Rural Bloc Promises Apportionment Fight
TOPEKA — (UPI) — The 1964 special session of the Kansas Legislature, the 17th in the state's history, was called to order at noon today to untangle a legal snarl in reapportionment.
Gov. John Anderson was to deliver his reapportionment message to a joint meeting of the special session shortly after noon. To date, Anderson has declined to publicly discuss his views on the constitutionally snarled problem.
Non-partisan battle lines were being drawn up over the weekend for the main event, which will feature rural legislators vs. city legislators over reappointment of the House of Representatives.
Rural forces served notice last week they will be out in force with an attempt to chop the membership of the House from 125 to 105.
on a one-per-county basis.
THE KANSAS SUPREME Court, in overturning the reapportionment act of 1963, held that the 20 extra House seats were "grossly malapportioned" and should be re-divided among the more populous areas.
Atty, Gen. William M. Ferguson hopped into the act and delivered a memorandum opinion to legislators telling them that a reduction in House membership would not stand up in Federal Court.
Rep. Jess Taylor, R-Greeley county, unofficial dean of the rural segment of the House, served notice last week that regardless of Ferguson's opinion the farm bloc would fight hard to cut back the House.
TAYLOR SAID THE fight in the House wouldn't have partisan
Although reapportionment of the state Senate was the original fly in the ointment, little trouble was expected from that body this year.
overtones — and proved it by exhibiting two Democrat supporters of the rural plan.
The Senate reapportionment in 1963 was held unconstitutional simply because the Johnson county town of Leawood was accidentally left out of any district.
UNDER THE STRONG leadership of Senate President Pro Tem Paul Wunsch, R-Kingman, the Senate was expected to swiftly correct this minor error and then re-enact last year's apportionment. The Senate could then just sit back and wait for the House to thrash its problems.
Under the 1963 act the Senate was divided into 40 districts of
about 56,000 population each.
Attempts were made last year to cut the House back to the state constitutional minimum of one representative per county, but the plan fell apart at the last moment when it was discovered that the bill was incorrectly drafted.
THIS YEAR, TAYLOR said, the bill has been properly drafted and will have an abundance of sponsors.
The rural block promised to introduce their house reduction bill as the very first measure Monday. It will carry 12 sponsors — eight Republicans and four Democrats.
Rural legislators reason that the extra 20 seats were given the populous areas in 1959 only to keep them quiet about the apportionment of the senate which had not been changed in half a century.
Now that the Senate is reapportioning strictly on the basis of population, they say, there is no longer a need for representation of anything but geography in the House.
LAST YEAR Anderson asked legislators not to upset the 20 extra seats in the House — but later said he thought a 105-member House would meet requirements of the state constitution.
The 1964 budget session has allowed seven days' pay and expenses for this first special session since 1958 and predictions are that the session will run from seven to 15 days.
Leaders of both Houses, along with Gov. Anderson, have indicated they hope to limit the special session to consideration only of the apportionment problem.
Daily hansan
61st Year, No.84
Speakers Examine Panama Dispute
By Roy Inman
"There is no intrinsic value of Panama—except to the Panamanians."
That was the opinion of Robert E. Nunley, associate chairman of Latin American areas, speaking Friday at SUA Current Events Forum on the Panamanian crisis.
"The WHOLE IMPORTANCE of Panama on an international scale." Nunley continued, "is the Panama Canal."
Weather
Monday, Feb. 17, 1964
EACH MAN SPOKE 20 minutes, and comments from the floor followed.
Also discussing the issue was Robert D. Tomasek, associate professor of political science, who examined specific issues.
Skies will be partly cloudy tonight and tomorrow with a slight chance of rain tonight the weather bureau reported. Temperatures tonight will be in the upper 20s and lower 30s, and the high tomorrow will be in the mid-40s.
"The major issue," prof. Tomasek said, "is who has the right of sovereignty over the Panamal canal."
Nunley, who is also an associate professor of geography and geology, described with a map the Panama area.
"Panama is only 30 miles wide, and with the canal makes the east and west coasts of both North and South America more easily accessible." Nunley said.
"Ever since the time of Balboa, the only importance of panama has been as a place to get through to the Pacific," he said.
PROF. NUNLEY BELIEVES that with the development of the Strategic Air Command and modern navies, the canal is no longer so important militarily.
Also, the canal is not big enough to handle the larger commercial ships now afloat, Prof. Nunley said. He proposed building a new canal in Columbia or Nicaragua.
"Panama owns the area, but the United States runs the canal. Because of this, there has been tension ever since the canal was built, and occasionally this tension has turned into violence," Prof. Tomasek said.
