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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Dec. 4, 1964
A Worthy Proposal
A likely proposal to be brought before the Kansas Legislature in its 1965 term is one to bring the method for selection of the Kansas district court judges more into line with the method presently used to select Kansas Supreme Court judges.
At present, the district judges are elected every four years.
A 1958 KANSAS constitutional amendment brought in the present method of selecting Supreme Court justices. Under this amendment, a Supreme Court Nominating Commission gives the governor a list of the three potential candidates when a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court. The governor then makes a decision on which one will get the post. Once appointed, Supreme Court justices must obtain a "yes" vote in the general election to continue in office. No other candidates are on the ballot, and the judge's party affiliation is left off.
Although a recent survey by the KU Governmental Research Center shows that district court justices seldom have had to engage in politics to be re-elected, it seems that the method used for selection of Supreme Court justices should be adopted for the district courts.
With no opponent or mention of party affiliation, the election becomes nonpartisan. The judge thus can remove himself from politics.
MOST COMPETITION FOR the judgeships comes in areas where the two-party system is strongest, the survey found. If the two-party system grows stronger in Kansas, as Democrats hope, the court system which relies so heavily on aloofness from politics could become an area of hot contention.
Also, the fact that there have been instances of political activity for judgeships, no matter how few, is enough to make the adoption of the Supreme Court method of selection advantageous.
The present political method of selection also means that a prospective judge would have to work up in his local political organization. Since the winning political organization in Kansas is usually Republican, Democrats, if willing to run, probably could not win. In fact, the survey says, 80 per cent of the judges elected from 1942 to 1962 were Republicans. This high percentage indicates that many capable Democrats have been passed over merely on the grounds of the party affiliation, a factor which should make no difference in the interpretation of the law.
AT LEAST ONE problem appears in the proposal. Replacements would be necessary only on rare occasions. In fact, from the inception of the Supreme Court Nominating Commission, it has had to be activated on only one occasion. Thus to establish nominating commissions in every district would be cumbersome and needless.
One plan which was turned down by the 1963 Legislature was to provide for nominating commissions in the four most populous judicial districts. However, this does not seem workable since all districts should be under the same system.
A more likely solution would be to set up one nominating commission for the entire state or perhaps three or four regional commissions could be established which would make all nominations in the districts of that region.
-Greg Swartz
Where Do You Stand?
How time flies. Do you think than 10 years ago, 650 white citizens of McComb, Miss--many of them businessmen—would sign a proclamation condemning racial violence and advocating equal treatment under the laws for all? They did last month, and in a town that has seen at least 30 acts of racial terrorism since early summer. For their courage they will get little thanks, many anonymous telephone calls and maybe a bomb thrown in their window.
The day soon may come when Kansans can no longer excuse their own racial hypocrisy by pointing an accusing finger in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico and replying, "But look what
they're doing!" The day soon may come when we can't raise the roof of Allen Field House with applause when a Harry Belafonte cracks jokes about Mississippi and George Wallace, and then return to our fraternities and sororities still vowing to "keep those damn niggers out." Let's finish cleaning our own house.
—Fred Frailey
A Slice of Cam-Pi
Whenever I make one of my infrequent trips to the library, being the type of person I am, and because the evening entrance is in the basement, I always try to ride the elevator. I say try because I am never successful. The other night while hopefully waiting for the elevator to descend from number three, a co-ed came waltzing up, smiled and then waited. Presently, she pushed the same button I had pushed, and then she pushed it again, and again and again. Finally, she gave up. With an "oh well," she trudged up the stairs. As she left, another fearless individual, this one a male strolled up to the elevator. He looked at me and then also began to press buttons. When he received no reaction from the machine, he placed his ear to the door and listened. Then with a sigh that says "that's life," he left. I did too. As far as I know, the elevator is still at number three.
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IT IS HARD sometimes to comment on a situation without stepping on somebody's toes, when no toes were meant to be stepped on. However, after reading the Kansas Engineer a situation has become very clear, one that I don't think can be solved, but one which should be looked into. Briefly, the situation is the planning and construction of new buildings on campus. KU has a very attractive campus. However, the campus is slowly becoming infested with buildings that destroy this attractiveness. An architecture student once told me that a building should create an experience for any person who sees it.
Dailij Frähsan
111 Flint Hall
UNiversity 4-3646, newsroom
UNiversity 4-3198, business office
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16. 1912.
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York
22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates:
$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon
during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University
holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence,
Kansas.
And, while it is nice to see a line of red roofs five miles from Lawrence, a red roof does not a building make. Glass and steel do not mix well with brick and stone. Why throw up a building just because a space has been created, if, that building does nothing for that space and its immediate surrounding buildings. Maybe I have overstepped the bounds of editorial comment on something I know nothing about, but, KU's campus should not be destroyed structurally. Or, the question arises; why the school of architecture?
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Jim Langford and Rick Mabbutt ... Co-Editorial Editors
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Roy Miller Managing Editor Don Black, Leta Catchet, Bob Jones, Greg Swartz, Assistant Managing Editors; Linda Ellis, Feature-Society Editor; Russ Corbitt, Sports Editor. BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bob Phinney ... Business Manager
John Pepper, Advertising Manager; Dick Flood, National Advertising
Manager; John Suhler, Classified Advertising Manager; Tom Fisher,
Promotion Manager; Nancy Holland, Circulation Manager; Gary Grazda,
Merchandising Manager.
