GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE—Wiliam H. Avery, a Congressman from Wakefield who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, spoke here last night at a meeting of the Collegiate Young Republicans. Seated to the left of Avery at the meeting is Sam Evans, chairman of the KU club. (Photo by Charles Corcoran)
Avery Sees No Hope For Re-apportioning
By Lee Stone
"I will be awfully surprised if the legislators at Topeka vote any of their brethren out of office," Avery told the Collegiate Young Republicans in the Kansas Union last night.
William H. Avery, a U.S. representative who is a Republican candidate for governor of Kansas, has little hope for equitable reapportionment of the Kansas Legislature.
(A majority vote now in the Kansas House can technically represent only 19 per cent of the state's population. A majority in the senate can represent as little as 28 per cent of the population, according to KU Governmental Research Center Study.)
Most new state monies would be used to assist elementary and secondary schools. Kansas should supply at least "40 per cent of the total cost of school operation," Avery said.
IN HIS SPEECH, Avery said because of a growing population in Kansas and the growing demand for services, the next Legislature session must face the task of obtaining more tax dollars.
For the state to meet the "unavoidable expense" by its current taxing policies would eventually lead to federal aid. Avery said he had always voted against federal aid to education on the secondary and elementary level.
(The "Congressional Quarterly," however, shows that Avery has often voted for federal aid and grants to institutions of higher learning.)
Friday, Feb. 14, 1964
Although Avery described the Democrat-backed tax cut bill as a political "vote-getting device," he believed the economic stimulation expected from it could provide the increase in personal income to support a gross earnings tax.
AFTER THE SPEECH, Avery said Kansas cattlemen and oilmen are "carrying all the tax burden they can bear." He said he was also opposed to a severance tax. "It would not alone be passed on to the consumer as a production cost," he said.
Although cattlemen generally support enactment of a gross earnings tax bill, the Citizen's Advisory Committee appointed by Governor John Anderson Jr., recommends against such a local tax because of the difficulties in administering it.
Although Avery does not foresee the consolidation of counties, he does believe some county functions, if consolidated, could be administered more economically.
REFLECTING ON U.S. foreign policy, Avery admitted that under Dulles, errors were made. But, he said, "We (Republicans) did not quarrel with our friends and enemies at the same time."
Avery was also opposed to a hike in property taxes. Property taxes have increased rapidly in the past few years, and do not necessarily fall on those able to pay.
Avery is a native of Wakefield. He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for ten years. He serves on two committees, the powerful House Rules Committee and the Select Small Business Committee which makes resolutions, but which cannot report legislation.
Last May, Avery was awarded a "distinguished service award" by the Americans for Constitutional Action.
The ACA is a society which is considered similar to the John Birch Society, and is, in fact, approved by the JBS. It rated Avery's performance as 77 per cent in keeping with the U.S. Constitution. Barry Goldwater, Arizona senator, was rated 100 per cent.
Lawrence, Kansas
61st Year. No.83
Bircher Draws Pickets While Defending Beliefs
By Rogers Worthington
A member of the John Birch Society and a Kansas City businessman called a recent KU speaker "an instrument of communist propaganda" and a "saniticonym hypocrite" yesterday in the Kansas Union while picketers outside protested what they considered oppression of freedom of speech.
The two men spoke before a capacity audience of 250 yesterday afternoon in the Forum Room.
The Rev. Robert Hatch, of the First Bible Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Mo., a member of the John Birch Society and leader of the group that picketed Czechoslovakian theologian Milan Opocensky last Friday, was accompanied by Marcus Braun, who described himself as "an ordinary garden-variety businessman."
One sign read, "The Communist party is a John Birch plot to discredit liberalism." Another said, "A janitor killed our president. Finklestein is a janitor. Get Finklestein!"
OUTSIDE, SEVERAL picketers carried signs bearing slogans which stated their messages in either plain, straight-forward terms or facetious syllogisms and anachronisms.
A Bible quotation was used on one sign, which read, "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Proverbs 26:11."
Another quoted Voltaire: "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
BUT THE SIGN which stated just what all the other signs were about, said: "Mr. Hatch and Mr. Braun: We protest organizations which advocate the withholding of the right of expression of minority factions in our country."
Before the forum started, Braun and Rev. Hatch were caught amidst half-a-dozen placards as they made their way toward the entrance of the Kansas Union. They were presented a formal written protest by picketer James Chism, Anthony graduate student.
Once inside, the two men took seats on the platform, flanking Tom Moore, executive secretary of the KU-Y. Several elderly men and women sat in the front rows of the packed Forum Room. Late arrivals stood, lining two-thirds of the room's perimeter.
MOORE GOT the forum underway by asking Rev Hatch why he objected to Opocensky's speaking at
Weather
The skies will be increasingly cloudy through Saturday night. The low tonight will be in the 30's with possible rain or snow later tonight. Temperatures will be colder tomorrow, the Weather Bureau said.
KU. He replied, "We believe he is here to disseminate communist propaganda. He's giving out the line that there is freedom in communist countries. We believe he's an instrument of communist propaganda. We were protesting what he had to say and were protesting his presence here because of what he had to say."
When Moore asked Rev. Hatch if he had actually heard Opocensky speak last Friday, he said no, but that he had a record of what Opocensky has said on other campuses.
Braun spoke next. "The reason I'm interested in conservatism is that I am worried about what's happening in my country, Particularly, I can see it in my business. Now, I am being closed in on. I believe that communism is nothing more than militant atheism. I believe that he (Opocensky) was sent here by the Communist Party to mislead students into thinking that communism does have some merits after all."
AFTER REFERRING to a congressional report by FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover concerning communists on university campuses, Braun said, "I question whether most students are capable of detecting communist propaganda. A communist is taught to lie, cheat, and subvert. When we let them speak on our university campuses, that is the most insidious type of propaganda."
A question and answer period fol-
Fans Find It Tough. Too
(Continued on page 3)
Swimmers Battle Cramped Pool
By Bob Jones (Assistant Sports Editor)
Take an unventilated room 70 feet long and 34 feet wide. Install a low, 13-foot ceiling. Add bleachers for about 150-200 people. And, on top of it all, have a 60- by 20-foot pool of water.
Sound incredible? Maybe, but these are the conditions under which the KU swimming team must operate.
Dick Reason, KU swimming coach, says KU has the finest swimming team in its history, but lack of proper space hurts both the conditioning of the team and the recruiting of good swimming prospects.
HENRY SHENK, CHAIRMAN of the physical education department, said the pool itself is "good." It was renovated in 1952.
"The main problem with our facilities . . . is they are too small," Shenk continued.
In discussing some of the problems of swimming in such confined quarters, Reamon said because the pool is only 20 feet wide, an official swimming meet cannot be run in Robinson Pool.
"THE LANES IN the pool must be seven and a half feet wide to be regulation." Reamon said, "and with four men in the pool for a race, it can't be done."
He said other pools in the conference are of regulation size, 75 feet long and from 42-45 feet wide.
Reamon said the team has to compensate in training, because the meets away from KU are in longer pools.
"I have the swimmers do laps around the pool," he said, "but it hurts their stroking and their turns."
THIS PROBLEM WOULD be worse except for the fact the div-
Another serious problem is caused by the low ceiling. The divers on the team are in danger of cracking their heads every time they prepare for a dive.
(Continued to Page 8)
LOOK OUT ABOVE—Jerry Higgins, a member of the KU swimming team, dives in Robinson Pool. Above him are marks attesting to the limited height in the pool. (Photo by John Forbes)