Alumnus say it's a middle class problem
Photo by Tom Slaughter
Ehrlich advocates abortion, birth control methods
BY JOHN GOODRICK
Kansan Staff Writer
The average baby born in the U.S. consumes 50 times as much per capita power as an Indian baby and uses 300 times as much steel as the average Indonesian, said Paul Ehrlich.
The nationally known ecologist and University of Kansas alumnus, told an estimated 8,000 persons in Allen Field House Tuesday night the problem of over population must start in the United States among middle class white Americans.
If you give equal educational and economic opportunities to the black communities, he said, the black growth rate will lower to the same rate as the white's.
Ehrlich said in reference to governmental support, "When we get a President with some guts he will say any patriotic American will have no more than two children—that will be a start."
It all started Ehrlich said, on January 3,8,000 B.C. At that time agriculture began to develop and people began to stay in one place and store their food. This resulted in a lowering of the death rate and a marked increase in population growth, he said.
Since that time the world population has been doubling in shorter
and shorter intervals with the present number estimated at 3.6 billion and is expected to reach four billion by 1975 or 1976, Ehrlich said.
In the press conference Ehrlich said if persons aren't successful with population control on a personal basis "the government will put sanctions on child bearing . . . don't kid yourself if you don't think that it will come along."
A good example of the "direct effects of population" is the pressure that the Chinese are putting on the Soviet Union on the Manchurian border.
Ehrlich said the 600,000 men killed in wars "from the Revolutionary War to the war in Laos" would take the World four days to replace.
In reference to birth control pills he said that if the abortion laws were more lax the manufacturers wouldn't need to make the pill as strong. Even though a few more pregnancies might occur abortion could compensate for these and the side effects of the reduced strength of the pill would probably cause less side effects.
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In reference to food surpluses in several countries he said, "It's not more food than the people can eat.
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International Repressive mood shown
NEW YORK—A poll in which the majority of Americans interviewed said they would be willing to repeal part of the Bill of Rights shows they are "very, very fed up with violent demonstrations." Sen. Barry Goldwater said Tuesday.
The poll, taken by CBS news and released on its show "60 Minutes," showed the majority of those interviewed favored repeal of parts of the Bill of Rights.
Militants obtain weapons
WASHINGTON—Defense Department officials are becoming increasingly alarmed by the theft of military weapons that later turn up in the hands of militant groups dedicated to violence, a top California law enforcement official said Tuesday.
The state official said the arms—including machine guns, bazookas, hand grenades and extremely powerful plastic explosives—were ending up in the hands of groups such as the Weathermen and the Black Panthers.
Hanoi may aid Sihanouk
Mme. Binh told a news conference the summit conference attended by Sihanouk and top leaders of North Vietnam, the Viet Cong and the Pathet lao decided to "do everything in their power to offer each other mutual assistance, according to the wishes of the interested party and on the basis of mutual respect."
PARIS—Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh, the Viet Cong foreign minister, indicated Tuesday that Vietnamese Communist forces might intervene militarily in Cambodia to help ousted Chief of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk return to power.
Pope scraps marriage law
VATICAN CITY—Non-Catholics marrying Roman Catholics no longer need make any promises concerning the upbringing of children under new mixed marriage regulations announced today.
In a 2,400-word apostolic letter, Pope Paul VI said Catholics would be required to promise to do "all in their power" to have their children baptized and brought up in the Roman church.
80th Year, No. 124
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas Wednesday, April 29.1970
Court to release Kopechne report
BOSTON (UPI)—An 11th hour bid to delay the release of the secret documents from the inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's car failed Tuesday.
Superior Court officers went ahead with plans for release of 87 copies of the documents at 3 p.m. EDT Wednesday.
Jerome P. Facher, attorney for the court stenographers who transacted the inquest and then claimed the right to distribute copies of the transcript to the news media for a fee, petitioned the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a restraining order to halt the documents' release.
Chief Judge Bailey Aldrich rejected the motion. "The Massachusetts judges," he said, "have been made aware of the problem. We do not propose to make any further orders."
A damage suit brought by the stenographer, pending in the Federal Appeals Court, was not affected by Tuesday's ruling.
The documents—the 12-page report of the inquest judge and the 764-page transcript of testimony from the four-day secret investigation—will be given to members of the media who have paid $75 for the set of two documents. There are 87 sets spoken for, according to court officers. Distribution will be in alphabetical order in a seventh-floor Suffolk County Superior Court room.
The entire procedure has been awaited for 109 days since the inquest closed Jan.8.
"On July 18, 1969 at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Mass., I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown."
With that statement to police nine months ago, Kennedy set off one of the most explosive stories in many years. The death of the 28-year-old freckled-faced blonde from Plymouth, Pa., also marked the most damaging blow to the fortunes of the surviving Kennedy son.
Kennedy, then at 37 a leading Democratic contender for the 1972 presidential nomination, took himself out of the race—some said forever.
Kennedy spent almost two hours agonizing over his accident report in the small police headquarters
at Edgartown which was caught up in the middle of its usually colorful summer resort trade.
"I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge," he wrote. "The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary Jo Kopechne, a former secretary of my brother, Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom."
Kennedy struggled out of the black sedan. Miss Kopechne was found the next morning floating in the back seat by a scuba diver. Her death was ruled due to drowning by the medical examiner on the scene, but no autopsy was performed.
House probes Douglas' files
WASHINGTON (UPI)—A House subcommittee investigating possible impeachment of Justice William O. Douglas said Tuesday that it would like to see Douglas' personal records in addition to all Federal records on him.
Douglas had offered the special five-man investigating panel subcommittee complete access to his own records, including personal files and Supreme Court papers.
Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., subcommittee chairman, told reporters his committee not only would like to see Douglas' personal papers but already has asked President Nixon for authorization to examine Federal files "relative to malfeasance or misconduct" by Douglas.
These include, he said, records of the Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission Douglas once headed, and records of "any other departments that may have pertinent information concerning Justice Douglas."