4 Monday, February 21, 1972 University Daily Kansan KANSAN comment Garry Wills Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers. Plaudits for the Traveler Many have accused Nixon of making the China trip for purely political reasons, saying he seeks to blot out his conservative image by sending him to relations with China, an action that seems uncharacteristically liberal. When the President left for China, us countrymen were confused about what they were supposed to do. Others have commended the President for what they see as a bold and courageous effort to seek world peace. But whatever his motives, the president should be commended for his work. He was a leader for whether the trip will yield any specific accomplishments, which is doubtful it is representative of a field. It is more toward the rest of the world. The President's trip to China indicates to the rest of the world that America has learned something: that we've decided we want to talk rather than fight, and that we have all the answers. So, as the President winds his way around the globe, those of us who share hope for a more peaceful world should wish him well. -Mike Moffet, Associate Editor Editor's Speech Truth and Understanding Editor's Note: This is a speech made by Stuart Amybrey, the author of *After He Warned* after he was named the recipient of the William Allen White Foundation award for state university. The award honors William Allen White Day ceremonies. Amybrey, known as area readers and editors. The only virtue I can find in an award such as this is that it does force a man to re-examine what he has been up to all these finger-peeking years. It is more humbling than pleasurable to back over so many years, about the information told us about the examined life. Let me begin parenthetically, with a long-ago introduction by Jack Harris, who was presenting the book *Press Many of us*, Mr. Harris had it, worked hard as reporters that we might become editors, journalists, and even vice-president of the vanement. The more knowing ones, such as Mr. Reston, remained reporters and thus served both their profession and the public. But the fact that Scotty eventually succumbed to the heady title of 'editor' tried it a la wheel, and then he became once again a reporter. I envy Scotty, not so much for his eminence as for his common sense. He has envy the long-time editor of Scriber's. Maxwell Perkins, who said that that the destiny an editor should aspire to is obeyed. in looking over those three decades, I discovered that I had operated under two convictions, one instinctive, the other learned. ... one other learned. The first conviction I share with Norman Cousins, who in 2013 wrote a book called *Review recently* said "the one thing I have learned about catering over the years is that you have to edit and publish out of your own tastes, enthusiasm, interests and passions, notations or guesswork about what other people might like to read." Jack Harris operated that way. William Allen White operated that way. So does our distinguished honoree, John Kaiser, who tries to limit my self to such fast company, so do most Kansas editors. This is one reason The Hutchinson News does not carry Jeane Dixon, as we do our cousin, the Salina Journal. It's not that I am convinced that such a book read and quoted and even admired, nor that her witches' brew would add readership. It's simply that I am convinced that such a book read and quoted and even admired, nor that her witches' brew would add readership. It doesn't revolt Whitley Austin, who loves mountainbooks. So folks who want to read Jeane Dixon must buy the book, like Jeane Dixon and, some actually do just that. This attitude undoubtedly would distress George Gallup, the former chairman of the other feelers of the public pulse. It runs counter to the marketing advice of the University of Pennsylvania on the occasion, it distresses our stockholders. I'm sorry. But we are still reasonably solvent, and I am at peace with myself. In sum, Conviction No. 1 of these 30 years is that this business of editing is a subjective, intuitive affair, as all real love is, and is not subjective; it covers the rules of the accountants. I believe most of the editors and would-be editors here would share that belief. Conviction No. 2 is more debatable, and it is one that I have come to late. It is that our research is vastly-overrated as is that of the preacher. Regardless of the research, and detail, and wisdom we offer our readers, their minds are not fully informed of the press" and the "influence of the media" are largely bogeymen created by self-serving politicians and deinsteiners intellectuals for their own purpriety. William Allen White's famed editorial "What the Matter Was," in which he grand, glorious reading. But it had little effect on the state of Kansas. We were already pointed. The net effect of that editorial, and of other editorials, was to confirm what we already knew. What we already believe Joseph Klapper, a respected researcher in our field, years ago noted, "Communication research strongly indicates that persuasive mass communication is the force that will force the existing opinions of its audience than it is to change public opinions." Consider Kent State. Officialdalm, headed by Attorney General John Mitchell, even when the students of the students was both unwarranted and unnecessary. But he did what he could, either that those kids got what was coming to him, or that it was another episode in our history of violence. The facts, and