Mouse no work command line

[millward]

I'm using Linux Red Hat 7.3.
This code works in a KDE xterm in a user's
account  but not on the command line as root.
How can I get the mouse to work in both?
The mousey stuff is:
#include <ncurses.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main() { int c;
  WINDOW *winny;
  MEVENT mao;
  initscr();
  clear();
  noecho();
  cbreak();
  winny = newwin( whateve.....);
  keypad( winny, TRUE);
  mousemask(ALL_MOUSE_EVENTS, NULL);
  c = wgetch( winny );
  if ( c == KEY_MOUSE)
    if( getmouse(&mao) == OK)
      if( mao.bstate & BUTTON1_PRESSED )
           ---- DO SOMETHING ----
           refresh();
All this if if if stuff seems very inefficient. Is there
a better way to do it? And how do I get it to
work on the command line as well as xterm?