Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Dec. 5, 1962
Due Process Assured
Kansas took four years to get around to hanging Lowell Lee Andrews—a mockery of justice—one of the many mockeries. That's what the Lawrence Journal-World sputtered in a recent editorial.
With incoherent writing the Journal-World condemned our court system as being too slow. The editorial groped toward some vague, childish conclusion that Andrews got off easy because he was able to prolong his life for four years.
Justice, said the writer, has miscarried.
THE EDITORIAL'S implication is that the Wyandotte County youth went unpunished—or, at least, that his 4-year fight mitigated his punishment.
"He (Andrews) was allowed four more years of life and justice . . . than . . . his family whom he murdered. The same holds true for the Hickok-Smith duet who murdered . . . the Herbert Clutter family of Kansas," the J-W said.
The real implication of the Journal-World editorial is that Kansas should have strung up Andrews on the spot—in effect, that he should have been denied his right of due process.
Implicit in the mutterings from the downtown paper is regret that Andrews didn't suffer enough or soon enough.
The Journal-World editorial, unfortunately,
typifies the attitude held by a great number of people.
Perhaps Andrews' last four years were just a big joy-ride. If so, it was never reported in any area newspapers. Stolid as he may have acted, Andrews probably burned in his private hell because of his fear of the gallows.
But it's good that Lowell Andrews got his four extra years of life. It's good that Caryl Chessman had almost 12 years in which to fight for his life.
It's good because it's a guarantee.
IT'S A GUARANTEE that this society will permit its citizens to fight to prove their innocence. It's a guarantee that the guilt of the accused must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt.
It's good because it guarantees everyone protection from the medieval attitudes expressed in the Journal-World editorial.
Everyone was certain that Lowell Lee Andrews slaughtered his family. Kansas slaughtered him in return. But at least it was done only after all possibilities of proving his innocence were exhausted.
There is no need to rush such a thing. It was a disgusting, dirty business.
—Scott Payne
Thant Aids U.N. Growth
Last week U Thant was elected secretary-general of the United Nations for four more years, and the word "acting" was dropped from his title.
Thant's election came in the wake of the Cuban crisis-his greatest challenge since he took office a year ago. While Thant and the United Nations kept to the background in those troubled days, both were an important force behind the scenes.
President Kennedy publicly praised Thant for his help, Valerian A. Zorin, Soviet delegate to the U.N., also cited Thant's role in this crisis in one of the speeches of praise which followed Thant's election.
FORMERLY BURMA'S chief U.N. delegate, Thant was elected last November to be acting secretary-general until April, 1963, when the term of the late Dag Hammarskjold will expire.
When first appointed, the world hardly knew what to expect of him. This gentle Burmese educator and diplomat inspired one newspaperman who heard his acceptance speech to comment, "He couldn't swat a fly."
Thant faced the prospect of trying to replace a man many considered irreplaceable. One national news magazine wrote, "U Thant is unlikely to become another Dag Hammarskjold. He lacks experience in practical administration; he is untried as an executive, and his anxiety for Big Power agreement may mean useless compromises."
But the writer went on to concede that those same things had been said of Hammarskjold eight years before.
In the past year, Thant has not become another Dag Hammarskjold—what man could have become that? But he has certainly proved to be an able man and one whose gentle manner can be deceiving.
He has been described as having "at least as far-ranging a concept of his functions as his predecessor..." Seldom has he inspired criticism; however, when it has come the criticism is that he is "too outspoken, too ready to take the initiative, too vigorous in his discharge of the office."
The United States, too, has found him impartial. During the Cuban crisis one American diplomat said, "We don't feel we can get too familiar with Thant. He keeps us just as much at arm's length as he does the Russians."
Thant sees the role of the U.N. as neither that of a big power with armed forces nor a mere moral force. He believes it lies somewhere in between. He envisions a dynamic U.N. that is more than a forum—a U.N. that would "actively intervene to influence the course of events..."
In the past year, this courteous, soft-spoken Asian has done his part to help the United Nations grow into such a role. The post of secretary-general appears to be in good hands.
—Elaine Blavlock
Story Corrected
Editor:
In the generally excellent review of my talk on Nov. 28 to the Muslim Club on "Early Muslim Architecture" your reporter misrepresented several of my statements. These mistakes were undoubtedly due to your reporter's lack of familiarity with Muslim religion and history, and I feel I should set the record straight. Ignorance of Islam and the importance of Muslim civilization is all too widespread in the United States.
It was incorrectly reported that the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem is a mosque. Actually it is a Muslim shrine, not a mosque, although Muslims certainly do offer prayers in the Dome. It was built about 696 A.D., not as reported, 696 A.H. After all, 696 A.H. would be 1318 A.D. The mihrab is indeed a niche, recessed in the mosque wall, but tradition says it was first built for Muawiya, not for Mohammed. The correct spelling of the outside
... Letters ...
courtyard of the mosque is ziyada not zujadah. It was also reported that I had been in Persia. Alas, I have not, but some day soon I hope to visit Iran and see the beauties of modern Teheran, medieval Ispahan, and ancient Persepolis.
