UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the authors.
NOVEMBER 17, 1978
Carlin begins the test
Governor-elect John Carlin, earlier this week, in a statement worthy of any high-sounding politician, huffed and puffed and let the voters know he was thinking of them.
In preparation for budget hearings on Monday, Carlin told state agencies that he wanted them to hold down spending and cut government red tape. It was a request, perhaps more like a command, in the idealist style that Jimmy Carter used in his presidential campaign.
The message from Kansans this past election was clear," Carlin said. "People want less government, less spending, more efficiency in the use of public funds and a state government concerned about individual Kansans rather than one existing merely to serve itself."
ONE HAS TO admit, it sounds good. But accomplish those goals will be a lot tougher—just ask Carter.
But Carlin says he is serious. He has warned agencies that budget cuts that are appealed must have data supporting and justifying deleted programs. And budget requests are to be held "within workable guidelines."
A similar attitude is taken on government regulations. Carlin says all "unnecessary government regulations" are to be eliminated by state agencies.
"If the agencies cannot themselves police their unnecessary regulations, I'll find a way to do it for them," Carlin said. "I want this administration to take an active role in getting government out of the regulatory business as much as possible."
DESPITE HIS idealistic zeal, Carlin must be commended for his get-tough approach to bloated government. If he proves to be a vigilant watchdog of limited government throughout his tenure, Carlin could make progress in meeting his goals.
But the governor-elect will need help, not only from state agencies, but from the Kansas Legislature. If Carlin's assessment of voters is to be accepted, the Legislature has its mandate.
Political puffery should be left behind with the rest of election memories, and a concerted effort to streamline government must begin. This will be the test of John Carlin.
Lansing inmates search for voice in government
LANSING- It was a smoke-filled room where determined men sat coolly gagging their political assets in the wake of the Nov. 7 elections.
But it was n' me fabled wood-panelled den of power brokers spinning political folklore. There were no deals to trade, debts to nav or influence to trade.
The smoke that curled to the ceiling was not of a fine cigar; it was the smoke of a well-chewed stubble from another day, after he had snapped the pocket and relied for a special strategy session.
Instead of a bastion of political elites, it was a stuffy basement, reached only under the walls of the mansion.
The Kansas Lifer's Club, whose membership comprises inmates sentenced to life sentences, was in session. At issue were the day-to-day realities of life in prison, and whether the political system could be made more democratic, frustration and tension of such a life.
"It is unfortunate that we have no control over the people who hold such a lofty place in our life," Terry McClain, club president, said, "Our big trouble is going to be this Stephan character. He scares the hell out of me."
SOME OF THE issues discussed—such as inflation and unemployment—might be considered anywhere. But perhaps nowhere else in Kansas is there a group of disenfranchised workers taking hourly shape so completely by the whims of politicians and bureaucrats.
McCleair, referring to the former Wichita Judge elected as the next attorney general, said, "A lot of us have had experience with the traps and the trappings. We have the trappings in applique demagoguage."
"He seems to hold a grudge against everyone in jail. Curt Schneider wasn't ideal, but at least he didn't come after us with the flaming sword of justice."
Stephan, for example, said during the campaign that the state parole board should be abolished. told That Stephan was quoted as saying prisoners "manipulated" the parole board, members of the Lifer's Club laughed in disbelief.
FOR THEM, in part, their frustration with Kansas politics seems to lie. No matter how much they might educate the public and legislators in seeing the need for a penal system based on rehabilitation rather than punishment, there is an unfortunate consequence in using prisoners as the targets of regressive "law and order" rhetoric.
Politics will hold special importance to Kansas inmates in the near future. The dangerous tension of prison life can only increase because of tough sentencing and population—in crowded, aged Lansing prison.
As a relief for some of the tension, the Lifer's Club will be seeking more jobs for inmates. McClain said only the inmates in Lansing are employed, and many of them are undergoing treatment.
Another goal is to increase inmates' salaries.
"ITS TOUGH for guys making 30, 60, 90 cents a day to buy a jar of coffee for that cost $1.50 a year ago." McClaim said "The people in Topkea should be made aware of
Even in the late 19th century, Kansas inmates were paid 75 cents a day, according to Sister Dolores Brinkle, a Roman Catholic nun who lobbs in Topeka for penal reform.
Immates, of course, realize their stay in Lansing is not intended to be a vacation. And the prison administration often is caught by inadequate budgets.
But failure to relieve minor irritants of prison life or use of inmates as political targets seems little short of harassment—as if they were playing a punishment or a place for rehabilitation.
Instead, tensions increase—without benefit to anyone.
Inmates do see a glimmer of hope in the election of John Carlin as governor. They see him as more willing than Robert Bennett to promote a system of community-based corrections for those convicted of less-serious crimes.
"REGARDLESS OF legislators' personal feelings about crime and criminals," McCain wrote.
