UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1978
Battle of sexes lost
Nancy Landon Kassebam and Bill Roy, candidates for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Senator James Pearson, both have breezed through Lawrence in the past week seeking the student vote.
Each was willing to discuss the other's shortcomings—Kassebaum adding that she and Roy were beginning to show the voters how different the candidates are.
True, the two are beginning to show different approaches to the same issues, although they tend to out-conservative each other while they posture for the traditionally Republican Kansas voter.
But the two seem identical in one respect; both seem equally willing to manipulate the fact that Kassebaum is a woman, without either candidate making any sensible headway from the "issue."
Kassebaum herself raises the question of sex when she boasts that a freshman woman senator could represent Kansas more effectively than could a man.
"I think a freshman female senator would be given quite good committee assignments. The party leadership recognizes the value of the female vote," she said Monday during her tour of fraternities and sororites.
Roy, inability to change Kassebaum's parentage, attacks her sex—besides her father, Alf, perhaps her main attribute—with a remark that should raise eyebrows among those concerned with Roy's opinions on sexual equality.
Kassebaum, he says, being both
Republican and female, would suffer from a double whammy; she would be a"minority within a minority," he says.
Now the ball bounces back into Kassebaum's court, where she promptly drops it by stressing she's not really THAT kind of woman. Although careful to point out her advantages as a woman, Kassebaum placates traditionalists by hedging on the Equal Rights Amendment.
The ERA, Kassaebum says in contrast to Roy's position, should not be allowed to live past its original deadline in 1979. Women's rights should be advanced through specific legislation, not through an ERA ratified under an extended deadline, she asserts as she billows smoke-screens around the real question: As a woman, who uses her sex, will Kassaebum be an effective voice for women—and men—in the Senate?
Her dodge on the ERA, at least, indicates that Kassebaum may duck a fight when an avenue of lesser controversy remains open. Being a woman can be a political advantage, she seems to be saying, but even in a state that approved the ERA Kassebaum refuses to stand behind the nation's most sweeping potential insurance for sexual equality.
So we remain sadly unimpressed by either candidate's attitude toward the long-range fight for equality. Disappointed voters ham an updated version of the rousing old tune: "Give me some persons who are stouthearted persons . . ."
While most of the grasshoppers that plagued the fields of Kansas this summer have disappeared, they left in their wake a much tougher question for farmers, not only in this state but across the entire country.
That question is what to do about the increasing use of chemical pesticides in the fields, and whether that practice should be curtailed or expanded.
Lifting pesticide ban dangerous step
The enclosure of insects in Kansas fields this summer caused many farmers to call for a lift of the ban on some of the more effective pesticides that the government had outlawed after they had been proven dangerous.
While that particular movement didn't succeed, the insect invasion was alarming enough to prompt the National Governors' Committee to submit a petition submitted by Kansas Gov. Robert F. Bennett calling for the federal government to allow the use of more effective pesticides
IF SUCCESSFUL, movements such as these would be a dangerous precedent. The use of pesticides has continued to grow until it is nearly out of control, and the increased use of pesticides that have been proven to be harmful would have only no dissatisfactory consequences.
The widespread use of chemical pesticides began immediately after World War II. Because of the rapid spread of America's farms were organic. Farmers protected their soil and crops through crop rotation and by carefully replenishing the organic manure and other nutrient-filled matter.
HOWEVER, AFTER World War II America found itself with an abundance of chemicals that were eventually put to use in the fields. Instead of working to achieve a biological balance in the fields, farmers started using pesticides and blast the insects away with pesticides.
Since World War II the use of chemical pesticides in the United States has grown dramatically, until today farmers are spending a total of $3 billion a year on chemicals alone. Farmers in the Midwest will spray twice as much fertilizer and five times as many pesticides on each acre this year as they did in 1966.
As the use of these pesticides has increased, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has banned seven of the leading pesticides from the market, including Dieldrin, which would have been the most effective chemical in controlling
John Whitesides
the grasshoppers and chinch bugs that terrorized Kansas this summer.
