Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVI, Number 51	Los Angeles, California	Wednesday, December 5, 1973
Energy Crisis Termed Diversion from Scandal
BY DON LA PLANTE
Contributing Editor
“The prime reason that the energy crisis was produced at this time was to take the pressure off Watergate,’' Roderick McKenzie, chairman of the Geography Department. said in a speech Tuesday.
“Nixon needed a domestic crisis. I think the energy crisis was precipitated because this crisis does not run true to form.
“Rather than calming and reassuring the people, the government is agitating and telling the people that the crisis is serious.”
McKENZIE SAID that al though a shortage of petroleum exists, he is very cynical about the way it has become a major crisis so quickly.
“The oil companies say that they were telling us a year or two ago about an imminent shortage,” he said. “Those facts may have been published in their annual reports but the gist of the advertising they used encouraged the consumption of energy.”
McKenzie believed there would be numerous benefits that would result from the present energy shortage in this country.
“THERE will be more diversity in the field of energy research. Presently the money is going to nuclear research, but now it will start going to the development of coal and other sources,” he said.
Coal was the fuel in heaviest demand during the last century and in this century — until 1953, when oil passed it as the No. 1 energy source, McKenzie said.
America has very high reserves of coal, enough to carry the country to the next century by itself, he said.
THE ENERGY crisis will also cause this country to start developing sources of energy that have until now been unfeasible, either economically or environmentally. McKenzie said.
“Strip mining for coal in eastern Montana will probably begin fairly soon.-' he said.
“The strip mining really destroys the land, but the coal companies tell the people that it's good for the economy.
“Some people in Montana wonder that if strip mining is so good for the economy, why isn't West Virginia the richest state in the Union?”
THE EXPLORATION for additional oil and natural gas will also be expanded.
because the increases in price will make it more economically feasible, McKenzie said.
IN THE DRIVE to conserve energy, commercial and residential uses are not really being hurt but the waste by transportation is being attacked. he said.
“The time for a mass rapid-transit plan in Los Angeles is ripe because of the energy crisis. Mayor Tom Bradley should move for a special election as soon as possible, because for all we know, the real energy crunch might be over by election time next June,” he said.
“However, if the energy crisis ends too quickly, I don’t know what we will go to next to cover up Watergate.'’
DOUBTS CRISIS—Roderick McKenzie, chairman of the Geography Department, said Tuesday that the current energy crisis was fostered by President Nixon as a diversion from the Watergate scandals. He said the oil companies had until recently encouraged massive consumption. DT photo by Michael Sedano.
New Aid Funds Called Vital
BY PETER WONG
Managing Editor
Despite the growth in USC's financial aid since the Student Aid Office was established in 1961, the current director believes that the acquisition of more funds for scholarships, loans and work-study programs is critical in the next decade.
“I think it (acquisition) is almost vital to the university if it is going to try and seek the top students. We’re competing with other private universiites that have a great deal more money in terms of donor and university funds,” Pamela H. Walbom, the director, said in an interview.
“IF WE RE GOING to com
pete adequately and bring top students at all or bring students with financial need, something more is going to have to be done in a large way.”
That “something more” was the aim of A Priority for the 70s, the plan for
Three to Discuss JFK’s Death
Two different interpretations at odds with the Warren Commission report on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be presented today by two authors and a man who has done research on the event.
Donald Freed and Mark Lane, authors of the novel Executive Action, will speak on “The Decade of Conspiracy,” showing links between the Kennedy assassination and the Watergate scandals at noon in Hancock Auditorium.
There will also be a showing ofthe film clip of the assassination.
David Lifton, a researcher on the murder, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Edison Auditorium.
The novel describes a complex assassination plot planned and executed by Texas
oilmen, retired right-wing military personnel, CIA agents, anti-Castro Cubans and the Mafia.
The screenplay for the film version that was released last month was written by Freed, Lane and Dalton Trumbo.
Lane is also the author of Rush to Judgment, one of the earliest critical works on the Warren Commission report.
Freed is the author of Inquest, a play about the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for charges of espionage.
Lifton has devoted five years to research on the assassination and has been a consultant for the film Executive Action.
4Warrior’ Play Opens Tonight
Carlene Olson and Robin Denson, freshmen in drama, were on campus Tuesday in their costumes for The Warrior's Husband.
The play will be presented by the Division of Drama tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. at Bovard Auditorium.
The women were on campus publicizing the play and taking reservations for tickets.They play the part of soldiers in the amazon army.
Julian Thompson is the author of the comedy.
It is about the battle of the sexes in mythological times.
Tickets are $1.50 for Wednesday and Thursday and $2 for Friday and Saturday. Discounts are available for groups over 15. Information may be obtained by calling 746-SHOW\ DT photo by Mike Martinez.
academic improvements in this decade that was approved by the Board of Trustees in April, 1970.
Under the plan, the top fund-raising goal was the $1.5 million for scholarships, loans and work-study programs.
President John R. Hubbard has said that A Priority for the 70s was merely an interim step towards a comprehensive fund-raising plan for the university’s centennial in 1980.
IN MID-1972, Walbom and Daniel B. Nowak, then the acting vice-president for student affairs, made a presentation to senior university administrators, urging that new funds be raised.
“Time will tell on what the result of that effort is,” Walbom said.
“That’s one of the programs on which the university must spend a great deal of time and consideration. We must have additional funds. There’s no question that we need it—a tremendous amount of new money.
“We re hopeful that the fund-raisers for the university will accept this as one of their priorities.”
THE NEEDS, of course, are not new.
In a report to the University Planning Commision in March, 1961, Student Life and Student Services. 1966-80, large increases in student aid funds were projected.
“Based on present information and an interpretation of apparent trends, gift and loan funds will be needed in an amount which doubles present resources,” the report said.
“ESTIMATES SHOW that all graduates and as many as
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