Page 2
University Daily Kansan Thursday, Sept. 16, 1954
Key Races Will Determine November Election Results
No matter how you look at it the signs point to an extremely close November battle for party control of the Senate in the next two years of the Eisenhower administration.
Politicians of both parties are much less positive in their private forecasts about the complexion of the Senate than they are about the alignment in the House of Representatives.
The Senate is now divided 48 Republicans, 47 Democrats and one Independent, Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon. Sen. Morse has already announced that he will vote with the Democrats on organization of the Senate next year, which means that if the Democrats can come up with a net gain of one seat they will control the Senate and its committees, which will consider the legislation proposed by a Republican in the White House.
The mathematics of the situation would seem to favor the Republicans because of the 37 contests this year,22 are for seats held by Democrats and 15 for seats held by Republicans.
It appears that the one issue which will go farthest in determining the outcome of the election is whether the Eisenhower administration has gained, lost or held its own in popularity in the last two years.
Despite the fact that President Eisenhower was able to personally crack the "Solid South" and take away the electoral votes of Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia two years ago, the Republicans do not have a ghost of a chance this year to win any Senate seats in the area. In many of the Southern states the GOP will not provide even token opposition to incumbent Senators.
Republican dominance in Maine, New Hampshire, Nebraska and South Dakota is normally like that of the Democrats in the South.
What this means is that control of the Senate will be decided not in all the 34 states having the 37 races (there are two races each in New Hampshire, North Carolina and Nebraska) but in about a dozen crucial states where one party or the other thinks it has a good chance to gain ground.
Democratic and Republican leaders agree pretty well about the battleground states.
well about the battleground state. A month and a half in advance of the election no party leader is willing to concede the loss of even one seat, but wise politicians, talking privately, are willing to write down light-penciled question marks when they are candid discussion of a state-by-state list of the toughest Senate races.
The Republicans contend, for example, that they have good chances to pick up a seat each in Illinois, Ohio and Delaware and fair to good chances in Iowa, Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico.
The Democrats, on the other hand, see their best
chances of gains in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Wyoming, with only fair prospects in Massachusetts, Oregon, and California.
The Democrats agree that they are in for a tough fight in Illinois, where Sen. Paul Douglas seeks re-election against Joseph T. Meek, who got a helping hand from President Eisenhower.
The Democrats have no illusions that it will be easy for Sen. Thomas Burke of Ohio to retain the seat to which he was appointed after the death of Sen. Robert Taft. The challenger for the Burke seat is an old Taft lieutenant, Rep. George H. Bender.
The Republicans are well aware that Sen. John Sherman Cooper is in the race of his life in normally Democratic Kentucky, where the Democratic standard bearer is former Vice President Alben W. Barkley.
Two Republican Senators believed to be in trouble several weeks ago are confident their situation has improved materially in recent weeks. Sen. Homer Ferguson of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy committee, faced a genuinely difficult race for re-election when his opponent appeared likely to be former Sen. Blair Moody. Mr. Moody died suddenly during the primary campaign, however, and the Democratic nomination went by default to Patrick V. McNamara, who is little known and who should not provide tough competition for Sen. Ferguson.
provide tough support Sen. Henry Dworshak, Idaho Republican, also profited by the outcome of a fierce Democratic primary to decide his opponent in November. Democratic leaders in the state united behind Claude Burtenshaw, a college professor. However, the nomination went instead to Glen Taylor, the singing cowboy who is a former Senator and who, in 1948, ran for Vice President on the Progressive party ticket headed by Henry A. Wallace. Even the Democrats have taken the Idaho race out of the doubtful column as a result of the Taylor nomination.
In general, the prospects are that, while the Republicans may pick up a seat in one state, the Democrats may erase this gain in another state. It would be surprising if either party showed a net gain of more than two or three seats.
In the House of Representatives the lineup is 219 Republicans, 213 Democrats and one Independent, with two vacancies in safe Democratic districts. Managers of both parties think that the keys to victory lie in 85 marginal districts (40 held by Republicans, 45 by Democrats) which were won in 1952 by less than 5 per cent of the vote.
Court Ernst
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"Oh, heck no—my mattress says."
Twenty-nine cents out of every dollar you pay for an automobile goes for taxes.
