4
Tuesday, April 12, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Comment Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
One of President Jimmy Carter's first campaign promises, one that no doubt helped him win the presidency, might be the one he is also first forced to break.
Carter's promise to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy from the current 1,900 agencies, advisory boards and bureaus to a maximum of 200 is proving to be virtually impossible, despite last week's approval by Congress of Carter's governmental reorganization bill. Carter aides, especially Bert Lance, director of the Office of Management and Budget, already are starting to hedge on that promise.
MEANWHILE, TWO federal employees were discovered raking in an estimated $2 million on rent-free Capitol grounds as they provided free printing to congressional leaders. Nobody has found any legal basis upon which to censure the two.
The connection? The activities of the two House of Representative clerks serve only to point out how far off-base Carter's campaign promise was.
These two low-level Congressional staff members are but two of the thousands—not all crooks—that abound in the nation's capital. Surely, one cannot reasonably have expected Carter to know about their activities. If he knew they never made the promise, if Carter is to truly reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, what better place to start?
UNFORTUNATELY, Carter's performance thus far has not been much of a start. His White House staff is at least as large as that of his predecessor.
The cutting edge of the whole Washington mess: even with congressional approval of his reorganization package, Carter has maintained 1:500 governmental advisory boards.
With full knowledge of that fact, plus the knowledge that presidents have promised governmental reorganization since it became a popular notion, Carter aides are backing off. They publically concede that such a massive effort—cutting 1,900 down to 200–will take a long time. They are privately conceding that such an effort is impossible; that the former Georgia governor, with little knowledge about entrenched Washington bureaucrats, was premature in his promise.
IT WAS A nice try. And Carter certainly has made positive efforts towards keeping the expense and size of government down—his insistence that some government officials give up their chauffeur-driven limousines and his efforts to consolidate the massive energy-related departments are a step in the right direction.
But that may well be all we can expect from Carter. He has bitten off a bit more than he can chew. And in this case, he has no place to spit.
To a considerable extent, the way the Kansan plays various news stories is dictated by tradition. Most students and faculty use other newspaper during the day—or at least they catch part of a television or radio news broadcast—and then return to their school. Kansan's primary responsibility isn't national, international or even state news, but campus and local news.
Kansan weak on national news
The poll did not throw Kansan tradition out the window. On the contrary, the poll indicated that the paper had been doing a good job at collecting students what they wanted—but by no means a perfect one.
And, in the same way,
tradition, word-of-mouth and
old editors' tales have determined
the way the paper plays
sports and city commission
meetings.
LAST SEMESTER, however,
a journalism class actually
conducted a poll to see just how
much justification there was for
the authors' paper. The author's
paper's determination of what
goes where is ascertained by
what the editors think the public
needs to know. A greater part of
it is determined by what the
author thinks the public wants to
know.
A total of 76 per cent of the 265 responding students said they had read another newspaper during the last week. Thirty-four per cent of Lawrence Journal-World, 35 per cent just read the Kansas City
A typical evening in Watson Library. Behind the library's massive facade sit innumerable students, crammed together like horizontal stack systems.
THE PERSONA:
THE SCENE:
Hunger hinders research
The hard core "regulars"
who come to the library night-
after-night after-night until they
all recognize each other
The (Thursday Night Specials smile in conspiratory understanding). Go set down to diligent research for next 29
7:56: Right about now, in between volumes of the New Republic, just the tiniest hint of thirst should tickle the throat. Ignore it for 17 more minutes, then go to drinking fountain.
Apparently national news is more important to the readers than campus news.
This probably means the Kansan should run more national news than it traditionally has. There has been a small initial variation very small) movement in that direction this semester.
The non-regulars and the innocent newcomers. One can easily recognize them as they wander around the library with their eyes fixed on something haven't yet learned how to use the Dewey Decimal System.
**THIS DOES not mean, however, that the Kansan should run more national news stories and that the paper should change its policy of giving campus news stories an artificial and substantiated head start as far as the newspaper on page one is concerned.**
but are too engrossed in their studying to acknowledge the presence of their partners in misery.
Yours Truly—Senior Scholastic.
papers again) The Kanseis is still almost the only place that campus news is covered. As a student activity fee—the campus newspaper that has its subscriptions paid for by student activity fees—the Kanseis has a responsibility to campus news is covered.
The "Thursday Night Specials" who come in at 2:30 Thursday afternoon and stay until closing time. They wander around all day Friday carrying lunch bags under their eyes.
It is comforting to know that the Kansan doesn't rate all that low on its coverage of national news — 25 per cent said it was good, 33 per cent average, 12 per cent poor. But it is still the most needy and one that definitely needs some improvement.
7:20; Advance to Serials List and take a number. Wait five lines and then 10 more. State R—Journal of Molecular Occupied by innocent peonw
7:04: Walk to Reader's
Guides and spend next 10
minutes tracking down the 1963-
1965 index.
