Page 2 University Daily Kansan Monday, May 11, 1953
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Farmers Pinched by Profits, Prices
U. S. farmers have been caught in a squeeze. They get less for what they sell and pay almost as much for what they have to buy.
This has put the farm share of the national income below that of 1932. But by prewar standards farm income remains high, and there is no general agricultural depression yet.
Naturally, with decreased prices individual farmers are feeling the pressure. They are the ones who are compelled to case off on buying, and try to maintain a balance.
At this particular time the decrease is felt sharply because farm income has failed to keep pace with rising incomes of other people.
As yet, the prices they must pay for things they buy has not started on the same downward trend.
But these same farmers are honest enough to admit one thing. While they are the first to feel the decrease in commodities sold, they are also the first to receive more money when prices rise.
The real worry is not what has happened to farm prices, but what may happen in the future. The steady decline in real farm income indicates to some that the trend may continue until a general agricultural depression hits.
There are two reasons for the decline—record production volume and a sharp decline in overseas demand for U.S. products. But experts say that
most of last year's production has been sent to market, and an improvement in foreign buying is expected.
As pictured by the government, the farm outlook is that the price situation will grow no worse and easily might improve.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, individuals are worried, but continue to back the present program.
Kansas cattle raisers have the additional worry of lack of water. There have been virtually no runoffs this winter from rainfall and snow to fill the ponds.
As a result, there has been no rush to lease pasture for grazing. In 1952, practically all of the pasture land had been leased in January. But the movement of cattle from Texas and the Southwest has started, and the situation is expected to ease off.
In the March meeting of the livestock association of Kansas, cattlemen gave their whole-hearted support to Ezra Taft Benson, secretary of agriculture, and pledged their support in a resolution.
Some of the agricultural spokesmen have tossed out verbal darts at the secretary, to be sure, but a great majority of them feel that he inherited the problem from the Democratic administration. They also feel that Secretary Benson will get the situation under control with the support of farmers.
-Lorena Barlow
More Knowledge of Medicine Urged
The modern public wants to know what is going on. Partial understanding is accepted reluctantly.
One example of this trend may be found in medicine. Persons are demanding not only to know about, but also to understand new developments, terminology, and methods of the medical profession.
A reason for this demand is the replacing of the old country doctors. The trend toward specialization has put doctors in a somewhat unhappy light as far as patients are concerned.
When a patient registers for a check-up usually he is seen by two or three doctors. The specialist hasn't time to find out exactly what or in which manner, another doctor has told a patient. Modern doctor has told of his "assemble line" production, with all friendly feeling removed.
While there are more and more persons in the medical professions, there also are more and more patients. Agencies set up to fight such diseases as cancer and tuberculosis have made citizens aware of the advantages of regular physical examinations.
Several solutions have been offered to encourage better understanding between doctors and patients.
Doctors have advised patients to
jot down questions. This metha saves time and better satisfies the patient. Today's specialist can't take time to discuss the weather, symptoms, or Aunt Hattie's nervous stomach in the "over the back fence" style of country doctors.
Questions aid both. The patient gets written answers to his questions. The doctor tells the patient what he wants to know.
Another portion of this solution is up to the individuals themselves, who must try to understand the modernization of medicine. Looking up terms and studying new developments will aid the relationship between doctors and laymen.
A third answer is more thorough and careful reporting of medical news. More and more newspapers are carrying informative columns written by doctors. In addition, those in the communications field are more aware of a duty in reporting such news. This is exemplified by stories of the Brodie Siamese twins severance, new uses of blood in production of gamma globulin, and new hope for cancer cures.
The complete answer seems to be a combination of efforts on the part of both laymen and the profession. —Lonnie Barlow.
Kansas-Nebraska Measure Changed U.S. 99 Years Ago
Ninety-nine years ago, on May 30, Congress passed a bill providing for two new states. In addition, the Kansas-Nebraska bill was responsible for several other things.
The territory had been involved in the bitter sectional issue over the extension of slavery and the location of a transcontinental railroad.
Chicagouans demanded that the eastern railroad terminal be located
in their city, while Southern expansionists were equally insistent on a Southern route. The proslavery men of Missouri also were influenced, since the road might possibly have its terminus in St. Louis.
