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Thursday, August 24.1972
University Daily Kansan
Kansan Staff Photo
Thanks, Larry
Most Kansans were surprised at the recent divorce of the Chalmers but that feeling was soon replaced by shock when it was learned that the Board of Regents had accepted his offer to resign as Chancellor of the University of Kansas. It is likely there is more involved in the regent's decision to accept his resignation than the public has been made aware of. However, that does not concern me as much as the fact that E. Laurence Chalmers Jr. is not going to be here any longer.
The University is losing a man who proved himself able to head it during times when the words "troubles" and "University of Kansas" were almost synonymous. To mention the events of the spring of 1970, when the Kansas Union burned, is probably unnecessary as most of us know what happened. But now it seems proper to remember that that fire seemed to ignite emotions all over the state. Other events of that year only made those emotions more intense and most of them seemed directed against KU and its Chancellor. In that year there probably were no correct solutions. Nevertheless, many people were dissatisfied with the way Chalmers handled those crises but he was able to take that criticism and to keep on trying.
The year 1970 was probably Chalmers' most critical year as Chancellor as well as his first year. That year he could not even rely on the support of the Board of Regents. Although the campus has been quieter since that year it has never really been quiet. Looking back it
seems that something was almost always ready to happen. There have been strikes, marches, sit-ins and walk-outs. Blacks, women, gay people, foreign students, maintenance men and even left-handed students have demanded that the Chancellor pay special attention to them.
For the most part, his relationship with students was good. Some think that his relationship with the faculty should have been better. However, I have sat through a few University Senate meetings and it seemed to me that the faculty has a little trouble getting along with itself sometimes.
During Chalmers' time of leadership the issue of the rights of students has received much attention. He has also tried very hard to acquire more benefits for the faculty. His concern for the people of the University has even extended to its civil service employees such as the secretaries, clerks and maintenance men.
Throughout Chalmers' three years at KU he has received more trouble than thanks. Perhaps some of us should have been more aware of the things he was doing and trying to do at this state university in this state so often critical of universities. There are some things that he did which I could not appreciate but there are more things he did that I did like. Perhaps it is late to say this but thank you Dr. Chalmers for what you have done for the University of Kansas and its people.
—Mary Ward
Early in the first session of the Republican convention Senator Dole said of the Republicans, "We mean to show the nation and the world how Republicans go about the important business of politics." Though I can hardly understand how self-respecting men could do such a self-degrading thing, show us they did.
Apparently ignoring Nixon's declaration that he wanted the campaign to be "a good, hard, clean fight on the issues," the convention launched this campaign with an appeal to everything but the issues.
First the audience was offered the allure of one supposedly pleasing personality after another. There was Gov. Reagan and his cinematic smile, Anne Armstrong and her too-rehearsed appeal to "deserted" Democrats. But most of all there was Pat.
Needless to say she had no comment on the issues, but she was finding, "much happiness in meeting old friends."
Romanticized and glorified in a maudlin film narrated by the quaving voice of James Stewart, Pat's "gracious" appearance before the convention lasted just long enough for the thunderous, unending, well-rehearsed ovation from the cheering section to die down.
After this appealing parade of charmers, the convention shifted to rhetorical tactics and tried to hang one after another discrediting label on McGovern and the Democrats. McGovern and the Democrats were "radicals," who only want to "flatten hard working Americans," with radical new plans of taxation these "radical" programs are based on recommendations first made by world-famous economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1958 book, The Affluent Society. McGovern Democrats were that "small group
Grand Old Production
of radicals and extremists" who took over the Democratic party "in the dark pre-dawn hours while most Americans slept" (as if Lincoln had been elected on a first ballot).
Goldwater was there to rejuvenate the conservative rhetoric with an innovative "Let's hear what's right about America." He compared the Democratic convention to "the coyotes who live on my hill and bay and moan and cry at the moon," and recited an exhaustive record of what's right with America: namely that it has scenic beauty, architectural grandeur and 52 per cent of the world's wealth.
But the most recurrent of all the Republican themes was their representation of the Democratic convention as somehow deviant and un-American. Indeed, it was so awful they could hardly call it by name. The Democrat's convention was "what happened here last month," or "four weeks ago." It was so despicable that, "What I saw...make me question whether I was in the United States or somewhere else."
