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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Oct. 16. 1958
The Issue That Isn't
A strange sound is emanating from both political camps in Kansas: Silence.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have declined to take a stand on the right to work amendment, which is the closest thing to an issue the campaign has seen so far.
The announced basis for this near-unanimous silence is that the amendment is a non-partisan issue.
Rot! With labor recognized as a major force in politics today, an amendment to outlaw the union shop cannot be anything but a political issue.
The real reason for reticence on right to work is also political. The amendment is the hottest thing in the campaign, and a party or candidate that takes the wrong side will probably be wiped out at the polls.
It is amusing, in a way, to watch the politicians of both parties on the same fence, wondering which way to jump. Meanwhile, the poor fatherless amendment is roaming the state. Would the parents please report to the scorers' table and claim their child?
Not in Kansas, they won't.
—Al Jones
Questions Must Be Answered
This afternoon three students are meeting with Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. This meeting is a test of strength in the controversy between certain married students and the KU administration.
There is a principle at stake in this meeting—the principle of the KU students' right to know their own business.
Some Sunnyside residents are asking to see the financial records that will show exactly what is done with the nearly $90,000 a year they pay for rent. J. J. Wilson, director of dormitories, has refused to show these records to any student organization or show the residents, hence the reason for the meeting with the chancellor.
Sunnyside residents are questioning the disposition of their money because, (1) Kansas statute states that rent must only be enough to cover maintenance costs at Sunnyside, and (2) similar facilities are available at Kansas State for less than half the $55 charged here.
All KU students, have a right to ask two questions:
(1.) Is all of the rent money being spent solely for the upkeep and maintenance of Sunnyside and, if not, for what is the money being used?
(2.) Why is Kansas State able to provide less expensive facilities when the two schools operate under the same statute?
A look at the files on Sunnyside could answer these questions. We hope these answers come out of the meeting this afternoon. —Bob Macy
It Looks This Way . . .
Campus controversies are rapidly coming to a head in many quarters. Judging from news stories, investigations, and personal contacts, here are some rumors of possible future breaks in the news.
By John Husar
Dr. R. I. Canuteson, hospital director, is rumored to be in favor of raising the student health fee $2 per semester. If allowed, this $4 per year raise will provide some few additional services for the students, resulting in a possible killing of the prospective student health insurance plan.
One can safely guess that J. J. Wilson, director of dormitories, will make no move to open his office's files on the Sunnyside rent breakdown. The ASC Housing Committee is currently investigating a possibility that some of the $90,000 rent paid by Sunnyside residents is being displaced into other University funds. Kansas statute provides that all of the money collected from student housing must be used for the maintenance, costs and upkeep of the University housing.
Vox Populi is set to appoint Martha Crosier as the new ASC representative from the School of Journalism, replacing Mary Alden.
On the other side of the political fence, AGI has unofficially taken a party stand in the coming freshman elections. Reliable sources say this is being done in the face of campus law restricting political parties from sponsoring class officers.
Watch for different kind of action from the All Student Council in the future. Word is circulating that the ASC is considering a move to recognize the best teachers on the Hill. How this will be accomplished has not been designated as yet. Only those faculty members deemed not worthy of Council sanction will be eliminated from the "blue book."
Developments on these issues will be announced within a short time. Still rumors, they can become facts if, so to speak, the right people turn the proper keys in the correct locks.
Horsepower Economics
The fate of our economy rides with the 1959 cars
The latest issue of Look magazine contains an article with this headline:
The article itself does not go quite as far, but the point is much the same—that the public's response to the new autos will be a major influence in this year's prosperity or lack of it. The basis for this theory is well-founded. The auto industry occupies one-sixth of the nation's work force.
Another fact, to be coupled with our dependence on the auto industry, is this: Detroit is still operating on the assumption that the average man wants a luxury car, and Detroit is probably right. Certainly economy cars have made only a small dent in the market. The automobile now appears to be more a prestige symbol than a means of transportation.
If Look is right, and it appears to be, the nation's economy largely hinges on Thorstein Veblen's old devil, conspicuous consumption—on luxury rather than need. In brief, the virtue of
thrift is less valuable to the economy than freewheeling spending.
That is no longer adequate. The auto must also be a Cleopatrician barge, a triumphal chariot, and an ostentatious display of the owner's success. Whether this is good or bad is immaterial.
This is an awkward position, and leads to some interesting speculation. How did the U.S.economy arrive at this state? First, through the profit motive inherent in business and due to the fierce competition among car makers. The competition is reflected in the great changes in auto advertising over the past few years. Only five years ago, the auto was still relatively plain, and the cheaper models at least were still designed primarily to go from one place to another.
But at least one advertising claim is true. The economic progress of the country now depends largely on the success of mass advertising. One-sixth of the nation's work force is depending on the selling job done for the 1959 line of cars.
We are delivered, for better or for worse, into the hands of the hucksters.
-A J.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"SO I GAVE HIM BACK HIS OLE FRATERNITY FIN."
Our scientists are "disappointed" because a cloud blocked their Pacific view of a total eclipse. We can just hear them saying "Gosh darn it, anyway."
Short Ones
Stalin was an introvert, they say, while Nikita is an extrovert. Well, we knew there was a difference, but we couldn't pinpoint it.
University of Kansas student newspaper
bibliography bwkcc
triweekly 1908, daily 16, 1912,
39
Daily Hansan
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Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service and Bradison at N.Y. News大厦. United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays, and examination periods. Enrolled in the University School of Law, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan. post office under act of March 3, 1879.
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