THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

June 29, 1942.

Dr. F. C. Allen
Robinson Gymmasium
University of Kansas

Dear Dr. Allen:

May I enter a protest and at the same time make a
constructive suggestion?

I should like to protest agkinst the closing of the
main campus driveway for a period of some six hours on the days
when your "street dances" are held. I do not doubt the university's
legal right to close this drive temporarily or permanently, but
when it is used as a public thoroughfare the year round considerable
inconvenience is caused by having it suddenly closed. This is spec-
ially true when, as in this case, part of a regular bus route is
involved. For example, this afternoon a man with a crippled leg
came to catch a bus here by the observatory. After he was there
some time I happened to see him and told him that the bus would not
eome this far, so he started laboriously to walk east, having
already missed one bus and perhaps two. While out there I saw ten
or a dozen cars turned away by the barricade, and I should have
hated to be on the receiving end of the language which their facial
expressions suggested. A week ago I drove up to the observatory in
a good deal of a hurry to make a certain observation. When I reached
the corner by the anatomy building I was told I would have to go
around north of the stadium. I measured the distance and found it
was a mile and a quarter more than the direct route would have been,
and it included one of the steepest hills in Lawrence. I arrived
too late to mike my observation. This afternoon, a few minutes before
four o'clock, I reached the same corner, (walking this time) just as
@ large express truck delivering some freight to the Ad Building was
being turned away. Later when I got down to the observatory this
same truck was just entering the campus from West Campus Drive. In
this case a legitimate business truck, during legitimate business
hours, had to drive a mile and a half instead of one block becayse
that block was being washed four hours early for a street dance.

Perhaps I am a little sensitive on this subject be-
cause of an incident last summer when the dances were held east of the
Grove. Mrs. Storer drove up Indiana Street hill one afternoon and
found a barricade after rounding the curve at the top. She asked
the cop there (it was not George Snyder) why some warning could not
be given before you got clear to the top. He very impertinently
replied, "Well, what do you expect me to do, - run down to the bot-
tom of the hill every time I see a car coming?"

I believe your summer recreation program is a fine
thing and is making a lot of friends for the University, but I also
believe the ill-will created by this street closing reduces consid-
erably the positive benefit.

Why could the dances not be held in the section of