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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1965
Legislature Is Classroom for KU Student
By Walter Nunn
It's never too soon to get into politics.
KU's latest example is Bill K. Hall, the youngest member of the Kansas Legislature at 22 and a graduate student in political science.
Hall, who lives in Oakley—just one county removed from the Colorado border — commuted about 300 miles each weekend from Washburn University in Topeka to conduct his successful election campaign last fall for a seat in the House of Representatives.
Looking back, the slim legislator admitted the pace was hectic. "Most of my campaigning was done by direct mail. We had a lot of coffees—sometimes eight or nine a day—and I went door-to-door," he said.
WHY DID HE run? 'I've always been interested in politics, and Logan County (his home county) had had a Democratic representative for as long as I could remember."
Extension Director To Coordinate Plan
The State Board of Regents has directed T. Howard Walker, director of KU Extension, to prepare an operating plan for the statewide coordination of general extension activities of the state colleges and universities.
The six institutions under the Regents operate general extension programs offering similar services. The activities are generally self-supporting except for overhead contributions from each school's budget.
The Regents have authority to appoint a statewide director of extension. It is assumed that Walker's "working paper" will serve as a guide for the director when he is chosen. He has headed extension activities at KU since 1953.
The voters of Logan County, with a population of 4,322 were sufficiently impressed by the youthful candidate to sweep him past two opponents in the Republican primary as well as his Democratic rival in the general election.
Hall, who had never seen the House in session until he took office, conceded that his youth had its drawbacks.
"I had no seniority. All new members were given seniority in the committees according to their ages, so I was at the bottom in all of them."
Several other young legislators joined Hall in the legislature.
"There were three of us in the house in our 20's and we all felt that we didn't have as much influence as the older members," he said. "It was an unspoken sort of thing."
THE YOUNG legislator classifiied himself as a moderate but went on to say, "I think perhaps
I'm a little more liberal than my constituents would like me to be."
He voted for increases in the cigarette tax, the state income tax, and the sales tax—"regretfully," he added, "because nobody likes to raise taxes."
Hall added he cast his vote in favor of the school foundation plan and "over the dead bodies of my constituents, I voted for the birth control bill. About 65 to 70 per cent of the people in my county are Roman Catholic."
HALL, A METHODIST, justified his position by saying that the bill "didn't force birth control on anyone or any group. It would be completely optional."
In addition to voting for these measures, Hall introduced some controversial legislation which—like many hot issues—was quietly killed in committee or on the floor of the House without coming to a vote. One bill would have revised the present system of county government by replacing the commissioners with a county manager.
Another would have reduced the number of education hours needed to certify as a teacher.
ONE OF THE highlights of the session for him, Hall said, was when he and a legislator on the faculty of Ottawa University slipped his education bill out of committee one afternoon, catching the bill's opponents off guard. However, it died when the opposition was alerted on the floor.
As for the future, Hall would like to run for re-election, but the House's system of representation will probably be changed next spring.
"Logan County will be thrown with several other counties—it's just a matter of which ones. If we're thrown in with counties running east and west, I'd have a better chance of being re-elected," he said.
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