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University Daily Kansan
Thursday. Oct. 11, 1962
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Fiscal Responsibility?
With the present session of Congress due to close out at any moment, many lawmakers who hope to return to Washington in January are priming for the campaigns. Money matters promise to be one of the biggest subjects for campaign oratory.
Predictably, Republicans will scold the Kennedy administration for spending so much money and forcing still another increase in the national debt ceiling. Some Democrats, notably Sen. Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, have similar views about the Kennedy team but will probably be less vocal.
CURRENT ESTIMATES ARE that the present fiscal budget will top 95 billion dollars, leaving a budget deficit of about seven billion dollars. In the face of these figures—incomprehensible to the average voter—the cry for "fiscal responsibility" on the part of the executive branch will make an impressive rallying point.
But it is a safe bet that the campaign orators will be "pointing with alarm" to only one side of the government expenditure coin. The other side of that coin does not stand much light. It shows that it is costing the U.S. taxpayer something like $275,000 a year to support each lawmaker.
According to information gleaned this past summer from the federal budget, congressional costs since 1953 have risen six times as fast as expenditures in other areas—from $60,849,479 to $147,595,000. While this figure is not astronomical in comparison with the total budget, neither does it represent any great concern on the part of U.S. lawmakers to keep their own expenses in line.
U. S. CONGRESSMEN ARE PAID a salary of $22,500 a year. Staff salaries are a big item of expense, and numerous members of Congress carry relatives on their payroll. Other government-subsidized facilities further inflate the cost of Congress. In 1961, franking privileges (free mail service) alone cost U.S. taxpayers nearly four million dollars.
In a similar vein, the U.S. Congress is the best housed deliberative body in the world. Unable to find working space in the four office buildings they had, a fifth is now being constructed. Two of the buildings are used solely for the offices of U.S. senators.
The argument has always been made that it is necessary to pay high salaries and add extra inducements to attract worthy men to politics. If this assumption is true then the British Parliament must be filled with many mean and crass persons. These men get only $4,900 a year for salary and all expenses, and the rank-and-file members have no offices at all.
While no one has yet suggested that members of Congress be deprived of their salary, expense allotments, office space, and other special privileges, the least that is demanded is that they justify the increases in their own accounts if they are going to stump for "fiscal responsibility" by the executive branch.
Campaign oratory being what it is in this country, there is little likelihood that this will be done. The poor voter can expect nothing more than the "goodie vs. badie" version of why the federal budget keeps climbing.
—Richard Bonett
Editor:
Justice Not Fickle
I am not an American citizen, so perhaps I may not be in a position to write anything concerning American justice; but nevertheless, I can't see an unreasonable letter in the Daily Kansan and let it pass without comments.
Whatever Brent K. Mandry meant in his letter which appeared in the issue of Oct. 8 still remains a puzzle to me. His letter entitled "Justice Is Fickle" tried to show that the U.S. government takes sides with the American Negro. I don't think that Mr. Mandry is a racist, but the way he put forward his argument was quite childish and devoid of any sensible reasoning. What motivated him to write it beats my imagination, because such a letter was quite unwarranted and uncalled-for.
Mr. Mandry compared two things, the Mississippi trouble and the Georgia disturbance, and tried to draw a parallel between them. He thought that the two incidents were of the same gravity and therefore demanded the same action by the U.S. government in the Mississippi crisis. He therefore saw no reason why the federal government, which had not intervened in the Georgia issue which was caused by the American Negroes, should then enter the latest crisis, caused by a white man.
... Letters ...
I presume that Mr. Mandry does not know that when a person in the highest office refuses to carry out the orders of a law court, this is tantamount to a virtual breakdown of law and order; that when the Governor of a state does not bow down to justice, it's a test of the power of the law court. Also, in comparing the two issues, Mr. Mandry thought only of himself and those around him; he did not realize that while about half of the U.S. people might not have been aware of the Georgia incidents, nearly every person in the world was watching the Mississippi crisis with a keen interest. He did not realize that this Mississippi trouble, caused by the Governor's refusal to obey the orders of the court, put the federal government into ridicule in the face of Communist competition and in the diplomatic world. This was a trying moment for the federal government and my congratulations go to them for doing the only possible thing under the circumstances. I know the damage the Little Rock troubles did to the good name of the U.S. government and who knows how much this one has also done?
Finally, I wish to make it clear that this is not an attack on racism, but rather a reply to Mr. Mandry to inform him that I do not share his views on these issues. My primary reason of being here is to
learn, but it does not, however, stop me in giving my candid opinions and I hope that Mr. Mandry does not take it as a personal attack.
Gregs G. Thomopulos
Benin city, Nigeria, sophomore
e*
Gregs G. Thomopulos
THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE, by H. M. Tomlinson (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
Before last Saturday's football game an incident occurred which I believe could have been avoided or at least an adjustment could have been made somewhere.