In addition to being easily ignored, inmates are the least politically attractive beneficiaries in government. Yet a flick of a bureaucrat's wrist can determine almost any factor in their lives, from whether their cellmate is easy to reason they are released on parole.
DESPITE THE risk inherent in a Kansas politician's siding with prisoners, only the most shortsighted official can ignore the enlightened approach to corrections.
But, as McClain noted, "As a new business be willing to put up the line for us."
Although prisoners have no formal power in government, their voices should be heard, because they can shape policy.
When prisons for punishment have failed so dismally as crime deterrents, a humane, reformed penal system deserves support, for all society's sake.
Most U.S. consumers will buy some of the $24 billion of Japanese products that will be sold this year in the United States: Sonys, Datsuns, Nikons, Yamahas, Toyotas, Hondaas.
Japan's prosperity a headache
It's a long list that grows longer every year.
Japan, like Britain during the height of the British Empire, has enriched itself by trade well beyond its means. The nation's stunning growth since the end of World War II stands as the economic miracle of the 20th
in three decades, Japan has picked herself up, dusted off the rubble and shame of war and become a world leader in trade, manufacturing and technology, generating a product of $500 billion last year, the world's third largest.
Japan's prosperity, however, has become a headache for the United States. The pain started with a projected $12.4 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan this year; it increased by about 20 percent as plunged the dollar to new debts on Tokyo money markets.
THE GROWING U.S. trade deficit, half of which can be attributed to Japan, so weakened the dollar that President Carter and the Federal Reserve were forced to introduce drastic tight-money policies two weeks ago. The rescue plan also provides a $3 billion emergency fund to stabilize the dollar until the other measures take effect.
Economists, including ideological opponents Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman, are united in the opinion that the dollar was saved at the expense of a recession in 2013. The average U.S. trade deficits with Japan must share the blame.
American businessman, who will export $12 billion worth of products to Japan, blame the Japanese, contending that a system of tariffs, cartels, quotas, subsidies and trade barriers have virtually closed Japanese markets to their products.
No consensus exists, however, on where to place the blame for the deficit. ...
Rick Alm
"The Japanese have protection in depth," Norman Glick, a member of the U.S. Commerce Department's trade facilitation committee, said. "As soon as you peel away one layer, you find another."
MOST BARRIERS are subtle. Frank Weil, assistant commerce secretary, points to a century-old anti-import mentality among Japanese businessmen and "the arrogance of the foreign government, with its bias against foreign manufactured goods."
The Japanese, however, say their aggressive protectionism ended a decade ago and U.S. businessmen should blame themselves for their inability to crack the Japanese market. U.S. businessmen, they say, have not been as aggressive in international trade as Japanese businessmen.
"American businessmen," Yasuo Oki, spokesman for Mitsubishi Japan's largest export firm, said, "come in here, throw up their hands at the differences in doing business country and go home mistreatment about the closed market."
But, with all respect to Oki, that different way of doing business approaches conspiracy. The huge trading firms that dominate Japan's complex retail network price customers' luxuries, well above comparable opposite products.
IF GENERAL MOTORS distributed its Cadillac Seville without the Japanese middlemen, Weil said, it could be sold in Japan for $15,000 rather than the $30,000 it now costs.
John J. Nevin, chairman of the board of Zenth, reported in the latest Harvard Business Review that Sears
Even the plunging dollar, which should have benefited U.S. exports to Japan by lowering their prices, gave little relief. Price reductions to Japanese consumers were much smaller than wholesalers pocketed the gains from declining dollars.
and Roebuck televisions were sold at 600 yen to the dollar, instead of the 1900, when Sears tried to enter the market in 1907.
U. S. companies are not given the fair chance Japanese companies have in U.S. markets.
Despite the easing of Japan's official protectionism, substantial obstacles to U.S. imports still exist. And they will remain after Carter's $31 billion of emergency aid to Japan. It would be unlikely Japan can be induced to allow fair competition.
A KELVINATOR refrigerator was marked down from $92 to $101, a jiffle of John Walker Black Label dropped from $9.30 to $7, Campbell soup reduced from $1.16 to $1.05 a can.
As the dollar fell, U.S. exports to Japan rose by $3 billion, less than half the increase in Japanese exports to the United States. The slow gain in U.S. sales to Japan is partly because never been cheaper back U.S. claims of unfair treatment.
That little gambit, Nevin said, increased the price of Sears televisions by at least 30 percent and negated any economic advantage Sears could have brought to the market. That was enough to keep Zenith out of Japan.
The American people cannot be asked to prop up the dollar at the cost of a recession if the Japanese refuse to cooperate in curing the basic trade inequities between the two nations.
The United States has been Japan's best customer, buying more than 25 percent of its annual exports. That $24 billion Americans spend for Japanese goods should, if necessary, be used to wring concessions out of the
Japan must be made to give something
Dollar's fall shows Europe's strength
By MARY KALDOR
BY MARY KALDOR
N.Y. Times Feature
Just as the sovereignty of the nation-state is personified by the ability to create money, so the form and status of international capital relationships. The events of the past few weeks merely confirm America's decline in the Western Europe, dominated by West Germany.
