KANSAN COMMENT
Testing the war
The Supreme Court, at least ten years late will finally have to make a ruling on the legality of an undeclared war.
They should have made this decision before 40,000 men lost their lives in Vietnam. Even now, the court is not acting on its own initiative. It has taken the governor and legislature of Massachusetts to force the court to face up to its responsibility.
Why has the Supreme Court been avoiding this issue for so many years? War is certainly a constitutional matter. The Supreme Court should not have to shirk any case which involves the Constitution. But the court has refused to hear any of the several challenges (one from KU's own Lawrence Velvel) aimed at determining the legality of the war.
The philosophy behind these challenges is that American soldiers have been committed to combat in Vietnam without a specific declaration of war by Congress. From this view, it does not seem absurd to assert that the Vietnam War is unconstitutional.
The so-called balance of power between the three branches of the federal government is not always even. Perhaps the Supreme Court, which has faced such bitter criticism in recent
years, does not wish to become involved in a potentially damaging struggle with the powerful executive branch.
LBJ might have considered the Tonkin Gulf resolution of 1964 to be a declaration of support for military activities, but it does not seem reasonable that a court could accept this resolution in lieu of an actual declaration of war.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the principles of the Massachusetts legislation, then it will also be striking down the prinicples of the US Constitution. The matter of war will be taken completely out of the hands of Congress.
Massachusetts Governor Francis Sargent has said, "The intent of the so-called Vietnam bill is sincere, but its effect is doubtful."
The first test case has already begun. The state's attorney general, Robert Quinn, is prepared to defend a Massachusetts soldier who has refused orders to travel to Vietnam.
The odds are heavily stacked against this soldier and the new Vietnam bill. But if nothing else comes of the matter, the Massachusetts legislature has at least forced the Supreme Court to clarify a point of law which involves thousands of American lives.
—Joe Naas
Sorel's News Service
The Collectivist Speaks
WASHINGTON—Speaking before the Governors Conference, Vice-President Agnew surprised many in the audience by his use of classical Stalinist rhetoric. He called on the Governors "to withstand the criticism of the liberal community, who are presently so blinded by total dedication to individual freedom that they cannot see the steady erosion of collective freedom . . ."
$ \textcircled{2} $David Sokoloff 1970
Cleaning up
By STEVE SHRIVER Assistant Sports Editor
Spring cleanup week is rapidly approaching its end. Friday, and from the appearance of many of the "student slums" around Lawrence, a general University contribution is in order.
One only need take a short tour through any alley between the 1100 to 1500 blocks of Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee or Alabama streets, to view some of the more aggravated areas. Old broken down cars, busses, refrigerators and various articles of furniture litter many backyards and alleys, not to mention the tons of tin cans and waste paper.
Several reasons behind the trash and litter problems of student living areas might help explain their nature and clean up their condition.
Most students are renters and most renters don't keep up their living quarters as well as home owners do.
A typical student renter might take the attitude, "It's not my house and it's not my town. I'm only going to be here for four years, so why should I keep it up or clean it up?"
Consequently, the problem compounds.
And a typical proprietor might retort, "They mess up my house, so why should I clean it up again for the next group to mess up again? Why should I lower my rent or spend money on maintenance and repairs when my house will depreciate at a rapid pace anyway?"
Community trash areas, usually located in the rear of such student apartment complexes, and sometimes, directly in back alleys, pile up. The student renters point their fingers at the proprietors, who don't seem to provide enough trash receptacles, and the proprietors pass the buck back when the students stack their trash in sacks around the already-full grabage cans.
Neighborhood dogs add to the mess when they rummage through the waste, overturning trash cans and sacks in their search for food.
The city garbage disposal trucks will pick up only the trash they find in the cans, and many times, will leave more trash behind on the ground than they carry away with them.
To most new male students entering the University, the adjustment to college life, especially in an apartment, is quite a transition. Housekeeping is a new chore, both time consuming, laborious and womanly, and their responsibility to such chores wavers.
The official Spring Cleanup Week, April 1-12, organized by the City of Lawrence is not designed to benefit just the permanent residents of Lawrence. It is designed for the University and its students, who make up such an integral part of the local community.
What more worthy cause could University-educated students, who seem so concerned with such worldly problems as pollution, find than in such a general cleanup as in their own backyards?
hearing voices—
To the editor:
Ecology today is a household word. The vast majority of students are concerned about auto exhaust, DDT, lead emissions in exhaust, cleaning up our rivers, keeping water pure, etc. These concerns are, of course, timely, and it is fine that KU students are "on the bandwagon." But, lying alongside the bandwagon is a local problem of equal magnitude that is receiving little attention.
This problem is garbage here in Lawrence, and there are goodly numbers of KU students who contribute to it. Raw garbage scattered about alley-ways; the major cause of this is insufficient cans to protect the stuff from dogs, cats and wind. Make use of cans that are around. If your landlord refuses to supply them (not likely), get yourself some sizable cartons from the supermarket and tie trash up in them securely (after covering with old papers). As the situation now stands, how many parts of Lawrence are little more than open sewers? Of course, I am not implying that this is all due to KU students, but the fact that even part of it is disgraceful in view of the noise we all make over pollution.
A source of pollution almost entirely due to KU students involves the several beer joints alo... 14th St. near campus. Take a walk down there and tally up the shiny aluminum cans, crumpled cups and broken bottles left behind by a few disgusting, infantile, inconsiderate slobs as they toddle from bar to bar with their drink clutched tightly in hand. Is it phallic, or is it some kind of declaration of independence to parade around with a can, then toss it in the street, or into a yard?
Come on people; let's wake up.
Like so many other things,
environment "begins at home." A student's environment is where he is, and if he adds to the crud therein, he's no better than a corporate power doing the same. It's all well and good to be concerned about pollution, but while hunting with binoculars, don't lose sight of what's at your feet.
Should this letter be printed (and I sincerely hope it shall be), it will probably be assailed as "establishment" by some. To these I say think back—have you added to the mess?
George R. Pisani New York City, graduate student
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