James E. Seaver Professor of History
Why don't you keep your non-secuiturs out of the paper?
(Ref: "Fordism Goes Amuck," Daily Kansan, Nov. 30)
Students! Is this sort of neurotic harangue (vs. Fordism) the only voice to utter from the indifference on the campus? Such discourse is in the mode of idle-talk and leads one away from the issues Allen Gribben spoke about.
Drat You, Murphy!
K. C. King
Drai you. Terry Murphy!
Junction City senior
Where Else?
Editor:
Concerning the editorial of Dec. 3 supporting barn parties, I must concur wholeheartedly. Where else but at barns could people of such "common" interests meet?
Yours in Johnny Walker,
Kansas City, Mo., graduate student
Short Ones
The origin of poetry lies in a thirst for a wider beauty than earth supplies. — Edgar Allen Poe
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. — Voltaire
Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity - George Bernard Shaw
the took world
By Seymour Menton Associate Professor of Romance Languages
GABRIELA, CLOVE AND CINNAMON, by Jorge Amado (Knopf, 1962). Translated from the Portuguese by James L. Taylor and William L. Grossman.
For probably the first time in history, a Latin American novel was reviewed on the first page of the New York Times Book Review section, Sept. 16, 1962. Jorge Amado's "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon" deserves this distinction because not only has it been a best-seller in Brazil—16 editions since its initial publication in 1953—but it has also won the acclaim of the professional critics. The most conservative of these place "Gabriela" alongside of "Terras do Sem Fim (The Violent Land)" as Jorge Amado's masterpiece, while the more enthusiastic ones insist that it represents the maturity of the Brazilian novel.
"Gabriela," a very carefully structured novel, combines the delightful love story of the protagonist and the Arab Nacib with a panoramic vision of the evolution of a small Brazilian city. Although both time and place are limited to Ilhéus in the picturesque state of Bahia in 1925, Jorge Amado overcomes the shortcomings of many of his regionalist precursors by giving his book a more universal appeal.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE FORCES of tradition and progress, which constitutes the principal conflict, could have taken place in any city in the world. In "Gabriela," the antagonists are the old "colonels," lordly but decadent owners of the cacao plantations, and the young professionals: lawyers, doctors, and engineers who have been educated in the large cities. The key to the progress of Ilhéus is transportation which forms a frame around the book, beginning with the establishment of a new line linking Ilhéus to Itabuna and ending with the entrance of a Swedish ship into the recently dredged harbor.
THE LATTER, OWNER OF A BAR-RESTAURANT, needs a cook in the beginning and end of the novel. Gabriela, a fugitive from the drought-stricken state of Ceará, fills the bill as cook, mistress and later wife of Nacib. Nonetheless, she ingenuously cannot resist the attraction of other men. When Nacib discovers her infidelity, he breaks the long Ilheus tradition by not killing either Gabriela or his rival. Once again without a cook, Nacib searches in vain. He finally accepts the "unmarried" Gabriela back in his bar-restaurant, first as cook and then in the last pages of the book as his mistress.
Reinforcing the anti-epic tone, Amado resolves several dramatic scenes in a most undramatic way. The Negro Fagundes, relentlessly pursued by the local toughs after shooting at "Colonel" Aristoteles Pires, "without killing him," escapes by leaping into Gabriela's back yard where, without any transition, he begins a humorous conversation with her. The threat of violence at the polls is eliminated by the natural death of old "Colonel" Ramiro Bastos.
However, the universality of the novel stems principally from its tone. In contrast with Amado's previous novels, "Gabriela" is not epic nor poetic. Although the author creates a panoramic tableau of Ilhéus society, stressing the defeat of the old "colonels," the flavor of the book is picaresque and anti-tragic as exemplified by the story of Gabriela and Nacib.
WOMEN PLAY A KEY ROLE in ending the violence of the "colonels." Malvina defies her tyrannical father and flees from the parochial school in Salvador to look for work in São Paulo. The literary function of Jerusa is to reduce the tension between her grandfather and his political enemy Mundinho Faleão by having the latter fall in love with her. Glória manages to survive her infidelity to "Colonel" Coriolano Ribeiro in contrast with his previous mistresses.
In the process of intertwining the lives of the inhabitants of Ilhéus, Amado dwells too long on each one. This prolongs the book unnecessarily and does not succeed in establishing a close relationship between the reader and all the characters. Of course, this is not true with the heroine Gabriela, whose cinnamon-colored skin and clove fragrance linger with the reader long after he has finished the novel. Because of occasional slips into the obvious, "Gabriela" may not be the greatest Brazilian novel but it is certainly one of Jorge Amado's very best. The translation by James L. Taylor and William Grossman is excellent and should insure the novel's success in the United States.
Daily Hansen
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, trivweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
(Es-
sion
ger I
Telephone VIking 3-2700
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.
A Hiss trigui heari atmo the p Champ past
NEWS DEPARTMENT
The picke menta anythi litas'
Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Clayton Keller and Bill Sheldon ... Co-Editorial Editors
THE
abl
ger
the
choo
"with
deed
years
espe
appe
gener effect sions Cham fasci vide
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles Martinache ... Business Manager