Page 8
Summer Session Kansan Tuesday. June 28, 1960
Colombia's 50-50 Party Split Gives Indication of Collapse
(Following is another "Latin American Report," part of a feature designed to present a continuing picture of de-
velopment in the nations south of the United States.)
BOGOTA—(UPI) — Colombia's unprecedented 50-50 political system is showing signs of coming apart at the seams after less than two of the 16 years it was supposed to last.
Traditional party loyalties are at the root of the troubles confronting the system, which provided that the Conservatives and the Liberals — Colombia's dominant political parties — should alternate in the presidency and share equally in other major government posts.
Half of the Conservatives and a quarter of the Liberals elected to the nation's evenly-divided congress in March are open opponents of the so-called parity and alternation plan, shadowing the government's hopes of mustering the two-thirds majority needed for approval of major measures during the legislative session which will begin in July.
Political observers here believe the system may last out the four-year term of President Alberto Lleras Camargo, but hasn't a hope of going the full 16-year distance
The plan was devised to end 10 years of undeclared civil war in which more than 200,000 persons were killed. The voters, asked to ratify the scheme in the first referendum in Colombian history.
did so by a record vote of 4.5 million.
Lleras, a Liberal, and Conservative ex-president Laureano Gomez led the two big parties in what was at first united support of the plan.
As the memory of the terrible days of the decade of violence began to fade, a conservative faction led by ex-President Mariano Ospina Perez declared its opposition to the parity plan, charging that Gomez had "surrendered" the government to Lleras.
Similar opposition, though less well-defined, has been developing in liberal ranks. Political observers foresee hard times ahead for leaders of the party when they have to urge the rank and file to support a conservative for president in 1962.
The present cabinet, reorganized after the March congressional elections, includes six Liberals and six Conservatives — three Gomez supporters and three Ospina men
Neither of the two conservative leaders, however, was willing to express unqualified support of the parity system. They did not object to the inclusion of their supporters in the cabinet, but said their presence should not be interpreted as an indorsement of the 50-50 plan.
Lleras commented that he feels himself to be "alone in the government, representing everybody but able to influence nobody."
American Males Reject Former Sex Symbols
NEW YORK—(UPI)—The American male no longer feels a need to express his masculinity with loud sport shirts or to own a big, flashy automobile as a status symbol, a motivation research expert said today.
"The male of today is far less boastful and an exhibitionist than 10 years ago — and he's a lot more skeptical about the things he buys and the advertising claims made for them," said Emanuel Demby, research director for Motivation Research reports, Inc.
Another problem confronting Colombia — like the one troubling President Charles de Gaulle's France — is that of growing opposition to the austerity program instituted by Lieras to put the nation back on its fiscal feet.
The president has warned several times, beginning with his acceptance speech, that he will resign the moment he no longer is able to govern in the name of the two parties.
Supporters of the system argue that, on the other hand, it has assured complete freedom of assembly, of speech and of the press. Minority parties like the Communists, although barred from major office, have been allowed full freedom to seek added strength through agitation and recruiting.
The parity system has been widely criticized as a perversion of democracy, since it limits participation in national politics to members of the two major parties and deprives the citizen of the right to determine the make up of congress and other major representative bodies.
"For manufacturers and retailers that's awfully important — for we have found out enough about the male's changing buying motivation to make relatively safe predictions about the psychology of his buying habits in the next few years," he said.
Labor Minister Otto Morales Benitez commented recently that during his first 10 months in office he has had to deal with more than 3,000 instances of social strife, about half of them involving strikes.
For the first time in Colombian history, recent labor agitation has involved white collar workers like the bank clerks who struck for — and received — a raise a year ago and are now talking about a new walkout.
A rise of about a cent a gallon in the price of gasoline touched off a nationwide transport workers' strike last month, accompanied by outbreaks of violence in several cities.
Demby said his firm first began to study the changing psychological character of the American male customer while doing a research program to get men to switch from spectacles to contact lenses.
In defense of the austerity program, Lleras points out it has enabled him in slightly less than two years to pay off the 600 million dollar foreign trade debt he inherited from ousted ex-president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, to stabilize the nation's currency and restore its credit.
