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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 11, 1965
הבעיה האחרונה היא שכל תדפיות הטרנספורמציה מעבירות את הפעולה.
CRC Split
The administration was shaken Monday and Tuesday by the magnitude of civil rights demonstrations on campus. The Civil Rights Council, the organization responsible for the demonstrations, is just now feeling the impact of its action.
The demonstrators made a strong impression and instilled fresh enthusiasm for action in administrators, faculty sympathizers, and students. Now the panic has set in. "Will we get what we asked for?" they ask suspiciously. This was evident in the CRC meeting last night, which attracted about 250 students and some faculty members.
THERE WAS DISSESION WITHIN THE ranks and within the leadership on what the next move should be. The movement has reached such proportions that leadership now has to contend with a more militant group of followers.
The issue concerned the procedure to be followed in negotiations with the administration. CRC leaders, meeting with Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe yesterday, agreed to negotiate so-called simpler or less controversial demands before discussing the CRC demand that fraternities and sororites be required to sign a statement that they do not discriminate.
MANY CRC MEMBERS FELT THIS PROCEDURE was a tactical delay on the part of the administration. They felt that their first demand concerning fraternities and sororities should be considered before negotiations are continued.
Walter Bgoya, Tanganyika senior and one of the leaders, proposed that this issue be taken up first, and that if the administration would not respond satisfactorily, demonstrations should resume. This view apparently was discarded, although a motion to vote on it was tabled.
The other leaders contended that they should act in good faith on the procedure already agreed to. A vote of confidence was taken to support this position and to try to maintain unity. Several times throughout the meeting, these leaders rose to plead for support of themselves as leaders.
It will probably be impossible to ward off future demonstrations unless the administration takes immediate action on some of the demands. CRC members want tangible evidence that they can win by negotiating. If some demands are not met within a matter of days, it is quite possible that some of the more action-oriented members will force a resumption of the sit-in demonstration.
The administration is in the position of trying to appease the CRC, without acting too hastily. This is a delicate position because too much delay, discussion, and hesitation, will provoke another demonstration.
If negotiations are not as fruitful as some CRC members think they should be, the split within the ranks and leadership of the CRC may widen, resulting in chaos.
Gary Noland
Gaullefinger
Free Lance Publication Misinterprets Laird Wilcox
(Editor's note: Dwight Payton's Kansas Free Lance recently carried an article commenting on Laird Wilcox, Lawrence sophomore and publisher of the Kansas Free Press. The Free Lance is a conservative publication while the Free Press reflects a very liberal tone. Wilcox, who has been under attack from such right-wing organizations as the Minutemen, felt he was misinterpreted by Payton. Below is Payton's article and a letter which Wilcox sent to Payton.)
"The liberals are in a majority on almost every college and university faculty. The federal government is literally oozing with soft, mushy liberals. Even the churches are by and large a haven for liberals of various kinds. But what are they doing? They're writing non-committal book reviews . . . smearing leftists . . . writing poetry . . . sending their annual dollar to one hundred and one liberal causes. The liberal professors take their freshman students and in the course of six weeks destroy everything they believe in. They ridicule patriotism, Mother, J. Edgar Hoover and something called God . . . And then what do the liberal professors do? Absolutely nothing. They leave their students sitting up in the air with nothing to hold on to."
SOUND LIKE THE VENOM OF A BED-ROCK, hard-core right winger? Perhaps, but these are the words of Laird Wilcox, editor of Kansas' most radical left-wing publication, the Kansas Free Press. (Yes, he is on the other side of John McCormally.)
"The Kansas Free Press is a newsletter dedicated to controversy and the evolution of meaningful dialogue in matters of current political and social concern" edited by Wilcox and fellow students at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. It is published monthly and sells
for $3.00 per year to students and $5.00 for non-students.
WHY DOES WILCOX CRITICIZE HIS FELLOW liberals, who "have a virtual monopoly on the press, the government, the schools?" Because they refuse to use their power to "bring all the changes so desperately necessary in our society." One such necessary change would be a federal law guaranteeing an income to everyone, regardless of whether he was employed.
The Free Press leads page one of the current issue with a report of picketing by the KU Student Peace Union in front of the Armed Forces Building in Kansas City against the "illegal, immoral and inhuman presence" of U.S. military in Viet Nam. Then follows the first of the usual several articles on the activities of the right wing in Kansas, which the KFP, properly appalled, seems to find synonymous with the John Birch Society. The report is entitled "Birch Leader of Conservative Party of Kansas Speaks to Hostile Audience at KU."
THE NEWSLETTER DEVOTES MUCH ATTENTION to civil rights activities. One article in this issue reports that the Kansas State Industrial Reformatory in Hutchinson is the only place in Kansas where Negroes can study barbering. A piece in a previous number argued that: "What Negroes must have is what Bayard Rustin has already called for—an economic Master plan (which) cannot be accomplished, as Rustin candidly
admits, within the limits of 'free' enterprise. . . Only in this way can Martin Luther King's prophecy come true, that in freeing themselves American Negroes will also be freeing the whites."
