Page 2
Summer Session Kansan Friday, June 24.1966
"It's Our New, Powerful, Whisper-Quiet Model"
A doubt on Reagan
(Editor's Note: This is an editorial written by a high school teacher enrolled at KU recently in the Publication Advisers Institute sponsored by the Wall Street Journal's Newspaper Fund and the School of Journalism.)
With the advent of strong political reaction in California comes an equally strong concern for conventional candidate criteria. Ronald Reagan, actor turned successful politician, having easily gained an endorsement from the state's GOP electorate has caused nagging questions to return to the nation's political observers.
First, can a Hollywood personality, having changed party affiliation only within the past four years, become the Republican governor in a state where registered Democrats dominate by over a million votes—following eight years of adequate, although uninspired, Democratic administration? And, most important to many observers—can this same man snowball enough of this support to become a serious contender for the presidential nomination in 1968?
MR. REAGAN'S BUILT-IN advantage of having projected years of favorable image to the American public is no small factor in his rise from dark horse to favorite son. However, other circumstances certainly did his cause no harm. Not the least significant of these was the employment in January of Spencer-Roberts & Associates, political management professionals, who have patched over, if not completely altered, his Goldwater-supporting, right-wing extremist image to that of a sincere, reform-minded moderate.
Fortunately for Mr. Reagan, his opponent, incumbent Pat Brown, has been relatively slow and ineffective lately in dealing with major California problems. The Free Speech Movement and Viet Nam Day Committee at the University of California, Berkeley, invoked confused statements and few solutions from the governor, while actor Reagan argued that "something" should be done. Many Californians agreed with Mr. Reagan's "something," rather than accept Gov. Brown's nothing.
Welfare, high taxes (California has some of the nation's highest), and fat government budgets are fair game, and Reagan has been shooting -proposing a $245 million budget cut, work programs for welfare recipients, and cost cutting in state institutions. Pat Brown's eight years of collecting political enemies, along with the lack of a strong positive issue in his favor, cast him as the villain in a script written largely by candidate Reagan.
LEST. HOWEVER, the casual reader be getting any ideas of a story-book ending, a few points should be inserted here. First, no amount of public relations and image repair will change a man's basic philosophy, which, in Mr. Reagan's case, was demonstrated vividly during the past presidential campaign in his Goldwater television plea. Next, although a possible candidate for presidential nomination should he win in California, his political past almost certainly would cause the type of party split that proved near disaster for Republicans only two years ago.
And finally, what, if any, true qualifications for effective government administration can exist in a man who, although probably sincere in concern, has had absolutely no experience in ANY governmental process, much less the intricate machinery of a state the size of California?
November's election results promise a surprise ending for all, perhaps the most suspenseful of Mr. Reagan's career.
Wendell Crow
Don't underrate our youth
During a recent meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Montreal, we listened to a panel of experts explain why our youngsters are not reading newspapers.
Panel participants include Ann Landers, a doctor of psychology, and Tom Wolfe, the provocative long-haired young gentleman who came to fame by writing a scathing expose of the New Yorker magazine.
THE NET OF WHAT they had to say is that newspapers are edited for adults. And kids don't dig it.
In effect, they recommended that newspaper editors ought to take a new look and "write down" to the eight-year old mind. This is the way, they said, to capture the young reader and, hopefully, to hold him through the adult years.
At this stage of the proceedings a number of editors untangled their legs and headed for the nearest refreshment stand.
"They're saying," one observed, "that although billions are being spent on instruction of the young, we should now repeal education."
WHICH BRINGS me to the point that the silliest, most unproductive discussions about teenagers are those in which no young people are invited to participate.
Their elders of both sexes solemnly analyze and dissect "the problem." Yet they seldom expose themselves to the views of those they are sincerely attempting to help. What kind of communication is this?
My own opinion is that we tend to underrate our young people while rationalizing our own mistakes. If you have ever heard a group of teenagers interrogate a speaker, you realize they go directly to the issue. They know what concerns them, ask the question and expect a straight-forward answer.
YOUTH HAS NONE of the pomposity which afflicts older people. They indulge in no circumclement. Being uninhibited by protocol or the niceties of the occasion, their searching questions have brought confusion to many a pretentious ass posing as a learned man.
So if our concern over young people stems from a genuine interest, we should talk with them more and at them less. No amount of yakking at a 15-year-old boy will convince him that he is in error. A sympathetic man-to-man discussion of his anxieties and mistakes can be helpful.
A MEASUREMENT of one year's editions of any newspaper will reveal that—contrary to public thinking—the accomplishments and achievements of youth outnumber the news of delinquencies and crime by a margin of ten to one.