Daily Hansam UNIVERSITY
Member of the Kansas Press association,
National Editorial association, Inland
Daily Press association, Associated College-
ligate Press association, Associated Post-
press association, Missing service, 420 Madison avenue, N.Y. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year (add $1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published at Lawrence, Kan., every except Saturday and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Entered as second class matter, Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of 1896.
University of Kansas Student Newspaper
News Room, KU 251 Ad Room, KU 376
NEWS STAFF
Executive Editor...Stan Hamilton
Elizabeth
News Editor...Amy DeYong
Asst. News Editor...Ron Grandon
Sports Editor...Jack Lindberg
Asst. Sports Editor...Lion Lowry
Education...Nancy Neville
Asst. Society Editor...LaVere Yates
News Advisor...Calder M. Pickett
Managing Editors Wolgemuth
Wrong, unenough
Dana Leibengood
Pet Trucker
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editorial Editor Court Ernst
Editorial Assistants Gene Shunk
Karen Kearney
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager ... Dave Riley
Advertising Mgr. .. Audrey Holmes
National Adv. Mgr. ... Martha Chambers
Circulation Mgr. .. Dave Conley
Classified Mgr. .. Ken Winston
Business Adviser .. Gene Brandon
Our Editorial Policy As To Movie Reviews
Motion picture reviews in the Daily Kansan are a thing of the past.
Another point which many people seem to forget or ignore is that we don't review such things with any malicious intent. We try to be fair, and not only criticize what we feel is bad but praise just as strongly what we feel is good. Looking over copies of the Kansan over the past year, one could hardly say we approached such reviews with any intent to treat them unfavorably. For example, we devoted quite a lot of space last year to the development of CinemaScope and followed it up with abundant coverage of its debut in Lawrence. On many other occasions, we have devoted quite a lot of space to praising the motion pictures we felt were outstanding. What this all amounts to is the fact that we gave the Lawrence theaters a lot of free publicity. Our coverage of films which we praised highly was at least equal to the amount of unfavorable criticism which we printed, if it didn't exceed it.
On numerous occasions in the past we have argued and debated what we considered our privilege of "fair comment and criticism" regarding reviews of motion pictures, plays, musical events, etc., so there is no need to reaffirm our position again now. This is a right freely exercised by newspapers and one we feel cannot be questioned, or should not be. And we don't see how anyone can ignore the point that in reviewing movies with any regularity and any intelligence, unfavorable reviews are bound to be fairly common. There just aren't that many really good pictures.
In determining editorial policy for the next eight weeks, we have decided on a "hands off" policy on this matter. The reason for this decision lies in the amount of unfavorable criticism we have received in the past concerning our reviews. Not only have we received criticism, but there have been cases of Lawrence theaters cutting their advertising in the Kansan because of their ire over some of our comments.
A review of any type such as this is no more than one person's opinion, and that person's name is always printed along with the review, be it good or bad. For this reason we often feel that people who criticize our reviews are, in many cases, trying to make more out of something than is really there or than we intended.
The problem of reviewing is constantly before us and we spend many long hours making decisions on how to handle them. Maybe we're letting our pride get in the way, but we prefer to drop movie reviews completely rather than be so naive as to print only the things which are favorable. There is little if anything in our world which is above criticism, ourselves included. However, we have chosen to ignore movie reviews completely in preference to adopting an unrealistic attitude that every movie is worthy of praise. We made this decision somewhat reluctantly, for we feel that in so doing we will be ignoring one of the important functions of a newspaper and one of its services to its readers. But it's just not worth all the heated criticism and indignant attitudes to attempt to carry out the policy we've had in the past.
Don't get the idea we're concealing anything or apologizing for anything. We aren't. We still feel we were fair and within our rights at all times. It's just that no one likes to continue beating his head against a stone wall indefinitely. Even though he's convinced he's right, it becomes apparent it isn't worth all that and he's simply throws in the towel.
—Court Ernst
It's a good thing there are a few days between the end of rush week and the start of classes so everyone can recuperate.
Don't believe that summer is really over and fall here. Be wise and start regular applications of suntan oil now in preparation for those blistering Saturday afternoons in Memorial stadium.