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University Daily Kansan Friday, March 22, 1963
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Abortion and Prohibition
The most progressive abortion law in the United States died yesterday in the House Judiciary Committee with the passage of a motion that the bill be returned to the House with a motion that it be "not passed."
Apparently, this move reflected strong pressure from various religious groups in Kansas. This pressure was to be expected, as was the action by the committee.
At the same time the liberal bill on abortion was being considered, a bill was in the Legislature to bring back prohibition. This is at the other end of the spectrum as far as liberal legislation is concerned. Only one other state has prohibition. And although Mississippi has prohibition on paper to satisfy the backwoods protestants, liquor by the drink is not difficult to find in Mississippi's larger cities.
THE REALLY unusual thing about this particular piece of legislation is that it was passed by the Kansas Senate, and by a wide majority. This is difficult to believe in a conservative state like Kansas, but it is nonetheless true.
Although the rest of the nation learned its lesson from past experiences at least some Kansas voters wanted to bring back a law that has proven not only unenforceable but also to have
a negative effect in that it encourages gangsterism. That a prohibition law could be considered simultaneously with the nation's most liberal abortion law would be unbelievable if it were not true.
The idea is so unbelievable that it bears repetition to keep it in the mind of the reader, who might reject it as completely incredible if it were not reaffirmed at short intervals.
THE STATUS of prohibition in Mississippi is an extreme example but nonetheless is basically similar to that of abortions in Kansas.
Abortions can be obtained in Kansas without great risk of interference from law enforcement agencies. At least this risk is small in relation to the risk of having an abortion administered by a person of dubious reputation and reliability instead of by a doctor in a hospital with all the safeguards of modern medical science at his disposal.
For the moment at least, Kansas has passed over its chance to jump ahead of the rest of the nation. But the fact that the abortion law even was considered and got as far as it did should not be overlooked. Hopefully, this is an indication of a trend in the Kansas Legislature.
— Dennis Branstiter
Stranger things have happened.
"TH SPRING, IS TH MOST DISGUGHTING TIME OF TH YEAR ON THIS CAMPUS."
UN Effectiveness Limited But Not Non-Existent
By Rose Ellen Osborne
When the United Nations emerged from a war-ravaged world in 1945, it embodied the hopes of millions for world peace.
But burdened with the failures of the past and faced with the failures of the future, the United Nations' progress has been slow. With only the power to debate and to recommend, the UN has been accused of applying a "double standard" to its interpretation of foreign affairs.
The UN seems to act strongly only in those areas where its voice will carry some weight. At times it seems to apply one set of rules to the Western powers and another to the Soviets, who turn a deaf ear to its suggestions.
No matter how great or slight her influence the United Nations' greatest success lies in just being. Any action which threatens the body's life could be termed a failure in the eyes of the UN.
This rules out any really strong action which might result in the destruction of the UN. Yet in the eyes of the world indecisive action is also a failure.
"It's better that old men get uleers from debating then that young men get shot in war," one author said, referring to the UN's tendency to let issues drag on for years.
"The United Nations is our best and, perhaps, our only hope for peace." President Kennedy said at a news conference.
Fifty nations met in San Francisco "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind."
These nations signed the UN charter dedicated to the pursuit of peace, human rights and a better life.
The UN is basically made up of a Security Council, a General Assembly and a World Court. The Security Council is composed of five permanent members, the United States, Great Britain, France, Nationalist China and the Soviet Union.
The Security Council was designed to enforce peace, but it eventually lost much of its influence because of Soviet abuse of the veto power. By 1960 the Soviets had used the "preventive veto" 86 times.
The "preventive veto" has had a crippling effect on UN legislation. The veto was proposed and insisted upon by the U.S. at Yalta. It was designed to protect allies and satellite nations and to insure that the armed forces of another nation could not be used without the permanent council members' consent.
Critics of the veto propose revising the charter either to omit the unanimity proposal or to require two negative votes instead of one.
Proponents of the veto say that the original charter did not intend for the UN to maintain a real collective security system, because the Soviets feared use of the charter to curb Soviet aggression and the U.S. feared it might be asked to enforce the charter.
