Banner Graphic, Volume 9, Number 233, Greencastle, Putnam County, 7 June 1979 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, June 7,1979

Oil for food

Farm leader negotiates with Libya for fuel

WASHINGTON (AP) - An American farm leader is trying to work out an apparently unprecedented deal to buy oil from the militant Arab state of Libya in return for wheat, corn and farm machinery. Allan Grant, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, is conducting quiet negotiations with Libyan officials in an effort to ease the farmers’ shortage of diesel fuel. More than 3 million American farmers are members of the federation. If the talks succeed, farm cooperatives will import the high quality, expensive Libyan

Three Ladies became members of the Theta Chapter of the Delta Theta Tau sorority Tuesday evening at a meeting held at the DePauw Union Building Terrace

Banner-Graphic - "It Waves For All" (USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 *»' Telephone 653-5151 Published twice each day except Sundays anj'+lolidays by LuMar Newspapers. Inc. at 10*North Jackson St.. Greencastle. Indiana. 46*35. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter unde# Act of March 7.1878. Subscription Rates Week, by carrier S 85 Pe* Month, by motor route $3.70 t Mail Subscription Rates R.R.in Resf of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months '8.75 9.50 *11.45 6 Months *17.50 ‘19.00 ‘22.90 1 'fyt r *34.00 *37.00 *45.75 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . ncik accepted in towns and where motor route sefvice is available. T - Member of tha Associated Press Jtie Associated Press is entitled exclusively to-the use for republication of all the local neyus printed in this newspaper.

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crude and sell their agricultural products to the oil-rich nation. “What we would like to do is to develop a contract for continuing supplies,” Grant said. State Department officials said they did not think there would be any objections to the arrangement Grant is trying to work out. “The only restriction we have is military-related sales," said one official, who asked not to be identified. In fact, he said, “with the balance of payments deficit, we want to encourage deals.” Last year, the United States ran up a deficit of about $3.3

Room. Pictured (from left) are Pat Fajt, Beth Andis and Diana Walters. (BannerGraphic photo by Becky Iqo).

Cropduster misses mark

MONROE, La. (AP) - A mile-long strip of dead and dying trees now marks the spot where a drifting cloud of poisonous paraquat herbicide accidentally strayed into a residential area two weeks ago. Paraquat, a weed killer best known for its use in the United States’ plan to help Mexico wipe out its marijuana crop, settled over the neighborhood two weeks ago when a cropduster hired by the city missed his target. Now, people say their trees, gardens, and crops are dying. The paraquat, sprayed May 15, was supposed to fall on the fields adjacent to the Monroe

billion in trade with Libya, mostly because of rising oil prices. Imports cost $3.7 billion while exports, including some food, were worth about $425 million. Last month, the State Department, concerned about an expansion of Libya’s military capability, recommended cancellation of a proposed sale of Boeing 747 jetliners to that country. Libya is one of the most radical of the Arab states. Led by Moammar Khadafy, it is a bitter foe of Israel and Egypt. Libya is reported to have financed terrorist raids against

municipal airport. Dean Hart, an investigator for the state Agriculture Department, visited the neighborhood three days later and found the defoliant had contaminated 16 residences along a strip of road near the airport. His report concluded that the damage to yards and trees was slight to moderate. But the residents disagree. One homeowner, Mrs. Tammi Reneau said she was sitting outside while the spray plane was working. “It smelled very sweet like any herbicide does. It smelled like I had a lot of flowers blooming in my yard.”

Israel, fought a brief border war with Egypt in July 1977 and has led Arab “rejectionists” in condemning Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for signing a peace treaty with Israel. In deliberations of the oil cartel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Libya is one of the most hawkish, and Libyan oil is among the most expensive and highest quality in the world. In other energy-related developments: —The House Ways and Means Committee begins working today on President Carter’s

Martial law declared; Nicaraguan army reserves called out

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) President Anastasio Somoza declared martial law and began calling up army reserves to combat Sandinista guerrillas holding Leon, Nicaragua’s sec-ond-largest city, and battling the national guard in five other cities. A tank-led column of Somoza’s troops failed to break through guerrilla lines Wednesday to relieve the embattled garrison at Leon, 54 miles northwest of the capital city of Managua. The troops fled back to the capital, and the guerrillas sent out a commandeered earth mover that cut a big trench across the Leon-Managua highway. An estimated 400 guerrillas of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, many of them teenagers, were reported in control of Leon, a city of 205,000. There have been no confirmed reports of casualties in four days of fighting there. The Sandinistas gave a group of reporters a tour of the city. The guerrillas appeared to control all of the city except the national guard garrison and the area in its vicinity. Many of the guerrillas were armed with automatic rifles. They were distributing milk from comandeered trucks and

Today, however, nothing is blooming in her yard. Paraquat does more than kill weeds and trees; it is also poisonous to humans, government officials say. Mark Tow, a toxicologist with the federal Food and Drug Administration, said that if the herbicide is inhaled it can scar the lungs. “Once it’s done,” he said, “there is not much you can do.” Mrs. Reneau said several neighbors, complaining of ill effects from the spraying, plan to have themselves examined. Residents also complain that repeated calls to City Hall have been ignored.

