4
Tuesday, October 18, 1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed column represent only the views of the writer-
Senator Sam speaks
Senator Sam spoke last night, Sam Ervin-, Teller of Jokes, Spinner of Homilies, Country Lawyer from Harvard Law School. The North Carolinian whose Watergate hearings, held during a constitutional crisis, made him a media hero.
Ervin spoke on his love affair with American justice. The 500 people who heard him will soon forget his graduate studies and remember what he had seen, having seen and heard a Historic Figure.
The man's speech itself broke no new ground. Ervin reiterated his now familiar faith in the U.S. Constitution. He said that "it is virtually impossible to convict an innocent person" because of "the best evidence if justice ever devised by the mind of man."
THESE SENTIMENTS reflect Ervin's sincere, abiding belief that judicial procedure is fortunately unenforced with actual effort, unfortunately the link between the two is all too often tenuous.
Ervin praised grand juries as one safeguard of the rights of defendants. Yet grand juries force defendants to appear in secret without benefit of counsel. Observers say that, even with evidence, have compared grand juries to the notorious Star Chambers of England.
The former senator also had kind words for the adversary system of courtroom confrontation. True presumably emerges when a lawyer joins attorneys. The system, in theory, works.
The adversary system unfortunately means nothing in crowded urban courts, where voluminous case backlogs are accepted as normal. Plea bargaining simply is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. But as Ervin knows, plea bargaining exists—with sometimes devastating results for defendants and society alike.
THE CROWD that heard Ervin did not seem to mind hearing an idealized, textbook version of American justice. That version, after all, helped topple a corrupt president. And Ervin's fokus humor also won approval—the Teller of Jokes reeled off, in short order, everything from the Confederacy Joke to the Wife-beater Joke.
Sam Ervin is gone now—gone to another lecture platform to again spread the Gospel of American Jurisprudence. That the Gospel is more myth than reality cannot be answered. But rarely has it had a spokesman with the eloquence of Senator Sam.
'1984' reality in China
Very little light escapes from the muffled lantern of China, but a ray recently shone in the National Review.
William Berkson, international affairs expert, interviewed an anonymous Chinese emigre in Hong Kong (referred to as Li Ming) on control control in Communist China.
Li is an intellectual who, before his escape, had contact with peasants, party workers, and other intellectuals.
His report is probably the first reliable one on this subject to come out of modern China. He said that, despite China and he is one of the few refuges articulate and willing to publish, even anonymously.
Li explained why China has no underground literature similar to the samizdat of Russia.
LI DESCRIBED the ubiquitous mutual surveillance system. The Chinese bureaucrats, he said, use a system much like that used by the old imperial governments. The old system made family groups spy on one another and controlled family groups through the threat of punishing entire clans and communities for the crimes
"It seems to me that they (Russian leaders) are rather crude, and they're more bureaucratic. The bureaucats are one side and the people are on the other. Chinese leaders, I think, are clever in these matters."
Ross McIlvain
Editorial Writer
of one man. Because they could be punished for something their neighbors did, they watched others closely.
In the modern system, family group surveillance is augmented by a multitude of discussion groups, study and political groups.
"During political campaigns," Li said, "pressure is exercised through velted acts as well as exhortations."
"In normal times," Li said,
"the are 'criticism and self-criticism' meetings every week or two. In these you are supposed to uncover the ideological needs of yourself and others."
These factors combine to make intellectual resistance, and its cross-fertilization by literature, almost impossible.
"I suppose a few individuals do," Li said. "But it would be very unwise, because whom are you? You're never sure of your workmates. And close friends can just talk things over. The only reason to put something in their mouth is to reach a large audience, but there's no such audience. And because of cramped living conditions, your neighbors know everything you do. They come to you will report it to the party manager for your unit."
EACH PARTY member is required to watch a certain number of the masses. These party members act as the core of the information and intelligence network.
The people inform on one another because they are afraid not to. They can be severely punished for another person's "crimes" if there is the chance that someone about his conduct of thinking and didn't report it. Fear breeds obedience.
And once a person is condemned for improper thought, he is branded an enemy of the people. If you are 27 million people, three per cent of the population, are considered outcasts. Such people are "re-educated" and demoted to lower grades. But with them is tainted, suspected of improper thinking. If a Chinese speaks to an enemy of the people, except to give an order that the risks be cast out himself.
