Thursday, Jan. 4, 1962 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
State Reaction on Crisis Day
(Editor's note: The following editorial excerpts on KU's World Crisis Day are from various newspapers published in or circulating in Kansas. The controversy was the result of a protest by the Patrick Henry American Legion Post in Wichita on the World Crisis Day plan. The Patrick Henry Post was formed by former members of Wichita's Thomas Hopkins American Legion Post. They formed the Patrick Henry Post because they were unable to practice their program of "Americanism" in the old post. The speakers at the World Crisis Day convocation were Arthur Schlesinger Jr., special assistant to President Kennedy and Alexander Fomin, counselor for the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Many smaller seminars on various aspects of the Cold War, regional areas of crisis, overpopulation and other world problems followed the convocation.)
Dec.14
If the Patrick Henry Post wishes to make an ass of itself in public, that is its privilege. But anyone free of their particular shrill neurosis will surely be repelled by the irresponsible language of the attack, and by the implications of the attack itself.
The Wichita Eagle
The point is this: it is the business of a university to examine ideas. When that function is attacked, whether by the dictates of a Commissar of Education or by the zeal of a Patrick Henry Post, someone had better start making noises in defense of it.
The Soviet ambassador is not going to make any converts to communism at KU. College students do not have to be protected from themselves, or from ideas, no matter what any self-appointed protectors may think.
As for the statement that Schlesinger is "hardly qualified," it is absurd that a highly rated professional historian and authority on contemporary America should be so challenged by a group whose only qualification is that they once wore their country's uniform. Military service is something to be proud of, but it is not a mystic source of expert knowledge.
THE CALL for an "investigation" is another absurdity. If anyone wishes to know who was responsible for the program, he has only to call or write the university, get a copy of the program, or ask any student who attends today's events. It is certainly no secret.
We trust the officials at KU will recognize the Patrick Henry Post's remarks for what they are: simply another case of radical crackpottery. They are entitled to their say, but no one is obliged to listen.
Salina Journal
Dec. 17
More Patriotic
Students at the University of Kansas are more stoutly American today than they were before.
They also are better informed; their patriotism has been strengthened by their knowledge.
These are the observable results of a day spent in discussing world issues in this time of crisis.
That the Soviet government was represented by its embassy counselor and the United States government was represented by the special representative of the President gave both drama and authority to the occasion. The campus at Lawrence was an exciting place Thursday.
How stupid and craven were the fears of those who thought that Kansas college students could not face the world with eyes open without becoming contaminated!
What real patriot fears the truth in any of its facets?
Great Bend Daily Tribune
Dec.15
If the Wichita Legion post wants to flail at purveyors of Russian propaganda, why not pick on the American press? We publish Russian speeches, claims, charges, lies, half-truths and what-have-you every day. We do it as a part of the press function of giving Americans the full picture. We do it in millions of copies, going into virtually every home in the country.
It is hard to understand why a 30-minute exposure to a communist from the Soviet embassy can be considered remotely as dangerous to American interests and national security as this daily pounding the public gets through the press.
Nor are we making apologies for the news media. The public wants the full picture, and should have it. Despite the tremendous volume of Khrushchev propaganda published in American newspapers, we don't think the national resolve to resist communism has diminished. It has been strengthened.
Exposure of the KU student body to Russian diplomat Fomin might add somewhat to an understanding of the world crisis. We wouldn't propose to argue this point. But a 30-minute talk by a known Russian propagandist shouldn't occasion a storm.
It has, providing us all with food and thought. Isn't it fine that the University of Kansas can invite a Russian diplomat to speak at a student convocation; that an American Legion post in Wichita can blow its stack and (as the Wichita Eagle puts it) make an ass of itself; that newspapers can editorialize about the incident; and that the public can argue the pros and cons over coffee until something more stimulating comes along?
The Kansas City Star
Dec.15
We doubt that the attack on KU had any effect except to focus wide attention on its worth-while effort. The controversial visitors were only a small part of the program. But from this part, the students did get, hot off the griddle, the new Soviet propaganda line which seeks to stir all the World fears of Germany. Getting the line through face-to-face contacts was certainly worth far more than reading it from an official handout. The students have seen a highly placed Russian in action, and with a capable U.S. representative in rebuttal.
We don't think any of the students are gullible enough to fall for the Soviet line. If they are, they shouldn't be in college. The event seems to have served its purpose which is inquiry. It is the business of the university to continue boldly on its course. It would be tragic if it should ever be deterred by any unbounded criticism.
The Parsons Sun
Dec.15
There are those who want to build a wall around KU and the state of Kansas. Khrushev built a wall around West Berlin, too. The effect on freedom is the same in either case, even if the handiwork is the product of different authors in different locations with different aims.
