THE RECORD

MARCH 22,1976

NO. 20

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis

JUVENILE JUSTICE PROJECT SCHEDULES CONFERENCE

Truants, runaways, and children beyond parental control will be the focus of a conference to be held at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Thursday and Friday (March 25-26). The conference, on Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders in Texas, is being sponsored by the LBJ School's Juvenile Justice Project as part of its policy research study.

Participating in the conference will be 16 criminal justice planners from the regions and metropolitan areas of Texas; 20 officials from Texas state agencies; 6 probation officers; 5 police officers; 9 directors of facilities and services pertinent to status offenders; 3 voluntary organizations; and 2 judges. Other participants will include representatives from the Austin Independent School District, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the State Bar of Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, and a member of the Texas Legislature.

Speakers and panelists will include: Robert C. Flowers, executive director, Criminal Justice Division, Office of the Governor; Milton Rector, president, National Council on Crime and Delinquency; Charles M. Hill, executive director, Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice; Allan Carpenter, associate director, Illinois Law Enforcement Commission; Adrian Moore, deputy assistant administrator, Texas Youth Council; Diana Bentliss, grants coordinator for Nacogdoches County; Richard Alvarado, United Way of San Antonio; Carl Boaz, Dallas YMCA; Dr. Jerome G. Miller, Department of Public Welfare, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Merle E. Springer, Department of Public Welfare, Austin; Dr. George H. Weber, deputy director, National Institute of Mental Health; Kenneth Wooden, author and investigative journalist; Ted Baumberger, administrative assistant children services, Regional Coordinating Council, Oklahoma; and Dr. Joseph Leavy, consultant and former commissioner of Youth Services, Massachusetts.

The conference will include speeches, panel discussions and workshops. The keynote speeches will be delivered by Robert C. Flowers on "The Deinstitutionalization Effort in Texas" and Milton Rector on "Juvenile Justice Priorities." Topics for the panel discussions are: Deinstitutionalization Programs in Other States; Facilities and Services for Deinstitutionalization; Alternative Approach to the Status Offender Problem; and Delinquency Prevention. The workshops will be on local and state facilities and services.

Members of the Juvenile Justice Project will incorporate what they learn from the conference into a final report for the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's Office. The report will assist CJD in removing approximately 31,000 status offenders from detention facilities and into community-based resources by August 1, 1977.

The deinstitutionalization effort in Texas is in accordance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. The Act is designed to provide community-based services to status offenders, to direct them from the juvenile justice system, and prevent their entry into that system. Each state accepting LEAA funds under this Act is committed to achieving deinstitutionalization and diversion of all status offenders.

Before Texas can make the necessary arrangements for the transfer of status offenders into alternative resources, the number and location of status offenders must be determined. The existing resources available for community-based services must also be identified and ways in which the actual transfer and future diversion into these programs must be determined. The Juvenile Justice Project will supply this information to CJD in the form of a report.

The specific objectives of the Juvenile Justice Project are to determine the number and disposition of status offenders in Texas; to inventory and identify existing service delivery programs which impact status offenders in the state; to identify gaps in services for status offenders in Texas; to specify existing linkages between social service agencies and juvenile justice agencies in the state; to provide technical assistance to social service agencies and juvenile justice agencies to develop a specific plan of action; to identify existing policies regarding status offenders and recommend changes or additions to those policies; and to provide input into the 1977 Criminal Justice Plan for Texas regarding the existing status offender problem and resources to meet the problem.

The Juvenile Justice Project consists of two faculty members and eleven graduate students. The Project's client is the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's Office. Thus far in their efforts to gather information, project members have attended conferences in Texas and in other states. They are currently conducting a field survey and interviewing key actors in social service and juvenile justice agencies throughout the state. Some data has already been collected and computer analysis of the data reveals a population of 31,000 status offenders in Texas. The conference will not only allow for an exchange of ideas, but will provide members of the Juvenile Justice Project an opportunity to query the participants for additional information useful to their study.

The Juvenile Justice Project defines status offenses as an act or conduct that would not be illegal if the child were an adult. Common status offenses are truancy and runaway although minor theft and the use of inhalents are usually considered status crimes. Status offenders are often treated in the same manner as children who have committed delinquent acts. One reason for this is the lack of dispositional alternatives. By placing the status offender with delinquents, the risk of his or her future involvement in delinquency is increased. Seventy-five percent of all status offenders receive no treatment and at least 50 percent are rearrested following initial contact with law enforcement authorities, according to the Texas Juvenile Corrections Master Plan.

