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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 16, 1963
A Girl Raids the Ranks
A good, close friend made a suggestion the other day that is loaded with merit.
"Why don't you quit writing about that stupid ASC," he suggested, "and write about something interesting—like the wages of sin?"
WELL, THERE are probably some devoted readers who doubt that the astute, austere editorial writers of the Kansan can break loose from the old formula. You know, the old formula: sit down, collect your thoughts, unscrew your head from your shoulders, set it on the table and start writing.
It's only being honest to admit that writing with head intact and brain engaged is a serious handicap, but the reading public must be served.
Since the idea of writing a non-ASC editorial, while still retaining contact between the frontal lobes and the motor nerve centers, came from my friend, it is only fitting that the column should be devoted to the subject he suggested.
THIS FRIEND is an advocate of swatting little, furry, hollow balls back and forth across a net, most desirably under a glaring, scorching sun. He plays tennis.
Naturally the topic he suggests involves tennis. But do not lose heart, fellow tennis-disdainers; the subject involves the fairer sex.
The subject, to be explicit, is one Carol Hanks.
The subject, to be esprited, is our Curly Hanks. Miss Hanks had the nerve, mind you, to invade the tight, manly circle of intercollegiate tennis competition. She plays for Washington University of St. Louis, Mo.
AS EXPECTED, her entry into this previously all-male calling has had a disquieting effect.
Fellow teammates quail at the thought of losing to her in intrasquad matches. At least one player quit the squad. It was never pinpointed exactly what he feared; some hinted Miss Hanks had more natural talent, others hinted at natural talents of another nature.
One opponent on the Washington U. schedule (a bastion of male supremacy), withdrew. Losing to Army. Southern California and Michigan State is one thing, but humiliation at the hands of a lass is too much.
IT IS PATENTLY ridiculous for men to fear losing to Miss Hanks; after all, she is only ranked No.12 among women tennis players in the United States.
There is a local angle to this story; Miss Hanks is coming to KU to do battle with a member of our raquet corps.
The date will be May 4. Then we will find out the status of physical fitness among the KU furry ball swatters.
— Terry Murphy
So far, Miss Hanks has held her own. A key question remains: What, if anything, do you say after a pretty young lady has drubbed you at tennis? Maybe carry her racquet home from school.
BOOK REVIEWS
EISENHOWER AS PRESIDENT, edited and with introduction by Dean Albertson (American Century, $1.65 paperback; $3.95 cloth).
The debate is on, and it will continue through countless generations. What kind of president was Eisenhower? What will be his place in history?
This excellent new volume attempts to assess, through the writings of several well known persons, Eisenhower the president. The writers include Sherman Adams, Samuel Lubell, Eric F. Goldman, Charles J. V. Murphy, Richard Rovere, Michael Straight, John Lear, Robert J. Donovan, James Tobin and Norman A. Graebner.
Some of these writings are predictable. Robert Donovan's novel is friendly, as he considers the 1955 heart attack and its aftermath. Michael Straight and Richard Rovere are discovering but cosmetics. Eric Goldman frames it all in the context of "the crucial decade." Sherman Adams tells about being what some critics called the acting president.
If there is a general theme it is that Eisenhower suited his times. The 1950s may have needed social and economic experimentation, and they may have needed more action in world affairs, but neither Eisenhower nor the millions who voted twice for him wanted anything different. If Eisenhower contributed little to the institution of the presidency it is because that is how he, and the voters, wanted things to be.
THE AFFAIRS OF GIDGET, by Frederick Kohner (Bantam, 40 cents).
The cover has a photograph of somebody who looks like Debbie Reynolds or one of those girls—a brunette Sandra Dee, maybe. Gidget is a sweet young thing known to many teen-age movie-goers, and this book is about her, of course. A must for all junior high students.
JFK Struggles To Broaden Welfare Program
By Larry Schmidt In his 1962 State of the Union message to Congress, President John F. Kennedy outlined his goals to realign the nation's public assistance programs in these terms:
"To help those least fortunate of all, I am recommending a new public welfare program, stressing services instead of support, rehabilitation instead of relief, and training for useful work instead of prolonged dependency."
ABRAHAM RIBICOFF, at that time Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, further explained that "We seek to prevent dependence; we seek to mount an attack on the problems that handicap the needy, while we take care of their most basic needs; and we seek to reduce the welfare rolls. Our chief purpose is a positive one: to move people off relief by renewing their spirit and creating economic and social opportunities for them."
This expression of policy was another step in the piece by piece construction of what has become our outlook on public welfare in the United States. Even the original Social Security Act was a statutory framework that has had to be amended time after time to make it the comprehensive social structure that most observers consider it today.
Similarly, here in 1963, more and more fragments are being considered as additions to the already broad federal approach to helping the citizens of our nation who, in Kennedy's words, "live on the outskirts of poverty."
IN HIS current State of the Union message, the President has said that to strengthen our society we need to invest in our youth, safeguard the health of all. protect the basic rights of every American, and make the best and most economical use of the resources and facilities at hand.
