Hiss says the 'ugly era' of McCarthyism still lives
By BEN GREENWALD
Staff Reporter
The term, "McCarthyism," is a misnomer because former Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy didn't start the witchhunts of Communists in the '60s; nor did his career was destroyed, Alger Hiss said last night.
Him, convicted of perjury in 1950 after being accused of espionage, spoke to about 4,000 people in the United States on October 26, 1950.
However, Hiss said the term McCarthyism would just be remembered in futurist literature "McCarthyism." But Hiss added that it was a different kind.
Hiss said hundreds of thousands of people and their families were injured by the explosion in 1994, which was accidental of
giving State Department documents to a Communist spy and was sent in five years in prison.
"ONCE TARRED by McCarthy's brush, it didn't wear off easily," Hiss said.
He was released in 1954 and has been seeking to prove his innocence ever since.
Most of Huss' 40-minute speech was devoted to relating other people's experiences with Mc-
Hiss told of a dinner party given by Sen. John Kennedy at which McCarthy was the guest of honor. When a guest criticized McCarthy for making comments that were repulsed, "Don't take it seriously. It's only politics."
Hiss also told a lawyer who feared accusations of being a Communist because he owned a book contain-
RED CHANNELS, an agency that investigated employees to see whether they were communists, included nothing but extortionists. Hiss said. If employers refused to hire Red Channels, Hiss said, the agency would picket and carry signs reading, "Suspected Reds work here."
Business had to buy protection from the agency at $3 an employee, as if from the Mafia, although Red Clover was known to have paid for it.
McCarthyism finally was stopped, he said, because the accused began to ridicule their accusers.
Hiss told an instance in which Zero Mist, blacklisted actor, whispered into a microphone when questioned by the House Un-American Activities Council, asked to speak up, answered in a rhinoceros roar.
HISS SAID that before McCarthyism could end, the accused had to unite and compare their fears to his own.
However, Hiss said that America still wasn't completely over McCarthyism and that it continued to be a problem.
For example, the federal oathy loya, in which government employees pledge their loyalty to the U.S. government, was required until last fall. Hiss said Committee member American Activities Committee wasn't disbanded.
Hiss didn't have kind words for his chief accuser, then-Sen. Richard Nixon, either.
"NIXON persecuted me no more than he persecuted many other people—particularly the American public," he said.
Audience reaction, in the form of sporadic applause and laughter, was mostly approving.
One man who identified himself as a member of the Man Harb Hirsch Society asked Hisc accusations questioned Mr. Harb Hirsch's own work.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
However, in a 45-minute question-and-answer period after the speech, two persons said Hisid had told too many stories that evening without explaining how America could allow McCarthy to occur.
"From where do our rights come? Where do you place Nazism on a political continuum? How about Communism?" he asked.
KANSAN
Hiss answered good-naturedly, and then asked the man whether his next question was, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?"
RAIN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Vol. 87, No.101
Douglas makes All-Big 8 team
Cuts restored in two aid programs
By JOHN MUELLER
Wednesday, March 2.1977
Staff Reporter
See story page nine
President Jimmy Carter has restored budget cuts he previously recommended for two student financial aid programs, and his administration is troubled in the House of Representatives.
The three programs affect 800 University of Kansas students who receive about $1 million in financial aid. Of that amount, $750,000 comes from NDSL funds.
Jeff Weinberg, associate director of financial aid, said last night that Carter had restored appropriations requests for the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and College Work Study programs. Carter, however, still supports eliminating the National Direct Student Loan (NDSL) program.
"THE FEELING in Congress, from the information we received, is, that it may be that the health care reform bill does not work."
Carter's proposals first must be approved by the House of Representatives, Weinberg said the Office of Student Financial Aid learned late yesterday afternoon that Carter's NDSL recommendation may run into trouble in the House.
He added, "We were very pessimistic for the loan program five days ago. We're very
Weinberg said the restoration of work-study and SEOG money probably was due to "the pressure from presidents and chancellors of universities, who protested the cuts, and from individual students who wrote their congressmen."
