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Monday, September 22, 1975
University Dally Kansan
In defense of unions
The press these days is full of news about strikes, lockouts and scandalous activities of unions. Broadcasters have castigated pro football players for striking; efforts to establish collective bargaining at universities, including this one, have touched off heated debate; and the right of teachers and other public employees to strike has been challenged.
How soon people forget.
what is apparently happening is that the union movement and the principle of collective bargaining which underlies it is that people for creating chaos in our society.
Without the union movement, this country probably would resemble a mechanized feudal society. Union activity has resulted in better working conditions, higher wages and in many cases, more dignity to work.
One cannot dispute that unions have also been prone to corruption, gangsterism and many grossly unfair inhibitory practices.
It is also true that collective bargaining for university faculty members may do much more harm than good. In addition, public employees, although they should be able to bargain they are more responsible to the public than do other workers and thus must try that much harder to resolve their grievances with
management without resorting to crimping strikes.
Ward Harkavy
However, let's not judge all unions by the excesses of some. The principle of collective bargaining has protected the American worker for a long time, and it continues to do so unless we overreact to the few cases of union abuse.
Remember that strikes and other labor disputes aren't solely the result of irresponsible union action. Management has been known to be intransigent at times, too. Both labor and management must work harder than ever to resolve their differences at the conference table, and not on the picket line.
Complaining about unions just makes things worse. Unions have done much good and they are here to stay. Abuses within the collective bargaining movement must be eradicated. But collective bargaining must be defended if the workers in this country are to get a fair shake from management.
Ward Harkavy Contributing Writer
We cannot expect public employees such as teachers, policemen, firemen and sanitation workers to exist solely at the mercy of management. That has too many conditions, poor wages and demeaning labor for the worker.
City brickbats bricks
After the dust had cleared from last week's city commission meeting, in which industrial revenue bonds totaling $10 million were issued, there remained a duncial decision on an issue close to our soles—sidewalks.
After hearing a plea from the East Lawrence Improvement Association, the commission denied a request that new sidewalks in that area be built with bricks instead of concrete. Some ELIA members held to the Utopian idea that the city should replace what the city hath taken away, which was brick sidewalks destroyed when a new water line was installed.
In its rejection, the commission cited the extra $885 it would cost to use bricks instead of the concrete specified in the contract. The commission also quoted some area residents who unfathomably built a wall without asserting that a combination of brick and concrete sidewalks was an aesthetic nono.
It seems odd for a city that gave $10,000 to a bicentennial committee to withhold $1,000 to restore some of the city's heritage. A cry of poverty appears allowed by the $10 million in bonds will undoubtedly fatten the tax rolls.
It also seems odd for the commission to lower itself to the cultural level of those who see some virtue in concrete that is lacking in bricks.
Finally, it seems odd for a commission concerned about the appearance of the sidewalks not to see the obvious solution of ripping up all the conflicting concrete sidewalks. For a city that replaced an entire downtown area for beauty's sake, tearing out sidewalks should be a trifle.
But then what can you expect from a commission that throws brick bats at bricks?
Debbie Gump Associate Editor
Tania's tune turns
Chick deserts radical chic
What luck!
There I was in San Francisco last Thursday, listening to some vintage 1910 Fruitgum Co. stereo cassettes on my B. Altman portable tape deck when the news hit the city.
"Hey, comrades, keep on truckin'"
Patty Heart, our heroic Tania, had been arrested. First Wendy Heart and then Tania's courageous companies, were arrested; then Tania her comrade, Wendy were picked up, the radical artist, were picked up.
Thanks to a friend of mine, I was able to capture the first interview of Tania, beating the porcine media to the punch.
William summed up the occasion brilliantly when he uttered these so true words as the courtroom to be arraigned:
Anyway, when I heard the news I quickly stuck in a blank cassette and headed to the courthouse where Tania would be arraigned. Hold on, sister, I'm coming.
Here is my transcription of that interview:
Tania was pale but cool as I entered a cloakroom where I would have my furtive interview with her,
I solemnly walked up to her and preferred what I thought was the latest variation of the "brother" handshake.
She grabbed my hand, twisted me around and threw me on the
Ward Harkavy Contribution Writer
floor, her hobnailed boot pinning my chest to the floor.
"Bondage for all media lacks!" was her cultural cry.
"Do you mind. Tanja?"
"I'm with you, sister!" was my plea for mercy.
"How did you evade arrest to so long, Tania?" I nervously asked, aware that I had to start on an unbeat note.
"I was easy, brother," Tania replied, plopping a gob of Happy days snuff into her slim, cheek. "I check. 'Gumbing flog sor."
"Oh sure, brother," came the embarrassed reply. "Is that better? I want the whole world to know my story."
