PAGE FOUR Editorial Opinion Place for Precedent A precedent, to our minds, is an unwritten law which, although not offiCially adopted by a rule-making body, has all of the authority and sometimes even more author ity than a written, adopted rule. , . The legal system of the United States operates largely on precedent. It looks to past decisions. or precedents for answers The House of Representatives of the United States Congress follows many precedents both in its organiza tion and in its daily operation. One of tire strongest prece dents is that the Rules Conimittee, which controls the billl to be sent to the floor of the Congress for action, is divided politically along lines parallel to the political division in the House itself. In other words, if there are two Demo crate for each Republican in the 'House, there will be two Democrats for each Republican on the Rules Committee. This is not a written regulation, but a precedent which is always followed. The Congress of the Undergraduate Student Govern ment has a Rules Committee which was modeled after the Rules Committee in the 'House of Representatives. It con trols the bills which are"-reported to the floor, of the Con gress for action. • The parallel continues even further as the Rules Com mittee of the USG Congress has established a, valuable precedent on its composition which we believe should be followed. . This precedent differs from that of the House Rules Committee, for by necessity it has a more iota "raison d'etre." USG's Rules Committee was organized so that there would be one Congressman on the committee from each of the major representation areas in Congress—fraternity .area, men's residence hall area, women's residence hall area and town independent men. This plan was originated last year so that every stu dent would be able to contact a member of the Rules Com mittee from his general area more easily if he wanted a bill. 'to bb presented to . the Congress. We believe that this is a valuable precedent and should be adhered to. No precedent was set for political divbdon in the Rules Committee at that time because last fall's Congress elec tions were carried out without political parties. , In the past, student governments at the University have relied almost entirely upon written regulations to govern their actions. A step to break away from the binds of an inflexible list of rules - and regulations was taken last year when the student government adopted a Constitution which rests on a broad base and has few specific binding regulations. We believe the natural continuation of this process involves a gradual building up of sound precedents - which Congresses in the future may refer to"on questions of pro cedure. • With the compositio'n of the University's student gov ernment changing so oftin, a state in which precedents become as strong as those in the national government will be difficult to achieve. -However, we feel confident that several, basic prece dents such as that of Rules Committee composition can develop effectively and can release the USG from possible technicality binds. Tonight zi proposal guaranteeing each political party representation on the Rules Committee Will be presented to the Congress. We urge the Congress to seriously con sider the possibility of building a precedent which will guarantee 15SG a representative Rules Committee instead of creating a written law. A Student-Operated Newspaper SS Years of Editorial Freedom MK Batty Tolltnian Successor to The Free Lance, est. ISSI Pub Mimi Tuesday through Saturday emirates gating tiro Urthroodt, Mr. TM Daily Callogiaa is a Idolised-operated newapapor. listened as sorroass ammo Jab 14.tutt at the Slats CaLtate..ta. Past OM* ander the act of Itiarekl. IM. Nat Etabeeriptlea Prim: $$.H a Tear italltas Address Bea 1 , 11: State CAM's". Pa. Member of .The Associated Press ANN PALMER Editor `OW, My Slkaes . Jean Melia& and David Ealkoelts Neale and Waeid Affairs Lilt*. Kay Mk: Editarial Edina's, David Kunkel and Cana Knairlesaant Starts Uttar. Saks litersist Assistant Sputa &Hest. Heil Dealing's.; Phststrrokr Ciretttsms. Tao lbw, sat Dee Caiessass ronennsi Director, Urals, Orton. Local AA Ike.. jean Raids Assistant Load At Ito.. jars Elliyarststst National At Mss.. Ilississra thewsit eredicitgr. Ralph Frissisuiss: Assistant Credit Mgr.. lam Bands: Plassistion Mgr. .Barry Levitz: Claaelrkel Ad Mgr.. Catharine Iktelatr: Cirrldlatl•A Merry Phil Guest; renamed and Office ift - r..q..rtsn igersisi• f • • THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA HERBERT WITI , IEB Business Manager for the record Link for Master Plan The University's initiation of closed circuit television to the Altoona campus may be the way for the University to establish a strong basis for developing the • Commonwealth's master plan for higher education. Although the project for Al toona is a pilot one in which cer tain TV courses offered here on • , . • ." • the main campus are . simultaneous- ly offered to stu dents at the cen- ter, Leslie P Greenhill of the Department of Academic Ile search . and Serv: ices thinks project may mark the beginning of a • statewide system KUNICE.EI4AN which would link the University's 14 centers. Since the Defiartment of Public Instruction in arrisburg has al-: ready proposed linking the state: colleges through 'closed cricuit! TV, state funds available for such: facilities would probably, go first`• to the state colleges rather than' the University, Greenhill said, and we could cooperate by inter changing classes. _ _ The state has shoirn its In tentions of expanding educational' Interpreting More Red By WILLIAM L RYAN Associated Press News Analyst Bedeviled as it is by Cuba and a raft of other complex problems. Washington can find consolation in the knowledge that the ICrem lin, too, is having severe head; aches. • This has been made• clear by Monday's decree halting the Kremlin's program for gradual abolition i -of income taxes.