UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanas editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
February 1, 1980
A lesson in logistics
A bill now before the Kansas House Ways and Measures Committee would, if passed, require written approval by Gov. John Carlin before any vacant civil service positions in the state could be filled. This bill is not only laughably impractical but also obviously bureaucratic.
Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, describes the bill as potentially "very crippling" to the University of Kansas, where more than 1,500 classified employees and many faculty members would be affected. Richard Von Ende, executive secretary to Chancellor Archie R. Dykes, agrees with this assessment of the bill. Both men cite the position turnover Rate versus time to support their conclusions.
When a position is vacated, the need to fill it may not be, in some cases, imperatively immediate. However, this is not to say that it is a useless position and never should be filled or taken over; when the governor finds time from his busy tremendous load of responsibilities to write his "John Carlin" yet again.
In addition to the ubiquitous bureaucratic problem of delay, the bill presents an interesting possibility for a lesson in logistics. Are potential applications for the bill in Topeka and line up in front of the governor's office door? If the governor
or the applicants have previous commitments that must take precedence, could they send proxies? Probably the most reasonable approach to the problem would be through the postal service, but then the whole process would be put back into the hands of delay.
Then there is the question of applicant evaluation. Although Carlin's credentials as governor are valid enough, his qualifications to judge prospective employees for a wide variety of jobs are more than slightly shake. One would almost have to assume that the applicants would be screened first and then sent to the governor for his stamms of approval.
House Speaker Wendell Lady, Roverland Park, says he supports the bill as an effort to streamline state government and save state money. He implies that the bill would advance Gov. Carlin's goal to stop the growth of bureaucracy. Nevertheless, the very fact that one more signature would be required for approval further twists the tangled tape of bureaucracy.
Lady also says the bill would not hurt those institutions already operating efficiently and have justifiable positions. Even so, the legislators would be left with the problem of whether a position was justified or not. They could always set up another committee.
Canadians deserve gesture of gratitude
To the Editor:
In appreciation, I think we American students here at KU ought to find a place for us. We can go her to lunch. If you can't afford it, just have a pat on the back. Canada deserves it.
The assistance the Canadian government gave in allowing six Americans to hide in the Candian embassy in Tehran, and later escape, should point out that the United Nations granted too often, although the Canadians are almost always there when we need them.
Harold Campbell
Harold Campbell Overland Park senior
Kansas column told state's subtle beauty To the Editor:
Kate Pound's column in honor of Kanaas "inspired me to perceive the beauty of our state is a stuble one, which few people can grasp and convey," as she did. It is an enjoyable experience.
Robert Bruce Scott Great Bend senior
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Harry Reasoner on "60 Minutes" neatly grasped the dilemma of many Irish Americans, "Ireland," he said "is a shame." He said he would do almost anything but "live there."
Irish unrest an endemic conflict
On this side of the Atlantic, it's easy for the Irish to feel sentimental about the land of their ancestors. They are called the Emerald Isle, a land of green hills, rivers and castles to which they owe an ancient origin.
A vacation in Ireland is pure catharsis; paint-up emotions are released as Irishman's heart and mind graveyards, greet distant relative, kiss the Blairstone Stone and drink too much Guinness.
At *this distance*, it's easy to see the importance of the counties of Ustir—in simple terms, Power and wealth have been in the hands of Protestants since the 17th century. The country was divided into three regions.
david COLUMNIST mould
British army is the enemy, Irish unity the cause.
Such attitudes ignore the immense complexities of the situation. Although both Catholics and Protestants are inclined to dwell on religious issues, the Catholic church's reliance more than a rallying cry; political rights, homes and jobs are more important.
IRELAND ALWAYS has been economically dependent on Britain. Republic still relies on growth, the Irish British market still requires its agricultural exports. the country joined Europe in 1922 and was admitted in 1928 still takes a half of both Ireland's exports.
The economic dependence of the Irish Republic is aggravated by the migration of Irish workers and their families to Britain. Many are itinerant workers, laboring in construction and road-building in the summer, and returning to Ireland for the winter.
Others have settled in Britain, taking up the welfare system more generally than its former counterpart. Irish do not have to become British to access the services required by the insurance, welfare payments and free medical care.
