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Fridav. May 3, 1974
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Pie Plot Against Nixon
The Secret Service announced today that it had uncovered a "possible conspiracy to throw a pie in President Nixon's face."
A spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington said that authorities are seeking a man identified as Reuben Hamlet. The spokesman, G. John Smith, said that Hamlet is the suspected leader of a "very serious, very large" conspiracy by "nomentials."
Sources close to the investigation said they used the term "non-mentals" to distinguish the reported plot from more common threats of harm to the President from mentally unbalanced individuals. Most such threats prove empty.
Smith said Secret Service agents had searched a farmhouse near Pueblo, Colo., which belongs to Hamlet. The agents found a number of cans of whipped cream and shaving cream, boxes of custard and corn starch, and aluminum pie pans.
There were also many notebooks found in the farmhouse, Smith said. It seemed apparent that the suspect wrote a great deal. Smith would not release the contents of the notebooks but Secret Service sources said one particular page referred to the plot:
"Now is the time for a leader to learn if you looking up? Is anyone there?"
The punishment should fit the crime. On nation-wide television,
Another page said: "If the time ever comes when a Nixon Library is proposed, the government need
not worry about acquiring a suitable site. It already owns a fitting complex of buildings on Alcatraz Island."
Another page contained two
quotes:
"This country was established on the principles that God reigns supreme, and that He has given us our governments, for whom we should give thanks and offer prayers."—Rev. Rex Humbard. "Hosanna, Dick."—Reuben Hamlet.
Presidential aide Ronald Ziegler refused to answer questions about President Nixon's reaction to the plot. However, a White House source said that Nixon, upon hearing of the plot, personally phoned Clarence Kelly, director of the FBI. Nixon shouted "expletives" into the telephone, the source said, demanding that Hamlet immediately be placed at the top of the FBI's most wanted list and be declared public enemy number one.
Smith said that other names were included on Hamlet's "hit list" and were apparently targets for pies. The other names included Harold Geneen, chairman of the board of ITT, Elizabeth Taylor and B. F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist who is also absent, to drop a sack full of guacamole sauce on the head of financier Robert Vesco. Vesco is in Costa Rica dodging U.S. subpoenas in a stock fraud case.
Smith would not reveal the sources the Secret Service used to uncover the plot.
—Mike Rieke
Paris Trends Binding
There's been some talk lately of a female liberation in women's fashion.
According to the fashion experts, garter belts and stockings are "in" because they are erotic; they have more sex appeal than pantyhose.
If the Paris fashion zars have their way with the women of the world, we'll all soon be burning our pantyhose and binding ourselves into old-fashioned garter belts and stockings. I've heard of the cyclic theory of fashion before, but this is ridiculous.
All this talk of garter belts and stockings brings back memories of my junior high years, when the miniskirt hit the scene a couple of years ahead of pantyhose 'and we had to let it all hang out. But unlike the girl in the Kansan's obviously posed photo earlier this week, we toothpick-legged adolescents were somewhat embarrassed by the cold show of apparel and were continually checking things out with cautious fingers and surreptitiously tugging at our hems. Showing garters was as gauche as showing slips or bra straps.
Garter belts and stockings
erotie? On Marlene Dietrich, maybe. But the average woman isn't so fortunate in the leg department. What's so erotic about mounds of flesh bulging over stocking holes or balls of wrinkled bark dug into skin by garter? Do stockings bagging at knees and ankles turn men on?
In the Kansan story some guy wisecracker that he liked garter belts better than pantyhose because they were more "easily accessible." I suppose this might be a boon for women who make their living by easy accessibility and for men in a hurry. But I noticed that Marlon Brando didn't have any great trouble eliminating Maria Schneider's pantyhose in "Last Tango in Paris."
I'd hate to see the day when garter belts and stockings take over for pantyhose. It would be just one more example of sacrificing comfort to fashion, to which we all—men and women—are slaves. If the days do come, however, I'm in luck. I still have a pair of mismatched garter, souvenirs of a bygone era of unilatered fashion.
Bunny Miller
Parking, Traffic Problems Probed
Student Senate Task Force Offers Suggestions
BvSTEPHENBUSER
The Student Senate's task force on parking and traffic has investigated the numerous problems that have caused considerable consternation for student vehicle owners at the University of Kansas.
Kansas Staff Reporter
The report of the task force contains not only a list of formal complaints but also worthy suggestions to rectify the defects of the present parking system. It is time for the department of traffic and security and the University administration to give adequate attention to this report and to act accordingly.
The task force noted in its report that parking fees for students at Kamie's State University is $0.00 a year. The state's Department of Education said.
The task force concentrated on the parking problems that have caused disgruntled student vehicle owners for many, many years. The following includes a list of suggestions and complaints documented by the task force
A STUDENT CURRENTLY pays $27.50 a year for a parking sticker for either off-campus (X-zone) or on-campus (H-zone) parking. The task force has wisely suggested that parking sticker fees for the "pool lots" be lowered to $2.80. Because of this, there are fewer of these lots there no longer exists a need for parking regulation by parking officers. The greater distance of the pool lots from campus also necessitates a lowering of parking fees.