Following this four-point guide. Kennedy delivered to Congress earlier this year special messages addressing themselves to the areas he pointed to in the more all-inclusive reports.
There was the special youth message asking Congress for legislation and financing to create a "youth conservation corps" to work in parks and forests, a sort of home town youth corps, a domestic peace corps, and expansion of the existing Peace Corps. The President emphasized need for action on juvenile delinquency, family welfare, education and health and physical fitness.
A few days later, the President again addressed Congress, this time on the subject of health
Daily Transan
BEFORE THAT came another unprecedented message to the nation's lawmakers, this one on mental health. The President asked for an across-the-board program for new community health centers, more pre-natal care for mothers-to-be, more child health care, more trained personnel and facilities for training and rehabilitation of the mentally ill and retarded, and more research centers to get at the causes and, possibly the cures.
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in general. In this message he proposed an extension of the Hill-Burton Act permitting federal sharing of hospital building costs. He also went on record as proposing the encouragement and support of the training of more doctors, dentists and nurses, by helping build new and expand existing schools.
BESIDES HOPING that the hospital insurance plan would pass, Kennedy expressed concern for the income and housing of senior citizens and asked again for tax benefits for those beyond retirement age. In all, the President outlined 36 ways he hoped the lives of elderly Americans might be improved.
The battered plans for health care of the elderly were brought back for another fight on Capitol Hill with the reading of a special message on the problems of aging—the first ever by an American President.
And, in still another "first," Kennedy sent to Congress his annual manpower inventory with word that a nation as rich as the United States should be ashamed to tolerate 6 per cent unemployment. "With the issuance of this report," the President said, "we have committed ourselves to a national policy designed to provide all Americans with the opportunity to develop and use their talents and energies to the maximum of which they are capable."
This, then, is the Kennedy administration's approach to the ever-broadening field that may, with few exceptions, be labeled as social betterment or welfare.
OF COURSE, all this will cost money. In his budget message, President Kennedy asked for a $500 million increase in spending for health and welfare in the coming fiscal year. He said much of the additional welfare money would go to the increasing number of states taking part in the new program aimed at reducing dependency of persons on or likely to join welfare rolls.
The budget carried trust fund expenditures next year of more than 19 billion for social security, railroad retirement, or government employee retirement programs. This compares with expected expenditures of 18 billion dollars in the current year from the same funds.
Social security expenditures are expected to rise about one billion dollars to $16,650,000,000 in fiscal 1964, but Kennedy noted that receipts for the various retirement programs are expected to rise by 2.1 billion, mainly due to the increased social security payroll tax that went into effect on the first of January.
TODAY. PUBLIC assistance is the target of much criticism. According to the president of the National Conference on Social Welfare, Fedele F. Fauri, "Some of the critics seem to conclude that public welfare agencies are the cause of dependency, instead of recognizing the fact that public welfare agencies have been created to assist in meeting problems, resulting from such factors as unemployment, old age, disability, limited education, and broken homes, which society has failed to meet in other ways."
One of the bigger stumbling blocks was recently pointed up by Gov. George Romney of Michigan. He says that Michigan's quarrel with the Kennedy administration over a welfare program hinges on whether the federal government can "bring a state to heel for a federal handout."
Romney flew to Washington a few weeks ago for a conference with Anthony Celebrezze, secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, after the cabinet official said a bill passed by the Legislature failed to meet the standards set to qualify a state for federal participation funds in the program. According to Romney, Celebrezze was trying to "dictate to Michigan how Michigan can define unemployment."
THE MATTER of compatibility between federal, state, county, and local welfare programs is highly important and these entities do not always agree in their interpretation of needs or the scope of their coverage. For instance, although the federal government has made available medical assistance for older people not receiving old-age assistance, as of this time last year two years after the legislation had been passed by Congress—only 27 of 54 eligible state and other jurisdictional administrations had voted to take advantage of the Kerr-Mills Law.
More states, Kansas included, are moving toward acceptance of this measure in 1963. As yet, no legislative count could be found to show the increase.
THE HEART of the Kennedy program, this year as last, is the medicare issue of hospital insurance for the elderly. Last year's administration bill — almost a twin of this year's — died in the hands of the House Ways and Means Committee. An attempt to move it through the Senate as an amendment to a welfare bill was defeated 52-48.
As in the earlier bill, the cost of the medical care would be borne largely by a boost in social security taxes. It would mean a minimum of $13 a year for each employee, and a like sum for his employer. It amounts to one-fourth of 1 per cent for the first $5,200 of the employee's income.
There are now, the President said, $ 7^{1/2} $ million American aged 65 or older — and that number will swell to 25 million by 1980. Nearly six million Americans are 75 or older, and more than 10,000 are over the age of 100, he added.
At present there seems to be some doubt as to exactly what new legislation will come out of this second session of the 88th Congress, but the bills designed to conform with the President's requests are still stymied in committee and there will be considerable debate on each if and when they emerge.