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Thursday, March 2, 1978
University Daily Kansan
Comment
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Unagged editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers
Prepare for decline
KU's enrollment count set its predictable record this semester, and the University officials predictably point to the fact with pride. But the enrollment numbers actually are foreboding—the buttress a three-year-old trend of declining enrollment on the Lawrence campus.
One key to deciphering the numbers lies in the percentage increase in spring enrollment. That percentage, for the Lawrence campus, was 9.9 percent in spring 1975, but now has dipped to 1.4 percent.
KU's full-time equivalency figure, a formula approximation of the number of full-time students, also is down for the first time in five years.
THE DECLINES have been discounted by several educators and administrators close to the University. Regent Walter Hiersteiner called the FTE drop insignificant.
Explanations for the decline range from now and more concise computing techniques to a drop in the number of hours taken by the average student. Such explanations justifiably keep the finger off the panic button.
But excuses and rosy forecasts cannot dispel traces of a predicted enrollment decline. Reports show that the number of Kansas high school students is diminishing. That means an inevitable fiscal pinch on the University, which depends on student bodies for funding from the Kansas Legislature.
THE PERENNIAL issue of financial exigency—laying off faculty when class size dwindles—is one realistic preparation for the financial turnabout.
More realism is needed. The mood on campus and across the state should reflect the impending limits to growth.
Kansans may never acquire the right to buy liquor by the drink unless they stop circumventing temperance-inspired liquor control laws and prune the topheavy state regulation of the liquor industry.
State liquor laws soak imbibers
Since 1949, when Kansas repealed its Prohibition laws, the liquor industry has blossomed into a $133-million-a-year business. Nine families control the liquor industry in New York and Florida to be resping inordinate profits from 31 wholesale distributorships.
In the name of temperance, private clubs have flourished and retail liquor stores have proliferated under the protection of state minimum price supports.
RANSANS are heirs to a legacy of schizophrenic attitudes toward liquor. Liquor by the drink conjures up images of bitter battles between saloon smashers and devotees of John Barleycorn.
The evidence shows that Kansans are paying for liquor in the name of temperance than they would if the industry were deregulated. Even private clubs thwart efforts to obtain liquor by the drink.
Col. E.V.D. Murphy, director of the Kansas Alcohol Beverage Control agency, last September summed up the
problem Kansans have created for themselves.
"The point is, if you can get liquor by the drink now there's no reason to change," he said.
KANSAS PRIVATE clubs are designed to make liquor less accessible. But despite the plethora of rules and regulations governing private clubs, the number of liquor stores has increased out of proportion to the demand for liquor in the state.
1 here are about 1,200 locker stores in Kansas. The proof that retail outlets have grown to an $A+ million Darr 'Rather J., a lobbyist for the Kansas Retail Loyal Dealers Association, in testimony last month before the Kansas State Federal Government.
If the price of liquor was deregulated, Rattner said, within a year, half the stores would be out of business and half the rest would be out of business.
Apparently, the threat of open competition in the overregulated business terrified retail operators.
AND WHY shouldn't it? The regulations govern price, display, hours of sale and the pace at which those that buy and pay a share in the liquor trade will continue to be protected.
Profites for the nine distributors in 1994 were $27,000, below an optimum average return. An accounting study of state retail liquor operations showed in January that there are too many liquor stores in the state. The average reported profit for retail stores was $11,683, the Department of Revenue report stated.
Over-regulation of the liquor industry has even led to decreased profits for those who are in the business. There is no indication that consumption of liquor in Kansas is a result of the law, and lurkers, laws that restrict liquor by the drink.
Sales relationships between private clubs and liquor distributorships are shrouded in secrecy and jealously guarded by wholesale distributionists and sold by distributors, often are surreptitiously offered by liquor industry
saleemer to private clubs—despite state regulations that ban soliciting in clubs. There have been allegations that retailers have accepted kickbacks in return for stocking particular brands in key store display positions.
THE FINAL INSULT to the intelligence of Kansans was offered last month by Bill Schute, an assistant attorney general assigned to the ABC. Schute said deregulation of the liquor industry in Kansas would lead to a takeover of the industry by gangsters. As such, Schute insisted that the bankruptcy, Schute said, the lure of profits might lead retailers to look for profits "outside the law."
If the only barrier between an honest industry and a crooked, gangger-ridden liquor business is artificially high prices in the name of temperance, Schutte ought to resign his post as a member of the attorney general's office.
There is no defense for state-regulated extortion of Kansans in the name of a ‘temperate’ and top-heavy liquor industry. The status quo influence of private clubs that feed on Kansans' antitrust issues has been challenged lented at the source—the financial relationships between private clubs and liquor distributors.
Insurance article was erroneous
To the editor:
The article "Insurance Questioned" (Kansan, Jan. 31, 1978) by Mary-Anne Olivar has been brought to my attention. Much more than a faux news report in the article is erroneous. Here's a partial list of errors:
Letters
1. "Pritchard said term insurance was a good way to invest one's money." Quite the contrary. Term insurance includes no coverage (unlike feature). What I said that people should not invest through life insurance companies, that is, buy cash-value types of life insurance. There are many ways in mixing life insurance and investment in the same contract.
3. Olivar states: "With a term insurance policy, the policy holder would not receive any cash if the policy expired during his lifetime. However, Pritchard said it was better to buy a term policy than a whole life policy." Not so. The face value
2. As partial proof of the above proposition, I gave Olivar an example of a 30-(not 35-)year-old male choosing investment plans, both of which involved equal annual cash outlays over a 20-year period: (1) a $100,000, two-year payout of $100,000 decreasing the policy, and the investment of the difference in the cost of the two policies in U.S. government 6 percent Series E bonds; (2) when one needs income, not life insurance) the bond (redemption) value of the bonds would be about $211,000 ($not $88,000 as reported in the Kansean), and the 20-year payout policy would range from about $65,000 to $75,000, the variance being due to the company in which the policy is held. Series E bonds plus the policy I could prove my point with a compound interest table.
4. And a final quote: "University of Kansas students should not buy life insurance policies that hard-pitch salesmen try to sell, Leeland (sic) Pritchard, professor of economics, professor of economics, recently. What I said was that no one should purchase a period. Whether the sales pitch is "hard" or "soft" is of no consequence. People should buy life insurance to provide a temporary estate when such an estate is needed to (1) cover debt, and/or (2) the needs of dependents. Under certain circumstances, a variable for short-term coverage, but long-term coverage (10-30 years) is best provided through decreasing-term insurance.
Leland Pritchard
Professor of economics
West Kansan defends home
To the editor:
In response to Pat Allen's editorial of Feb. 24, this western Kansas would like to defend his region.
Phillips' study only confirms what we westerners have known for years—that the smug assumptions of superiority held
by eastern Kansas urbanites are entirely unsustainable. While easters have been futility introducing liquor-by-the-drink bills and fighting with the residents, humidity we westerners have been reading everything from the labels on Furadan sacks to the Wall Street Journal. And don't think that we don't read the magazine; we are almost as thrifty as the legendary Scot.
The grouping of KU and KState in the same culture seems perfectly natural to me. The only difference between the two, aside from whether a Jawayh or a Jayahawk is involved in local goods and services, is the educational emphasis. Further, who in western Kansas has ever heard of Jerry Jeff Walker? He's never played a concert by Bobby Building. Bobby too, I'll take a pickup truck over a Volkswagen in 10 inches of snow any day.
Yes, this issue is important to Kansans, especially here in Lawrence, where east is east, west is Topeka and beyond Salina is oblivion. It is important that some western Kansas parishes have 87 to 100 percent church attendance. Perhaps religion of the parish should be founded, and Bacchic nirrana is achieved Sunday morning, complete with wanging headache.
Yes, this subject is important in western Kansas, for years the object of neglect by Kansas politicians and politicians. We have for too long been dismissed as hicks and ignorance矣ers by easterners who have grown accustomed to life but see fit to lecture us on everything, from what we
should wear to how we should farm. Life in western Kansas is neither idyllic nor ideal, but it deserves at least as much respect as Phillips seems to give it.
The most important thing that his study tells us is that attitudes need to change. The west has come of age. We are every bit as educated and enlightened as the east, maybe even more so. Thanks, Phillips, we all needed that.
A P.S. to John Mitchell: As the county seat of Summit County, year after year the largest wheat-producing county in the largest wheat-producing country in the United States, wheat producing country, Wellington truly is the "Wheat Capital of the World." The "Golden Buckle" designation for Colby, my homecounty of which I am not a native, has been the fact that Colby is centered approximately halfway between the winter wheat regions of Texas and the spring wheat regions of the Dakotas. As a result, we are about the midwinter zone of this region it moves north. Come visit us sometime!
Mark Hansen Colbv freshman
Prof praises identification
To the editor:
Perhaps the Kansas has been following the practice all along and I failed to notice. I should like to compliment Gary Bedore for referring to Bill Blair as the Colorado men's basketball team to very well for the outstanding performance of our women's team and for what accomplishment (as contrasted with rhetoric) can do to change attitudes and raise consciousness.
George Wege
Associate professor of English
and linguistics
Fathers' rights admitted
The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled last week that an unwed father should have preference over his biological女儿 his illegitimate child It is a nondiction, in a sense, because the Kansas court is simply supplementing a law of nature to permit care of his offspring.
It is too early to tell whether the court's ruling will create controversy in some of the state's more conservative courts, too tough, for any of these conservatives to successfully challenge the court's ruling. People, including the Kansas judges, are not only as good as the ink and paper that is used to write it.
IN THE CASE responsible for this decision, Leon Scott Jr. signed to block the adoption of Matthew Dottie County District Court ruled in favor of Scott, but the prospective new parents appealed against the ruling, meaning, Scott's daughter added 18 months to her new life.
All children are conceived out of some blend of pleasure and love. All parents, if fit, have a natural right to express themselves being being by loving providing for their own fruits of that love.