Some Americans like to put themselves on the back after reading George Orwell's "titanian fantasy," "1984." They comfort themselves by saying it is almost 1844 and our society thinks like the governmental mental Orwell described.
For most of humanity, 1844 is not fantasy. It is a possibility for the near future. And for China, it is a reality.
But most Americans have not looked outside lately.
If America wants to keep what it has, it must look out the window and see what the rest of the world is doing.
Bold jeans wearer turns yellow
When I first heard of the "Wear Jeans If You're Gay Day" campaign, my initial compulsion was to wash a pile of laundry to ensure that I had a suit. When I came home, Being straight, I wanted my sexual preferences made perfectly clear.
But then I realized how silly wai was being. If I had to wear slacks to prove my masculinity, then my manseness on was pretty shaky grounds to start with. Not wearing jeans is no more a barometer of being straight than listless. It felt for me to hum sexual. I resolved to thum my nose at the straights who were wearing slacks and at the gays who were wearing jeans.
After all, I've always thought myself a rebel when it came to dressing up with the crowd. I went to junior high school with long hair and was promptly marched home to get it trimmed. I only wore a tie because once and then I wore a green dye-tyed outfit. I never wore my
high school games on football game days. As a matter of principle, I'm against codes or traditions manners
Dave Johnson
Editorial Writer
SO FRIDAY CAME, and I manfully hitched up my jeans. "I let 'em wonder." I thought.
But as the time drew nearer for me to leave for class, doubt replaced righteousness and a sense of loss. I thought my stomach — the same kind of unsettling feeling one gets before giving a speech or taking a test.
Ten minutes before I had to leave. Still time to jump into a comfortable pair of painter's trousers. Yes, I'm ready for non-conformist some other day.
But just as one finally has to step up to the podium for a speech or accept the test paper for an exam, I knew that I had to go through with my plan and keep my jeans on.
So, it was 10 a.m. I picked up my books, turned the doorknob and slowly pulled the door inward until I reached the same way one peers around corners before picking up the morning paper from the porch while dressed only in pajamas. She stepped outside. I felt naked.
I BEGAN my trek to club around Emery Road. I saw my first walker in the distance. Jeans or no jeans? I walked closer. It was a girl. Brown slacks. She passed me, carefully riveting her eyes on the pavement.
Okay, I thought, it's her problem that she's not enlightened. Let her think I'm broken. I never see her grill. Can I?
Jeans. We were alone on the street. Was he gay or was he merely scoffing at the Wearer in front of him, campaign as I was? He smiled.
My pace quickened.
I passed a group of sorority girls, all respectfully attired in skirts or slacks. They had pleasant smiles for everyone around except me. I was wearing jeans.
As I passed Carrubt-O'Leary, the throng of jeanless people grew thicker. I overtook two girls with GI haircuts walking together, wearing jeans. They broke their animated conversation to give me a knowing wink. I looked away.
"WHY DID I ever wear jeans?" I thought.
1. argued with myself about turning back. I could run home, change into a pair of double knits and be secure in my masculinity once again. But I missed my first class. I had to continue.
On Jahyawk Boulevard, I was stopped by a friend. He was wearing a light chambray shirt, light jeans or slacks?" I wondered.
"I see you wore jeans today," he said.
"NOT ON HIS BLUE SUEDE SHOES!"
I admitted that yes, I was wearing jeans and asked him what kind of pants he was wearing.
I started to explain why I was wearing jeans, but he gave me an "uh huh — sure you are" look.
"I'm safe," he said. "These are soft corduroys. Not a speck of denim in 'em."
I ran into another old friend in front of Hoch Auditorium. I hadn't seen him for some time and was so engrossed in our conversation that it was five minutes before I glanced down at his pants and noticed that they were blue teens.
1 WALKED on. "I'm sure he doesn't think I'm gay," I thought, "Or does he?"
I looked up and he was looking down. Silence. Mentaly, I could see pointing at me and shouting, "You're gay!"
But instead of asking the question that was on both our minds, we headed off in and into the house where he had made us cowards.