"I wish that every person who has expressed concern about our young people could be here. I wish that every person who wonders about the future...could be present in this auditorium and see the young people who are being honored...and learn of their accomplishments in many fields of endeavor which are emphasizing the positive side of American youth."
NEWSPAPERS WHICH stage spelling bees, debates, soap box derbies and other youth activities are stimulating the mind and the body, encouraging competition and developing individual talents.
The best of our youth are good students and determined achievers. As Dr. John E. Champion, president of Florida State University, said at the Miami Herald-sponsored eighth annual Silver Knights Awards ceremony:
The newspaperboy who delivers your paper has a head start in life as he develops character and responsibility on the job.
So don't sell our young people short. Theirs is a difficult world but, by and large, they are better informed and far more perceptive than we were at the same age.
I DISAGREE vehemently with the distinguished panelists in Montreal who apparently believe that newspapars will never attract young readers unless they make a calculated play for the least educated among them.
Today's kids are smart. In many cities—notably in Akron—they have long been exposed to "news-paper in the classroom" projects which give them at least a working knowledge of "what goes on here."
A newspaper which encourages teenage discussion of Vietnam, the draft, problems of delinquency and their parents—a favorite subject — soon discovers that youth is eager and responsive.
Just as the purpose of education is the development of knowledge, newspapers likewise have the responsibility of being informative as well as interesting. Editors, like educators, must assist in the process of learning and not demean it in a search for "youth appeal."
THEIR LETTERS to the editor are well and thoughtfully written. The comment is brief and insive.
As one old-timer said at Montreal, "If we edit our newspapers exclusively for the kids, what happens to our adult readers?"
Since this was one of the few pertinent questions to be asked, the panel retired in some confusion. No one learned very much about anything. And all because there were no very young people present to refute the absurdities advanced by the savants.-John S. Knight
BOOK REVIEWS
United Press International
The Story of Scotland Yard, by Sir Ronald Howe. (Horizon $4.50): A history of the Yard's Criminal Investigation Department, propably the world's most famous detective force.
Sir Ronald has a personal knowledge of his subject — he is a former head of the C.I.D. — but he has relatively little to say about his own connection with the Yard. He deals with such great figures of the past as Henry Fielding (author of 'TomJones' as well as organizer of Britain's first professional policeforce) Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. Records of law enforcement in England go back as far as 550 A.D., but it was not until 1753 that Fielding founded the "Bow Street Runners" In 1829, Sir Robert founded the uniformed force — direct ancestor of modern London's police — which as "peeleders" and more recently as "bobbies" commemorates his name.
It was not until 1842 that the first tentative steps toward formation of a London detective force were taken. The two inspectors and six sergeants recruited in that year were forrunners of the present-day C.I.D., which has more than 1,600 men and 500 women on its payroll.
Sir Ronald, while acknowledging some shortcomings in the operations of the C.I.D. (notably in dealing with subversives during and since World War II), still considers it at least as good as any such force in the world. He thinks, however, that it could be made better by extending the area of its immediate authority from Greater London to all of Britain.
He has fleshed out his interesting account of British police development with accounts of
specific cases involving various kinds of crime
***
Showcase, presented by Roy Newquist (Morrow $5.95): Newquist, book editor of Chicago's American, has only one real connection with show business: he is a fan. His newspaper connection, however, gives him some advantages, and he collects interviews from his favorites instead of autographs.
Entertainers are likely to be articulate people, and most of them have something of interest to say about their craft. Newquist has been discriminating in his choice and wise in his questioning, so "Showcase" is a delightful book.
In his book Newquist presents taped interviews with 25 notables of the entertainment world. Most of his subjects are actors, ranging in style and medium from Janet Gaynor (winner of the first "best actress" Oscar) to Dame Edith Evans.
Also included, however, are such specialists in other fields as playwright Edward Albee, stripteuse Ann Corio, choreographer Agnes de Mille, pianist-composer Calvin Jackson, screenwriter-producer Ernest Lehman, designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch, director Mike Nichols and producer-director Harold S. Prince.
"Here then, are about half of my favorite people in the entertainment world," Newquist says in a foreword. "A year or so from now 'Showcase II' will present the other half."
It will please readers who are familiar with the workings of the theatre as much as those who, like Newquist, are on the outside looking in (it may in fact, interest the insiders even more than the fans).
Summer Session Kansan For 76 Years, KU's Official Student Newspaper KANSAN TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 — Business Office—UN 4-3198
The Summer Session Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th Street, 2005 Massachusetts Ave., paid at Lawrence, Kauai, every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination ods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the Summer Session Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed
or the opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial new articles may opinions expressed in the editorial column are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents.