Issues Debated By Candidates For Frosh Exec
By Carrie Merryfield
Last night the candidates for president of the freshman class held an informal debate, presenting their platforms, discussing the major issues and presenting the issues they believed would arise throughout the year.
FRESHMAN DEBATE—Reuben McCornack, Bartlesvine, Okla., discuss major issues of the Abilene, Phil Harrison, Colby, and Mike Smith, freshman elections.
Complete with raised voices and gestures, three candidates gave their views to an audience of 45. The debaters were Reuben McCornack, Abilene; Mike Smith, Bartlesville, Okla., and Phil Harrison, Colby. Jim DeGrand, St. Louis, Mo., did not accept the challenge to debate.
McCORNACK ORGANIZED the "Great Debate," because:
"Most colleges have assemblies for the freshman class so the candidates can speak, giving the students a chance to decide the best man," he said, "since KU has no such program, it would be good to begin one."
The idea arose last Friday and the candidates were notified of the debate. However, it seems they were not as prepared as Nixon and Kennedy were. Smith and Harrison were not sure of the issues to be debated
until 15 minutes before the forum began.
HARRISON EXPLAINED to the audience that he was not a debater and that he hardly understood the mechanics of a true debate. Smith said the same.
McCornack, who was Kansas debate champion in high school, confidently delivered his proposals. It was his belief that the candidates had plenty of time to prepare a platform, study the "issues" and present logical solutions to problems that have not yet arisen and can hardly
be forseen in the future of the SMITH SAID he was not sure as to why he was there, he did know he was to talk, but he stated that none of the candidates had been at KU long enough to know what problems might come up and if they did arise, it would be difficult to give a pat answer.
Harrison said that he was not elected yet, so the most important issue to him was the campaign and election.
Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
58th Year, No. 43
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 1960
Weiss' Philosophy Told At Humanities Forum
Paul Weiss, professor of philosophy at Yale University, gave a lesson in metaphysics and theology yesterday at the Humanities Forum in which he described an aspect of God and religion heretofore lacking in other philosophies. He then challenged all present to disprove his concept.
The Music Room at the Kansas Union was filled.
PROF. WEISS SAID:
There were many attempts, but no one unseated the "Philosopher King." The Music Room at the Kansas
"The fact of God's existence as an ultimate reality, follows necessarily from an adequate concept of him. But this concept must first be reached by going through something like the teleological and cosmological arguments.
He said that if there were no God, there would be no self-identity, no persistent past, no realization of what is really possible.
"Once we have that concept however, we have a principle in terms of which we can understand what things are most receptive to him, distort his nature least, mirror him best, and thus allow one to symbolize him most satisfactorily."
"MORAL RESPONSIBILITY, history, and prescriptions would all sink into unintelligibility," he said. "No one, therefore, should be so glad that there is a God as one who would like to live a full life in the common-sense world."
The "commonsense world," he explained, was the real world of man's senses as opposed to the "ineffable area which sometimes awakens hope, but more often arouses terror and fear.
Weather
"（Man）need not believe that God created the world, or that God engages in any particular act, here and now, directed at any particular result. But he must believe that there is a reality over against our daily world and that the two interplay, thereby making a difference to one another's being and action."
Cloudy and windy with scattered showers and thunderstorms southeast and extreme east. Partly cloudy and turning cooler west and north central portion this afternoon. Clearing and colder tonight. Tomorrow generally fair and coldier. Low tonight 20s northwest to 40 to 45 southeast.
THE ROBUST PHILOSOPHER gestured energetically as he read from his manuscript that "faith is unshakable, not because it is dogmatic or stupid, but because it spans the gap between ourselves here and a reality beyond us.
"We begin our careers with faith . . . we end by wrongly denying that God must constantly reconstitute himself and reorder the world at the same time that it reorders itself and varies in the way it qualifies him.
"But once we look beyond specific religions, with their practical concern for salvationally helpful truths, we will be able to see more clearly
(Continued on page 8)
Prof. Paul Weiss
Existentialism Not Ample, Says Weiss
"I CANNOT FIND the body in any biological sense in existentialism. I firmly believe that both the body and the mind exist and should be considered by a philosopher."
The basic fault with Existentialism is its inability to adequately cover all aspects of knowledge, Paul Weiss, professor of philosophy at Yale University, said last night at the meeting of the Philosophy Club.
The speaker said the ideal philosophy would take care of man as a religious, ethical and practical being as well as the animals, stones, literature, history and sciences of that being.
Prof. Weiss stated:
Man as a mind is treated by this philosophical system but the sciences are neglected, he said.
Prof. Weiss continued;
"The criteria for a philosophical system is that it be adequate, coherent, systematic, self-critical, illuminating and explanatory. Adequacy is reached when all aspects of knowledge are included."
EXISTENTIALISM ADMITS only the private being and not the public being of man, he said. A good philosophical system has to include the public being because so much of man's life is the interplay with other men.
"The origin of existentialism was a result of a criticism of Hegelian philosophy by a Danish writer named Soren Kierkegaard. It has grown in popularity since the first World War and the movement continues today. The doctrine tells of communication between men but neglects to consider nature and man's relative position in nature."
dent suited for the job, solutions will take form and then be worked over," he said.