LEAA funds will be used to develop, support and continue intake units in jails or detention centers with authority to direct status offenders into community-based programs. Youth service bureaus, family counseling and crisis intervention services will also be developed and continued with the funds. Halfway houses, group homes, foster care, and emergency shelter facilities will be established and continued as alternatives to detention.

The conference will begin Thursday morning at 9 a.m. Acting Dean Kenneth Tolo will deliver the welcoming address. He will be followed by Robert C. Flowers who will give the major address for the day. Stephen Stubbs, a member of the Juvenile Justice Project, is scheduled to report to the conference findings of the project to date. There will be two panel discussions and four workshops Thursday afternoon. Later that evening Milton Rector will speak. Friday's session will begin with workshop highlights by Greg Roberson, a Project member, and will conclude with two panel discussions.

All of the scheduled events will take place in the East Campus Lecture Hall with two exceptions. The workshops will be held in classrooms 3.103, 3.106, 3.109, and 3.111 in the LBJ School. The speech by Milton Rector will take place at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center.

Juvenile Justice Project members are: Dr. Henry David and Dr. Anthony Neidhart (faculty), and Leota Johnson, Joe Lopez, Roy McCandless, Stephen Morgan, Gregory Roberson, Sarah Smith, Stephen Stubbs, Bonnie Young, Paul Lauder, and Malcolm MacDonald.

—Gregory Roberson

"On the Record"

. The Dean Search Committee will meet with Sol Chafkin on Monday. Chafkin will make a short presentation, followed by a question and answer period from 2:15 until 3:15 p.m. in room 3.111. Interested students, faculty, and alumni are invited. Chafkin is currently in charge of the Office of Social Development at the Ford Foundation. He previously served as Director of the Office of Planning and Programming of the Peace Corps and was an economist for the Treasury Department and with AID. He also has experience in the private sector as founder of an economic and management consulting firm.

. The committee will also meet with Douglass Cater on Wednesday, April 7. Cater is a visiting professor at Stanford University and is Director of Communications Programs at the Aspen Institute. He was Regent Professor at the University of California at San Francisco 1971-72 and was visiting professor of public affairs at Princeton in 1959. From 1964 to 1968 he was a special assistant to President Johnson with particular responsibilities in the fields of health, education, and welfare.

. Forthcoming speakers at the LBJ School will include Brock Evans, director of the Sierra Club, 4 p.m. March 29, East Campus Lecture Hall; David Phillips, former Central Intelligency Agency official, brown-bag lunch, noon, April 2, Student Lounge; and Douglass Cater, Aspen Institute, 4 p.m., April 7, East Campus Lecture Hall.

. Dr. Alan K. Campbell, on leave from the deanship of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, spoke to LBJ School students and faculty on March 11. Campbell is currently serving as President of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

. Dr. Richard Schott, assistant professor of public affairs, spoke at a recent sandwich seminar sponsored by the Texas Union on the role of the Central Intelligence Agency.

. After dropping its first game, the LBJ School men's intramural basketball team has recorded three straight victories. The Birds will seek to avenge their opening loss in a game Wednesday night at 9 p.m. on Court 2 of Gregory Gym.

. Steve Clyburn, LBJ School student, is the author of an article on Equal Employment and Peace Officer Hiring Practices in the December, 1975, issue of Texas Police Journal, published by the Texas Police Association. Clyburn prepared the article in conjunction with development of a manual on equal employment opportunity and the Texas criminal justice system.

. Hoyt Purvis, director of publications at the LBJ School, spoke on Social Responsibilities of the Mass Media at the 49th annual state convention of the Texas Interscholastic League Press Conference last week.

. Professor Millard Ruud, on leave from the UT Law School faculty and currently Executive Director of the Association of American Law Schools, met with LBJ School faculty and students on March 5.

SPURR PARTICIPATES IN MEETING WITH SOVIETS

Dr. Stephen H. Spurr, professor of public affairs, is one of eight American educators who met last week in Princeton, N.J., with eight Soviet educators to discuss problems in higher education.

The meeting of the American and Soviet delegations was organized by the Educational Testing Service for the U.S. State Department under the cultural exchange agreement between the two nations.

