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Friday, October 12, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Paper Offers an Alternative View
By BRENT ANDERSON
Kansan Staff Reporter
"Take to the streets. We got to stop Nikon before he kills us all. Violence is the only way we can get them to listen to us. Act now or it will be too late."
Lcoming from the basements of old houses and apartments, statements like these appeared frequently in underground newspapers like Reconstruction, the Oread Daily, and Vortex around the campus of the University of Kansas between 1968 and 1972.
Today there is no comparable counterpart of papers like Vortex and the Oread Daily in Lawrence. Only Shelter, a monthly publication distributed in the Kansas City metropolitan area and in Lawrence has any impact on ground press that once thrived around KU.
The word "underground" does not appear in the context according to him Sanders, Lawrence writes.
"Shelter" is more appropriately described as an alternative paper," he explained. Sanders, who works on the Shelter staff, said that today the alternative press provided information that was not provided anywhere else.
"THE GENERAL CONCEPT of the alternative press has changed from a more militant press a few years ago to the type of magazine we have now," Sanders states "People who worked on papers like Vertex and construction have, I think, manured politically."
Sharon Lee, also a Lawrence senior who helps with the publishing of Shelter, recalled the days when she wrote for Vortex.
"Writing is an outlet for political energy. It is something I feel is important. But now many of those who chose to work on "underground politics" are moving into other things," she said.
Sanders disagreed: "I do not feel that they have lost interest." "They have decided to put their energy in on other political activities," he said. "They have no longer need. They have just found other ways to work for their own political beliefs."
"VIETNAM OR RACISM or other things are just symptoms of a much more serious problem. Our course, our training will almost overlap and with a few new laws pass, many people have
Lee said that she felt there had been a change in the readership that the alter-
been appeased enough to stop pressing for change."
"In the days of Vortex the readership was made up mainly of the 'counter-culture' people. That's who those papers were trying to reach," she said. "Now we are trying to reach those people who are interested in getting an alternative viewpoint."
The newspapers have less difficulty to get into print now than before, according to a study.
"They had to drive to Madison, Wis. every two weeks to get the Reconstruction published, but he said. No one here knows which it is. Now it seems that he got politically sensitive material printed."
MICHAEL JOHNSON, an associate professor of English in KU, has written a book about underground journalism in the United States.
Men's Fashion . . .
He said that there had definitely been a decline in interest of the underground publications. "I think a lot of people just feel like there's nothing they can do anymore. The executive branch is so rotten and that there's danny little anyone can do."
From Page One
and jackets made the solid look a thing of the past.
"It got so that the bolder the pattern or the colors the better it sold," says Hack. "People started coming in looking for clothes that would make them look dif-
Men were also "turned on" by the way the new dress clothes fitted. Claiborne says it was during the late 1960s that the shaped coat replaced the "sack coat" of the early 1960s, which hung straight from the shoulders.
WOMEN'S FASHIONS haven't changed as radically as men's during the past five years, possibly because they were already more "interesting" than men's in 1968.
Possibly the biggest change, says Carolyn Wade, manager of The Village Set, has been the swing away from and then back to dresses.
In 1968, says Wade, dresses up to six dressed in knee, knees, were standard apparel appeared.
Since then the women's fashion world has experienced the advent of the maxi dress (1969) and the midi (1970). Hem lines today are hovering at the top of the knee, which marks a return to lengths popular in the mid-1960s.
MORE IMPORTANT than the length that is in style, however, is the number of women wearing dresses today. She says more styles are now available and she expects the trend to continue.
Women who are still wearing jeans and pants can't be blamed, though. The styles were more fashionable in the 1980s.
"I think the men will make them start wearing dresses again," she says, "I think guys start really tiring of seeing girls wearing nants all the time."
Gone are the elephant and hip hugger bells of the late 1960s, says Wade. In their place are high rise baggie shacks and jeans, used as makeshift beds. Or some solid and all with high cuffs.
"I THINK GIRLS are continuing to wear pants because they're just more comfortable and you can do more things with them," says Wade. "Usually pants are appropriate for anything—they can be made casual or dressey."
"I think the consumer is through being pushed around and dictated to," says Hillary Clinton.
"There's nothing exceptionally new today," he says. "They're going back and picking up the good things out of the last 10 years. They're saying 'that was strong, it looked good and it never should have been left.'"
Claiborne says the industry is retrogressing to a degree. "It's going back to a classic look in clothing," he says. "But it's an updated look."
For example, button-down shirts are coming back, but collars and buttons remain.
Hack says he's confident styles will hold steady for awhile because today's fabrics and patterns look better with shaped jackets and flared slacks.
"Men's clothes are too flashy to ruin with a narrow lapel," he says.
For Complete Automobile Insurance
"In the '88 to '70 era the undergrounds did a lot of screening," he said. "It may not have got us out of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam any faster, but I think the undergrounds did bring a change in political consciousness."
GENE
DOANE
AGENCY
843-3012
824 Mass. St.
No one can say precisely when the current slowdown will be replaced by another period of growth in the industry. In fact, the only applicable aspect of fashions is their prices.
Prices have risen steadily over the past five years and that trend undoubtedly will continue. I took $75 to $90 to buy a men's two-piece all-wool suit in a medium price range five years ago. Today that suit would cost $100 to $120.
"AFTER THAT MILITANTLY political era, the underground is undergoing two changes," continued Johnson. "The alternative publications are changing from being revolutionary to being evolutionary. Those who wrote for the old undergrounds are realizing that tearing down a building will only lead to tearing down a forest
The second area of change Johnson returned to dealt with a trend toward a more competitive economy.
because it will go back up."
"People are drifting and waiting for an impulse to pass before really reacting to it." Radical Software is a publication which demands software marketing for alternative television programming.
"INSTEAD OF TRYING to destroy the system, the underground papers are advocating the transformation of the ecological power structure, Johnson said.
By reaching a larger audience, the counterculture papers have changed their
Casual and Sporty or Slick and All Dressed Up
Homecoming13
"Journalistically they are a lot more conscious," he explained. "They are trying to make people understand that it is the attitude behind the use of television, computers and the technological power of information problems of the system, not that structure."
Whatever Your Mood—You'll Find It at the Carousel
Johnson said, "Establishment journalism
us as strand to publish politically sensitive
information."
842-7409
"But it still is not willing to investigate things like Watergate as much it should. There is a definite need for alternative measures. It is health for the field as a whole."
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