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Tuesday, February 18, 1975
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the views of the writers.
Bennett aura fades
Any enchantment Kansans might have had with Gov. Robert Bennett earlier in his new administration should be considerably greater than the Kansas Corporation Commission-Southwestern Bell Co. affair.
The governor has blasted the telephone company for offering toll-free long distance service and a day in Las Vegas at Bell's expense to commissioners, calling the offering of such gratuities "reprehebens."
But where is his blast at the commissioners for accepting the offers?
It is all well and good to criticize the source of an improper offer, but to restrict the criticism to the source really miss the point of the problem.
Bennett has announced that he'll let Atty. Gunt. Curt Schneider decide whether commission chairman Dale Saffels and commissioner Vernon Stroberg violated state law in accepting the side trip to Las Vegas while on a plant inspection tour at the expense of Southwestern Bell.
This is a convenient out for Bennett, because it is unlikely that either commissioner violated any written law. If they didn't, the
governor has his excuse to let the matter die.
But the issue of a legal violation is secondary here. What this matter deals with is propriety, ethics, public trust and good citizenship, that can't be defined in law books but that are vital in the conduct of public officials.
If indeed there was no preferential consideration given Southwestern Bell by the commissioners, perhaps such a strong measure as asking for their resignations isn't in order. What is in order, however, is a strong reprimand of the commissioners by Gov. Bennett, as well as an immediate investigation of whether they or any other state officials are receiving similar gratuities from any other source.
When members of a regulatory commission accept gifts of substantial value from an agency that they are charged to regulate, they can't expect to receive the trust of the people they serve. They should respect the support of the governor. Neither should we expect him to give it.
And Gov. Bennett might reflect a bit on the subject of propriety and ethics of public officials.
—John Pike
Scientist dies at 87
Julian Huxley was truly a man of the 20th century. He didn't just live in the 20th century. He understood the significance of the major trends that have brought the human race where it is today. It has not only path the human race must take if it is to survive on this planet.
Julian died Friday at his home in England. In his 87 years he produced an enviable assortment of exhibitions for the improvement of our race.
Most college students are more familiar with the writings of Julian's famous grandfather, Thomas Huxley, and his younger brother, the late Alexander. Julian was every bit as significant as any member of the Huxley clan.
Julian was more like his grandfather than his brother. He was a biologist by profession and an unwerving proponent of the scientific method. Like Grandfather Thomas, Julian supported Darwin during the great evolution controversy, Julian rejected supernaturalism and mysticism.
Julian thought that belief in the supernatural kept the human race in chains. Julian was an advocate of what he called "scientific humanism." He sought to popularize仰听仰看仰悟, growing body of scientific fact and the widening application of the scientific method.
He wrote dozens of books on science and scientific humanism, including "Religion Without God," "The Lost and Alone" and "What Dare I Think?"
Julian was dedicated to the improvement of the human race. In 1946, he became the first director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Institutes. He appointed this post brought cries of protest from many religious groups in the United States.
Julian was much interested in American civilization. His first trip here came in 1913, when he became an assistant professor of biology at Rice Institute in Houston. He was also written critically that the American college curricula tended to categorize rather than correlate.
Julian returned briefly to the United States in the 1920s. His visit sparked a series of articles in which he expressed digust at the "virulent cultural and self-sacrifice movement" known as Fundamentalism.
Julian was never bashful when it came to expressing his views. One of his last controversial pronouncements came in 1862 when he ad-hocly stated that eugenic humanity through eugenic insinination by preferred donors.
Despite the controversial nature of his beliefs, Julian was a much honored man. He was an outstanding biologist, a lucid philosopher and a fairly competent poet.
Julian Huxley served the human race well. He was, in many respects, ahead 20th time. He didn't just live his life, he understood it. He will be missed.
—Steven Lewis
James Naisimh must be rolling in his grave. The "Press Men" gave their first exhibition of the year Friday night and what we did to Dr. Naisimh's team in basketball was a real shame.
NEXT WE TRIED to get some other guys who had played basketball. No luck. Everybody we knew who had ever played before was already snapped up.
Beer, bluster beat cagers
You see, the Press Men is the name of a, ahem, basketball
we decided it would be pretty hard to disguise Danny Knight, even if he wore sunglasses.
By Craig Stock Associate Editor
But still the schedule didn't have us worried. We really prepared for the game. First of all we tried to find a ringer or a bandmate, and if they aren't although they're in the school of journalism, Dawn Knight, Rick Suttle and Tommy Smith can't legally play in intramural. And
We're also in Division 10 (the last, I think) of C league. And to top it off, or to bottom it out, we have fifth of five teams in our division.
team sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Sigma Delta Chi. Most of the members are Karsan staffers.
The people who schedule intramurals must have known something. First of all, "C" league is the lowest league in intramurals. Of course, we're in it.
EXCEPT FOR OUR sports staff, most of us thought a press was something that put ink on paper.
