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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28. 1971
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
VOL.94 NO. 105
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photo by Bill Ganzel
Two liquor commission members. . .who are also members of the Elks Qub,
Armstrong and Osborn, eye Haze Pope from the Office of Student Affairs.
Students oppose renewal
The State Liquor
Commission may not announce
until Monday their decision on
the contested liquor license
renewal application for the
Lincoln Elks Qub.
The Human Relations
Insight League (HRIL), an NU
student . group, spearheaded
challenge of the renewal on the
basis of a state law providing
that an organization in bad
standing with the community
is not entitled to a state liquor
license.
HRIL members criticized
the Elks Lodge because of its
membership policies. The Elks
require members to be white,
male citizens who believe in
God, according to testimony
by Elks member Patrick Jensen.
Jensen said the
3,400-member Lincoln Lodge
spends $20,000-25,000 each
year "to promote various
benevolencies." He presented
an extensive list of charitable
projects sponsored by the Elks,
most of which concerned
youth.
Jensen claimed that liquor
sales, in addition to
membership dues, help provide
funds for the projects.
A former trustee and a
four-year member of Elks,
E-week banquet shifted
The Engineering Week banquet Friday evening, originally
scheduled for the Lincoln Elks Lodge, has been moved to the
Villager Resturant at 52nd and O, E-Week officials announced
after a Tuesday evening meeting.
An NU student group Monday, the Human Relations
Insight League, threatened to picket the dinner because of the
"support for the Elks Qub that this banquet shows."
The Elks Club, as well as several other private clubs in
Lincoln, have been under fire this year because of their
constitution! policies of admitting only white members.
E-Week co-chairman Rod Moseman said that rescheduling
the convention at the restaurant ended a long search for a new
banquet location that began after the racial membership policy
of the Elks Club was publicized some months ago.
"E-Week is a human relations program," Moseman said in a
statement distributed after the Tuesday night meeting. "The
change was necessary for the accomplishment of E-Week's
objectives."
Moseman had said earlier that E-Week officials had searched
for months to find a locale other than the Elks Qub for the
banquet. But because of the large number of persons expected
to attend, and other requirements, the Elks Qub until Tuesday
night, was the only acceptable place for the annual gathering.
Guest speaker at the 8 p.m. banquet will be Maj. Paul H.
Wragg, a chaplain from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.
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Jensen gave the only testimony
for the Lincoln Lodge. Eleven
Elk officials or former officials
in the audience did not give
testimony, but stood to be
recognized at their lawyer's
request.
NU English instructor Mike
Willey, representing the HRIL,
began his case by asking Liquor
Commissioners who were Elks
to disqualify themselves from
the case and, if they would not
agree to disqualification, to "at
least identify themselves".
Commission chairman Ray
Osborn refused the request for
disqualification but said
members "would be glad to
identify" their relationship to
the Elks Qub. Of the three
commissioners, only Tom
Cheslak of Omaha is not an
Elk. Osborn is a member of the
contested Lincoln Lodge and
Commissioner Tom Armstrong
belongs to the Ogallala Elks
Lodge. (The Lincoln City
Council, which recently voted
6-1 against revoking j the
license, has five Elks members.)
Willey presented eleven
witnesses to support his
contention that the Elks were
in bad standing in the
community.
Attorney Larry Greenwald,
who identified himself as a
representative citizen of
Lincoln felt .. that "every
member of the Elks is an
immoral man." NRIL member
Joe Colantuono claimed that
90 per cent of Lincoln's
churches had policies
condemning racial
discrimination , and a
representative .of the
Presbyterian Church said he
didn't think a man can say he
is a Christian if he
discriminates in any form.
David Powell, an associate
pastor of Trinty United
Methodist Church in Lincoln,
called the Elks Qub a "nusance
to the community" because of
its race policies.
University administrator
Haze Pope and student John
Hansen stated that the Elks are
unpopular among much of the
University population because
of their discriminatory
practices. Hansen pointed out
that the NU's football team
was number one in the nation
and included blacks in its
membership.
Turn to page 6.
POTHOLES Ship of StateShip of Fools
5K,
Fieldhouse veto
goes up in smoke
By JIM PEDERSEN
Staff Writer
The Legislature Tuesday
snubbed Gov. J. J. Exon for
the second day in succession
by overriding his veto of the
cigaret tax bill by a close 31-14
vote.
Monday, the Unicameral
shot down one of Exon's major
campaign promises of 1970,
the repeal of the sales tax on
food. The override vote
revealed the ineffectiveness of
the Governor's three days of
lobbying with Democrats to
change their votes on the
measure.
BASED ON THE original
vote to pass LB 87, only three
senators, Richard Marvel,
Walter Epke-, and Gerald
Stromer, all Republicans,
changed their minds and voted
to kill the tax hike earmarked
to fund a new NU fieldhouse,
state office building and
recreation center at the
Beatrice State home.
Based on the vote taken last
week to reconsider the bill
after it had already been
passed, Exon was able to
convince only Democrats
Rudy Kokes and Tom
Kennedy and Republican
Jerome Warner to change their
votes.
But the votes of other
senators who had originally
abstained made up the
difference. Thirty votes are
required to override a veto.
The deciding vote came
after about ninety minutes of
heated debate.
Sen. Roland Luedtke,
sponsor of the bill, refuted
Exon's veto message point by
charging that the
Governor is opposed to
earmarking only when it goes
against his priorities.
"OUR HISTORY has
proven over and over again that
if we don't earmark, we never
get anything done," he said.
"Is the Governor tying to fool
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the people by saying that
earmarking is some sinister new
approach to taxation?"
Luedtke said the idea of
a fieldhouse is nothing new. He
pointed out that a new
building has been under
consideration for several years
and called the old Coliseum a
"fire-trap."
Sen. Ernie Chambers said he
objected to the projects, not
the earmarking of funds. He
added that to build a new
fieldhouse in a time when
people in Nebraska are going
hungry and there is a serious
unemployment problem would
not be in the best interests of
the people or the integrity of
the Legislature.
Sen. Terry Carpenter, one
of the primary supporters of
the bill, chided the Governor
and his staff for telling the
Unicameral what to do about
fiscal problems "when they
don't even know themselves."
THE GOVERNOR has only
one man who is supposed to
understand fiscal matters, and
he makes mistakes to the tune
of $750,000," Carpenter said.
"The staff is inadequate and
uninformed."
Sen. Richard Proud,
changing his reasons for
opposing the bill for the fourth
time, claimed that the
approximately $350,000
commission which will go to
tobacco wholesalers for
affixing and collecting the tax
would give about 57,000 per
wholesaler for doing nothing.
If that isn't a sweet deal, I
don't know what is."
But the sweetest deal of all
probably will go to Husker
Coach Bob Devaney who will
soon have the same
competitive leverage in
recruiting as other Big Eight
schools with new athletic
facilities. And the 31-14 score
Tuesday may just well rival an
earlier 17-12 score at the
Orange Bowl as the most
satisfying for Devaney this
year.
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