Walking past the crowd in front of Wescoe, I was more self-conscious than ever about my clothes. One, maybe two or three persons were clad in jeans and t-shirts, but not so pervasive effectiveness. I felt like a scab at a Teamsters convention.
I FELT a sigh of relief as I entered Flint Hall. Here are the people I know. They'll understand.
But the gaze I got from my classmates told me something different. "You poor thing," they seemed to be thinking, "How long have you been sick?"
Was I merely being paranoid or did people really think I had crossed the sexual preference line? No, I never laid eyes on blue denim.
After sitting through my first class, I decided I'd had enough of being morally courageous. I skipped the rest of my classes and headed home for a change in room. I sat down, I dressed a pair of khakis.
My day as a "gay" ended with my belief strengthened that homosexuals are probably the loneliest minority in the world. I knew that we were that I was not quite the nonconformist I thought I was.
Maybe I'll wear green March 17. Or cut my hair.
To the editor:
National park needed to save Flint Hills
Ross McVlain's editorial on the Tallgrass Prairie National Park in the Oct. 3 issue eloquently describes his residence of the Flint Hills. His home farm adjoins the area described in Larry Winn's recent bill to create the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve (H.R. 9120). It is evident that his feelings are genuine and strong. Moreover, they probably represent the many people residing in his area.
If, as McLivain states, it were possible for the present owners—and their successors through the coming centuries—
Letters
to preserve the remaining acres of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, perhaps one of the major reasons for the park's creation would be downdraged. Those of us who have watched the prairie shrink through the years are familiar with private persons can long withstand the demands of this radically changing world.
Overlooked seems to be the fact that only 1 per cent of the original mass of this magnificent tallgrass scene, which once
stretched from western Indiana to central Kansas and from the Canadian border to Texas, only a handful is left. Winn's bill seeks to save some 3 per cent of the remaining 1 per cent. Viewed in this perspective, it seems a nutty amount at best.
now many destructive changes
are subly occurring in the
Flint Hills and others loom on
the horizon.
It long has been thought that Flint Hills always would be used just as it has been in the past and that use would
The future of the world's economies
By ROBERT L.
HEIL BRONER
preserve it. The rationale is that the soil is too thin to trow. Yet in 1974, one landowner found that in his 35,000 acres of Flint Hills holdings, he could grow wheat. Most ranchers probably would not do this unless forced to by economics, but if the price of wheat again reaches $5, she economics may force the plowing of additional arable fields scattered through the hills.
HEILDRONER
Times Features
Here are a few dead reckonings on the directions in which I think that stream is moving, and a few reflections on what we must anticipate as we go with its currents:
N. Y. Times Features
Is it possible to make sense of history? In the world, to set oneself for the future? Of course we cannot predict the sudden storms of history. But history is more than storms; it is also a great source of information us along its broad currents.
It is not surprising then, that we now hear a clamor to remedy the problems of planning by returning to the mechanism of the market, with its self-firing stimulus of individual betterment and its winnower force of competition.
- Western industrial societies are moving both toward planning and toward the market.
Looking back over the last 50 years, it is clear that all Western societies have moved in the direction of economic planning. It is also clear that planning is more cumber-bend than bureaucratic than most planners had anticipated.
What the enthusiasts for market 'solutions' overlook is that the market brings its own difficulties. Unemployment, economic instability, social neglect and the exercise of inhuman private power are all byproducts of the market process.
They are why planning arose in the first place, and why it will arise again if the scope of the market is broadened. Thus, planning generates a need for the market, and the market generates a response. Between this Scylla and Charysia Western economies must make their way.
Yet for all the esteem in
AQUISITIVENESS if the form of social behavior nurtured and encouraged by capitalist society. Under the name of the Profit Motive it is regarded as the very "elan vital" of the system. Considered as Bettering Our Condition (As Adam Smith put it), the socials approved motive to citizens, workers and capitalists alike.
- The deepest subversive threat to capitalism is the acquisition drive on which it depends.
which acquistivitizes is held, we have always recognized that it is a dangerous form of social behavior. When it sees into the world of politics, it is often more useful but corrupting.
When it is given free reig- eni-
the policeman, the stagehand,
or the businessman maximizing
his gains without social con-
straints - it creates un-
restrained pressures and disruptions.
To the extent that it suffices the social ethic—each citizen absorbed in his or her private advantage, heedless of public consequences or public needs—it brings social disruption.
