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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Dec. 17, 1962
United Effort Falters
The best way to help solve racial discrimination problems in Lawrence would be through a united effort by the KU Civil Rights Council (CRC) and the Lawrence Human Rights Commission.
However, efforts by either of these groups is preferable to no effort at all.
This appears to be the reasoning of the CRC, which last week announced plans to proceed on its own to help end racial discrimination in Lawrence taverns.
THE DECISION came a week after Don Warner, CRC chairman, criticized the Lawrence group for its inactivity. A sub-committee, consisting of students and Lawrence residents, had been formed to work on the tavern issue. with the Lawrence residents given the responsibility for scheduling meetings. No meeting had been called, according to Warner.
Thus, what looked like a united effort against discrimination apparently has fallen apart, and the most encouraging development in several years has come to nothing.
The CRC no doubt will be criticized by many people-students as well as Lawrence residents for wanting to move too fast in the area of civil rights. Although negotiations rather than more militant attacks such as sit-ins are planned, there will be many who will once again accuse the CRC of "stirring up trouble."
PERHAPS SOME of them will remember, however, that much of the progress in recent years has come, directly or indirectly, through CRC efforts.
It was through CRC efforts, in large part, that the KU housing office last year dropped from the housing list the names of landlords who would not agree to rent rooms without regard to race.
In addition, there are many who believe that CRC publicity about the two KU fraternities which still have discriminatory clauses had much to do with efforts this summer to get rid of the clauses. The KU chapters, it is reported, were leaders at the national meetings in attempts to get the clauses voted out.
PROBLEMS SUCH AS civil rights will be solved more quickly if they are brought into the open and given publicity. This the CRC has been doing for several years, and progress has been made in a number of areas.
Yet it is also true that quiet work on a personal level must accompany the publicity. Six weeks ago, it looked as if the alliance of the CRC, the Lawrence Human Rights Commission, and the ASC Human Rights Committee would bring about this personal work.
The proposed united effort was especially encouraging because of the potential it had for ending the discriminatory practices in Lawrence businesses more quickly and with fewer hard feelings. Lawrence businessmen obviously will be more receptive to other businessmen and Lawrence citizens than to students.
YET IF THE Lawrence Human Rights Commission is dragging its feet, as the CRC seems to believe, the CRC has little choice except to push ahead on its own.
It is still possible that the CRC and the Lawrence group can work together effectively on the tavern issue, an area in which both should be concerned. Perhaps the recent dissatisfaction of the CRC, together with the CRC's obvious intention to go ahead by itself if necessary, will start things moving within the Lawrence commission. Clayton Keller
Communists and HUAC
Editor.
There are two interesting things in the news this week which should not go unnoticed on campus. They are the trial of the Communist Party as an agent of another government, and the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of a women's peace organization.
The Great God Government is insisting the Communist Party must register as an agent of a foreign government. The Communist Party thus far has refused to do so, I agree with them. The government once again is infringing upon the basic rights of the American citizen, and contrary to the desires of many people, Gus Hall is still a citizen, entitled to the protections of the Constitution.
PERHAPS MY VIEW is archaic, but I still assume a person is innocent until he is proven guilty. Surely, if the federal government has any valid proof of collusion between CPUSA and Moscow, it need only produce this proof to show the guilt or association of the Communists in this country. Maybe I read the wrong literature, but I have
... Letters ...
vet to hear of cogent evidence in this direction.
If the Communist Party in the United States is to be judged an agent for a foreign power, what about the Roman Catholic church and its agency for the Vatican State? What about Eleanor Roosevelt (R.I.P.) and the other "Tractors for Cuba" committee members? Are they duly registered as foreign agents?
Then there is HUAC. Just the other day, a friend was asking about this group of public-spirited public servants. He was wondering what the group was doing. Now it is known, vaguely. The committee is trying to ferret out Communist infiltration or leanings or indoctrination in a women's peace movement. I wholeheartedly support the private citizens who were ordered to the witness stand before this body of congressmen and who refused to give any information. It reminds one of the admonition given military men who might be captured in wartime: "Name, rank, service number, and date of birth."
Surely, the ladies will be excused from disclosing the latter tidbit. As for more than the basic information, it is no business of HUAC what a private citizen does or does not do, so long as there is no plot for the violent overthrow of the established government.
IF HUAC IS SO worried about Communist infiltration of peace groups, why doesn't it start with Sargent Shriver and the Peace Corps; or, better yet, go to the top, where President Kennedy and his Cabinet are advocating peace. Perhaps Jackie is a bit "pinko."
The lone voice in Tuesday's hearing raised in protest against the legitimacy of the HUAC investigation was silenced by ushering the individual from the hearing. It is handy to have burly sentinels to silence all dissent—makes operations so much easier. After all, who has a better right to suppress the freedoms of speech, assembly, petition, right to trial, etc., than Congress?
BOOK REVIEWS
Who were the signers of the Declaration of Independence? What were their backgrounds? What were their fates? These are questions answered in an article by Arthur Bernon Tourtellot in the December American Heritage. It is one of several that make this an informative and interesting number.
