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Thursday, February 7, 1974
University Daily Kansar
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Shotgun Politics
If the 1960s was the decade of the politics of confrontation, then the 1970s may be the decade of shotgun politics. Many groups apparently have decided that the best way to achieve their goals is to point a gun at the enemy. We demand the immediate satisfaction of their grievances above all else.
A good example is the coal miners' strike in Great Britain. The coal miners have refused to work overtime for the past three months in protest of the government's refusal to grant pay increases in excess of anti-inflation guidelines.
Here in the United States, the shutdown by the independent truckers presents similar problems. While the truckers' strike probably will not bring U.S. industry to a grinding halt, as the coal miners' strike may do in other states, the layoffs in a number of industries and may cause severe shortages of food and other commodities.
This slowdown of production has damaged the British economy. Early this week, the miners voted to go on strike beginning this weekend. Such a strike could ruin Great Britain, but the miners are in an orgy of destruction to satisfy their personal desires.
The absurdity of the truckers' strike is underscored by one fact. The fact that the truckers is that increased fuel prices are eating up their profits.
On Dec. 13, however, the Interstate Commerce Commission established procedures that enabled truckers to increase rates to cover higher mileage and port costs that very few truckers have applied for such rate increases.
Instead of accepting the ICC proposal and lobbying for further concessions in Congress and in the states, the truckers have decided to take a different approach to leverage they have to extort concessions from the government.
Some of the truckers' complaints are legitimate or understandable and some are not. In any case, there is no justification for the use of violence or extortion to accomplish a goal. Goals frightening thing is that such techniques may become more common.
As our society becomes more advanced, the different segments of the population become more dependent upon each other. Farmers and city dwellers, white collar workers and blue collar workers, private enterprise and government, are all dependent on each other for necessary goods and services.
In this situation, it is possible for one disaffected interest group to pick up the shotgun and demand satisfaction from the rest of society. Unless people are willing to accept their social responsibilities, this nation may be headed for a new kind of anarchy.
—John Bender
Dogs Outshine People
I've been watching the people on campus for almost three years. I've been watching them so long they've all begun to look alike (what with beards and blue jeans, jackets) a sort of gameness face.
Lately, I've discovered my
favorite video to watch on ampcas
are dogs.
The Office of Admissions couldn't tell me the number of dogs enrolled at KU. Nobody would even guess. But considering the looks of things on days with decent lunch, I must number enough to at least qualify as a minority group. And their ranks are growing.
Some administration and faculty types consider this a serious problem. But as minority groups and dogs cause very few problems, they fight with fighting, abusing University property or causing civil unrest.
They seldom even bark (although once I distinctly overheard an irritated Siberian husk growl at an overloud evangelist) and usually use the sidewalks and crosswalks.
I don't know why people get so worked up just because they have to hold a door open for a dog now and then. Otherwise, their demands are simple and few. Most people still wear hats and have sterling characters. When was the last time you saw a dog get drunk or smoke dope?
We can learn a lot from dogs—how to throw balls and sticks for them to fetch, how to speak such words as "sit," "lie down" and "stay."
But more than all this, dogs add color and life to the KU campus. They are alert and they are friendly. Are they the God, they don't all look alike.
Bunny Miller
January
By NOEL GREENWOOD
January is a ho-mun month at most American colleges, a time to catch up with undone assignments from the fall term and then unwind before spring term begins.
The Los Angeles Times
Term Gaining Popularity
At some campuses, however, that tradition has gone by the boards. The reason: the growing popularity of something called January term (also, at some colleges, intermission, interterm, winter term or interim).
January term is a month-long immersion in a single course, usually yielding the same academic credit as a course taken over an entire semester.
IT GAINED A foothold on campus in the 1960s, but its major growth came later. To accommodate the January term, colleges usually switch to a 4-1-4 academic calendar—breaking the year into two four-month terms with January term sandwiched in between.
What makes it especially attractive to students is the snorgasborg of non-traditional courses—or, at least, nontraditional ways of approaching traditional subjects—that January term usually has available.