Judge's orders saves college from closing

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) “Silver and blue, we love you,” Josephine Benincaso sang after a judge reversed a trustees’ decision to close Wilson College, a 110-year-old liberal arts school for women. And two days later the 22-year-old woman accepted her diploma without tears, happy her class wouldn’t be Wilson’s last after all. “Women’s colleges right now are on the upswing,” said the Italian-born New Yorker who will return to Italy for medical school. “We surcived when others failed, and we aren’t going to fail now.” It is a hope shared by Dr. Donald Bletz, a part-time political science professor who became Wilson’s acting president after Franklin County Judge John W. Keller ordered Wilson to stay open last month. “Our goal is to rebuild,” Bletz said, in the office vacated by Dr. Margaret Waggoner, the

proposed “windfall profits” tax on oil revenues expected to flow to the oil companies with the lifting of price controls on U.S.produced crude oil. Democrats on the committee informally agreed Wednesday to tighten Carter’s proposal, although they did not decide how they would do that. —Coal could be burned more widely in industry if companies used natural gas as a clean, supplemental fuel, George H. Lawrence, president of the American Gas Association, said Wednesday.

food rations from supply stations they set up. “The townspeople were like proud spectators watching their sons at a baseball park,” said one reporter. Reports from the northern city of Matagalpa, scene of heavy fighting during the Sandinista uprising last fall, said guerrillas dynamited a bridge at the edge of town and after a day of heavy fighting claimed to have driven the national guard garrison back into its headquarters. A Red Cross spokesman in Masaya, 35 miles south of Managua, said heavy fighting was continuing there, and the rebels appeared to have control of all of the city except for two government command posts. Fighting also was reported in the southern cities of Jinotepe, Diriamba and Chichigalpa. The national guard, Somoza’s army, claimed it was fighting “an international brigade of communist mercenaries” from neighboring Costa Rica. Somoza claimed the guerrillas were armed and trained by Panana. Both Panama and Costa Rica denied his allegations, and Panama and Mexico warned of retaliation if Somoza carried out threats to invade Costa Rica.

Hoosier grandmother gets Ph.D.

CINCINNATI (AP) Paula Bowes has this thing about learning. She can’t get enough of it. “I love to study,” Mrs. Bowes concluded Wednesday as she prepared to get her Ph D in Bible studies from Hebrew Union College. She didn’t start out to get an impressive degree. Things just sort of happened for the 55-year-old mother of 11 from Indianapolis. Mrs. Bowes graduated from college in 1944, but didn’t decide to go back to school until 1969 when she started attending the Christian Theological Seminary. “Each fall. I would say, i want to do something with my mind,”’ she recalled. “It started out with just one class and suddenly, the thing kept mushrooming. Here I am getting my Ph D degree and teaching.” She said that she used her studies as a sort of escape from the pressures imposed on her by her children. “I found it a counter balance to the internal family

president for four years who quit after the court’s ruling. “The college has been around 110 years and there’s no reason we can’t be around for another 110 years. We don’t think the situation is hopeless.” Bletz said the faculty those who didn’t get new jobs after Wilson announced in February that it would close is supportive, reorganizing, and considering curriculum changes. “We are a liberal arts college, but we find little incompatibility with a certain amount of career orientation,” Bletz said. “We do not intend to become a trade school, or a vocational school. We are planning to remain a women’s college.” The unexpected decision to shutter Wilson and turn its assets into a scholarship foundation for college-bound women was fought by alumnae, students, and faculty who sought an injunction to block the clos-

Marked slowdown in price increases reported

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wholesale prices rose a modest 0.4 percent in May the smallest increase in nine months with a sharp drop in beef prices getting much "of the credit, the government said today. The May increase was a marked turnaround from the 0.9 percent wholesale price rise in April, together with increases of 1 percent or more in the first three months of the year. The Labor Department report offered further proof that the nation’s economy has begun to slow, which might help ease the high rate of inflation so far this year. Wholesale food prices fell 1.3 percent in May, the largest drop since February 1976. Beef prices at wholesale fell nearly 7 percent, the first decline after five consecutive months of large increases. “It’s bound to have some effect at the retail level,” said John Early, chief of the Labor Department’s division of industrial prices. “Most food changes pass through very rapidly.” At the same time, however, the wholesale prices of consumer goods other than food rose 1 percent in May. Early blamed the continuing increase on rapidly rising gasoline and fuel oil prices. Gasoline prices went up 4.2 percent in May, for an increase of nearly 12 percent in the past three months. Fuel oil was up 5.4 percent, or more than 18 percent since February.

