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Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1963
61st Year, No.53
Lawrence, Kansas
Johnson and Nixon Seen as Opponents
By Rick Mabbutt
President Lyndon B. Johnson will win the Democratic nomination for president in 1664, but the race for the Republican nomination is wide open, three campus politicians agreed in interviews last night.
However, they did not agree on the outcome of the 1964 presidential election.
Max Logan, Hollday senior and president of the KU Young Democrats, predicted that Pres. Johnson would "win fairly easily in 1964."
But Jerry Dickson, Newton first-year law student and national president of the Collegiate Young Republicans, and Sam Evans, Salina junior and president of the KU Collegiate Young Republicans (CYR) disagreed with Logan and declared that Republican chances for a presidential victory in 1964 are good.
DISCUSSING President Johnson's strength in next year's elections, Logan said, "It is almost impossible to beat the incumbent President no matter how he got there." He cited the 1948 race between Harry S. Truman and New York governor Thomas E. Dewey as an example of the incumbent president's advantage over his opponent.
"Also" Logan said, "President Johnson is extremely well prepared —perhaps even better prepared than President Kennedy was."
President Johnson is a "very, very strong candidate" agreed Evans. However, both he and Dickson expressed doubt that President Johnson would satisfy the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON does not have the appeal in the industrial states President Kennedy did, Dickson said. Evans agreed, saying "He (Johnson) will need a running mate to appeal to the northern faction of the Democratic party."
The three politicians felt the Republican party faced a handicap in campaigning during the upcoming elections.
"The assassination of President Kennedy." Dickson stated, "has occurred closer to the elections than at any other time in history, therefore it is difficult to find a precedent."
Out of deference to the late President the Republican party will not campaign by criticizing his administration. Public sentiment about the
late President is too high to permit campaigning against him, Dickson said.
A POLITICAL party, Evans said has to run a campaign on the opponents mistakes and President Johnson does not have much time to make mistakes.
Turning to the Republican Presidential nominee the three men agreed the race is wide open.
However, each of them felt that former vice-president Richard M. Nixon was strongly in the running.
"Nixon has the inside rail," Logan said, while Evans predicted that the Republicans will nominate Nixon and Gov. William W. Sceranton of Pennsylvania to run in 1964.
THE THREE politicians agreed that Sen. Barry Goldwater's chances for the Republican nomination had been dimmed by the assassination of President Kennedy.
"The assassination killed Goldwater; he was running against President Kennedy." Logan stated. But Evans and Dickson refused to count Goldwater out.
"IN MY opinion it has definitely hurt Goldwater's chances of getting nominated," Dickson said. "I'm not saying he wont win the nomination, but it will be a rough fight."
The main question, Evans said, is what are Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's chances. He questioned the extent to which northern liberal Democrats would support Rockefeller.
Gov. Rockefeller, Logan stated, has alienated the powers in the Republican party and cannot win the nomination. Michigan's governor George W. Romney and Gov. Scranton of Pennsylvania are not well enough known, he continued, and it would be difficult to overcome their relative obscurity by election time.
TURNING TO the question of vice-presidential candidates Logan stated that Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) and New York mayor Robert Wagner had been mentioned as possibilities.
(Continued on page 12)
KU's football season ended on a sour note against the Missouri Tigers. The story in words by Russ Corbitt, assistant sports editor, and in pictures, by Roy Inman, is on page 7.
On the Inside
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"SANTA'S HELPERS" — Buildings and Grounds employees begin their annual task of adding the Christmas touch to the campus. The men here are decorating the trees in front of Strong Hall with Christmas lights. The lights, which will also be placed in front of Hoch Auditorium, Kansas Union, Danforth Chapel and Watkins Hospital will be turned on next Monday.
McCormack Plans Civil Rights Push
WASHINGTON — (UPI) -- Speaker John W. McCormack announced today that an effort will be launched Monday to pry the civil rights bill out of the House rules committee and bring it to a vote on the floor.
McCormack said following a meeting of Democratic congressional leaders with President Johnson that "as far as the leadership of the House is concerned every effort will be made" to force the measure out of the committee. Rules Chairman Howard W. Smith, D-Va., has made it clear he will try to keep it bottled up.
TALKING WITH newsmen at the White House, the speaker said a petition to discharge the bill from the rules unit would be filed Monday by Chairman Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y. of the House judiciary committee. Celler's group has approved the legislation but Smith's committee, which filters legislation to the floor, has taken no action on it.
The bill is designed to fight racial discrimination in voting, education, employment, public accommodations and the use of federal funds. President Johnson last week placed the measure at the top of his congressional priority list.
However, Smith last night threw cold water on efforts by both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to press for action on the legislation as a testimonial to the late President Kennedy who also had made it a key priority item.
SMITH SAID he did not believe action should be dictated by "the present state of hysteria."
McCormack and other House leaders wasted no time preparing to force the bill out of the Smith "traffic cop" group. But they were not certain of success.