IN NORTHERN Ireland, Catholics have long been at an economic disadvantage. For 300 years, the Protestant majority has held the highest share in England's wealth. Until recently, most professional positions were held by Protestants; their trade unions controlled the best paid blue belt jobs and were the strongest against Catholics was endemic in housing allocations and school systems.
But the troubles of the past decade have obscured the significant advances made in civil rights legislation, original aims of the civil rights movement have been realized; an end to discrimination in housing and welfare, and a return to political rights. The Protestant-dominated parliament has been removed, although a political solution may still be a long way off.
AND POLITICAL progress is unlikely as long as gangsters and fanatics on both sides of the border unite and innocent people—in a war neither side can provisional Wing of the Irish Republican Army does not seize directly to reunify Ireland. The United Nations Protestants. The Protestant terrorists use the same guns and bombs to the same number of protesters. And both groups kill British soldiers.
Some American journalists have called Northern Ireland "Britain's Vietnam." As northern politicians try to fight effectively against an "enemy" whose soldiers look like ordinary citizens, the similarity ends. Northern Ireland is a Muslim people, Protestant and Catholic, are British citizens. If a parallel must be compared to Watts, not Sangei.
THE POLITICAL reunification of Ireland would not end the troubles of Ulster. The Catholic minority in Ulster would be replaced by a Protestant minority, and Provinces have carried their campaign of terror to British cities. In a united Ireland, the Protestant terrorists would take their fight to the south. Irish troops could enter Ireland on the street. Ireland would still be divided—if not in name, in fact and spirit.
The future of Ulster may well lie with the rest of Ireland, but to attempt to now allow it to bear risk or civil war even more than in the past is fighting. If there is to be a solution, it should address the political and economic problems of the North, rather than the South, because unemployment is reduced, housing improved and living standards raised, both Catholics and Protestants may be willing to share the responsibilities of government.
In Britain, the censures of prominent Irish Americans are regarded as more political cant. Many people like to see Northern Ireland float off across the Atlantic and attach itself to Long Island. The only way to be able to keep the peace any better than the United The only people who can save Ulster are the Irish, Protestants and Catholics.
Irish fervor flourishes in America
"Kill the Prods!" the young man said.
"That's what we say to people like you,
'Kill the Prods!'."
The young man was joking, taking to a friend. But to many Roman Catholic Irish Americans, "Kill the Prods" is a battle cry, and they resent and resentment that runs deep and hot.
The Prods are the Protestants, the English and Scottish Presbyterians and Anglicans who settled in Ireland and, until 1630, were one of the island's economy and government.
Irish Americans are a singular breed. They never have given up their love for Ireland or their anger about England's treatment of the Irish. Even fourth and fifth generation Irish, who have never seen their ancestors as good-socied." They resent the Protestants' presence in Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland, because most of the
Irish Americans tend to despise the Protestants in Ireland. To them, the Protestants are a symbol of repression, inequality and the loss of their homeland.
kate pound
COLUMNIST pound
Protestants consider themselves British. And there are few things Irish-Americans hate more than the British.
AND SO IT is that Irish-Americans who are now in the United States Society, ostensibly to help the victims of the sectarian fighting in Northern Ireland, but in reality to help purchase gun and ammunition.
Frisian Americans are perhaps even more important in the tropics in Northern Ireland than are the citizens of the Republic of Ireland. The anger of Ireland's American sons and grandchildren is palpable.
In this anger there is frustration,
history, legend and longing. Hungry,
honey, hunger, longing. 1800s, seeking jobs, homes and honor. They worked hard and fought against
widespread anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States.
THE IRISH in America were then the boys who slaves in the slaves in the South called them heroes, built railroads, mined coal and did the work that was shunned by other ethnic groups.
PROTESTS BY Catholics against the government's discrimination became street brawls when Protestants began to
The stories are handed down; anti-Irish immigrants who people who could not get jobs because the Irish immigrant overcame the prejudice and now it is most fashionable language.
But in Northern Ireland, the Irish Catholics have yet to achieve the success of their expatriate brethren. There the priesthood has grown in Irish corporations. An ancient, hightraised tribute-hiring Protestants before Catholics still persists. The Catholics are subjected to housing shortages, disproportionately high educational and discriminatory education.
feel that their position in Northern Europe was economy threatened. They responded by turning into riots and open warfare, which continued the present British invasion, be contained only the presence of Britain.
