Fanatics
They concede that they aren't ordinary fans and that they organized on a whim, but the presence of the Bleacher Creatures is anything but jocular. Along with the JV
cheerleaders, they're just 69 students who hope to increase support for women's sports. After all, there's little thrill in victory if nobody's around to see it. See page 6.
Brisk
High, 30s. Low, teens. Details on page 3
The University Daily
KANSAN
Vol. 95, No. 69 (USPS 650-640)
Tuesday, December 4, 1984
Customers gathered on the porch of the Hawk's Crossing, a tavern rich in KU tradition, earlier this fall.
Last call at the Crossing Dec.15
By LAURETTA SCHULTZ Staff Reporter
Hawk's Crossing, a tavern with close and enduring ties to the University of Kansas, will close Dec. 15, the owner of the bar said last night.
Jeff Morrow, the owner of the Crossing since it reopened in 1980, confirmed rumors that the 57-year-old gathering place would close before its five-year lease was up at the end of the month.
"I still can't believe it is true," he said. "But I talked to the owners of the land today, and at this point, I fully intend to vacate on the 15th."
J. T. THICHER, ONE of the landowners, said last night that he would not comment on the situation.
"It may close; it may not," he said "it has no comment where this is located."
Morrow, however, said he was sure of the future of the bar.
"For all practical purposes, the building is sold," he said. "They sold it to a beauty parlor or something like that."
orrow said that six months ago he offered to buy the land from the owners.
"I made them an offer of $10,000 above the appraised value," he said. "But the people who bought it offered an additional $13,000 more than me."
The history of the KU landmark, at 618 W. 12th Street, is somewhat hard to trace.
In 1927, J.C. Ramsey opened a restaurant there and began serving the student community.
THE IN 1932, THE restaurant became known as the Rock Chalk Stand 2. The name changed to Rock Chalk Cafe about 10 years later.
During World War II, the tavern closed. After the war, it was leased and later bought by Ivan Rowe and his wife. The Roewes leased the building from Ramsey
In mid-March of 1971, the Rock Chalk Cafe was forced to close by Vern Merman, who was the Kansas attorney general. Miller contacted Virgil Cooper, the owner of the cafe, and told him to close the cafe, or it would be closed by an injunction declaring it a nuisance. Miller said the bar was a center for Lawrence drug traffic.
The bar reopened in 1972 as the Newaven and braided hands several times until 1986. In 1990, it was relocated to a new location.
Doug McWard, a bartender at the tavern, said he had known the Crossing would close for more than a month.
"THERE WERE ALL SORTS of rumors, and I couldn't confirm or deny any of them." he said. "But in 12 more days, this place is history."
McWard, a St Louis senior, has been working at the tavern for about six
"There's no reason for me to go under," he said. "What a waste. All I know
Is I'm out of a job
Dan Gardner, who described himself as
a "devoted regular," said the closing of the bar would change his lifestyle
"I've been coming here for years," he said. "The big question here is: Where are we going to go when this place closes?"
Morrow said that, until yesterday, he had always thought something would come through to allow the bar to stay open.
"EVERYONE KEPT HOPING that it wasn't really going to close," he said. "I was out of town for three weeks, and the first thing I found out when I got back today was that they intended to close it down for sure."
Monte Smith, another regular customer, said the Crossing's unique atmosphere would be hard to match.
"This is the only bar in town where people in college over the age of 22 feel welcome," he said. "The people here are so diverse. There are old hippies, punkers, people of various sexual persuasions and every political viewpoint you could think
"And they take phone calls for people here. They'll even take messages. This is the only place my mom knows she can reach me."
Morrow said he thought Hawk's Cross-
drew drew a 'non-conformist' crowd.
"Hawk's Crossing has always been somewhat of a safe harbor for people seeking an alternative to the Greek or Roman culture, but it has a very regular crowd, and they read.
"So am 1.
By United Press International
Hundreds are killed by gas leak in India
NEW DELHI, India — A cloud of poisonous gas spewed from a pesticide plant owned by a U.S. corporation and enveloped the city of Bhopal yesterday, killing at least 375 people and injuring more than 20,000 others in one of the worst industrial accidents in Indian history.
Authorities said they feared the death tol, would rise because 2,000 of the injured were in serious condition. Officials said most of the dead were children and old men.