POGO
Under no circumstances, however, did they want a free territory west of Missouri. Because the West was expanding so rapidly, territorial organization no longer could be postponed.
Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Senate committee on territories, decided to offer territorial legislation making concessions to the South. Hence the bill he reported in January, 1854, contained the provision that the question of slavery should be left to the decision of the territorial settlers themselves. This was the famous principle that Douglas called "popular sovereignty."
In its final form, Douglas's bill provided for the creation of two new territories—Kansas and Nebraska—instead of one. The obvious inference, at least to Missourians, was that the first would be slave, and the second free.
The bill flatly contradicted the provisions of the Missouri compromise of 1820-21, under which slavery would have been barred from both territories.
That aspect of the bill enraged the antislavery forces in particular, but after three months of bitter debate in Congress, Douglas, backed by President Franklin Pierce and the Southerners, saw it adopted.
Its effects were anything but reassuring to those who had hoped for a peaceful solution. The squatter-sovereigly provision caused both proslavery and antislavery forces to marshal strength and exert full pressure to determine the "popular"
Little Man on Campus
by Dick Bibler
"But professor Snarf, aren't you checking out books your class will need to study before finals?"
Business-Backed Measure Seeks Cut to Federal Works
But the bill goes further to state that any activities of government which violate the intent and purposes of this amendment shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of the amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected sold.
House joint resolution 123, the proposed amendment was introduced in January. The resolution would prohibit the United States government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.
The American public hasn't heard much about the proposed 23rd amendment to the Constitution yet. But it's almost a certainty that it will soon be subjected to quite a campaign for passage, at the expense of government. ___
Specifically it states, "The government of the United States shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial, or industrial enterprise except as specified in the Constitution."
This, of course, is a far-reaching statement that would affect such government sponsored projects as the Tennessee Valley authority.
Already a big force is backing the bill and boosting its passage. Most of the activity is coming from the West Coast area right now in the strength of the American Progress foundation, mentioned as a California non-profit corporation.
The board of directors of the corporation reads like a list of big-time business men in California. There's George A. Starbird, chairman, president of the Meletron corporation, and Arthur W. Cozad, president of the Safety Escrow corporation, and so on.
Supporters are calling the bill a "powerful legal instrument which can re-establish constitutional protection for our economic freedom."
And they're certainly right. If the bill ever becomes part of the Constitution, American businessmen would have the field to themselves for sure. What's more, they would have vast programs, already operating, at their disposal.
Backers of the bill got their orig-
decision in Kansas in their own favor. The result was the tragedy of "bleeding" Kansas.
Lorena Barlow
Northerners and Southerners were aroused to such passions that sectional division reached a point that precluded reconciliation. A new political organization, the Republican party, was founded by opponents of the bill, and the U.S. hurried on toward the Civil War.
With the first hearings set for May, the Progress foundation is aiming for 400 vocational groups to participate in these hearings.
inal support from civil leaders in the Los Angeles area by asking for money. Now they are expanding the program, and with it, are needing more money. That's where the publicity is beginning to come in.
This group has a long way to go in getting the bill out of committee, through both houses of Congress, and passed by three-fourths of the state legislatures, but it's starting fast and is working hard.
—Clarke Keys
Editor, Daily Kansan:
Council Member Praises Editorial
Hoorah for Tom Stewart and the Daily Kansan.
I quote from Wednesday's Daily Kansan, "There's nothing wrong with student government on this campus that couldn't be remedied if the present student body were removed for a new one."
The newly reorganized Council is primarily designed to represent students more adequately and to serve them better. The new Council makes it possible for more students to take an active interest in student government.
It is the hope of many members now serving on the Council and members previously serving on the Council that we may have in time a student government body that receives the praise that it deserves
Of course the ASC is not all that it could be, but it will improve very little if students do not realize that it is up to them to be interested in to cease insignificant criticism and instead offer constructive criticism.
To have a truly powerful ASC for the students, the student body must be interested as they should be and not critical as they are able.
engineering junior
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Office under act of March 3. 1879.