Most Irish-Americans, however, realize that an immediate pullout by the British, no matter how greatly desired, would release on the tiny island all the fury and rage of an angered, bitter people. But most Irish-Americans then turn them a desire to see the "Brits out," and an end 800 years of an immoral, unwarranted, and repressive occupation.
The troops cannot bring peace to the six counties of Northern Ireland. At best, they must have the support of the Irish on the Irish Republican Army, the Catholic guerrilla force. The British troops are seen as trespassers by Irish nationalists. Irish domination over northern Ireland
Irish Americans would like Britain to pull out of Ireland completely. The British presence is an insult to them, and it festers like an oen wound.
Worker pay, output must be linked
By JAMES O'TOOLE
N.V. Times Special Feature
LOS ANGELES—During the last 25 years, we have gone reasonably well for the average American worker. Although there are many things that make everybody's standard of living has ranked nicely and steadily. Since the early 1980s, the real wages, more fringe benefits, more paid holidays, longer vacations, more generous pensions, better health programs and less corporate greed.
During this time, all American workers have come to feel that they are entitled to this ever-increasing standard of living, higher levels of compensation or less work.
Wanting more for less is a problem when the engine of economic growth is running in fine time. But recently the engine of economic growth has faltered. The current situation can be summed up in one neat measure: A declining national-productivity-labor-cost is, to the total compensation of workers is lower than their output of goods and services.
BECAUSE OF international economic competition, Americans cannot continue to trade with others because of the pressure we increasingly feel the breaths of our competitors on our backs and if we are not careful, they will die.
Many of our products are being priced out of world markets and, ironically, only the anemic condition of the dollar prevents an increase in jobs of more productive competitors.
How can America turn its productivity- compensation round around? Certainly, we can't put the monkey on the backs of American workers A turnaround wouldn't occur merely from harder work. Sound economic policies are also needed to spur economic growth. We must recognize that increased capital investment is not the cure all it once was.
BECAUSE ONLY 20 percent of today's labor force is production workers, attitudes and behavior are often more important than skills and productivity. This is especially so for the nearly 80 percent of the work force who are professionals, managers and technicians who can perform sales jobs. Workers represent the ultimate key to productivity in even the most highly automated, capital-intensive factories, industries, productive actions by workers can make.
More effective motivation of workers would thus seem to constitute a significant, albeit not the only, response to the nation's economic illions. But existing incentive incentives are predicated on economic growth to finance ever-increasing levels of compensation.
IF RECENT experience is any guide, there is no reason to expect that workers will respond to declining growth by tightening their belts, working harder or more cooperatively with fellow employees, subordinates, superiors or customers.
It is instructive that the attitudes of workers and managers are far different in West Germany and Japan. In these countries, workers and managers see themselves as being in the same economic boat—and they prefer floating to sinking. American labor and management, in contrast, often stubborn refuse to cooperate.
The only way to change a company's or a nation's productivity-labor-cost ratio is to increase efficiency. In the meantime, benefits, incentive plans and working conditions. It must be made in the self-sufficient manner.
In several other companies, managerial information has been given to workers and they may set their own salaries. In about 75
JABWONN won't do it. Systems like the new Windows 10 Office suite, the Holida Mellon Mac, will. Denny, workers have been given financial and technical information from the company to organize their own work accordingly. The company avoids cyclical layoffs by planning for full employment.
small companies, responsibility has been encouraged by adopting a system of worker capitalism. Employees have become the owners of their work. Workers have not given up their rights, but they have assumed responsibilities. Such employees have no own salary, and assuming ownership seems to balance the idea that rights come without obligation. The needs of employees need not be tied to productivity.
IT IS NOT the case that American workers are overpaid. A highly productive country could afford a high level of compensation and social entitlements, while non-productive companies and countries simply cannot. The fact is that Western Europe and in like West Germany and in companies like Donnelley Mirrors workers don't demand or offer the productivity capacity to pay for them.
It is the task of management to create conditions in which it is in work for employees and for their productivity by assuming greater responsibility for the quantity and quality of their work. If the economy does not succeed, the challenge, the nation's economy will slip further and further behind the economies of other countries.
James O'Toole directs the Center for Future Research at the University of Southern California.