The tunes of methyl isocyanate descended on the city of 628,000 about 2:30 a.m., sparking mass panic as sleeping residents jolted awake and were homes to escape from the blaze. dumping kings.
"WOMEN WITH BABIES in their arms and children clinging to their saris were seen moving out of the city by all modes of transport," one witness said.
The gas escaped from a pesticide plant owned by the Union Carbide Co., based in Danbury, Conn., on the outskirts of Bhopal, 360 miles southwest of New Delhi, the Press Trust of India said. Union Carbide said the plant had been in operation for five years.
State and city officials put the death toll at 375. They said the accident was one of the worst in the industrial history of independent India.
Chief Minister Arjun Singh of the Madhyapradesh state closed the facility, called for a judicial inquiry and ordered the arrest of five officers of Union Carbide, India Ltd., the U.S. firm's Indian subsidiary. The five, all believed to be Indian citizens, were charged with causing death by negligence and placed under house arrest, officials said.
MOST OF THE DEAD were taken to
Hamidia government hospital and Jayaprakash hospitals. Seven bodies were counted at Kaju Hospital and 20 more bodies were found in the railway station area.
Doctors from the police, military and nearby towns were rushed in to help the injured.
Hospitals, able to admit only 2,000 of the most seriously injured, set up makeshift treatment centers on their grounds to treat some 18,000 others suffering from eye inflammations, vomiting and breathing difficulties.
Rumors of a new gas leak during the day triggered a mass panic and "a number of women and children were hurt in a stampede" that followed, the United News of
Singh appealed in a radio broadcast for people to remain calm.
PRIME MINISTER Rajiv Gandhi said, "I am shocked and deeply grieved at the terrible tragedy in Bhopal. The huge toll that it has taken is horrifying."
The government pledged $500 to the families of each person killed by the gas leak and $100 to all of the injured.
Plant officials said the methyl isocyanate had leaked from an underground storage tank containing 45 tons of the gas and was stopped within minutes. No plant employees
S. Kumaraswamy, regional manager of Union Carbide, India Ltd., said the leak had occurred when pressure suddenly rose inside the storage tank and a valve ruptured. The exact amount of leaked gas was not immediately known.
He said a safety system designed to
See INDIA, p. 5, col. 1
Graduate trys to refute Kansas' image in play
By JOHN EGAN Staff Reporter
Dennis J. Reardon wants to form a new image of Kansas.
Through his play, "Steeley Jack," Reardon attempts to portray the Flounder State as "interesting and profane" instead of "flat and boring."
"Kansas is an essential image in the play." Reardon said Sunday from his father's home in Goltea, Calif. "I chose Kahsa because it has, which I sort of wanted to refute."
The two-act play recently was named one of four finalists for the 1985 National Play Award of the National Repertory Theatre Foundation in Los Angeles, the nation's largest and most prestigious competition for unproduced plays.
REARDON, A 1966 KU graduate, was one of more than 1,000 playwrights who submitted manuscripts. The winning play
wright, to be announced in the spring, will receive a cash prize of $12,500, and the foundation will produce the play.
Reardon, who lives in Middleburgh, N.Y., said the play was dedicated to Jack Longhurst, a KU history professor from 1963 to 1982. Longhurst died two years ago.
David Longhurst, the history professor's son and a city commissioner, said. "My dad always was an avid reader," he said.
recarooned the history professor had greatly influenced his life.
"We became good friends after I graduated," he said of the KU professor. "It was quite a blow to me when I found he passed away from a heart attack a couple of years ago."
A STORY THAT REARDON caught on the evening news became folder for the play, he said. Reardon saw a report about a derelict in New Jersey who lived in the steeple of a church during the winter.
See REARDON, p. 5, col. 4
Financial worries make farmers fight to survive
By SUZANNE BROWN
Staff Reporter
"We farmers know what freedom means," Chuck McKinsey said, slowly rubbing his gravey beard "We can walk across the ground and can plow the ground and listen to the quietness.
The sinking sun cast a wan glow over the silent fields, and the farmer stood and surveyed the land he had fought to keep from authorities for more than a year.
A small, cold wind rustled the desolate weeds that clung to the edge of McKinsey's gravel driveway as he pointed to the spot where, in July 1983, the 50-year-old farmer held a shotgun to officials who sought to foreclose on his property.
quot: "If I lived in the city, I probably would have walked away from it. But this one, I'm willing to die for."