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PEOPLE'S HUMOR is weird. With slick walks and flying feet and hard landings it's amazing how many people can laugh at another's misfortune. Especially since the same accident can befall those who laugh. Why?
Jim Langford
The People Say...
Dear Editor:
The decision to relocate the girls of L. N. Lewis to Ellsworth Hall is indeed an unfortunate one. Why is it that the moment unity is shown in the independent dorms, relocation, or should I say dislocation, is the immediate decision of the administration? The girls of Lewis are the nucleus of the independent girls residence halles. We have won trophy after trophy and have been the backbone of the continuing fight for independent recognition. Is not the Vice-President of the All Student Council a Lucy? Did not Lewis win Spring Fling, the girls' basketball championship, and second prize for homecoming decorations for 1964? We are the oldest upper class women's residence hall and we like the tradition of being a winner that we have built up. The freshmen do not attach themselves to their first dorm so why give them Lewis? It's our home—we have made it that way with each contributing graduating class and we want it to remain that way. We must stand united or divided, our traditions will fall.
Signed,
Lucy Lewis
It is too bad that in writing an editorial on non-alignment last Tuesday, Mr. H. Krishnan allowed his antipathy toward Pakistan to so color his writing that the editorial emerged, in some respects, as an anti-Pakistan polemic. It would take too long to point out all of the half-truths and innuendo contained in his comments concerning Pakistan. However, it should at least be noted that (1) Pakistan has not entered into a "military" treaty with Communist China; (2) the settlement of the border dispute in Azad Kashmir by the Pakistanis and Chinese entailed an exchange of territory and not merely the "surrender" of territory to China; and (3) the British attempt to bring the Indians and the Pakistanis together toward a solution of the Kashmir dispute in light of its explosive possibilities is hardly a "dirty" tactic. And despite the alleged "favoritism" shown
To the Editor:
Pakistan by Great Britain India is receiving substantial military assistance from Britain in her (India's) tardy realization that the Communist Chinese are up to no good.
As long as India remains unyielding on the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan will understandably continue to be suspicious of Indian claims of working toward "world peace" and the "elimination of international tensions" while doing little to reduce tensions with Pakistan over Kashmir, which would go a great way in insuring peace on the subcontinent.
Sincerely yours,
Clifford P. Ketzel
Associate Professor
Dear Sir,
During my brief stay at your University as Humanities Lecturer I found many things that pleased me. Not the least was an article in the Daily Kansan on page six of the issue of November 16. There my talk on "Roman Elections" at the Kansas Society of the Archaeological Institute of America was reported. Please congratulate the reporter who wrote it. It was accurate and cogent. Your reporter seized upon the vital points in my talk with great skill. Indeed I wish the metropolitan dailies would do so well by academic talks.
William C. McDermott
Prof. of Classical Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Dear Sir,
Shortly after our arrival in Lawrence (and in this country), two years ago, my wife had her coat stolen by a fellow student. Yesterday, my son, also a KU student, had his new winter coat stolen, which I was at last able to buy him five years after the last one. So far this makes an average of one coat per year stolen in our family. I would just like the thieves to know what I think of them. This thieving is a blot on an otherwise lovely University.
Yours truly,
Herbert Galton,
Associate Professor.
BOOK REVIEWS
HORACE GREELEY: NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRUSADER, by Glyndon G. Van Deusen (American Century, $2.45).
This is the best biography of Greeley. No qualifications. Van Deusen goes beyond conventional political or journalistic interpretations to show the ramifications of the complex Greeley, a man who was involved in practically every social and intellectual movement of his time.
Greeley was a poor boy from New England who fulfilled all the requirements of the Horatio Alger success story (most of which were written after his time). He made-it on his own in New York journalism. Some time before Day's experiment with The Sun, Greeley tried a penny paper. But he failed. He put out a weekly called The New-Yorker, then attracted the attention of those two political entrepreneurs, William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed, edited The Jeffersonian for the Whig campaign of 1836 and The Log Cabin for the campaign of 1840, and caught on in journalism.
His New York Tribune was established in 1841. It was solid newspapering but it also was a combination of many of the isms of the day—from spiritualism to Fourierism, and a bit of graham breadism thrown in. Margaret Fuller and Albert Brisbane wrote for Greeley, and so did Karl Marx. He was an abolitionist, and a high tariff man, and a promoter of the transcontinental railroad.
He also advanced the Homestead Bill, and gave shrewlike advice to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was a Greeley editorial that helped to bring the Emancipation Proclamation, and it was Greeley who went bail for Jefferson Davis. His last days, after a newspaper career that had made him almost the American symbol of the journalist, were tragic. He tried to beat back the second term candidacy of Ulysses S. Grant, was drastically defeated, and died insane.—CMP
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THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Dell, 40 cents)—A hardy perennial enjoying a special vogue as new fans of Sherlock Holmes adventuring reach reading age. Never is there a strain on the intellect, even though Holmes is the most intellectual of literary detectives, and in this famous thriller we see Holmes and Watson investigating the long-time curse of the Baskerville family. And they probe into that mysterious beast out on the murky moor, who is believed to be the villain of the piece. This is a delightful, swift-moving, ever-fascinating story, and though it can't provide the bedroom excitement of the Frederic Brown or John MacDonald detective stories, it hangs on as a classic and is likely to do so for years to come.