Wednesday, February 14, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Aspiring politican works for Rockefeller
By Carla Rupp Kansan Staff Reporter
Despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan, which forced him to carry a pistol in his car during the 1967 Arkansas gubernatorial election, Rick Pendergrass, Crossett, Ark., freshman, still plans a career in politics.
With an eye toward that future, Pendergrass believes in starting at the bottom as a student and developing vital connections to further his political ambitions.
A charter member of the local Citizens for Rockefeller, Pendergrass, a political science major, heads the campaign for Topcape and the rest of eastern Kansas.
"My duty is to encourage people to write Rockefeller, urge him to run for president and circulate bumper stickers and pamphlets about him," Pendergrass said.
His political activities first began in high school when he was president of Young Arkansans
for Rockefeller—a state-wide organization among students campaigning for Winthrop Rockefeller for governor.
"I became a close friend of the governor's during his campaign. We often met at Rockefeller's ranch in the Petit Jean Mountains," he said.
He said Jim Johnson, a radical segregationist from Pender-grass's hometown was running against Winthrop Rockefeller.
"It was a very dirty campaign— quite melodramatic at times."
Pendergrass said he spent two summer months going "way back into the swamps and rice fields of Arkansas, talking to the Negroes and urging them to get out and vote."
"Because of a strong Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas, I always needed to carry a pistol in my car," he said. He got some threatening phone calls from the Klan.
"Rockefeller won the election largely as a result of the Young
Arkansans for Rockefeller," Pendergrass said,
He added, "If students 18 through 21 could've voted in Arkansas in that election, Rockefeller would've won by a landslide!"
Pendergrass is convinced students who do the actual groundwork in campaigns can wield a great deal of political power.
Eighteen-year-old Pendergrass feels college students should become more active in politics.
"I think college students most of the time know more about what's going on than does the general American public," he said.
"One thing I want to work on is to try to get the voting age lowered to 18," Pendergrass said.
He stressed the importance of one getting an "early start" in politics in order to gain the necessary background for further political connections.
Pendergrass commented on the progress of the Citizens for Rockefeller campaign. He feels the organization is making much progress. He measures its progress in terms of publicity.
Pendergrass stressed that Citizens for Rockefeller is not a Republican organization, but rather is oriented towards anyone who wants to support Rockefeller.
Pendergrass added, "The grape-vine has it that Rockefeller wants to be President."
Pendergrass's current goal is to graduate from KU, finish law school, then go back home to Arkansas into local politics. He plans to start his political career in his home community.
He says his first step is to try to get in as his district's representative to the state legislature and then "try for national politics. By that time," he said, "anything may happen."
"If I ever have a chance to make it big, I want to organize a political club for high school students that is permanent—like Collegeate Young Republicans or Democrats in college.
His proposed group will have no political affiliations, but its purpose will be to hold discussions on all sides of the issues—and meet permanently, not only during election years.
Cemeteries show language traits
"The use of German was easy to trace in a Lutheran cemetery three miles north of Bremen," Carmen said. "In this cemetery people were buried in the chronological order of their death instead of in families. The inscription on the earliest tombstones were in German. In about 20 years, it became mixed, and 10 years later, it was in English."
For the last 20 years, J. Neale Carman, Professor Emeritus of French and Italian, has spent most of his spare time wandering through cemeteries.
Another place Carman finds language ghosts is in churches. A large Evangelico Church in Holton indicates the town is a German settlement.
In tracing nationalities in Catholic communities, Carman finds the origin of the priest's name because the priest is usually of the same nationality as his parish. He found Angelus to be Russian-
German after discovering the priest's name was Dryling.
"But if I am looking for bohemian settlements," Carman said, "I have to look for their ZBCJ lodges, a Bohemian grouping. They lust aren't very churchy."
Carman is looking for ghosts of languages used in foreign settlements in Kansas. His hobby is studying foreign communities in the state and how long a language was spoken in that community.
"The Magyars and the Finns are the only Europeans not found in the state," Carman said.
After traveling 60,000 miles in Kansas looking for ghosts and interviewing their ancestors, Carman has found Germans are the most prevalent foreign group in Kansas. Next come the Swedes, the French-Canadians, the Bohemians and the Czechs.
KIEF'S RECORD & STEREO SALE Soundtrack LP "Valley of the Dolls"
Carman also chases ghosts out of musty library books. He traces foreign settlements in U.S. and state census records, published before 1930, because they list the foreigners in each township. He looks for histories written by the communities, such as the 40-volume encyclopedia the Mennonites around Newton and Hutchinson published. He pulls these about foreign groups out of the cob-webby corners of colleges and university libraries throughout the state.
Experimental Theatre
'The Crumbling Citadel'
Reg. 5.79 Stereo
Thurs., Fri., Sat.
Students admitted for 75c with current certificate of registration.
February 14 thru 17 and 19 thru 24 8:20 p.m.
$299
Where does an engineer intern?
Before you decide on the job that's to start you on your professional career, it's good to ask a few point blank questions . . . like:
- Will this job let me rub shoulders with engineers doing things that haven't been done before, in all phases of engineering?
- Are engineering careers with this company stable . . . or do they depend upon proposals and market fluctuations?
- Will I be working for an engineering oriented management whose only standard is excellence?
- Will I have access to experts in fields other than my own to help me solve problems and stimulate professional growth?
- Will I be working with the widest range of professional competence and technological facilities in the U. S.?
Why not ask these questions about Bendix Kansas City when Mr. R. E. Cox visits the
University of Kansas campus Feb.21-22,1968
Or you may write Mr. Cox at:
Box 303-EE, Kansas City, Mo. 64131
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AND AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
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Kansas City Division