"Yeah! I guess you could call me militant," he said, "it being desperate is militant. But I don't want to go out and hurt anybody
I just want to save my farm. McKinsey, who faces bankruptcy and foreclosure on his 220 acre wheat farm, has recently joined 18 other Kansas farmers in a legal battle that seeks to save their farms from run
attempts to overturn the entire financial structure of the country.
But the farmers want more than that. They plan to re file a lawsuit today in Topeka that
Lawsuit names local banks
The farmers re-filed suit will be the latest step in their saga. Last month, they filed a class-action lawsuit charging 23 lending institutions, including the Lawrence National Bank and the University State Bank in Lawrence, with making loans that were illegal because they were not backed by gold and silver coin in the lenders' reserves.
Within eight days, the suit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Earl E. O'Connor in Kansas City, Kan. In a seven-page opinion, O'Connor called the farmers' claim "clearly frivolous" because it asserted that paper money was not legal tender.
Donald Johnston, president of University State Bank, 655 Iowa St. said the judge's ruling is "unfavorable."
"Anyone has every right to bring a case to court," he said, "but it needs to be based on some logic, which wasn't displayed in this case."
Emil F. Wiley, one of the chief spokesmen for the farmers, is far from being daunted by the dismissal. He said last week that the new suit would add the Federal Reserve Bank to its list of defendants, which includes the Farmers Home Administration, the Federal Land Bank and various small banks throughout Kansas.
"The way banks loan money they don't even possess is a fraud and an insult to the people of this country," said Wiley, 56, who said he had lost four farms in the past several years. He now lives on his father's property about seven miles east of North Lawrence.
To help them fight their seemingly hopeless cause, the farmers have turned to Norman Kuhman, a former Arizona publisher, who has coureded these farmers and others on how to represent themselves in court. Some of the farmers have been involved in individual suits as well as the class-action suit.
Network extends across land
The connection between Kuhan and the farmers is part of a larger movement that extends across the country and, according to Kuhan, is related to the grievances of people loosely joined in more than 5,000 small groups that share similar political, social and religious views.
This network is promoted by such men as Kuhnman and Wiley, who called the large stone house that sits atop a slight incline on the river bank to serve as a refuge for like-minded people from around the country.
These unofficial groups include the Arizona Patriots, an organization that Kuhman helped form in the past two years, and the Posse Comitatus, a shadowy term for
militant anti-tax advocates and others who share a deep mistrust of many government authorities.
According to Kuhrman and others, those affiliated with groups such as the Pose are staunch supporters of the law as set forth in the U.S. Constitution, but believe many state and local laws do not follow the Constitution's original intent.
Raymond Foster, a 47-year-old Osborne farmer and another plaintiff in the suit, said he thought the struggles farmers faced had led many of them to a radical opposition to the U.S. monetary system.
In the past several years, the hard times that fell upon farmers such as Mckinsey led some of them to espouse the solutions of such groups as the Posse.
"Even if my farm was saved now," he said, "if there was no basic national change, then somewhere down the road you'll have the same problem again."
intercourse.
McKinsey said that, although he joined the suit to save his own farm, he wouldn't be satisfied now until the monetary system under which so many farmers had failed was abolished.
I rmk everyone will eventually come to see how wrong the system is," he said "The only difference is, the farmers are realizing it much quicker because they ve run into so
Farm economy takes toll
Since 1980, a depressed national farm economy has taken its toll on the modest family farms that have typified American agriculture. Conventional government aid, such as price supports and the 1983 payment-in-kind (PIK) program, have failed to permanently solve the farmers' problems.
Larry E. Davis, state director for the Farmers' Home Administration in Topeka, said the chief culprit in farm failures recently was high interest rates, which were particularly damaging to farmers who had expanded greatly in the 1970s.
These farmers, Davis said, pitd up huge debts by overinvesting in land and equipment, in hopes that land values would continue to climb. But land values and crop prices dropped, and many farmers were left paying interest rates as high as 22 percent.
This Davis said, combined with a severe drought in 1983 and a smaller foreign market since the January 1980 grain embargo, helped many farmers to the brink of financial ruin.
Marlyn Aycock, public affairs officer for the FIA in Washington, said the size of farms in the United States had been increasing and the number of farmers
See FARMERS, p. 5, col. 1