Page 2
University Daily Kansan Friday, Nov. 30. 1962
'Fordism' Goes Amuck
Drat you, Henry Ford!
You and your blasted assembly-line process have worked a pox on American society.
Oh, I'm certain that you didn't intend to subvert the spirit of individualism, but your idea of interchangeable parts has gone berserk.
SO LONG AS your theory of sameness was confined to mechanical parts which make machines more practical to operate, and lowers the price so the common man can afford to buy them, it served our beloved land quite well.
But I tell you it has run amuck; this interchangeability-of-parts theory has smitten the great god Individualism a fatal blow.
This sameness, this lethal leveling process, has permeated our entire society with a devastation equal to the plague of the Middle Ages.
You and your theory have despoiled the fair democratic experiment. Just consider my case, for the sake of illustration.
I WAS BORN in a production-line maternity ward, taken home from the hospital wrapped in a mass-produced diaper, and transported in an assembly-line Ford.
I'll not bore you with details of a stifling childhood where I was surrounded by look-alike elements in a look-alike neighborhood. (I shudder at the recollection of block after block of identical houses, all of them surrounded by the same crabgrass—not to mention standard streets with standard curbings and lamp posts.)
I guess I became truly embittered when I left the stultifying confines of my neighborhood and
headed for the great mount of education which borders the cultural wasteland where I suffered my youth.
AS I EAGERLY contemplated the climb up the holy mount of knowledge, my standard-sized heart was filled with poignancy—I just knew it was atop the mount that I would forge myself into a hale and hardy Individualist.
But alas and alack, I found my old plight worsened, my expectations gored. Yes, Henry Ford, your production-line theory sullied even the hallowed ground of intellectual searching. To wit:
I have had to register my production model car (a Chevrolet; one sweet taste of revenge against the Great Despoiler), and was given a number. Because of your theory, Henry Ford, I am not a living, palpitating human being in the eyes of the university, but just plain old number 37494.
THE REMAINDER of my oppressive surroundings at the University are legend: living in standard dormitories, eating institutionalized food off identical plates, attending look-alike lectures in look-alike rooms stuck in look-alike buildings. Finally, the supreme insult to Individuality I will receive a standard sheepskin.
So Henry Ford, if I wind up as the standardized, frustrated "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" a paper-shuffling clod on the 40th floor of a giant corporation—it will be your fault. The die has been cast—the oppressive forces of conformity are too strong.
—Terry Murphy
More Praise For Hospital Editor:
At Watkins Memorial Hospital, Dr. Samy Afify (Daily Kansan letter, Nov. 27) was known to me only as the Egyptian at the other end of the hall, who received half the International Club during visiting hours. Until you published his letter, I knew only of his existence, as Watkins seems to be one of the few institutions on this campus that is not co-educational. I did not even know that Dr. Afify and I both shared the same doctor, Dr. McClure, who must have been kept pretty busy between the two of us during these past three weeks.
AS FAR AS the nurses, the technicians, the nurses aides, and Dr. McClure are concerned. I can only reiterate Dr. Aiffy's praise—praise that has long been due to Watkins Memorial Hospital. Students at KU
...Letters...
should be grateful that they have so well-equipped and well-staffed a hospital while many universities have infirmaries that are converted barracks or rejected, tumble-down private houses. Those students who have indulged in rather one-sided criticism of the clinic, which actually represents only a fraction of what Watkins does, would be the first to whimper if there were no first aid available around the clock and if they had to face the expenses and inconveniences of going to a public hospital.
Never before have I been treated so well in an ordinary hospital and been given at the same time such liberty. Can you imagine, in an ordinary hospital, being asked whether you would like your bed made? Usually the attitude is, "We are going to make your bed or else." The nurses are efficient and at the same time interesting to talk
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
to, certainly quite the opposite of the crass type that one can run into. One of the nurses even did some laundry for me. No professional snobbery at Watkins, and my thanks go to both the nurses and nurses aides who sat through so many drawn-out meals with me —drawn-out partly because we had so much to discuss in comparing England, Canada, Germany, Norway, and the United States.
DR. McCLURE is to be thanked for his patience, his readiness to cope with new situations all hours of the day and night, and for his numerous visits during the day, many of which were not professionally necessary but went a long way to dispelling one's doubts and building up again one's shaken confidence. Last but certainly not least, he is to be thanked for taking a rather bedraggled foreign student into his family at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving spent with such a wonderful American family probably did more for my recovery than all the drugs that flowed from the pharmacy into my room in the hospital.
