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Wednesdav. November 5, 1975
University Daily Kansan
Local living costs about average
Cost of living indicators of 161 cities throughout the nation show Lawrence ranked only slightly above the U.S. average for the third quarter of 1975.
The data, compiled by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association (ACRA), show Lawrence having a cost of living average figure of 100.1 on a scale where the U.S. average for the participating cities is designated as 100.
Each quarter, an average cost of living figure plus figures in six categories are compiled on each of the participating chambers of commerce for the ACCRA Inter-City Index, and each city is ranked in relation to the U.S. average of 100.
The cost of living indicators in the six categories for Lawrence were food, 93.9; housing, 116.8; utilities, 71.8; transports, 104.5; wages, 92.2; and miscellaneous services, 110.9.
the index uses data provided by city chambers of commerce, which participate in the index.
Glenn E. West, executive vice president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce,
said the purpose of the cost of living study was to enable one to compare, for any given time, the current costs of living in any of the different participating communities.
"This is for the people who are thinking about moving from one community to another and want to know what the cost of living is in the community where they might be moving compared to where they now live." West said.
The index is keyed to the concept of a middle management, executive family of four having an annual income from $18,000 to $20,000.
West said that the cost of living average for Lawrence for the second quarter of this year was 98.0 as compared to the U.S. average of 100.
"The figure of Lawrence for this quarter is pretty well consistent with where Lawrence has been all along," he said. "Our figures are usually in the range from 96 to 100 per cent of the U.S. average figure for cost of living."
West said that the ACCRA Inter-City Index began five years ago and that
Statistics of the studies can't be compared from one quarter to the next, he said, because the figures are based on a cost of living median calculated for each quarter.
Lawrence has participated in the studies the entire period.
West said that cost of living figures over longer periods of time were compiled in federal consumer price indexes put together by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"You can't look at the 98.0 average figure of the second quarter of this year and the 100.1 average figure for the third quarter of this year. You can see here in Lawrence 2.1 per cent." West said. "So you can only look at this information as it relates to the current period. This is not an indicator of what has happened to the average over an extended period of time."
The ACCRA Inter-City Index compiles the category figures according to component weight, he said, which dictates how much impact each of the categories carries.
Housing carries the most weight, having a 35 per cent component weight and is
Publisher praises novelist's style
By NANCY RICHARDS
Staff Writer
James Agee's greatest contribution to letters, according to David McDowell, editor and publisher of Agee's novel "Death in the Family," was his prose style.
"He had this distinctive, occasionally very lyrical style," McDowell said yesterday. "Agee wrote in a marvelous, sort of poetic prose."
McDowell is on campus this week to meet with the creative writing classes of the English department. He said that he would study with students in class and individually.
"I'm going to just throw myself open for
their questions," he said. "I've found that over the years, though, English students, especially those interested in writing, always ask about publishing—about how it works. It's really not such a mysterious thing."
McDowell will also present an informal lecture, "James Ages: An Editor's View" at 8 p.m., tonight in the Council Room of the Kansas Union.
McDowell has been the senior editor of Crown Publishing Company in New York since 1968. He has also worked as an editor and co-owner and New Directions publishing houses.
For several years McDowell worked with
License to marry sought
A second member of the Universal Life Church, a California religious organization, has asked Mike Ewell, county probate counsel in Boston, to perform marriages in Douglas County.
Timothy Albertson, a former University of Kansas student, 1238 Tennessee St., applied for permission to perform marriage ceremonies in Douglas County in November
the member, Alan C. Nelson, 1300 Kentucky St., wasn't allowed to talk directly to him. Monday, but was told to apply for a Nov. 19 application whether his application would be approved.
of which Albertson is a member, wasn't valid under Kansas law.
Elwell denied Albertson's application,
and the said ordination given by Universal Life,
Albertson recently filed a $7 million lawsuit against Elwell in District Court, alleging that Elwell's decision to deny Albertson's application to perform marriage ceremonies violated his constitutional rights.
Nelson was accompanied to Elwell's office by Albertson and Kirby Hensley, president and founder of the Universal Life Church.
Hensley, of Modesto, Calif., said anyone could be ordained in his church by applying
Hensley said he thought that Ellwell's denial of the application was in violation of the U.S. Constitution and that the courts issued that moral Life as a legal religious organization.
his own publishing firm, McDowell,
Oblenakey, Inc. The publishing house
handled some of the materials of its
followers, the Carlos Williams, J. P.
Donkey and Ages.
McDowell was also a personal friend of Agee, the two having met at St. Andrews University where he was first met Agee when the writer was at the school during a leave of absence from Fortune magazine where he was employed. He graduated from St. Andrews at the time.
"It was during commencement, and I was valedictorian of my class," McDowell said. "I was having trouble with the introduction course, and the teacher, and Agee offered to help me with it."
followed by food with 20 per cent, utilities with 15 per cent, transportation with 12 per cent, miscellaneous services with 10 per cent, and health with eight per cent, West said.
Because of that weighting, the higher Lawrence housing figure, in addition to being the highest ranking category, also impacts on the average cost of living figures.
The friendship of the two men remained strong until Azee's death in 1955.
"He went into another room, and I be cared worried that he'd fallen asleep over it. In about an hour he came out; it was all done."
McDowell is now the literary executor and trustee of the James Agee Trust. He said that he was working on a general biography of Agee and a collection of his other work needs to be collected collecting Agee's journalistic writings, he said.
West said that the high housing figure, which Lawrence has always had, probably reflected the tight housing market brought on by increasing student enrollment.
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Other area cities that participated in the index report and their average figures are Kansas City, Mo.; Michigan Joseph, Mo.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; 10.14; Omaha, Neb.; 101.0; and Sioux City, Iowa. 102.9.
Cities having the highest cost of living indicators were New York, 124.0; Aspen, Colo., 123.8; Jacksonville, Fla., 119.0; and Chicago, 118.2
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