The two topics discussed during the joint seminar were college-level selection and guidance, and the meaning of the baccalaureate degree. Each delegation presented papers on both topics. The American paper on the meaning of the baccalaureate degree was written by Dr. Spurr.

He explained that his paper "American Higher Education and the Bachelor's Degree," is a general descriptive overview written primarily for a Soviet audience.

In his prepared paper, Dr. Spurr emphasized the "open-ended system" of American higher education that provides 11 multiple points of entry, multiple interconnecting pathways and multiple goals."

He also called attention to a number of problems in higher education, one being the difficulty in measuring academic progress through the course credit system in view of the recent trend toward both credit inflation and grade inflation. He noted the erosion of standards where academic credit is given for "knowledge derived on the job or for minimal attendance at what amounts to occasional extension classes."

He observed, too, that the grade inflation trend has been "exacerbated by pressures for admission to graduate professional schools, especially medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, and law. To gain consideration for admission, a high grade-point average is an essential prerequisite."

ENERGY AND FUTURE CONFERENCE SUBJECT

The impact on the future of Texas cities of energy-related issues—ranging from mass transportation to soaring utility costs—will be the focus of a conference Monday and Tuesday at the Thompson Conference Center.

The conference, Energy and the Future: The Cities of Texas, is sponsored by the LBJ School and organized by the Office of Conferences and Training.

Robert J. Macdonald, associate director of the Office of Conferences and Training, says anyone may attend who has an interest "in the future of the Texas city, its amenities, shape and style." The registration fee is $20.

The conference is expected to attract various public officials, planners, environmentalists, transportation specialists and educators. Interested students may attend without cost.

Topics and speakers for the Monday session include:

—"The Economics of Energy Extravagance" by Richard A. Walker, assistant professor of geography, University of California at Berkeley.

—"Urban Governance and the Energy Future" by David W. MacKenna, senior research associate, UT Arlington's Institute of Urban Studies.

—"Petroleum Shortages and the Design of Highways and Urban Movement Networks" by Charles A. Walton, UT Austin assistant professor of civil engineering.

—"Mass Transportation and Energy Use: Alternatives to the Private Automobile" by Sandra Rosenbloom, UT Austin assistant professor of architecture and planning.

Two addresses scheduled for Tuesday include:

—"Public Education: A Tool for Energy Management and Environmental Control" by Sherry K. Wagner of Austin, planning consultant with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

—"Energy Cost and Availability: The Impact on Environmental Dislocations and Urban Design" by Andrew F. Euston, Jr., an urban design program officer with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C.

HISTORY OF STRIKES BY FARMWORKERS DISCUSSED HERE

At an LBJ School brown-bag luncheon March 9, Paula Waddle and Judy Elders discussed the history of strikes by the California and Texas farm workers and reasons they believe farmworker legislation is needed.

Ms. Waddle is a University of Texas law student and a member of the Austin Friends of the Texas Farm Workers. Ms. Elders works with the Texas Office of Economic Opportunity. She has worked with the United Farm Workers boycott both in Washington and Houston and with the California strike.

PLACEMENT NEWS

Wilda Campbell, director of the LBJ School's Placement Office, reports that the Office has considerable information concerning contacts and possible job openings in Washington, San Antonio, and Houston.

She also announced the recruiting schedule for the week:

Monday and Tuesday—Doug Wilson, Abt Associates, consultants.

Wednesday morning—Linda Cherrington, City of Houston Office of Transportation.

Wednesday afternnon—Dave Edgerly, National Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce.

Cherrington and Edgerly are LBJ School graduates and will make short presentations on their agencies. First-year students interested in hearing about future possibilities are also invited to attend. Times and locations will be posted on the placement board in the Student Lounge.

Students who want to work on job interview skills with the use of video equipment should inform Ms. Campbell by 11 a.m. Thursday. Those interested will meet Thursday afternoon.

Any students interested in the Agency for International Development's two-year international intern program for 1977 should apply by June, 1976.

DISCUSSION SERIES BEGINS

A new series of informal talks on public affairs subjects organized by Professor David Warner of the LBJ School began on March 10 with a presentation and discussion led by Professor Robert Tollison and Marc Crain of Texas A&M. The topic was "Some Papers on the Impact of Length of Term, Kind of Office, and other Factors on Political Contributions." Tollison is chairman of the Economics Department at A&M.

