KANSAN
79th Year, No.36
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, November 5, 1968
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Syrians fire on Jordan
AMMAN, Jordan-Syrian-backed commandos, protesting efforts to restrict forays into Israel, opened fire Monday on troops loyal to Jordan's King Hussein. The government said the commandos used women and children as shields during hours of street fighting.
There were no official reports on casualties in the fighting which lasted most of Sunday night and ended Monday morning.
Italian flood toll near 100
BIELLA, Italy—Rescuers pressed their search for the living and the dead under clearing skies Monday in an area stricken by four days of disastrous flooding. The death toll neared 100.
Authorities said at least 93 persons were known dead, with more than 40 injured and some missing in the hilly area around Biella, where rain-swollen rivers and creeks rampaged through five towns.
Thousands were homeless and factories and other buildings were washed away during the weekend that dealt northwest Italy a severe economic blow.
Lake Maggiore, Italy's second largest, was reported still rising late Monday, threatening several towns along its eastern shore.
Czech army stands alert
PRAGUE—Czechoslovak army units Monday moved into outlying districts of Prague on standby alert for possible demonstrations Wednesday and Thursday when the nation observes a tense 51st anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
The transfer of Czechoslovak troops coincided with a flurry of conoy movements by Russian armed forces from the countryside to a 20-mile-wide perimeter around the city.
Decision today on vehicle tax
Lawrence voters today are deciding the fate of a proposed city ordinance, which, if passed, will provide for a $10 tax on all vehicles—automobiles, trucks and motorcycles—kept within the city.
The proposed ordinance will levy taxes on student-owned vehicles, as well as those owned by permanent residents of Lawrence.
In accordance with a present Kansas statute, revenue derived from this tax will be used exclusively for resurfacing, widening and traffic control of city streets.
The alternative to the tax is an increase in property taxes in Lawrence, said a bulletin issued by Citizens for Fair Share Streets, a committee organized last October to inform voters of the proposed ordinance.
While the vehicle tax probably would not prevent future increases in property taxes, the bulletin said, it would take the burden of street maintenance away from the property owner.
Steve Parsons, co-chairman of the citizens committee, said the tax is a "definite way of relating benefits to cost on a service necessary to the community." This tax would place responsibility for street maintenance on users of the streets.
While this ordinance will affect the KU community, most students will not be voting on the vehicle tax issue. A spokesman for the city clerk's office said students of voting age must register at their permanent addresses. Only if a student's home address is Lawrence will he be allowed to register to vote on this issue.
Vietnam 'debate' winds up campaign
By United Press International
The presidential candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties Monday night used four-hour telethons on rival television networks to engage in a "remote control" debate of the bombing halt in Vietnam.
Republican Richard M. Nixon, appearing on NBC-TV in Burbank, Calif., told viewers he was alarmed to read a news report Monday quoting an Air Force general as saying that the Communists in Vietnam were moving tons of material along the Ho Chi Minh Trail "and our bombers are not able to stop them."
Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, from an ABC TV studio in Hollywood, Calif., promptly disputed Nixon's claim, calling it an irresponsible and totally unsubstantiated charge.
Humphrey said he thought Nixon knew the President's order did not include the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos which is "subject to intensive air power . . . all lines of communications are subject to intensive air interdiction."
Humphrey and his running mate, Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, surrounded themselves with screen stars and for four hours on live television answered questions ranging from legalized abortion to the Middle East crisis.
The Nixon telethon was conducted by 100 "Nixonaires," including his daughters, Julie and Tricia, fielding the telephone calls.
Nixon told viewers hopes for
Hubert takes early 8-4 lead
DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (UPI)—This White Mountains hamlet cast the first votes in the nation early Tuesday in the presidential election and gave Hubert H. Humphrey eight votes, and Richard M. Nixon four. George C. Wallace was shut out.
After the balloting was announced, the 12 registered voters six men and six women-sat around smiling as they munched on doughnuts and sipped coffee. The community has a population of 19, compared with 20 cows.
Ellsworth, in central New Hampshire, was the second town to report—moments after Dixville Notch checked in—and gave its 11 votes to Nixon. Ellsworth also went entirely for the GOP in 1964, casting nine votes for Barry M. Goldwater and none for Lyndon Johnson.
In Dixville Notch, this year's vote represented an about-face from four years ago when there were eight voters and each ballot went to Goldwater.
