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University Daily Kansan Monday, March 4,1963
'63,'63, Coffee, Coffee?
It is once again that time of the year when the seniors decide whether to play another joke on the University or give an all-to-rare sensible senior gift.
After Lipton's revenge, better known as the "Avenger," was palmed off on the University by the class of '61, and an as yet non-existent lighted map of the campus was given by the class of '62. anything seems sensible by comparison — well, almost anything.
WITH $1,000 to $1,500 to spend, this year's senior gift committee has made four suggestions:
- An English antique silver coffee service which would be used for receptions at the Museum of Art.
- A new trophy case for Allen Field House.
- Improvements on Quigley Field (the baseball diamond south of Allen Field House).
- A donation for part of the construction costs of a fountain court which would be built between the wings of Murphy Hall.
Admittedly, none of these suggestions would have the average KU senior swinging ecstatically from the rafters. But to seniors who received the Gift Committee's letter last week it is apparent that some members of the Committee are heartily in favor of purchasing the coffee service for the art museum.
IN THE letter the chairman of the Committee listed several reasons why the silver coffee service had appealed to committee members.
"The service would be functional as well as a display and study piece; it would attract considerable public attention and publicity; it would
be a noteworthy contribution to an institution which is growing in academic and public acclaim, and it would be extremely hard to steal."
The obvious criteria for judging a senior gift are functionality and beauty. And part of the functional value should be determined by the number of students to whom it will be useful. Not having attended too many art museum receptions recently, this senior finds the functional value of the coffee service a bit remote.
PERHAPS, IF functional value is really important, the coffee service should be placed in Strong basement. In this handy location its functional value and beauty would be exposed for the benefit of all those thirsty for both coffee and culture.
Of course, the Strong basement location would not make the coffee service "extremely hard to steal," by then the value of this particular criterion leaves quite a lot to be desired anyway.
If the class of '63 wants to spend its money on something practical, then it should either buy the trophy case for Allen Field House or provide funds to improve Quigley Field.
OR IF THE class of '63 wants to give the University something with more esthetic appeal, it should donate its money to the fund to build the Murphy Hall fountain court—something many students and visitors can see and enjoy every day.
The coffee service provides a compromise between the two basic criteria—but somewhere in the process of compromise the coffee service sacrifices a bit too much on both counts.
—Dennis Branstiter
Kansan Editorials
Letters to the Editor
Editor:
Usually I look forward to reading the editors in our exchange copy of the Kansan. Most of them are written honestly by apparently intelligent students. Recently I have been a bit discouraged.
Particularly discouraging were the editorials and counter-remarks about capital punishment, or as we know it in Kansas, hanging.
Most of the points made in these editorials were ill-informed and based completely on emotions and personalities. Few of the penologists I know could agree wholeheartedly with the ideas expressed.
It is amazing that many persons seem to think the mere act of enrollment in a university makes one an authority on any and all subjects.
Please reserve the Kansan's editorial page for the writers who usually are a real credit to your publication.
Do not let it degenerate into a printed crying towel for post- adolescent soul-searchers.
Jerry Mosier
Reporter
Leavenworth Times
Leavenworth, Kan.
Capital Punishment
****
(Editor's note: A clipping of One Mistake Is Too Many was stapped to this letter. The "nut" referred to is Zeke Wigglesworth, author of the column, which appeared in the Feb. 22 Kanans in
the form of an open letter to the Kansas House Judiciary Committee. )
If you know who this nut is will you send him this note.
Isn't this maudlin — No matter that 40 or 40,600 murderers continue living — It would be OK, son, and line with all good citizens if they were kept penned up like the wild bears they are. Don't forget, my boy, that 4 INNOCENT people were murdered in cold blood by 2 ex-convicts who had planned this murder in the state penitentiary They—the victims—even pleaded for their lives. Clutter and son were tied and Clutter's throat cut and his blood gurgled out. Mrs. Clutter pleaded "Oh, no, oh, no." She was innocent, wasn't she; what was Clutter guilty of—nothing. What were the kids guilty of—nothing.
My emotional boy, Kansas may not have hanged any innocent, but some innocents have been murdered by ex-convicts. Before you cry too much over the innocent why not help us figure out a way to keep the murders penned up. We didn't get this capital punishment, you know, until AFTER the people became disgusted by repeaters murdering and maiming the unsuspecting innocent. Yep, Kid, let's protect the innocent. Now you try to figure out how. There are more than the Clutters — or don't you know any Kansas history?
President's Brother Bob Acts With "Vigah"
Western Kansas Farmer.
Oh, I could write my real name all right, but I wouldn't have any means of protecting myself from the barrage that would follow. So why don't you do a little thinking?
By Jim Alsbrook
Although millions of people throughout the world know the face and have felt the strong personality of President John F. Kennedy, it is doubtful that he would be President were it not for his less spectacular but hardworking brother. Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy.
It is the 37-year-old "little brother" who, along with the President, has built, mended and supervised the maintenance of the Kennedy political fences ever since 1952. Together, John F. and Robert F., who look much alike and speak almost alike, maneuvered the Kennedy name into international prominence by displacing the respected Henry Cabot Lodge as senator from Massachusetts in 1952.
Second in command, and in 1960 the director of a nationwide political organization built largely from the ranks of amateurs, was Bob Kennedy. By the standards of American national politics, he fully earned his assignment to the Cabinet.
