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Wednesday, January 30, 1974
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Porno Part of Freedom
The problem of pornography, what it is and what restrictions should be placed on it, is one of the major problems in adult life's real problems of the last 20 years.
Many analysts thought that the Supreme Court had licked the problem with its guidelines issued last June, but the court will be forced to re-examine those guidelines this term when it reviews a Georgia Supreme Court decision to ban the showing of the movie "Carnal Knowledge" in that state.
Pornography became a local issue of sorts last week when the SUA board agreed to cancel the showing of "The Erotic Film Celebration," a collection of eight short films, and "The Devil in Miss Jones." According to members of the SUA board, they were pressed into decision two stale senators, Ed Reilly, St. Leavenworth, and Chuck Wilson, D-Jetmore, and by members of the administration.
Whether the SUA board was pressed into canceling the films is not important. The important point is that such a decision was made.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that the films in question are actually films of this kind.
I do not intend to present a defense of pornography. I think that there is such a thing as pornography, although like Supreme Court Justice Byron White, I cannot define it. I also think that pornographic films, books and magazines are basically worthless.
There are, however, two difficulties involved in determining what materials are pornographic and what should be done about them. In the problem of setting down clear guidelines as to what is
pornographic and what is not. This is a problem that has befuddled the Supreme Court for the last two decades.
The danger here is that the rules that are formulated will infringe upon the First Amendment. Therefore, the court must move cautiously to preserve the freedom of speech. Even with the most carefully delineated standards, however, there is the possibility that such standards will be used in a repressive manner. The banning of "Carnal Knowledge" in Georgia is an example.
The second difficulty in the question of pornography is more abstract. The paternalistic attitudes associated with the censorship of pornography do not seem intimate with the ideals of a free society.
It is basic to a free society that the people should be allowed to judge for themselves, but this is exactly what censorship denies.
In the case of the cancelled SUA films, someone has imposed his moral judgment for ours, saying, in effect, that our moral judgment is defective. I resent that. I think that my own judgment about what books I should read or what films I should see is best for me. Even if my parents trash imaginable, I think that it is my right and the right of every student to judge those films for himself.
The government, at any level, cannot and should not protect the people from every little shock or disturbing influence. Such paternalistic actions do not prevent our our fiber rather weaken our independent judgment and ability to deal with life's complexities.
—John Bender
Finally,a Bright Room
Even if all the criticisms leveled at Wesco Hall are true, the architects, or perhaps the interior decorators, didn't blow it completely. The University of Kansas finally has built a lecture room that doesn't dishearten a person within minutes after he enters it.
Room 3041 Wescoe has bright orange seats, white walls, gold carpeting and enough paneling to feel like it isn't so much that the room is dreary.
What a contrast to Woodruff Auditorium that envelops the
student in a cocoon of blue and brown and makes him feel like subject material for an abnormal psychology professor's lecture on depression. Or to the monotonous beige from the floor to the ceiling of 205 Flint Hall and its one-color wall. How refreshing is a Wescock oven after the Lindley Hall oven that is gloomy even when fully lit.
My thanks to the person who
colored and brightness make happy
days.
—Elaine Zimmerman
BY HOBART ROWEN The Washington Post
WASHINGTON--Remember all that stuff about a "soft landing?" How we were supposed to ease out of the 1972-1973 bomb painlessly and comfortably? Forget it. For all practical purposes, the second Nixon administration's 1970-started in the final quarter of 1973.
Fiscal Wishful Thinking Prevails
But a close look at the figures demonstrates that the GNP, which had begun to run out of steam early in 1973, managed that tiny advance only because of a big bulge in inventories, mostly of unsold big cars that colorless car makers are desperately trying to unload.
The fact is that the energy crisis has accelerated a slippage in the economy that has been cumulating for about a year. There has been a severe decline in car sales and production, as buyers shy away from the bigger cars.