Thus acquisitiveness imperilis canitalism while it sustains it.
I do not know whether this profound inner contradiction must ultimately unde capitalize me, and I don't think it no long as be system exists.
IS SOCIALISM inherently totalitarian, so that China and the Soviet Union are in fact its allies. The United States undoubtedly is a latent threat of coercion within an economy oriented to planning, just as threats are a latent threat of violence built on the market.
- The threat within socialism is its commitment to virtue.
Socialism is dedicated to the idea that men and women can be virtuous, not merely vowelous. Accordingly, socialist governments—the best of them, not the worst—seek to be virtuous, not just affluent ones. But the trouble with good societies is that it is difficult for them to tolerate dissent.
But I am interested in a potential source of totalitarianism at a deeper level. The risk of a totalitarian burdened danger in socialism comparable to that posed by acquisitiveness within capitalism. It is a danger implicit in the perfectability of man.
Disagreements about policies or ideas that can be regarded by morally uncornered societies as mere interests tend to be regarded by morally committed societies as choices between good and evil. in this way, unorthodox beliefs threaten to become identified with minor turpitude.
Thus I think that a seed of totalitarianism resides even in the best government that pursues virtue for the society it
WE HAVE SEEN democratic socialism practiced in Israeli kibbutzim, and we have had a glimpse of it on a larger scale in pre-invasion Czechoslavakia. So, too, in Scandinavia we have seen capitalism with a human face. Nonetheless, both kinds of societal tendencies—social decay in capitalism, democratic decline in socialism.
govers. But I do not believe that all socialist governments must become Soviet Union or Chinas more than I believe that all capitalist governments become like the United States.
I hope that these sightings and reflections help make sense of things.
Robert L. Hellbroner is professor of economics on the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research.
I repeat that they are not predictions. They give no warning with regard to the heat or ferocity of the next storm.
*errapas, however, they tell us something about the direction in which the Gulf Stream moves in fair weather as well as forlum.
Some ranchers have found it more economical to spray their pastures with herbicides than burn them periodically to control growth of trees and brush. While the hundreds of species of prairie plants know how to deal with weeds, they are susceptible to spraying, and a prairie without its flowers would be poor indeed.
be the same again. The hundreds of broad-leafed plants—the beautiful prairie flowers—all utilize fertilizer differently. Many would be increased and others would be forced out of existence.
Studies conducted over the last five years at Kansas State University indicate that aerial fertilization of Flint Hills pastures can increase production of forage by some 40 per cent. When the price of beef rises, which it ultimately reduces via viable process, aerial fertilization surely will become commonplace. Ecologists tell us that the priaire never would
The economics of food production one day will allow for aerial seeding of grain crops directly in stands of prairie, thereby altering the ecosystem in yet another fashion. It should be kept in mind that national policies to control economic imperatives are subject to short term fluctuations.
All of us would like to be as assured as McMlain that nothings change his beloved land, but there is little in the past to assure us that private owner-occupied fragile landscapes indefinitely
Only national park or national preserve status has the long range capability of doing this. Time is running out. We must act decisively. We must act now. And we must create a national park and national preserve while we can.
Charles D. Stough President of Save The Tallgrass Prairie Inc.
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 17, 2018 *Subscriptions* June and July except Saturday. Sunday and half-semester. June and July except Saturday. Sunday and half-semester. 66445. Subscriptions by mail are a $3 semester or $13 quarterly a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a year outside the county.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Editor
Jerry Seib
Managing Editor Jin Cobb Editorial Editor Steve Danfoss Campus Editor Dan Bewrowz Associate Campus Editor Dan Bewrown Dena Kerbaw, Assistant Campus Editor Rob Raths Sports Editor Rob Raths Sports Editor Rob Raths Photo Editor George Millerer Entertainment Editor Tim Burrell Entertainment Editor Jay Gillman Gov Chiefs Sandy Dachert, Bath Green教师
.
Business Manager Judy Lohr
Assistant Business Manager Patricia Thornton
Advertising Manager Kathy Long
Manager Linda Dawson
National Advertising Manager Denise Shirley
Head of Managers Lamie Dawson,
Publisher
David Dary
News Adviser Rick Messer