
looking the sun-scorched desert floor
near Edwards Air Force Base, the
world does appear flat.
When pressed to explain just what,
exactly, Columbus proved with his
historic voyage, Johnson states: “He
demonstrated simply that the seas are
level. After all, we’ve always used the
term sea level, right?”
Johnson, who publishes the quar
terly Flat Earth News, scoffs at round-
earth detractors who point to Amer
ican ventures into space ranging from
the Moon landing to the Space Shut
tle program.
“The space program should be en
ded,” he says. “The whole thing is a
hoax. It is simply a case of everything
that goes up eventually comes down.
It doesn’t orbit. What we see on televi
sion are pre-arranged movies made in
studios.”
But why would the United States
perpetuate such a “myth?”
“The space program keeps the
myth alive that the world is round,”
he said. “You must have a total lie, not
a partial lie. In order to keep the hoax
alive, they staged the moon landing,
and of course we all know that was a
lie and that it never happened.
“Now they keep telling us the shut
tle is orbiting the world, but it is just
falling down. Again, what goes up,
must come down.”
inside Commandant optimistic about corps,
Around town 4
Classified 8
National 6
Opinions 2
■Sports 11
^State 5
|Whafs up 7
forecast
Today’s Forecast: High in the
[low 80s, low in the upper 50s. Sixty
percent chance of rain today.
almanac
Today is Monday, Oct. 11, the
|284thday of 1982 with 81 to follow.
The morning stars are Venus
[and Mercury.
The evening stars are Mars,
[Jupiter and Saturn.
Those born on this date are
j under the sign of Libra.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
was born Oct. 11, 1884.
says enrollment will continue to grow
by Robert McGlohon
Battalion Staff
Despite a slight enrollment drop in
the Corps of Cadets, Corps comman
dant Donald L. Burton, says the orga
nization is growing and will continue
to do so.
Burton, who took over the post
after Col. James R. Woodall retired in
August, said he is optimistic about the
future of the Corps.
“The raising of the admission stan
dards is one of the reasons why we
had a small drop in the number of
freshmen,” Burton said. “Still, that
2,327 (initial fall enrollment), with the
exception of last year, is bigger than
anything we’ve had in the last 10
years.
“There is no doubt in my mind that
the Corps will continue to increase in
size. It’s a strong trend. It’s not only a
trend here at Texas A&M — it’s a
trend everywhere you have a military
college.”
Burton said he would like that
irend to continue and has some defi
nite ideas on how to make sure it does.
“First off, we’re going to do a better
job of getting the message out to high
school juniors about the Corps of
Cadets and what it is and its value to
Col. Donald R. Burton
them,” he said. “It’s the high school
junior we need to be recruiting — not
necessarily the senior. Most high
school seniors have already made the
decision of where they are going to
school.”
Burton also has initiated a stepped-
up recruiting effort on campus.
“We believe that the best place to
get good Corps members is right off
the campus,” he said. “We have
tremendous numbers of good Ags
here who ought to be in the Corps.
ever-increasing numbers of fresh
men, but we also believe there are a
heck of a lot of guys — and women —
on campus who would like to be in the
Corps of Cadets.
“And we’re going to give them an
opportunity to understand more ab
out it. There are a lot of Aggies on
campus who really don’t know that
much about the Corps. So we wel
come any opportunity to speak to the
student organizations — not to re
cruit them — just to talk about the
Corps on a frank basis, not on a prop
aganda basis.”
The Corps is focusing on recruit
ing students who have demonstrated
their academic ability, Burton said.
“I know that Texas A&M has got to
hold its enrollment at a certain level
and the admission standards have
been raised and so forth, so we’re not
just recruiting every high school stu
dent — we’re looking at the top
fourth,” he said. “I think you’ll prob
ably find that 75 percent of the enter
ing freshmen this year came from the
top one-fourth of their graduating
class — that’s the sort of folks we want
for the Corps.”
The overall growth of the Corps is
jioMimited^tojtwnale^o^ulation.
The women’s segments of the Corps
have grown considerably, as well.
Burton attributes this growth to the
change in attitude toward female
cadets.
“It’s the natural evolution of the
way things are in our society,” he said.
“Our women do a damn goodjob.”
Corps GPR above
rest of university
A 0.01 percent difference between
the average grade point ratio of the
Corps of Cadets and the GPR of the
rest of the student body isn’t much,
but the gap will widen, Corps Com
mandant Donald L. Burton says.
The average GPR of civilian stu
dents is 2.39. The Corps has an aver
age of 2.40.
“The average GPR, overall, for the
Corps as it stands today, is statistically,
measurably higher (than that of civi
lian students") Burton said. “And it’s
going to get higher yet. We’ve got
some things going on in the Corps
that you don’t have across the
campus.
“In the first place, we are now en
forcing the quiet hours. Our fresh
men and sophomores are being pro
vided that time to study. Our senior
class is dedicated to that.”
Burton has high hopes for the new
faculty adviser program, in which 44
faculty members have volunteered to
serve as advisers to Corps outfits. The
commandant cited an especially
gifted incoming class as another
reason why he expects the Corps to
improve academically.
“I think it’s clear to our seniors and
our juniors that these freshmen are a
cut above the average bear,” he said.