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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1972)
vans raps federal programs H if r V The "social engineering mentality" of the federal government has increased distress and deprivation instead of curing social injuitice, said conservative M. Stanton Evans at the World in Revolution Conference Tuesday. The editor of the Indianapolis News, Evans said the aim of social justice is to "spread the benefits of social and economic life as widely as possible," but the federal government has done just the reverse. Instead of creating more housing for low-income people, urban renewal projects have thrown families, mostly blacks, out of their ho.nes with no substitute housing available, he said. Elsewhere the displaced families have been forced to move into already densely populated areas of the city. "The impact of the program is to victimize blacks," Evans said. Since the government set a minimum wage, the unemployment among adolescent blacks, where the most "catastrophic unemployment exists," has rapidly increased, he continued. Youth are prevented by the minimum wage from "getting that first step on the first rung on the ladder," Evans explained, since their skills or Jack of skills don't justify the minimum wage level. Evans' answer lies in adopting a youth minimum wage at a lower level which would allow them to gain jobs and ultimately the necessary skills to move to a higher wage level. He also blamed "irrational government regulations" for the demise of the railroad system. The Interstate Commerce Commission, to protect other transportation industries, has prevented rate decreases sought by the railroad industry to increase its passenger service. The railroads could have been the perfect mass transit system to take people from the inner city to the suburbs for job opportunities, he said. Evans pointed to social engineering, which "uses school children as laboratory material," to find the real issue behind busing. The issue isn't integration, but the desire to break the link between black children and their homes, he said. Then the school can more readily assimilate them into the white middle-class mold. Evans advocated the voucher approach to school systems, where the parents are given money by the state to purchase an education for their child in the school of their choice. This system probably would create some integrated and some segregated schools but also could be modified to prevent discrimination against blacks, he said. He warned that the growth of federal bureaucracy and authority are drastically limiting individual liberties. President of the American Conservative Union, Evans said the conservative alternative is to minimize the number of decisions which a person is coerced into making-by bureaucratic regulation--and to maximize personal freedom. This would mean a decentralization of power and a move into a market situation where the forces of supply and demand would be better able to deal with social injustice, Evans said. He said he believes there is a latent conservative majority in the country which elected President Nixon. However, the problem for the conservative movement today is that Nixon has bought a large part of the Democratic program, effectively silencing his more conservative party colleagues, Evans added. SC top slate seeks greater student input A student cooperative, responsiveness to students and financial accountability will be three priorities for members of the Student Cause executive slate, the three executive candidates said Tuesday. 8ruce 8eecher, A SUN presidential candidate, Sam 8 rower and Michele Gagne, candidates for the first and second vice presidential slots, and 26 senate and advisory board candidates have formed the Student Cause (SC) party in hopes of winning the March 22 elections. Beecher is currently an A SUN senator and chairman of the senate's student services committee. Student response to the ASUN record store, gift shop and poster shop has shown students need and want discount stores, Beecher said. The problem now, he said, is that every student's fees were used to set up a store whose services not all of them use. "That's why I'm so excited about a student cooperative," Beecher said, "where only those people who want to use it will pay." As Beecher envisions it, students can buy probably a $10 cooperative card which will allow them to use the established ASUN record and gift shops and possibly downtown gas stations and liquor stores-w'here retailers will be guaranteed a large percentage of student patronage in return for a price reduction to card holders. If a quarter of the students at the University choose to buy the tickets, Beecher estimates that would generate about $50,000 that can be used to expand discount student services to possibly include a general store, a grocery store, theater andor day care centers. The whole program will be run by a 10-member board, Beecher said, appointed by ASUN but autonomous from it. 8rower, a junior in pre-law and a member of this year's ASUN legislative liason committee, said he sees next year as a crucial time to "break down barriers between students and student government." He proposed senate committees-that center on interest areas like education, government, student service, etc.as a means to interest large numbers of students in ASUN. Interested students who give a little time can get a lot done, Brower said, and noted that interest areas are wide open. New projects, Gagne said, could include an expanded tutorial program, much like the one managed by the University math department. Academic projects like that may make ASUN more visible to freshmen and sophomores, Gagne said, groups of students who commonly feel untouched by the student government. Beecher and Gagne said they both support the proposed ASUN constitution, that students will vote to accept or reject at the spring election. Although it reduces the senate to 15 members from 35. Beecher said it still allows for a lot of student involvement in senate committees. Besides encouraging involvement by a lot of students, Gagne said she believes senators should "seek out opinions from students in dormitories, off campus and everywhere." She said her talks with dormitory students were the reason she opposed the World in Revolution Conference, going on now. 'They basically said they supported the conference but not if it jeapardized student fees, which it does," Gagne said. Proposals to relocate the ASUN office on the first floor of the Nebraska Union, and to possibly hold senate meetings there, are other SC tactics to promote student input, Beecher said. The SC platform also supports the building of more off-campus housing, the supplying of legal advice to students renting off-campus and allowing self determination for dormitory residents. ASUN ft Vf 1 U L?A Q Ik it fi i U i 0 v --..- H U 3 r (Pi IV f Evans. . ."Federal bureaucracy and authority are drastically limiting individual liberties." I i V I o I THE DAILY NEBRASKAN PAGE 8 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1972