7:27:FIND several hefty magazine volumes, raising eyes to heaven in thanks that the material isn't on microfilm.
THE SEQUENCE OF ACTION:
7 p.m.: Yours Tearly enters
The Library and heads towards
period bop.
7:02: Find table in period-pop, in back of room, beside all the other hard-cores. The hard-cores look up and store for a minute, then dig deeper into volumes of Foreign Affairs
Yet and here we're back to the business of reading other
The small efforts of this semester were, it is hoped, just a precedent for bigger and more steps in semesters to come.
Diane Wolkow
Editorial Writer
8:15: Back to the New Republic.
8:30: The thirst returns. This time it's egged on by the taste buds, which have put in a request for Coca Cola. Ignore thirst and go track down volume 55 of Esquire.
8:51: THE thirst is back again, bringing with it fantasies of being plane-wrecked in a hot, merciless desert.
Worse yet, the stomach is chinning in, growling. "I'd like a Joe's about 'Hit stomach hard" and the doctor would round to see if anyone heard.
Then try to pacify stomach with a cigarette in the ladies' john. Debt. Debt. Debt.
said they thought the Kansas was doing a good job covering campus news. Thirty-seven per cent rated it "average" and
The hard-cores are staring.
9:04: Suecumb to instincts
and get another drink of water.
Star and 4 per cent read just the Topeka paper. A total of 19 per cent read both the Lawrence and Kansas City papers and 7
9:25. THE stomach and throat won't be satisfied. Entertain thoughts of walking over to the Union for a snack. Tell stomach and throat that research is more important than candy bar. Try to read Commentary. To silence stomach.
9:50. The hard-core's stomachs are also growing. A mass exodus starts toward the drinking fountain.
The hard-cores are still staring.
Tell self that in one hour and ten minutes Yours Truly can go home to revitalize blood sugar. You should comment the comments on Companionery.
TELL STOMACH for the final time to be quiet. Get another drink of water and then spend two minutes Xeroxing the Economist.
10:30: Tell self that it will all be over, soon that one's grade depends on plowing through five years of the Economist by 11 p.m.
10:57: Exit from Library and speed toward home and work. Tell the author about writing a letter to the editor of the Kansan. Tell so that what the University教授 machines in Watson Library.
per cent read either other combinations of the three papers or other papers.
So far so good. But the results of the poll concerning national news are a bit more debatable. A total of 84 per cent said national news was important to them - 4 per cent more than cited newspaper news and commentator news and 62 per cent who said local news was important or the 61 per cent who said sports news was important.
ALTHOUGH we really don't know how much the students gain from reading these other papers or how much time they spend on them, we do know that they read them.
Editor's Note
Jim Bates
The poll also indicated that 80 per cent of the students considered campus news coverage important. A total of 80 per cent
only 3 per cent said "poor" or had no opinion.
"NAW! I AINT SEEN MARGARET TRUDEAU!"
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor are welcomed but should be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 400 words. All letters are edited and may be condensed according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Letters must be signed; KU students must provide their academic standing and hometown; faculty must provide their position; others must provide their address.
Justify the idea to oneself.
Tell self that after all, spending
every evening in the library is
no joy—a little nourishment
must make the pursuit of
higher education more
bearable.
WASHINGTON - The Senate got around to adopting an ethics code the other day. The vote was 86 to 9. So lopsided a policy was passed, overwhelming majority of the Senate regarded the code as both necessary and wise, but such was not the case. Sen. James McDonnell, then leader, said the whole thing was "absurd," and he was right.
Byrd, of course, was among the 88 who voted in favor of this foolishness. He felt that nothing less than this bristling codification of possible misconduct would restore public confidence in the integrity of the Senate. Byrd, I
Honesty not guaranteed by code
believe, is mistaken. Those voters who look at the code are more likely to suspect that the Senate must be composed of crooks if it takes so formidable a document to restrain them.
THE CODE has 55 pages,with
James J. Kilpatrick (c) 1977 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
25 printed lines to the page. It is accompanied by an explanatory committee report. This has 19 pages, with 52 printed lines to the page. All these thousands of words—these innumerable rules, restrictions, exceptions and requirements—are intended to keep senators honest. In the end, a truism makes it all immaterial: Good senators won't need a code, and bad senators won't live up to it anyhow.
This is the kind of thing that evolves when political lawyers put their heads together. A lawyer says that a senator shall not accept gifts having a value of more than $100 from any one person during a calendar year, and applies to gifts from a 'relative'.
Screw-one of the most popular magazines in America.
IT OCCURRED to the lawyerly authors, as they considered their colleagues' devious talents, that the word
Miller out to purge state of popular porn
Screw is obscene, according to 12 persons in Wichita, who convicted its publisher Al Rappaport for partner, James Buckley, of
years. But the infamous Vern Miller, who came within a whisker of beating Gov. Robert Bennett in 1974, was "convenced" he should run for district attorney.
