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Universitvl Daily Kansan; January 26, 1983
Local man buvs space for "advertorials"
By SARA KEMPIN Staff Reporter
He is independently wealthy from an inheritance left by his grandfather, but he says he is a failure in society because he is unemployed and has never held a job for longer than six months.
He speaks with a curiously gentle intensity about everything, from his love of jazz music to his opposition to abortion. Although he admits that the only way he can defenselove with his ideas, he vigorously defends his right to say what he thinks.
HE 15 William Dann, the man who spends hundreds of dollars each month to have his blazing "adventorials," as he calls them, printed in the University Daily Kansan and other Lawrence publications.
Dann said, "If you've been a failure for years, and successful people lurch by you and you disagree with what you're saying, you really do some thinking."
He said he had held 15 jobs but had not kept one for more than six months;
"When you realize you work outside the system, it works on you," he said.
City Commissioner Barkley Clark said Dann had a very lively mind and was interested in city government.
Clark said, "He is an interested person, and those people are rare. I like them."
However, Clark said he dlgreed with D dann when he presented his views to the City Commission. "I think he's given 100 percent of the time," he said.
Clark said he respected Dann's right to say what he thought.
Dann said his belief in free speech and the importance of exchanging ideas led him to write his "adventure" novel, *The Good Doctor*, better to express his views, he said.
He said he got angry when he heard successful public figures such as movie stars or professional athletes express their views on television or in magazines, when they didn't have concrete ideas about specific issues.
"If we're going to call all this filth and garbage we see on television and read about in magazines free speech," he then "I'm going to print what I love."
Dann said that although most people who commented on his writing agreed with him, he had received about four
obscene phone calls from readers who,
he assumed, were unhappy with what
he said.
he said.
Dann said he had written 83 or 84 "advertorials" during the last 33 months.
"I CAN ASSURE you it takes plenty of time to sit down and write an editorial," Dann said. "It's definitely not the equivalent of talking."
Matt Langan, business manager of the Kannan, said Dann used an average of 22 inches each time he ran an "advertorial."
Twenty-two inch ads cost about $86.90, Langan said.
Tom Fisher, account executive at the Lawrence Journal-World, said Dann ran an average of 281 inches a month in the newspaper. Because he runs such a large amount of advertising, he is charged a contract rate different from their standard advertising rate, Fisher said. Someone running a similar amount of advertising would pay about $4.65 an inch. Fisher said.
Dann said he wrote his first 'adventorial' in 1890 after attending a political rally for John Anderson at the University of Kansas. Hoch Auditorium was packed with people, and the crowd was very pro-Anderson, he said. He
didn't agree with what the presidential candidate said and he wrote an "advertorial" in response.
"IT WAS downhill from there," he said.
He used to write letters to the editor about issues he disagreed with, but soon found that "advertorials" were much more productive, he said.
When he is not writing, Dann spends most of his day playing the piano and reading. He enjoys playing jazz and practices the piano two or three hours a day.
Dunn said he hadn't left Lawrence for several years but had lived in several different parts of the country — New York, Boston, San Francisco and Kansas City.
The people of the United States need to change the way they think, he said. Civilization is on the decline and it is most evident in big cities, he said. Most students are being forced in making money and don't care enough about other people, he said.
DANN SAYS he sometimes wishes he could work more within the traditional system of society, but is dissatisfied with things and needs to express his opinions.
by WENDY L. NUGENT
William Dann has found a way to express his opinions publicly. He writes "advertorials" — paid editorials that appear in the University Dally Kansan and other local publications.
Staff told to set repayment schedules
City to act on payment plan
By NED STAFFORD Staff Reporter
The Lawrence City Commission last night unanimously approved a motion asking the city staff to set repayment schedules for property owners who are delinquent on special assessments.
If the property owners fail to pay on schedule, the city will file suit.
Under the special assessment system, the city pays for streets, sidewalks or sanitary sewers by borrowing money at low interest rates through the issuing of general obligation bonds.
Lawrence has had trouble collecting the special assessment taxes.
Property owners must then repay the city with interest.
COMMISSIONER TOM GLEASON said the city had to act to collect delinquent special assessments.
