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Monday, September 27,1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment
Omissions on this page reflect the view of only the writer.
Car makers change
After years of leading us down the path of wastefulness and costly self-indulgence, American auto manufacturers finally are beginning to realize what foreign auto makers did long ago—that not only do we live in a world of finite natural resources, but that automobile comfort, safety, power and even prestige needn't be sacrificed for economy.
IT TOOK the trauma of the Arab oil embargoes and the resulting higher prices of gasoline to wake up Detroit and show it that its previous course had to change. The course had caused the average gas mileage of its models to drop each year from 1967 to the bottom figure of 13.9 miles a gallon in 1974, the year after the Arab embargo. It didn't take a brilliant economist to show that the gas-guzzling, finned show cars of the past had to go.
General Motors is leading the way in improving the efficiency of its cars this year by completely redesigning the big car line that brought the company so much profit in the past. The new big cars are, on the average, 700 pounds lighter and a foot shorter than similar vehicles. By 1970 the company also plans to shrink its intermediate and compact lines. According to Newweek magazine, GM will have spent a whopping $15 billion on redesigning its cars.
THIS ISN'T a commercial for GM. The other companies, such as Ford and Chrysler, also are planning to make their big and intermediate cars smaller in the near future, even though they have the money to match GM's effort.
What it all means is that the auto companies are getting more serious about energy and resource conservation that ever before. If an investment of $15
billion isn't serious, I don't know what is. It means that, according to figures released last week by the Environmental Protection Agency, buyers of the new 1977 models can expect to get an average 18.6 miles a gallon, which is 34 per cent more than for the 1974 models.
DESPIE their laudable efforts, the auto companies still have a way to go, especially if the energy crunch gets worse sooner than expected. The federal government has set a 27.5 mile a gallon standard for all models, which the companies must meet by 1985. Most important, auto executives say this is impossible unless nearly all cars are built the size of today's compacts.
Auto company executives can't really be blamed for wanting to give the people what they want. After all, nobody is forcing customers to buy cars with heavy, over-powered engines and such nonsensical frills as electric windows.
THE MOVE toward smaller, more efficient cars can't be made by automakers alone. The American people's long-lasting love affair with one of their most cherished status symbols—the big, luxurious car—must soon come to an end. They may need it; they want, they can at least get what they need—a comfortable, economical way to get from point A to point B.
Most people in the world don't know how to drive cars, let alone own them. Imagine their response to a mass uproar in America caused by our down-trodden consumers having to give up their prized Cadilacs, Impalas, LTDs and Chryslerls for more Volkswagens, Chevettes and Audis. They probably would laugh and then resent us—and rightly so—for being so spoiled.
By John Fuller
Contributing Writer
No winners in the Great Debate
The Great Debate between Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford apparently was to the Great Debate Part II.
No clear winner emerged from the exchanges filled with statistics between the two candidates. There wasn't an awkward candidate this time, as there was in the 1960 debate when John Kennedy out-charmed Richard Nixon.
K-weed crops high profit
Although one marijuana crop north of Lawrence was destroyed last week, many older adults here work in Kansas' most lucrative and rarely mentioned cash crops—remain.
As nearly as can be determined, 700 to 800 pounds of Kweill will sell for about $2,000.
By JACK FISCHER
Each fall, in central and eastern Kansas, there begins the clandestine process of harvesting the merchandising secluded crops of Kansas marijuana, called "K-weed" by those in the city. The result is pastures of plenty." Woody Guthrie never dreamed of.
THE rarely touted crop could be listed proudly as a money-maker on the farmers exchange because many people can and do sell it for an entire year from the profits of one-month harvest.
The size of operations ranges from individuals toiling in the moonlight to pick 100 pounds to larger operations that hire a fireman. The size of one report wage) and reap a ton of the infamous weed.
THE INDIVIDUAL who has overseen the harvesting sometimes has a middleman the individual buyer, who in turn transports the bricks to other states for resale at about $50 to $100
After the pot is dried in basements, fields and barns, it is "bricked" by a contraption that often is made from several boards and hydraulic jacks. The bricks, which weigh one kilo, are then wrapped in heavy paper.
