Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Editorials FAday, September 23, 1966 Editorial Policy When taking responsibility for publishing a newspaper, one usually thinks only of informing readers about events of the day. Newspapers also have the responsibility, however, of interpreting and evaluating the news for its readers-and The Gamecock considers this responsibility one of its most valuable contributions to the Carolina Community. Unlike many newspapers where the publisher, or the man holding the purse strings, actually controls the opinions expressed in the newspaper, The Gamecock has always had freedom of expression. Our publisher, the University of South Carolina, has acted most responsibly in allowing any and all ideas to be expressed on the pages of The Gamecock. We accept that confidence this year with new determina tion to produce an informative, accurate interpretation of every happening in the Carolina Community. Vice President Charles Witten sums up the policy toward The Gamecock thusly: "You are free to print what you like, but you must be prepared to take the consequences, good or bad." With these thoughts in mind, we have sought to formu-. late some semblance of an editorial policy for The Gamecock. We shall not call ourselves Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative or other such label. We prefer, however, to be able to consider each situation as it arises, free to judge it in the light of latest developments. Our editorial policy, if such does exist, will extend only to one principle: Does what we say have a positive, construc tive effect on the Carolina Community? All we do or say will hinge on this question. So, you say, The Gamecock will no longer take the role of critic. But that is not the case. The Gamecock will dig just as deeply into campus affairs as it ever has before. We will report just as completely the displeasing aspects of our University as we will each giant step in its efforts to progress. But our criticism, we hope and trust, will always serve some useful purpose. We shall never criticize for the sake of criticism or sensationalism. We shall not be controversial Just for the sake of arousing the dissident element of the Carolina Community. Editorial opinions in The Gamecock will be the honestly expressed thoughts of its editor, and no one else. In order that other opinions might be expressed in The Gamecock, we will include each week columns written by persons on the campus considered knowledgeable in their fields. With this issue we start a series of political columns to be written by representatives of the Young Democrats and Young Republicans on campus. To provide students an insight into student government, we have replaced the usual column written by the student body president with an interview, with posed questions, with Bill Youngblood each week. A,nd, as always, we welcome letters to the editor. We ask only that they be written in such a way as to be publish able and be signed by the author. We would like to encourage letters from both students and faculty members. A new staff has taken up the task of matching last semester's All-American newspaper. May you find it in formative, factual and thought-provoking. Columbia Hotel Lo, a light shineth through the darkness. Faced with a housing shortage and no hope of construct ing new buildings to meet the need, University officials weathered a storm of abuse this summer and p)urchased the C'olumbia Hotel. This positive action to meet an obvious need is com mendable for its decisiveness and resourcefulness. Housing was needed, none was available on campus, so the officials bought the closest thing resembling housing. Too often real problems have arisen at USC andl have gone unsolved for lack of determination and a thick hide. The businessmen of Columbia posed strong opposition to the University's purchase of the hotel, but President Thomas F. .Jones and his advisors (did what had to be (lone. Obviously, the Columbia Hotel will not solve our housing problem. It is doubtful that we have reached a "happy medium," as Housing Director Joseph A. Barnes calls it. The purchase agreement signed by the University pro vides for resale of the hotel to the original owners in four years. This they will probably do, but they are not bound to sell the building. It is doubtful, also, what condition the building will be in four years from now. Already it re sembles little more than a fire trap. Adding to its undesirability is the lack of parking for students' cars in the area. But more importantly, it is folly to think the University should expand so near to dowvntown Columbia. Dr. Jones and his staff realized all the problems involved in purchasing the Columbia Hotel, but they knew something had to be (lone and they (lid it. This positive kind of action has not been seen at USC in the past. Undoubtedly we can expect further examples of the new inspiration in the near future, especially concerning Memorial Hall andl other pro posed improvements. Please don't pull the shade. DICK EILUyIT Faitor-in-Chief CARTER CREWE GINNY CARROIL Busies. Manager Managing FAitor AGINE, M& A Elephai EI)JTOR?'S NOTE: This, the first of a series of coinumn s on Republican politics, tras wcritten by1 1). 