Weather
Cloudy with a chance of rain today possibly mixed with snow tonight and diminishing Wednesday. Colder tonight and Wednesday. Easterly winds 10 to 20 miles per hour today. High in the 50s. Low tonight 30 to 35. Probability of precipitation 50 per cent today 80 per cent tonight and 40 per cent Wednesday.
--peace have been "gravely diminished" since announcement of the bombing halt because President Johnson relied on a group of tired diplomats. He said he believes the American diplomats in Saigon and Paris were "well intentioned men" but noted they were tired and therefore made mistakes.
Meanwhile pollsters Louis Harris and George Gallup_release polls
Vote today polls open until 7 p.m.
yesterday with results so close they said it was either man's election to win.
A final survey published by Harris on election eve put Humphrey in the lead for the first time, giving him a 43 to 40 percentage-point margin over his Republican rival with the candidacy of George C. Wallace drawing 13 per cent and 4 per cent undecided.
Both pollsters noted that a 3 to 4 per cent margin of error in their polls made the results too close to permit a prediction of Tuesday's outcome.
But the Gallup poll, published earlier yesterday showed Nixon holding a 42 to 40 per cent edge.
One national poll, the Sindlinger Daily Survey, conducted by telephone, gave Humphrey the edge—by six-tenths of one percent.
Surveys by the New York Times and the Washington Post indicated that despite the potential narrowness of the popular vote Nixon led in states with enough electoral votes to assure hime the presidency.
In Los Angeles earlier yesterday, Nixon said only his election could prevent "what could be a diplomatic disaster" in the Vietnam peace talks.
Campaigning in the same city, Humphrey sternly demanded that Saigon participate in the expanded peace talks, arranged with the North Vietnamese in the agreement which led to President Johnson's decision to halt the bombing of North Vietnam.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a statement issued by an aide and by the Nixon headquarters in Los Angeles, praised Nixon for not criticizing the bombing halt decision "even though the President's action, taken just before the election, seemed likely to have political repercussions adverse to his (Nixon's) own fortunes . . .
"It would be supreme irony if these statesmanlike positions of Richard Nixon, maintained despite the greatest provocation, should now be turned into instruments of political injury to him," Eisenhower said.
★★
LOS ANGELES (UPI) - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, noting the surge in the final polls for Hubert H. Humphrey, yesterday said "the American people may have been swayed by President Johnson's recent order to stop our attacks on North Vietnam."
But, said the former president, Richard M. Nixon should be praised for his "statesman-like positions . . maintained despite the greatest provocation" in regard to the bombing halt ordered by Johnson on Thursday.
Eisenhower drafted a statement at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, where he is recovering from a heart attack, and the statement was released by Nixon aides in Los Angeles.
"Even though the President's action, taken just before the election, seemed likely to have political repercussions adverse to his own fortune, Richard Nixon resisted all pressure to challenge the action on political grounds," Eisenhower said
Kansas governor race is close; GOP looks strong for other spots
TOPEKA, Kan. (UPI)-Most of the attention of the estimated 950,000 voters will be on the race for governor between GOP challenger Rick Harman and Democratic incumbent Gov. Robert B. Docking.
Otherwise, the polls indicate the Republicans will take most of the offices in the election, which is forecast to draw more voters than the 1964 and 1960 elections.
Docking, if re-elected, would be only the second Democrat to win two straight terms.
Intense Race
Harman, a restaurant manager from Fairway and an ex-Kansas State basketball All-American has run an intense race against Docking, and the polls are uncertain in forecasting the winner.
The lieutenant governor's race also is expected to be close, between state Rep. John Conard, a Republican and Speaker of the House, and James H. DeCoursey
Jr., a former aide to Docking. De-Coursey was defeated for the office in 1966.
Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon is forecast to again carry the state, as he did in 1960, that time by almost 200,000 votes.
Dole Favored
GOP Congressman Bob Dole is predicted to be a easy winner over Wichita attorney William I. Robinson in the election for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican Sen. Frank Carlson.
The race for Dole's 1st District congressional seat has prompted a hard campaign between Democratic state Rep. George Meeker of Garden City and state Sen. Keith Sebelius, a Republican from Norton.
The four other congressional seats appear to be safely in the hands of the Republican incumbent: Reps. Chester Mize, Garner Shriver, Joe Skubitz and Larry Winn Jr.