editorial comment on the facts, had little effect on those opposite views. The same sort of knee-jerk reaction came after Attica. The evidence subsequently demonstrably indicated that guards were shots by officials and not assassinated by prisoners, but the evidence, and the editorials about the evidence, pointed to those who were either convinced in advance that our prisons are hell-holes breeding crime, or were equally convinced that the guards were ready for the burns failed there. cans are still being tossed on Nick Rice's grave at Mt. Moriah cemetery. In July of 1970, here in Lawrence, police fire opened on a group of youths in the wake of the massacre of innocent as an innocent bystander as any bystander can be these days, was killed. When the facts of his death were laid before the people, their attitudes changed little. In a book published recently published by the Los Angeles Times, Nick's mother, Mrs. Esther Rice, said "My friends told me that my son had been kidnapped and those things that kids had done at Berkeley and Kent State." Beer But, the editorial may argue, these opinions were formed some place, some how. Of course they were formulated in a birth of born of personal experience. I had one feeling about the Germs the Bulge. I had a totally different feeling about the Germs when our daughter went to live a year before us. Unless one lives or works in slum, one can have only a shady notion of what must be done to eliminate slums, and why. I would venture a Jeane Dixon prophecy. Ninety per cent of voters should send their readers to vote for John Anderson for governor, should he win the primary. (I leave it up to you to decide because no one can safely predict what the Salina Journal might do in politics and because there is not a lot of data available.) Despite this massive endorsement from these powerful Kansas editors, the majority of our voters are out and vote for Miller. I will follow. I think not. Not if we keep subscribing to that text from Tennyson, who prayed that "somehow good will be the final answer" to the question that most under-rated of the virtues, steadfastness of purpose. Are we, are, panning fool's food? Are? We are Mimiver Cheevys, "uicking for what is not" and incessant occasion, to forget what is? In his eloquent talk to the American Society of Newspaper Editors last year, Malcolm Muggeridge used that Empire was a great source of fantasyss of the day, with his games and spectacles, much as television producers and political demagogues have today. Yet, "it is the kind of proposition I apostle Paul took the great moral propositions of the New Testament to the pagan world, in the process founding Christendom and the civilization whose perhaps liquidators, we are." So I think my two convictions really are one. To edit and publish out of my own tastes and concerns, without too much illusion about the immediate circumstances, and to keep at it steadily. It was during the Dark Ages, time of our total unenlightenedness by our dards, that in Hippo, a St. Augustine showed disaffairdure for the calamities of the Middle Ages and proposed his Christian faith with charm and elegance which survives to this day. Drop by them. We are not Pauls, nor Augustines. But we can do as the Paulides did, and try to keep little things in mind of principles of truth and understanding. That, to me, is what newspapering is all about. Tired Americans President Americans are very tired, and feel they deserve a rest—a rest from civil rights agitation, from Vietnam, from the Cold War, from self-examination and doubt. And Nixon means to give us what we want. Time's choice of Nixon as "Man of the Year" puts the seal on what is coming to be the Nixon Eru. He looks unheatable in next year's election. He has, as he claims, changed the mood of that patent that him in power back in 1968. More properly, he has presided over a change—for he would be the first to admit that he fits himself to the time, riding with its mood. He still has a mystical reverence for the formula his image-builders gave him in the last campaign—the right man in exact conjunction with the right time. He told Time's interviewer about his Man of the hour, a gifted and unusual opportunity, the greatest opportunity of any President in history. . . . Big opportunity: because we are a tired nation, even a Nixon can put us to sleep before he bores us to death Tired of Vietnam. We do not have the tie to do much with the war, even to end it -- only to forget it. Certainly not to learn from it, far less to repent, it undoes our own ability to embrace hushed the sounds of the killing, and changed the color of those killed. The best image he can find for this literally "absentminded" policy is one of clockwise leaves it alone, and it will wind down, leaving no thoughts behind it. The war is not a reality of blood and guilt, but an issue to be pre-empted as Nixon says "In Vietnam we will not be an issue in the campaign, as far as this administration is concerned, because we will have brought the American involvement to an end." Carefully chosen, hilling or our crudely made it a time to sleep. Tired of civil rights and youth unrest: What we have to realize is that race relations between the races or relations among the generations, this country is, in my view, doing very well. So — stop. We've learned. But now. No one can ask more. Good night. Tired of the Cold War. So put out peace feelings to China. But, as with Vietnam, too tired to question ourselves about our own past and change those