Each man was allowed a five minute opening statement then a three minute question period from the floor.
McCORNACK SPOKE first. He presented a platform consisting of three major planks. His first point was to ask who can offer the freshman class the best leadership. Secondly he stated that the class needs organization. To accomplish this he suggested a roster with names, addresses, phone numbers and interests. This would aid in organizing committees. He also suggested that freshmen work with organizations promoting the class interests: Froshawks, Inter-Fraternity Pledge Council and the planning committee of the KU-Y.
Another of McCornack's suggestions was that various functions ranging from a street dance to a picnic be held after organization is accomplished.
Classes in previous years have tried street dances and have lost money. But McCornack's contention is that this class will make money, have fun, and be the best organized of any freshman class.
HIS THIRD PLANK was one of representation. He wanted a representative on ASC from the freshmen as a class. No class on campus has a representative from a class as a group. To obtain this a Constitutional amendment would be required. He said it might be suggested at an ASC meeting.
McCornack stated that the class would be self-supporting, and have no class dues.
Mike Smith spoke next. He met the challenge given by McCornack when he said he hoped his opponents could meet the obstacles and present their platforms.
Smith said the presidency is not a one-man job. He wanted to work
(Continued on page 8)
Vox, UP Unite To Get Votes
For the first time Vox Populi and the University Party are sacrificing party sovereignty to try for more representation from district seven, the unorganized, unmarried students.
Expenses for the bi-partisan campaign are being shared between the two parties. They are sending out 1,000 letters to students in that living district. Handbills are being distributed to encourage people to vote.
In past years only one-tenth of the students in district seven voted. It is hoped that there will be 676 votes this year.
Tom Heitz, Kansas City, Mo., junior, said:
"If we can get that many,we can elect all four candidates. We feel that two representatives are inadequate for 2,000 students."
Candidates from the district are Mike Thomas, Kansas City, Mo., junior; Arnold Catron, Kansas City, Kan., junior, and incumbents Fred Morrison, Colby senior, and Heitz.
Heitz said it was impossible to contact everyone in the district, so Vox and UP decided to campaign together. He said it was a joint effort; all four candidates stayed up late two nights getting the letters ready to be mailed.
Students Charge UP Ballots Were Also in Dispute
By Byron Klapper
The voting irregularities claimed for the primary elections last Tuesday and Wednesday were reversed yesterday.
Seven members of Vox Populi called the Daily Kansan to say that they too had received the wrong ballots at the polling tables last week.
Some of them expressed their feelings that the Kansan had taken a one-sided view toward the ballot switching in an article appearing in yesterday's paper.
Poll Worker Surprised
Dorothy Lynch, Tulsa, Okla., senior said that she received a UP ballot after presenting her Vox party card to the poll worker. She returned the ballot when she saw the error, she said.
Miss Lynch said "The poll worker seemed quite surprised and pretty disorganized. No one at the election tables seemed to know who was responsible for the IBM cards. It seemed like it was hit and miss and they probably gave me the wrong ballot because they were so disorganized," she said.
Other students who indicated they received UP ballots after presenting Vox party cards were Carl M. Sutherland, Prescott junior; Warren E. Peterson, Lost Springs sophomore; Gary W. Rosenwald, Topeka sophomore; Harold L. Massie, Frankfort sophomore, and Dale L. Collison, Humboldt junior.
To date an almost equal number of members from each party have indicated that they received ballots from the opposite political party.
Elections Commissioner Explains
Most of the allegedly mistreated voters felt that the errors were due to the inefficiency of the election committee rather than with the political parties themselves.
In a Daily Kansan interview last night Kirk Cottingham, Newton senior and chairman of the elections committee, attempted to explain the alleged irregularities in the primary election procedure.
Cottingham said;
"By the same token I would hope that people would accept the fact that these mistakes were unintentional to the best of my knowledge.
"I don't know whether the incidents occurred or not. If people say they did I'm willing to accept that fact.
"Such isolated incidents happen in every election and have occurred ever since I've been here."
Cottingham said;
"It has been the practice in the past for the election commissioner not to release individual candidate totals.
Friday's edition of the Daily Kansan pointed out that Cottingham refused to release the results of the individual candidates.
Custom Cited
"If the totals are released they should come from the party presidents."
Cottingham said:
"I don't understand why there was a discrepancy unless someone copied the wrong figures. We all took the figures from the same machine at the same time."
Both party leaders submitted totals but their figures were inconsistent with each other as well as with the district totals released by Cottingham.
In regard to the unaccounted 275 votes, Cottingham explained that they were an accumulation of void ballots and that he neglected to include them in his totals.
Machine Voids Ballots
At a meeting of the ASC poll workers last night in the Kansas Union Cottingham reviewed some of the obvious errors that took place at the primary election.
As elections commissioner, Cottingham outlined the polling procedure in detail and then discussed the specific functions of each poll worker. He stressed the importance of keeping accurate tallies, and urged more careful checking on the part of poll police for the general election which began this morning.