Opinion: Bonus for Bushido

Under a soft, woolly tam-o'-shanter, San Francisco State College's stopgap president, S. I. Hayakawa, proved every whit as hardheaded as the cops in riot helmets whom he called to quell turmoil on his campus. Day after day, newspapers and TV showed the Japanese-American semanticist with his academic Bushido fully aroused. The result of all that public exposure, Pollster Mervin Field reported last week, is another instant political personality.

Hayakawa, 62, has only to toss his tarn into the ring to become a formidable contender for office. If an election were held today, Field's California Poll indicated, the Democratic educator would trounce...