KU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan A student newspaper serving KU LAWRENCE, KANSAS
78th Year, No.109
WEATHER
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts today will be fair and warmer with a high in lower 60s, Partly cloudy and warmer tonight with a low in the mid 30s. Tuesday partly cloudy with a chance of scattered showers by evening.
Monday, April 1, 1968
Lyndon B. Johnson: 1963-1968
AND NOW, WHO?
Students all over the KU community were aroused from half-asleep gazes at Sunday night TV, a blaring radio program, or even concentrated study. The President withdrew as a candidate. This picture typifies their reaction.
LBJ throws a spitball
KU initially stunned
Kansan News Roundup Politically it was a multi-megaton explosion.
It rang in ears throughout the world. It shattered intricate political plans of friend and foe. And it silenced for a moment those who had politically and publicly spanked him only hours before.
Shock and disbelief rattled the college students throughout the nation. At KU the reaction was hardly different.
President Lyndon Johnson had announced Sunday night he would not seek re-election.
Sophomore hours will be abolished
Sophomore women's closing hours have been abolished, effective September, 1968.
The Associated Women Students recommended sophomore women be extended the same closing hour privileges existing for junior, senior and 21-or-older women, that is they may enter and leave their residences at their own discretion.
The Council on Student Affairs discussed and approved the recommendation March 26. The recommendation was then approved by Francis Heller, acting provost, and by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe.
The new regulation states:
A sophomore, junior or senior woman or one 21 or older may enter or leave her residence at her own discretion, according to a system formulated and regulated by her individual living group, provided that system is approved by the dean of women.
Political speculation was a prime topic of conversation in University residence halls and other public places on campus. And from those students who don't class themselves as qualified, the comments flowed most freely.
The anti - Johnson sentiment seemed manifest in the reaction of one McCollum Hall co-ed who shouted, "I don't believe it, I just don't believe. . . . It's the greatest thing I ever have heard."
At the International Festival, Everold Hosein, chairman, was urged by an individual who was downstairs watching the telecast on the first floor of the Union and had heard the announcement to tell the foreign students what had happened.
The estimated crowd of 1,500 international students clapped and many of them cheered for about three or four minutes before the Mayor of Lawrence walked up to the platform to announce the top booths.
Upon hearing Hosein's words, one woman seemed to turn pale. She put her head on her lap.
"Now I'm definitely going to Nebraska to campaign for McCarthy. He'd be my choice over Kennedy."
"Oh my God," she said, "I'm going to have heart failure. Now we have no choice at all."
Another student was more cheerful.
The speculation among members of the political science faculty was rampant. Professors spoke freely of the possible developments that might occur in both major parties.
James Drury, professor of political science spoke sharply and critically of the President's announcement, labeling it as "poorly timed and inducive to a lame duck administration."
"Of all times when the United States needs strong executive leadership," he said, "I should think it is today. And the President who is the leader chooses to remove himself from a world crisis in nine months."
Differing from Drury was an associate professor of political
See LBJ's Spitball, page 10
By Merriman Smith UPI White House Reporter
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—President Johnson told the nation Sunday night he will not seek reelection or accept renomination. He said the decision was "irrevocable."
"I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President," Johnson said at the conclusion of a nationwide radio and television address in which he appealed to Ho Chi Minh to make peace in Vietnam and offered him a partial bombing halt as an inducement.
At a White House news conference in the yellow oval room of his second floor White House quarters, the Chief Executive said he discussed the idea at that time with retired Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.
Democratic politics was thrown into turmoil.
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in Mexico City on a diplomatic mission when Johnson made his announcement, was looked upon by many in the party as likely to receive Johnson's endorsement and firm support.
It was thought unlikely that Johnson would allow the nomination to go to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. D.-N.Y., without a fight.
Johnson drove to the vice president's Harbour Square apartment overlooking the Potomac Sunday morning, the White House said. Then Humphrey flew to Mexico.
After he went off the air, Johnson telephoned Humphrey. It was a "God bless you type of thing," White House press secretary George Christian said of the conversation.
In Mexico City, Humphrey said the announcement was "no particular secret to me" and he said Johnson would be hailed by history.
Rep. Wright Patman, D-Tex., a veteran of 40 years in Congress and a close friend of the President, said he and other Democrats would try to get Johnson to change his mind. "There is no
one else" who can handle the job, Patman said.
Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, D-Minn., the President's first rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, hailed "this generous judgment" and said he was now on his way "to the White House."
Sen. Kennedy withheld comment but he had scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference in New York Monday even before Johnson's announcement.
Shortly before midnight, Johnson met reporters. He ate chocolate custard from a dish as he strolled into the room.
"How do you feel?" he was asked.
"Oh, about as good as a fellow could feel—a fellow who has gone through what I have today," the President replied.
The White House said that when Johnson travelled to Capitol Hill last Jan. 17 to deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, he carried in his pocket a statement announcing his retirement.
See Johnson, page 10
Newell replaces Webb at NASA site dedication
Prof. Homer Newell, Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications will replace James E. Webb today as the featured speaker at the dedication of KU's $2.3 million NASA research center.
Webb, National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator, will not be able to attend today's dedication due to illness.
The building will be financed by a $1.8 million grant given to the University by NASA last April plus $354,000 contributed by Kansas and private funds.
The ceremony will be held at the dedication site west of Iowa Street.
Greeks must pay tax; appeal is a possibility
KU fraternities and sororities have not decided whether to appeal a court decision Friday that they must pay personal property taxes, said their lawyer Sunday afternoon.
"The plaintiffs will take the court's decision under review and determine what course of action they will take," said Fred Six, Lawrence attorney and a lawyer for the Greek organizations.
The decision of Judge Frank R. Gray was filed with the clerk of District Court at 11:20 a.m. Friday.
The decision followed a trial on Jan. 17 when Judge Gray took the matter under advisement. The case was first filed in 1965, when a sorority protested paying the first half of personal property taxes due Dec. 20, 1965.
The fraternities and sororites contended they were not incomeproducing organizations and asked the court to declare such taxing of them illegal, and order the refund of taxes paid to Douglas County under protest since 1965 by each house.
In the memorandum of decision, Gray said the furnishings of plaintiff's are not exempt from taxation. Gray noted "the relationship between the corporate plaintiffs and the members of their respective active chapters in the operation of their several chapter houses cannot be classified as 'household goods' as those words are used" in the state constitution.
See Greeks, page 10
"The fact that plaintiffs are non-profit corporations which are exempt from income taxes does
The 70,000 sq. ft. three-story research center which is being designed by state architect William R. Hale is to be built of textured concrete. The general purpose design of the building will insure that floor space be allocated according to the needs of current research and for the duration of a given project. Research space may double for some projects while other projects may leave the building temporarily.
Flexibility will be possible because of features such as movable plumbing and wiring. There will be no classrooms in the building.
About one half of the building will be dedicated to remote sensing research, which is housed in the 13,000 sq. ft. Center for Research, Inc., Engineering Science Division (CRES) building, also located west of Iowa Street.
The laboratory, which is headed by R. K. Moore, professor of electrical engineering, investigates such subjects as radar, infrared, microwave radiometry and photography.
Since the nature of space technology is interdisciplinary, the
See NASA, page 10