On Wednesday March 24 Professor Kingsley Haynes will present some findings and ideas on the general topic of "Diffusion of Public Policies" at 4 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge.

On March 31 Warner will discuss "A Theory of Resource Mobilization," based on a paper he is writing on why certain organizations in the public and private sectors become large and powerful and others do not.

Warner said, "The primary purpose of these sessions is to present ideas or research that are not at a final stage, but which are fairly well formulated, for critique, comment, and discussion." Interested faculty and students are invited.

WHITE HOUSE POWER ASSESSED BY VALENTI

"No asset is more important in the White House than humility," Jack Valenti, former special assistant to President Johnson, said at the LBJ School on March 5. Valenti, author of the recently published book, A Very Human President, said Presidential aides "get a main-line fix of White House power."

Valenti, currently president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said, "White House assistants, if not careful, begin to believe in their self-importance and that is a deadly virus."

Valenti said, "President Johnson constantly mauled, brutalized, and humiliated his staff to make them realize that theirs was a temporary power that should be treated like a rare piece of porcelain. He was wise to do this."

"There is no training ground for White House assistants which provides any preconception of what you'll do. It's on-the-job training," he said.

Valenti was critical of the press and of those "such as (Rexford) Tugwell who think new institutions will solve our problems." He said, "There is no way to guarantee that a President won't do what Nixon did."

He strongly denied that President Johnson was not made aware of critical opinion within the country. "He watched all the news programs simultaneously and no man can do this and read all that he did and not know what is going on. He may have seen too many people, but he was certainly not isolated. Nixon, I'm told, never watched TV and only read news summaries and did not see as many people."

Valenti said there is "almost never a sufficiency of information" for White House decision-making. He said decisions were based "75 percent on facts and history and 25 percent on perception of the future —instinct."

"The base of leadership is character and judgement," Valenti said.

SHALALA DESCRIBES NYC'S BORROWING CRISIS

Dr. Donna E. Shalala, the only woman serving on New York City's Municipal Assistance Corporation, said a major factor in that city's financial dilemma was its addiction to borrowing—a habit which was all too readily encouraged by New York's bankers.

Speaking at the LBJ School on March 3, Shalala said the city's problem was not so much a financial crisis as a borrowing crisis.

"New York added a new dimension to borrowing," she said, noting that borrowing is regularly done for capital projects and cash flow, but the city began to borrow to meet everyday expenses. "Borrowing was treated as a new financial resource but was not based on anticipated revenue."

Now, the city can no longer borrow, nor can any agency that might help the city get the $9 billion it needs this fiscal year, she said.

Shalala, in examining what the New York experience "might teach us about public policy," said there were serious weaknesses in the city's financial management. "Revenues were overstated and expenditures underestimated—especially those related to collective bargaining."

"The city fathers responded to every request and pressure with a 'yes'," Shalala said, adding that she was "not prepared to blame the powerful municipal unions—the problem was there was no strong city counterpart."

Among other factors she cited were:

. "the city probably provides too many services"

. "the large illegal immigrant population—estimated at I million"

. "...the federal government made it easier for people to move to suburbs."

"New York City's future is still not very bright," Shalala said. "It will take a decade of pain. There are still 1 million poor people and that would have been a problem in any case, disregarding the other short-term financing problems."

"There are no longer any tricks or gimmicks open to the city," she said. "The problem can't be resolved by accounting."

She said one factor involved in the decision not to declare the city bankrupt was the "personal pride" of those involved. "I don't think we considered bankruptcy as an actual public policy alternative."

Shalala also said there was "a fear of turning the city over to the federal judges."

Shalala, who serves as treasurer of the MAC, is associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Politics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book on the political economy of state government.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONFERENCE ON

DEINSTITUTIONALIZING STATUS OFFENDERS IN TEXAS

March 25

9:00 a.m.

Welcome: Kenneth W. Tolo, Acting Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs

The Deinstitutionalization Effort in Texas:

The Honorable Robert C. Flowers, Executive Director, Criminal Justice Division, The Governor's Office, State of Texas

9:45 a.m.

The LBJ School's Juvenile Justice Project: Stephen Stubbs, LBJ School

10:00 a.m.

Coffee Break

10: 15 a.m.