And the Republican party was pure, whole, unified and above all, orderly—even the cheers were disorderly in an orderly, well-rehearsed fashion. The Republican convention was where "all the elected delegates"—except of course the one duly elected McClosky (liberal) delegate who was barred by the credentials committee—'are inside the hall.'
Either the Republicans aren't willing or aren't capable of approaching "the important business of politics" as an important review of the issues. Rather they prefer to use their "on-time convention" to win votes—even if it did adjourn more than an hour behind schedule.
—Robert Ward
KANSAN comment
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
A News Start
There are some days when it's hard to find enough news to fill a newspaper. Nothing happens. Then suddenly everything seems to explode at once.
The last two weeks at KU have been such a time. With the resignation of the Chancellor and the NCAA probation of Jayhawk athletic teams, the University came to life with a shout heard across the state
Although we hope the news improves, we will nevertheless strive to keep our readers well-informed on what's happening, good and bad.
Today's Kansan will be the largest of the semester. Although the rest will be smaller, hopefully they'll be just as informative.
The Kansan will basically look as it has in the past. What we will try to improve is the news coverage.
We also plan to freshen the editorial page with new writers, a new columnist and another political cartoonist.
You can help us. We're students who try to go to class and at the same time put out a good paper. Sometimes we fail one or the other or both. Write us, call us, or come in and talk to us. Tell us what you think of the Kansan. With such excaange, we can only improve.
Welcome back to KU. Have a good year.
Scott Spreier Editor
Jack Anderson
Nixon Makes Sure Dream A Reality
MIAMI BEACH-Late at night, as Richard Nixon sleeps, he occasionally has a peculiar experience. "I have a feeling," he has told friends, "that I have something to tell the President. Then I suddenly shake my awake and realize I am the President."
Few can blame Nixon if he sometimes must pinch himself to make sure his conquest of the White House hasn't been all a dream. Only a decade ago, after all, he left the governorship of California in 1976. When he was appointed, he signed a pledge to his wife that he would never run for office again.
But it was a shame he couldn't keep. Now, after his first term in the White House, Nixon appears to be the headier for the most successful president since Obama.
The President, with his sloping nose, jowls that he seems to rearrange like putty to project a mood, his tendency to sweat under the hot TV lights and his marionette hand gestures, is not particularly appealing to the voters.
GOP strategists confide, indeed, that only one major obstacle lies in the way of a Nixon landslide in November. The economy. Not the state. The state is not the state.
His campaign managers, therefore, have hired Wolper Productions, one of the best documentary film companies in the business, to humanize Richard Nixon on film at the Republican convention.
The private Nixon, we have learned from intimates, is a warm, light, sensitive man who could easily wake up wondering whether he
But what is the real Nixon like? He is a very private person who once said: "You can't confain in anyone about your personal plans,
He is a devoted family man, who permits his daughters to intrude freely upon the presidency. Not long ago, Nixon was deep in a foreign policy discussion with his top advisers when the phone call he received central minutes on the phone carefully explaining a Vietnam problem.
From the back of the chamber, Nixon applauded as Sanchez slipped into the Speaker's chair.
"That was Julie," the President said after he hung up
He is considerate, indeed, to all the people who are close to num, even his valet, Manolo Sanche. During a worrisonse night after the Kent State tragedy, Sanchez accompanied the President on his famous midnight wandering about the memorials of Washington
Remarkably self-disciplined, he seddows shows anger. Then it is usually a cold, frowning anger, not the law-like aufsure of forlornness.
They wound up at the Capitol Building where Nixon orquesta as cleaning woman to let them into the House of Representatives.
Occasionally, Nixon will erupt for a moment, but it quickly passes. "Damnit," he exploded the other day after learning the Justice Department hadn't carried out a presidential order, "when I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed."
The President dislikes personal confrontation, hates to ask favors of people and almost never applies political pressure. He
He jammed a buzzer on his desk, explained his irritation to an aide and said: "Find out who is responsible. If (my instructions) are correct, I'll do it."
The two leaders spoke in normal tones during their secret negotiations in Peking, but when one wanted to make an important statement, the other could only speak.
