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Monday, February 18, 1974
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Consumerism Extolled
The February 1974 issue of Esquire magazine carries an interesting article by Elin Schoen about the Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization established in 1936. Consumers Union publishes a monthly magazine, Consumer Reports, which reports the results of tests it has conducted on various products and gives product ratings.
During the 38 years of its existence, Consumers Union has acquired a reputation for accuracy and reliability for its analyses. Consumer Reports doesn't accept advertising and doesn't permit manufacturers to advertise the ratings published in the magazine.
Consumers Union has built its reputation on its testing and reporting. Over the years the Union has tested everything from automobiles to frozen pizzas and tennis balls. In addition to Consumer Reports, the Union has published special reports from time to time, such as its 1972 report titled "Licit and Illicit Drugs" and a 1968 report on birth control and family planning.
Recently, however, Consumers Union has started to take a more activist stance. In the February 1974 issue, Consumer Reports tells its readers that the Union has established an office in Washington, D.C., staffed by five young lawyers. Consumer Reports reports that the office is "to take facts uncovered by CU's technical and editorial staffs and pursue the legal implications of those facts in the consumer interest." The activities in which the lawyers will engage
include testifying before Congress and various regulatory agencies as well as entering into litigation.
Business isn't at all favorable toward the idea of having the government legislate or regulate in the consumer interest. This antipathy is understandable without hypothetising evil motives on the behalf of the features. Because driving up production costs, consumer protection legislation could result in a myriad of legal problems.
In spite of this, businessmen need to recognize that they have a responsibility for the quality and safety of the goods and services they sell to the public. No excuse can be given for selling automobiles with engine mounts that may cause serious accidents, hot dogs that contain fecal matter from insects, or microwave ovens that emit harmful levels of radiation.
Products today are more complex, as are decisions about what to buy. It is impossible for the average person to research every product thoroughly; therefore, the consumer has to buy largely on faith. Consumer protection legislation would protect the consumer against gross negligence by the manufacturer and would benefit both the consumer and the manufacturer. Perhaps the Consumers Union team of lawyers will be able to assist the federal government in formulating reasonable legislation and regulation on behalf of the consumer.
John Bender
Guest Editorial
Religion School in Limbo
The School of Religion has been in limbo too long. It has been plagued by anomalies that have alienated it from the University without justification. The time has come for the school to attain the complete inclusion with the University that it is now seeking.
The school's alienation is caused by its undefined position in the University structure. The school provides the necessary training for students who receives no financial assistance from the
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University budget. Some courses in other departments are cross-linked or jointly listed for religion credit. The school has the unique status of being academically controlled by the University while remaining a financially self-supported entity.
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Misconceptions about the school have enhanced its alienation. Some have mistakenly assumed that it is illegal to support a religion program in a state-supported university. The school is non-dominational and is therefore legally required to support through the University budget. There are at least 82 other tax-supported universities in the United States with religion programs, including Wichita State University.
There are approximately 1,000 students enrolled in religion courses each semester. The school offers these accredited courses free of charge to the state. Its students aren't accounted for in the University budget.
Consequently, the University would receive additional financial support from the state if these students were added to the full-time equivalency (FTE) formula used to determine the University budget. The school wouldn't drain the financial resources of other components that constitute the University budget.
The school's faculty consists of 13 instructors, including 10 Ph.D.s. Some of these instructors teach in other disciplines. Their salaries are paid both by the school and the state depending on what courses they teach outside of the Religion School.
Chancellor Dykes should forward the school's request to become completely united with the University to the Committee on Religion in Higher Education. I urge the Committee to propose that the school become a department within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where it can best function within the University structure.
The Religion School has a graduate program that has awarded eight master's degrees since 1969. Yet it hasn't received any financial support from the University.
The approval of this request by the College Assembly would eliminate unjustified procrastination concerning the school's full acceptance in the University.
Stephen Buser Belleville, Ill., junior
Stephen Buser
President Vanishes as Nation Drifts
BY CHALMERS M. ROBERTS Special to the Washington Post
WASHINGTON—Who's in charge here?
More to the point, is anybody in charge? or Are we, as a nation, drifting leaderless toward some precipice?
CHRISTMAS M. ROBERT
Special to the Washington Post
Such questions are induced by the seeming abdication of President Nixon from the management of the federal government. Sure, Secretary of State Kissinger continues in diplomatic orbit. The silent silo sitters are at their desks in the missile complexes and social security checks get into the mails once a month.
But this capital has a feeling, if I catch the mood, of drift. Mr. Nixon simply is not governing in the accepted sense. True, he appears in television film clips from this movie, where he is said to forth in his name. But one has only to look at the struggle of the energy crisis, the long lines at the gas pump, the embattled truckers at their parked rigs, to see that the executive branch of the U.S. government has, for all practical purposes, come too a
The other precedent is the latter half of Herbert Hoover's administration, when the nation slid into the great depression with Hoover insisting that relief for millions of unemployed was the task—yes—of the red cross, not the federal government.