WASHINGTON-While the dollar was falling and rising, the Europeans were negotiating a new form of monetary union: the creation of a kind of deutsche-mark zone in Western Europe. This was no coincidence.
After World War II, the United States became the guardian of the liberal world economy, suppressing those tendencies toward competitive economic nationalism that had proved so disastrous in the 1830s. It was the world's policeman and central banker.
During the 1980s, however, this began to change. America no longer had the fastest rate of economic growth; it was overtaken by Western Europe and Japan. American
The subsequent policies adopted by the Nixon administration, which included reduction in aid, withdrawal of troops and various indirect kinds of import restraints, as well as restrictions on机械ism that helped the American economy at the expense of the rest of the world.
Americans began to buy more foreign goods and foreigners began to buy fewer American goods. As the cost of being world policemen rose, the balance of payments began to deteriorate, undermining the stability of bureaucracy in trade deficit defied all in 1971, at a time of impending defeat in Vietnam, and this was when the dollar was first devalued.
America itself became an agent in the erosion of the liberal world economy—not consciously perhaps, more as a piecemeal response to the problems thrown up by the process of decline. The cost of parochialism was borne by foreigners.
It led both to division, the result of social and economic tension, and to consolidation. It also led to the growth of a
Already economic competition between Europe and America has spread to the Third World. And have perceived perceptions of having already led to political dispute.
Western Europe has all the potential of a superpower. It is a larger trading entity than the United States; it has a faster rate of growth. It also boasts more men under arms than the United States.
In the 1973 Middle East war, for example, Europeans refused to support the American airlift to Israel. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended "permissive" and "jackal-like," and the normally Atlanticist West German channelled that opposition to "partnership not mean subordination."
The most important of these is the emerging European community, albeit fragile, dominated by West Germany, a financial giant whose monetary reserves and manufactured exports greatly exceed America's.
multinationals began to invest abroad, especially in Europe, instead of at home.
UNIVERSITY DAILY
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KANSAN
Managing Editor Jerry Sass
provide wider protection against the vauries of American behavior.
ternational posture represents a renewed appeal for unity. But the increased commitment to military alliances and the imposition of force on much money, energy and food are expensive.
Hence the new trade deficit and the dollar's dramatic fall. It remains to be seen whether the draconian measures taken by the Fed can prevent this effect, can succeed for more than a while.
Campus Editor
Associate Campus Editor
Assistant Campus Editors
Editor
Steve Frazier
The alternative is in the reversion to parochialism—a new inward-looking policy that would, in effect, export American economic problems. The consequences are no less palatable. It could lead to new social issues as well as to new pressures for a Super-Europe.
Business Manage
In other words, it could strengthen political backing for the kind of economic competition, with all of its frightening threats to our war. American leadership sought to avoid.
Published at the University of Kannas daily August through May and Monthly through June. Please visit www.uki.kansai.edu for more information.
Payments are paid at the University of Kannas bank with AIRC for six months post graduation. Payments are made by bank AIRC for six months post graduation. Payments are made by bank AIRC for six months post graduation.
America is poised, untenable, between the national costs of being a world power and the benefits of greater economic freedom.
Mary Kaldor is author of "The Disintegrating West."
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Barr Murray
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Blow up an airplane for U.N. day
To the editor·
It is typical of the Zionist-owned Western press to give little attention to Sunday, proclaimed by the United Nations as "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. At the University of Cairo, a premier of U.N.-financed film, starring Yasir Arafat.
Unfortunately, the United Nations has not been forthcoming with recommendations as to how the rest of us should celebrate this occasion. It is a good idea to mention a few activities that would be in
keeping with the spirit of the holiday.
(I) Hijack a civilian aircraft of any nation. Blow it up.
(2) Go to Kansas City and commander a Metro bus filled with people. Shoot all passengers with an automatic weapon and set the vehicle on fire.
KANSAN letters
(3) Collect funds to support that friend of the lonely terrorist, Idi Amin. Buy Idi a nice card, thanking him for allowing so many Palestinians to work for the Ugandan government. Print leaflets telling the truth about Uganda, to inform Americans who
(4) Go to an airport and shoot as many people as possible.
have been biased by the Zionist press.
Explain Amin's decision to build a memorial to Adolf Hitler as a memoir of his wartime anti-Jewish metaphor. Such an act is anti-Zionist, not Jewish.
(5) Conduct a commando raid on a Jewish nursery school. Hold all of the children as hostages. Shoot them, one by one or en masse.
But however you decide to celebrate, whether by committing armed mayhem in a crowded, public place, or simply staying at home and destroying your furniture, have fun. Run. Retreat. Carry an antiflood bag. Imperialist reactions, and everyone in it a combatant.
(8) Bomb a synagogue.
Ronald Kuby
Lawrence senior