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Wednesday, April 21, 1976
University Dally Kansan
KANSAN Comment
Opinions on this page reflect only the view of the writer.
Union could help
The Lawrence United Public Employees Association (UPEA) decided to affiliate with the Teamstorms Union last month. The union, based in station, street, water and park employs.
THE AFFILIATION with the Teamsters is the latest development in a long and bitter struggle with Lawrence city government. UPEA has sought cognition as a collective bargaining organization, a city commission has refused to grant it.
UPEA has charged the city with mismanagement, discrimination and favoritism. It has consistently maintained that wages weren't the main point of dispute. City officials say they have implemented procedures to solve the employees' grievances. They say UPEA hasn't negotiated in good faith.
THIS IS PROBABLY a bad time for the city employees to announce affiliation with the Teamsters. The Teamsters have been in the news lately, threatening a strike that could have crippled the nation's transportation system. They are rightfully considered one of the most powerful unions around.
City employ unions aren't in good favor now either. Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Charles Wheeler announced his candidacy for the Senate Monday. He is running on an anti-union platform and is strongly against public employee unions.
PUBLIC SUPPORT for UPEA and the Teamsmasters probably will be minimal. Yet it is just as difficult to support the position and actions of the city. It is then necessary to live in Lawrence that the trash service isn't what it should be. In general, the complaints of UPEA have had the ring of truth to them.
One point in the union's favor is that better working conditions, not higher wages, have always been the main issue. Despite a great deal of talk by Buford Watson, city manager, there are few indications that anything positive has been done to improve those conditions.
WHEN CITY employees have unsatisfactory working conditions, when they are demoralized, frustrated and harassed, they are unable to do their jobs properly efficiently. It isn't the workers who suffer but all the citizens of Lawrence.
Affiliation with the Teamsters won't immediately solve all the problems of the workers or the city. Perhaps it is a step that should never have been taken. But with the impasse between UPEA and the city, it was inevitable that workers would turn to a powerful outside union for support.
WHETHER THE Teamsters can be effective in achieving the workers' objectives in Lawrence isn't yet clear. The city doesn't recognize any collective-bargaining unit. The city manager and the commission say they don't care what UPEA did affiliate with a national union
The uncompromising position of the city and the seeming desperation of the workers combine to make the present circumstances at best unfortunate.
Charles Wheeler no doubt thinks that nothing good could ever come from either the Teamsters or a public employees union. One would hope for a little cooperation from both sides so that Lawrence might prove him wrong.
By John Hickey Contributing Writer
I don't know why there should be more practical jokes played this year than in previous years. Maybe the increase was brought about by the coming of a new rule that allows you to turn toward water fights and other wicked activities. Maybe it was a cosmic effect brought on by the leap year. And, then again, maybe it has all been a presidential election and the Bretton Wood fall on the same year.
Pranks mark informality
WHATEVER THE reason,
pranks seem to be occurring
with marked frequency this
year. Large water fights started
as early as February. Shaving
homes and cars are the most
diseases have on occasions
other than April Fool's Day. In
my own room, the study area
was stripped of all furniture,
carpeting and posters during a
basketball game and the beds
been strongly of adhesive haze.
I can't say that our room has been attacked without reason. I have been known to be involved in some plots including the redecoration of other people's rooms, the perfuming of beds, the making of smashed peanut-butter crackers in mailboxes.
WHAT IT COMES down to is that I live in a scholarship hall. Several people on this campus seem to have a warped idea of what education means, that is, if they even know they exist at all. If some ideas of the halls were true, all the residents would have 4.0 GPA's and they would venture outside their classes or to go to the library.
The scholarship hall system is a group of eight halls containing approximately 50 people each.
happening only this year.
During the four years I've lived in a scholarship hall, I have seen numerous incidents. But because of this year but although it won, the practical jokes, could cause
The halls contain a diversified group of people. There are some hard-core studios but there are also jocks and television freaks.
ALTHOUGH EACH hall is separate and seems to have its
By Marne Rindom Contributing Writer
own personality, there is a large amount of interaction between halts. The parties and other actors create an informal atmosphere that has fostered strong friendships and a favorable conditions for pranks.
some re-evaluation of where the line is drawn on the allowance of pranks.