Residents of New York,
California and perhaps Texas
are more likely to be the
members of the residents of the
Kweed than are Kansans.
Ironically, for contraband that generates such a large amount of money, Kansas pots it for potency. Those who buy it are like the 1970s counterpart to Prohibition's watered-down gin.
THE TYPICAL effects of smoking K-weed are a searing sensation in the throat and lungs and a headache. Sellers of K-weed, must have a hard time explaining their trades about the shoddy quality of other drugs. In business ventures hardly maintain the high quality they demand of others.
But this possibility is no more
Like the bootleggers of old, the Kansas marijuana harvesters are nagged by the possibility that, lurking in the next clump of weeds, there might be a less-than-sympathetic sheriff with his friends and questions.
of a deterent now than it was during Prohibition because, as K-weed harvesters hack their way through moonslit fields with pesticides, they have visions of financial security dance in their heads.
NONTHELESS, for the wide range of personalities who are trafficking in K-weed, from the fraternity man who suddenly has a new MG to the long-heired girl who affords a winter vacation in Greece, the entire enterprise has its darker side.
There are no recourses against the bilkers and guns that often appear when illegal immigrants sell weed merchant's poultry isn't convincing to a buyer, and tempers rise as prices are haggard what an average woman even can find in a volatile confrontation.
(Jack Fischer is a senior majoring in journalism.)
Letters
Creationist's views lack depth
I believe the University community will be interested in the response of Henry Morris (one of the panelists in the debate) to a question I asked him after evolution-creation debate. My early remarks are quotations as far as I can remember them.
Q: What would the discovery by Viking II of life on Mars do to your theory?
Q: Do creationists view life on earth as ancient in the universe?
A: (a: a moment of thought) Essentially, yes.
about it now. But, if it is found,
it will present some problems to
my theory.
I also think (Marian) Bickford and (O. E.) Wiley (the other panelists) are to be congratulated for their work in particular. In particular they did a fine job of discussing how science works.
A: Since life has not yet been found, and since I don't believe it will be found, let's not talk
To the Editor:
A simple question To the Editor:
Concerning the silencing of guitarists by campus police:
R. Dennis Mullen Shawnee senior
R. Dennis Mullen
A lack of such an understanding was obvious in the presentation by the creationists.
Epherphe Chawl Shawl Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor are welcomed but should be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 400 words. All letters are edited and may be condensed according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Letters must be provided their academic standing and hometown; faculty must provide their position; others must provide their address.
FORD AND Carter merely repeated what they have said time after time on the campaign trail, and neither had to answer questions about recent developments.
people sit and cuss Nixon and draft evaders. That was the only question that came close to stirring my emotions, and it had a effect on the 20 or so people I was watching the debate with.
Carl Young Contributing Writer
about his recent Playboy interview, in which he admitted having adulterous thoughts, and Ford didn't have to answer to allegations that he took a junket courtesy of U.S. Steel.
victory after the debate, and each man probably was satisfied with his performance.
Jimmy on lust and Jerry on freebies would have made the B3-minute debate more exciting. As it happened, however, he got taxes instead of sex and employment instead of ethics.
Ford wanted to emphasize that he was the President and in control of the government. He did that, and managed to do it without knocking the podium over.
Carter wanted to show that he could stand up to the president, and he needed to show that he was in control of his campaign, which has run into problems lately. He did that.
SO BOTH men won in a way, but I was more impressed with Ford's performance than with Carter's.
BOTH SIDES proclaimed
The debate started with a question to Carter. He nodded, shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he watched the stage was buckling.
FORD STOOD his ground with his standard good-for-the-country speech. Carter said that many of the deserters and evaders. Good
Carter didn't show his famous set of teeth during the first part of the debate, and he seemed nervous until halfway through.
Leaving appearances behind, let's look at their answers to questions about taxes.
FORD, WHO rebutted Carter on the first question, looked impressive, just as he did the previous week, in a speech to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City. Mo. He didn't stumble over his words very often, and his self-confidence and control.