We lost the tipoff and the game deteriorated from there. Despite the pre-game warmup the Press Men weren't hitting early in the game. In fact, we didn't score a point until midway through the second quarter.
journalists. But to our misfortune, the opponents weren't journalists and we weren't basketball players.
newsroom, drinking sodas and eating Joe's donuts isn't proper preparation for basketball.
It turned out that we gave up a lot of height to the other team, but that was the least of our problems. Lack of conditioning became an apparent problem by the second half. Sitting on one's duff in front of a typewriter in a smoke-filled
But still we weren't worried.
We found a coach, our news adviser, Professor Susanne Shaw. Coach Shaw came to our only practice session. Coach Shaw then retired undefeated.
We still weren't too concerned. Things looked fine for our first season, and at our favorite bar. We got to the gym—no problems.
THE OFFICIALS IN THE intramural program have a tough job. Fouls and other infractions are so plentiful that officials can't keep up. And when I was sitting on the floor, my mom was most of the time, I used my phone and incivile aid to explain to the referees their bad calls and need for visual aids.
THEEN WE FOUND that we didn't have enough shirts of the same color. Fortunately, the other team wore blue, so it was hard to tell which shirts, though they ranged from pink to phosphor orange.
undoubtedly would have been worse except that the other team was laughing so much.
Now we found out that two of our players hadn't been registered correctly, so they couldn't play. But uptoff time was near and the Press Men were ready—we thought.
The game finally ended, as most disasters do, and the other team graciously shook our hands and helped administer oxygen. The final score was something like 49-19. The score
But we limped off the floor with our heads held high—we were looking at the clock to see whether we could still make it back to the bar before the Friday night special ran out.
Our opponents were named "Rather Nice," so we assumed they were Darryl. We worried about playing a bunch of broadcast
WE SCHEDULED another practice and vowed to attend it. Heck, with a few breaks here and there we could be con- ditioned. And if we don't win the championship we still have hope.
Maybe, just maybe, the University will start poker intramurals. And we're definitely ready for that.
There has been some absurd legislating taking place recently in Topeka. Now that bingo and liquor-by-the-drink laws are being enforced our representatives, Kansas' honorable legislators are tackling more important issues such as making the bee the state animal, allowing it to be most significant of all, usurping the authority of the
Capital politicians blind to ethics
The Kansas state treasurer,
state treasurer to control her own office.
Mrs. Joan Finney, a democrat and former Republican, has become an unfortunate victim of a Republican-dominated
statehouse (madhouse may be more appropriate). Since she first took office in January there has been a concentrated effort on the part of the Senate to get control over state investment of $750 million in idle assets and complete its objcited objects when it passed Senate Bill 193 in a vote of 22-18.
The resolution passed in the
Readers respond to student athletes
To the Editor:
I wish to commend the Kansan and the writers involved for the thoughtful treatment given the difficult subject of academic problems of student athletes.
I must, however, correct one statement attributed to me in the Feb. 13 story by Mark Zeiligman because it purports, for example, that it is a policy on the subject of the priority to be given academic pursuits as opposed to athletics. The correct statement of the policy of varity coaches on this matter as I understand it is that nothing should interfere with athletic activities, but nothing but the academic aspect should interfere with athletics.
Although some athletes are disappointed by their University experience, it should be kept in mind that some non-athlete students are also disillusioned and dissatisfied with their teachers, courses and with the University generally. Perfect harmony, it seems, is no more attainable than a whole than within the student-athlete community.
J. Hammond McNish Adjunct Professor of Business Administration
Abortion law
THE PRESENT ISSUE is whether abortion should be legal. I would hope the general public would support abortion illegal won't necessarily reduce its incidence. Just because marijuana is illegal, does that mean people from smoking it No.
To the Editor:
It seems that lately the discussions on legalized abortion have been ignoring the real issue.
THE ARGUMENTS about when the first (or last) moment of life occurs may not be solved for a thousand years, if ever. The moral issue, then, is whether it actually taken and whether it is ethical to destroy a potential human being.
These questions can't be solved in the legislative bodies of the country.
It took a horrifying experience to make me write this letter. I late one evening recently I went to a large dogs. At least one of them was wearing a dog tag. I was bitten twice on the legs before someone nearby distracted the dog enough to allow me to escape.
As I see it, the question is whether abortion should be legal, not whether it is moral.
Should those who decide to have an abortion have the right to professional medical counsel and care? Should one be compelled to go underground or not? What competent quack to perform a hazardous operation? These are the questions at hand.
LET'S LEAVE the moral question for each of us to settle personally, in our minds and hearts, with the help of our own or for anything else that provides the basis for our beliefs.
Let the real issue—the legality of abortion—stand out of the muddle of agitated debate and into the light of reason.
The dogs that roam freely on campus and in town obviously
Susan Calbeck Pratt Junior
Dog neglect
To the Editor:
have owners who cannot give them a life they deserve. Daily feeding and an occasional scratch behind the ears doesn't teach an animal to behave people it doesn't recognize.