At Depawu University in Indiana, one student is spending the month interviewing motorists as part of a study of hitchhiking laws.
At California Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks, 12 religion students are on a three-continent tour of biblical sites in Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and elsewhere, while a group of philosophy students is in Madrid. Madrid as they study western civilization.
Some examples:
—AT MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology, one laboratory is filled with students learning the art of glassblowing while in another students are working their way through "Introduction to Wine Making."
—At the University of Redlands (Calif),
Prof. Judson Sanderson is using a roulette
wheel, cards, dice and other games of
chance for a month-long exploration of
the game around analyses of
gambling games and probing areas like
probability theory.
At the University of San Diego, a group of scholars in archaeology and historical research into our prehistoric past.
Nobody is certain how many colleges nationally have gone to a January term, but most estimates place the total in the hundreds.
month at San Diego's Old Town, where part of the assigned work is an archeological dig.
In California, though the movement has had little impact on public colleges and universities, close to one-third of the private college system offers a January term or a variation of it.
PROBABLY THE most glamorous part of January term is the foreign study.
Depaun University, for instance, which began January term only a year ago, sent 500 students off on projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania; Japan, and West Germany this month.
But most January term work is carried on closer to home, though not necessarily across the country.
Mount St. Mary's, for example, has about 30 January term students scrambling around Los Angeles, visiting out-of-the-way restaurants and shopping centers in the factory and the city produce market under
the course title of "The Other Face of Los Angeles."
ON-CAMPUS offerings often make for an intriguing package, whether it be an analysis of the social implications of the team King vs. Bobby Riggs tennis match (the Pacific) or a political science-based examination of white House press coverage.
Despite the off-bat approach of many January term courses, campus officials are confident that most can be defended as academically valid. In fact, many are quite traditional college courses simply telescoped into the one-month period instead of being stretched over a full semester.
"Sure, we're going to have some that might not be as good in academic content as they are for one administrator." "But the advantages of this one clearly outweigh the disadvantages."
Ghostly President
Now You See Him, Now You Don't
By PATRICK OWENS
New York—The President flaunts in and out of focus like the moon after four or five days.
Now you see him, now you don't. And if that wasn't he, what was it?
His wristlatch noncorporeality — the illusive profile of a man handling the possibility of political extinction by skulking in his chambers—has come to seem most obvious when Mr. Nixon is at his most powerful. He and his chief Joint Chiefs of Staff, the diplomatic corps and the American people with an ambitious national agenda in his state of the union message. It was an agenda which, even coming from him, might on first reading once have fluttered pulses and prompted laughter that was greeted with long, stirring applause.
He seemed nevertheless something less than real. The occasion was a pageant for a ghost. And it was verified, for those with residual doubts, that Richard M. Nixon, the then president of the United States, transmitted already into a haunt, a shade who holds office only through the in-
From his new, if shadowy, eminence the President can say almost anything about him, and that concern him, expeciting his own crimes and misdeemers of his administration. And he will be heard out in the spirt that garrulous poets of onetime artists have found himself at the Means Committee, are heard out he has lost the capacity to be taken seriously, an odd fate for an official remaining in possession of so much of authority as a lawyer or an art historian, influence, to speak of. But as long as he is in office, he will remain very powerful indeed.
Nixon the noncorporeal has made a turn to the left. He is strong once again for welfare reform, dedicated to the improvement of mass transit, determined to reform the national scandal of medical care in this country. Most amusing of all, the president who secretly wired his life for sound has become a determined critic of
Everyone knows he must still be regarded seriously. It is just that something has happened, and you need to act.
invasions of privacy. The man who bugged his own conversations with everyone from J. Edgar Hover to Golda Meir is determined to halt encroachments on the rights of individuals to live their own lives and say their own thoughts.
This president has had enough trouble from his self-suillance that it is possible he has learned something of the evils of his predecessor, and he has belooved him to tell us so. As it is, his commitment to privacy seems as follows or he himself seems insubstantial. And this is why we need a system.