On numerous occasions when the world has stood on the brink of crisis, Russia has thrown the veto power into effect and stalemated UN action. Recognizing the potential weakness of this situation, the Western powers pushed through the Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950. The resolution allows members of the Security Council to call an emergency meeting of the General Assembly.
A prime example of Russian abuse of the veto came in the Hungarian revolt in 1956. UN resolutions censured Russia for interference in the domestic jurisdiction of Hungarian affairs. A UN investigative committee was created and a condemnatory resolution was drawn up. Russia ignored both.
Another example of the United Nations' ineffectiveness occurred when a USSR veto paralyzed the Security Council during the Greek civil war.
In 1948 while Russia blocked communications to Berlin and the UN discussed the situation,
the West flew in food and supplies to hungry Berliners. A Russian veto in the Security Council stifled any UN action on Berlin.
The organization's biggest test came in 1948 when Communist troops crossed the 38th parallel. The situation called for immediate and decisive action.
The Communist aggression occurred at the same time that Soviets were boycotting the UN because of UN refusal to seat Red China. Lack of a Soviet dissenting vote on the council allowed the UN to send troops into Korea. Although the majority of UN forces in Korea were from the United States, the UN flag was carried into the Orient, thereby strengthening the UN image in the eyes of the world.
But past experience has shown that the UN image is easily tarnished if it stands in the way of a country's nationalism. In 1948 when Arab was fighting Jew, the presence of a UN police force was not sufficient to quell the strife.
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UN troops seem to have been more successful in establishing peace when they went into Iran in 1946. Peace was restored, but critics say UN intervention had little influence.
Some critics call the UN an extension of American foreign policy. They point to the UN debt as an example of the organization's inability to function as the organ, rather than of all its members a U.S. dependent.
In 1962,82 of 104 countries had not paid their special assessments for UN forces in the Congo. In 1961 Russia had a debt of $41 million and showed no intention of paying.
A special bond issue has been proposed to finance support for the Congo project. Only three countries were delinquent on the regular budget in 1961.
Currently the United States finances 40-50 per cent of UN costs. The United Nations sees dependence on the U.S. as a weakness. It has recommended a limit on the amount of U.S. aid channeled through the UN. The UN feels such a step would relieve the tension of intercontinental racism and prevent the UN from being an organ of American foreign policy.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "We hope to make the UN the cornerstone of our foreign aid program."
"The cornerstone, but not the whole foundation," Clifford Ketzel, associate professor of political science, says.
Besides providing financial aid the United States has been one of the major contributors of troops to the UN. Seventeen countries have sent 20,000 men to Korea. Twelve countries sent troops during the Suez crisis. It is significant to note that no major power has made a contribution in troops since Suez.
Young and unwilling to lean too heavily on any one country for support, the UN has made many blunders.
Twenty other nations sent troops to the Congo. After 18 years of experimentation the UN seems to have come of age.
It has failed to make any progress on the question of Red China's admission to the UN.
Tension and uncertainty are a constant threat in the Congo. There is some talk that two Congos might emerge from the melee.
Some of the African nations use the United Nations as a world propaganda organ through which they can lash back at colonialism. Critics say the African nations are pushing too hard for the independence of nations that are not ready in the first place. Others point out that not one newly independent nation has gone Communist.
A recent program of the UN favors UN financial aid to Cuba to support Cuban agricultural projects. The U.S. picks up the tab for 40-50 per cent of such pregrams.
The UN has been unable to discourage the discriminatory policy of "apartheid" now employed in South Africa. Reports of slavery and genocide in member nations have created doubt that all nations are abiding by the UN charter.
Soviet abuse of the veto has limited or slowed UN action in major world crises and weakened the Security Council. Failure to bring major issues before the World Court has made that body seem weak and ineffective. Inability to reconcile Red China with the Western powers has left that country unrepresented and stalled disarmament talks.
The UN has been anything but a complete success. But neither has it been a complete failure.
Former President Eisenhower recognized the importance of the UN's existence when he said:
"That there have been failures in attempts to solve international difficulties by the principles of the charter, none can deny. That there have been victories only the willfully blind can fail to see. But it is clear that without the United Nations the failures would still have been written as failures into history. And certainly without this organization the victories could not have been achieved.