But this was a rare show of emotion. Far more typical is the cool, calculating political poker player who could match China's Chou
Because he has studied every possible argument his critics could raise, he feels it useless to listen to them repeat the same points. He understands the plains, therefore, if not the passions of his opponents.
The subject that animates him is politics. During a political discussion, an aide made some point about logically developing an argument. Responded the President; "No, no, you're treating politics like prose. Politics is not prose; politics is poetry."
The President likes every problem reduced to writing, with every available option spelled out. Alone in his hideaway across the parking lot from the White House, he pores over the presidential letters sent to dictate memos into a dialecthone to himself or his secretary.
Nixon has an extremely orderly mind. He has even set aside Wednesdays as the day for serious thinking. On Wednesdays, he keeps his calendar relatively free of appointments to allow time to meditate and ponder and study.
would be more impressed with restraint than bombast.
He emerges from these study sessions deeply informed on the nation's problems. But he lacks a feel for the human un-
Griff and the Unicorn
By Sokoloff
$ \textcircled{1} $ Universal Press Syndicate 1972
James J. Kilpatrick
Spotlight Turns Toward Spiro
MIAMI BEACH—This ought to be Richard Nixon's convention, and by all the ordinary rules, the talk ought to focus on the election of '72. Such is the nature of news that most of the conversation turns to Spiro Agnew, and the talk is talk of '76.
Everybody knows who the Republicans will run this time. But who will they run next time? That was the underlying question behind last week's skirmishing over new rules for delegate politics. It seems a doubtful compliment, but it is a tribute to the vice-president within the party that a "stop Agnew" movement already is taking place. The gentleman will spend four years before the mast.
It was a good omen for Agnew and a mild setback for the opposing forces that are identified, however loosely, with Senator Perry of Illinois. If the reform faction had won, Perry presumably would have been in a better position to seek the nomination in 1976.
Party liberals had some merit on their side when they pleaded for larger representation for the industrial Northeast. On paper, at least, states that cast 52 percent of Nixon's popular vote in 1968 should be entitled to something more than 37 percent of the delegates at the national convention. Southern and Western contenders argued in return: Popular votes are good, but electoral votes are poor. South Carolina, for example, had delivered; Connecticut had not. It's performance that counts. The conservatives prevailed.
What about Agnew four years hence? The vice-president was born in November 1918. In 76, he will be 58 years old. That is getting on up there, to be sure—only seven presidents have been older at inauguration but Agnew's age would count as a secondary factor. In a good many quarters, the man who was not even a teenager would become a household epistle in 1972. It is Agnew's singular talent that ranks up the animals. He holds the Order of the Ore, first class, with palms; he is the booth champion on almost every campus.
This caricature of Agnew, as some sort of abominable no-man, is wholly unwarranted. In many areas of social concern, Agnew has attitudes and instincts more liberal than those of Richard Nixon, which is saying a good deal. His great sin is that he has dastardly to criticize the media, and for this the media will not forgive him. Agnew thus appears as a bloated and omnivorous figure, bulb-nosed and silt-eyed, whose particular pleasures lie in oppressing the blacks and censoring the press.
What of other prospects? Percy will be 57 in 1976. He has first to win re-election in Illinois, and then establish the solid reputation he had in his first term in the Senate. If the times favor a moderate leader, nobody would be in the best position to battle Agnew for the prize.
The cartoon image belies the reality. Agnew is a strong man, unflappable, possessed of an inner serenity and a keen sense of humor. He has learned much in these four years as vice-president. This was evident last month, when he submitted to 45 minutes of oral testimony to the International Platform Association. His answers were responses that are clear and clear. Agnew has the stuff of which presidents are made.
Other names are tossed around. John Connally, if he came all the way over to the Republicans, would be a hot prospect even at 59. Senator Howard Baker Jr. of Tennessee and Senator John Tower of Texas are possibilities. There is also talk of Senator Robert Griffin Wagner, who will run for Maitland. The next four years might see the emergence of Maryann Charles Mathias and New York's Senator James Buckley.
If the Nixon-Agnew ticket should lose in November, it will be anybody's ball game in 78. Agnew would then rank as no more than the third inubert Humphrey. But if the team wins, Agnew will be his apparent. This year's GOP convention will be dill. The next one won't be.
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