The pranks haven't been
THE INCIDENT, which began as an April Fool's joke, developed into a case of forcible entry into one of the women's halls and resulted in the recommendation that the two
pranksters not allowed to renew their hall contracts next year. The questions surrounding the judiciary process resulting in the recommendation are numerous and complicated, but they aren't really the issue here.
The issue is the reaction aroused by the incidents. It became an emotional issue causing residents of the halls to divide into two factions. The scholarship hall pranked people with cards and there was discussion about pranks getting out of control.
WHAT THE TWO residents did the WATER OF April 1 first an expectant wife, but it was a malicious act with illegal intent. Surely the security of the halls must be maintained, but it must not be threatened by scholarship halls have been sneaking into other halls for
years either by having inside contacts or by discovering some unlocked door.
It can only be hoped that the incident will be seen in the context of common activities within the scholarship hall system. In the past, the pranks have been carried out without the security of the halls becoming ineffective.
For me, the practical jokes have become a part of life. After I graduate, I'll then conform and act "grown-up". Until then, I'm glad I'm living in a system where overnight the sign at Grace Pearson can be changed to "ace rapers" without a故障 opening about the destruction of state property. Without the informal atmosphere, friendships and the practical jokes, a scholarship hall would just be another place to live.
Skies could be friendlier if fares weren't regulated
By DON SMITH
**WASHINGTON** - little-known government reform idea has attracted the support of two of America's most vehement political opponents, President Donald J. Trump and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
The issue is the deregulation of the interstate airline industry. Currently this industry is regulated by the Civil
Aeronautics Board (CAB) whose duties include regulating interstate airline fares and routes.
FORD HAS introduced legislation to deregulate the airline industry, and Kennedy will soon offer his own proposal.
Supporters of deregulation say that it would eventually lead to more competition. And the more companies will decrease, the argue,
At present, there is little price competition among the nation's airlines. Carriers individually file for increase increases, and carriers increase an increase, the other carriers file and receive fare increases.
KENEDY, WHOSE administrative practices subcommittee made a detailed study of the airline industry, and its impact on Commerce Committee's Aviation Subcommittee last week that studies by his subcommittee and independent consulting groups showed airfares could be reduced by 30 to 15 if the government relaxed regulation of the airline industry.
To substantiate this, Kennedy cited intrastate carriers in California and Texas whose fares are much less than those of the CAB for similar distances over interstate routes.
**'PRICES ON flights regulated by the CAB are twice as high as prices for comp flights not regulated by the agency. Boston businessman or woman pays about $50 to fly to Washington, D.C. But a traveler in California pays only $20, and a similar distance on flights not regulated by the CAB. He pays only $20 to fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Southwest Airlines (PS)
In addition, Kennedy cited statistics that showed that interstate trunk carriers fly at 50 mph on average, whereas interstate carriers,
Humane bail laws need toughening
WASHINGTON—First it was postal reform. Now it's bail reform. I find myself in retreat these days, backing away from good ideas that somehow have gone wrong.
OF THESE TWO major reforms of the past decade, bail
secure his appearance for subsequent trial. Until recent years, the universal practice in both state and federal courts was for an accused to "post bond." Professional bondsmong hung around our courthouses, eager to ply their lucrative
reform is by far the greater concern. A fouled-up mail service is a headache; a messed-up bail system is a heartbreak. Mail and bail might seem to have nothing in common but three shared letters, three shared failures share the same mechanism and human causes - failures of machinery, failures of man.
As a part of our system of criminal jurisprudence, the posting of bail anteades Magna Carta. Ball is the sum of money (or goods or property) deposited by an accused to
THE SYSTEM operated with brutal unfairness. The rich defendant could always make bail; the poor defendant had to be beaten and humiliated. Thus the rich went free and the poor went to jail. The well-to-do defendant could return to his daily routine, consult with his lawyer, prepare his defense, and fight the accusation of stigma at the lockup. The poor devil had none of these advantages.
trade. It was like frog-gigging: Fun for the boys, but hell on the frogs.