Demby said a just completed report shows that "65 per cent of today's men reject exhibitionism, are more relaxed from tensions as opposed to having the 'desire for power' that so many felt right after the war, and are far less threatened personally by such psychosexual factors as colors and need for status symbols."
As a result, 65 per cent of the sports shoes being sold today are in the subdued "center market" colors and patterns instead of loud, exhibitionist colors that prevailed for years after the war.
Demby calls the new American male of the sixties "The Balanced Male" as opposed to "The Boastful Male" of the late forties and early fifties. About 25 per cent of males still are the "boastful" type, he said.
There also is a 10 per cent group he calls "Hostiles." These include "Beatniks" and extreme conservatives, men so driven by personal inscurity that they must conform to non-conformity."
Reds Hint More Walkouts
GENEVA — (UPI)— The Soviet Union led the Communist bloc out of the 10-nation disarmament conference yesterday and hinted the Reds also might walk out on the parallel talks on banning nuclear test explosions.
Try the Kansan Want Ads
MONTH-END SALE Now Through Saturday
TENNIS BALLS 3 for $1.88
Two professors at the University have been awarded an $18,288 joint grant by the National Science Foundation for biological research in fresh water lakes of Antarctica.
Wilson or Wright & Ditson
Short Sleeve SPORT SHIRTS $1.99
Professors Get $18,288 Grant
Reg. 2.98 and 3.98 (Many are button-down pullovers)
- Heavyweight Oxford Cloth Shell
$14.88
- 2 lb. Virgin Dacron Fiber Fill
Your Choice
Rufus H. Thompson, professor o botany, and Kenneth B. Armitage assistant professor of zoology, will leave Lawrence in November to study the physiological adaptation of plants and animals in the Mc-Murdo Sound region.
They will also make a study of biological life in fresh water lakes in the Taylor Dry Valley, unique because it is kept free of snow.
WASH SLACKS or BERMUDAS
Dacron-Insulated SLEEPING BAGS
- Flannel Lining
Hugh Bradford House, Casper, Wyoming, graduate student, will accompany them as a research assistant.
"Essentially no research of this type has been done in the Antarctica." Prof. Armitage said.
$2.99
Reg. 3.98 and 4.95
"We will compare our findings with the results of work done in Alaska, in the Arctic region, and to some degree, with that done in the Temperate Zone," he said.
Lots of other values too . . . We'll show them to you when you come down.
Prof. Thompson will conduct research primarily on algae in the Antarctica lakes and will prepare material for electron micrographs to be flown back to the University to be processed.
Prof. Armitage will study the physiological adaptations of animal life found there and will bring back collections from the lakes.
They will publish their findings in scientific journals after their return to Lawrence in February.
Lawrence Surplus
740 Mass.
Football Ticket Orders Due for Faculty, Staff
Faculty and staff members who held football season tickets in 1959 are reminded that Friday is the deadline for turning in priority requests for the coming fall schedule. The Jayhawters this year will play Texas Christian, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado in Memorial Stadium.
SUA to Sponsor Ice Cream Social
Student Union Activities will sponsor an ice cream social from 7:30 until 9 Wednesday night on the new open terrace of the Kansas Union.
New Job Set For Cameras
ROCHESTER, N. Y.—(UPI)—The science of photography is being turned on two of the most common causes of cancer in man—in hopes of detecting early signs of the disease that annually takes the lives of 48,000 Americans.
Eastman Kodak Co. said it has been directed to prepare a special photographic emulsion to be used in an experimental "balloon sound" for early detection of cancer of the stomach and colon.
Dr. Donald B. Shahon, of the University of Minnesota Medical School, received a grant from the American Cancer Society to conduct he experiments.
Dr. Shahon said the procedure is to introduce into the stomach an emulsion coated latex and to inflate it until it touches the lining of the stomach. Radioactive phosphorus is then injected intravenously, and if cancer is present the tumor tissues will absorb more radioactive material than normal tissues. It will darken the emulsion.
at HAPPY HAL'S East 23rd
Fried Chicken
Learning to Fly is More Than Fun . . . It's an Investment in Tomorrow!!
INVESTIGATE OUR SPECIAL FLIGHT COURSE
NOW!
rhart Flying Service
INCORPORATED
½ Mile NE of Tee Pee Municipal Airport
VI 3-2167