Spotlight on state elections-V
Virginia double feature
A double feature senatorial race is shaping up in Virginia this year, and in all probability the Virginians will continue to elect Democrats to represent them in Washington. But the elections in that state have a decidedly different character this year than they have had in the past.
Two senators are being elected, one for a full six-year term and the other to fill the remaining four years of the term of the late Harry Flood Byrd, who died last week, 33-year Senate veteran and symbol of southern Democratic conservatism, who retired in ill health last Nov. 11 and appointed his son, Harry Jr., to that seat.
But the ancien regime of the Byrd political machine, long known as "the organization," is not what it used to be. In a state historically kind to incumbents, two of the Old Guard have failed to win renomination in the Democratic primaries July 11 in favor of younger and more liberal men.
Sen. A. Willis Robertson, 79, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is the first incumbent senator of this century to be defeated for renomination in Virginia. He was upset with a 611-vote margin by William B. Spong Jr., 45, a Portsmouth lawyer who built a considerable reputation several years ago when he headed a state legislative commission which investigated public education in the state and recommended reforms that have since been adopted by the liberal administration of Gov. Mills E. Godwin.
But perhaps the most surprising upset was that of Rep. Howard W. Smith, 83, chairman of the House Rules Committee. "Judge" Smith, as he is known in his own 8th District and throughout most of the state, is a veteran of 18 terms in Congress and has been one of the kingpins in the coalition of conservative southern Democrats and Republicans. He was defeated in another close race—645 votes—by State Delegate George C. Rawlings Jr., 44, a Fredericksburg lawyer considered virtually a liberal by Virginia standards.
Even Harry Byrd Jr., 51, only narrowly won nomination (8.225 votes) against "anti-organization" ex-State Sen. Armstead L. Boothe, 58, of Alexandria. Boothe built a large statewide following five years ago in the lieutenant-governor race, and received 45 per cent of the vote, the highest percentage for an anti-organization man in the 35-year Byrd reign.
Dissatisfaction with the Byrd ranks, particularly illustrated by the defeat of Smith and the small majorities all around, has apparently arisen from several factors. The rapid pace of urbanization has forced changes on the Democratic party, and it has had to attempt to appeal to Negroes, organized labor and many groups of white liberals. Many of these are now minor leaders in the party, and feel no particular obligation to the Old Guard.
Smith's 8th District has been reapportioned, giving greater strength to urban voters. The new vitality of Negroes in the South, and particularly urban Negroes, has done much to erode Smith's power as a leader in the House. Now they have decided on someone else.
Byrd Jr., is to many the symbol of the desegregation "massive resistance" of 1956-59 which locked 12,000 Virginia school children out of class for a semester in 1958 in a last-ditch opposition to the Supreme Court integration ruling. Byrd was the principal advocate in the State Senate of the segregation policy championed by his father.
Byrd's chief opponent is Lawrence M. Traylor, 38, Republican, a Heathsville attorney. The two have clashed recently over a September Byrd statement that Atty. Gen. Katzenbach is "seeking to justify violence in U.S. cities," referring to racial riots this summer.
While Byrd has refused to campaign until Congress adjourns on the grounds that his duties in Washington come first, Traylor has charged him with having a record of "inactivity and lack of leadership" in both the U.S. and State Senates.
"I think Virginia is tired of handed-down Senators," Traylor says. "I don't think we want a senator who got appointed because his father couldn't get him elected governor." Traylor intends to give Byrd a "run for his father's money."
Former Lynchburg Mayor James P. Ould Jr., 43, is Spong's Republican opponent for the full Senate term. Ould accuses Spong of ducking issues and speaking in generalities, saying that he is an LBJ man all the way.
"Virginians must stop Spong's aspirations to join the faceless ranks of the Johnson Democrats." Ould says.
Spong, on the other hand, has said he opposes Red China and its admission to the United Nations, but that we should keep communications open with Communist countries. He also favors retention of the "right to work" Section 14-b of the Taft-Hartley Act.
In the 8th District, Rawlings will be opposed by William L. Scott, 50, a Republican Fairfax attorney. Many bitter Smith supporters bolted to the Scott camp after Smith's defeat, but this is counterbalanced by Rawlings' appeal to many Negroes.