- There is no doubt that the decree was unpopular. The Soviet propaganda machine demonstrated this. The really significant aspect of the decree was that income taxes are not and have not been an im portant source of Soviet govern ment revenue. Such taxes - have accounted for. only .7 per cent of revenues. The rest came froth hidden taxes. Thus, one gathers that the So viet Union.is investing so heavily in such eriterprises as the space race, the arms race and the ecO nomic cold ivar 'that it must scrape the bottom of the barrel. Its fiscal difficulties constitute only one of a long list of troublei. It ha s agricultural failures throughout the Red bloc to worry about. It has the problem of in vesting in the Fidel Castro-Com munist regime in Cuba, which is expensive and dangerous. It has investments in subversion all over the world.- It has .its , fight with Red China, now being intensified because of the new courtship by the Soviet party of Yugoslav President Tito's "deviationists." The Soviet press had carefully prepared the people foi• the bad tax news. Bid once the bomb was dropped, the propaganda machine fell silent on the subject. The next day there was rio mention of the decree in any Moscow pi per,"except the government organ Izvestia, nor did the- radio men tion it despite the fait that gov ernment decrees ordinarily- get massive publicity., Thi decree explains this vio lence of recent Soviet domestic propaganda against the United States4lhe scare campaign to per suade the Soviet people that WO because of Cuba. Barna or some other-issue was a passibility. r This 'conditioning was accort- Panied by a parallel campaign demanding more labor productiv ity and • warning against such "remnants of capitalism" as in dividualism and the hankering for private, property. The - Nubhc was told that beL _ cause of the war threat It shoujd work harder to make the St Union. impregnable. Then calif, the -tax decree, with an explanl4 tion that the "imperialists" .were on a rampage of war.preparatign opportunities in Pennsylvarda through its stale colleges and the University has already begun the initial groundwork• of such a sys tem It would seem that the state could use .the facilities available here and make University Park its educational, center. In this way, there would be no duplication - of effort and students all over the Cornrhonwealth would benefit from the high-cali ber faculty and greater wealth of information we have at our finger tips. The University itself might con sider applying to the Federal Communications Commission for an educational television license, thus avoiding the short power dis tance of microwaves without risking another refusal for a com mercial outlet. With this greater power reach ing all areas,/ not only would more students receive a better education, but citizens through out the Commonwealth would have closer contact with the vast, dynamic and worthwhile educa tion and research programs the University carries on.l In the guidelines on functions for universities listed,in the mas ter plan, television, of course, is not mentioned as such. These.are suggested - rather thin definite guides. Headaches and thus the government had to postpcfne tax relief. :The public was told it would have to wait "until the International situation changes." This was one more in a series of broken promises. i The public LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS s ci Doti; 'Now THAT YOU UNDERSTAND V' %HEINLE OF REQUIRED , HMEWORK -WILL THAT OE AT YOUR HONG OK MINI? ' pi-ANI is r....-z:4l-...--A.-...a....-.-. .7.24. Ile, Pr! . q..4,-. ,4) 10 ' - • al l:1 , i , THAT ALWAYS MAKES -MANY RECOMMEND PSYCHIATRI6TS 1 ME FEEL. 600D1 MM HG 'fißct' HMV. 411! i l . , w VID WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 26.1962 by carol kunklema Compaie, hoe►ever, the func tions for universities: (a) prepar• ing college teachers, superintend ents of schools. (b) providing con sultation'services to other insti tutions of higher education. the government and private agencies and i(c) maintaining a high level of undergraduate education, with the !functions of state collegess (a) preparing 50 per cent of our teachers. (b) providing basic edu cation in specialized areas and (c) providing a liberal arts edu cation. It , seems, then, that the Univer- , sity should, without fail, be the one. institution to be given • the initial task, for the state colleges are !new , on the liberal arts scene, having gone into the field only recently when they took the "teachers" out of their names.: Another Another reason would be, again, that the University has' an educa tion and research program which is probably more extensive ,than that of Pitt or Penn, for example, in the field of television. These are just possibilities, but their implications could be great for all students of the state. Co ordination rather than 'separate planning of such programs by the Commonwealth would aid the realization of a master plan in the near instead of the far future. was" already jolted by sharp hikes in butter, meat and Milk prices. It was disappointed by the slow ness of theNhousing program. - It was told. also there would be a halt .to private building of one family homes. ANIS° S TABLE -CI ~
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers