All non-boycotters stop here
THIS TEMPLE MARKET counter clerk surveys the meat situation trom a dif
ferent viewpoint than the consumers.
Beaver
ZOO wins
Zeta Omega Omega, the social
fraternity housed on the third floor of
Beaver Hall, has been chartered by the
Undergraduate Student Government.
ZOO has been in existence for five
years and one member said the charter
"simply made the organization official
in the University."
The fraternity is unique among Penn
State's 50 social fraternities because it is
not a member of the Interfraternity
Council. It is a local fraternity with no
chapters at other schools.
ZOO president John Szada said, "The
floor has always been very tight knit,
and ZOO was alive before any of us lived
here."
Bill Koslow, floor resident assistant,
suggested the chartering of the
fraternity last term and the floor
residents agreed unanimously.
Koslow said besides making the
fraternity official, the charter gives the
floor control over who lives there. The
fraternity plans to rush for new mem
bers this term. Twenty five of the
current 66 members will live on the floor
next year.
Because it is now an official student
organization, ZOO may utilize
University facilities and may request
funds from Associated Student Ac-
Code
kept
prisoners
informed
the
daily
goes Greek:
charter
tivities. ZOO plans to convert its study
lounge into a suite.
Although the fraternity has mem
bership dues and plans rushing, pledging
and brotherization programs, Koslow
said the majority of the members are
anti-traditional Greeks.
Koslow said becoming a social
fraternity was a way to get a charter and
said ZOO members share the common
goals and common ideals of brotherhood
but do not agree with the life style of
traditional fraternities.
He added, "ZOO is a fraternity with a
totally different living style, a dormitory
as opposed to a house."
Koslow said although 12 floor residents
are now pledges or brothers of another
fraternity, most ZOO members never
have rushed another fraternity.
Koslow said the fraternity "provides a
greater sense of community on the floor,
closer feelings of friendship among the
men, a greater respect for University
facilities and a tighter organization in
the floor than is ordinarily brought about
by grouping of people by Shields."
The fraternity now is working with
housing to provide special regulations
for drinking on the floor and with Shields
for special consideration in room
assignments for the next year. —PH
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. (AP) An ingenious
communications network, in which every cough,
whistle or scratch of a hoe had secret meaning,
served as an underground newspaper for American
captives in North Vietnam, keeping them informed
of camp activity and bucking up their morale.
"The amounts of information we passed along
would an;iaze you," Lt. Cmdr. William M. Tschudy,
who spend nearly eight years in seven different
prisons in and near Hanoi, said.
"For instance, if they had a big transfer of
prisoners from one place to another, we'd know in 24
hours the names of everybody there and where they
were located."
Tschudy said the prisoners' main concern was
keeping track of one anothers' names, continually
refining lists of captives, which they memorized.
In addition, they swapped jokes, chatted about old
times, mocked their captors, spent endless hours
discussing food and shared such useful tips for
survival as how to pick handcuff locks with a wire.
The basis of the system was a tap code. Although
some elements have been disclosed, the Pentagon
asked that details not be divulged in case some men
missing in action might be using it.
"We also whistled a lot," Tschudy said. "I've
been in places that at times sounded like a bird
cage."
C • Ilegian
Photo by J.D. Donovan
No specific intervention pledge
Presidents threaten reactions
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP)
President Nixon and President Nguyen
Van Thieu threatened "vigorous
reactions" against Communist cease
fire violations yesterday as Nixon
promised substantial postwar economic
aid for South Vietnam.
• But the communique crowning two
days of summit talks at the Western
White House made no specific pledge of
renewed U.S. military intervention and
gave no specific dollar figure for what it
termed an "adequate and substantial"
economic aid program.
Nixon and Thieu pledged in farewell
remarks to make joint efforts to con
solidate the fragile Indochina peace.
Thieu came to Nixon's oceanside
retreat seeking a guarantee that the
United States would intervene militarily
in response to any blatant violations of
the cease-fire agreement signed two
months ago.
In the 1,500-word communique, Nixon
ruled out none of his options. But the
document did not contain a precise
Short boycott may hurt consumer
By ELAINE HERSCHER
Collegian Contributing Editor
Conscientious boycotters who end
their week of meatless penance by
dining on T-bone steak may find their
efforts to bring prices down more harm
ful than helpful.
'According to George E. Brandow, a
professor of agricultural economics who
will testify today before a Congressional
committee concerning food prices, "in
the short run the boycott has obviously
had an effect." Brandow cited some
wholesale meat price declines and
layoffs in the meat packing industry.
"If consumers kept doing this there
would be a dramatic effect on prices,"
he said. But, Brandow said, if c „turners
are to lower prices, a much longer
boycott will have to be maintained.
"If they go back and spend just as
freely as they ever did the effects will be
negligible," he said. Another professor
of agricultural economics, H. Louis
Moore, agreed, adding th - at in the short
run a boycott could be harmful to both
consumers and the meat industry if not
continued for several months.
Moore noted the American meat
production system, however un
satisfactory to its citizens, is an efficient
one. By boycotting for a short period, he
said, consumers force wholesalers to lay
off union
_workers who must receive
wages for 36 hours of work regardless of
how much time they put in. "Disruption
means inefficiency," he said, "and
inefficiency could mean higher prices."
Wholesalers must also cut back on
meat production to accommodate lower
demand. If consumers hit the stores next
week eager for meat, wholesalers will be
forced to sell it for the maximum price
they can get to compensate for their loss.
Consumer contribution to temporary
chaos in the meat market, he said, will
not help.
Indications so far are that shoppers
will find it hard to exist indefinitely
without meat. Many grocers across the
nation reported heavy meat sales last
week, estimating shoppers were
stocking up before the boycott. Moore
said one of the retailers with whom he
deals last week reported "meat sales
Were the best they ever had."
Of about 40 State College consumers
interviewed by The Daily Collegian,
most said they had been buying less
meat than normal' for weejcs because
prices are too steep.
Both Brandow and Moore blamed
those prices on consumers themselves,
Tschudy said the day he was driven into the Hanoi
Hilton compound, June 20, 1965, two days after he
was shot down over Thanh Hoa, the camp burst into
whistled renditions of "America the Beautiful,"
"It's a Grand Old Flag," and "God Bless America."
"That did two things," he said, "It informed
prisoners who couldn't see my arrival that a new
man was in camp, and it let me know that I wasn't
alone. I tell you it sounded awfully good to me at
that point."
As the months and years passed, Tschudy said,
the communications system grew gradually more
sophisticated.
"We developed a sort of shorthand for our tap
code," he said. "It not only made it much faster to
pass information, but also much more difficult to
break. If they ever broke the code, there's no
evidence of it."
A major aim, Tschudy said, was simply to keep "I taught four guys how to extract square roots,"
track of everybody. The cells were shuttered, but Tschudy said, "solely by tapping on the walls. First,
some had Oily cracks and the men constructed other I had to teach myself. I spent hours trying to
peepholes. They had to keep track constantly remember how it was done, finally remembered,
because there were periodic transfers of prisoners and when a new man would come I'd ask him if he
as well as new arrivals. f knew how to extract square roots. If he said no, I'd
"If I were washing my clothes, for instance,"
Tschudy said, "I would snap them in the air. The
guards thought I was just drying them. But I would "We also passed the time in games like naming
guarantee of renewed U.S. military
involvement.
The two leaders, meeting less than a
week after the United States formally
ended its military mission in South
Vietnam, said they "viewed with great
concern infiltrations of men and
weapons in sizeable numbers from
North Vietnam into South Vietnam .. ."
They declared "actions which would
threaten the basis for the agreement"
signell in Paris "would call for ap
propriately vigorous reactions."
The cease-fire, especially its
provisions on military forces and sup
plies, "must be faithfully implemented if
. . prospects for a peaceful settlement
are to be assured," the communique
said.
It added that Nixon told Thieu the
United States "views violations of any
provision of the agreement with great
and continuing concern."
Nixon and Thieu, before making their
final farewells, made brief statements to
reporters. Nixon said he and Thieu seek
a peace "which we all hope will be the
wave of the future."
including also, the general inflationary
trend. From 1964-72, the retail cost of
meat increased 46 per cent, Moore said.
In those years consumer disposable
income increased 127 per cent.
With an increase in income almost
triple the meat upswing, Americans
went from 85 pounds of meat per capita
in 1960 to 116 pounds last year. "Higher
wages continued to fan consumer desire
for beef," Moore said, adding an in
crease of two pounds per capita is ex
pected this year.
"The supply of beef per person is at an
all-time high," Brandow said, con
tradicting the consumer cry that meat is
scarce. It isn't scarce, he said,
Americans just want more than ever
before, and.by buying expensive meats,
they increase the strain on their own
pockets.
"As a source of protein, beef is the
most wasteful," Brandow said. "For
every eight calories consumed (by
Committee okays freeze
WASHINGTON (AP) The House
Banking Committee voted yesterday for
a freeze on prices and interest rates at
their March 16 levels but approved a
rollback in food prices to May 1, 1972.
The committee, considering
legislation to extend the Economic
Stabilization Act for another year, took
the action after defeating a move to roll
back food prices to their Jan. 11 levels.
That's the date President Nixon im
posed his Phase 3 economic controls.
Republicans in a strategic move
joined several Democrats on the com
mittee in approving the May 1, 1972 price
rollback date. They argued that because
the provision is so impractical, it would
-be defeated on the House floor.
The committee approved the general
price and interest rate freeze 21 to 17 on
nearly straight party lines.
Weather
Rainy, breezy and cool today, high 47.
Windy and turning colder tonight with
rain tapering off and changing to snow
flurries, low 32. Tomorrow, mostly
cloudy, windy and cold with snow
flurries, high 38.
nap out, 'WT SM'. That would tell everybody that
William Tschudy and Scotty Morgan were in the
wash area. We would just let everybody know we
were still around."
The former prisoner said each man had a per
sonal song.
"If somebody heard a guy walking past whistling
"The Yellow Rose of Texas,' he'd say, 'There goes
Bill Tschudy.' "
In their cells, men gave priority to information
such as details of "quizzes," their term for in
terrogation sessions that often involved torutre.
They passed the word about answers they had given
so that the next man, asked the same question,
could give a consistent answer.
The prisoners also chatted endlessly simply to
occupy their minds and break the monotony of
isolation.
teach him, then we'd give each other problems to
solve.
LIBRARY
12 COPIES
'ednesday, April 4, 1973
niversity Park Pennsylvania Vol. 73, No. 120 12 pages
üblished by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
Thieu said the summit "marks an end
and a beginning" the end of a difficult
period for both nations and the starting
point for seeking what Nixon has called
"a generation of peace for the whole
world."
The two presidents walked side by side
to the helicopter that took Thieu to San
Diego.
In addition to Nixon's pledge of sub
stantial postwar aid in the years ahead,
the communique included , these major
points:
Nixon said he intends "to seek
congressional support for a longer range
program for the economic development
of South Vietnam now that the war has
ended."
Nixon affirmed that the United
States expects to continue, "in ac
cordance with its constitutional
processes," to supply the Saigon
government "with the material means
for its defense" consistent with the
cease-fire agreement.
The two leaders agreed "a regional
reconstruction program," presumably
including postwar aid to Hanoi, "will
cattle) there is one calorie worth of
beef," he said, citing the wasted parts of
the cow. "This is the prime reason why
beef is so high priced. Cattle get a more
technically skilled ration of food than
people, the principle source being
soybean meal. If people consumed their
crops for cattle feed directly, we could
feed a much larger population."
Moore emphasized, "Farmers haven't
been holding back on production" in
recent months. From December 1972 to
February 1973 retail meat prices in
creased 14 per cent, he said. But ac
cording to Moore's figures, the
wholesaler's costs increased 17 per cent
and the price of cattle raising was up 18
per cent in those months.
The so-called middle-man, the
wholesaler, is not to blame for high
prices, Moore said. Answering the
demands of many consumer groups
concerning a federally imposed 15 per
cent price rollback, he said it would
The vote to roll back food prices to
their May -1, 1972 levels carried 23 to 11.
On the later vote, to move the date up to
Jan. 11, the committee turned it down 22
to 15.
Rep. Frank Annunzio, D-111., sponsor
of the amendment, said food prices
should be rolled back to last year's levels
because labor unions will demand and
receive big wage increases this year to
reflect higher food costs and these price
increases will be passed on to the con
sumer.
The committee completed work on the
first section of the bill, which also would
order the President to make price
rollbacks at the March 16 level within 60
days. If the bill should pass both houses,
Nixon is expected to veto it.
Most Republican members of the
committee voted for the food-price
amendment after Rep. Garry Brown, R-
Mich., declared it a strategic move.
"This legislation is impossible,"
Brown said. "To the extent that we can
make it worse, there may be order out of
chaos because it would be so impossible
the House would have to vote it down."
"Like hell we killed the bill," Annunzio
told a reporter who suggested that it
might.
increase the prospects of a lasting peace
in the area."
They voiced hopes the Laotian
cease-fire agreement will be fully im
plemented, expressed their "grave
concern" that North Vietnamese troops
had not been withdrawn from Laos and
Cambodia and agreed that such a with
drawal "should be quickly im
plemented."
Nixon informed Thieu of his "great
interest" in the negotiations in Paris
between the Saigon government and the
Viet Cong on a political settlement in
South Vietnam, and Thieu said his
government is insisting the talks "fully
insure the right of self-determination by
the South Vietnamese people . . ."
The communique's warning of
"vigorous reactions" came within hours
after Defense Secretary Elliot L.
Richardson told Congress if Hanoi
launched another massive invasion the
United States would have to consider
"reintroduction of air support."
Richardson said he considers such an
invasion unlikely.
cause a production cutback. With a
reduced supply, the gap between supply
and demand would widen even further
resulting in black market selling.
Brandow predicted food prices would
continue to rise into September and
possibly beyond. He said he plans to
advise the Subcommittee on Consumer
Economics of the Joint Economic
Committee of Congress to explore
avenues" that don't unduly inflate
monetary policy." One way, he said,
would be to hold down union wage in
creases that add to inflation.
Neither economist said he was
boycotting personally. "If I don't
boycott, consumers will be angry with
me," Moore said. "If I do, the farmer
will think I betrayed him."
"We haven't had steak in our house in
more than a year," Brandow said. "If all
housewives were as careful as my wife,
we might not have these problems."
The Nixon administration is.strongly
opposed to the freeze legislation now
before the committee and has hinted
that President Nixon would veto any
such bill if it got to him.
But the administration's request for a
straightforward one-year extension of
the Economic Stabilization Act, which
gives the President broad authority to
control wages and prices, was rejected
25 to 15.
That move suggested the panel is
ready to send to the floor much stronger
legislation, perhaps than the
congressionally mandated freeze.
The Economic Stabilization Act ex
pires
_April 30. It gives the President
flexible powers in controlling the
economy, without directing him what to
do.
The price of food on May 1, 1972 was
much lower than now. The food-price
surge began last spring and failed to
level off despite administration
predictions.
The committee refused to include
wages, salaries, profits and dividends in
the freeze legislation. The vote was 24 to
the states in alphabetical order, state capitals, and
world's highest waterfall, that sort of thing.
"And if a guy was down, we'd buck him up.
During some of the rougher periods we did a lot of
this. It gave us a sense of unity, of comradeship. It's
the way a lot of us were able to survive."
Tschudy said every device possible was used to
communicate. At one camp they even etched
messages on nuts that grew on a tree in camp.
"We stole everything we could get our hands on
scraps of paper, bits of wire, pencil lead. Everybody
had his own cache."
Tschudy said a great morale booster was
mocking their captors' fractured English.
"Whenever they would say something like. 'Don't
change horseshoes in the middle of the stream,' or
that somebody had 'let the cat into the bag,' we'd
spread it around and get a big kick out of it.
"One guy -told me that during an interrogation by
a certain Vietnamese who was particularly proud of
his English, the V leaned back and said most
profoundly, 'You must remember that right or
wrong, just is just.'
"The guy almost broke up, but he could see how
proud the V was of the expression, so he leaned
forward, looked him straight in the eye and said,
`You bet. Right or wrong, just is just.' "