PROF. TOMASEK LOOKED up on the recent flag-raising incident in the canal zone as "the symbol of sovereignty."
"THE CURRENT DISPUTE arose when the American flag in front of Balboa high school in the canal zone was taken down. "At that point," Tomasek said, "150 Panamanian high school students tried to fly the Panama flag.
20 Panamanians in self-defense.
"THE ISSUE THEN became a question of nationalism, which stirred up demonstrations in all parts of Panama," Tomasek said.
As a solution to the Panama problem, Prof. Tomasek suggested that another canal be built in the southern part of Panama.
BOTH PROFESSOR NUNLEY and Tomasek felt that the United States would have to bend in its attitude towards Panama.
"We may have to form a partnership with Panama, doing away with a perpetuity clause which states that the U. S. will have eternal control over the canal," Tomasek said.
"THE REAL SOVEREIGNTY of the canal may have to go completely to Panama to resolve the situation," he concluded.
New English Head Named
In recent years the English department at KU has grown into a nationally respected department, George J. Worth, newly appointed chairman of the English Department, said last week-end.
Prof. Worth's appointment was announced Friday by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe. Worth had been acting chairman of the department since last July 1, when he replaced William P. Albrecht, who took over as dean of the KU Graduate School. Worth will not formally become chairman of the English Department until July 1.
"No revolutionary plans are in store for the department at this time," Prof. Worth said. "We will attempt to keep the department running as smoothly as it has in the past."
The English Department presently has 141 undergraduate majors, 135 graduate students, and a teaching staff of 113. The department, in
(Continued on page 10)
British Reinforce Troops In Cyprus
NICOSIA, Cyprus — (UPI) — Britain reinforced its peace-keeping forces in Cyprus today in an effort to curb the communal fighting while the United Nations seeks a solution to the crisis.
President Archbishop Makarios warned last night that there is danger of increased fighting between Greeks and Turks on the island and foreign intervention unless a settlement is found soon. He said "mere recourse" to the United Nations does not mean a satisfactory solution.
The United Nations Security Council was opening debate on the Cyprus problem this afternoon. Britain and Cyprus, a former British colony, requested the council meeting after Anglo-American efforts to establish an international peace force in Cyprus failed.
WHILE THE situation remained potentially explosive, the immediate
Girl to Be Named Best-Dressed
ONE WOMAN WILL BE chosen as the best dressed girl on campus next week.
The KU finalist will participate in competition with women from various colleges and universities for the "Ten Best Dressed Girls." Sponsored by a national magazine the girls are selected from hundreds of contestants who represent their various schools.
The KU representative for the contest will be selected from the group of twenty-nine KU women who participated in a preliminary competition yesterday afternoon in the Kansas Union. Dressed in clothes appropriate for wearing to church the women were selected for the contest by their various living groups. The contestants were interviewed and judged on the basis of their poise and clothes sense.
Ten women will be chosen to compete in the final contest next Sunday afternoon. The finalist will be chosen from that group.
threat of military intervention by Turkey or Greece appeared abated pending U.N. consideration of the problem.
Some sources in London close to the Cyprus problem felt the Makarios government was becoming fragmented, with the Archbishop having only limited control. The sources said the dangers were increased by the existence of "private armies" in the countryside and arms smuggling to GreekCyriots.
Undersecretary of State George Ball, who headed the U.S. peace mission to Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, said on returning to Washington last night that the situation in Cyprus is "very critical." He said top priority must be given to stopping the blood-shed between Greek and Turkish Cyriots.
WITH COMMUNAL fighting erupting daily, the British ordered in 260 crack troops from a Royal Guards regiment, equipped with armored cars, to reinforce the 5,000 British troops policing this Mediterranean island republic.
British authorities also began setting up numerous subsidiary headquarters all over the island to act as fire stations for rapid action when shooting starts in the villages.
The village of Ayios Theodoros, located between Limassol and Larnaca, was the scene of a battle yesterday. Witnesses said rival bands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots used grenades, sticks of dynamite and light automatic weapons against each other.
MAKARIOS, leader of the dominant Greek Cypriots, said in his nationwide radio broadcast last night that the Anglo-American efforts to negotiate a settlement of the crisis outside the United Nations had ended.
Court Requires Equal Districts
WASHINGTON — (UPI) The Supreme Court ruled today in a precedent-setting Georgia case that congressional districts must be as nearly as equal as possible from a population standpoint to avoid unfair voting apportionment.
The decision held that Georgia had discriminated against city dwellers voting for House members and overruled a lower court opinion that the issue was one for Congress to settle.
In general, the ruling applied the voting apportionment doctrine of "one person, one vote" to the election of U. S. Congressmen.