This state and the university demonstrated they are not afraid of freedom, as are a few of the shrill within our borders. The strength of freedom makes it unnecessary to adopt Communist tactics as a prelude to the examination of communism's practices.
We should permit suppression to remain a communistic monopoly for nothing else so vividly emphasizes that system's weaknesses, or could be so disastrous to our own way of life.
The Independence Reporter
195
Dec.15
The invitation to this enemy propagandist, the Legion stated, reveals the tragic and amoral "double-standard" which is applied in dealing with our Communist enemies. They asked, "Would the officials of KU sanction a similar invitation to an important Nazi or Fascist propagandist of Hitler or Mussolini, after forces under their sponsorship had killed tens of thousands of Americans?"
Schlesinger, the Legion stated, is hardly qualified to present the case of free enterprise vs. communism. It quoted Mr. Schlesinger in a speech he made in 1949 as follows: "I happen to believe that the Communist Party should be granted freedom of political action and that Communists should be allowed to teach in universities, so long as they do not disqualify themselves by intellectual distortions in the classrooms."
The engaging of these two men to speak before the entire Kansas U student body will bring many questions into the minds of parents.
First, must we expose our children to Communist propaganda in order that they be educated?
Secondly, what is Schlesinger doing in an important post of our government if he favors freedom for the Communists in this country?
The best warning to KU officials and all other collegiate and school administrators can be found in the words of J. Edgar Hoover, who said: "We are at war with the Communists, and the sooner each red-blooded American realizes that, the better and safer we will be."
Educators would do well these days to be sure their students are fully advised on the subject of Americanism before they are subjected to the isms designed to outstrip and finally bury our form of government.
Hutchinson News
Kansas University had its "Crisis Day" with Arthur Schlesinger of the President's staff and Alexander Fomin of the Soviet embassy, discussing Soviet-American relations...
Dec. 15
The super-patriotic Patrick Henry Post of the American Legion denounced KU for un-Americanism for letting a Russian discuss Russian foreign policy.
It was only slightly less disagreeable about having Schlesinger instead of "a forthright Americanist spokesman such as Sen. Dodd or Sen. Barry Goldwater."
See how scared they are. They have so little faith in our youth, in our long educational tradition of free inquiry, in the power of truth to triumph—so little faith that they think a Russian official walking up Mt. Oread is "an un-American act of betrayal to our interest and our national security."
And look at their logic. Don't let a Russian express Russian views. And don't ask one who has helped formulate American policy to explain it; get a critic to explain it.
They are ridiculous, these toy soldiers; but also a little frightening.
The Weekly Editor
Every midwestern town has its self-appointed guardian of the community's virtue. It may be the local chapter of a woman's organization, the corner druggist, or a postmaster.
These people find a plethora of vices and subversion about them: Smutty books in the library, girlie magazines on the newsstands, leftists in the state college, communism in history textbooks. When the criers of public alarm are in full pursuit they write letters to the editor, attend Parent Teacher Association meetings on masse, and in general make themselves heard. They usually have little effect, unless the community is so burdened with other business that behind this preoccupation they manage to intimidate some poor school principal or a librarian anxious to keep her job.
BUT WHEN THE local truth-seeker and morals-keeper is the weekly newspaper editor the community finds itself in a different situation. Newspaper editors exercise great powers over their readers. Unfortunately, whatever noisemone bother they kick up, readers tend to accept the printed word as truth. So it is that in the United States the weekly editor is given a place of respect, listened to carefully and too often followed on the path to whatever folly he advises. Generally, he advises caution and inaction, which are themselves action of a sort.
Many journalists in America mourn the passing of this old battier. I do not share their sorrow. In my trip across "America's heartland," as some of these editors describe their flat countryside, I have read their editorials. They cleave to Flag, Motherhood and Country, an American version of British blather about Empire and what have you.
These weekly newspaper editors are generally Republicans of the Harding era. To them, Dwight Eisenhower was a traitor, not to his country, as the John Birch Society has it, but to the Grand Old Party. They are now embracing Sen. Goldwater, and their embrace will undoubtedly strangle the Arizona senator who would have his country coil up onto itself...
THE EDITORS also look with disdain on any political theorists since Adam Smith, and although they know nothing of Keynesian economics they have been told that this was what Franklin Roosevelt practiced and so therefore they are against it. To the new president, John Kennedy, they are equally cool. Their favorite target of the new administration is the Peace Corps, which, since it involves the world outside their town's boundaries, is a boondoggle at best and training in communism at worst.
Locally, they oppose flouridation, increased school construction, social sciences in the school system, racial integration. In short, they are trying to live out their lives in the comfortable 1920s which they knew in their prime.
Befuddled, confused, yearning for a past that never can be regained. these men are no more representative of the American press than the New York Daily News, or the New York Times.
(Excerpted from an article by Roger Bryce, "America as Seen by Others," in the Oct. 22 issue of World's Press.)