4
Wednesday. September 6. 1972
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN comment
James J. Kilpatrick
A Barbaric Sport
With the senseless killings Tuesday at the Olympic Village, again we are reminded of the violent nature of the human animal.
This latest act of political barbarism is equal in savagery to the assassination attempt on George Wallace, last weekend's club arson in Canada and other numerous bombings and acts of air piracy. Here in America, a visible sign of this mania is found in the recently released 1971 crime statistics. While crimes against property decreased, crimes against people—violent killers and bank robbers, the free sale of guns met with little success in the Congress this summer.
Where to lay the blame?
It would be most easy to point an accusing finger at the Vietnam conflict, the war in the Middle East—or even to living in the shadow of nuclear annihilation. Rather than causes, perhaps these warnings, much more important is Alvin Toffler's book "Future Shock" suggests that things are going faster, farther and with less warning than ever before. This may be it. It
could be that we are just not equipped—mentally or morally—for the mechanical age. Surrounded by a world of numbers and impersonal machines, modern man may see little consequence of his actions or his responsibility for them. If not this, it may be that we have become acquainted with others that we don't care what happens to the other guy as long as our own little world spins along without consequence.
Or, the optimist may argue, it is not that man has gone off the "Clockwork Orange" deep end of "ultraviolence" but that we hear more of the bad because instant communications have put us all within a newswst or television's range and sorts of mayhem possibly firstly by land and only those within our village or county. It's not that there is more violence—it's just reported better our optimist would say.
Violence is violence, though, and this society seems to have adopted it as a humdrum liability of the times. Who will protect for us?
Who will pray for us:
-Thomas E. Slaughter
Interim Prognosis
It is possible that the University will experience a stage of temporariness until the new Chancellor is found. At least for the time being, administrative officers will be forced to follow a temporary leader to follow the view of new ground's being broken, literally or figuratively, is slim.
With this temporary leadership, there may be a tendency to hold off on planning for the future. People will be concerned with keeping things together now, with the attendant inclination to put off thoughts of the future, at least until a new chancellor is settled.
There is really no reason to put the university in a holding pattern until the new chief executive arrives. KU should not wait for one person to discover how he wants things done or where the university should go. You can't expect to be expected to adapt to KU at least as much as KU adapts to him
follow through on plans made before his appointment—even if they were made while a temporary chancellor was in office.
The new chancellor will have an influence on the future of the university but that influence should start when he gets here and not before. The university will not be benefited if the coming of a new leader means that it has to stand still while waiting for him. If a goal or program is started now, the chancellor-to-be should be expected to
The chancellor pro tem is a man who has been associated with the University of Kansas for nearly 50 years. We should take advantage of that experience and consider the kind of suggestions he may make about KU. I hope that Raymond Nichols will not hesitate to bring up positive, progressive proposals during his time in office.
Because he has assumed a new office in a temporary capacity, he should not concern himself only with the day-to-day operation of the University. Neither should he embark on dramatic, far-reaching changes incapable of implementation during his tenure. Chancellor Nichols' experience leads me to believe he will strike a balance somewhere between a dynamic and a static stance certainly will mitigate the section of the state's population who so often and volubly called for former Chancellor Chalmers' resignation, if not his scalp. The next several months then should provide an opportunity for the University of Kansas to mend a lot of old fences without erecting many new ones.
—Mary Ward
Self-Sustaining Postal System A Sound Doctrine
WASHINGTON—Forgive me if I wander into a column on the U.S. Postal Service by way of an occasion in Moniguegrain, Ala., on March 11, 1881. The event was attended by States of America, alas, of beloved memory, adopted their Constitution.
"But the expenses of the Post Office Department, after the first day of March in the year of our Lord 1863, shall be paid out of its own revenues."
It was the finest Constitution ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man. Patterned upon the U.S. version of 1787, it strengthened every weak point of the original model. Among its features are the Confederate Congress to establish post offices and post routes, with this proviso:
That was the old sound doctrine, as Southerners are wont to say, and it remains sound doctrine today. Our contemporary Congress recognized the principle when it created the new U.S. Postal Service with a mandate to pay its own way by 1981. While some few subsidies may be justified beyond that time, perhaps for non-profit publications and for the smallest rural
newspapers, there ought to be no retreat from the basic proposition: the cost of maintaining the Postal Service should be paid in full by those who use it.