In accord with its dedication to uncensored free expression (with, perhaps, the exception of right wing hate-mongering) the KFP started a fund-raising project to aid in defense of Henry Haldeman of Girard, Kansas, publisher of the world famous Little Blue Books, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in an obscenity trial in Topeka a year and a half ago. Haldeman's conviction was overturned in a district court two weeks ago. He wrote in thanks for the aid: "Without the money solicited on my behalf by the Kansas Free Press . . . I would have gone to prison."
ADDING SPICE TO THE LATEST ISSUE IS A first-person account championing the student "revolt" in Berkeley by a former KU student now doing graduate work in California, an article in which President Johnson's Poverty Program is attacked for being niggersly, a rather tame article on the inevitability, necessity and virtue of deficit spending, which could have been written out of any college text on economics, and an appeal by the United Auto Workers for 10.000 "citizen lobbyist(s)" to write letters to Congress on cue from the UAW.
Oh! and a note that that "long-time advocate of extremist causes." Dwight Payton, gave a speech in the public library in Johnson County January 18.
Dear Mr. Payton:
- * * *
I SHOULD LIKE TO thank you for your fairness in your article on the Kansas Free Press in the February 20 issue of the Free Lance. As an avid reader of several right-wing publications such as National Review, The Freeman, American Opinion, The Thunderbolt, Christian Economics, and perhaps two dozen others, such objectivity isn't expected.
I should like to correct a few minor items however, since they tend to misrepresent my views. First, although you don't actually say it you imply that I advocate a federal law guaranteeing an income to everyone, regardless of whether he was employed. This isn't true. A few issues back the KFP carried an item in Conrad Creitz's "Economic Notes" column that Dr. Louis Fein, a Palo Alto, California, industrial research consultant advocated studies to determine whether or not this might be feasible. Dr. Fein also proposed studies to determine who, if anyone, should be paid for not working. My own position is that we need extensive legislation along the lines of the Manpower Training and Development Act, extensive public works conservation projects, and federal aid in developing more
private cooperative enterprises such as they have in Sweden and Western Europe. Rather than provide everyone with income whether they work or not I would advocate action to provide income through employment.
SECOND. YOU SAY that "the KFP . . . seems to find (the right-wing) synonymous with the John Birch Society." I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Of course, nearly all JBS members would call themselves conservatives. I realize, and I think I've made this clear, that not all conservatives are JBS members. Some are simply economic darwinists (libertarians), some are more interested in race (Nazis', National States Righters, etc.), many are simply business people who feel threatened by the public interest as represented through the local, state, and federal governments. As I'm sure you're aware, it simply isn't possible to lump all leftists and or all rightists together. There is as great a difference between the White Americans Party and the Freedom School as there is between the Progressive Labor Organization and the Socialist Party/Social Democratic Federation.
THIRD, YOU STATE. "In accord with its dedication to uncensored free expression (with, perhaps, the exception of right wing hate mongering) . . . " Here you're implying that I'm against free expression for right wing hate mongers. This simply isn't true. While chairman of the Minority Opinions Forum at the University of Kansas last year I invited and took full responsibility for George Lincoln Rockwell, the American Nazi. I defended his right to speak and I continue to do so today (even though I was harrassed and my life was threatened for it). I am every bit as opposed to the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating the John Birch Society or The Minutemen as I am to their investigating Women Strike for Peace or the Student Committee For Travel to Cuba. In other words, my dedication to free expression isn't limited to organizations on the left but on the right as well.
To close, let me say that I appreciate your overall fairness in dealing with the Kansas Free Press. I do think you missed the boat on a few things, however, and I hope you will print this letter in order to correct any misunderstanding that may have arisen.
Yours very truly:
EARTH M. WOOTH
THE KANSAS FREE PRESS
The People Say...
AS A SPOKESMAN FOR THE Civil Rights Council, I find it necessary to clarify our position in regard to the administration's role in the recent events that have taken place at the University of Kansas. Our protest must not in any manner be construed as a personal attack on any of the University administrators, especially Chancellor W. Clarke Wessec. Indeed, such an attack would be inappropriate and unjust for the Chancellor has distinguished himself as a champion and upholder of the principles of human rights and dignity. These are the principles upon which the United States was founded and these are the same principles that have given the United States its respected role in the community of nations. Therefore, the CRC views the recent events as only an opportunity for the Chancellor to further the implementation of the principles that he has advocated and upheld thus far.
The demonstration was called off yesterday because the trust and respect we have for our Chancellor was guarantee enough that significant concrete steps would be forthcoming.
After negotiations this morning with the Chancellor and an administrative body selected by him, the CRC expects that the administration will rise to the occasion and once again assert its leadership in the field of human rights by meeting all of our requests.
Walter Bgoya
Tanganyika senior
Co-chairman of
protest movement
Dailij Transan
111 Flint Hall
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Leta Roth and Gary
Noland ... Co-Editorial Editors