PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1940
As The Kansan Sees It . . .
Congress Will Soon Vote On Tax Hike And Veterans $90 Old Age Pensions
Although several members walked out before the vote was taken, the house veterans' committee Tuesday approved a bill to pay old age pensions of $90 a month, at the age of 65, to all veterans of World War I and II.
-
This bill, which will undoubtedly prove the most controversial bill reported to the house so far this session, is a compromise of a previous bill proposed by committee chairman John E. Rankin (D.-Miss.) It was Rankin's "dictatorial methods" that caused the six members to walk out.
Although the administration opposes this measure, it is considered likely that it will pass when it comes to a house vote.
The Veterans administration said the compromise bill would cost $125,900,000 to start with, with the cost rising slowly for many years.
Meanwhile, another representative, speaker of the house Sam Rayburn, following a conference with the president, said that "in all probability" congress will have to increase taxes this year to keep the government out of the red.
Rayburn made the remark to clean up any doubt that major tax legislation would be taken up this year. Some informed sources had believed that the coolness of certain Democratic congressmen to tax boosts and the priority given to social security legislation, had spelled the doom of tax legislation this year.
Rayburn said it was the president's own idea that social security comes before taxes.
The president has asked congress to approve a 4 billion dollar general income tax increase to avoid a deficit and to make a payment on the 252 billion national debt.
Proposed Kansas Drivers License Law
Two major changes in the present drivers' license law may become law soon if the legislature approves a bill introduced in the house the past week by Rep. Walter McGinnis of Eldorado.
The bill would require every driver seeking a license for the first time to be examined by the state highway patrol. Included in the bill is a proposal requiring physical and mental examinations of every driver who had an accident in the past two years in which the damages were $100 or more, or in which a person was injured.
Examinations would also be required of persons whose licenses have been revoked or suspended, who have physical defects, or who have been convicted of traffic law violations.
One clause of the bill would permit a license holder to receive a new license automatically if he had not had an accident.
By the passage of such a law, which has long been overdue, Kansas will have standards similar to
22 other states. If such a law is properly enforced, the number of traffic deaths, which numbered 486 in the state the past year, should be noticeably reduced.
About 35,000 drivers were involved in accidents the past year. Of this number, the state revoked 978 licenses and suspended 546.
At present, all one has to do in Kansas to get a driver's license is to pay 40 cents every two years. In the new proposal there is a provision which will increase the cost of an operator's license to $2 and a chauffeur's license from $1 to $5. The increase will allow employment of more examinating officers.
The past year there were 923,397 drivers with operator's licenses and 119,476 persons with chauffeur's licenses.
If Representative McGinnis' bill becomes lay, it will, of course, be impossible to examine every person immediately. But it will be a step in the right direction.
Leonard Snyder
Scientists Call For Charter Of Rights
The house un-American activities committee and all congressional investigating groups received another going over this week. Six leading scientists addressed a statement to Vice-president Alben W. Barkley and House Speaker Sam Rayburn in which they urged congress to set up "a minimum charter of rights" for persons under congressional investigation.
They specifically cited the case of Dr. Edward U. Condon, atomic scientist. The scientist claims he was "tried by newspaper" because the congressional committee failed to observe the elementary rules of fair play which protect an individual's rights in all other procedure under our system of justice.
They also blame the papers, and rightly so, for giving the committee's "reckless, vague and unsupported" charges more space than the testimony in Condon's defense by "distinguished and responsible individuals."
The fact that Condon repeatedly asked for, but never received, a chance to answer in person the charge of disloyalty, but was later approved by the atomic energy commission for access to top secret information, is a sad commentary on what we call democracy.
Something certainly must be done to prevent a citizen's good name from being ruined through the hurling of discriminate charges under privileged conditions before publicity seeking congressional committees.
Topeka, Kan., Feb. 15—(U.P.) Ten Kansas counties went through 1948 without a traffic fatality, the state highway commission safety department reported today
10 Counties Record No Traffic Deaths
They were Cheyenne, Comanche,
Graham, Mende, Mitchell, Osage,
Rawlings, Rush, Stafford, and Stanton.
Member of the Kansas Press Assn,
National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily
Press Assn., and the Associated Collegiate
Press, Represented by the National Ad-
vertising Service.420 Madison Ave., New
York City.
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Stanton county listed only three persons injured during the year. In the statewide total of 486 injuries lost in traffic or Seat City, 251 wrecked vehicles high with 30 fatalities, followed by Wyandotte with 25, and Shawnee with 18.
University Daily Kansan
Eleven counties recorded 10 or more accidental deaths on roads and streets.