Deinstitutionalization Programs in Other States:

A Panel Discussion:

Moderator, Malcolm MacDonald LBJ School

Dr. Ted Baumberger, Representative to the Regional Coordinating Council, Oklahoma

Allen Carpenter, Executive Director, Law Enforcement Commission, Illinois

Dr. Joseph Leavey, Consultant and Former Commissioner of Youth Services, Masschusetts

Dr. Jerome G. Miller, Commissioner of Children and Youth, Office of Children and Youth, Department of Public Welfare, Pennsylvania

12:15 p.m.

Luncheon: The Regency Room, Villa Capri Motor Hotel

1:45 p.m.

Facilities and Services for Deinstitutionalization:

A Panel Discussion:

Moderator, Sarah Smith, LBJ School

Richard Alvarado, United Way of San Antonio

Diana Bentliff, Grants Coordinator, Nacogdoches County, Texas

Carl Boaz, Executive Director, Urban Services Branch, YMCA, Dallas, Texas

Roy McCandless, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Adrian Moore, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Texas Youth Council

Merle E. Springer, Deputy Commissioner for Financial and Social Programs, Department of Public Welfare, State of Texas

3:30 p.m.

Coffee Break

3:45 p.m.

Workshops on State and Local Facilities and Services Needs and Coordinations (To be held in classrooms at the LBJ School)

6: 00 p.m.

Reception: Thompson Conference Center

7:00 p.m.

Dinner: Thompson Conference Center

"Juvenile Justice Priorities," Milton Rector, President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency

March 26

9:00 a.m.

Workshop Highlights: Greg Roberson, LBJ School

9:15 a.m.

Alternative Approaches to the Status Offender Problem:

A Panel Discussion:

Moderator, Malcolm MacDonald LBJ School

Charles M. Hill, Jr., Executive Director, Wisconsin Council on Criminal

Justice William Martin, Judge, Longview, Texas

Kenneth Wooden, Investigative Journalist, Yardley, Pennsylvania

Robert D. Barron, Chief Probation Officer, Heart of Texas Regional Juvenile Probation and Youth Service, Waco, Texas

10:45 a.m.

Coffee Break

11:00 a.m.

Deliquency Prevention: Chairperson: Sarah Smith, LBJ School

Dr. George H. Weber, Deputy Director, Special Mental Health Programs, National Institute of Mental Health

12:00 Noon

Adjournment

The Conference Sessions will be held in the East Campus Lecture Hall, Sid Richardson Hall, UT Austin Campus

COMMENT CONSIDERS GOVERNMENT COVERAGE

News media coverage of Texas government is the subject of the February edition of Public Affairs Comment, published quarterly by the LBJ School.

Hoyt Purvis, director of publications at the LBJ School, and Rick Gentry, a second-year student, focus on the government-media relationship in Texas and particularly on the role of the state capital press corps.

The article points out that Texas citizens are heavily dependent on the news media for information about state government, and particularly on the capital press corps, which consists of only 40 full-time reporters/correspondents. However, the journalists covering state affairs have devoted much more attention to investigative and in-depth reporting in recent years even though there are still areas where coverage is clearly inadequate.

The authors note that both the more active role of the press and the growth in state government information activities represent attempts to inform the public about an increasingly large and intricate state government.

"If the media are to fulfill their watchdog function, they must have access to relevant information and to state officials," Purvis and Gentry point out. The article discusses developments in access and accessibility in recent years, including the state Open Records and Open Meetings Acts. "Significant progress has been made in Texas in this regard in recent years, although some problem areas remain."

The authors conclude: "The state capital press corps is placing greater emphasis on in-depth reporting and detailed analysis of state government activities than in the past. The need for such reporting is apparent and, with the continuing growth in the size and complexity of state government, that need is likely to be even greater in the future."

SCHMANDT REPORTS TO SENATE

Dr. Jurgen Schmandt, professor of public affairs, testified before the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences on February 24. Schmandt reported on the joint project on food for the elderly involving the LBJ School and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Schmandt told the Committee:

Our program is addressed to...people in need. If successful, it will be of special importance for the large group of rural elderly—many of them living far from any kind of service; for the urban elderly who are too frail to join congregate meal programs and have no access to home-delivered hot meals. Presently, 1-million older Americans are institutionalized. Many of them would prefer to live at home. Many could do so if helped to overcome their disabilities or at least to cope with them without further deterioration. We believe that providing a nutritious, easily-prepared meal can help to keep people in their homes, rather than be sent off to nursing homes...