*NOTICE TH SUDDEN BURST OF ENERGY SHOWN BY YOUR BOYS AS THEY PASS BY TH* *INSPIRING CHEER FROM TH COACH'S BEEF?*
To conclude, at Watkins Memorial Hospital one receives outstanding professional treatment and kind personal attention. My stay there has raised the United States and the American people considerably in my estimation.
Silke Engledow Teaching Assistant, Dept. of German
Not being very eloquent. I will put my question simply. Why can't the KU police department find an officer to direct the traffic on Jayhawk Boulevard after the 4:20 whistle blows?
Traffic Officer Needed
Editor:
There is something friendly to me about a policeman directing traffic. If I am on foot, I know, at least, that I won't get run over. If I'm driving or riding in a car on Sunflower trying to cross or get onto Jayhawk, I know I have a chance to do it without bashing in a fender. And if I'm in a car on Jayhawk, I know that it is not likely that someone will smash into me trying to get onto Jayhawk Boulevard.
On a couple of occasions I have seen an officer at the intersection. Why can't there be one there every day?
Carolyn Hunnicutt Sabetha senior
It Looks This Way
Key to Success on Test: Write Simple Sentences
See the two United Press International reporters? They are undergraduates in the KU School of Journalism. They took the English proficiency examination.
They flunked it.
I told them what to do. They didn't listen. They will next time.
THE EXAM is all right in principle. We can't have KU grads dropping ungrammatical memos into suggestion boxes. That reflects on the University.
But the two UPI writers flunked the test. Something is wrong. One guy works at UPI 40 hours a week. The other took a leave of absence for school after working there this summer.
Why did they flunk? Maybe they misspelled. Maybe they comma-spliced. Maybe they misplaced modifiers. Maybe they mistakenly thought the exam was a pud.
Another person and I gave them the secret English pro exam advice. Don't write anything but simple sentences. That's the advice. Don't use commas. Don't use semi-colons or colons. Avoid compound, complex and compound-complex sentences. Use only the noun-verb-object form. You can't go wrong.
I PASSED THE EXAM the first time.I wrote six, seven,eight nine and ten-word sentences—just like that one. I passed.
That is not the point. The test supposedly measures written English proficiency. The UPI men are proficient in English. They are professional writers. The journalism professors think so. So does United Press International. UPI maintains standards of proficiency. Those standards might be as high as KU's.
The William Allen White School of Journalism maintains standards too. Those standards might not be as high as KU's.
Those standards might not be as high as Don't say that to journalism professors, though. They get mean.
THOSE UPI WRITERS flunked the English proficiency examination.
T.
tion.
Maybe they'll improve.
They learned their lessons.
They'll write simple sentences.
Bill slugged Bert. Tom slugged Tim.
Write simple sentences. Don't forget a dictionary.
That'll get it.
—Scott Parne
THE USE AND MISUSE OF LANGUAGE, edited by S. I. Hayakawa (Fawcett Premier, 75 cents).
The essays are both informative and entertaining. One writer considers how differences in comprehension cause discussions to go astray. Another shows why we have so much trouble getting along with other peoples of the world, when we have so much trouble understanding each other. Another considers what happens in the process of news reporting, and it is an essay that should be read by the many many critics of the press.
Here is a valuable assembling of articles from ETC: "A Review of General Semantics," and the many persons who have received enlightenment from Hayakawa will be cheered to see the volume.
Some of the better articles treat the world of violence in which we live and the fantasies surrounding and created by popular songs. And Hayakawa includes his essays about motor cars and sexual fantasies and the sad story of the Edsel, when motivational research collided head on with realities.—CMP
* *
THE SAVAGE LAND, by Ann Ahlswede (Ballantine original, 50 cents) a novel of the West, about a young man's search for a purpose in life.
Daily Hansen
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIking 3-2700
Extension 714, news office
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.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Scott Payne ... Managing Editor
Richard Bonctt, Dennis Farney, Zeke Wigglesworth, and Bill Mullins, Assistant Managing Editors; Mike Miller, City Editor; Ben Marshall, Sports Editor; Margaret Cathcart, Society Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Clayton Keller and Bill Sheldon Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles Martinache ... Business Manager
Charles Martinache...Business Manager
Jack Cannon. Advertising Manager; Doug Farmer. Circulation Manager;
Gene Spalding, National Advertising Manager; Bill Woodburn, Classi-
fied Advertising Manager; Dan Meek, Promotion Manager.