Commissioner Nancy Schott agreed that something should be done, but said the commissioner's response was negative.
But Commissioner Barkley Clark said he thought the city should make one last effort to collect the taxes before filing any lawsuits.
"Would it make you feel better if we also boiled them in oil?" he asked Shontz.
Clark said the city staff should set up repayment schedules and begin sending letters within the next couple of weeks.
The commission also authorized the city staff to work with the Kansas Public Service Gas Co. Inc. to redraft its notice for shutting off gas service; it should be consistent the KPS shut-off policy, the commissioners said.
Commissioner Donald Binns said he was aware of some irregularities in the notice forms for delinquent gas payments.
HE HAD ORIGINALLY wanted to direct KPS not to shut off gas service to customers until after March 15. Binns said he had wanted the city to adopt Kansas Corporation, which oversees most utilities in Kannas.
KPS falls under the jurisdiction of the city of Lawrence, so therefore is not under KCC jurisdiction.
KCC guidelines set last November state that gas service companies cannot shut off service until after
March 15 and should set up a payment schedule allowing delinquent customers to pay a minimum of 25 percent of their bill during the current billing period, or $30, whichever is less.
Clark said that KPS had not shut off any service since November and that the Lawrence Warm Hearts program will be able to help customers for those unable to pay their gas bills.
THE WARM HEARTS program raised money to assist people with heating bills through donations:
Clark said he didn't think the commission should adopt a no shut-off policy without strict guidelines, because some people to advantage of it.
The commission also accepted the resignation of Clark from the Downtown Improvement Committee and appointed Shontz in his place.
Commissioners announced that tomorrow's presentation of downtown redevelopment plans by Sizeler Realty Co Inc. would be moved from the Lawrence Public Library to the City Commission meeting room, which was made so the 7 p.m. program could be broadcast on local cable television.
Farmers dislike crop program
By KIESA ASCUE Staff Writer
The payment-in-kind grain program will hurt Kansas farmers more than it will help them, agriculture officials said yesterday.
"It's not going to make a single dime for any farmer in this area," said Dale Lyon, former president of the Kansas Farmers Union. "The government's not really thinking about raising farmers' incomes. It's thinking about lowering federal expenditures."
UNDER THE new program's guidelines, farmers will be paid in grain surpluses to leave 10 to 30 percent of their farm land idle.
"Originally, farm programs made things better for the rural economy." Lyon said. "This program's designed to cut losses to the federal government and reduce the federal stock of grain."
Farmers begin signing up for the payment-in-kind crop reduction program yesterday. Sign-up will continue until March 11.
Agriculture officials said they
expected the program to idle about 238 million acres of [arm land this year
The federal administration hopes the program will save the government from $ 2 billion to $ 5 billion in price increases. The program also costs during the next two fiscal years.
However, the program will not help farmers struggling to keep their farms and make their interest pay off. This is because the lack of the Kansas Farmers Union, said.
"It DOESN'T deal with the immediate problem of low grain prices that you put farmers in a financial bind," he said. "In a couple of years, it might make prices better, but we have a lot of patrons who won't last another year."
Lyon said most Kansas farmers already had planted their wheat. To be eligible for the program, they would have to destroy the acres they planted and lose the most spent on labor, planting and fertilizers.
"I don't think there will be much compliance in Kansas," Lyon said. "It doesn't make any sense to me to eat, wheat that's already been planted."
corn, grain sorghum, cotton or rice can participate in the program.
Only farmers who grow wheat.
Grain received from the government through the program can be sold, held for better prices or used as livestock feed. Lyon said he anticipated a glut in the market because participants would receive the grain at harvest time, when other farmers were selling their grain.
HARLAND PRIDDLE, Kansas secretary of agriculture, has called the program "gutsy" and "innovative." He predicted when Reagan first announced the program that Kansas farmers would participate in it.
"The PIK program is the result of not having good farming programs here for several years." Wyatt said. "At least the government recognizes that we have too much grain on hand and we have to do something about it."
The payment-in-kind program follows the federal government's reduced-acreage program that went into effect last year.
PARTICIPANTS MUST keep. 20 percent of their land idle to receive loans based on the anticipated yield of their farms.
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