Long Lines at Stadium
Editor:
At the main gate leading to the senior section, two lines of extreme length developed. It seems as though several sections were being ushered through this one gate (Gates 39-40). The two gates north of the gate in question were closed for some unknown reason. To top this, only one person was assigned to take tickets at this gate. To be more correct I should say that only one person was taking tickets at this gate.
Travel literature like this memorable book is rare. "The Sea and the Jungle" is a fascinating story of a trip on a tramp steamer from England to 2,000 miles up the Rio Madeira. But it is more than travel. Tomlinson wrote with poetic feeling, and his humor was always close to the surface.
Asea, the book has the quality of sections of "Moby Dick." It is a marvelously evocative tale, as it describes shipboard monotony, storms and the quiet that follows. Ashore, it makes the reader feel he is being pressed in on by the tropics, the eternal green, the insects, the savage beasts.
Tomlinson's trip aboard the tramp came on a bet. It was, for him, the casting aside of a life of dull routine for an adventure he could cherish into his old age (and Tomlinson lived to be an old man). The deskbound, homebound reader can do as Tomlinson did for a brief time, ignore convention and take a fascinating trip into dark and mysterious parts of the earth.—CMP
NATURALLY THE LINES moved slowly with the two lines formed trying to get in while others just crowded in at the front anyway. Many who had arrived at the stadium while the two teams were still on the field warming up did not get into the stadium until after the game had started.
One of the more pertinent reasons for the passing of the seating rule that made it mandatory that students purchase reserved seats to see the games was the fact that the lines in the past before the games were enormous. Thus people had to come quite early to get a good seat, and oftentimes the shoving and pushing became quite violent.
Now that the new seating rule is in effect, it seems that steps should be taken before the next game to eliminate a repetition of the past.
IF SEVERAL SECTION gates are to be closed, it would seem only right that people should be allowed to enter any of the other open section gates. This was not allowed Saturday. After all, a student has a reserved seat in a particular section, and he can get to that seat just as easy by going to the track and around, especially if a line like the one that formed Saturday should occur again.
Another alternate to speed things up would be the posting of more than one man at the open gates which one is restricted to enter, especially during rush periods.
Lorrence A. Mahaffy Jr.
Colfevville senior
Coffeyville senior
1 THINK WE'RE TRAINING THE NUMBER ONE TRACK TEAM IN THIS NATION, COACH. "
It Looks This Way
Hi, Yo, LOPE
It has been suggested that the contemporary campus political situation is stagnant. Vox Populi and the University Party are worried that the voters won't come to the polls if they have to walk. Action is trying to unmuddy its image as a radical faction. The Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) is still trying to yaff some life into the Goldwater cause. The Student Peace Union (SPU) is still wringing its hands, and the Civil Rights Council (CRC) still hasn't gotten out of the barber shop.
NOW IS THE TIME for a student political opportunist to strike. Some aspiring young politico will be missing a bet if he doesn't take up the handle bars and establish himself as the leader of the cyclists.
Such a party could be called LOPE (Legion of Pedalers Equality).
There are some pumping good issues here, and since the cyclists are the only ones who have vehicular access to the campus proper during class hours, they would have the advantage of getting their propaganda banners before the electorate where and when it does the most good. AND LOPE is fraught with excellent slogan material:
"Why should we be subjected to the verbal abuse of a freshly run-down pedestrian, or forced to breathe the stifling fumes of the internal combustion engines?"
"WE SHALL HAVE our wheels!"
"LOPERS arise—you have nothing to lose but your saddles!"
- Bicycle freeways connecting the campus with all sections of the city, completely fenced in to bar pedestrians, and constructed with overpasses and underpasses to avoid the automobile nuisance.
- A bicycle lift up the 14th Street hill, patterned after a ski lift and operated by the guard on the 14th Street checkpoint. After all, what good is a bicycle if you have to push it over the most difficult part of the trip?
LOPERS arise--you have nothing to lose but your saudables. "You who are as unwelcome in the streets as on the sidewalks, unite! We will win a path of our own!"
SLOGAN MATERIAL is almost inexhaustible, but should it be necessary to build a platform, these two planks could serve as the foundation:
—Bob Hoyt
UNIVERSITY
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1804, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912 Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Extension 41.1, new room
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Managing Editor
Scott Payne ... Managing Editor
Richard Bonett, Dennis Farney, Zeke Wiggleworth, and Bill Mullins, assistant Managing editors; Mike Miller, City Editor; Steve Clark, Sports Edit; Margaret Cathcart, Society Editor.
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Bill Shielden
Clayton Keller and Bill Sheldon ... Co-Editorial Ec
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