1)avid P l'aier, assistanti professor of IPolit ical Scientce andi chairman of the State Republican Pa rty's issues em nmit tee. Abraham Lincoln emphasized the essential tenet of Republican philosophy when he maintained that the "proper function of gov ernment is do to for the people only those things that have to be (done, but cannot be done by in dividuals for themselves." Repub licans everywhere are concerned and( disturbed with the rapid ex pansion of the role of the federal governnent in many areas of our economy and are bent on pre serving and extending individual liberties and freedoms wherever possible. Re(publicans believe that the b a s i c constitutional principles upon which this c ou n try was founded must be maintained andi made more meaningful in an era of vast governmental programs and "handouts." Individual dig nity, worth, and in,itiative must be firmly protected in a period when computers, mass technology, and vast bureaucracy are hall marks of our society. The Re publican creed emphasizes the value placed on individuals by members of the GOP: I dp not choose to be a com mon man. It is my right to be uncommon, if I can. I seek op portunity, not security, I want to take the calculated risk to dIream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for dole. I prefer the challenges of life to guaranteed security, the thrill of fulfill ment to the stale calm of utopia. l:NITEDI DFSIRE Republicans in South Carolina come from all over the state and from almost e'very walk of life. Trhey art' united in a desire to improve state and local govern ment andi in provide meaningful alternatives to the beckoning call of Washington for solving prob lems confronting the people. Re sponsible government calls for progressive', forward-looking, and imaginative programa that will strengthen our st,ate andi 1 o c a I governments. Re'pub)licans believe that revitalized state and local CAMPO MD tTlk uat freeoms Under one party domination, South Carolina has ranked at the bottom or near the bottom in areas where the state should ex cel and has led the states where to do so) is undesirable. South Carolinians are not satisfied to be ranked alongsidle Mississippi at the bottom in such important fields as education. A competitive two-party system 'is already fore ing the D)emocratic Party to be more concerned with the problems of low teacher salaries, few ac credited elementary schools, a large school dropout rate, and a high rate of illiteracy among our citizens in the area of education. Republicans are liringing state wide attention to our archaic and out-moded election laws, the need for rapid improvements in high way safety, and recognition of the many problems of health in a state that has the secondi highest per capita venereal dlisease rate in the nation and ranks 46th in the per capita number of doctors andl 50th in the per capita number of dentists. WATClIMM) PAII' A strong Republican Parity Ip eve*ry county of South CalrOlina will provide more attractive and responsible candidates for public office in order to combat effec tively the party in power. When one political p)arty becomes so powerful that it does not have to be concerned with the threat of the opposition, there is g r e a t danger that actions may he taken in h a s t e without careful ap praisal. The growth of the Republican Party has already atimulated an interest among our citizens in politics and the relevant issuea facing our state. It is alarming and most discouraging when one compares the recent voter turnout in war-torn South Viet Nam with that in South Carolina (luring the presidential election year of 1964. In spite of intimidatrions, threats, and many cases of physicbal vio lence by the Viet Cong, over 80 per cent of the elig'ible voters went to the polls to elect repre sentatives for writing a new con stitution. On the con'trast, in South Caro lina, a state dominated by one party for mnany years, only..3> 0 C 0 NT MV COMMLT ES/ per cent of the eligible voters bothered to go to the polls. A vigorous Republican dI r i v e for p)oliticaLl leadership in the state is bringing more people into active participation in the polit.ieal p)roc ess and should help substantially to raise the percentage of our people who will be v'oting onl No vemher 8th and who will be exer cising t h e i r responsibilities as good citizens. Donke EI>ITOR'S NOTE: This, the first in aI series of colum n s to dleal u-ithi I)emnocratir politics in .South ('arolina this fall, is wcrit ten by late stuide-nt R?icha rd S'ulli v'an, treasurer of the l'SC ' oung I)emoacrats. Perhaps the most pertinent and particularly relevant i s a u e a in this year's gubernatorial c-am paign are the records of the can dlidates and the facts~ about what each candidate wouldl do for the people of this st-ate. Gov. McNair has clearly presented what he considera most important for the continued growth and p rosperity of Sotith Carolina. The achieve ments of his seventeen - month term of office are history. [5t us consider this record. Of particular interest to the future teachers majoring in the U Jniversity's Ediucation l)epart mient, is the recognijtion give*n to the necessity for increased teach 'r's paty. The govertnor urged the lagislature to give highest prior ity to the st.andlard of income for our teachers. The result was legislation whereby teacher's pay was raise'd atn average of t wenty per cent. It is s-ignificnt ts. note that st-ate and local edue.atinal leaders were for the first time direct.ly i nvoalved in the budget recotmmendlations. This teacher's pay raise now make.. South (Carn hina competitive with the neigh boring sttates oif Georgia, Noth (arolina, ann lorida I och.- SIhe leader,hip, of te M1cNair our ~du..a...-l ug~-.g nmentary Columbia, South CaroHna lION, osident used for administrative purpooes, such as in tenure and promotion decisions? (3) Will the human element, the subjectivity, be taken out of the survey by using computers to produce the answers we are seeking? When the paper comes out this Friday, I hope to have presented a proposal to the Faculty Ad visory Committee on the "trial.. run" for the evaluation for this year. By next week we should have more concrete plans. In all of this I am dealing with the basic assumption that the student would not be at Oarolina unless % he has some desire for knowledge, some desire for intellectual ex. vellence. I would like to hear more from the faculty members that I have not contacted on this suhj ect. Question: Some talk has been hear concerning devising a method which would allow a t u d e n t m to speak, before the student Immiy, on important