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monday, april 21, 1975 lincoln, nebraska vol. 98 no. 115
peakers agree
races series or crises
By Lori Demo
Omaha-Unfinished agendas received most speaker
and listener attention at Cwfgnton University's
second annual Bicentennial Symposium: "America
1976: Hie Unfinished Agenda."
The symposium began Friday, the 200th
anniversary of the battle of Lexington and by its
conclusion on Sunday, nine speakers had offered
their ideas on what the nation must do as it
approaches the Bicentennial; -
According to a former aide to Presidents John F.
Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the American
Bicentennial will be a grave test of American society,
and the nation needs to write a new American
agenda.
Questions answered
Robert W. Lilley, president of American
Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), also was
concerned with America's unfinished economic
agenda and said Americans are just realizing they
cannot determine their own economic destiny.
According to Lilley, Americans are beginning to
learn the facts of life all over again at the age of 200.
Two university officials both said America's higher
education system will face a crisis if it does not move
away from its current trend of stressing technology
and ignoring morality, integrity and purpose.
Pursuit of wisdom
Both Franklin II. Lit tell, professor of religion at
Temple University in Philadelphia and C. Peter
Magrath, president of the University of Minnesota
and former chancellor at UNL, agreed that while
technology is important, a balance between it and the
"pursuit of wisdom" needs to be expressed in
American universities.
Whether it was the economy, national and foreign
Student found dead
of gunshot wound
A UNL student was found dead Thursday at 631
S. 17th St., apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot
wound, according to Lincoln Police.
Police said Lawrence M. Dubivsky, 21, a senior
majoring in business administration, was found on the
floor of a friend's apartment when the friend
returned home.
Dubivsky was a member of Navy ROTC. Police
said a high-powered rifle was found lying by his body.
policy or education,, all speakers agreed that on the
eve of its Bicentennial, America faces a series of
crises.
Walt W. Rostow said this test will determine how
Americans answer questions of the economy and
politics at home and abroad.
Rostow, who now teaches history and economics
at the University of Texas at Austin, said Americans
will be able to meet the crises of today's pessimism
and disarray with the innovativeness it has shown in
the past.
"The problems we face are not easy," he said.
"They will demand sacrifice, risk and, most painful of
all, breaking out of ill modes of thought and action."
See related stories, pp. 8, 9
Outcome
The outcome of this test, he said, will depend over
the next few years on whether or not:
Americans can deal successfully with the new
economic agenda at home and abroad.
the country can recover from what he called the
tragedy of folding in Southeast Asia without spiraling
isolationism or a great war while playing a role in
re-establishing the world's security system so shaped
by this tragedy.
the political process can recover from what he
said is the distortion of Watergate.
"This is the time for unity," he said, "for building
a consensus among us, for building a consensus
between the president and Congress behind which we
all can rally."
Currently, he said the American domestic program
is inadequate in "facing the dulling economic
challenge" and international programs are not in
balance.
Miserable end
"We are in danger of digressing to
neo-mercantilism, a struggle which may bring a
miserable end to the saga of 2,000 years of growth
while men and nations squabble for scarce resources,"
he said.
As in the past, Americans have a great reserve of
energy, idealism and creativencss which will enable
them to innovate solutions to their problems, Rostow
said.
"That's what the Bicentennial is about, and that's
how it should be in this land of ours which has always
been the gallery of magnificent experiments," he said.
AT&T president Lilley also said the time is right,
with the current spasm in economic events, to
re-examine and list economic and social values and
priorities in a new agenda.
Soul searching
"The time is here for very thorough soul searching
necessary to distinguish between what we need, what
we want and what we can afford to pay," he said.
"For the first time in many years we are awakening
from the reality that we cannot determine our
destination exactly as we see it, disregarding others if
it serves our purpose."
Lilley said the shortage of energy is enough in
itself to wake the United States from the dream of
unlimited choices and priorities.
Meaning of life
Littell said that because universities are not
engaged enough in the meaning of life "the typical
product . of our modern university is a technically
incompetent barbarian."
While all speakers wanted the nation to change,
none knew what that change should be.
"I hope America's unfinished agenda will always
be just that-unfinished. It needs not completion, but
continual development," Lilley said.