KU protested all three of Carter's original cuts in the form of a telegram two weeks ago from Chancellor Archie Dykes to Kansas members of the U.S. Congress. Weinberg said University officials planned to contact the Kansas delegation again, urging it to oppose eliminating the NDSL program.
Congress probably will act on education appropriations in three weeks, he said, and the Education Committee of the House should complete its work this week.
IF CARTER had continued to recommend cuts in the two programs he restored, KU would have lost $150,000 in SEOG money and $105,000 in study-work money.
"The new secretary has said the NDSL program is no longer needed," Weinberg said.
Weinberg said he didn't expect a veto from Carter if Congress passed legislation with money for NDSL.
Weinberg criticized Joseph Califano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, for his lack of opposition to the NDSL cuts.
"HE COULD veto it, but that's not likely," he said. "Carter would have to veto the whole appropriations bill to get at that one item."
The impact on higher education in Kansas would be massive if Congress doesn't renew the statute.
"That program affects so many schools in Kansas," he said. "The amount they get from the loan program is somewhat in excess of $4,150,000."
“It's really unfortunate. President Nixon and President Ford recommended dropping the program every year they were in office,” Weinberg said.
KU still will have NDSL funds, regardless of Congressional action, because of providing money available from students to take their tuition. However, that using the money from old
loans would pose administrative difficulties.
'THE MONEY comes back to us in monthly installments. That's the great thing.'
But Weinberg also said, "I can assure you that if the loan program isn't financed by the federal government, we will find a way to pay past money. The program will continue."
Repayments from past loans total about $700,000. he said.
Weinberg said that if federal money for NDSL was cut, a new computer program in the KU Office of the Compiler still would be useful. The program, to increase the efficiency of NDSL administration, is being implemented this month.
The program replaces the present manual billing system, Craig McCoy, KU controller, said yesterday, to keep track of how his NDSI student KU alumni on their owes.
McCoy said recently that the NDSL program at KU had loaned $18.5 million to students since it began during the mid-1960s.
Tax problem was law subcontractor's demise
Staff Renorter
By JOHN MUELLER
Mid Continent of Omaha, subcontractor for the new School of Law building, was dissolved as a corporation last summer because it failed to pay Nebraska taxes.
A spokesman for the corporation division of the Nebraska secretary of state's office confirmed that Mid Continent was dissolved Aug. 3, 1976, for nonpayment of taxes.
Mid Continent supplies precast concrete panels that form the outer skin of the new building.
Kansas investigators determined that 17 of the panels were of inferior quality and had no signs of infection.
THE SPOKESMAN said the incorporation papers didn't indicate the amount of taxes Mid Continent hadn't paid, or whether the taxes were state or federal. Mr. Duncan also said internal Revenue Service's Omaha office said the taxes couldn't have been federal.
"You can't lose your incorporation for nonpayment of federal taxes." Hiheth
Summer start is possible for satellite union building
Bv BARRY MASSEY
By BARRY MASSEY Staff Reporter
Construction on the satellite union could begin late this summer or in early fall, with possible completion by spring 1979. Max Cormack, director of facilities planning, said yesterday.
Lucas said that a late February agreement by the state architectural selection committee to allow use of the original architectural plans of the satellite with some modifications had made possible the summer or fall construction start.
In addition, use of the original plans will save the University time and money that would have been spent to draw up new plans, Lucas said.
THE CELLING, Burge, chairman of the satellite university facilities advisory committee and Union director, said yesterday, was set by students in February who voted to support a $7.50 maximum fee increase for the satellite union project.
Plans for a satellite unit first were advanced in 1968. The next year, preliminary architectural plans were approved by the Board of Regiments. But the other student fee-supported buildings (Wesco Hospital and Wesco Hall) were then under construction, it was decided in a student referendum not to build the satellite unit.
The associate state architect now is changing the original plans to keep the building's cost under a $2.5 million construction cost ceiling.
