THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
80th Year, No. 64
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Thursday, Dec. 18, 1969
Photo by Burt Lancaster
Lighting on the way
Workmen this week began digging trenches along Naismith Drive in preparation for the laying of streetlight wiring. The poorly-lit street was considered unsafe for students returning at night to Naismith and Oliver Halls.
Witness describes 1968 Chicago riots
CHICAGO (UPI)—The editor of an Ohio newspaper testified Wednesday at the "Chicago Seven" trial that he was enveloped in a cloud of gas as he took pictures of a violent clash between demonstrators and police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
"It completely blinded me and I started staggering away." Thomas W. Pugh Jr., editor and publisher of the Troy Daily News, Troy, Ohio, said.
Pugh told the jury he watched police clubbing persons on the sidewalk in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, headquarters of the convention.
"I felt a couple of people get hold of me and lead me away," he said.
Under cross-examination Pugh said he did not see any demonstrators carrying baseball bats.
"Police were hitting at random anybody in their way at the intersection of Balboa and Michigan." Pugh said.
In earlier testimony, the voices of Walter Cronkite and another television commentator were ordered stilled during the showing of films.
The prosecution objected that Cronkite was not present when a Columbia Broadcasting System cameraman took pictures of tear gas, National Guardsmen with bayonets, and a frightened woman during the riots that erupted during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Similiarly, the prosecution protested that CBS commentator Jack Lawrence was "editorializing" when he commented on a film showing police dragging demonstrators toward
police vans and throwing them inside.
U. S. District Judge Julius J. Hoffman ordered that the voices of Cronkite and Lawrence be edited out of the films before they could be shown to the jury trying seven men on charges of conspiring to incite the convention riots.
The trial is in its 58th day and attorneys indicated it will probably last at least through January.
Defense attorney Leonard I. Weinglass, in asking for a Christmas recess of the trial, said defense testimony now in progress would last at least that long and the prosecution said it would follow up with rebuttal.
The defense Wednesday introduced three films taken by CBS cameraman Richard Perez in Grant Park on Aug. 28, 1968, the day of the most violent clashes between demonstrators, police and National Guardsmen during the convention.
The first film, shown without prosecution objections, showed David Dellinger, one of the defendants, addressing protesters who wanted to march on the Democratic convention at the International Amphitheatre.
"We want to show the police are suppressing our rights," Dellinger said in the film. "We will be heard all over the world."
The film on which Cronkite's voice was dubbed showed a middle-aged woman trying to drive two young persons out of the Grant Park area. It showed guardsmen wearing gas masks sticking bayoneted rifles through the car's window while the woman protested, "I just wanted to get them out of here so they won't do anything."
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UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Senate okays SST
WASHINGTON—The Senate has given a go-ahead to construction of a giant-size supersonic passenger plane despite objections by critics that it is a gift to a few "jetsetters" at the expense of badly needed mass transit for the city commuter.
The action came in a 58-22 vote late Wednesday in which the Senate turned down a proposal by Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., to cut out $80 million for the supersonic transport plane from the $2.14 billion Transportation Department appropriations bill.
Senate reverses House
WASHINGTON—The Senate, under unexpected last-minute pressure from the administration, reversed the House and voted down two Southern-backed moves to slow school desegregation.
A message from Secretary Robert H. Finch of Health, Education and Welfare to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee urged opposition to the House-passed provisions on school busing and "freedom of choice."
Wednesday, the Senate voted 52 to 37 to add diluting language, proposed by Finch, to the provisions.
Nixon backs resolutions
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The Nixon administration Wednesday endorsed three Senate resolutions dealing with the Vietnam war but urged rejection of any which called for withdrawal of U.S. troops or repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin mandate.
The position of the administration was made clear in a series of letters to Chairman J. William Fulbright, D-Arr., of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He released the letters Wednesday.
The committee plans public hearings next year on Vietnam, using the various resolutions as a legislative vehicle.
Proposed by Senate leaders Mike Mansfield and Hugh Scott, the resolution affirms support of Nixon's efforts to negotiate peace, calls for free elections in South Vietnam, and asks the President to seek a mutual ceasefire.
The State Department said that passage of the Scott-Mansfield resolution, which has 46 sponsors, would "enhance the prospects for peace."
The State Department called "beneficial" a resolution repudiating an attempt by North Vietnamese Premier Phan Van Dong to associate Americans who demonstrate for peace with the cause of North Vietnam.
A resolution calling on the United States to maintain a fundamental goal in Vietnam of peace, with self-determination for the South Vietnamese people, "could contribute greatly to an early and honorable settlement." the State Department said.
The State Department opposed repealing the Tonkin Gulf resolution of August 1964, under which Congress authorized the President, in advance, to take "all necessary measures" to repel aggression in Southeast Asia and to protect American forces there.
Landlords, students discuss problems
Landlords and KU administrators and students found several points of agreement at a meeting of the Student Senate Off-Campus Housing Committee Wednesday afternoon.
The eight landlords present at the meeting agreed that the vast majority of students are good tenants. "Of 2,000 students we have rented apartments to in the past four years, only five still owe us money," said Wilbur Almquist, manager of West Hills Apartments. "It is this small percentage that can cause landlords to have bad feelings towards tenants."
The thirty persons present also agreed that only a small percentage of the landlords are not ethical. "I could probably count the number of bad landlords on the fingers of one hand," said Joe Bullard, Ellis junior.
"I don't want to be associated with some of these crummy landlords." Said Mrs. Nathan Lynch, owner of two rooming houses.
Activities of the housing committee, the tenant rights guidelines proposed by the committee and the need for greater cooperation between landlords and the housing committee were discussed.
"Legally, no landlord should be able to rent dangerous housing," said William Balfour, dean of student affairs. "On the social side, I think the only thing the committee can do is educate students."
Members of the housing committee said they had found several dangerous conditions that violate Lawrence's Minimum Structures Code. Examples of unvented gas heaters, operable gas lights and dangerous wiring were cited.
"I didn't know these conditions existed," Almquist said. "The vast
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