WELL THE LAW hasn't worked. The very name of 'bail reform' has become a hate word but he isn't funny. In hundreds upon hundreds of cases, defendants released without bond have been re-arrested on new charges. The police are fuming in frustration; the law-abiding community is furious; the
Eight or ten years ago, in an effort to alleviate this patent injustice, a number of liberals and a few conservatives took up the challenge and culminated in the 1970 District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedures Act. This was seen as the "model law" which governs localities everywhere to adopt the same humane procedures. The law effectively requires that an accused be set free, without bail, or sent to jail. The kind of community ties that suggest he will show up for trial. Only if a prosecutor can show a strong likelihood of conviction, or if he fails, then the court presents a serious danger to the community, can a defendant be held on preventive detention.
newspapers and TV stations are raising Cai; and persons in law enforcement are passing the buck around.
One difficulty is mechanical. In other jurisdictions that are experimenting with bail reform, the same proposition is being used in many enough jail facilities to house defendants who ought to be held without bail. The District is plagued by hard-eyed juvenile inmates as young as 12 or 13, but there is almost no place to put them.
OTHER DIFFICULTIES are procedural. To demonstrate a strong likelihood of conviction, a prosecutor must virtually prepare and present his final case. In such a proceeding, the prosecutor must indicate in innocence" is stood on its head. Questions arise of double jeopardy. Overburdened prosecutors take the easy road. Still other problems are human. Judges with marshmallow spines and grits for brains too often regard a young defendant as an incompassion. The defendant gets the benefit of the doubt; the community gets the benefit of his switchblade knife.
LITTLE WILL be gained by outright repeal of the well-intended act. Its principles remain sound. But bail reform laws will have to be toughened everywhere if the cause is to survive. The key factor in this knotty equation is the prompt force, for instance, detention is not unduly prolonged, little harm is done by locking up the toughes pending trial. If judges also
would crack down on drug addicts, and if probation boards would instantly revoke the probation of an arrested probationer, our communities would be safer places.
Speaking as one who ardently supported the cause from the beginning, I have to confess disappointment. The old cruel boss had the new humane system is not demonstrably better.
Letters Policy
The Kansas welcomes letters to the editor, but asks that letters be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 400 words. All letters are subject to editing and condensation, according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. For these purposes, the teacher must provide their name, year in school and hometown; faculty must provide their name and position; others must provide their name and address.
such as PSA, fly at load factors of 60 per cent and more.
BUT THERE's much less than unanimous support for the Kennedy-Ford idea. Many would prefer the situation of the situation, and consumers can be sure the airline companies will do so with intense lobbying.
Some of the interstate trunks are against the idea. They cite the possibility that some of the big carriers may go bankrupt or become severely financial problems in a deregulated situation.
When asked by subcommittee chairman Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Dev., whether deregulation could result in diminished service for small communities, Borman answered that it might.
FRANK BORMAN, president of Eastern Airlines, is one of the opponents of deregulation. Borman told the aviation industry that he unrealistic to think that many of the bigger trunk carriers would survive in a deregulated market. He forecast a chaotic airline fare and service if deregulation was approved.
HOWEVER, BORMAN's answer to Cannon is contrary to the findings of a study commissioned by AB which lasted nearly a year, study the Pulific Report, says, "It is possible that some points receiving only limited service would not continue to be served by trunkline carriers in absence of absentee workers." However, practically none of these would be without scheduled service."
Both the Kennedy and Ford plans, though, envision that the federal government would grant subsidies for service to small and medium sized communities.
THERE DOES appear to be a
battle shaping up between those who would deregulate the airlines and those who would favor continuing current air travel because this session of Congress because of the lack of interest from members who will be campaigning for reelection. But soon, and possibly next year, some leaders will come under close scrutiny.
The passage of legislation to end regulation of airline fares and routes would be to the benefit of the American consumer. Americans would probably have to face poorer fares than they did before flubs as not many as movies and so forth—but surely the decrease in airline fares would help ease the pain.
In the long run, deregulation would be beneficial to all concerned. Consumers would have lower prices for travel. And the airline companies that operate them have more travelers and might begin to make a profit without constant governmental help. BESIDES, THE free enterprise system should be given greater priority in industry. To end protective regulation and other governmentally conferred privileges for special sectors of the economy, such as the airline industry, and to the top of Congress' priorities.
AS KENNEDY said in his testimony, some of the big airlines probably would fail, but what's so frightening about that? Haven't other big companies failed before without the country having to put up the out-to- lunch sign?
To continue the current outdated manner of dealing with the nation's air carriers disregards the rights and interests of the nation as a whole and surely would be a folly.
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