Interest in the union project increased as the southwest part of the campus, where the satellite union would be built, expanded with new classroom buildings.
Luca said that as soon as the associate state architect changed the original drawings, they would have to be approved by the state architect and the Board of Regents before construction bids could be taken.
THE SATELLITE union now is planned for the city. The new law building and site of Soffer Place.
'We'll build essentially the same building
From the time the satellite union's original architectural drawings were completed in 1968 until last year, when it was decided to use the original drawings, Burge said the building's cost had risen about $1 million.
(as originally planned)," Lucas said, "but because of inflation there will be some interior changes and the basement won't be finished until sometime in the future."
The original plans for the satellite union call for a total building area of 31,000 square feet, with 5,400 square feet assigned to a book and supplies store; 11,000 to food service; 1,800 to a dock and storage area; 1,800 to student program and student service areas.
Last semester, a $3 increase was placed on each full-time student's fees to be used for architectural planning of the building. Last semester's fees were increased by $3 again.
funds for construction would come from a $2 million revenue bond issue and $500,000 in bond issue surplus funds and internal funds of the Kansas Union.
● A food service area that includes a snack bar, hamburger grill and shake shop, a soup and salad bar and a multipurpose buffet and delicatessen. The area would seat 200 people and have two additional rooms for dining and meetings.
LUCAS SAID that if all went well, con-
sruction bids might be accepted early this
month.
*A student program and service area that includes an information desk and postal, banking, travel and concession areas. It would also have lounges, study areas, meeting rooms and places for movies, seminars, television and music.
Although final modifications to the original drawings haven't been completed, the satellite union originally was designed to include:
BEFORE FEB.11, 1975, Klaasmeyer was the sole incorporator of KB Corp., the spokesman said, which was incorporated Feb.23, 1972.
THE REMANING space would include mechanical equipment areas, restrooms and custodial areas, hallways, stairs and elevators.
Mid Continent, according to the corporation division spokesman, was incorporated Feb. 11, 1975. Its sole incorporator was Kelth Klaussmeier, Ormaha.
said. "But in Nebraska, you can lose in
nontreatment for nonimmune state taxes."
*A book and supplies store that would be slightly smaller than the Great Book Store in New York.*
The spokesman said that the incorporation papers for KB Corp. and Mid Continent were identical, and that Mid Continent currently wasn't incorporated.
Klaasmeyer no longer owns Mid Continent. Spokesmen for Mid Continent have declined comment on the law school building three times, but have confirmed that the company now is owned by Darrell Bell, Omaha.
THE UNIVERSITY of Kansas isn't directly connected with Mid Continent, which supplies concrete panels through the University Contractor, Casson Construction Co. Topeka.
Mid Continent has refused to disclose Ball's telephone number, which is unlisted. Kla麦斯曼 was unavailable for comment last night, but his wife said, "We gave up ownership in August-Ball owns the company."
John Casson, president of the contracting company, said Monday, "We may have a court case with them (Mid Continent). It's common knowledge that there's been a
continuing delay in delivery of the precast panels."
ACCORDING TO minutes of a re. School of Law faculty-student meeting, Dickinson said the school probably couldn't occupy the new building until January 1978, because of delays in the delivery of the precast panels.
And Martin Dickinson, dean of the School of Law, has said that problems with the panels could delay the building's opening for classes.
Dickinson has declined to say why he doesn't think the building will be finished on time. But law school sources close to Dickinson have said he had told them of persistent problems in construction related to defective and broken concrete panels.
MAX LUCAS, University director of facilities planning, said yesterday that Mid Continent's office had been closed three weeks last summer. But whether Mid Tampa students and closing had any effect on its delivery of the concrete panels is uncertain.
Lucas said representatives from the University and the state architect's office had been in Omaha in late summer on business unrelated to Mid Continent. But representatives stopped by Mid Continent's office, he said, and found it locked up.
A tax notice was posted on Mid Continent's door, he said.
