PAGE EIGHT
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1950
The Editors Report一
PAY AS YOU DRIVE
Toll Highways
by James Page
Post war road building is being welcomed by a public that has waited patiently for better highways. After the long war years when scarcity of men, materials, and funds, had allowed the highways to deteriorate alarmingly, the present attempt to ameliorate road conditions is very gratifying.
The fact remains however, that the state and federal program to build roads, despite honest and sincere efforts of legislatures and contractors, is moving too slowly to stay ahead of the deteriorating factors that tear down the highways, and is not keeping up with the demand for good roads.
The tremendous increase of freight hauling, not to mention the skyrocketing numbers of owners of private automobiles in this post war period, have increased the need for more and better highways. State funds are simply not sufficient to answer the increasing necessity of new highways.
We think this situation might be answered by reversing the present trend of government helping private business. Why not allow corporations, or some such unit of private enterprise, to take over the ownership, construction, and maintenance of new highways? In these times, that sounds pretty radical, but under certain conditions, we believe that the results would benefit everyone.
For example, a federal-state board might be set up. This board would pass on the desirability of the proposed roads, and would plan their routes. Then bids would be accepted from anyone wishing to undertake construction. Contractors would probably be financed by large investment banks and insurance companies, looking for an investment.
As to the incentive for the investment, the federal-state board should establish a toll system to be managed by the construction firm. The board should have the power to set the maximum toll charge.
Also, this board should establish a maximum on investment return. After the investment and a fair rate of profit, say 8 to 10 per cent, had been achieved, the highways would then be taken over by the state, reverting to public ownership, and the toll charges would be removed.
Certain points in this plan would have to be ironed out, such as the entrance of side roads and charging tolls for short distances, but we do not believe that these problems would be insurmountable.
Another factor in favor of its adoption, would be that the cost of highways would be paid for, to a great extent, by the portion of the public which puts the system to the greatest use.
Justify Means?
DOES THE END
The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the non-Communist oath provided for in the Taft-Hartley Act. How difficult are the problems involved is reflected by the justices' divisions on the decision and diversities in opinion. It is a ruling, also, which reveals a greater concern with the urgencies of today than with the more far-reaching implications for tomorrow.
There is little doubt that the Communists long ago set out deliberately to gain control, in particular, of unions which could make trouble in event of war. Nobody knows this better than the American unionist, and nobody has more vigorously and effectively fought them.
That Congress has power under the Constitution to counter such labor sabotage has been little disputed, even by the unions bringing the test suits. The fact that Congress gives special protection to the right to organize and to bargain collectively reinforces its right to establish eligibility for those protections.
The real point at issue has been method, not Congress' objectives nor its authority. And the unions which have spearheaded the fight against the non-Communist affidavit have been unions under little or no Communist cloud.
Five of the six justices voting upheld the right of Congress to bar, by the affidavit test, Communists as such from holding office in unions whose bargaining status is recognized by law. But only three of the six held that it is constitutional to go a step further (as the law does) and require these officials to declare their beliefs (that they do not believe in the overthrow of the government by unconstitutional means).
This is a doubt we share. However repulsive the belief, intrusion by law beyond overt acts enters into the realm of thought control. In fact, the whole non-Communist oath device is as dubious here as elsewhere.
The real Communist does not blink at swearing he is not one. The oath unjustly imputes a measure of guilt to most of those singled out to take it.
The problem might be met more forthrightly, at least, by extending the special protections of the law only to unions whose constitutions bar Communists from office—a safeguard which one union after another is setting up on its own anyway—The Christian Science Monitor.
A song has been composed in honor of President Truman. We can hardly wait until it comes out on a Dizzy Gillespie recording.
In a letter appearing in yesterday's paper, a sentence in Miss Stapaules' letter was inadvertently made to read "It is too bad we cannot be judged on the basis of our heritage."
Oops!
This sentence should have been: "It is too bad we cannot be judged on the basis of our abilities rather than on the grounds of our heritage."
One of the leading copper producing areas of the world is the Katanga district of the Belgian Congo and its extension into northern Rhodesia.
University
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James Morris Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief
Doris Greenbank
Managing Editor
Asst. Man. Editors ... Norma Hunsinger
Kay O'Connor
John Hill
Ralph Hemenway
City Editor ... Edward Chapin
Asst. City Editors ... Nelson Ober
Maryton Martins
Elaine Elving
Steve Ferro
Feature Editor ... Francis Kelley
Photograph Editor ... Frankie Waits
Telegraph Editor ... Robert Sigman
William Graves
Richard Tatum
Lloyd Hollow
Sports Editor ... Richard Dlsaver
Asst. Sports Editors ... Bob Leonard
Ray Solidan
Arthur McIntire
Mona Millikin
Society Editor ... Faye Wilkinson
Asst. Society Editors ... Billie Stover
Emily Stewart
Editorial Asssts. ... Keith Leslie
Adv. Mgr. ... Charles Reiner
Cir. Mgr. ... Yvonne Josserman
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AUTO PARTS
and ACCESSORIES
New & Used Parts for All Cars
We Buy Old and Wrecked Cars
- Auto Glass
- Glass Table Tops
Cars
- Mirrors
AUTO WRECKING
AND JUNK CO.
Anderson Will Address One Graduate
Phone 954 712 E.9th
Dr. Kenneth Anderson, assistant professor of education, will give a commencement address to one person on Friday. Francis Rothmier is the only 1950 graduate of Huron high school in Huron, Kan.
Rothmier will deliver the valedictory. C. Eberber, principal, will present the graduate and George Welch, school director, will hand Rothmier his diploma.
This Player Is Plu-Perfect
Alanson, Mich.—(U.P.)—Most cribbage players consider themselves lucky to hold one perfect cribbage hand. Ray Essex can boast of two in a row, which he held in a tournament here.
Patronize Daily Kansan Advertisers
The Editing student in charge of the copy desk for today's Kansasan is Billie Stover, journalism junior.
Popular As The Flowers in May
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