But Please PONT Fling Me In Dat Brief Patch!" IT!) POWB atlp tar 66 I In its sixty-ninth year of editorial freedom, unhampered by restrictions from either the administration or the student body. Heel it ia T-cS TSsrf V T4 MtittT fc the nfTirial ttudfrtt huhlir.itinit nf I Publications Board of the University of North Carolina. All editorials appearing hi T tin DAILY Tar HeeL jff the personal expressions of the editor, unless otherwise credited ; they are not necessarily representative of feeling on the staff . March 30, 1962 Tel. 942-2356 Vol. LXIX, No. 12S Mathers' Campaign: He Entered To Win, Not To Split The Vote Mike Iather'.s annouficement Wednesday that he has withdrawn from the race for editor of the DTH resulted in a storm of reaction Many of the students who wrote Mather's name on the baiiot pro tested that it was unfair to refuse him admission as a special student. Others reacted with an air of resignation to the caprices of the administration. Still others conclud ed that the whole campaign was a fraud, that Mathers had no real intention of assuming the office if he won it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mathers entered the; race with every intention of campaign ing hard, winning, and putting out s. good newspaper. Had he entered with the intention of splitting the vote and paving the way for a Clot felterWrye victory as some have charged he would have gone" into the run-off and withdrew at the last moment, leaving only the names of Clotf elter and Wrye on. the ballot, insuring them a win. 4c This he did not do. The moment Mathers was informed by officials in the administration that he would not be admitted as" a special student, he withdrew from the race. The news that he would not be admit ted came as a complete surprise not only to the campus, but to Mathers as well. He was not informed that he would not be admitted until Wednesday morning. This is confirmed by officials in the School of Journalism. The entire incident is nothing more than a muddle of misconcep tions and errors. The outcome is regrettable, but was not conceived out of any intent other than to give the campus a choice. The choice was for Mathers, but a series of unforeseen events prevented him from participating in a run-off. This is through no fault of Math ers, nor through any intent on his part to confuse or mislead the vot ers. His sincerity in running for the office is unquestionable. . He fought hard to win, and quite prob ably would have had he not been faced with the prospect Of serving for only 35 days, a situation that would be neither fair to him nor to t the campus. Poll Tax Opposition A simplified version of Senator Holland's proposed amendment to the Constitution abolishing the. poll tax sailed through the Senate Wed nesday and appears to have a good chance for approval by the House and ratification by three fourths of the states. The Senate was wise in yielding to the wishes of Majority Leader Mansfield and others to reduce controversy over the amend ment to a minimum. After the Sen ate had concluded its talkfest and begun to debate the proposed amendment oil its merits, the oppo sition virtually collapsed. As the proposed amendment was previously phrased, it forbade the states to deny or abridge the right of any citizen to vote "in any pri mary or other election for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress" by reason of failure to pay a poll tax. Some critics feared that this reference to "electors" might leave a loophole that would enable the states to continue levy ing poll taxes by eliminating "elec tors" from their ballots and substi tuting the names of the candi dates for President and Vice Presi dent. That possibility was eliminat ed by making the amendment ap plicable to direct election of the President as well as to the choice of electors Qlfe JBmlg ar pes! EDITORIAL STAFF Wayne Kincl JEditor Mike RcmmsoN-Associate Editor Harry Lloyd, Harve Harris Managing Editors Lloyd Little Executive News Editor Jim Clotfelter, Bill WtJametp News Editors Jim Waixacb Photography Editor Chuck Mooney- Feature Editor Ed DtrrpK?: , Sports Editor Cvrry Kjhxpatrick Asst. Sports Editor Gars? Blan chard Contributing Editor BUSINESS STAFF Tun BtraiTETT Business Manager Mike Mathers Advertising Manager Jim EvxNsJSubscription Manager Jim Eskhidge Circulation Manager TBs Daily Ta Hxn. is publlalid daflr except Monday, examination periods nd vaitions. It 1 entered a second class matteT In Xhm post office in Chapel HilL N. C pursuant with the act ef March S, 1370. Subscription rates i per semester, $a per year. Tot Dailt Tab IIxxl la a subscriber t the United Preaa International and utilizes the services of the New Bu- reau of tin University of Korti Caro lina. Publisbei by the Publications Board giap3 rersity at Nortii f-wnaj A more important change was the complete elimination of Section 2 of the resolution. Section 2 had been assailed by various groups be cause it provided that the proposed amendment would have no effect Upon state laws denying the right to vote to paupers and persons sup ported at public expense or by charitable institutions. This proviso had been deemed necessary because the original amendment would have abolished any property qualification for voting as well as the poll tax, and 12 states have limited the right of paupers to vote in order to dis courage vote buying. , In our opinion, it would have been better to have eliminated all prop erty qualifications for voting per iod. But the issue before Congress was simplified by directing the amendment solely against the poll tax. In this form it seems unexcejP tionable, and since the effort to substitute for it a simple anti-poll-tax statute was again defeated in the Senate, the Holland resolution should have support from every foe of the poll tax. Satan Balks K-9 Corps Goes To Pot OLATHE, K.na (UPI) The entire Canine Corps of the Johnson County sheriff's office has been fired all because of a dog named Satan. Sheriff Ralph Burger said things went reasonably well at the outset, about two years ago, although all