"I'm your man for that, sister," I eagerly said, thinking of the cash haul. I thought about another handshake, but remembering the last one I decided against it.
"This is how I did, brother."
Tania said, a gleam in her slim,
feminine eye. "The only places
I slept we Winnbieg camp;s;
the only places I ate were
Nickerson Farms and Texas
Tom's. Say, you know, those
people didn't get sick of all that coq
was getting sick of all that coq
au vin my family kept feeding me
"Oh, it's simple," Tania said. "They would never think to look for me at places such as those."
"I don't understand, sister," I said besitantly.
changing, from that revolutionary guttural jargon to polished hip-radical Berklevesque.
Miraculously, the snuff stains on her teeth had disappeared. Mercifully, her breath had also improved. A faint smell of Estee Lauder began to fill my nostrils.
Something funny had been happening these past few minutes. He hair even seemed thin. I saw her eyes and eyes! Now her voice was
"Of course, you know that I was an unwilling participant the whole time," Tania-Patty said, as I sat mute, unable to comprehend the meaning of her transmogrification.
"I also spent three months applying henna rinses at a beauty shop in Copan, Oklahoma," Patty said. "Mr. Kelley and Mr. Bates had a heckavu time finding me, ooor men."
I just sat there, not believing my ears. Was Tania really deserting the cause?
"Well . . . he always was a little plump in places," Patty
"Didn't you once call Steve Weed a 'pis'?" I countered.
"How is Steve?," Patty said nervously, playing with the soles of her Earth shoes.
shyly replied. "How are his parents?"
I had decided to cut the interview short. But she seemed to want to continue.
"you know that I was a captive the whole time, don't you?" she asked. "I was just carrying out a class assignment into the workings of student revolutionary groups. It was an enlightening experience."
"Do you think the authorities will believe you?" I sputtered.
"Well, if I say that I'm sorry and promise never to do it again, they should," Patty puttingly said. "Gee, I can wait until Steve and I can pick out our china!"
"Well, thanks for the assistance, Ms. Hearsr," I courteously said, completely wooed Mr. Hearsr, since he was and apologetic man.
Patty stood up, smoothed her pants suit and walked over to me.
"Free all upper-class white kids," she whispered in my ear as she left.
Readers Respond
Racism unapt topic for paid speech
To the Editor:
The notion that racism is a "worthy subject" for debate indicates either implicit support of racism or extreme naivete.
The form of the debate isn't relevant; what is relevant is the subject matter, racism. However it is delivered, it is still relevant, but not at the University and being paid for with student funds.
I think it is fine to feel a sense of responsibility to bring controversial issues to the University, but to imply that racism is controversial and still open to debate is an insult to all whose social and human connection extends to the Middle Ages, to say nothing of the more serious and malicious insult to black people.
If it is the SUA's intention to not make trouble, I suggest they show more concern for the students and the community. If "a lot of students have voiced the opinion that they just don't mind of program at KU, period" why aren't you listening?
To say that Shockley the theories are of a scientific question and not a political question is to obscure the political content of this or any racist theory.
Beer blasted
Kevin Dennis Buildings and Grounds
Sometimes in mid-August the "official" beginning of country club week took place with the arrival of five railroad cars loaded with beer. (This statement and any figures concerning beer consumption are results of a telephone
To the Editor:
survey of local distributors and five drinking establishments.) Let me add that this was only a portion of the brew that was sipped, drunk or chugged over that week.
If my statistics were more complete, we would undoubtedly find a good number of cars that were in good condition, more train cars hidden on a side track somewhere. To put all of this in an understandable form, an estimated $8,000-plus bottle cars were consumed in six days.
More directly, individuals at the University of Kansas chose to invest more than $60,000 in a week of nonstop partying. This effort allowed us to renew our membership in the American tragedy and to participate in the smaller festivals held each weekend throughout the school year. In addition, such impressive figures remain UW's coveted residence hall. The investment is worth the cost can't it!
There is irony in this story. It lies in its setting. As members of the educational elite we pride ourselves on our knowledge and concern for students falling nation and world. Just a quick glance at a student directory reveals a lengthy list of special interest and concerned student groups. The University, we tell ourselves, is social and technological solutions to the universal dilemma. Out of this vast organism of highly motivated, concerned future leaders will come the relief from pestilence, disease, and justice to people needed today. 300 million starving people will soon be stilled by this generation, whose determination to act will hopefully be surpassed only by its ability to respond effectively.
Our actions bring into sharp relief the difference between our ourselves and what we really are. We say one thing and do another. This inability to live up to expectations becomes more alarming in the
Yet in one week of mid-August, while KU celebrated, the world's starving held funerals for their loved ones—about 90,000 of them. It seems that the "ability" and "determination" were lost in the guzzle.