Scott says Rawlings is too liberal for the 8th District, and that he is even more liberal than the Johnson administration. He attacks Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, saying that his remarks last summer encouraged more riots in large U.S. cities.
Rawlings' main attack states only that Scott is not facing facts squarely. He continues to appeal to urban Negroes and minority groups, and appears fairly successful.
Jack Harrington
The people say...
To the Editors:
As a subject (guinea pig, etc.) of what the UDK of October 26 calls "an innovation in modern education" (Centennial College for the non-understander of euphremisms), I feel I am qualified to at least offer a personal opinion on my "revolutionized college education" up to the present time.
Centennial College (CC) has an indisputably noble and idealistic motive behind its existence, which is "to promote a closer relationship among students and to encourage communication between students and faculty." However, at this point in the experiment I see no significant difference between the academic and social lives of CC freshmen and the other freshmen in liberal arts outside CC except that possibly those not connected with the experiment are experiencing a closer relationship (thus communication) with other students and faculty.
Objectively, I do see several things that CC does offer that might not be possible to those outside the CC program. One is the History 11 course, be that as it may. Another is the accessibility of CC administrators for discussion of academic matters.
It might be said that I'm speaking prematurely. However, "KU officials have made plans to expand the College to five units next year." Therefore, even though it's been "only two months" and as the UDK admits, a "thorough evaluation of the program is not possible" after such a short time, five more Centennial Colleges (at a rather
However, I have not personally (either directly or indirectly) experienced any other advantage. No close relationships with students other than those whom one naturally associates with (roommate, the guys next door, etc.). In other words, no advantage ... period.
Maybe there will be something coming out of CC (the Central Committee of Centennial College possibly), but I doubt that it will have a lasting effect. I'm disappointed over this, too. I had high hopes for the "more congenial and less impersonal" atmosphere that CC wished for. But CC has not provided the answer to the problem (if there is one). I am in Centennial College, but there in no other effect on me except the attached tag that reads:
heavy cost even for an experiment) will be on campus next year. So who is possibly acting prematurely?
Rick Dinkel, Frosh.
Palatine, Ill.
CC Experiment.
2
Daily Kansas
editorial novel
Friday, October 28, 1966
"You heard me! Any free discussion has to take place up here!"
Area movies
By Richard Dyer MacCon
Radio-TV-Film Department
Every campus now has its quota of film showings and film fans in a time of growing interest in the film as an art. KU is right up there with the best of them, offering three lively series—a rich and varied opportunity to "read the literature" on the motion picture.
Facilities are grim, to be sure. Dyche is cramped and Hoch is drafty. But some day this Pleistocene condition will yield to the realization that knowledge about film, like appreciation of art and the study of government, is part of the background of a civilized man or woman.
NOTE THE RANGE of choices for this week on campus, however. The Popular Film Series (Rick Lucas presiding) has a rather well-made movie about the hard life of a city school teacher: Blackboard Jungle was blasted in 1955 for giving an unfair impression of American youth abroad, but it was better than the rash of juvenile delinquency pictures that followed it.
Richard Brooks, who directed Blackboard Jungle, Lord Jim and many other films, will also direct the film version of the Truman Capote book, In Cold Blood. He will be scouting locations in Olathe and Holcomb soon and has promised me he would try to fit in a visit to KU for a talk in the Forum Room.
THE FRIDAY FREE movie series in Hoch Auditorium has a first-rate list again this year, selected by a committee headed by Vice Chancellor Raymond Nichols. This week: La Notte, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Not everyone can sit through Antonioni's slow-paced photographic analysis of suspended moments in human life. But to understand the frontiers of film today one must have seen at least one film by this controversial Italian director.
The Wednesday classic film series has an unusually good list this fall, and as a result, Sam Gill has had to schedule them for two performances—at 7 and 9 p.m. Next week there is a special single showing in the Union Ballroom of Richard III.
Other nearby series are at Baldwin, Kansas, where The Knack (among the top ten of last year, in my view) will be showing next Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and the Kansas City Nelson Art Gallery free series at 2:30 every other Sunday. This week: two outstanding documentaries—On the Bowery and The Exiles, the latter a film about American Indians caught in the strange metropolitan world of Los Angeles.
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