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Tuesday, September 19. 1972
University Daily Kansan
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
McGovern's Old Politics
Since the Democratic National Convention, Sen. George McGovern has deserted, at least temporarily, the new politics. In so doing, McGovern has also left behind the most appealing facet of his campaign, and thus, has declined steadily in popularity.
Before the convention, McGovern was, according to the political commentators, a man who just didn't belong in a presidential race. He didn't have the necessary political finesse. What the commentators (and George too, I fear) overlooked was that this lack of finesse was McGovern's most appealing credential.
Here, at last was a political figure who wasn't a "politician" in the sense that we have come to expect. McGovern, to the dismay of all the political experts, time and time again went on record with very specific proposals and very definite positions. The people came away feeling that they at least knew WHERE McGovern stood on the issues even if they didn't agree with his stand on every issue.
But in the aftermath of the convention—when all the political commentators were asking how George would put together the old Democratic coalition; when he was receiving the icy reception from old pros and big party names—McGovern apparently panicked. He underestimated the importance to his campaign of credibility and decided that the old politics would thrust him into the presidency sooner than the new.
Thus, McGovern became to the public eye a "politician." He began dealing in terms of the youth vote and the labor vote and the Jewish vote and the Catholic vote. He began issuing willy-nilly compromise statements to conciliate the Daley forces and the wives of POWs and MIAs.
He played the turncoat to Sen.
Thomas Eagleton.
McGover destroyed the heroic myth of "McGovern the Trustworthy," and its overwhelming voter appeal. Now he is left with no winning option but to fight dirty, and I sincerely doubt whether anyone can top Nixon at that.
—Robert Ward
Collections Underexposed
Like most universities, the University of Kansas has to deal with a financial situation that allows only budget items of high priority to be considered for extensive funding. Unfortunately, many things that should be funded are pushed aside because they are not considered important enough.
It is not hard to continue operating without granting much money to those items, but it is possible that the University will be hurt in the future because of neglectful attitudes toward them now. One area that has received some attention but not much money is the housing and care of the various collections the University has acquired.
Spooner Art Museum was originally Spooner Library. It was not built to house an art collection. It does not provide the proper environment for some of the older, more fragile paintings and pieces of sculpture the University owns.
Most of the art cannot even be displayed because there is not enough space. KU's boast that it has one of the finest university art collections in the country is a shallow one because most of the collection is in storage. No one but the curator can see it.
Spencer Research Library has collections of papers, rare books, pamphlets, maps and photographs that are available to all students. Although the library does provide a good service to students who use it, there have been problems in cataloguing and displaying collections because there are not enough people to do it.
The University acquired the
O'Hegarty collection, which includes thousands of 19th and 20th century Irish books, pamphlets, papers and photographs, more than ten years ago. It still is being catalogued.
Departments throughout the University also have collections that have been loaned or given to them, and often only a few people even know of their existence. Fewer still ever get to use them. All of these collections were either given to or acquired by the University because it was thought they could be used in research work and as an aid to learning. The prestige that some of these collections can bring to Kansas can only emphasize their value, to this University.
If construction of more buildings to house the art collection and other collections is out of the question because of finances, then perhaps display areas could be built in existing buildings and planned for new buildings. The small gallery in the Union usually has people wandering through it whenever there is a display, so it is likely that similar areas in other buildings would be used and appreciated.
I realize that this would cost money, but the advantage to students of the availability of some of these materials would be worth it. Also, a collector would be more likely to donate his collection to a university that uses and displays his materials than to one that does not. Right now, particularly in the arts, the University of Kansas would not be the best place to donate a collection.
—Mary Ward
NEW YORK (AP)—A state commission has said that Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller should have gone to atlantic state prison before he ordered police storm raids on his own city, which died in 43 persons.
Issued a year after the bloodiest rebellion in American prison history, the report was highly critical of the prison system, officials who planned the attack against the prisoners, and officials who spread false reports of prisoner atrocities.
