The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 08, 1972, Page PAGE 8, Image 8

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    vans raps federal programs
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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
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Evans. . ."Federal bureaucracy and authority are
drastically limiting individual liberties."
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 8
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1972