- Score: Ford 1, Carter 0.
Score: Ford 1. Carter 1
I SUPPOSE a discussion of taxes is inevitable when two politicians meet, but Wholesale Price indexes bore me to death.
Now comes the amnesty question. Ford was put on the spot when asked to explain why he pardoned a crook like Nixon but would give draft evaders the time to "earn" their amnesty.
The Great Debate, which was supposed to be the turning point in the presidential campaign, the end for either candidate.
The rest of the debate proceeded in an even fashion, so that when the candidates spoke, they answered speeches, the score was tied.
Unlike economic theory,
About 100 million people watched the first act, and like good showmen, the candidates left us hanging for the next act.
Greenborn is enlightened
Guest Writer
Rv GERRY O'CONNER
Long ago a young man came to Lawrence to decide whether he wanted to be educated here. Upon his arrival he became an assistant coach for min who said he would show him around the University.
So one bright and sunny morning, the young man and the wise old man started to walk down Jayhawk Boulevard together. Just as they reached a strange lookout statue of a pirate with a sword in his water suddenly started shooting up out of the ground.
"WHAT'S that?" the young man asked.
"Oh, that's the wonderful irrigation system this fine University has," said the wise old man. "The water helps plants grow, and it helps you have. Have you ever seen such fine looking sidewalks before?"
The two men continued their tour of the University. Suddenly a loud rang out so loud that it nearly knocked the young man off his
"No, I haven't, the young man replied.
Undaunted by the water and the noise, the two continued their tour. As they reached the center of campus, they saw a scraggly-haired, bearded guitar player being hauled away.
"Oh, that's the whistle that signifies the end of classes," replied the wise old man. "Rather obvious, isn't it?" "It certainly is," replied the young man.
"WHAT'S that noise?" the young man asked.
"WHY ARE they hauling that man away?" the young man asked.
"Because he has been judged guilty of a serious crime," the wise man said. "He was wrongly accused and guiltily accused high academic intensity area."
"What are they going to do to him?" the young man asked.
"I don't know," the wise old man said. "They may make him sit up to a tall tower and throw them in or put them every 13 minutes. That usually
keeps these roving minstrel types away from the high academic intensity areas."
"Who's that man with no shirt?" the young man asked.
THE YOUNG man was beginning to have doubts about attending this University. He sat down to collect his thoughts. Then he moved away from him was a shirtless boy with a very tanned back.
"We call him the man of the sun," the wise old man said.
"Why doesn't he wear a shirt?" the young man asked.
"THERE are many rumors why," replied the wise old man, "but it's difficult to separate the rumors from the truth. Why don't you just accept the man of the sun as he is?"
"I guess I will," the young man said.
The young man was becoming doubtful about this town called O'Neill, but he knew such strange happenings. When he had almost decided that this University was too strange for him, he left it and chanted down the rooftop.
"WHO ARE these bald men in white robes who chant and dance all the time?" he asked.
"They are the Chanting Dancers of the East," the wise old man replied. "They come through these parts about once a year. Just accept them as they are."
"I guess I will," the young man said.
"WHO ARE these screamers?" the young man asked.
He had now decided this University was no place for him. As he was leaving, he saw some men standing around, yelling words at students from black books each of them had.
"They are the men of Nazareth," the wise old man replied. "Just accept them as they are."
"WHAT IS this paper?" the young man asked.
The young man now was eager to leave the University, never to come back. As he got to his horse, he noticed a piece of paper with something written in it. It was stuck on the horse's page.
The young man now was sure he wouldn't attend this University. He told the wise old man who were too different from him.
“Oh, this is a pity,” the wise old man said. “You have been given the horse in a red zone. You're not supposed to do that You better move it before the home and tow away your horse.”
ACCEPT THEM as they
"are," the wise old man said. "In the course of life you will run into many people different from yourself. This University will be valuable in preparing you for these future confrontations. In this University for it is truly the best of all possible universities.
"I guess I will," the young man said.
(Gerry O'Connor is a senior majoring in journalism.)
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