University Daily Kansan
Page 2
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1956.
Legislature Avoids Revenue Measures
Last week, the Kansas Senate killed a proposal for submission of a constitutional amendment legalizing pari-mutuel betting.
According to Sen, Burton Lohmuller (R-Centralia), co-author of the bill, the expected revenue from such a measure would amount to about $5 million annually. He added that "the constituents in my district are fed up with constantly increasing taxes on personal and real property. It behooves us to look for new sources of state income."
As one who would be affected by the proposed 50 percent increase in state taxes on personal income, this writer thinks the legislators should very definitely look for new sources of state income.
The Kansas Legislature also has killed for another two or three years a severance tax on oil production—which they have been doing for the past 20 years.
In these two actions the Legislature has passed up two excellent sources of income. Regardless of whether you're for or against gambling, there is a pile of cash to be made from taxes on legalized gambling. Look at the towns of Reno and Las Vegas, Nev. They and the state receive millions every year from legalized gambling.
With Kansas a leading oil-producing state, and with great influence over their legislators, the oil producers continue to reap large amounts of money which is not taxed by the state—but which could be.
The Kansas legislators had better begin to look for new sources of income for the state. An increase on personal income tax as proposed by Gov. Fred Hall certainly will not sit too well with the taxpayer. And an unhappy taxpayer during election time is a hard guy to persuade to vote for you.
Used Books - The Problem's Universal
—Sam L. Jones
Students continue to complain over semester book purchases.
Chief among the points of student contention:
1. The University Co-Op doesn't pay enough for second-hand books.
2. Sometimes (when there is no market) the Co-Op won't repurchase books at all.
3. Too frequently, books purchased at the Co-Op are never used in a designated course.
The present Co-Op policy is to purchase used books at 50 per cent of the publisher's list and resell at 60 per cent. Co-Op officials say the $16^{2}$ margin is necessary for operation.
Unsaleable books—those obsolete or obsolescent—are repurchased by the Co-Op at market price, less 10 per cent for packing and freight.
University professors tell the Co-Op what books should be stocked in particular courses.
Unfortunately, far too many professors place books on the Co-Op list which are either not used at all or are used sparingly.
It must be realized that this is a state university, where many pocketbooks are slim, and unnecessary book-buying offers serious handicaps to narrow budgets.
We would suggest that only those books absolutely essential to a course be placed on the purchase list. Others should be reserved in the Library, in sufficient quantity for convenient student use.
In the meantime, because the Co-Op is a student enterprise, and because student complaints still persist, a student government study of Co-Op book practices and professional policies seems fully warranted.
(Editor's note: Et tu, Texas.)
... Letters
Editor:
Because I, too, realize the gravity of the problem of segregation which has "plagued" our country for so long. I felt that it was my duty to answer, or to in effect, refute, the article which you edited in a recent Daily Kansan.
Firstly, I must say that I have heard the decision made by the Supreme Court to which you referred, being labeled as everything from "the most significant impact made upon the lives of the American people since the Constitution itself," to just plain "revolutionary," but you are the first person I've heard of who found reason to label this decision made by the highest court in the land, legally declaring unconstitutional segregation in all public schools, as "frugal." Evidently you failed to grasp the real significance of the court's decision.
Do Not Consult Declaration
validity of the above moral judgments, and their connection with a classless society, and the fact that some men will always "rise above the multitude." Here you reached the height of your absurdities, for the man who rises above the multitude may very well change his economic, political, or social standing, but he certainly doesn't change his color. So, what does that fact have to do with the fact that some people in America are segregated because of their race?
I hope that you, Mr. Jones, are note being so ridiculous as to think that either the Supreme Court, the Interstate Commerce Commission, or the N.A.A.C.P. are trying to outlaw those tendencies toward segregation that may exist in the minds of people. If this is a target of their actions, it certainly is an indirect target. The main target, I think, of their action is the legal structures that support or give rise to segregation practices. The tendencies toward segregation that exist in people's minds, which you seem to define as a reluctance by all but a few people to mingle, marry, and have business associations with "a so-called 'racially inferior' or 'unacceptable' race" may be an "inescapable facet of American democracy, but I am sure that any thinking person can readily see, that to assume that a segregation of a people based upon the assumption that they were created unequal and have no inalienable rights is or can possibly be an integral part of any democracy, is absurd, and that any democratic government which condones such practices is nourishing an infirmity that will inevitably lead to its own death or destruction. History tells us, Mr. Jones, that equality in man is an ardent passion, and any man or power seeking to deny it will be destroyed or overthrown by it.
problem? Is not the doctrine of "separate but equal" schools such an adjustment? Why not wake up and look the problem square in the face and make an attempt to work toward a sensible solution to it yourself, Mr. Jones, instead of congratulating your parents for being unable to solve it and then in turn passing it on to rest upon the shoulders of your children? It isn't the KKK that retards desegregation, but good loyal American citizens like yourself, who are continuously seeking the line of least resistance—the comfortable adjustment to a problem that is by its very nature unadjustable.
Moral Judgments Included
Only when people realize that one will give up his freedom, even his life, rather than suffer the constant indignations of inequality, will this change. Will it result in will a solution profitable and favorable to all Americans be reached?
And finally, you spoke of your faith in the fact that there will be no end, but an adjustment to segregation. But hasn't the history of the world and of the United States proved that there can be no adjustments for freedom and equality? Have not the majority of our government's efforts to solve the segregation or race problems prior to 1954 been nothing more than a series of unsuccessful adjustments to the
No Adjustment For Freedom
Also, Mr. Jones, at some time convenient to yourself, I would appreciate your explaining to me the connection between the validity or into 1955, Rodell. Random House,
New York.
Donald R. Hopkins
Secondly, I'm afraid you fail likewise to realize that anti-segregation leaders do not run to their copies of the Declaration of Independence seeking verification of the fact "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights; that mong these are . . . etc." It seems, on the contrary, as though everyone but you, Mr. Jones, realizes that the Declaration of Independence doesn't dogmatically assert that these statements are true, (as you for some unfounded reasons assert that their antithesis was true) but instead only assumes them to be true, and states that they, the writers, felt these "truths to be self-evident." And even though you have (just as have most of the people whom you have called "old time southerners with outmoded minds") found reason to disagree with these moral judgments or even though you have not found these truths to be "self-evident," those of us who still have faith in and appreciate the benefits of our American democracy are thankful that our forefathers had enough faith in these same principles to found a government, based on the proposition, that they are true.
..Oh Well..
Kansas City, Kan. sophomore
The southernmost U.S. town is Florida City, Fla.; the northernmost, Penasse, Minn.
Bv JON
This column of cataclysmic nothingness will not be assigned reading in any course on The Hill . . . You will gain nothing from reading it except the dirty taste of a motorman's glove and the unanswerable question: Why did I do it?
Apology Department: As if that were not enough, this mass of mutilated musings on meaningless masterpieces of morbid malfeasance hovers in the air doing nothing but emitting a horrible stench.
And to top it all off, no one is just exactly sure how that mechanical clunker can digest all those names and numbers without taking on a severe case of nuts-and-bolts disorder in the intestinal tract.
So let's clear up that point first.
To be truthful, there's really no reason why you should read this stuff . . . Unless maybe you hate your mother. (Which reminds me, one of these days we must get together for a real hate session in these columns . . . To do this, a right frame of mind is essential so that one can go into a prolonged period of nothing but feelings of hate . . . But more about that later.)
This is one of those messy times of year when things are all fouled up . . . Second semester freshmen are still trying to find the right door to get to the right end of Strong Hall and find the right number . . . Eager Beavers are trying to get an early jump on the professors and discover just how much—or how little—can be done in the weeks ahead . . . Fee-payment dates still lie ahead and strike an unholy fear into weak hearts . . . And pocketbooks.