I've been searching for precedents and, in this century, only two come to mind. The first was the final years of Woodrow Wilson when he lay abay in the White House after a war, and he ran, while the administration in those final magic years "when the cheering stopped."
GOVERNMENT IS by omission as well as by commission. Wilson, waiting out the end of his term, all but disappeared. "None of the cabinet men but the President, none saw a word in writing save for the handful of frighteningly unfamiliar-looking signature of him, nothing beyond hisclipse of him on the cover, actually prove that the President even lived," wrote Gene Smith in his book on the last years of Woodrow Wilson.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally came to call, to see if he were still alive. Sen. Albert Fall, who would later go to jail for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, bent over the president's bed and said, "Mr. President, I am praying for you." Wilson responded, "Which way, senator?"
Hover's dilemma was different, not physical but mental. He had begun with: "Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years we shall soon, with the help of God, be within sight of the poverty will be banished from the nation."
He ended with shantytowns for the unemployed, all across the nation, dubbed "Boy Scouts."
The nation's answer to Wilson was Warren G. Harding. To Hoover it was Franklin D. Roosevelt. It made no difference that Harding talked of normalcy or FDR of balanced budgets. The country wanted change, not drift.
There are perhaps as many differences as similarities between those two eras and today. There is one great, perhaps the greatest, country has lost confidence in its president.
asserted, was part of an international debacle. America, he said should free itself "of world influences and make a large measure of independent recover."
Mr. Nixon stands at 26 per cent in the gallup poll. If Dr. George Gallup had been polling in the final Wilson and Hoover years, Mr. Gallup would have been something like that, too.
OF COURSE, the parallels with our current condition are not exact. We do have dissipation from a long and costly war, as in the wars in Afghanistan over the economic condition, as in 1832.
The battle that Wilson fought and lost had to do with principles of America's international conduct. The one Hoover fought and lost had to do with principles of the
The battle today, in Nixon's case, is not over principle but over his person, and over the president and so ourouraged but ourougrada conscience in the exercise of his powers that he should either resign or be removed from office because the constitutional route of impeachment?
government's role in assuring the public welfare
Watching the television news night after night and reading the detailed stories morning after morning, one gets the feeling of Nixon being backed further and further into a corner, one of his own making. His supporters see it as a lynch mob after him. I month Sooner or later, after month after month, the President has been holding dogging, the President will have to face the bar of justice in the House of Representatives and, perhaps, the Senate.
immaterial. The crux, the breaking point, way or the other, is coming, slowly, but sure.
He will either have to spill it all, to produce the tapes and the documents, not just for secret peruse but for public inspection, or he will have to accept the popular verdict that he is hiding evidence of guilt.
Whether one sees it as inexorable greek drama or a high noon at the OK corral is
IN THE MEANTIME, the government
ITS. Subordinates do what they can,
of substance, with Dr. Kissinger,
with make-believe. No one is being fooled,
knows knows Nixon is not governing
is close to being as paralyzed as Wilson
Hoover.
It is still two years and nine months to the next presidential election, nearly three years to the next inauguration, Congress cannot govern. A cabinet can function—but the president can set the course and summon the new party to support, with the concurrence of Congress.
Whether Nixon can ever again govern, as in his first term, is questionable, to put it mildly. Certainly he cannot until the issue of impeachment is resolved one way or the other. And that very likely will consume much of 1974.
An awkward and embarrassing pause often follows while the instructor waits for some reaction from the students. What are the reasons for such pauses? The students may think, "This is not a learning experience, this is merely a test." Or, "The
This nation survived the last years of Wilson and the final years of Hoover. It will survive the last years of Richard Nixon. Drift is not the natural state of American life. In this case, as in those, it adds to the pressure for change.
Discussions Better Than Lectures
"AND SO THE 13-NATION ENERGY CONFERENCE CONCLUDES ITS SESSIONS..."
Unfortunately, the gidelines for establishing the appropriate discussion setting are not as easily applied. Although college teachers are exhorted to be sensitive facilitators and mediators, most teachers have not had enough training, or are ill-prepared to implement this method, first himself before a group of students who expect the normal 50 minutes of lecture information? Some instructors begin with ten minutes of well chosen remarks, then abruptly use a play to encourage class participation—asking a "provocative" question. Too often instructors extend extremely narrow or completely open-end questions or correct solution to this problem?" or "What are your ideas on the subject?"
By JERRY HUTCHISON
and PHIL MCKNIGHT
Classes that encourage discussion are often preferred to traditional lectures. Although lectures impart information more efficiently, research shows that discussions may be better for transferring more complex cognitive and attitudinal objectives. Teachers are exhorted to plan their classes accordingly.