To be sure, the purists will raise a technical objection: Recession, according to the accepted definition, means a declining period of economic activity measured by two successive quarters of negative real growth. The gross National Product increased in the fourth quarter by the tiny margin of 1.3 per cent.
The typical citizen, who went on a buying splurge early in 1973, has turned cautious. She is now an employee of a finance inflation firm. The administration had promised an per cent or less), a weak hand at the helm in Washington, an energy crisis and talk of a worldwide depression, many are buttoning their sleeves.
Housing starts dropped precipitately in December at rates that indicate builders' worries about gas shortages. From the April 2017 data, the rate of starts dropped almost 30 percent.
"THE CONSUMER," says former Federal Reserve Board economist Daniel Brill, now with the Commercial Credit Co., "apparently tries to maintain the real value of his savings, not the real value of his outlays."
So the outlook for the current quarter is, at best, "zero growth." Just as likely is an actual decline in the real physical output, accompanied by an inflation rate of 9 or 10 per cent, and a further increase in unemployment.
In other words, we are face to face once again with the worst of economic possibilities; recession, which means loss of income and job security. We have a lower standard of living for everyone
Inflation is not just a matter of higher fuel prices, although that obviously is a factor of major concern. A new upsurge in meat exports may be almost certain. Materials other than petroleum, such as bauxite, the source of aluminum, and copper, could be forced up by producing countries copying the success of monopoly tactic of the oil-producing cartel.
BEYOND THAT, as John Dunlap, director of the Cost of Living Council, has just predicted, union leaders are certain to demand higher wage increases in 1974 than they went after last year, and they are unlikely to be denied.
Not all agree, of course, but the magnitude of the potential inflation this
year, for which there is vitally no precedent in peaceetime, poses a real threat to economic growth and to the long-term stability of the nation. Even liberal Democratic economists, who always have worried about unemployment first, and inflation second, have begun privately to wonder about their priorities.
Administration policy-makers, however, have more at stake than academic doubts. For them, the policy dilemma is acute: Faced with the real slowdown in demand for the quarter that the inventories only barely should, they stimulate the economy?
Or if they try to fight the weakness of the economy, by heftier spending and looser money policies, will it merely aggravate inflation?
The truth is that they don't really know what to do, and in this kind of situation, the tendency is to stand pat—do very little that is new and hope that somehow things will sort themselves out. Hence, the common prediction, a compound of wishful thinking, that things will look better in the second half of 1974.
If there is a leaining one way or the other, the administration for the moment is more difficult.
but events could force action: Jobless figures in the next few months pushing toward 6 per cent would almost certainly force the Federal Reserve Board to try a much easier monetary policy. A 10 or 12 per cent increase in price Index this quarter, which is not out of the question, would bring demands for extended wage-price controls.
The problem is that nobody knows whether these medicines, if prescribed, would do the patient any good. The history of the past few years leads one to be chary of the diagnosis, the prognosis, even of the post-mortems.
" ISN'T IT JUST TERRIBLE ABOUT THE ENERGY CRISIS? "
Costs of Explorations, Equipment Reduce Huge Gains in Oil Profits
By BOB SIMISON Kanaan Staff Reporter
The figures on the 1973 economy that came in last week didn't really tell us anything new. As expected, the cost of living increased faster than purchasing power, and the oil companies made bigger profits.
This information came out first in hearings by the Subcommittee on Integations for Henry Jackson, D-Wayne, in which it showed that sales volumes for most com-
But they were rather irksome figures nevertheless. For one thing, fuel prices led the surge in the cost of living. For another, those oil companies made their huge profit gains with only minor increases in sales volumes.
Going Out in Style Going Out of Style
The Was Norton Post
One's primal reaction at this spectacle was to draw back stalk against the prac-
*ture.*
A friend died recently and going to the funeral was painful. The ordeal was not in mourning—my friend had lived honorably and all her children had died in noting an extravagant and savage death. Everything was present, from the small jungle of "floral offerings" surrounding the casket to the piped-in water; they body was wheeled out of the chamber room.