REALLY don't care about that," See LAW SCHOOL page ten
Wedding belle
Photo by CORKÝ TREWIN
Mauren Hawley (Brigida) takes a ride on the shoulders of Peter Mizer (Bob) and Ian Nichols (Cowboy) during a wedding in Act Two of "Homemier." The play is performed at 8 each night through Sunday and at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Revolting 'Homerica' hits home
Bv JULIE LENAHAN
Paul Stephen Lim's "Homerica" is belligerent, crude, distasteful and blunt. It is, however, one of the most effective social mechanisms of today and a distinctive success.
Reviewer
"Homerica," Limp's Bicentennial salute to Mom and Apple Pie, deals with sexual liberation of many kinds. In the course of the three hour trilogy, Lim focuses on homosexuality, domestic and plain heterosexual last. And that's only the beginning.
THE PLAY, WHICH debuted last night in the Kansas Union Ballroom, has something to say about just about everything. One of the overriding themes is the break-up of the family. Lim traces this through his three acts as the family disintegrates gradually. He also takes up the torch for women's liberation, as his female characters as thinking individual women of interests, from commodity sex to procreation. He makes his women independent and forceful, free-willed and deliberate. And he illustrates the change in one particular woman, Brigida, as she becomes tempered by independence.
Review
Lim takes his shots at marriage, family heritage, older ways of life, the Catholic church and motherhood. Despite all the horror and defensiveness, the audience laughs as all these nostalgic institutions are shamelessly degraded.
Lim, a Ph.D. candidate in English, scripta
and linguistics, digroot and gregorian societal
mutations.
The play's acts cover Veteran's Day on three separate years in New York City. The first act is set in the basement of Bull's Bookstore in the late 1960s, Bull, an elderly
TO THE TURMOLI and disjointedness, Lim brings a respect, a reverence and a humility. These qualities in turn give the play the integrity it deserves.
tegrates a strange touch of sentimentality. Lim strikes home most effectively with his use of fetal slides combined with Irish children's melodies. All the shock, vulgarity and excitement of the play seem to make sense as the slur peaks on the screen, mellowing the chaos.
In the second act, Patrick and Brigida change from naive, composed, gracious individuals to modern, loose liberal persons.
gentleman, is giving up all he knows in America to return to England and open a plant shop. A menage of painted, vulgar, sex-crazen individuals appears from the darkness to celebrate Bull's birthday. By the end of the first act, most characters fade into the woodwork, almost as suddenly as they came.
THIS ACT FINDS Patrick tending bar in his uncle's swingsing sisters bar seven years later, with Brigida playing bouncer. The second act certainly competes with the first for shock value. In the course of the act, Mr. FinDS was introduced as lesbianists and two gays—are joined in wedded bliss. In attendance at the wedding, which is held at the bar, are the parents of
Although the cast comprises 17 actors, only two keep the same characters from act to act. Patrick and Brigidia, a young loving couple, illustrate most of the changes in the nuclear family. Steve Silver, a New York graduate student in theater, and Maureen Hawley, a Lawrence resident, portray the couple.
Patrick and Brigida, who swapped mates and are quite happ.
The third act displays a conglomeration of everything else Lim wanted to include in the play. Perhaps a bit too overpowering, the act includes a trio of pregnant Irish nuns (Mary Jane, Sarah and A waxy Chinese doctor and his black assistant, an autistic child and the Pope.
LIM HAS SCULPTURED each act into a separate entity; each act can stand alone and still make its point strongly. Lim does, in fact, make this distinction everything together. In one sense, they are the only real characters, the only characters who change, the only characters who are affected by this sexual revolution. The characters have to show and transitory to develop more fully.
wonder Lam deserves more credit for the ingenuity, brazen humor and seemingly revolutionary writing style in his trilogy of *The American Dream*. Lam deserves the greatest praise for his execution of the written word is an open question. But one can definitely say that Lam's writing has proved successful in "Homerica," their first joint theatrical endeavor.