Attica Report Faults Rockefeller
The riot did not stem from a revolutionary conspiracy, the commission said, but rather a "spontaneous burst of violent anger" by a new breed of prisoners.
The commission acknowledged that Rockefeller had a hard decision, but said he "should not have given up" the forces against the rebels without first appearing on the scene and satisfying himself that there was no other alternative to taking over. The excessive force had been taken."
Those prisoners, it said, are largely black and unwilling to accept the "petty humiliations and racism that characterize prison life." The commission soon stated its minor charges have been made clear the rot, and called the possibility of a recurrence "very real."
AP News Analysis
The nine-member commission, headed by Robert B. McKay, dean of the New York University School of Law, said, however, that the death was not the cause to the prison was not the cause of the deaths and casualties.
There were 29 prisoners and 10 hostages killed in the assault. Three prisoners and a guard had died in the riot,
The commission condemned taking hostages as a means of changing society, "even where peaceful efforts at reform have been
It agreed with Rockefeller that he could not and should not have granted complete amnesty to the hostage, despite the demand. But it said prosecution might have been waived for lesser crimes, such as taking hostages without harming them, or failing to sufficiently explored by either side.
In its 514-page report, the commission said the prisoners rioted because they were caught in an unjust, racist and ineffective prison and criminal justice system.
its instructions to propose a seven-point restructuring of the state's prison system, which it acknowledged would require "far reaching, indeed radical, changes."
"The only way to salvage meaning out of the otherwise senseless killings at Atica is to learn from this experience that our Atticas are failures," the commission said.
In its report, the commission said there was indiscriminate firing by some police who stormed the prison, and that guards and police clubbed and otherwise brutalized many prisoners as they were herded back to their cells.
"The crucial issues remain unresolved, and they will continue unresolved until an aroused demanda something better."
However, the commission found nothing to substantiate rumors that individual prisoners were singled out to be killed by the assault force, or that any were taken away and "executed" after the prison had been retaken.
The commission went beyond
"The assault itself was not carefully planned to minimize the loss of life, it said.
"The choice of weapons and
ammunition was based upon ready availability, not upon the logic of the specific situation. No weapon was authorized to protect against excessive use of force by those who were authorized to fire. No effective control was imposed to prevent such use, because there were not supposed to participate."
The commission said the National Guard entered the prison after the shooting was over. The guard did not fire a shot themselves.
The media gave the false impression that the guardmen went in with the state police, and never corrected that mistake, the commission said. It added that the guardmen were "unming heroes" who provided the only first aid for the wounded.
The commission charged that prison officials gave out false reports to newsmen that prisoners had slashed the throats of guards they asscaled them and had killed some hostages before the assault.
In fact, the commission said,
all 10 hostages killed in the
assault died from police bullets
The commission said that negotiations through a committee of "observers" as well as members of the community became inmates were unwilling
to give their spokesman full authority, or to permit talks on neutral ground "away from the glare of publicity." The objection was unwieldy, divided by eloquence uncertain of its role, it said. The inmates were never told by the observers or anyone else that the state was adamant against amnesty and that their choice was of 20 points of prison reform or armed assault, the report said.
The report said that Attica was typical of the state's prisons, which it said are operated like 19th century fortresses, with security the most important policy.
The commission recommended restructuring the prison system according to these guidelines:
- Prisoners should retain all the rights of citizens except that of liberty of person, including the right to be adequately paid for work, to get and send letters, to be informed of practice or ignore religion, and to be protected against summary punishment.
—Prisons should no longer be "shrouded from public view," but should have free circulation of literature, regular visits by outsiders, and controlled trips outside by prisoners.
- Programs should aim at enhancing the "dignity, worth and self-confidence of the inductees," raising awareness and kilimanjaro them."
- Community groups and outside professionals should be allowed to participate regularly in prison life.