The couple that wanted to provide a home for the baby are hardly to blame for keeping Scott from his father. The mother was not involved, is not to blame. If the baby's mother had wanted to keep the child, the state probably would not have interfered. Indeed, if it did intervene, if probably would not interfere, McCourt Scott for child payments.
As it is, though, Scott, as the natural father, had to work through the government's courts to earn his right to the child. Only the mother's consent is necessary in Kansas to permit a child to be one is a male parent, he must subject himself to state scrutiny of his "fitness" in order to keep a child from adoption.
Her father, embroiled in litigation about a person that is questionably part of him, missed those 18 months.
GRANTED, THE physical act of parenting can be an act totally irresponsible for a child's desire of wanting to be a parent. The
The Kansas judicial acknowledgment of a male parent's rights has been a long time coming. To require both parents' signatures on an adoption consent form is yet another step toward equity that still must be taken.
state's intention that a child live in a stable and healthy atmosphere is not to be minimized. But does leaving a child in his father's custody necessarily suggest that the child's life will be less than stable and healthy?
" THE USUAL .MR. JORDAN?..."
Capital punishment deemed just
To the editor:
I see that the Kansan has decided to raise the issue of the death penalty again. This time the Supreme Court national issue a bit more rationally.
Murder is defined as "to kill unlawfully." Thus, the state and the judicial system cannot murder a human being unless, of course, the Lord should come down and declare that all people living in states with an active death sentence can be prosecuted. This can be the only implication of the letter of Feb. 27 by Skip Kaltenheuser, which refers to state murder and its public accomplices.
Another fallacy in Sik's letter is that "the death penalty has been shown to be an ineffective determent (to murder), Skip, being a law student, knows as well that the number of statistical studies relating murder, attempted murder and the death penalty. Few of these studies are conclusive and most are contradictory. The fact remains that there is no way to prove that all statistically rate the deterrent value of the death penalty. The variables involved are simply too complex to control or statistically eliminate.
KANSAN Letters
As for the reasoning behind my support of the death penalty, I do believe that in a small number of cases, it must be a deterent; however, I am too lazy to write a four-or-five-page moral essay concerning murder. I more likely become the subject of an emotional crossfire that would reach no conclusion.
My morals are such that I favor the death penalty and agree with the quoted former legislator. Since we do live in a democratic society, as Skip has pointed out, the decision on the justness of the death penalty is made by people and their representatives. And when this decision is made, it must be classified as just.
This still leaves us with the problem of the justness of the death penalty. This problem must be argued from the morals of each person, and because morals differ from person to person some people consider other people "saps."
Craig Garrison Emporia junior
Advertisementangers student To the editor:
As a female KU student opposed to abortion, I was incensed at the advertisement that appeared on her college newspaper "Whose Decision?" This blatantly biased piece of "journalism" was sponsored by the Women's Student Senate. As a student Senate's student activity fee, I am appalled that my money is being spent to support such obsolete writing and the name of "women's rights."
However, rather than spend my time emphasizing the outrageous sensational content of that advertisement, I simply would like to urge all of you who want to save the lives of those people who cannot write your state representatives and let them know where you stand. Particularly important to write are the
Hon. Arenda Matlack, chairman of the Federal and State Affairs Committee, and the Hon. Lloyd Buzzi of Lawrence, who is a committee member. This committee presently is considering the abortion issue and the possibility that it will convention with hopefully would restrict access to abortions. These two people, as well as all other state representatives, can be reached by writing: The Hon. (name), State Representative, for Tepoka, Kansas 66121. Take the time now right to drop them a post card; your efforts may save a human life.
Kathy Pierron Olathe senior
Society member criticizes clubs To the editor:
In the fall there was a letter to the editor that had the title "No Honor in Honariors Now." The letter focused on Title IX compliance problems and questioned the honorary society's question. I seriously question the value of any honorary society in a broader sense.
One might say having belonged to an honor society looks good on a transcript. If one has done well in school, it will show on plainly on the transcript in one's grades. One might say being belonged honor and prestige to the individual. That is quite a self-centered way to look at things. Again, if one has done
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well, it will be recognized in due time by the people that count.
Some honorary societies are strictly social organizations, such as the Owl Society, for example. A friendly discussion is a welcome thing, but I see no need for an organ to facilitate such a challenge. Nothing says that the only good discussions can be had with students who have G.P.A.s of 3.0 or above. If social means going out and eating pizza to excess, I bit of comfort is especially special when getting-together ends up in people getting drunk—for there is nothing honourable about being drunk.
Some honorary societies consider themselves service organizations. This year, the honorary society, to be called Sigma, did the same things last year's society did—held a homecoming mum sale, helped run the college quiz bowl and selected members of the society selecting members) for next year's society. The mum sales is a nicety, and the quiz bowls is a chance for trivia lovers to get together. In a self-propagation thing that keeps the society alive. Species depend on propagation for survival, and so do honorary societies in a service honorary's main service is keeping itself alive.
Having an honorary society for the sake of having one, much like having a governmental committee for the sake of having one, is a waste. Agreed. The same goes back now and then, but at times honorary societies are more a slap in the face.
Douglas Femec Merriam Junior
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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