AMERICAN HERITAGE, December 1962. $3.95.
Patrick M. Prosser Lawrence senior
The story by Tourtellot is an inspiring one. Few of the signers benefited personally from the signing; not one defeated; not one denied his original declaration.
***
There are other articles of particular interest. The second installment of Carl Carmer's story of the Mormons is here. There is an enjoyable story of the Gold Rush of '49, with pictures, and a brief biography of the famous speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed, by Barbara Tuchman.
Other articles deal with Catharine Beecher, daughter of Lyman and sister of Harriet; an excerpt from the next volume of Allan Nevins' biography of Henry Ford; pictures from the G. Albert Lewis family of Philadelphia dating back to early America; an evaluation of Winston Churchill as historian; an essay on Thoreau's last days and last words, and a portfolio of color photographs that illustrate Thoreau's writings.
Jayhawker Favoritism?
Editor;
What is the policy of Jayhawker staffs, past and present?
One should be able to assume that this yearbook is representative of the campus, but is it? I refer specifically to the party picture section. For three years I have watched partiality shown toward certain living groups and discrimination apparently shown toward others. Speaking personally and for all groups who submit pictures to the Jayhawker, it seems only fair that each group should have a minimum of one picture included in each section, when submitted. This is simply equality in representation.
As stated, the Jayhawkier should represent the entire student body; therefore, why is it that year after year the party picture section is dominated by "select" groups? Perhaps there is a reasonable answer and if so, I would like an explanation for myself and other students of all groups who pay their $6 for Jayhawkers. This is my question; I respectfully await an answer for myself and my fellow students.
Gerald B. Renyer Topeka senior
Keeping Un-Greenness From the Land of Green
And there was a star in the East. It was a bright star and it shone red in the eyes of the Tribunal Council on Un-Green Activities. The wise men of the Council stared at the light and it was intense and water streamed from the wise men's eyes and they were blinded.
Hence, wherever they looked, the Council members saw only red and they became obsessed with hate of redness.
The people of the land of Green, who had known the wise men when they were truly wise, didn't detect the blindness in their leaders, for they too had seen the brilliance of the red star in the East and they were awed.
THE COUNCIL CALLED the people together in the great hearing room, and they brought before them good people and bad people. The wise men of the Council, in their red blindness, looked at the good and bad people. And they cried out, Red!, Red!, Red! And soon the people chanted, Red!, Red!, Red!
Then the chief wise man, that is to say the chairman of the Council, pointed a finger at the man they had called Red, be he good or bad, and the man was ridiculed and driven from the land of Green.
Yet there were good and honest men who feared the strange blindness of the wise men, but they were silent. There were those who had protected their eyes from the star and saw the wrongness in what the Council was doing. They saw the danger when the wise men groped in their red darkness. They sensed the confusion of the Council members and they were frightened.
Before too many snows had come and gone, the Council turned its blindness on every tribe east of their middle land. They never locked to the west, for that was at their back.
ONCE, THE COUNCIL called the people to the great hearing room and brought teachers of Green before them. And to the wise men the teachers shone red. And again the cry rang out. Red! Red!. Red! And, as before, the people chanted, Red!, Red!, Red!
But this time, unlike the times before, there were those who did not follow the Council. And they stood outside the great hearing room and shouted, No!, No!, No!
The chief wise man, that is the chairman of the Council, turned toward the dissenters and saw red. He gathered his aides and the best painters together in the planning room to compose a picture of the hearings, and the dissenters were colored red. The paintings were sent about the land of Green so all the people could see the redness of those who dared to question the wisdom of the wise men.
In the great Tribunal, where all the wise men of the land were gathered, a vote was taken and the elders confirmed their faith in the Council members. Only four, the youngest of the elders, voted against the Council.
THE SEASONS OF TIME were few before the Council again called the people to the great hearing room to witness mothers who dissented. Mothers came to the hall, some with little children in their arms, and they stood before the council and heard the familiar cries.
The mothers were good and kind, and they loved their children. It was the love of their children that sent them marching in protest against the use of fire by the warriors of Green and those in the land under the brilliant red star in the East. But the Council said the mothers were wrong and when they looked at the mothers they saw red.
And thus the Council decreed there would only be greenness in the land of Green. Strangely, there is only redness in the land under the star in the East. And both lands are alike for there is neither yellow nor blue nor pink nor orange nor purple in either land there is only red in one and green in the other.
THERE WAS A TIME once when people of green loved the right to believe in yellow or blue or pink or orange or even red, yet no one cares to remember those days anymore. Now only Green is taught in the schools. Now the warriors of Green and the warriors of the land under the star in the East are armed with fire.
And so it came to pass that the people in the land under the red star in the East gazed into the sky and were awed by a brilliant green star over the land in the West. Yet they were not afraid for they lived under a similar star and knew of the oneness of the land below. —Arthur C. Miller
UNIVERSITY Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
University of Kansas student newspaper. Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, trinkweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
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Clayton Keller and Bill Sheldon ... Co-Editorial Editors
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