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curious cultural patterns disturbing to Americans. He found, for example, that Vietnamese fishermen will casually bump into other boats and think nothing of it. But to Americans, Starr says, this is seen as a most disagreeable breach of etiquette. Even so, most people in the Galveston Bay communities resist the alarmist calls of the Klan. Seabrook Police Chief Billy Kirber, for example, reports that he recived only a handful of objecting phone calls when he turned down the Klan’s request for a rally early in the summer. But when he later approved a demonstration at an alternative site that, he believed, conformed to a Federal court order banning the Klan from acts of intimidation, the public’s reaction was much different. His phone rang off the hook. “There is a general feeling by a majority in the community that they do not condone or want Klan activity,” he says. Just what Grand Dragon Fisher and his small troop of followers are planning is not easy to gauge. Fisher’s own contradictory statements now form a pattern of tea leaves that make difficult reading for even the most astute soothsayer. “Gene is a very easy man to talk to in private,” Seabrook’s police chief says. “But put him in front of a camera and he gets loud and difficult. At one point he’ll deny violence. And in the next breath, he’ll say something to the effect that, if he has to die for it or go back to the joint he’s going to do it.” The police chief argues that Fisher plays the local media with adroit virtuosity. He recalled an incident in which Fisher borrowed his phone at the police station to line up press coverage for one of his many events. Says Kirber: “I watched him announce that 15 or 20 fishermen were going to the Klan’s paramilitary camp to be trained. This story was printed without any investigation as to whether it was real or not. The real story was that only Gene Fisher went to this camp.” For the future, most observers here don’t expect to see a headlong rush into the Klan, unless dire economic conditions really set in. “The Klan used to be very prominent in the South,” says former mayor Blackledge. “Of course, I think they lost an awful lot of popularity because people are more broad-minded. They accept things as a reality. People around here are a lot more tolerant.” Observer contributor Paul Sweeney wrote this story on assignment for the Boston Globe. POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE Cong. Kent Hance of Lubbock, one of 41 congressmen cited by the New Republic in its Aug. 30 issue for using campaign funds “as a source of selfenrichment and personal convenience,” \(see “Political Intelligence,” TO, claims he did nothing wrong when he charged $1,800 to his campaign committee last year to pay for a return trip from China for himself and his wife Carol. Hance told the Lubbock AvalancheJournal that the government would have paid for the plane fares, but he preferred to use campaign funds. “I have a rule of thumb,” he said. “If anybody’s going to supporters would pick up the tab than the taxpayers.” ks State Senator John Wilson \(Dendorsement to Gov. Bill Clements.” Wilson, a lifelong Democrat and state party leader, based his endorsement on the governor’s ability to manage the state government. Del Rio Mayor Roger Cerny and Laredo Mayor Aldo Tatagnelo, both Democrats, also endorsed Clements. wit Cong. Phil Gramm, who spent $716,000 on his easy primary race, will speak next month in 16 Texas cities, most of them outside his district. His tour will be financed by his campaign committee, which had $180,681 as of July 1. In the first six months of the year, 235 business PACs contributed to Gramm’s campaign fund, including maximum $5,000 gifts from auto dealers, builders, bankers, and some energy-related groups. Gramm, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is also working with Republicans and some Democrats to rewrite the Clean Air Act in a manner that removes a sanctions threat hanging over Texas and other parts of the country. Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and other Texas cities are moving toward a showdown with the federal government that could result in a ban on industrial growth because of high pollution levels. The 1970 Clean Air Act, as amended in 1977, set air quality standards for the nation governing allowable levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, dust, and photochemical oxidants, or smog. All counties and cities were to meet the standards by the end of 1982. The act set out a series of federal sanctions if local and state governments failed to comply. “We are facing a potential limit on our ability to continue the industrialization trend that has built up in Texas over the last decade,” Gramm said. “We are in peril at the very time when we’re beginning to feel the national recession in Texas.” The most pressing sanction would ban industrial construction in Harris County after Dec. 31, unless the state implements an automobile inspection and maintenance program that would help curb the high levels of smog in Houston. The Texas Air Control Board also told the EPA that Dallas and Fort Worth would meet the smog standard before the end of the year, but the two cities apparently can’t do it. Jo’ Appearing in Texas on behalf of Cong. Jim Collins over the next few weeks will be Vice-President George Bush and Cabinet members Drew Lewis, James Watt, Donald Regan, and James Edwards even though Collins voted against President Reagan’s recent tax reform bill. to% The preliminary list of federal property that is to be sold by the Reagan administration includes Belton Lake, Belton; Stillhouse Hollow Lake, Belton; Somerville Lake, Somerville; Hords Creek Lake, Coleman; Lavon Lake, Wylie; Lewisville Lake, Lewisville; Bardwell Lake, Ennis; Barker Dam, Harris County; Whitney Lake, Laguna Park; Navarro Mills Lake, Dawson; Pat Mayse Lake, Lamar County; Waco Lake, Waco; Grapevine Lake, Grapevine; 0. C. Fisher Lake, San Angelo; and Granger Lake, Granger. Also to be sold are T. Bluff, Town Bluff; Air Force Plant No. 4, Fort Worth; and parts of Camp Swift, Bastrop County; Red River Army Depot, Texarkana; and the Federal Center, Fort Worth. In Texas, the Selective Service System estimates, 47,334 young men have broken federal law by not registering for 10 SEPTEMBER 17, 1982