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face of the fact that we think we do. And if there is a righteous God out there (and I have come to believe there is), surely we have all fallen short of any standard He might have.
These words are written with a full understanding that only a few will discern the problem, and not about it. For those who do hear it-it has been well worth the time. For the rest, if you want beer in the Union, sooner or later you'll get beer in the Union.
Editor Dennis Ellsworth
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Debbie Gump Carl Young
Associate Campus Editor Betty Haginman
Associate Campus Editors Beattie Johnson
Chief Photographer David Crembah
Staff Photographers George Miller III, Jr.
Sports Editor Yael Abouhakun
Entertainment Editor Allen Rapport
Copy Chiefs Wary Hocke
Contributing Writers Ward Borys Pauley, Jamie Penny Finkergard
News Editors Stewart Kirk Fingergard
Wire Editors Great Gordon Kebbell,
Jarrett Mattson
Business Manager
Cindy Long
Assistant Business Manager Advertising Manager
Assistant Kadab Roary Parm
Anti-taker Lianchow Claimed Advertising Manager Gary Burch
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Promotions Director Dunn Spencer
Prophetage Member
Mary McGrory
Four words don't defend CIA
WASHINGTON- Four little words from a classified document, we were told, could endanger national security.
Gerald Ford, who prizes himself on his even temper, threw something like a fit over him. He gave presidential foot and said the House Select Committee on Intelligence must forthwith return to him all the classified information sent up to them.
The four little words, which were eventually disclosed by the CIA, provided no threat to the American communications "security" don't sound like a phrase to signal the end of Western civilization or even complicate one of an agent in the Balkans.
But against Rep. Oti Pike, D.N.Y., the chairman of the committee, the four words were the names the President and phlox.
Pike is going after the wrong thing in his investigation. (He isn't beguiled by assassinations, but he's able to representable covert activities. He is going for the agency's throat.) He is examining its very reason for being, its influence in intelligence activities.
He is compiling a litany of failures in spying, which is what CIA defenders say it does best.
Pike has found out that their record has been lamentable. CIA failed to forecast the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the coup in Paris, the Arab oil embargo, the Indian nuclear explosion and the Tat'off attentive in 1966.
The four words that cause the commotion occur in a classified document are: Security, Post-Mortem, Report on the Intelligence
Community's Performance Before the Arab-Israeli War." The agency morally concludes that agents of both the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA were "simply, obviously starkly wrong." On the morning the Egyptians marched, the troops moved to receive measurances from agents warning of nothing more serious than "small-scale action."
On Sept. 11, in executive session, the committee members and Mitchell Rogovin, CIA officer, participated in a counsel, hagged for two hours over release of the spokers' classified failures. Rogovin insisted on the deletion of 13 word clauses from the document. By a vote of 6 to 2, the committee decided that the American people had a right to know about 'and greater communications' security. The committee could have noted at the time. In every case, Rogovin insisted that publication would 'endanger sources' and
At the committee's defiance, the administration panicked. An emergency meeting was held and counsel Philip M. Buchen. A counterattack was launched. An assistant attorney general, Rex E. Lee, was chosen to go up to testify. Pike in his responsibilty.
It was a suicide mission. Pike isn't the kind of man who qualifies at the sight of a representative from the Justice Department or in the suggestion that he is violating use rules and the Constitution.
Lee barely spoke of the *necessary accommodation* the executive and the legislative in their words for a "serious breach in the use
of classified information in an improper manner."
Pike laked on him. "That is what is wrong, Mr. Lee," he said. "For decades, other committees of Congress have
He urged, in those paragraphs Pike allowed him to complete, "a return to the traditional approach — the same way that for decades other committees . . ."
supposedly defensible aspect of the intelligence community's activities. Pike poses the threat that the existence of existed existence. He may not endanger " sources and methods." He endangers survival. Evil is forgivable on Hill; incompetence is one.
Even the agency doesn't defend what Frank Church's
'Pike isn't beguiled by assassinations, poisonings and other reprehensible covert activities. He is going for the agency's throat.'
not done their job and you have loved it."
Advising Congress, Pike continued in the same biting tone, has meant that "the executive branch comes up and whispers in one friendly congressman, another congressman, another con essayman, and that is exactly what you want to continue and this is exactly what I think has led us into the mess we are in."
By concentrating on the
Senate committee is looking into Colby and company don't mind those ex post facto examinations of the in-house investigators that have cooperated, with an occasional show of reluctance.
But when Pike reveals that they're not even doing what he had been instructed to tell CIA's darkest secret, no wonder four words were used as an excuse to try to close down his dangerous prying.
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