Fortunately, when I was attacked I didn't begin to panic or yell at the dogs. If a small child had been in this situation, chances are he would have been taken to the hospital.
I am pleading with anyone who owns or has considered buying this service at the time, adequate housing or, especially, the love it needs, either don't buy it or give the money to buy it. I can give it the care it needs.
In response to the Steven Lewis comment on abortion in the Feb. 3 Kansan, I shall describe the object of the argument and discuss his (apparent) basic assumption that science can always determine a highly probable answer to every question. My answer should be interpreted right answer for society (thus
Science jabs
To the Editor:
Richard Burke
Lawrence Junior
Lawrence Juniors
apparently solve all of our problems).
The first part of Lewis' assumption is illogical (hypothesis contrary to fact) and the second part is absurd (the idea that we should have the time to think, he would have realized that science can't tell us where to draw the "line" (in regard to abortion) but can at best only give us a set of arbitrary lines from which we can infer what happened as science is concerned, is any better than the others.
LEWIS ALSO would have realized that science isn't always society's source for concepts of right and wrong, and that there is absolutely no reason why we should mainly consider efficiency as good (it's more scientific), yet when science can theoretically show that a dictatorship is more efficient than a democracy we let more human ideas and morals, and worse yet, moralize. We can't "God and soul" get in the way and refuse to try the more scientific way (it wouldn't be too convenient).
Of course, if jensen's theories on race and intelligence were demonstrable, he would gladly accept all the obvious ramifications as the
IF LEWIS' comment had any value at all it was only that it nicely portrayed the typical layman's attitude concerning science and the manner in which it is abused. When it is used to justify our own actions by a justification for our actions by misusing scientific findings, he speaks with the authority of a metaphysical notion.
right way and disregard all those "metaphysical notions." But I suppose because it's not likely that his theories can be accepted, we just have to wait until we are proven convenient.
WHEN IT ISN'T convenient (when he might be forced to change his life a bit) he ignores science and hypocritically calls on humanity for an answer. When he is not yet sure science has yet to come up with the answer, he ignores the more recognized metaphysical notions and prefers to pray to the golden calf of science for an answer. He considers his convenient concept abortions (abortion, for instance).
I suggest you put your faith in a different god than science. You might even get an answer for once.
Stanley Lang Wakeeney Senior
Senate would increase the membership of the Pooled Money Investment Board from three to five members and give the governor the power to appoint all members but the state treasurer. The treasurer wouldn't by law be chairman; rather, the board members themselves would elect the governor. Imagine the chance of getting elected by the board are about as good as a featherless duck's attempt to fly over a blind.
Besides the illustrious efforts of the Senate, Gov. Robert Bennett signed an executive order last Monday making the state a point of political significance by the governor rather than elective. That order may be invalidated only by a vote of disapproval by the legislature.
The key to Mrs. Finney's omnious fate at the state capital was that he is the teamwork of a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor. The combined effect of pending legislation and the executive order has merely exclusive control of the board. So much for the two-party system in Kansas.
MRS. FINNEY HAS站ed,
"The head of the state treasurer's office should be elected by the people and be appointed to serve as a servant to central power such as the governor's office."
If our Senators are moral enough to listen to petitioners' pleas to owlheart liquor and cocktail wine, the voice of a woman who works in the same building with them? It is obvious that our senators believe that ethics or morality is a matter of liquor, binge and cocktailing and not the gross usurpation of the authority of the state treaser to perform the job she was designed to do by the people of this state.
GOV. BENNETT campaigned last fall on a platform not to make unnecessary expansions of state office rules and taxes. Now that the Pooled Money Investment Board will be increased to five members, with additional appointments of staff and secretarial help, we can expect more tax dollars to be spent on this "necessary" expansion.
Who cares about wasting taxpayers' money on bureaucracy as long as the Republican machine manages to gain control of the state treasurer's office and is able to get his senators who voted against the measure care, and I hope a majority of the House will care enough to defeat the bill.
What will our moral, pubic-minded legislators do when it is time to vote on Rep. Michael Glover's resolution to impose a ban on containers for beer and soft drinks such as bottles and cans?
OREGON HAS HAD this law in effect for years and has reduced its highway litter problem by 80 percent. Will the legislators vote on a litter bill that would provide for the benefit of the people they supposedly represent or will they succumb to the pressures of bottlers and distributors who oppose the bill? Unfortunately I have a feeling this bill will be less effective than the legislators handled other "unworthy" legislation such as liquor-by-the-drink.
MRS. FINNEY has turned to the attorney general's office to see whether what the legislators are doing is legal. It doesn't seem to matter because the Senate will make it legal if it isn't already. The Senate may be able to get away with what he and his party do politics but they will never be able to say that it is in the best interests of the people they serve.
PERHAPS WHAT is taking place in Topeka is the type of politics that I'll never learn from. And I'm not a politician. Course. Perhap in my idealistic youth I am wrong in believing there should be a necessary relationship between politics and morality or ethics. Excuse my navi, senatetes.
Stephen Buser
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