McCormack said he could not predict what the prospects would be obtaining the required 218 signatures on the discharge petition.
"I WOULD think that in the first two days there would be a strong manifestation of support," the Speaker said. But that was as far as he would go.
Weather
The low tonight will be in the 20's. The high tomorrow will be in the 50's, the weather bureau said. Skies will remain mostly fair in the Lawrence area with temperatures remaining about the same through tomorrow.
A move by administration forces in the House, led by Rep. Richard Bolling, D-Mo., already has been underway to try to extract the bill from the rules committee through discharge petition.
Because of opposition by Southern Democrats to the civil rights bill, considerable Republican support is required to obtain the necessary 218 signatures — half the House membership. But GOP leaders indicated yesterday they would not help. Republican Leader Charles A. Halleck, Ind., said he opposed discharge petitions as a matter of principle.
McCORMACK SAID Johnson, who asked Congress last Wednesday to act promptly on the civil rights measure as a memorial to Kennedy, talked about the legislation at today's meeting with Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and urged that "as quick an effort as possible" be made for passage of the bill.
"I informed the President that I had urged the chairman of the rules committee to hold hearings on the civil rights bill" McCormack said.
The Speaker said it did "not appear to be possible to hold any hearings during the month of December" but added, "every effort will be made and will continue to be made" to obtain action.
LATER, McCORMACK added that Celler would be filing the discharge petition. The Speaker added that before this tactic was decided upon, he had gone "so far" in trying to get the bill out of the rules committee that he had offered to bring the bill up for a House vote early in January. But there was no indication that this could still be done.
McCormack's announcement came as seven house Republicans issued a strongly worded plea for enactment of the bill. They said it was needed now more than ever to help "conquer the forces of hatred and intolerance which have unleashed in our land."
AFL-CIO President George Meany gave the pledge to Johnson during a ride with the President to the White House from the chief executive's suburban home. The two also conferred briefly in Johnson's office before Democratic congressional leaders arrived for a meeting.
Lecturer Discusses Europe, Sino-Soviet Split
Mehnert Sees Sino-Soviet Split As Possible Help for the West
By Clare Casey
The West should refrain from taking sides in the present Sino-Soviet split, but instead, play both sides politically and economically.
Mehnenr said the West can use the split to its advantage by furthering its relations with both the Chinese and the Russians. He said he favored trade with both of the countries.
This was the feeling expressed by Klaus Mehnert, author and political scientist specializing in Soviet affairs, as he spoke in the Kansas Union yesterday afternoon.
Mehnert said the split was caused by the struggle between two Communist powers for world leadership.
"IT IS CLEAR that Russia is on the defense," Mehntt said, "and it is clear that Communist China is on the offense. The Chinese are speaking with vigor, but the Russians are remaining quiet."
Mehnert asserted that the Chinese are willing to tell the world what encompasses the split, and at the same time they point out all the faults of the Soviet Union. However, Russia would rather keep the problem as quiet as possible, Mehnert said.
Mehnert said there are two distinct disadvantages in the Sino-Soviet split. The first is that the West will feel that they can also argue among themselves since the Communist blocs are. He gave the present Paris-Washington situation as an example.
Secondly, he said, the West may get the feeling that if it does not appease Premier Khrushchev, he will end the quarrel and turn his attention elsewhere.
"IF THE WEST does turn out to be a paper tiger," Mehnert said, "then one of the major differences between Khrushchev and Mac Tse Tung will disappear."
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(Continued on page 12)
Klaus Mehnert
Sino-Soviet Split Modern European Unification Evolving Into a Unit of States
Europe today is undergoing modernization and unification and will some day be a United States of Europe, Klaus Mehnert, author and political scientist, said here last night.
Mehnert is the Director of Political Science at the University of Aachen in Germany, and the author of many best-selling books in the political field.
MEHNERT POINTED to Germany, France and Russia as three illustrations of changing countries.
"In Germany today, there is a profound change in attitude toward Europe," Mehn'ten said. "The people, and especially the younger generation, have a new priority of values. Today they would say that individual freedom is the number one value in life."
Mehnert said peace would probably fall in second place, and reuni-fication of Germany would come third.
MEHNERT VIEWED France as another modernizing nation of Europe. He said the Germans have been thankful for the leading role that France has taken in helping them to become a strong nation, and in uniting Europe.
Mehn'ten looked at the change in the intellectual atmosphere of the Soviet Union as another aspect of the modernization process.
"Russia has a social pyramid," Mehnther said. "Today there is a top segment made up of 30 or 40 million intellectuals, but this is only the vanguard of the masses who want greater intellectual freedom."
"THE CRISIS WHICH is going on in Germany today is not the fault of the United States," Mehnert said. "You have made mistakes, but on the whole, Germany would not be where it is today."
Mehnert said the uncertainty of command is Europe's greatest problem today.