"There will be no recession in the United States of America," he boldly asserted. And it was not necessary to hear his ensuing promise to win the fight against inflation to reflect that the men who have designed the anti-inflation fight are much the same people as those who will now devise the shields against recession.
will get dignity. Beyond that, "there will be no government program that makes it more profitable to go on welfare than to go work." Which would seem to mean, after translation, that it's back to the car wash, Mama.
The great health care reform seems similarly compromised. It will be practically free, involving no tax increase. It will be based on "partnership," not paternity. This means that patient doctors will be working for their patients and not for the federal government."
It may be true that doctors work for their patients. But not any harder, I suspect, than patients work to pay their doctors. The Nixon reform is another madcap excursion into non-socialized medicine and could be expected to enrich doctors and insurance companies with decent medical care to the deserving. This is one of very old stuff. We can congratulate ourselves that it is possible this time simply to consider the source.
Welfare is to be completely overhauled, and even its beneficiaries will benefit. They
Senator's Report
Legislature Grapples with Consumer Issues
Editor's Note: This is the thru or a seven-part series on the 1974 session of the Kansas Legislature by State Sen. Paul Hess, R-Iowa, new student at the University of Kansas.
Consumerism is of great concern to au Kansans and has received particular attention in the 1974 legislative session. Five bills are pending that deal specifically with landlord-tenant relations, automobile repairs, rental housing standards, unfair and deceptive insurance practices and debt collection.
As a chairman of the Special Committee on Consumer Protection, I am sponsoring the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, S.B. 631, The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, S.B. 632, and owning private remedies for unfair and deceptive insurance practices, S.B. 630.
The bill's most important aspects are security deposits and the tenant's right to deduct repairs, called "self-help." If a building is required, this bill regulates the landlord's monthly rent. A landlord must present the tenant a written, itemized statement of any
I feel that Kansas ranks high among the states on consumer protection. Kansas' position is bolstered by its present Uniform Consumer Credit Code and the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, both of which became law Jan. 1.
However, landlord-tenant relations have been a gray area in statutory law. Most relationships are defined by case law or custom. S.B. 631, which covers only residential rental agreements or leases, is a very narrow definition of related relations. Regulating human relations is always difficult, and landlord-tenant relationships are in need of definition.
amount taken from the security deposit.
Another provision is listed as the "self-help" provision. This allows a tenant to have minor defects, other than those the tenant caused, repaired by a qualified person at the landlord's expense. This can be deducted from the rent. But the landlord is obligated to pay the tenant only if he has not had any of the 30 days after written notification from the tenant. This provision wouldn't apply when repair costs exceed $100.
If a landlord doesn't return a deposit or its remainder within 30 days after termination of tenancy, the tenant can recover the property and money due him with damages in an amount equal to twice the amount wrongly withheld.
Substandard housing was also a subject of the Committee on Consumer Protection. House Bill 1415 authorizes the Board of Supervisors to ensure that housing is necessary for beautiful living conditions.
This provision was deemed important in 1971 when a legislative committee investigated the housing standards of migrant workers in western Kansas. The bill applies to all units that are rented or provided by an employe-
Local boards of health are required to enforce violations of the building and health codes. The tenant must first notify his landlord of any such violation, and a notification of local health authorities.
Rent withholding is permitted under this bill a dwelling unit has been declared unfit for human habitation. The tenant would make payment to an escrow account under the local health officer. Money in this account may be used for corrective repairs or services.
The automotive repairman's H.B. 1616, prohibits untrue or misleading statements to a customer, fraud, gross money laundering, or other illegal activities with regulations and departure from job.
cepted trade standards without consent of the owner.
Repair dealers would be required to give customers an estimate before doing any work. The charge couldn't exceed 10 per cent of the estimate without written or oral consent of the customer. A customer can also ask for the return of replaced parts.
Senate Bill 619 strengthens the regulations on debt collecting and disposes of debt collection-related harassment and false representation is prohibited by a debt collector. The consumer is also prohibited from submitting false information in making application for
Griff and the Unicorn
Only the Insurance Commissioner of Kansas can now recommend to take to court insurance companies that operate with unfair practices. If you fail to oblige the consumer to take action against an insurance company for unfair or deceptive practices if a loss is suffered.
by Sokoloff
Agnew Literary Effort Rejected, Mysterious
The Washington Post
BY BOBERT C. MAYNARD
The Kingstonian
Yet, on Thursday morning, the Washington Post broke the news: SPIRO AGNEW: ANOTHER REJECTION SLIP. The agency's classification has been known to unearth some unearly gems about her fellow men and women, announced that the former vice president's efforts had been dismissed by a judge, "on its merits," if that's the right term.
Until Thursday, Jan. 24, no one in the capital, which seethes in intrigue year 'round, knew that the former vice president was a literary man. At least not that kind of literary man. We had all heard of "natalie" and "adamantivism" and "tomentose" radicals, but nobody ever thought of a whole volume made up of such phrases.
The corpus delicius, although no one is certain death has occurred, is not a person, but a thing—the first chapter and the outline of a novel by the ousted vice president.
"I'm not sure," the unnamed publisher told Mrs. Cheshire, "I'd want to publish Agnew unless he wrote 'Ulysses.' Well, even though that does not sound as if his efforts were rejected on their merits, it did sound as if the unnamed published had a definite idea of his likes and dislikes in books and former vice presidents.
WASHINGTON--Imagine this as a minor mystery of the sort being revived on radio: The cast of characters would include a former vice president of a rich and powerful nation, two well-known women columnists on the two newspapers in the nation's press, aVP and head of one of the largest and most successful book publishing houses in the world.
It also sounded as if that was the end of Mr. Agnew's budding literary career, but the demise turned out to last only as long as she was the Washington Star-News to hit the streets.
There was Mrs. Cheshire's opposite number, Betty Beale, reporting that;
"Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew has written a novel which will be published soon by Random House." She added that Agnew broke this news last night to his wife, Rebecca, who wrote the book Mrs. Agnew came out of their seclusion to give a party in their Kenwood house." The former vice president, furthermore, was reported to be "very tickled" at writing a novel, even though he hadn't known before or been in him "until I sat down and wrote one."
Well, it looked as if one of two things had happened between the last edition of the post and the one publisher had seen the manuscript—one obviously taking a dislike to it and the former vice president—or Mrs. Cheshire and Mrs. Beale had vastly differed.
The plot thickened at noon. The next edition of the Star-News hit the street and all references to Random House had been replaced, but the story was otherwise intact.
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Naturally, all eyes turned to Random House. The excision of its name was the first firm clue that only one publisher was involved in the plot about a "spy novel."
Robert L. Bernstein broke cover. He admitted that he, the head of Random House, had published a story, that he had rejected the Agnew book and that the Star-News story was wrong in saying he would publish it. "Absolutely and totally untrue," he said of the Star-News
So much for what was then known. The question was raised as to whether the Star-New reporter had checked with Random House that he had read the Agnew novel. The answer was that the Star-New had checked, but at 9:15 that Thursday morning. By then, 85,000 newspapers, the Star-New Capital Special Agent, told the press announcement a non-event.
"We should have checked first," a Starman admitted. "R was inexcused."
"We had what we thought was a good source," he explained. "Anew told it to a whole group of people at a party. He was on cloud nine. He couldn't have known it was rejected. They (Random House) didn't tell him before they leaked it to the press."
But another Star-News editor wasn't so sure about that:
So, there is the mystery that only one person can explain. If author Agnew had been informed on Jan. 21, a Monday, that his creative efforts had been rejected, then he would have been in the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 23, that he had a contract with Random House?
At least one Random House official said that if his firm published Agnew's book, it might appear that it had commercial success. But the merit of the former vice president's work.
Apparently, then, there was room for misunderstanding on the part of Agnew, a misunderstanding that told his friends to pass the word to a reporter, who i'll turn, passed it along to the public before double checking.
Somewhere in America, then, it be possible there are people waiting for Random House to bring forth the spy thriller it never agreed to publish, by a former vice president in search of a literary career.
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