The Battalion
lol 83 Mo. 27 USPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 7, 1986
lements and White
quare off in debate
Candidates focus on economic matters
lies!
r ; .-
HOUSTON (AP) — Gov. Mark
Vhite and challenger Bill Clements,
ccusing each other of not telling the
uth, focused primarily on eco-
omic matters as they traded verbal
lots Monday night in a televised
lour-long debate.
White, the Democratic incum-
icnt, insisted the ailing Texas econ-
my is the result of plunging oil
irices and defended his administra-
ion’s efforts to cut the budget and
aise taxes.
Clements, a Republican who lost
o White four years ago, insisted the
ile of oil was minor in the state’s
conomic slide and accused White of
laving a tax-and-spend mentality.
The pair, in the only face-to-face
debate scheduled in this election
campaign, fielded 10 questions from
a panel of three reporters. Most of
the questions dealt with economic is
sues or were turned that way by the
candidates.
“I did very good, fine, I’m de
lighted,” Clements said afterwards.
White, as he did in the debate,
complained later that Clements
failed to tell the truth.
“The guy talks around the issues
and never gets down to how you get
to balancing the budget,” White said.
“Frankly, the guy did not tell the
truth about the revenues.”
While the candidates talked inside
the studios of Houston television sta
tion KPRC, 17 Ku Klux Klan mem
bers picketed outside, showing sup
port for Charles Lee, the Klan
candidate for governor.
Clements left quickly after the
television appearance, while White
fielded reporters’ questions for a
longer time.
“The fact of the matter, tax reve
nues are down today,” White said.
“You’ve seen the price of oil. It’s
down, not up. He (Clements)
shouldn’t mislead the people of this
state. Bill, you know it, too.”
Numerous polls gave Clements a
wide lead over the incumbent earlier
this year. White, however, has closed
the gap, with one recent poll show
ing the race virtually a dead heat.
Silver Taps
to honor 3
Three Texas A&M students
who died in September will be
honored at a Silver Taps cere
mony tonight.
The ceremony
begins at 10:30
p.m. in front of
the Academic
Building. The
campus will be
darkened at that
time and the Ross
Volunteers will
march silently be
fore sounding a
21-gun salute. Af
ter the third vol
ley, buglers will
play a special ar-
rangement of
“Taps.”
Those to be honored Tuesday
night are:
• Daniel Brennon Meyer, 22,
a senior accounting major from
Fort Worth who died Sept. 14.
• Mark Allan Childress, 20, a
sophomore business administra
tion major from Houston who
died Sept. 18.
• Brad Daren Deer, 21, a
sophomore business administra
tion major from Quitman who
died Sept. 21.
A&M RHAIIoween
shifts from dorms
to outdoor Grove
Damage, new drinking age
'spook' off trick-or-treating
By Rodney Rather
Staff Writer
The Residence Hall Association
will corral ghosts, goblins and ghouls
in The Grove for a Halloween bash
this year instead of sponsoring trick-
or-treating between dormitories as
usual, RHA president David Mc
Dowell said.
Damage caused by Halloween
tricksters in past years is the main
reason for tne format change of
RHA’s annual RHAIIoween, Mc
Dowell said.
Nyla Ptomey, Texas A&M hous
ing programs supervisor, said
cleanup of debris and trash — such
as toilet paper and shaving cream —
strewn inside buildings and across
campus requires extra effort by seve
ral University departments, includ
ing the physical plant and grounds
maintenance.
McDowell said problems with the
drinking age are another reason
RHA isn’t in favor of trick-or-treat-
ing between dorms.
Many hall residents have handed
out alcoholic beverages as treats and
the drinks often were given to un
der-age students, he said.
He also said inebriation has been
at the root of most discipline prob
lems on Halloween.
Although all students are encour
aged to attend the festivities at The
Grove, McDowell said, dorms may
organize trick-or-treating with other
dorms, but RHA won’t sponsor it.
Because Halloween falls on Friday
this year and many students leave
campus for the weekend, RHAIIo
ween will be Oct. 30, McDowell said.
Activities at the party will include
a costume contest, free refreshments
and yell practice for the SMU foot
ball game, he said.
A Tiring Job
Marty Muehlegger surveys the stock of bicycle
tires at a local cycling shop where he works. Mueh-
Photo by Robert Hume
legger withdrew from Texas A&M 1 'A years ago to
work with a group of cyclists touring Europe.
LaRouche followers indicted in credit card fraud scheme
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Federal,
state and local law enforcement au
thorities raided the headquarters of
political extremist Lyndon La
Rouche on Monday as several La
Rouche associates were indicted in
an alleged nationwide credit card
fraud scheme.
While hundreds of officers
searched for evidence at two office
buildings used by LaRouche-affil-
iated organizations here, a federal
grand jury in Boston handed up a
117-count indictment alleging wire
fraud, unauthorized use of credit
cards, obstruction of justice and con
tempt of court.
Two corporations, three cam
paign committees and 10 LaRouche
issociates were named in the Boston
ndictment. The groups named in
he indictment are Caucus Distribu
tors Inc. and Campaigner Publica
tions Inc.
LaRouche is a frequent fringe
candidate for president who has an
nounced he is running for president
in 1988 as a Democrat.
Ed Spannaus, treasurer of La-
Rouche’s presidential campaign,
called the action a “political dirty
trick,” coming four weeks before the
general election. Several LaRouche
followers are running for offices
around the country.
Spannaus spoke at a news confer
ence in a bookstore operated by La
Rouche associates, across the street
from one of the LaRouche offices
being searched by federal and state
agents.
“Many of you have just been wit
ness to one of the biggest political
dirty tricks in history,” he said.
LaRouche’s followers have run
for hundreds of offices around the
country, and gained widespread at
tention in April by winning Demo
cratic nominations for lieutenant
governor and secretary of state in Il
linois.
Dozens of state police, Loudoun
County sheriffs deputies and fed
eral agents could be seen guarding
and entering and leaving the two
Leesburg buildings where La
Rouche’s corporations and organiza
tions make their headquarters.
A LaRouche spokeswoman, Ne-
reida Thompson, said she did not
know where LaRouche was Monday.
At his $1.2 million estate just outside
town, more than half a dozen state
police and U.S. Secret Service agents
stood watching the front gate
throughout the day.
Meanwhile, in Washington the
Supreme Court cleared the way for
NBC to collect more than $250,000
from LaRouche, who had unsuccess
fully sued the network for alleged li
bel. The court, without comment,
rejected LaRouche’s contention that
he was treated unfairly and his
rights were violated.
The federal grand jury had been
investigating for two years allega
tions of what prosecutors called a
pattern of fraud involving La-
Rouche-related organizations.
Soviet sub sinks; agency reports no lives lost
WASHINGTON (AP) — A nu-
clear-pow'ered, nuclear-armed So
viet submarine, apparently doomed
from the moment it experienced a
fire and explosion last Friday morn
ing, sank and was abandoned by its
crew early Monday in the western
Atlantic Ocean.
The Soviet news agency Tass said
no lives were lost when the so-called
Yankee-class submarine went down
around 3 a.m. CDT, and the Penta
gon said it had no reason to doubt
that statement.
The vessel sank in waters 18,000
feet deep about 1,060 nautical miles
to the east of Cape Hatteras, N.C., or
roughly 600 miles east of the island
of Bermuda. A Soviet merchant
ship, which earlier had been at
tempting to tow the vessel, collected
survivors and remained in the area
Monday, the Pentagon said.
Two ranking U.S. military officers
said the sinking posed no threat to
the environment, even though the
submarine was powered by two nu
clear reactors and Carried up to 16
nuclear-tipped, SS-N-6 ballistic mis
siles.
See Submarine, page 10
Twelfth Man” author
dies in Houston at 81
Lillian Dean Hamilton Mun-
nerlyn, “Nanny Munn,” the au
thor of Aggie song, “The Twelfth
Man,” died Friday in Houston at
the age of 81.