By COLMAN MCCARTHY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily newsletter; published at the University of Kansas examination periods. Mail subscription rates. By request. Register for a second credit postage paid at Lawrence $1.50 per student in student activity fee charged to students. Advertised offered to all students without regard. Advertised are not necessarily those of the University, and are not necessarily those of the Universities.
NEWS STAFF
Business Advisor .. Mel Adams
Business Manager
David Huntle
BUSINESS STAFF Hal Bitter
NEWS STAFF
News Adviser ... Suanne Shaw
fault lies not so much with the nation's 24,000 morticians who share the profits from the 2 million annual U.S. deaths, as with the prospective customers, the living, who do little beforehand to solve the one problem sure to come: one's own funeral.
a manager David Huntle
Member Associated Collegiate Press
No way has been found to beat death, but ways are being discovered to beat the death industry. It is the last consumer problem of all and many are discovering that there is reason that being taken in the next world also mean being taken to the cleaners.
It might be too much to say that a "dethreat movement" is occurring—nothing is impressive in America until it's a "movement"—but word is out emphatically and expensive way of death is not the only way. Funerals are coming out of the closet.
ONE OF the strongest defenses against both the industry and against one's own unpreparedness is membership in a funeral and memorial society. According to the Continental Association of Funeral and Memorial Societies, based in Washington, about 120 of these nonprofit societies are now in operation, with about 600,000 members.
Ten years ago, only 36 societies existed. Ed Knapp, the president of the All Souls Funeral and Memorial Society in Washington, thinks that awareness of the
societies is spreading quickly: "Death is being faced as a subject. You can't prevent it but more and more people are realizing that you can prevent the confusion surrounding death and you can prevent a lot of the worst effects. The lessons we try to learn here involve an attitude toward the entire rites of passage. Death isn't a fate worse than death."
The most immediate service of a society is providing a form that a member fills out, one that will guide survivors and help them to be—possible in two senses—the last to let the deceased down. The association says it would pay $1500 funeral (roughly the national average) a dignified and satisfying service may be had for a fraction of that amount."
Griff and the Unicorn
At the time of death, the surviving consumer is in a poor bargaining position, often suffering grief or fears of being labeled cheap, clerk or货seller that costs "only" $900.) Thus, the first-time or only-time buyer is at a loss over the mortician, the full-time seller.
Those who enroll in a funeral and memorial society pay a one-time fee, ranging from $5 to $20. The basic service of the society is not to handle the details of a funeral, but to assist the members of the kinds and prices of funerals or memorial services available.
panies are up less than 14 per cent, while profits are up at least 40 per cent for most.
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WITH LUCK and alertness, it is even possible to go through the rites of passage without paying a cent. This is accomplished by donating one's body to a teaching hospital, a decision both fiscally sound and socially beneficial.
Complications are involved, however; Death must occur within a certain radius of the hospital, next of kin must agree and the donor must have filled out the particular form of the particular hospital. To someone determined to avoid the funeral parlor, as well as go to the beyond on a humanitarian note, body donation is the ideal way.
To date, the greatest obstacle to solving the last consumer problem is that survivors are not legally required to follow the wishes of the deceased. Too often, however, it is not obstinacy that prevents a simple and inexpensive passing but tight regulations prevent perilous care would be preferred and of what a funeral director might be pushing in its place.
THE USE of the uniform donor card is becoming more common. It is a legal document under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and is available from any number of medical institutions, including the association. Organ and tissue donations have been increasing in recent years, but there are still many sources for information on anatomical gifts Is The Living Bank, Box 6725, Houston, Tex. 77025.
Other problems with donations to medical schools is their refusal to accept bodies that have been autopsied, multilated (as in a car crash or a fight) and have had organs other than eyes removed. On the latter, a choice must be made; the person should have dental students or should it be given for the purpose of salvaging organs and tissues needed by the sick?