X
I'd
. Photo by Tad Kirk
Walt Rostow, professor of history and
economics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Phone calls solicit students for buying service
By Ron Wylie
Perhaps you are one of the UNL students who has .
answered the phone recently to hear a young woman
invite you to join a buying program which will "save
you thousands of dollars per year."
The telephoned invitation is only to stimulate
interest in the program. The next step involves
listening to a sales presentation at the company's
offices. Telephone solicitors offer UNL students a
free gift (a silver dollar) if they will come to the
Modern Guide to Buying Inc. headquarters, in the
Walton Bldg. on 1 1 th St., for the presentation.
At the sales meeting, students hear buying service
division manager Jim Beasley or his assistant Michael
Canney outline the advantages to be gained through
collective purchase of consumer items.
Canney, speaking to nine UNL students" last
Tuesday, told of hard times facing the American
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economy and said such periods of unemployment and
tight money indicate the need for organizations
which he said save people money through bypassing
the middleman in consumer transactions.
Canney told students the average young adult
spends $3,000 to $5,000 a year on consumer goods
which could just as easily be purchased through his
buying service. Promising a savings of 20 to 30 per
cent on all items, Canney said the average savings per
year to a buying service member is $1 ,000.
Money back
"The Buying Service will always offer goods for
less than the prices at local retail stores," Canney
assured propsective members. He said the service
would offer double a member's money back if he
made a purchase through the organization and then
'discovered he could have bought the item for less at a
local store.
Other guarantees offered by the buying service are
factory service and warrantees; efficient, prompt and
fully-insured delivery of purchases; and a refund
policy if the customer is not satisfied with the
product, according to Canney.
" Students were shown the service catalogue which
lists a wide range of labels and brands and includes
almost, every type of consumer product, from
automobiles to vibrators.
Canney presented the promised silver dollars to all
students in attendance, asked those who were
interested to stay and passed around buying service
contracts. ,
The contract, of the Modern Guide to Buying Inc.
of Kansas City, Mo., is subtitled "College Student
Membership Agreement" and is an application to
open a revolving credit account, If accepted, it grants
membership in the buying service, provided the
member pays the prevailing dues rate. Dues are
currently $24 per year, but prospective members are
warned that inflation may drive this rate higher.
Installment plan
Initial membership costs $400, which, the students
are told, guarantees membership for ten years.
Students need not pay the total $400 immediately,
but may make installment plan payments (as little as
$19 a month). Unmentioned in the sales pitch, but
easily readable on the contract is the information that
the balance due in this revolving credit account will
be charged interest in the amount of one and one-half
. per cent per month.
The contract also contains a note informing the
prospective member that the transaction may be
cancelled at any time prior to midnight of the third
business day after signing the contract.
Agency checks with Nebraska's regulatory services
last week showed the buying service to be complying
with the law.
Secretary of State Allen Beermann inquired and
found that MGBI had a "certificate of foreign
authority " he said, which "indicates that they're in
good standing at least in their home state."
And Mike Edwards, of the Nebraska Banking
Commission, said the service's revolving credit
account operation was acceptable as long as the
company followed the disclosure law (LB 307) which
demands that the agreement is in writing, the
purchaser is given a copy of the agreement, the
time-price differential is stated prior to the purchase,
and no further amount is charged.
Inquiries made
The Cornhusker Better Business Bureau (BBB)
reports it has had several inquiries concerning the
buying service and has investigated the operation
locally as well as through its parent company, the
Executive Buying Service of Cranbury, NJ. ,
When the buying service first started its sales
operations in Lincoln, BBB manager Lois Tefft said,
they offered, as a gift of listening to the presentation,
free hotel accomodations in Florida. The BBB found
this was actually a land promotion scheme and
suggested that MGBI cease that activity, she said.
Now the buying service is complying with the law,
Tefft said.
"We wish they wouldn't stress their high-pressure
'take it or leave it' approach," she said, "but there's
no improper activity."
Reacting to reports that MGBI salesmen use BBB
endorsements in their presentations, Tefft said,
"They're not supposed to do that. We don't endorse
anything."
, Continued on p. 13