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Tuesday, April 29, 1975
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Politics getting hot
Who says Kansas is a dull state? Topeka was the hot spot of the state during the recent legislative session, providing good old-fashioned politics for the past four months. State legislators argued, fought and eventually lost or won on issues such as liquor-by-the-drink, bingo, capital punishment. But exciting as the politicking was in the legislature, it was only a warm-up for the real show.
One might think that there would be peace and calm at the state capital until the legislators return for the next session in January 1976. However, two of our executive leaders are determined to carry on the political rivalry where the legislature left off. In November it would be only that there would be some friction between Gov. Robert Bennett, a Republican, and Atty. Gen. Curt Schneider, a Democrat. But no one expected a full-scale battle involving a Kansas Supreme Court decision.
The current controversy began a few weeks ago when Schneider issued an opinion that under the state constitution the Senate had no legal authority to confirm or reject any appointment made by the executive branch. The practice of confirmation has been in use since statehood was gained. The attorney general made this move to offset an attempt by Bennett to replace former Gov. Robert Docking's appointees on a dozen boards and commissions with his own appointees. Schneider has told the agencies involved that they should keep Docking's appointees and reject Bennett's.
the governor struck next by issuing an executive order two weeks ago instructing all boards and commissions to seat his appointees and not Docking's, whom the Senate refused to confirm. At the time the
order was made, a suit filed by Carolee Leek, a Bennett appointee, was already pending before the Supreme Court to force Franklin R. Theis, an unconfirmed Docking appointee, to give up his position on the Kansas Adult Authority. Theis has refused to do so, arguing that the attorney general's opinion gave him the authority to remain on the board.
The confirmation issue was to be settled when the Supreme Court handed down its ruling, but James R. Cobler, director of the Division of Accounts and Reports, asked Schneider whether those appointees currently serving on boards should be paid from state funds. Schneider ruled that no state funds were to be paid until after a court ruling. Cobler has said in a letter to Schneider that Bennett had ordered that only his appointees were to receive compensation.
The attorney general has reiterated that no claims to compensation should be paid to any of Bennett's appointees until the Leek-The case is adjudicated by the Supreme Court, then the unified Schneider as an intervening defendant on behalf of the state in the case.
Alonzo Dempsey, Adult Authority chairman, said the board planned to seat Leek in light of the governor's executive order to do so. Schneider said that the Adult Authority followed the order, court action might result.
The Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on the confirmation question June 2. Kansas Republicans and the underdog Democrats have always rubbed elbows in Topeka, but this is ridiculous. The Schneider-Bennett duel has only begun. Surely we can expect some fireworks resulting from their incessant hard-nosed politicking during the remainder of their terms in office.
—Stephen Buser
This is the kind of drama
Douglas hangs on to fight
It was 36 years and four days since the old man first sat on the nation's highest court.
And now he had left his hospital bed, determined to have a voice in one of those rare cases, which a nation searches its soul.
William O. Douglas, ghostly pale, emaciated, partly paralyzed by a stroke, was wheeled up a special ramp to the top of the stairs and new arguments over whether the death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment," and thus in violation of the Constitution.
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which marks the character of a free society: a sick man's clinging doggedly to power, believing that his one vote may be more than a social history in his country for perhaps a century.
death penalty mandatory in certain cases.
The life at stake in this drama is probably of peripheral concern to most of those in the country. "just" a black 26-year-old junior and truck driver who shot a gambling companion. The Carolina wants to use its gas chamber to put Pouler to death.
By CHRISTOPHER ILIFF
Guest Commentary
Awards losing prestige
The recent creation of five new awards at the University, collectively known as the Chancellor's Teaching Awards, won't have the effect of giving a significant reward to teachers of outstanding merit. Rather, the derogatory effect of making the current awards less significant.
This proliferation of teaching awards is, as are many other effects, subject to the law of merit. In addition to the addition of the Chancellor's Teaching Awards, there will be more than fourteen teaching awards given annually by University annually. Since most of these awards may not be
given to the same person twice, in five years more than 10 per cent of the faculty will have been named as outstanding teachers.
At the student level, we are aware that grade inflation is making an individual's grade point average far less significant. I propose that the student awards serves to make the awards less significant. This "teaching award inflation" is contrary to the original notion of awarding a select few individuals their outstanding contributions and abilities as teachers.
In speaking with a HOPE Award winner of the late '60s, I
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What is needed at this University isn't more teaching awards. Rather, if the award system is to be continued, as it almost certainly will be, the University should make the
awards more lasting, more valuable and fewer in number. Instead of a one-shot $1,000 award, why not add $1,000 to the teacher's salary? After all, if this man or woman is making a significant contribution to the administration, it'll be a little more magnanimity on the part of the administration would be a more convincing sign that classroom teaching is indeed its top priority.
find such isn't the case. Once the award is given it is virtually forgotten. Perhaps the winters have an opportunity to speak to reporters, but once in the newspaper, but now even that is rarely the case.
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terminable argument over whether an execution deters other murders, other violent crimes.