Many of my friends in the publishing business do not accept that proposition. They argue that the national distribution and wide dissemination of newspapers and magazines are vital to a free society—that subsidies for this purpose are not truly subsidies, but rather should be viewed in a class with schools and libraries. They have therefore bitterly resisted the postal rate increases that became effective July 6.
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin has become the chief spokesman for the publishers' point of view. The rate increases, he says, "the threat to stifle the free flow of ideas and information is extremely slame some of the most important causes of competing independent journalism and opinions in the country."
Life magazine has issued the same lament. It sees a "potentially ruinous effect." The proposed increases "could literally drive hundreds of marginal magazines and newspapers out of business." If the increases were passed on to subscribers, "a chain reaction might get under way in which falling circulation would lead to lower quality, thence to a further drop in circulation."
With deference to my apprehensive colleagues, I wonder if their cries of alarm do not drown out a certain lack of confidence in their ability to sell their
own product to our own readers. In a maze of overgrown figures, comparing magazine's net profit to the gross cost of track of what we're talking about
It now costs, on the average, 1.6 cents to mail each copy of the conservative journal, National Review; it publishes 26 times a year. It costs the same thing for the liberal New Republic, which comes out 48 times a year. A year hence, under the new rates, the average cost will go to roughly 1.9 cents, then to 2.2 cents, by 1976 to 2.96 cents. We are talking about pennies.
It is hard to believe that thousands of subscribers to National Review would abandon my beloved friend, Mr. Buckley, rather than pay 35 cents a year more in postage. If New Republic's liberal subscribers would desert in droves, repelled by an increase of 65 cents a year, we do blame the Postal Service? Or the editors? It now costs, on the average, 3.7 cents to mail Foreign Affairs Quarterly. Four years hence, it would cost 6.8 cents. An increase to the subscriber of 12.4 cents a year is not much.
The disseminator of ideas—the little publisher whose plight concerns us all—depends upon the mail, but he depends upon light, heat, water, and telephones also. These are services. No office manager is subsidized. The Confederates had to right. As a general proposition, mail service shouldn't be subsidized either.
(C) 1972 The Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
Closed Library A Disservice
Readers Respond
To the Editor:
Once again, I believe the University of Kansas Library System has performed a disservice to the community: Watson Library, the heart of the library system at KU, was closed both Sunday and Monday. We extend this during the school year when some of us at least, are searching for course-help materials, background literature, and research guides. We guard this as an inexcusable failure on the part of an organization whose purpose it is to serve a larger group of students and in many cases, the entire state. The University of Kansas Library, considering the size of the university and of the library system, has issued hours policies of the region. This may be due largely to the lack of adequate financing on the part of the library system. However, the end result is the same: patrons wishing to use library materials are denied access to them. And some of us who have paid for these materials cannot partake of those short hours were denied use of the library facilities for three days (that figures to nearly half a week, by my pessimistic calculation).
The current library policy, regardless of who is responsible, smacks to me of some significant change. If the library were to have remained open from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday and from 8-12 on Monday, I believe even slight use would have justi-
ted it. As it is, one may never know which Sunday of this kind, or holiday, is the one which might prove crucial to a patron's effort to directly or indirectly effect the community. Those persons throughout the State of Kansas who work during the week and whose materials they are unable to obtain elsewhere may have found their drive last week-end completely if they came use of Watson's library materials.
I would ask that this policy of materialism be examined and replaced: a library is not a success in passing through the turbulence; it passes through the turbulence; it
is a success by and through the corresponding success of its users-only then it is being a service. That the university library direction of self concern greatly disappoints and disturbs me.
David Radd
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Graduate Student
--opinions of the writers.
Editorial Policy
Editorials,columns and letters published on this page reflect only the
--widest possible number of paying customers. An R or X rating usually is damaging at the box office.
Jack Anderson
Film Ratings Become Censor's Ax
WASHINGTON - In the scramble for better ratings, moviemakers sometimes submit their scripts in advance to the Motion Picture Association of America rating board and then quietly tailor the scripts to satisfy the board.
- HY BABY THE PRESIDENT SAYS YOU AND I SHOULD SETTLE DOWN AND HAVE A LOT OF TOMORROW. *
This means that the board's supposed function of simply rating movies is being enlarged to create an internal controversy that will affect what is shown at neighborhood movie houses and, in some cases, restaurants.
The ratings -G (general), PG (parental guidance), R (restricted) and X (anything goes)—are supposed to advise parents how much sex and violence are in the movies.
Most moviemakers, of course, want their films to be seen by the
But the film foks have also found, paradoxically, that sex and violence pay off at the box office. Therefore, they seek to curb sex and violence without forging a G or PG rating.