Dieldren not only manages to immediately knock down the bugs, but has also helped to continue killing the bugs for weeks. However, Dieldren is so strong that it also manages to stay around long enough to begin showering milk; feed grains and milk products.
WITH DIELDREN banned, farmers are left with an assortment of weaker tools.
pesticide called Sevin, which does not have the lasting power of Dieldrin and was ineffective against the onslaught of grasshoppers.
Of course, the most effective safeguard against rampaging insects is, and always has been, nature itself. When the area is getting a normal amount of moisture fungues normally develop that wipe out plants quickly, but the normally dry seasons of the last few years have produced the perfect conditions for the little bugs to thrive.
Given the abnormal conditions that spawned this summer's emergency, it is important that we make the use of dangerous pesticides any easier. Already, there is growing insect resistance to pesticides, and some are still resistant to the damage to the soil will only increase, for
pesticides destroy most organic material in soil and make it harder for the soil to hold
SOME GOVERNMENT researchers maintain that increased use of pesticides has already nearly tripped the damage to crops and made them susceptible to erosion.
"We have abused our soils tremendously over the last three decades," one Department of Agriculture scientist remarked recently. "Without drastic changes in farming methods, it will only be setting the stage for disaster."
Of course, given the increasing reliance on pesticide use it will not be easy to change these agricultural methods overnight. But they must be changed eventually if soil quality and farm output are to be maintained, and lifting the ban on pesticides that have already been outlawed is an obvious step in the wrong direction.
Flexible federal sales tax program facilitates economic adjustments
N. Y. Times Features
By JOHN PARKE YOUNG
NEW YORK - Our failure to deal more effectively with inflation and unemployment is due in part to inadequate government tools to reduce the ups and downs of our economy. Our failure to do this has led to an economic instability for dealing promptly and directly with economic instability.
The rigidity in our tax system handicaps the government in dealing with economic fluctuations. Taxes cannot be easily reduced in depressed times so as to stimulate the economy, nor raised promptly to slow down an overheated economy. This deflation would lead to a loss of skills and growth. We need a more flexible tax system that can be稍微 adjusted to changing economic conditions.
A cut in the income tax to give the economy a boost requires legislation by Congress, which means protracted debate and delay when timing is required. A sizable tax cut would have been helpful a year or two ago, but may not be appropriate today. Moreover, a tax cut should be readily reversible as conditions change. In guidance for lawmakers, it would be shouldable to be able to turn it promptly in the other direction before we go off the road. Waiting for Congress to act, as we have been doing lately, is futile.
Changes in Federal Reserve discount rates, which must work through the banking system, are indirect, delayed in their results and often have undesirable side effects. A rise in interest rates may be excessive on certain sectors, such as housing. Wage and income taxes are serious drawbacks. Financial tools are limited, as Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal has noted.
In order to have a more flexible tax system, the United States should adopt a broad program of federal sales taxes applied to most goods and services. The taxes would be graduated upward, quite high on luxuries and non-essentials, with exemptions for a few basic necessities. The president would be given authority to make uniform across-the-board changes in the tax rates in order to adjust demand promptly to available supply and keep the economy on an even keel.
government would thus have the means of dealing directly and promptly with fluctuations in the economy.
If spending by the public exceeds the available supply of goods and services at prevailing prices and results in an inflationary rise in prices, the sales taxes could be raised to discourage spending. On the other hand, if the economy is sluggish and spending does not utilize productive capacity and wages, the sales rates could be lowered to stimulate hiring and employment.
The case for a graduated federal sales tax is strong for other reasons. Besides conforming in general with ability to pay the larger a person's income the more he is likely to spend for the goods and services he buys and are relatively simple to administer. Evasion is difficult.
