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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Nov. 1, 1962
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Corps Interest Lags
When the Peace Corps was proposed, it was derisively termed the "Kiddie Korps" by many people. There was skepticism about what could possibly be accomplished to further world peace by a group of idealistic young people.
Nearly two years later, nearly all the skepticism is gone. The Peace Corps has become one of America's most effective agencies of foreign policy. Its effectiveness and acceptance is shown by the fact that every nation which now has volunteers has requested more.
IT HAS PROVEN itself so successful that its continuance was approved this summer without a dissenting vote in the U.S. Senate and by a lopsided 361 to 70 vote in the House of Representatives.
The Peace Corps, designed to share American skills and know-how with underdeveloped nations, has received many of its volunteers from American colleges and universities. In addition, it has attracted interest in colleges among many students who do not plan to serve but who wish to learn more about this personalized U.S. "aid program."
LAST FALL, a field representative who visited KU was surprised when only eight students showed up to discuss the Peace Corps with him. He told a Daily Kansan reporter that the reception at other colleges was much greater than at KU, and pointed to St. Louis University where 400 students talked to him about the Peace Corps.
But not at KU.
That was last year, when the first Peace Corps volunteers had just arrived in the Philippines. A successful year, however, hasn't increased KU's interest by an appreciable amount.
Attendance at the Peace Corps week activities so far has been disappointing, to say the least. A talk on the Peace Corps Tuesday night was attended by only 30 students, and discussion by a group of the trainees in the KU-Costa Rica project attracted only 16 students Wednesday night.
THE ONLY EVENT which attracted a reasonably large crowd was primarily a social affair—the reception Sunday for the trainees in the Costa Rica project.
Two weeks ago, we criticized the KU committee on convocations when it turned down a request by the KU Peace Corps committee for a convocation featuring Warren Wiggins, acting Peace Corps director. We said that the committee had pre-judged KU students, and we implied that students were interested enough to take an hour to hear a top Peace Corps official speak.
The KU Peace Corps committee circulated a petition which was signed by 2,500 students, and the convocations committee reversed its decision and scheduled tomorrow's convocation.
IF THE CONVOCATION does not draw a crowd, the blame cannot be placed on the KU Peace Corps committee. After its successful campaign to get the convocation scheduled, it has blanketed the campus with posters and other information regarding the convocation and other Peace Corps week activities.
The convocations committee scheduled the convocation—probably against its better judgment—despite the earlier feeling that the attendance would be embarrassingly small.
We hope KU students won't cause the convocations committee to regret its decision.
—Clayton Keller
Needed: One Brainy Child
Once again it seems safe to draw a deep breath. A crisis in some far-away place has abated at least temporarily.
Here, in this quiet little town, children still play along the streets and on vacant lots, as they do in Moscow, Havana, Peiping, London, Paris ad infinitum.
In most countries the peoples are too civilized to sell their children, or offer them up as sacrifices, or eat them. Nothing that crude now. Instead the nations now hold each other's children as hostages—liable at any hour to be turned into very small cinders or very ragged and hungry orphans of war. This is not necessarily because men hate children—it is just the way things are. Somehow it just happened—a weird by-product of progress.
Affixing the blame for this predicament is becoming an art. Some begin with God, others work it down to a matter of politics, science and society, and others blame themselves—"themselves" being a personification of the human race in general. Others blame the "enemy." They all accomplish essentially the same thing—nothing.
And so "peace" has become an obsolete word, and disarmament theories are little more than idealistic blather.
Yet, in spite of this, and as hopeless as it may look at times, it hasn't happened yet. We have managed to maintain a bastard version of peace. And though we have the means to end it all, we haven't done it yet—tomorrow perhaps, but not today.
Someone has said that "hope springs eternal." "Hell springs eternal" may become a more fitting slogan. Yet, so long as the children are still here there is some basis for optimism.
Meanwhile, while a united world seems the least likely event to anticipate, children still play along the streets and on the vacant lots of this peaceful little town, and in Moscow, Havana, Peiping, London, Paris—ad infinitum.
It is possible that from among them may come a man with the wisdom and the insight—perhaps a single idea—which will lead to a rational use of the progress on which their fathers and grandfathers have built a great sickness.
—Bob Hoyt
Trivialities in Nebraska Race
(This is the tenth in a series of
situated contests in the 1962 election,
situated contests in the 1962 election,
By Jim Alsbrook
The race for the governorship of Nebraska is between Frank Morrison, 66-year-old Democratic incumbent, and Fred A. Seaton, 52-year-old secretary of the Interior in the Eisenhower cabinet.
