THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan Serving KU for 77 of its 101 Years
77th Year. No. 76
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Friday, February 10, 1967
Lawyer sees defeat for challenged oath
The lawyer for the KU professor contesting the Kansas loyalty oath predicts a speedy victory.
Irving Achtenberg, attorney for Dr. Gerald A. Ehrenreich, said yesterday the three-judge federal court assigned to the suit will "rule in our favor in 30 to 60 days."
Ehrenreich, as associate professor at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, has refused to sign the loyalty oath required of state employees, claiming it is unconstitutional.
NAMED AS DEFENDANTS in the suit are Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe, the Kansas attorney general, the Kansas Board of Regents and the presidents of Kansas State and Wichita State Universities.
Achtenberg said the U.S. Supreme Court has declared similar oaths in New York, Maryland and Arizona to be unconstitutional.
Director named for new press
John P. Dessauer, associate director of the Indiana University Press, will become the first director of the newly created University Press of Kansas, Provost James R. Surface has announced.
Dessauer, who will take over his new duties on July 1, has had 23 years experience in the field of
The University Press of Kansas was established by the Kansas Board of Regents last October as a combined scholarly publishing organization for Kansas State University, Wichita State University and KU, upon the recommendation of a committee made up of representatives from those universities.
"BY COMBINING the resources of the three state universities of Kansas, we hope to make possible the creation of an expanded and more significant scholarly press than any of us could provide singly," Provost Surface said. "In John Dessauer I believe we have found the director who can make our hopes a reality."
"The attorney general should have ruled the law unconstitutional without a lawsuit," he said.
books, covering nearly all phases from the retail to publishing levels.
Before joining the Indiana University Press in 1960, Dessauer was editor and manager of the Marboro Book Club. He has also served as vice-president and general manager of the British Book Centre, manager of the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., and as a publisher's representative.
AT INDIANA Dessauer is general manager with personal charge of the editorial department and responsibility for the financial management and personal administration of the press. Since he took over the press there the new title production has doubled and the sales volume has nearly quadrupled.
An editorial committee of nine faculty members, three from each participating university, will advise and assist Dessauer in the selection of manuscripts.
Names of 13 other professors employed by the state, including three KU professors, appeared on the civil suit along with Ehrenreich's. The three include David H. Jones, assistant professor of philosophy; Howard Kahane, assistant professor of philosophy, and Norman Yetman, assistant professor of sociology and American studies.
ACHTENBERG SAID that under Kansas law a person could be guilty of a felony for refusing to sign the oath, as well as for swearing to false information in the oath.
"This makes the Kansas oath worse than any other," he said. "The fact that a person can be guilty of a crime for not signing a statement is the closest thing to a bill of attainter I've seen in 28 years of law practice."
A bill of attainder is a legislative act inflicting punishment on a person without judicial trial.
NO CHARGES HAVE been filed against Ehrenreich for refusing to sign the oath.
The cost of the suit is being underwritten by the Greater Kansas City and Kansas affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union. Four attorneys, including Achtenberg, are donating their time to the suit.
MAKING A POINT
Wes Gallagher, general manager of the Associated Press, uses a gesture to make a point as he speaks to journalism students and faculty members.
AP's Gallagher receives award
Journalism is the conscience of the people and the defender of their rights, Wes Gallagher, general manager of the Associated Press, said today.
Gallagher delivered the William Allen White Day Address after accepting the White Foundation's eighteenth annual award for journalistic merit.
THE CITATION reads: "To an American journalist who exemplifies William Allen White ideals in service to his profession and his community."
As editor of the Emporia Gazette until his death in 1944, White faced many of the same problems
of communication a modern editor who Gallagher said.
Quoting a speech White made in 1932. Gallagher said:
"WHEN MAN lived simply and primitively, the business of disseminating the news was done simply and primitively. But now, in this complex civ lization, among people highly sophisticated, the job has become complex."
"That's what I planned to say, but I found that White had already said it," Gallagher said. "That makes him either 35 years ahead of his time or me 35 years behind."
But White. Gallagher said,
Continued on page 3
KU opinion reflects House study
Bu JOHN MARSHALL
Opinions expressed by KU students and faculty members on capital punishment reflect discussion of the question in the Kansas legislature.
As a result of a resolution passed last Wednesday the Legislative Council will study the effects of abolishing capital punishment.
Rep. Jerry Griffith (D-Derby) sponsored the resolution which asks the Legislative Council "to make a study of the abolition of capital punishment and the probable effects thereof, assuming a noncommutable and nonparolable life imprisonment sentence be established in lieu of the death sentence."
THIS RESOLUTION and the resulting study are directly related to the current action of the Kansas Judicial Council which is revising the Kansas Criminal Code.
Revision of the code began three years ago and is expected to be finished in two years.
"Nine of eighteen states which have at some time abolished the death penalty have readopted capital punishment. Kansas is one of these nine.
The big question concerning revision of the code is capital punishment. Should its abolishment be recommended by the Council?
JOHN COYLE, Coffeyville sophomore, said that he could see no real "justification" for capital punishment.
"I can't see its value. I think it's kind of an
anachronism held over from frontier days when 'eye for an eye—tooth for a tooth' justice was handed out," Coyle said. "I definitely think a study needs to be made."
James K. Logan, dean of the KU School of Law, feels that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime. However, Logan gave some reasons why capital punishment is justified.
Society must give vent to its own feelings, he said. Capital punishment is society's "revenge motive" for senseless killings, rape, and, in a particular instance, the assassination of a President.
"If Lee Harvey Oswald had not been shot by Jack Ruby, and had instead stood trial and been convicted of murder, the American people would have demanded Oswald's death," Logan said.
WHEN A MAN is considered so worthless or so dangerous that society doesn't want to take the responsibility to feed him, capital punishment should then be justified. There are some people in our society that we are better off without.
A major point in the controversy over capital punishment is discrimination. Studies have indicated that most men convicted of murder and put to death have come from low-income or minority groups.
Fred Slicker, Tulsa, Okla., law student, said that he disagrees with the "discriminatory aspect" of capital punishment for two reasons.
"First of all, the Supreme Court has demanded and
required counsel for every man accused of any crime. This counsel is provided up through all courts.
"Secondly, I think that people who object to capital punishment for this reason are just complaining to be complaining.
"Obviously," Slicker went on, "there are crimes so dangerous to society that the offenders must be eliminated. Capital punishment in Kansas ought to be kept. It is within the bounds of law and criminal justice."
Larry Blades, KU professor of law, expressed concern that when the entire revision of the Kansas Criminal Code is submitted to the Legislature for vote by the Judicial Council, people will be judging the revision merely on whether the Council approves or disapproves of capital punishment.
"I don't think people should accept or reject the entire code on the basis of one section," Blades said. "There are over two hundred provisions in the code. Capital punishment is only one.
"I wouldn't say I'm in favor of capital punishment, I'm just reluctant to abandon it, because of the deterent effect it has on a potential murderer," he said.
Blades added that he thought people who called capital punishment "legalized murder" minimized its possible deterrent effects.
"Oh, sure," Coyle said, "capital punishment is a deterrent in one way. Once a person is dead he can't commit another murder."