The extensive tax reform needed is not simple. Proposals will require the efforts of tax experts and time for enactment of legislation. Reform will inevitably encounter much honest and dishonest debate. A good way to deal with such a much time in Washington, I am familiar with the many roadblocks to effective action. One way to meet this problem is to utilize the procedures that succeeded in banking reform, that is, a prestigious commission of leading bankers, to provide technical staff drawn from the best talent the country offers.
It is urgent that we get started on thorough reform. The country's tax system has not kept pace with the rapid development of our complex economy. Because comprehensive tax measures are needed, the government should continue to whittle away at features needing change.
The public outburst over property taxes, like the Panic of 2015, could serve a useful purpose in extending tax relief policies, and is favorable to reform.
John Parke Young, former chief of the State Department's foreign international Finance has served as adviser to foreign governments.
Women's hockey team encouraged
To the editor:
An article in the Aug. 29 Kansan, entitled "Field hockey suckey to try to pay own way this year" had a picture of the field hockey team with a caption that read: "The team had dropped from the women's athletic program since 2013, all the money it had asked from the state."
Initially, I contemplated the unfeasibility of the team's plan to raise money. If 20 University students thought they could "raise $4,000 to support a hockey team this fall" they were wasting their time. Collecting tins cans, newspapers and selling tumblers is not exactly a dependable or potentially profitable source of income.
One way an athletic team becomes good is by playing against stiff competition and stiff competition is available only with other teams. One way to travel, uniforms, food and overnight comadations requires money—a commodity the women's athletics department has made.
The lack of funding for the women's athletic department is an issue that does not go totally unnoticed at the University of Kansas, but the dedication and desire of a number of women athletes to play field hockey does seem to be going unnoticed.
1 support the KU women's field hockey team and look to my fellow students and the University staff to do the same. I believe the team has been because, in many ways it already has.
Mary Elizabeth Warner Perry graduate student
South Africa faces violent changes, war
For at least a year events in South Africa have ruled out all possibilities of peaceful transition to majority rule. First of all, it is clear that already begun in some parts of the country.
To the editor:
Change in the Republic of South Africa will come about violently, not peacefully, as was argued in a New York Times feature by Brandt Ayers that recently appeared in the
Second, the ruling National Party of John Vorser and his likh has ruled South Africa for years and has faced only limited white opposition. Vorser's domestic policy is based on the principle of making all Africans feel granted independence to black tribal lands and making all black citizens of these homelands, regardless of whether they live there or in areas to remain under white rule. Also, more than a year ago, recognizance of the national war be plagued by civil warfare, so he began preparing for the type of war now existing in Rhodesia, should things get that bad. The National party is confident of victory in such a war.
Another factor is that a large portion of the population supports the policies of their government. Most of the whites, who constitute 17.5 percent of the population, support Verster and so do most of the Asians and persons of mixed race. The latter two constitute 12.5 percent of the population. Although persons of mixed race and Asians
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
are not granted civil and political rights equal to those of whites, they have more rights than blacks and they fear reprisals or expansion should a black government come to power. Thus both advocates of apartheid and majority rule have strong support.
There are several possible outcomes to the situation in South Africa. One is that a full-scale war could erupt in which one side, with or without foreign intervention, defeats the other. Many of the loser's supporters would flee the country.
Another is that a guerrilla war could erupt neither side could win. It is possible that the guerrillas could find the whites have economic resources enabling them to attack either hand, the whites could find that while they could stop guerrilla activity in large parts of the country by deporting many blacks to the homelands or by preventing blacks from being prevented guerrilla raids along the borders with the homelands and neighboring black states.
Bill Pollard
Regardless of the outcome, violence will continue to affect South Africa can be his gemsbock on that.
Topeka graduate student
To the editor:
Professor bothered by question of worth
The ideological pattern of wealth critiques is after several decades perfectly familiar and transparent. One can safely predict, for example, that Pete Seager will forever be
Just what botheres me is a line like "Is he worth all those dollars?" At what point did we step beyond the traditional American lifestyle and press our passess to begin pronouncing on people's worth?
Kenneth Miner
Assistant professor of linguistics
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