According to Ernest Morgan, author of "A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial" (The Celo Press, Burnsville, N.C., $1), "Most medical schools will, if desired, return the remains to the family in a sealed box; some will not. Some will return ashes if desired. All will, if so requested, take care of the ashes. The bones can easily be picked up—or mailed by parcel post—and can be interred or scattered in some favorite place."
Then the first six year-end reports by oil companies were announced. Increases in profit raised from 28 per cent for Shell Oil to 41 per cent in 2015, a number of nine-month increases in sales and profits and year-end figures for net earnings gains for the six companies is listed below.
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There's a basic injustice here. Because oil is evidently in short supply, fuel prices must be lower than the current price of the supply. But those high prices at once cause hardship for consumers and make possible large increases in oil company profits without large increases in produc-
And, they said, the industry needs such a profit margin so that it can reinvest earnings in capital equipment and exploration, which are so expensive that the Chase Manhattan Bank estimated that the investment $1.33 (rillion) to carry them on until 1985.
Meanwhile, tax incentives like the oil depletion allowance, the foreign tax credit and the intangibles disallowance make it possible for oil companies to pay as little as 1.3 per cent of their earnings as U.S. income tax.
The trouble is, however, that the oil industry is complex and expensive. In defending their profits, oil company presidents said that last year's profit surge followed a four-year slowdown in gains and would give the industry a profit of 12 to 14 per cent—about what other industries make, they said.
So the atmosphere could be right in Congress for measures to restrict oil company profits. Sens. Jackson and Johnson said they would take talking tough about an excess profits tax,
A K taught Thurse Singh, clude divud thems but do
For example, Mobil Oil Co. said that it paid $721.1 million last month for a federal lease to explore for oil in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Mobil's 1973 net earnings were $842.8 million.
Meanwhile, petroleum industry experts are predicting the gains won't be nearly as great next year because of increases in the price of oil foreign. Such increases, they may benefit our profits, where such companies as Exxon made most of their gains last year.
so it will be difficult to define "excess profits" for purposes of taxing. And tax experts have testified before the Senate to declare that the tax system should be impractical, erratic and inequitable.
Thus, the Wall Street Journal reports, political analysis expect efforts to pass an abortion law.
That leaves tax reform as more likely. Although the oil industry's argument is that its profits needn't be controlled, there seems little justification for the tax structure's elaborate incentives. The profits of last year should be incentive enough.
Therefore, Congress should examine the administration's suggestions to eliminate the oil depletion allowance of 22 per cent for foreign production and to reduce the foreign export allowance by 22 per cent the 22 per cent domestic oil depletion allowance and the intraguilds disallowance.
Profits of Major Oil Firms
Nine-Month Increases Sales Volume Profits
12-Month Figures
Exxon 10.1% 59.4
Mobil 4.9% 38.3%
Texaco 3.4% 34.9%
Shell 8.8% 40.6%
Union —
Cities Service — —
Net Earnings Increase
$ 2.24 million 59%
$842.8 million 47%
$ 1.29 million 45%
$333.7 million 28%
$377.8 million 47%
$35.7 million 37%
Readers Respond.
Unadvertised Film Offends
To the Editor:
This letter is written to protest the unannounced and unadvertised showing of a 28-minute film short at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24, 2014, directed and advertised film, "Woman of the Year."
The individual responsible for the arbitrary decision to expose an unsuspecting audience to this grotesque and sordid film short has shown gross irresponsibility and extremely poor judgment. If this recurs, we shall be forced not to attend.
Timothy R. Krobett
Lawrence graduate student
Katryn C. Krobett
Lawrence special student
Change in Sr. Hours
I was quite annoyed at the sudden change in the number of hours required to be a senor. The new requirement may be more equitable, but administrators must ensure that students need accurate information about University regulations to plan ahead.
To the Editor;
For this reason, no change in academic regulations should go into effect unless that change is announced one full semester before graduation and made to inform the student body about it.
Ron Rarick Nashville, Ind., junior