-Guards should be paid well and trained to "sensitize them to understand and deal with the new breed of inmates from the urban area" and to understand and control the racism within themselves."
-Vocational and other educational programs "must be conducted in accordance with the preceding principles."
"The unfair" parole system must be changed to include clear standards for grant or denial of parole, procedures to inform an inmate why he has been denied parole, and ways to help him find a job and a place to live if he is released.
Beyond that, the commission said, the whole criminal justice system must be "purged of racism" and "restructured to deal with the intruders and dishonest scenes now played out daily in our courtrooms."
The report said the commission was unanimous in its findings.
"HIS NAME IS MEYER LANSKY AND HE SAYS HELL MAKE US AN OFFER WE CAN'T REFUSE"
Jack Anderson
Lunch Bill Boon for Vendors
WASHINGTON—Congress has just passed legislation extending the federal school lunch program, but not without slipping a clause that will help create a climate for vending machine companies.
Neither the House nor Senate had originally wanted to give the vending machine interests such a big break. But when the legislation was sent to a conference committee to iron out problems, it turned against Senate versions of the bill, a funny thing happened.
Rep. Rom Pucinski, the likable Daley Democrat from Chicago who is running for the governor, has developed a passionate concern that the truck drivers who deliver soda pop might lose jobs if the machines were not allowed in food facilities and lunchrooms.
In the past, the Agricultural Department has not allowed vending machines in school refectories where free federal lunches are served. The Department felt that vending
machines normally dispense soda pop and candy, which would work against the purposes of the machine. Its purpose is to provide nutritious food.
The House bill ordered the Agriculture Department to permit vending machines which sold "nutritious foods" such as apples and dairy products. The Senate committee also ordered the machines only in senior high schools.
Pucinki led the battle for the vending machines inside the Senate-House conference committee, which placed no restrictions whatever on the vending machines, despite the fact that dentists and dieticians across the state were pushing the machines from the start.
Although Pucienski was not alone in his support of stripping the Agriculture Department of its power to regulate the machines, he cast the swing vote that gave the soda pop and candy bar people a majority of the House conferences.
Pucinski told us he was contacted about six weeks ago about
the bill by Ray Schoesling,
*Teamsters Union official from
Chicago, who told him "about
the effect on a large number of
truck drivers who deliver these
school lunches."
"If you eliminate these beverages such as Coke," Puciński said he was told, "you're going to eliminate jobs."
Pucinski insisted that the Teamsters' pleas were not the only reason for his concern. He said he has long felt that school should be made more appealing to students.
"The Agriculture Department could have barred Cokes and Pepsi and Seven-up," he said. "You're going to bar Boke, they're going to go to the candy store and they're going to get pot."
Pucinski conceded, however, that the Teamsmasters have "been my friends for a long, long time." They had always contributed to his campaigns, he said, including this one.
Hardship Safaris
Harpish sardis
With maximum fanfare, Interior Secretary Rogers Morton
announced last February that eight large cats were being added to the list of endangered species.
This meant that no one could bring the skins of the animals—including tigers, leopards, cheetahs and jaguars—into this country except in cases of "undue economic hardship."
Nevertheless, sport hunters have been allowed to continue killing endangered cats and to go unnoticed in country as "trophies." One Hollywood woman was even allowed to bring home a leopard skin after it had been converted to a fluffy coat by a London furrier.
who had signed up for safaris prior to Morton's announcement.
We asked the Interior Department why it was still allowing the importations of certain items made, we were told, for those
Yet the law allows exceptions to be made only in cases of economic hardship. How, we asked, can a safari for some rich sportsman qualify as a hardship case?
"I can't explain it," acknowledged an Interior spokesman.
Footnote: The Fund for Animals, an organization devoted to saving endangered wildlife, says the Interior Department, at least, resisted an effort by Maurice Stans, the Nixon funder, to get a permit for one of his friends who wanted to kill and import a tiger that had been on the endangered list.
Copyright, 1972. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Griff and the Unicorn
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