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found him to be impressed with the impact the award had had. He found himself invited to numerous dinners, banquets and speaking engagements, frequently as the guest of honor or as the keynote speaker. The audience was so enthusiastic it gave an excellent teacher an opportunity to speak to a variety of audiences.
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The Supreme Court may once again avoid a decision on the broad constitutional question. It may well decide the Fowler case on much narrower grounds. In either case it will not be surprising if the vote once again is five to four. In
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In 1970, they called me hardcore unemployed . . .
In 1960, they called me a drop-out . . .
In 1975, they call me middle class.
"Just" a black janitor and truck driver. That sentence sums up a wide measure of the drama in this great American debate. Anthony G. Amsterdam, the lawyer provided to Fowler by the NAACP Legal Center because the North Carolina tolerates a gas chamber only because the decision-makers there figure it will be used to kill the poor, the powerless, the minorities. Amsterdam contends that the laws making the death penalty mandatory through which the rich and powerful can escape, are weak, poor and pitifully vulnerable to inviolable discrimination.
want retribution, an eye for an eye, a life for a life.
Douglas surely knew that the
In 36 years on the Court, and many more years than that fighting for the underdog. Bill McKenzie speaks to Amsterdam speaks the truth.
You can just about bet that Justice Douglas left his sickbed expecting eventually to cast another vote against capital punishment, to try to bequeath the entire body of his dead take some of the cruelty, the racism, the smother out of our criminal justice system.
Douglas also has seen that the spirit of vengeance and revenge looms powerful in the hearts and minds of the most civilized men in the world. In rehabilitation and forgiveness, in moments of passion they
By Carl Rowan
Copyright 1975 Field Enterprises, Inc.
pressures on the other eight justices would be intense. They hear and feel the roar of the mob in state after state where legislatures seek to restore the death penalty. They feel the weight of the Ford administration, whose Solicitor General was named to not make a sweeping ruling that capital punishment is, in all forms, in violation of the Constitution.
Yet, those men on the court feel other pressures. Each must ask himself, "Would I be willing to pull the switch on the electric chair, or release gas into a death chamber?"
Then there is the in-
which case the crucial swing vote actually may be cast by Byron R. White or Potter Stewart.
But what Americans on both sides of this controversy will long remember is that Bill Douglas showed up in a wheelchair, known as the figure figure. If his vote makes a difference, millions will applaud his courage, his sense of devotion to civilized justice; millions others who want capital punishment will show louder and louder that President Ford can appoint an able person to this position of power.
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To the Editor:
Music wasn't bluegrass
This concerns the review of the bluegrass concert at Hoch Auditorium that appeared in the most part, I am aware. For the most part, I reviewed a reviewer said, at least concerning the performances of Norman Blake and John Reid, who were exception with his remarks about the final event of the concert: Vassar Clements and his backup group. Or should I simply have Clements, as it turned out.
First of all, I would like to define bluegrass music for the reviewer. The antecedents of bluegrass are "old as the hills," originating from the bagpipe and fiddle tunes that came to America. With the introduction of the banjo to the American scene from Africa, bluegrass music achieved its distinctive sound. The name, "bluegrass," was taken from Bill Monroe's Blue Chiffon of 1930s. Today's traditional bluegrass music is the result of the combination of a banjo, a guitar, a mandolin, a fiddle and a bass. Bluegrass music may include any or all of these in a set, to provide a get down, down home, friendly type of music.
Clements has built his reputation on his skills with the
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fiddle, a traditional bluegrass style. So anyone who follows bluegrass music and loves it the way I do, would go to a Vassar Clements concert and expect to hear him what the doesn't want. Instead, the Clements part of the concert included electric guitars, drums, a piano and steel guitar. Occasionally during the performance I detected the sound of a fiddle, but Clements constantly stepped back in his stride to see the performers in the backup group to show their talents in solos.
Undeniably, they were excellent musicians, but the fact they weren't playing bluegrass music. If a person such as myself, who loves bluegrass music, goes to a concert expecting to hear Clements play his get down floor, and does nothing, he can't help feeling disappointed. I could appreciate the music for what it was: good music in a pseudo-country style. But this isn't bluegrass. I have heard Clements in solo performances and with a bluegrass backup group. This is what I, and a lot of other people, wanted to hear.
It appears to me that the music reviewer either knows little about bluegrass or can't appreciate its sound. Otherwise it disappointment felt by the bluegrass fans. His snobbish attitude that Clements played "over people's heads" is not unusual, and he seems to me to believe that he didn't understand what was going on.
However, there is one point on which we find common ground. I was also amazed and appalled at the number of times they performed its performance. Most of them couldn't even wait until a song was finished.
In conclusion, I would like to say that if Clementa had been there, we wouldn't have the audience, we would no doubt have seen and heard him playing the fiddle, perhaps with his other acoustic instruments.
Earl Scruggs is becoming absorbed by his "progressive country bluegrass" group because that's what he thinks the audience wants. I hope it doesn't happen to Vassar Clements and other talented bluegrass artists.
Kathy Schott
Kathy Schott 1502 E. Glenn