The task force has made three notable suggestions concerning the payment of parking fines that have unfairly burdened students. These suggestions are: 1) that self-addressed envelopes be distributed with parking tickets to all students at easily accessible locations on campus, and 3) that only warning tickets be given during orientation week.
THE TASK FORCE also reported on the different court procedures for parking fines of students compared to staff and faculty. Students must pay their parking fines under penalty of loss of transcript privileges and loss of ability to perform the Faculty and staff, however, are not subjected to any type of penalties for not paying their parking fines.
The Parking and Traffic Board reported to the Senate Executive Committee on March 13, 1973, "...should the faculty and staff pay their approximately $80,000 in fines per record, there would probably be no permit raise."
The task force said that a spokesman from the Parking Service had refused to give any information in regard to the present situation concerning the payment of parking fines by faculty and staff.
ALTHOUGH THE TASK FORCE has not provided any worthwhile suggestions for correcting the marked difference in the collection of student and faculty and staff fines, it does refer to the Kansas State University traffic rules which state, "The chief traffic officer shall submit to the President's office a list of those faculty and staff members who haven't paid mileage fees and that don't have valid identification." The President has the paychecks of said individuals may, at the discretion of the President, be withdrawn until such fees are paid or arrangements made for payment of the fees."
Discrepancies in parking fees for residence hall and scholarship hall stickers is also mentioned in the task report. The $17.00 a year parking fee for students of compliance has been considered based on complaints filed in the report.
GRANTED, THERE may have been attempts in the past to alleviate, if not mollify, the conditions that have relentlessly plagued student vehicle owners. However, little constructive action has resulted from these efforts. The guidelines set by the task force provide the means to bring a solution to the problem of student property is entitled to leave. Let's hope these suggestions of the task force will be implemented into the parking system by next semester.
Acquittal No Watergate Barometer
By LAWRENCE MEYER
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON—The trial in which former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans were acquitted in New York Sunday was not technically a "Watergate" trial.
The two former cabinet officers were being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in New York and not out of the special Watergate against them grew out of the 1972 election campaign but were not directly connected to the Watergate bugging, cover-up or other so-called "White House horrors" that been illegally caught up in the Watergate affair.
somewhat incalculable boost for Mitchell and his six co-defendants in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy case here, as well as his role in the impeachment investigation in Congress.
Yet in many significant ways, the Mitchell-Stans trial was linked legally and psychologically to the pending Watergate case. The only new trial is New York trial provides an obvious if
IN WHAT COULD be seen by some as a rehearsal of the Watergate cover-up conspiracy trial, scheduled to begin here in September, the jury in New York chose to believe Mitchell's testimony in his own defense while rejecting all or part of the prosecution testimony of former White House counsel John W. Dean III.
Dean was a principal witness against Mitchell and Stans in the New York trial and he is expected to be a major government witness in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy trial here. Dean also is the chief accuser against President Nixon.
Whether the jury's verdict in New York implied a rejection of Dean's particular testimony or merely reflected weakness in the prosecution's entire case is one of many
imponderables.
But attorneys for the seven defendants in the Watergate cover-up trial can find some hope in the outcome of the first major trial. The Watergate case is an important role as a government witness.
"President Nixon was always a remote figure in the trial of Stans and Michelon on Capitol Hill, but he also secured a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of international financier Robert L. Vesco in return for a $200,000 cash contribution to the 1972 Nixon re-election campaign."
THE BENEFIT to Mr. Nixon of Sunday's acquittal, as the House Judiciary Committee undertakes its examination of charges against the President, is psychological evidence on point to the Mitchell-Stars case as the first major trial involving watergate-related charges and Mr. Nixon's principal accuser, John Dean.
"WAT KIND OF MILITARY COUP IS THAT?"
Readers Respond
Alum Defends Athletic Ticket Price Increase
To the Editor:
I am a 1967 graduate of KU and a 1971 graduate of the KU Medical Center. I was quite disappointed to hear of the disagreement that has recently arisen between members of the Student Senate and the athletic department. I had been impressed with the progress made by the athletic department since Clvde Walker was appointed director.
Even as a student in the lower-income bracket, I've always thought that my money spent for athletic events at KU was more of a contribution to a worthwhile program than much of what many other KU students today who feel the same way. Those who are really interested in athletics will pay more to be able to witness a better performance. I simply don't want to have to worry would cause undue hardships for those who are really interested in KU athletics.
I think that a successful athletic department can do much to benefit the rest of the University as well as to provide great energy and motivation. We are going to improve our athletic program and our University, we must have the skills and experience we need so much in our program as our competitors.
Please, for the sake of KU athletics and all of those interested, consider these comments and make your decisions wisely. Be certain that your feelings represent those of the student body and that your actions are for the good of the University.
Howell Johnson,'71
Film Vote Defended
In almost any political bureaucracy a number of organizations tend to become larger as the organization's function becomes obsolete, the organization will try to justify continuation. In the opinion of the Student Senate Culture Organization, the Student Senate Films represented such a group.
I feel obligated to respond to a recent letter to the Kansan in which Jeff Lough ridiculously accused me of "political suppression" against the supporters of
Laugh algease first that I prevented either him or Craig Walker from defending the film series and that the committee had made no decision on whether that is simply not the case. The committee made no decision on the elimination of the film series until the conclusion of three days of hearings. Then the decision was based on the results of the committee's tendance (about 50 persons a showing, with
Originally formed to provide a foreign film service where none previously existed, the International Films Series, in the form of a series of films, solete. The SUA provides a classical series, foreign series, French series, etc. The Culture Committee concluded after lengthy deliberation that the $6,000 international funding allocated to non-duplicative organizations.
little turnover rate).
Lough also alleges that Hai Urbanek and I prevented him from speaking to the senate. This is also patently untrue. The senate, which has been a series was announced four days prior to the actual senate budget meeting, providing ample opportunity for Lough to contact a senator to yield the floor, allowing him to decide the floor. Apparently he didn't be mind of do so.
The decision was further based on information from committee member Barb Carr, who was the first person trained from Lough, on the original purpose of the series. The committee then concluded that the film series had simply outlived the project and was a waste of the student activity fee.
Lough next indicated that our committee report was inaccurate and one-sided (never mentioning any specific alleged inaccuracies). This is surprising, considering that the report was based entirely on the reports of the international film officers.
Further, there could have been a call to reconsider if the Senate actually thought that the line item change had been through. Again, no such motion was raised.
I am finally accused of having the votes of my "six Phil Delti"兄弟们 in my back pocket." This is also strange, because I have never been associated, either now or in the past, with that fraternity. I suggest Mr. Lough check a student
directory.
The Senate Culture Committee spent 21 hours in deliberation before unanimously submitting our budget recommendation to the Senate. We have already observed a film series, the committee would have had to recommend drastic reductions in four viable organizations and the elimination of five others. I fear Mr. Lough is confusing political suppression with fiscal conservatism.
Bill Webster
Carthage, Mo. junior
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NEWS STAFF
Another juror said that the jury did think that Dean's testimony "was in conflict with everyone else's," but this juror said he would not use a "harsh a term" as calling
News Adviser . . Susanne Shaw
Editor
Hal Ritter
One juror, questioned after the verdict was returned Sunday, said of Dean, "I don't think anybody arrived at a decision on the case. Dean is a guar is a liar" or 'this guy told the truth.'
WHEN DEAN TESTIFIES here, the possibility exists that he will be asked whether he testified against Mitchell in New York and whether that trial ended in acquittal. Such a question, if permitted at trial, would have an effect on the dairy's deliberations.
Considering the obvious damage that a conviction of both former Nixon cabinet officers and close friends of the president could have had in complicating Mr. Nixon's already severe problems, an acquaint- even if it brings no direct legal benefits to Mr. Nixon—must be good news for the White House.
BUSINESS STAFF
Mitchell, facing trial here with six other former Nixon White House and campaign aides in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy, asked himself. If he takes the witness stand to testify in his own defense here, as he did in New York, he need not fear the prosecutor's informing the jury—as it did him before the Mitchell had been convicted in New York.
Business Advisor . Mel Adams
Business Manager. . David Hunker
Member Associated Collegiate Press
These random comments by two jurrons suggest, but do not prove, that Dean did not have a profound impact on the Stans-Mitchell trial.
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THE TASK FOR the Special Watergate Prosecutor here may be made more difficult in still another way. The Special Prosecutor's office has had considerable success in persuading some Watergate defendants to plead guilty to reduced charges of embezzlement and other defendants. The New York acquittal could persuade defendants who were considering such a bargain to take their chances on a trial.
But for all the benefits to President Nixon and the defendants in the Watergate cover conspiracy that the Stans-Mittchell agreement could not prevent, it is only one element in a complex equation.
The Special Watergate Prosecutor's office also still has an unbleached record of convictions, all but one by guilty pleas. In 1983, a former Special Prosecutor, former White House aide Dwight L. Chapin was convicted on two of four perjury counts. Many legal observers considered the case against Chapin to be the evidence against Stans and Mitchell.
SOME OBSERVERS HERE think that the Special Prosecutor, especially now that he has been forewarned by the New York verdict, will try to present a stronger case to the jury here, taking special pains to shore up Dean E. Feldman's detail as is possible. The prosecution witnesses in New York were frequently contradictory in their testimony.
Long before the Stans-Mitchell trial began, newsmen began hearing reports in legal circles that the New York federal prosecutor had a weak case, including the absence of fugitive Robert Vesco from the trial.
And it the White House can find good news in the Stans-Mitchlein acquittal, that verdict does not alter the very real and profound impact of this case on the pending impeachment proceedings.
Griff and the Unicorn
by Sokoloff