And so with these jolly words of introduction—me to you and you to this miscarriage of the journalist's creed—we shall part for the present
Thoughts Department: Before bowing out, it behooves me to pen these words ("pen these words" is a phrase that doesn't mean a darn thing):
By reading this column, you have left yourself open to criticism and perhaps an outward condemnation of your intelligence. But be my guest, read on, and we'll go through life hating the world together.
Oh well . .
here's A 'Why Don't They'
ANTRIM, N.H.—(U.P.)—The latest aid for the do-it-yourself crowd is three-cornered putty. Made by the Goodell Co. here, the putty is packed in a tube with a triangular mouth. Squeeze it and out comes a long strip just the right shape for that space between glass and sash.
Three-fourths of the students attending the University of Illinois earn part of their expenses.
Book Review High Court Isn't Checked
Nine Men—A Political History of the Supreme Court from 1790
New York
The United States Supreme Court has been looked upon by most of us, ever since we first absorbed any working knowledge of our national government, as that unified body which acts as a check upon the other two branches of the government as they in turn act as checks on it and themselves. This is supposed to provide balance of government.
It is a group which because of its black robes, secret sessions, and deliverance of written decisions, has been held in reverence and placed somewhat above politics and other corruptible but necessary elements of government.
In the book "Nine Men" by Free Rodell this assumption which is held by citizens, lawyers, historians, and often the Justices themselves is abruptly punctured—not with slow leaks here and there but under the drastic but entirely logical pen of Mr. Rodell, collapses with a loud gasp.
An unprepared reader who assumes the book to be only another legalistic thesis on the Supreme Court is left open moulted.
The theory of checks and balances is the first to succumb as the "Court" is elevated supreme over all; powerful and irresponsible; subject to no check either by Congress or on the one more powerful than the Kremlin; subject not even to election. As Mr. Rodell put it.
" . . The Court stands supreme over Presidents, governors, state legislatures, administrators, lesser judges, mayors, city councils, and dog catchers—with none to say it nay."
These nine men are not above politics or pressures, and Mr. Rodell suggests that more often than not each decision rendered by the Court was politically influenced, with political action desired, and had far reaching political consequences.
Secondly, Mr. Rodell tears apart the assumption of unification—the "Court" or the "Court has decided." It is not a unified machine supplying automatic answers to the cases brought before it but it is a collection of nine different human beings whose opinions and prejudices are not left behind when they put on their robes.
In short, Mr. Rodell's book is one grand editorial upon the Supreme Court calling not for condemnation nor approval but for a different point of view, a new basis on which to judge all future Court actions.
Daily Transan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, become bweekly 1904,
published monthly 1920.
Telephone Vlking 3-2700 Extension 251, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association;
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented
Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave.,
Madison, IL; service: United Press. Mail subscription
rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published
in Lawrence, Knm., every afternoon.
Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays,
and examination periods. Entered as
second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at
the post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Dee Richards
Marion McCoy ... Managing Editor
Larry Heil, John McMillon, Harry Elliott, Jane Pecinovsky, Assistant Managing Editors; Barbara Bell, City Editor; Telegraph Editor; David Webb, Telegraph Editor; Daryl Hall, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Ann Kelly, Society Editor; Fleecon Fenberg, Assistant Society Editor; Kent Thomas, Sports Editor; Bob Lyle, Assistant Sports Editor; John Stephens,
NEWS DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Jim Wiens Business Manager David Cleveland, Advertising Manager; Dick Hunter, National Advertising Manager; Griffith, Circulation Manager; Walt Bardett, Classified Advertising Manager; Clifford Meyer, Promotion Manager.
Sam Jones  Editorial Editor
Dick Walt, Associate Editor.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
by Dick Bibler
"YEAH?- WELL YOU SHOULDA SMELLED THIS LOCKER ROOM BEFORE YOU."