Except for the party labels they wear and the personalities they radiate, few differences between the two men can be pointed out to the Nebraska voter. The campaign has been one of trivialities and personalities.
Both are regarded as moderately conservative in fiscal and philosophical views, both favor strong support for the University of Nebraska, and both are opposed to a state sales tax.
THE CONTEST GOT under way when Morrison accused Seaton of being a Republican. Seaton, in reply, loudly exclaimed that Morrison was a Democrat. Seaton added that Morrison was a conservative by day and a New Frontiersman by night, and Morrison contended that Seaton's likeness on a billboard resembled an advertisement for Hart, Schaffner & Marx.
The wrangle went into high gear over the issue of whether the governor should name visiting dignitaries to be admirals in the non-existent Nebraska Navy and whether yodelers from Wisconsin should be preferred at a corn-picking contest.
SURELY ALL OF Nebraska's problems are not solved. And with local, state, national and international problems as staggering as they are, surely two candidates for the governorship of a state can find more significant issues for public discussion.
It's all right for the contestants to "kiss and make up" after the battle is over, but the voter cannot determine which contestant
Both candidates, it seems, are strongly in favor of motherhood, Independence Day and Christmas.
should be awarded the decision if neither will put on the gloves and exchange a few significant blows before the final gong sounds.
Founded 1889, became bweekly 1904,
triviewly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
University of Kansas student newspaper
Daily Hansan
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Scott Payne Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Cooler Maller and Co-Editorial Editors
Bill Sheldon
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles Martinache .. Business Manager
GOP Gains Seen In Hoosier Race
(This is the eleventh in a series of
six contests, and the sixth in a
rational contest in the 1962 election.)
Indiana appears to be going to the polls next week strongly Republican. There is even a fair chance of some GOP gain to be made in the Hoosier state, as 11 House seats and one chair in the Senate are being contested.
By Bill Sheldon
The principal figure in the Indiana political circles in this election is third term hopeful Republican Sen. Homer Capehart. Sen. Capehart and his stablemate, Rep. Charles Halleck, also a Republican, have long held tight reins over the Hoosier state, and this power situation does not appear to be facing any danger of alteration.
CAPEHART is opposed by Birch Evan Bayh, minority leader of the House of Delegates, the lower chamber of the legislature. This vibrant Democrat is much younger, 34 years old to the 65 years of Sen. Capehart.
The long and strong Republican tradition in Indiana appears to be the factor which will carry the incumbent back to the nation's capital.
President Kennedy made a strong plea for candidate Bayh in an Indianapolis speech last week. The President called Sen. Capehart's opposition to the Peace Corps, the United Nations and the trade bill "ineteenth century voting" and asked Indiana voters to elect the more progressive Democrat.
SEN. CAPEHART and the President locked horns before that
speech on their respective stands on the Cuban situation. The senator, who called for strong action to wipe out the Communist threat, even considered the possibility of war.
To define the issues would be difficult, since there has not appeared, from this distance, any great doctrinal quarrel. It looks as though most of the campaigning has been centered on national questions. Here Sen. Capehart has a great advantage because he is well known for the legislation which has passed the Senate for the benefit of Indiana.
A recent poll conducted by the Prairie Farmer showed Sen. Capehart well ahead in the race among farm voters. The poll gave a 48.4 to 28.1 per cent advantage to him. This is somewhat indicative of the outcome of the race, since Indiana is considered to be in the Corn Belt and a great parcel of the population can be considered to fall in the category of farm population.
AT PRESENT the Republicans also have a solid margin in the House situation. In the last session of Congress, seven Republicans and four Democrats represented Indiana in the House. A gain of one seat is foreseen for the GOP.
The Prairie Farmer poll revealed that, in the House contests, the farm vote advantage again went to the Republicans, 49 to 32 per cent.
Thus, at least the status quo will be maintained in Indiana for the next term in Washington. Any backsliding by the Republicans will come as a total surprise, and a possible gain is in the offing.
YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, by Dorothy Baker (Sentry, $1.45).
It would be better if older readers would not return to the cherished books of their high school and college days. "Young Man with a Horn" has been a beautiful memory these many years; now it has been re-read, and the realization is that the novel is for the young only.
The book hits one best when one is first overwhelmed by jazz as a unique American force. This is the story of Rick Martin, though really it's the story of Bix Beiderbecke, the great trumpeter of the Paul Whiteman orchestra. Rick grows up in Los Angeles, gets mixed up with Negroes, learns first the piano and then the horn, and becomes the greatest in the land.
His downfall is pretty Hollywood (the movies in fact, despoiled this novel about 12 years ago)—he marries a dame who doesn't understand him. And Rick dies, young and already a legend.—CMP.