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University Daily Kansam
Friday, Oct. 18, 1963
Politicians Deceiving In Election Promises
By Lyle C. Wilson United Press International
matter
The moment of truth came for the Kennedy administration when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy appeared on capitol hill to plead for a softening of proposed civil rights legislation.
THE ACKNOWLEDGED importance of the Negro bloe vote in the great cities has persuaded the major political parties to make impossible promises in their presidential platform statements of policy.
Republicans and Democrats alike have been for years playing politics with civil rights. The prize has been the numerous Negro vote concentrated in the cities of our industrial states. Without that vote in 1960 John F. Kennedy certainly would not have been elected president of the United States.
These promises are not limited to Negroes and to civil rights but extend to all areas of interest. It has come to be that the Republican and Democratic presidential platforms are commonly drafted on a something-for-everyone basis to the disadvantage of the generality of voters.
Some of these promises are impossible of fulfillment. The difference between promise and performance in American politics is so great as to invite speculation as to what would happen if the voters became aware of the hypocrisy being practiced upon them and moved to punish the practitioners.
THEREWOULD be some openings in the top leadership of both political parties if that happy solution were had to the problem posed by this widespread political dishonesty. The morality of American politics is similar to the former morality of American finance on Wall Street and among the big banks. That was before Judge Ferdinand Pecora and a Senate committee in the early 1930's focused public attention on the termites in the financial structure
Out of that investigation came a truth-in-securities act which requires that promises made in furthering the sale of securities be matched thereafter by performance. If the seller makes a dishonest promise the chances are pretty good that he will go to jail.
Perhaps we need a truth-in-politics act. A better way, however, would be to reform our political convention system. The conventions now name presidential tickets and write platforms. In the furious competition for delegate votes and the presidential nomination, candidates are inclined to endorse any kind of phony platform promise, however impossible of fulfillment.
CANDIDATES before and after the nomination endorse whole platforms without really knowing what is in them. This appears to have happened in 1960. The gullible voters accept the promises as legitimate and thus presidents are elected. None of the test Bobby Kennedy applied this week to pending civil rights legislation was applied in 1960 to the civil rights section of the Democratic platform. Small wonder that Negroes expect more in the civil rights bill than they are likely to get.
The needed reform would be this:
The needed reform would be this:
Let the conventions nominate tickets and adjourn. Thereafter, let the party nominees and a small committee of their choice draft the party platform. The personal responsibility of the nominees for the platform promises would be complete and, we could hope, binding.
Ban-The-Bomb
YEOVILTON, England — (UPI) — Rear Adm. Philip Gick ordered 30 sailors to stage a hoax ban-the-bomb sittdown outside the Royal Naval Air Station here yesterday "to test how the station could deal with an emergency."
KU international students plan to participate in a traditional dance of the American West.
International Students Plan Square Dancing
Karl Edwards, professor of education, will instruct the members of the International Club in square dancing at their meeting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union.
The meeting will begin in the Forum Room where two films on Mexico will be shown. The purpose of the films is to promote a trip to Mexico for foreign students during Christmas vacation.
Following the films, the members of the club will go to the Union Ballroom where Prof. Edwards will conduct the program of dancing.
Kansas Artists To Enter Show
Entries are now being accepted for the 10th annual Kansas designer craftsmen show.
The show, which will run from Nov. 3-20 at the Kansas Union, will feature works by artists who have lived in Kansas a minimum of one year. The art works must have been done during the last five years.
Prizes totaling $1,000 will be offered to winners of the various divisions in the show. These divisions are: cast, thrown and handbuilt ceramics, metal work, silversmithing jewelry, enameling, furniture, sculpture in stone, wood, metal and fired clay, stained glass and mosaics, woven fabrics, upholstery, drapery, rugs, wall hangings, fashion fabrics, and household linen and printed textiles.
The show is jointly sponsored by the School of Fine Arts, the Department of Design, and the Extension Division.
Participating artists can submit a maximum of four works which must be delivered to the Kansas Union by Oct. 23.
Thomas Gorton, Dean of the School of Fine Arts, will award the prizes on Nov. 3, the opening day of the show.
Two seniors of the School of Business were honored at a luncheon as recipients of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. scholarships, it was announced today.
Business Majors Win Grants
They were Ronald R. Arnold, Coffeyville, and Clyde R. Harms, Lawrence.
The award winners are chosen on
the basis of academic achievement, financial need, character, and leadership, according to L. M. Jones, assistant dean of the School of Business. This is the seventh year that Goodyear has selected two business school students for the award, Dean Jones said.
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