MILLER HAD been Kansas
During the "Screw" trial, the district attorney in the Wichita area was Keith Sanborn, who held the position for eight
Brent Anderson
Editorial Writer
mailing obscene issues of Screw and its sister publication, Smut, into Kansas.
Theis ordered the retrial because he thought the jury had been prejudiced by the prosecutor's closing statements. The trial was completed in June.
THANKS TO Vern, whom I'm sure you'll all remember as the super sheriff attorney general who almost became governor of Kansas, Wichita won't be subjected to a retrial of Goldstein and Buckley, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Theis ordered last week that the retrial proceeded without further because of "recent, current and continuing events in the Wichita area."
It seems that the people of Wichita aren't going to be subjected to Screw and Smur or any other "obscure" material. Vern Miller, yes, good O'Derm, has decided that if he thinks obscure, it isn't going to be viewed by the people of Wichita.
attorney general four years when he decided to try for the governor's seat. After he lost to Bennett, he went into private law practice in Wichita for two years.
Sanborn tried desperately to keep his job, but he was no match for the super sheriff. Miller handily beat Sanborn in the democratic primary, and disposed in the general election.
Miller got the "super sherif" nickname while he was Sedgwick County high school for six years, and the support he has built among Wichitaans is incredible. Apparently he has decided that the support he has enjoyed in the club has contributed to the smut peddlers out of town.
"relative" had better, be carefully defined. Otherwise, some slick senator would wiggle out of the ethical net. Thus the drafters of the code inserted in Rule XII.4 a subsection (7) "relative means"... an individual who is related to the person as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, great-uncle, great-aunt, first cousin, grandfather, grandmother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, sister, or who is the grandfather or grandmother of the spouse of the person reporting."
THE "RECENT, current and continuing" events in Wichita referred to by Thesis are nothing more than a one-man antipathy, undignition, and the one man conducting it is none other than Vern.
The first thing he took care of after he was sworn in as district attorney was a bevy of massage clients outside the Wichita city limits.
He took care of them by raiding them, locking their doors and telling their owners to get out of town. That's tellin'
After he took care of the massage parors, Vern decided to get into movies. His most impressive victory was over a movie about the student who had organized the showing of X-rated movies on the WSU campus. Vern also closed down several "adult" theaters, and another was closed down by an "irate citizen."
SURELY IT WAS! Vern. He wouldn't do anything like that. Now Nerv is after dirty books. He has directed his investigative staff to determine whether there are any pornographic books being sold in California or to drive to save the citizens of Wichita from themselves will continue.
Considering the anti-smite campaign in Wichita, This really had no alternative but to move Goldstein's new trial from Wichita. Theis is probably happier about Vern's work than he. He won't have to look at those dirty magazines anymore.
NOW KANSA City, Kan, has the trial. It is hoped the jury selected there will exonerate Goldstein and Buckley and the foundement, and lessen the entitlement to the estate. The jury fered by the State of Kansas
Screw and Smut might be lousy magazines, but they certainly aren't had enough to force the imprisonment of two activists by back-bursting material that is disgustingly popular.
HUMBUG! The code isn't entirely silly. For the first time, the Senate (as well as the House, in its own version) has passed a bill to allow lame-duck junks. These are the foreign vacations that are taken in December of even-numbered years by members who have been deposited in the Code. The code prohibits "unofficial office accounts," otherwise known as slush funds. There may be some dubious value in some of the infinite disclosure require-
Otherwise, it is hard to find anything good to say of this assumption. It may be that assumptions are demeaning. One assumption, at random, is that senators are likely to accuse the president of influence their vote; thus such
--gifts must be delineated, defined, appraised, recorded and publicly disclosed. In some circumstances $250, in others $100, in still others $250. No senator may accept an honorarium of more than $1,000 for a speech. Food, lodging and entertainment are served on the senatorial hospitality of any individual" needn't be reported.
O
E
C
FIDLDESTICKS! The Senate's laborious attempt to codify these things won't produce a better Senate. A sense of propriety comes from the fact that the senate rules, sections and subsections. Code or no code, a senator knows when someone is out to bribe him. In practice, men and women in public life make their own decisions years ago, would accept a 15-bounty ham or a fifo of boobie, but he regularly spurned the 16-bounty ham or the quarter. He measured the corruption per capita. Perhaps it is as good a way as any.
Lord Macaulay once remarked that he knew of "no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality." For example, the American public has been suffering the spasms and heaves—or at least Congress thinks so. Now that the House and Senate have decreed themselves moral, perhaps the British statesmen can go back to being statesmen, and rogues, alas, to being rogues.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kassas daily August 28, 2017
June and July except Saturday, Sunday and Holiday.
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tim Rates
Managing Editor
Greg Hack
Editorial Editor
Stewart Bram
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Alison Gwinn
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Pat Terron
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Robin Burdener