editorial pMm
oiteiiol
kevin p
philips
tOIKECQI
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What? You've been working on this for days nd this is all you've done?"
The debt question
For three hours Monday afternoon, the
Education Committee of the Nebraska Legislature
heard testimony concerning LB 1271. Sen. Gerald
Stromer is the chief sponsor of the measure designed
to prohibit the collection of mandatory student fees
at any college or university in the state now
supported wholly or partially by state appropriations.
Student fees are currently used to finance bonded
indebtedness of the Nebraska Union and the
University Health Center. Bonded indebtedness alone
accounts for $14.50 of the total $51.50 assessed each
student carrying seven hours or more. The balance
includes money for the Health Center and Nebraska
Union operations, recreational facilities, and a
building and equipment fund for the Union. The
smallest amounts contained in the total $51.50 are
the $.30 per semester for ASUN and the $1,25 per
semester for the Daily Nebraskan The Union Program
Council, which handles all Union programs, is funded
by only $3 of the total.
Even though the Nebraskan and ASUN money
amounts to only $1.55, or less than five per cent of
the total fee assessment, nearly all of the testimony in
support of LB 1271 centered around the fee funding
of these two organizations.
In his introduction of the measure to the
Education Committee, Stromer mentioned nothing
about bonded indebtedness, nor did he offer
immediate solutions to problems that would arise
should the bill pass.
Persons testifying in favor of the bill included two
professors from UNL. The two professors, John
Braeman of the history department and David
Beauregard of the English department, expressed
several criticisms directed specifically at the Daily
Nebraskan.
Criticism of ASUN was offered to the Education
Committee in much the same manner as the Daily
Nebraskan was attacked. Steve Fowler, ASUN
president, stated that he personally has never heard
criticism in any form from either of these two
professors.
LB 1271, regardless of the poor testimony on its
behalf heard at Monday's hearing, still poses a direct
threat to the University, its bonded indebtedness, its
student programming and the many services students
now enjoy.
If passed by the Unicameral in its present form it
would only mean a tragic end to programs and
operations that have taken years for the University
community to build.
f V
The upcoming retirement of two
senior conservative Congressmen is about
to give liberals working control of the
stategic House Rules Committee, which
exercises power over the flow of
legislation to the floor of the House of
Representatives.
Despite a partial wing-clipping in
1961, the Rules Committee has long been
a roadblock for liberal programs. This
could change next January with the
indicated retirement of Chairman William
M. Colmer of Mississippi. Nearly 80,
Colmer has been in Congress since 1933.
He will be replaced as chairman by the
next-ranking Democrat, liberal Ray
Madden of Gary, Ind. Madden's
constituency includes a very large black
population.
Augmenting this Democratic turnover
is the departure of the committee's
ranking Republican, California
conservative H. Allen Smith. He will be
succeeded by Illinois Rep. John B.
Anderson, one of the House GOP's more
articulate liberals.
Under this new leadership, the Rules
Committee may well become a force for
liberal programs rather than a frequent
burial ground.
In the Interesting-Coincidental
Department: Both President Nixon and
his conservative Republican primary
opponent, Congressman John Ashbrook,
are sons of Democratic fathers from the
same neck of the wood - central Ohio.
William Ashbrook was for many years
a Democratic Congressman from central
Ohio's Licking Valley. He described
himself as a "Grover Cleveland"
Democrat, and in his journals he attacked
the Republicans as the party of Yankee
business interests and big-city-controlled
machines. John Ashbrook still publishes
his father's old newspaper-the
Johnstown Independent -in a small town
20 miles northeast of Columbus.
President Nixon's brother, Donald
(quoted in Garry Wills' excellent book,
"Nixon Agonistes"), says that his father.
too, began politics on the other side: "His
people were Democrats in Ohio. But
when my father was 12 or 1 3, he had a
horse he was proud of; when William
HcKinley came to town campaigning, he
noticed the horse and praised it. After
that my father was a solid Republican."
Frank Nixon, like William Ashbrook,
was vocal in his opposition to the big
Eastern interests. He finally left Ohio for
California, aged 25 or so, because he got
frostbite in both feet as a conductor on
the open streetcars of Columbus.
In a few months, the U.S. Census
Bureau will be issuing a report on the
so-called Spanish-Language population of
the SO states. This is the first time the
Bureau has measured the Spanish
population in every state, and preliminary
data has revealed interesting facts.
Here is a tentative rank-ordering of the
states with large Spanish-language
population ratios: New Mexico (40 per
cent); Arizona (19 per cent); Texas (18
per cent); Colorado (13 per cent);
California (not yet finally tabulated);
New York (not yet finally tabulated);
Florida (7 per cent); Nevada (6 per cent);
Wyoming (6 per cent); and New Jersey
(not yet finally tabulated).
Until 1970, the Bureau's only Spanish
data came from a 1960 "Spanish
surname" survey of five Southwestern
states. Last year's checkup located many
more Spanish than were found ten years
ago. Whereas Texas had 1,417,000
Spanish-surnamed persons in 1960,
preliminary census data indicate that
there are 2,059,000 persons today. Back
in 1 960, Arizona's total was just 1 94,000.
The current figure is 333,000. New
Mexico's Spanish element is computed at
407,000 rather than the 269,000 listed
by the Spanish-surname tabulation.
Beyond the Southwest, there are
surprises. Florida's 45 1,000
Spanish-language population is about
what one would expect, but not Illinois'
364,000 (mostly concentrated in and
. around Chicago). Officials were also
surprised by the indicated Spanish total
in Ohil - v 5,000.
Louisiana weighed in with an
unexpected 70,000, the great majority
being New Orleans-area Carib beans and
South Americans. Washington State also
has a Spanish-language population of
70,000.
When the tabulation is finalized, our
national Spanish-language population
total should come to well over
10,000,000.
Senator Edward Kennedy may be
licking his chops over the wrong
precedent when he describes how
President Nixon has usually come apart at
the seams during election campaigns. The
Massachusetts Senator is correct when he
says that the President's poor
campaigning dissipated wide poll leads in
the 1960 Presidential race, the 1962
California gubernatorial clash, and the
1968 Presidential election.
However, these were Nixon bids for a
new office, and in 1972 Mr. Nixon is
running as an incumbent to hold an office
he already has. Given the President's
political style, the distinction is vitaL He
is an unappealing officeseeker but an
effective incumbent. The last time he
sought re-election in his own right, as an
incumbent, was in 1948. Only two years
after scoring an upset victory, he had
become so entrenched that he was able to
win the Democratic nomination for
re-election to Congress in addition to his
continuing Republican endorsement!
Come November, and he was returned to
Congress without opposition. In 1950, he
moved on tothe Senate.
Since then, Richard Nixon has
never-excluding the Vice Presidential
service-run for re-election in his own ;
right to an office he already held.
Nineteen-Seventy-Two will see his first j
personal re-election bid since 1 948.
(Distributed by King Feature Syndicate)
E4
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 26, 1971