Munnerlyn was born in Corsi
cana on July 19, 1905, and lived
in College Station from 1926 un
til 1947. She wrote the popular
Aggie song in 1941. Her hus
band, Ford Munnerlyn, Class of
’26, died in 1978.
She is survived by her son, Wil
liam F. Munnerlyn Jr., Class of
’53, his wife Kathy and seven
grandsons.
Services will be held Wednes
day at 1:30 p.m. in Houston.
The Aggie Band will dedicate
its halftime performance at the
Houston game Saturday in the
Astrodome to “Nanny Munn,”
Band Director Col. Joe T. Haney
said.
In memory of Mrs. Munner-
lyn’s contributions to Texas
A&M, the words of her 1941
composition are reprinted below:
Texas Aggies down in Aggieiand,
We Ve got Aggie spirit to a man.
Stand united! That’s the Aggie theme,
We’re the 12th man on the team.
When we’re down, the goin’s rough and tough.
We just grin and yell we’ve got the stuff
To fight together for the Aggie dream,
We’re the 12th man on that Tightin’ Aggie team.
Sea-MARC to be ready for use in '88
A&M, Navy to get high-tech sonar
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Staff Writer
It has taken the Texas A&M Geo
dynamic Research Institute two
years to piece together the funding,
but at long last the $2 million Sea-
MARC TAMU, a long-range side-
scan sonar, is past the planning
stage.
In the past w'eek the institute has
contracted a Washington engi
neering firm, International Subma
rine Technology Ltd., to build what
will be the most sophisticated sea
floor mapping device in the world,
says Thomas W.C. Hilde, director of
the institute. He says the device
should be ready for launch in earlv
1988.
The 20-20 vision of the sea floor
that will be provided by the Sea-
MARC TAMU will be better than
any existing sonar system, Hilde
savs. And, in a world where oceans
are of growing strategic, scientific
and economic importance, the sys
tem means many things to many
people.
To the Navy, a $500,000 partner
in the venture, the SeaMARC
TAMU will provide technology that
can “see” sunken objects, such as a
submarine or a sunken aircraft, with
high resolution, as well as- map the
acoustic properties of the sea floor.
For John E. Chance and Asso
ciates, a Louisiana ocean engi
neering firm and major contributor
to the project, the sonar will develop
technology needed by the industry
for ocean floor surveying, Hilde
says. The company will use the sonar
for oil exploration and for assessing
the suitability of sea-floor landscapes
for underwater structures such as
offshore oil rig platforms.
For A&M, which will fund the re
mainder of the project, the Sea-
MARC TAMU will provide a state-
of-the-art tool for the study of ocean
basins and for helping Geodynamics
Institute scientists compete with
other leading marine science institu
tions for research dollars.
And for Hilde, the driving force
behind A&M’s fourth largest re
search project, the SeaMARC will
provide an intimate view of the
world’s most geologically active re
gion — the western Pacific.
“The list of things I want to do
with it is endless,” Hilde says of the
high-tech sonar. But at the top of the
list, he says, are the the western Pa
cific trenches including the world’s
deepest — the 36,000-foot deep
Marianas trench.
Trenches form where plates of
the Earth’s crust collide and the
oceanic crust is descending into the
Earth’s interior.
Hilde also wants to study the Phil
ippine basin, which he says is the key
to the tectonic history of the westerrl
Pacific.
In simplest terms, the SeaMARC
is a high-tech version of the century-
old idea of using sound to measure
the ocean’s depth.
The first attempts to “sound-out”
the ocean floor were made by deto
nating an explosive underwater and
timing the echo with a stopwatch.
One explosion would yield one mea
surement — the straight-line depth
from the ship to the ocean floor.
While many improvements have
been made since the first “echo-
soundings” were recorded, the Sea
MARC TAMU constitutes a major
advancement over the existing
methods, Hilde says. One big im
provement A&M’s sonar makes is
that for every sound impulse
See Sonar, page 10