Bus plunges into lake; 31 die

KUCHING, Malaysia (AP) —• Thirty school children and a teacher trainee drowned today when their bus plunged into a lake outside Kuching, rescue officials said. They said 14 youngsters were missing and that 23

ing. “They didn’t believe anyone would protest,” said Gretchen Van Ness, a 20-year-old Rochester, N.Y., woman who is president of the student government association. “I think they were shocked that students and alumnae fought so hard to keep it open.” Dr. Harry Buck, professor of religion studies since 1959, blamed the move to close on an administration that forgot it was the 1970 s and ran the school like it was still the 19505. The school had been criticized earlier for not offering careeroriented courses. And said Dr. R. G. Townsend,' an economics professor: “We could have adjusted to the times...but we didn’t.” Dr. Waggoner, silent now, told a reporter a day before the court ruling “the college was in very serious trouble when I came here, and most people thought it was an impossible

world

Government economists had been predicting the slowdown in food prices. The rising petroleum prices are blamed on a worldwide shortage and rapidly escalating charges for crude oil from producing nations. Wholesale price changes are included in the Producer Price Index, which reports prices at three levels: the wholesale or finished goods level, when goods are ready for sale to the final user; the intermediate level, where they have received some processing, and the crude level, where goods have not yet received any processing. The Producer Price Index stood at 212.4 in May, meaning that goods that cost SIOO at the wholesale level in the 1967 base period cost $212.40 last month. The index last month was 10 percent ahead of a year ago, the Labor Department said. May statistics indicate that prices rose 1 percent at the intermediate level and 0.8 percent at the crude level. The government has been eager to see prices at both wholesale and retail levels start dropping from current rates which, if continued, would put inflation over 10 percent for the year. Higher prices have made it more difficult for the government to convince wage earners and businesses to abide by President Carter’s voluntary wage and price guidelines. In fact, Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, the Carter admin tration’s chief economic

other persons, including the driver, survived. Rescue workers said they had recovered the bodies of 19 girls from the lake, 11 boys and the teacher trainee. All were from the secondary school near Bau

problems we were having,” Mrs. Bowes said. “In front of a translation, I can forget for awhile. It was marvelous therapy”. After getting her master’s degree, she looked around for something else to study. There were no other Bible programs in Indianapolis, so she decided to make a twice-weekly commute to Cincinnati, more than 100 miles away. At the time, eight of her children were still living at home. Now five of the children are still at home, and Mrs. Bowes has become a grandmother five times. Ten of her children accepted their mother's invitation to watch her get her doctorate degree. “They thought I was kind of cftzy at first.” said Mrs. Bowes, whose husband is a doctor. “They’d see me sitting at the kitchen table and they’d say, ‘There she is, studying again.’ “Of course, it was quieter in the kitchen than other places in the house. I’m the cook and nobody wanted to help me.”

job.” Asked what would happen if Wilson was ordered to stay open, she said: “I don’t know where they are going to get students or money. I think it is unrealistic in the face of the facts. Closing a school is very emotional. I wanted to save it. I tried to save it.” Joan Edwards, an alumna and a leader of the Save Wilson Committee which already has more than $1.5 million in cash and pledges, blamed poor management by Dr. Waggoner and the 25-member board of trustees, headed by attorney Martha Walker until she also quit after the judge granted the injunction halting the planned closure. Dr. Waggoner and Mrs. Walker both rejected the mismanagement charge and scoffed at the fund-raising efforts. “We can’t make it without somebody bankrolling it.” Mrs. Walker said. “We either need a

spokesman, said last weekend that “the guidelines will need review and updating” in light of rising inflation. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board reported that Americans took on $4.1 billion more in installment debt than they paid off in April. The increase in debt “was the highest of the year but trailed the $4.4 billion increase recorded in December,” the board’s statement said. . _ If borrowing continues at the April pace, consumer debt will increase 17 percent this year. The increase in 1978 was 19 percent. Consumer installment debt rose $3.7 billion in March. The board also acted Wednesday to approve a new regulation designed to protect Americans when their bank debit cards are lost or stolen. The rule, effective Aug. 1, will prohibit a financial institution from collecting for unnauthorized use of a debit card unless the bank has informed consumers of their liabilities for unauthorized use. Debit cards are plastic cards that enable people to draw cash from their accounts at electronic banking machines or automatically transfer money from their accounts to pay for goods at stores.

Lake, site of the disaster. The bus was en route from the school to the town of Bau when it plunged into the lake about 12:50 p.m. The cause of the ac - cident was not immediately known.

lot of money, or a lot of students to make ends meet. “If I thought there was any chance to make Wilson a viable operation, to grow in enroll ment. and thrive. I’d say let’s do it. But I don’t see any glimmer of hope.” Bletz, however, credited the alumnae’s spirit with keeping Wilson alive. “If we can continue with that drive and spirit there is no doubt that we will succeed.” he said. “Exactly how we are going to do it remains to be seen. I have more questions in my mind than I have answers. I think it is worth a try.” The biggest problem is students. The dwindling enrollment was a major factor in the decision to close. Wilson enrollment peaked in 1968 with 722 students. This past year it dipped to 214. “Our goal is to tough it out in the coming year." Bletz said