In effect, the board tells the studios how a script must be amended—indeed, even how
This is now being accomplished by showing the scripts to the board for tentative, advance ratings. The movie movies deny this is censorship. But we have seen how the board's files, which reveal graphically how the blue-canvassing works.
scenes should be shot—if the movie is to avoid an R or X rating.
"《The Poseidon Adventure》"
"Linda . . . certainly should not"
"parties on it and it would, of course,"
"she were wearing a full slip."
theors' Suggestions
In their documents in our possession we have recommended more than 50 changes in a single script. Here are a few typical examples from scripts already filmed, now in production or awaiting examples and in production or awaiting action.
“-KOTCH”-Former board member Eugene Dougherty advised. “The shot of Erica’s tender, young buttocks’ should not be excessive or dwelt upon in detail.”
"A Touch of Class"—"Observe caution in the film where it is nudity, so that there is no breast or buttock exposure."
"No Place to be Somebody"—
"I am enclosing a list of particulars (to be cut out) . . . Dee naked, naming鞋 polish over her body. John and Mary Lou in bed."
"O Lucky Man!"--'The dialogue about *sh*- on the Japanese garden exemplifies the insularable in terms of accumulation."
"Melinda""-While write of "f—and its various derivatives is permissible in the R rating, sheer quantity can prove a problem. The present script has 27 uses of it and it is suggested that an effort be made to confine these to only those lines where it seems essential."
"M·Klusky"—"Nudity should be avoided when Gori is taking a bath." The board member also advised earthly; "Expressly don't have them bounce right out of her hose."
"The Lolly-Madonna War"—Board member Dr. Jacqueline Bouthouss recommended sternly: "Whatever is marked with an asterisk should definitely be omitted."
To make sure the final scripts conform, several studios require written guarantees from their writers. In some cases, will "pass" the rating board.
The board is run by Dr. Aaron Stern, who gave up a psychiatric practice in New York City to rate movies in Hollywood. The ratings are usually final. It takes two-thirds majority of a special appeals board to overturn a rating.
peals board to overturn a rating. The board's new censorship role, meanwhile, has raised a howl of "repression" among critics and directors. When we sought to refute the board's refused to discuss his views on the telephone, but he tipped off the movie industry's persuasive craz, Jack Valenti, who called my associate Les Whitten.
Valenti agreed the rating system wasn't perfect but contended government censorship was the alternative.
"We don't require a script to be submitted," he said. "If they ask, we give them a service... I can't possibly win. The conservatives liberal and the liberals say I'm too conservative."
Copyright, 1972 by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 words. All letters are subject to editing and condensation, according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Students must provide their name, year in school and home town; faculty and staff must provide their name and position; others must provide their name and address.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN America's Pacemaking college newspaper
Kansan Telephone Numbers
Newsroom--UN 4-4810
Business Office--UN 4-4358
Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: 8 @ a semester, $10 a year. Second class student payed at Lawrence, Kauai, Kanaan, 60044, with regard to color, credit or enlistment orders. Official expressions are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas at the State Board of Regents.
Griff and the Unicorn
Universal Press Syndicate 1972
NEWS STAFF
NEWSSTAFF
News Advisor  Susanne Shau
Editor
Associate Editor
Campus Editor
Copy Chief
Copy Editor
Asstistant Campus Editors
Sports Editor
Feature Editors
Editorial Writers
Wire Editors
Marketing Editor
Review Editor
Photographer
Researcher
Joe Coleman, Pris Brandt, Daniel Chapo
Scott Spurrier
Anne Staehling
Daniel Becker
Sally Carlson, Joyce Douglass
Cipriano Crews
Aatia Knops, Cameron Searge
Nancy Jones, Elaina Gunzner
Tom Sanseffler, Mary Ward, Robert Ward
Heena Olsenberg
Steve Riew
Joe Zanzula
Joe Coleman, Pris Brandt, Daniel Chapo
Linda Chapo
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Advisor Mick Adams
Business Manager Dale Pipergreeng
Advertising Manager Mark Rush
Assist Advertising Manager Nick Newald
National Advertising Manager Linda Greengrand
Promotion Manager James Crawford
Classified Advertiser Manager Cardi Kirk
Crowdfunding Manager Adam Latham
.
REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTISING BY
National Educational Advertising Services
DIVISION OF
READERS DISSENTER ESSENTIAL SERVICES, INC.
360 128th Ave. New York, N.Y. 10017