the dogs displayed a few problem personality traits, among them a unanimous aversion to drunks. "The drunk," Burger said, "al" ways wanted to pet the dogs, who were trained to be vicious on com mand and sometimes didn't wait for the command. Sometimes an officer who was driving had a hard time keeping a friendly prisoner and an unfriendly dog apart." Satan had a brand of deviltry all his own. Burger said three men were discovered inside a drug store late at night. Ordered into the dark ened premises to flush them out, Satan firmly braced his feet in re fusal. One officer pulled and another pushed until the reluctant, 125 pounder was maneuvered inside. Satan was not seen again until after officers had rounded up and handcuffed the three burglers. Then Satan was . found sitting outside, licking his chops coated with choc olate from candy he had stolen from a display counter. "This," said the sheriff, "was embarrassing." Satan, however, was not fired then. Dismissal came after he took sides in a family argument in his master's household. Each dog rode, during working hours, with the officer to whom he was assigned, and lived, when off duty, at the officer's house. Folk Songsters Not So Folksy HOLLYWOOD (UPI) A great cold war is simmering behind the smiling faces of the nation's folk song advocates. They are divided into three hostile factions - the purists, the irreverent and the middle-roaders. The irrev erents and the purists are the prime antagonists. The middle-roaders shrug off both. Most irreverent of the guitar twanging folk singers are the Smoth ers Brothers, Tom and . Dick, who lampoon the woeful, tragedy-filled songs of our forebears. .They even deny the legitimacy of most so-called folk songs. This does not sit well with the fanatics who listen in worshipful silence as Burl Ives, Josh White, Theo Bickel and Pete Seeger wail their mournful ballads. "It's become a cult," said Tom Smothers, irreverently. "They really take these songs seriously," Dick added. "Some of 'em figure folk songs are the most important thing in the world. More important than beatnik poetry." The Smothers (that's their real name) starred briefly on Steve Al len's defunct television show. They proved their inability to take them selves seriously, much less folk sing ing. They describe such groups as the Kingston Trio, the Limefighters and other popular musical organizations as middle-roaders who earn huge sums of money singing "new" folk songsold tunes with modern lyrics. They neither indulge in satire nor sing as if they were in church. Tom identifies them as impartial money makers. "The trouble with dedicated pur ists is that they try to educate, not entertain," Dick said. "Sometimes it takes them an hour to sing their way through 50 verses with a chorus between each verse." "What a drag," Tom agreed. "They also love to tune their guitars," Dick went on. "Sometimes you can't tell where the tuning leaves off and the song begins." Purists, outraged by the Smoth ers' lighthearted approach to the altar of folk music have pinned a name on them 'folkniks." "I kind of like it," said Tom. "It has a certain ring to it." Tom, 25, and Dick 23, were born in New York City, the sons of a career army officer. Since his death they have supported their mother and two young sisters who live in San Jose, Calif. In addition to television appear ances the brothers rack up as much as $3,500 a week in night clubs ap as $3,500 a week in night club ap San Francisco and Chicago. Satan had a special fondness for one of his master's children and an unconcealed dislike for the man's wife, the sheriff said. One day when the mother bent over her offspring to .adminster a . scolding, Satain roared to the child's defense. "The dog grabbed the startled housewife by the lower stern section and hung on," the sheriff said. That did it. Satan was sold back to his trainers at Springfield, Mo., and the era of canine police work in this Kansas City suburban area came to an end. "From now on, we'll try to get along with men," Burger said. 'Twould Be Nice If . .... The administration would delegate to someone the job of checking the fire extinguishers, now that they've gotten the evacuation procedures set up. .... One could taste the Lenoir Hall lemon meringue pie. .... Put a Bircher and the Com munist Lecture Bureau representa tive on a panel discussion. .... if the DTH could start print ing IBC in addition to Pogo and Pea nuts. .... we could get eating utensils that were clean in Lenoir Hall. .... someone would give the dogs that seem to roam uninhibited around Lenoir a bath they do smell terribly! .... someone would recommend that ALL doors into and out of a building be kept open at ALL times. On the dining hall and GM, for ex ample, they are not what if there were a fire and everyone tried to get out one-half of a door? .... someone would again com pare the Intimate prices on texts and the Book X prices I took five books over to the Intimate and was offered $3,50 for all five, the man telling me that three of them were to be replaced next term. I then went to the Book X, where they should know if a book is going to be replaced or not, and received $5.25 for only three of them! (They, too, said that ONE was going to be replaced, but not the other two.) Anybody smell profiteering???? Well, boys, let's see an answer to this! Peter B. Maupin By RAYMOND LAIIR WASHINGTON (UPI) The Supreme Court's haymaker blow at the state legislatures promises to inflate the political power of big cities at a time when the cities already are causing despair in the Republican party Since the dawn after election day in 10, the GOP has blamed its loss of the White House on the big city turnout for President Kennedy. It has given much attention to ways of curing its sick party organiza tions in the cities. The country districts may be overrepresented in the legislatures and Congress but the big cities have political muscle of their own. It is shown every four years in the nom ination and election of candidates for president. All states cast their entire blocs of electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis. As was shown in 19G0, Democratic majorities in big cities can outweigh Republican outstate majorities in such states as New York, Pennsylvania, (Michigan and Illinois to elect a Democratic presi dent. Now comes the Supreme Court decision which in effect promises to increase the urban power in the state legislatures. However, the news need not be all black for the Republicans. If the cities are underrepresented in the legislature, the suburbs are more so, and the GOP regards the suburbs as its territory despite De mocratic gains in these areas in the 19G0 presidential election. In Monday's Supreme Court de cision, the majority held that the federal courts could intervene in a Tennessee legislative apportion ment dispute after the legislature had refused to redistrict since 1901. The refusal to redistrict in that state gave rural dwellers a bigger voice in the legislature than those in the growing cities. Situation Exists Elsewhere Political scientists have assem bled manuals of statistics to show that the same condition exists in many states because the farms are losing population to burgeoning met ropolitan areas. In a 19-lG decision, Justice Felix Frankfurter called the redistrict in dispute a "political thicket" which the federal courts shouhl never enter. If, as expected, the new decision invites similar suits against alleged inequities in other states, the courts must find their way out of the thicket. They may need years to escape. If a state were functioning with an unfair apportionment plan and court action were threatened, the simplest solution would be adop tion of a fair plan by the legislature. The Minnesota legislature redis tricted in 1939 under a threat of federal court action. The New Jer sey legislature did the same last year with pressure coming from the state Supreme Court. Could Halt Election In the Tennessee case, it was suggested that a federal court could enjoin state election officials from holding elections until the legisla ture redistricted. But what would happen if a legis lature refused to bow to a federal court? One proposal, which could bring nightmares to politicians, would have all members of a legislature of a state's congressional delega tion elected from the state at largo instead of by districts. Another would have the federal courts draw the lines for new legis lative or congressional districts. In their opinions Monday, Justice Tom Clark said this could be done; the dissenting Frankfurter said it would be impossible. Unless legislatures yield quietly, some federal judges may find them selves presiding over political brawls and feeling, perhaps, like preachers caught up in a street fight." .First Free .Bus ystem" 9 ITHACA, N. Y. (UPI) This central New York city awaits the green light from federal authori ties to put into operation Amer ica's first free municipal bus sys tem. Under the proposed system, tickets and fares would be dispensed with. Arthur Stallman, head of the City Council's Ithaca Transit Committee said, "you could just get on the bus and ride." Ithaca applied fo ra $120,000 federal grant last fall to finance the pro gram. The request has since been lowered to $104,000. Funds would come from the Urban Transit Division of the Housing and Home Finance Agency under a $50 million program Congress set up last year to help rehabilitate trans portation systems. The Ithaca plan would be a pilot project to determine proper meth ods and procedures for bus opera tions in cities of comparable size. Putting the free bus operation into effect hinges on federal ap proval of a workable plan submit ted by the city and the signing of a formal contract guaranteeing two thirds federal participation in all costs. How does Ithaca's population view the experiment? A housewife, Mrs. Robert Ready, said: "I think it will get more people to use the buses. People have gotten out of the habit of riding them." But she added many house wives probably would continue using their cars and students would be the main beneficiaries of the program. Students and faculty at Cornell University and Ithaca College make up about one-third of the city's 30,000 population. A downtown merchant, Fred Abra ham, proprietor of a record store, praised the plan as "the kind of con certed effort which is need to stimu late Ithaca's business." There are some dissident voices, like Cornell junior William Iming: "People are still going to drive their cars if they have them," Iming said. He believes the automobile remains the "ultimate convenience." Another disenchanted observer has been Ithaca's new mayor, John F. Ryan, a Democrat, who strongly op posed the free bus plan during his election campaign. Faced with a Republican City Council which voted unanimously for free buses, Ryan adopted an of ficial watch and wait attitude. The plan also has received heavy outside criticism, particularly from Sen. Frank Lausche, D-Ohio, in Dec ember, who wrote Federal Urban Transportation Administrator Jack son Kohl: "Where will this program end? If Ithaca is entitled to free trans portation, what about other com munities of the country?" Housing Administrator Robert C. Weaver said the Ithaca program would be merely an experiment. He said it would be designed to answer such questions as how much does the fare actually influence rid ing, whether the community receives any significant benefit from free service, who rides the buses and how often, what are its effects on demands, street traffic and police downtown stores, and on parking costs. vThe Housing and Home Finance Agency," he said, "is certainly not planning any permanent subsidies of commuter fares." About Letters The Dally Tar Heel Invites readers to cse it for expres sion of opinion on current topics regardless of viewpoint. Letters must be signed, con tain a verifiable address, and be free of libelous material. Brevity and legibility In crease the chance of puulir tlon. Lengthy letters may be edited or omitted. Absolutely none win be returned. t

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view