While visiting Lawrence, U.S. Sen. James Pearson spoke at length about the recent hijackings of U.S. airliners. He expressed his disappointment in the lack of consensus in the meetings he had attended as a member of the Senate Federal Aviation subcommittee. He felt that the only effective way to end the hijackings was a combination of electronic detection, searches of passengers and their luggage, and “behavior pattern observation.”

P. Everett Sperry, the 79-year-old Conservative party’s candidate for governor of Kansas, said, “I’ve found one thing everybody agrees on. This country is in one hell of a mess.” Sperry was aware that Kansas had never elected a member of his party to a state office, but he was undeterred. What bothered him, he said, was that the major party candidates were not willing or able to “get down and discuss the issues.”

Wires of the Vinland Telephone Exchange had been cut in four places overnight. Wires were cut in two locations south of the Vinland elementary school, one place north of the school, and one location north of the Vinland Church.