This poses a problem to many college teachers. Because teachers learned under the lecture system and are at ease in such a structured setting, they are apt to use the guidelines for effective lecture training straightforward and most teachers can acquire them with practice. The lecturer who is articulate, enthusiastic and well organized, who uses attention-getting devices, illustrative examples and periodic summaries and who is free from distracting will probably succeed in the lecture hall.
by Sokoloff
Griff and the Unicorn
The lack of time for students to think through a response and to respond at length is perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of cursory question and answer sessions. Premature responses tacitly encouraged or rewarded preclude more thoughtful answers that are essential to thorough understanding. When teachers cut off feedback to share their thoughts out rationale, they are depriving these students of the opportunity to reinforce their understanding by actively using their ideas.
inferior, predicting quite accurately that they are likely to be outsiders in future discussions.
manner. If he does not, such questioning can only (1) discover the brightest or best prepared students (2) gratify the instructor's ego with an agreeable response, and (3) give the instructor a moment of respite.
Unfortunately, such answers (often rhetorical) may have another不便 effect. They may come while many students are still thinking about the question. They may still be reflecting upon the question when the instructor moves to a new topic. Thus, rather than being a learning experience—where "thinking fast under pressure" is rewarded. Consequently, class members may begin to feel alienated or
College students have 12 to 18 years of experience in this setting. Teachers' cynicism, ridicule, sarcasm and belittlement of wrong answers may have taught them that they should not teach teacher should announce his willingness to accept student contributions in a positive
teacher already has a preplanned answer. Why gamble on an isolated solution when it is much safer to remain quiet?" Some students ask, "What if the question that question, my peers will think I am polishing me. If I am incorrect, they will silently ridicule me." Or perhaps the class has seen what may happen to those who support some teacher's answers or beliefs.
Oil Policy Hurts Public, Dealers
By SOLY STENNEN
Special to the Los Angeles Times
By JOE STEINER
Special to the Los Angeles Times
While everyone's been talking about the energy crisis, a big riff against the public
What I mean by rip-off is this: The government is letting the major oil companies back on their financial obligations to the companies that own the under brand names. The result is another windfall for the oil companies—coming at a time when they are enjoyng unprecedented prosperity—and another increase in the price, amounting to millions of dollars a year.
I should know. As an independent service station owner, I'm caught in the middle of it. I'm the one who has to adjust the pumps when I need them. Is not the one the customer should blame.
The term "independent dealer" is thrown around a lot these days, and the problems of those independents who don't sell major-brand gasoline have been well publicized. The industry has long worked with station owners in Los Angeles myself included—sell major-brand gasoline.
YOU SEE, I own my station. I don't leave it from one of the major oil companies. Over the years the big oil companies have always given discounts to independent owners like myself because it was cheaper for them not to buy with buying land, buildings and equipment.
Nationwide, this practice has accounted for tremendous sales in the retail market. Because of the discount from the oil companies, we independent owners have been able to reduce our prices to attract more customers. It has been a happy way of doing business—for the oil companies, for us and the public.
Unlike many company-owned stations, which have an alarming turnover rate, the independent station is often owned by a guy who has been in the neighborhood a long time and has built a solid reputation. I've been on the same block for 38 years. Not
Since the energy crisis, however, this has all changed.
The major oil companies, with one exception—Shell-started canceling discounts for independent station owners last August. They haven't stopped selling us gas; we just don't know how to keep up with it. As a result, I have no discount money to make mortgage payments, pay property taxes and keep my equipment repaired. Since a station like mine normally sells about 50,000 gallons a month, a 2 cent-per-gallon loss of interest, in my case, a $1,000 monthly loss.
Caught in a crunch, we independent dealers turned to the internal revenue service for permission to raise prices—to make up for discounts we were no longer able to sell. We also learned nature of contracts with the oil companies, price increases were allowed. I was among the lucky ones who got such permission. That's great for me but not so good for the spirit of competition. It means you, the dealers, have to pay more—you pick up the tab.
ACCORDING TO PAST custom, no oil company would even try to sell gas through an independent station owner without giving a discount, for other oil companies would rush in to pick up the available account. But since the energy crisis, this kind of competition no longer exists between the oil companies. Because of tight supply, the companies have become more nowhere to turn, and the independent dealer's discount—which for years has been the keystone to competition at the retail level—is now gone.
The position of the independent station owner is now completely reversed. We used to sell gas cheaper, but today, in many cases, we are the ones charging more.
only has the independent owner been more stable, but because of his discount he has been the main source of competition at the retail level.
Losing my discount has created a burden
for me, although I'm able to make up for it in part by increasing my prices. But I'm hurt when the public blames dealers for being the cause of the shortage of gasoline because of oil company financial shenanigans. It's particularly frustrating for me, after all these years of giving good gasoline and fuel, because I can no longer get out there and compete.
THE END result of all this is that the consumer takes a beating at the pump, the oil companies get a free ride out of the independent dealers (they no longer have to pay for fuel and other discounts) and I'm being squeezed out of business because I can't afford to compete.
One traditional way of selling gas—a way that has often meant lower prices, better service, more competition—is being destroyed. And when products become more plentiful again—as surely they will—have only monopoly and no competition.
But then, quite sure there will be no independent dealers at all. These days in America, it looks like the big guys always win.
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