issues of the day. flax such an event been planned? Many people in both the fac ulty and student body have con tacted me about this problem. Any student should have the right to speak to as large an audience as he can command on the issues of the day. We are starting a program next week that can eventually build into a very workable sys tem. We will call the program "Speak Out Day." For one hour every other Friday all interested students will be invited to the Assemby Room d u r i n g the 12 o'clock lunch hour to "speak out." The price of admission is simply one- 11) Card. The key to the success of this program is of course: who will listen? We should like to think that once the program gets effec tively under way, members of all three facets of our University Community will feel compelled to listen to the discussion on the is sues of the day. I feel that the Carolina Community must begin to react to the threat to individ ual interest inherent in an or gamz:a-tion such as ours. A free inter-play of ideas between stu dients, faculty, and administra tion is the obvious manifestation of "the new questioning spirit." The potential for intellectual curiosity is here, but will it be have been constructed on the main ent.ry points of our interstate highways and some of our main tourist routes, such as Highway 30 1. One of the less publicized yet most significant accomplishments f for the state, coming as a direct result of the governor's leader ship, has been the development of interagency coordination. 8 u e h coordination in the machinery of our state government has sub stantially contributed to the $26 million revenue surplus realiz-ed this past fiscal year. It has been to the adv antuage of this state that we have had a gov ernor who has been willing to say "yes" to program. designed to benefit all citizens of this state rather thani a governor who would mueasure- his success by the inmber of times and how loud he has sali "no" to ideas and programs pro posed byi others. We have not had enough of p)rograma designed to decrease the illiteracy rate, to improve and ext.end vocational training, to ef fectuate student and adult gu.d ance systems, and programs insti- A toted for the training of more doctors, nurses, and technicians. Only through positive government can South Carolina emeirge as a leader in all fields. Only finoml the urging of a leader such as Robert IE. McNair can the continuity of good government in South Caro lina be mnaint,ained. We can never have enough of 5uch positivelad Col QUESO Mr. PrE Question: Has any action been taken to impleme"t the "reat Issues" program suggested last year by President Jin Graves? Students today are questioning their surroundings in general and their education in particular more than any decade of this century. The theme of my year's work as Student Body President is that of making students more aware of what goes on around them: on the campus and in the larger gen eral community. Last year, Jim Graves insti tuted the idea of a "Great Issues" program. We plan to put that idea into action this year. This fall we will have several Small Campus Seminars leading up to the Key Week. The big program this year is on the draft and will run for one week, filled with student discus sions, with keen national policy makers as speakers, debates, and a final published evaluation. The tentative speakers and de baters include Gen. LAwis 11er shey, Director of the Draft; L. Mendell Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Sen. W i I I i a m Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and stu dent xdy presidents from other colleges in the state. I will have much more on the program as the fall progresses. Quemtion: T e a c h e r evaluat ion seeni. to he a topic of interest oun inos4t college campu1)sUes today. Ilan 1anV sucih pIgram heen contenl plated at USC? I began research on this subject during the early part of the sum mer. Several interested students and faculty have worked with me on this as a possible student gov ernment project. We have written off to many of the s c h 00 s throughout the country that have attempt,ed a teacher evaluation pPogran. First, let me say that the more one stud3ies this thing, the more involved the process h e e o m e at. There are many qluestions to be clarified before we even consider the project. (1) D)o we want a course gu ide pulished as a final result of the evaluation, or do we simply want to leave the result-s with the in dlividlual ptrofessors ? (2> Will this evaluation be y Talk have lwent cosolida.ted unider the State D)epartmtent of F'Alucation. D)uri.ng the past seventeenn mnonths thtere hnaa beent substtial expan 5ion of the Special Schnoots D)ivislin in Technical FAlncattiont providing training in specific skills for mosMt ntew industries l>cating in the state. The new adIult education pro gram) now has over twenty thou sand pe'rsons entrolled, the highest e'n roll men t in the nation at pro p)ortion to popu tlat;ion. Some of the other educational dlevelo)pments under the leader ship of Gov McNair were the reactivation of the liigher IEdu cation Conmm.ission, the upgrading of faculty salaries, the earmark ing of funds for graduate and reseaarch programs and the ex panaston andl revision of our comi mtun ity col1lege* program. Althkoungh new records have b,een estabiisin'd in intdustrial develop. ilent. the governotr has lwen en. couraging the deve>pmneint of a relatively muntappeti industrv, the tounriqt itndustrs , whsiich hmought over $266 million into South Carolina last year. (-o',. MlcNair initiated tine F i r s (movenor's (o.mference nt lourismu and TIravel this past spring. G;ettmtg thle "Story of S o u t h ('larolin)a's Vacationlaund Atitrac ions"' told has bnen one~ of the governor's prime obtjetvW, anf objective whic'h can meatn but (oe thmtg, ant inc-reasee in South ('a tna 's i ncome. To impllement this objective, att ractive "Welcome enter," staffedIb careuly