The program has been underway for one year. Program planning, system development, and preliminary demonstration have been completed. This is a remarkably short period of time for multi-discipline program planning, system design and development and preliminary demonstration to be completed. NASA's system development experience has served well in this area. A major field demonstration is now under way and will provide the information necessary to assess the program and its potential for the future.

BLISSETT SEES COAL COMEBACK

The Houston Post of March 7 had a front-page article by reporter Jim Maloney based on an interview with Professor Marlan Blissett of the LBJ School. Here are excerpts from that article:

The country's vast coal deposits "will be developed very fast now that the big off companies are coming into it," a University of Texas authority on government regulation says.

"Development of the coal reserves have been retarded over the years because the oil companies opposed it," Dr. Marlan Blissett said.

"They now own large coal reserves," Blissett said.

Blissett also said oil companies in past years have opposed development of plants to convert coal to gas and liquids.

Now oil companies are, and will be, seeking government aid in the development of plants to liquefy and gasify coal, Blissett said.

Blissett is an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

He believes that the environmental and transportation problems connected with the development of coal will be solved.

Blissett said that there are some 3,000 coal mines in the United States. Of this number, 15 control almost half of the nation's coal production, and five of these are owned by major oil companies.

He said the buying of coal production by the oil companies "has given rise to accusations that the oil industry may be trying to set up a monopoly over other forms of energy so as to raise all energy prices."

He pointed out that this is hotly denied by oil company executives. But it does assure that oil companies will continue to be a major factor in the country's energy industry.

Blissett said acquisition of coal mines by the major oil companies began in 1963 when the then Gulf Oil Corporation bought the Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Company. In 1966, the Continental Oil Corporation acquired the Consolidated Coal Company.

Occidental Petroleum bought the Island Creek Coal Company, the third largest coal producer in the country. That was in 1968.

What is now EXXON got into the coal business in 1969 when it purchased the Monterey Coal Company.

According to the Congressional Record, EXXON "had been quietly assembling land through Monterey Coal since 1965, while Monterey was owned by Carter Oil, a Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (EXXON) subsidiary."

Standard Oil of Ohio bought into the coal business in 1968 with the purchase of the Old Ben Coal Company, the 10th largest coal producer in the country.

"The list goes on, but these are examples of the major oil companies entering another area of the energy industry," Blissett said.

Blissett said the oil companies can bring two factors into play that are vitally needed for the development of coal reserves. These are capital and technology.

"Whatever the arguments may be about the companies getting into the coal business, they can make it possible to more rapidly develop coal production. They can supply the capital needed for this and they have the technology," Blissett said.

"This is the good aspect of what we are talking about," he added.

As the oil companies get government funds to research and develop plants to make gas and liquids from coal, they are going to have to face an unpleasant fact. This is government regulations, Blissett said.

It is desirable to convert coal to gas and liquids because of the dwindling reserves of oil and gas and coal would then be more environmentally acceptable.

"Any time a company gets involved in the development of resources, it runs into external problems it does not anticipate," Blissett said.

Such problems could include government regulations not now in use, such as price and production controls. They could also include environmentalist campaigns.

"Public attention fluctuates. Often it has seemed that environmental purity is more important than anything else. Then when the time comes when gas bills go sky high, maybe we will decide we can stand a little smoke in the air," he said.

"Maybe we will decide a little environmental damage is not so bad when some of the side effects of an energy shortage begin to be felt, such as the loss of jobs and the lowering of living standards," Blissett said.

Another problem with the development of coal is transportation. He said the best and largest coal reserves are in three or four western states, and the places it will be most needed are hundreds of miles away in the more populated, more industrialized states.

There is also a battle being waged over whether most of the coal will be delivered in conventional hopper cars, or whether it will flow through slurry pipelines.

It appears that the pipeline side of this battle will win out. This will bring on yet another problem.

Water is needed to move coal through a pipeline. And water is not abundant in the areas where the coal will be produced.

Despite all of these problems, Blissett believes that the power, resources and technology developed by the major oil companies will bring about the fast development of coal reserves.

RATHER TO SPEAK

CBS news correspondent Dan Rather will speak Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Hogg Auditorium as part of the Texas Union Distinguished Lecture Series. Tickets will be 50 cents for students, faculty, and staff and will be sold March 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Texas Union South and from 7 p.m. at Hogg Auditorium.