IN SUBSEQUENT political wars the Kennedys lost a belated effort to win the Democratic vice-presidential nomination for John F. in 1956, won the renomination and re-election to the United States Senate for John F. in 1958, won the Democratic Presidential nomination and election in 1960 and, in so doing, establish circumstances conducive to the successful campaign of a third Kennedy politician. Edward M., for the Senate seat vacated by his brother, the President.
The attorney general was educated at Harvard and the University of Virginia Law School. He is married and the father of seven children. He and his wife recently announced that they expect another child in the next few months. They said they
would be glad to have twins in order to have a baseball team.
BOB KENNEDY got his primary and secondary education at various schools in the Northeast and in England, where his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who reputed to be worth about $250 million, was ambassador to the Court of St. James when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House. While in England the younger Kennedy attended children's parties with Princesses Margaret Rose and Elizabeth, now Queen.
Making fair to good grades in school, Bob Kennedy was more noted for his athletic determination than for scholarship. He was an end on the Harvard football team and suffered a broken leg. Previously he had been injured repeatedly in sports and other physical activities.
He joined the Navy in World War II but accomplished nothing spectacular. During the time between his leaving Harvard and entering the University of Virginia law school, he toured the Middle East as a reporter for the Boston Post. When he was graduated from law school he began to work first with the Justice Department and then with Congressional committees. This work, along with his political campaign direction, was his occupation until he became attorney general in 1961. He did not appear in court until recently.
THE LEANINGS of Bob Kennedy became apparent when he was in law school. He revived the Student Legal Forum, became its president, and brought speakers like William O. Douglas. New York Times writer Arthur Krock, and Sen. Joe McCarthy to Virginia as speakers. His first bit of national publicity came when he fought to have Ralph J. Bunche, Negro
undersecretary of the United Nations, brought to Virginia University as a speaker. Kennedy won and Bunche spoke.
Following his stint with the Justice Department and managing his brother's successful campaign for the Senate in 1952. Bob Kennedy joined the staff of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The tactics of McCarthy, his counsel Roy Cohn, and Cohn's sidekick. G. David Schine, caused Kennedy to resign from the committee staff following a heated argument which almost led to a fist fight with Cohn in the Senate Office Building.
Later he was assistant counsel for the Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the federal government (1953-1954), chief counsel of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations (1954-1961), and chief counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the labor-management field (1957-1961).
UNIVERSITY Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Services and a subsidiary of OAK News service. United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University week. Not except Saturday and Sunday at admission periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Telephone Viking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Free Zimmerman, Managing Editor
Ben Marshall, Bill Sheldon
Mike Miller, Art Miller, Margaret
Cathcart, Assistant Managing Editors
Scott Payne
Steve Clark
Sports Editor
NEWS DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Dean Brandon Editor Editorial Editor
Terry M. Asst Assistant Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Jack Cannon Business Manager;
IT IS THE latter capacity that brought him into contact with Dave Beck, convicted ex-boss of the teamsters, and Jimmy Hoffa. present teamster boss, whom Kennedy has publicly denounced and sought to have convicted of criminal charges. Hoffa is mentioned prominently in Bob Kennedy's book, "The Enemy Within," which appeared in 1960.
Some observers believe it was Bob Kennedy's television appearances on these hearings that brought the Kennedy name into the household of millions of viewers in 1955 and 1959, thus paving the way for Jack Kennedy's Presidential bid in 1960.
The attorney general has written another book, "Just Friends and Brave Enemies," which appeared in 1962 following his good-will trip around the world.
Other observers point out that it was Bob Kennedy who painstakingly organized the workers in the presidential preference primaries in Wisconsin, West Virginia and elsewhere to enable Jack Kennedy to come in the fray and out-pull Sen. Hubert Humphrey in 1960.
KENNEDY IS pictured as at least four persons: (1) "a boyish-looking collegian who blushed and giggled when called upon to read a prostitute's testimony before the Senate Rackets Committee." (2) "an experience-grizzled political pro who cannily pinpointed each of Richard Nixon's mistakes after the 1960 election campaign." (3) "a doting father who laboriously lugged a huge stuffed dog all the way from Cincinnati for his children," and (4) "a vicious scraper who hates the way his father does."
As attorney general. Kennedy works 14 to 16 hours daily, just
as he worked when he was counsel for Senate committees and when he was campaign manager for his brother. This fact is cited by those who defend him from those who claim he is not suited to be attorney general because of his youth (he is the second youngest attorney general in history, the youngest being Richard Rush, 33, who served with President Madison in 1814) and his inexperience (he had not pleaded a case in court nor had he represented a private client in litigation before his appointment to the attorney generalship).
To help compensate for deficiencies in his legal experience, Kennedy appointed as assistant attorney general Byron (Whizzer) White, former Colorado University All-American football star and for years a top-flight lawyer in Denver. and as solicitor general he appointed Prof. Archibald Cox of the Harvard Law School. Kennedy maintains that these two have the law experience, so he can concentrate on leadership Kennedy later recommended that White be appointed an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and the President made the appointment, which was confirmed by the Senate.
SINCE KENNEDY became attorney general his main areas of concern have been antitrust actions against conspiring big businesses (General Electric, Westinghouse, etc.), prosecutions of criminals in labor unions (Hoffa, etc.) and enforcement of civil rights laws and Supreme Court decisions affecting them.
In all areas Kennedy's leadership has been vigorous and clearly defined. The group of critics who at first deplored his youth and inexperience has dwindled to a few who complain about the vigor of his actions.