Editor-in-Chief ... Anne Murphy
Managing Editor ... Bill P. Mayer
Admin ... Monica R. Moyer
Asst. Man. Editor ... Richard D. Barton
City Editor ... Nora Temple
Sports Editor ... Marvin Rowlands
Adm. Patricia F. Hancock
Society Editor ... Nasomi Reddoch
Dear Editor
Hauling out my tried, true, and trusty slide rule, I find that by making a conservative estimate of 8,000 students on the hill, and further that by dividing that number into $1,200, each student would be out less than the price of a pack of "coffin nails" (cigarettes to the more crudite.)
Dear Editor:
So whatcha say gang-LET'S GET BEHIND THIS TEMPLIN HALL FIRE FUND AND PUT IT OVER BIG. Let's sacrifice a few fags for the girls that were smoked out.
Business Manager Don Welch
Manager Chance Meyer
Nat'l Adv. Mgr Bob Bolitho
Circulation Mgr Dean Knuth
William H. Wilhelm
Promotion Mgr Ira Gissen
Jack Stines,
Editor's Note: You're right Jack, 15 cents does not seem like much for such a worthy cause.
Doctors Will Study Atomic Medicine For Use If The World Goes Mad
New York-(UP)-America's physicians are preparing for an atomic war, one that might bring tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
One bomb, for instance, would cause 100,000 casualties, the office of civil defense estimates. It is the plan now to establish a medical organization, and according to the magazine, Medical Economics, the nation's civilian doctors soon will be receiv- $ \textcircled{4} $ ing courses in atomic medicine.
Under the O.C.D. plan, physicians would be formed into flying squads of medical and auxiliary personnel that would be sent swiftly to points of civilian disaster.
Dr. Perrin H. Long, medica consultant for the office of civil defense, believes that in an A-bomb disaster, about 5,000 doctors and 60,000 supporting medical personnel would be needed. In one city, he said, 300 first-aid teams, 500 stretcher-bearer teams, 400 casualty collection points would be required within 24 hours.
There has been recent discussion whether it would be safe for rescue teams to enter an area bombed by an atomic explosion. The feeling is that a bomb exploded in the air might not result in dangerous residue radiation, but that an under water explosion would send a spray of radioactive water over a city, such as Buffalo,
Medical Economics believes the squads should be organized now and begin rehearsing their jobs "at dry runs or on training maneuvers."
In commenting on the expected 100,000 casualties in one A-bomb explosion, the magazine said 40,000 would be fatalities, half instantly and half within a week.
Of the 60,000 wounded, one-third would need extensive care within a week; one-third would require extensive care within three weeks; one-third would need lesser care in the same period.
Chicago, San Francisco, or New York, and make it uninhabitable for many weeks.
Seeing An Elephant Was No Hallucination
Corsicaien, Texas—(UP)—Rosie, a wayward elephant, is missing the good home that she found in Pete O'Daniel's barn recently.
Mr. O'Daniel said he didn't know whether he was dreaming or not when he walked into the barn and found the 9,000-pound pachyderm munching hay. And, being a man who has never had any delusions, he quickly set about studying the realities of the situation.
He said that Rosie, "A very cold and little nervous elephant" had eaten 5 bales of hay, 50 pounds of salt and a 5-gallon water cooler.
Her owner took her away in a trailer, but only after he failed in peddling the ponderous pet to Mr. O'Daniel.
"At first I thought it was a lost Republican," he said after things had returned to normal.
Thieves Hit Policeman's Ball
Nowata, Okla. — (U,P) — A policeman's ball at Coffeyville, cost Bill Kelton of Nowata $100, plus his admission fee. While Kelton, with 2,100 other guests and the cops, enjoyed themselves in the ballroom, thieves outside looted Kelton's parked car.
The Department of Speech & Drama Presents
The University Players
in
Bury the Dead
A PLAY OF PEACE AND WAR
TUES., WED., THURS., FRI.
FEB. 22, 23, 24, 25
FRASER THEATRE CURTAIN - 8:00 P.M.
ACTIVITY TICKETS ADMIT!
(all seats reserved)
Ticket Office Basement Green Hall
open daily 9-12, 1-4
WEDN
Ka Me
The cil cor versity lege s counc year's
Con
publica
dul
lution
legiata
Grego
junior
forma-
ment,
and
thinki
Oth counc made vice traine huma
Ne Ad
For Garressees static viou eral engh area.
Pro Prof.
of the grad
in 19
in a
in K.U.
Ric culty
fessor
drafts
ing 1
Richa merci
Const
Mi the I men ance at toda
Has Will
A to b will Kay Mar Mrs. ter.
tenc Shin and
W