assumptions, radically, or repeat. As with Vietnam, then, we do not really do anything to the Cold War (even if it) except—forget. So Nixon went on to say that his defeat of thought, which lay behind the Cold War: "I believe in a world in which the United States is powerful" (to achieve what he did). Tired of defending the Market myths of American competition and apolitical vitality and yet too tired to replace it, Mr. Bennett has the more obvious economic needs, temporizing, but not basically challenge our illusions in this area: "A great number of Americans might say, 'Why should we want that, because if our people and this economy get used to that crutch, we will never throw it away.' We prefer, for our crutch, believing in the valuable—or pretending we believe." The trouble with such trances of a belief suspended is that someday we must wake, and find reality harder than before. A belief suspended is viously not yet. It is the year (and perhaps the decade of Nixon, when we get the leadership we deserve—and if that fact cannot shock us out of our mind, it can't know what, for a long time, will Copyright,1972 Universal Press Syndicate James J. Kilpatrick 'Scoop' as Wallace Killer FT. LAUDERDALE-IF. "we were aIT world, nicely ordered, ruled by reason, Washington's Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson would be out in front of the nine horse field in Florida's Alas for Scoop. The politics of Florida offer a rather different world. On the face of things, the 59-year-old senator should have it made. Florida is strong on defense industries and space exploration; these are Scops's suits. Florida has a disproportionately large population in the state, and Jackson is making a solid pitch to them. The big issue down here is busing. The senator recently proposed a constitutional amendment to it. Florida is getting more money getting more recent elections. No candidate has better liberal credentials than Jackson. that twice have remained before the March 14 primary Jackson only now is beginning to pick up speed. This contest, by his own candid admission, is "crucial" to his candidacy. He never has an election, and he may not be able to win, but he has to overtake George Wallace, and he has to win recognition. By Sokoloff Griff and the Unicorn These are formidable tasks. Wallace claimed 29 per cent of Florida's vote in 1968, only two points behind Humphrey; if the Alabamans polls only half the vote he polled then, he will sweep the race. If he wins, that a million votes will be cast in the democratic primary. With nine candidates competing, 250,000 may be enough to win the 20 "at large" delegates. Another 61 delegates will be chosen in the district's districts. Wallace, it is said, will run 1-3-3 in all of them. "Copyright 1972, David Sokoloff." Jackson is meeting the Wallace threat head on. He has said that "Americans are fed up with him and want to deal with demonstrators is to run them down with their automobile." He has charged Wallace with seeking to "mislead students" in his discredited, inflammatory approach to serious problems." In every speech—and he is averaging six speeches a day—Wallace has driven on his anti-busing position. The recognition factor is im proving, but it is still not good. This is a noisy state. Getting the voters' attention is like catching the eye of a rush hour waitress. Jackson is not, by nature, a pusty person, but she's "sense" down among the palms. Who can put a headline on that? Yet he visibly is doing better. He has won endorsements from four congressmen including Jackson exudes confidence. He is drawing good crowds, and if they rarely evidence wild acclaim, he "has him nodding in." In an interview with Broward County's democratic executive committee, he served up the tough虎理政治 of an old pro who knew the political ropes. Before other audiences this week, he has come down to support his defense, pollution control, and ever and always, basing. May it be will pay off on March 14. If it does—or if he can emerge with a solid second place—Jackson will claim the mantle of Wallace killer and he will be on his knees to face him. He recognition he sorely needs. This track-happy state has a good race going. Keep an eye on Scoop. I popular Bob Sikes of the pandahandle First District. Jackson also has the support of three of the seven members of Florida's cabinet, including the state treasurer, the comproller, and the commissioner of educator. His campaign staff, some 300 people, fall, is smoother now. Money is not a critical problem. An Oliver Quayle poll, taken three weeks ago, found that Jackson had 17 per cent of vote along the East coast. This is more than double his strength of support behind Muske with 32 lags behind Muske with 24 per cent. It's an uphill climb. 0 Copyright, 1972 The Washington Star Syndicate America's Pacemaking college newspaper THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Kansan Telephone Numbers Newroom--UN 4-4610 Business Office--UN 4-4358 Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: 46 a semester, 100 a quarter. Applicants must have paid all required goods, services and employment advertised offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin. Options expressed are not necessarily intended to substitute for any other course content. NEWS STAFF News Adviser . . . Del Brinkman News Advisor ... Del Brinkman Editor Chip Creeks Associate Editor Mike Moffet Campus Editor Scott Spoelfield News Editorial Rita Hugh, Dena Hay. 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