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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Oct. 17, 1962
The Legion Resolutions
The American Legion ended its annual convention last week by calling for a series of measures, that, in part at least, seem a throwback to 19th century jingoism and a belief in "Fortress America."
The resolutions seem to reflect more frustration than concern about this country's position in a world agitated by an ideological struggle and general upheaval.
AMONG OTHER THINGS, the Legion delegates endorsed the overthrow of Fidel Castro by "unilateral military action" if necessary, demanded Russian removal of the Berlin wall, demanded a review of the Latin-American aid program with an eye toward seeing that assistance "be directed to those countries . . . that support our policies," and demanded a federal study of whether it is in "the best interest of the United States to remain a member of the United Nations."
Without agreeing with any of these proposals, it can be admitted that there are valid grounds for public debate on the issue they involve. The American Legion is as free as any other group to take a stand on these issues.
But one other resolution approved by the Legion seems a key to the frustration felt by the group over the lack of pat answers in the current cold war. This was the call, as reported by the Associated Press, for an investigation of the U.S.State Department.
Just what the Legion believes such an investigation would accomplish was not reported. One suggestion, at least, is that such an investigation will demonstrate there are subversive forces at work. If members of the Legion are prepared to come forward with strong evidence to support the need for such an investigation, they will accomplish a service for their country.
Lacking such evidence, about all the resolution for a State Department investigation can accomplish is to lay the ground work for another siege of Communist witch-hunting reminiscent of the McCarthy era. To call for the federal investigation of a policy is one thing. To support a blanket investigation of a government department is to inaugurate a search for scapegoats to allay cold war frustrations.
ONE CAN SEE HOW, as former members of the armed forces, the Legionnaires would lean toward simple, direct action, backed by military power if need be, as a means of settling America's international disputes. And there are probably few members of the Legion who, during their active service, didn't question the sanity, integrity, or intelligence of the men over them, particularly under the stress of combat.
We see no evidence that there is any more reason to question the loyalty or competence of the members and employees of the State Department than the bewildered "Dog Face" has for questioning the motives or loyalty of the Defense Department, however confused he might be by the total defense picture. —Richard Bonett
Problems of Cyclists Edition
Cyclists Beware!!! The University of Kansas, while it has made a long stride forward in the elimination of those ghastly gasoline gaspers from the campus during the greater part of the day, has not yet recognized the full scope of the preparations it must make to receive the horde of energetic pedal-pumpers now descending on it. I cite, as examples, two points.
Firstly, the very streets of the campus are a menace to the unwary cyclist. He (or she, as the case may be) pedals blithely along, only to strike suddenly against a piece of ancient concrete or lithified mud left by a truck which passed two months ago, or assorted fragments of rusty wire, nails, and steel reinforcing bars of even greater antiquity. This is more than disconcerting — it is quite likely to result in puncturing one or more tires, or at the very least denting a rim. That this is not an imaginary menace I myself, as a cyclist of many years, will witness as of 11:41 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 11, when my front tire was punctured by a veritable barrage of this slok in the street behind the new Dyche Hall addition.
CERTAINLY WE MUST EXPECT, and be wary of, the occurrence of such situations near all the construction projects now under way on this campus; but when nothing appears to be done to rectify such conditions, we must protest vigorously, or break our financial backs repairing tires. One such protest is hereby lodged.
Secondly, the University, recognizing the need for parking spaces for the increasing number of bicycles, has thoughtfully (?) installed uncounted dozens of concrete gopher holes, wherein we cyclists are expected to place the front wheel of our bikes, thereby keeping them all in a nice neat row. Consider for a moment this situation: John Q, Public, the itinerant pedestrian, arrives in the vicinity of one of these gopher-towns and promptly leans on the bicycle nearest the end while talking absorbedly to friend Jane (maybe friend Jane is leaning, too!); under such impetus, the bicycle begins to fall, and in so doing topples all its neighbors like so many bright dominos, each with a neat, unrepairable right-angle bend in its front rim where none was before.
THAT THIS HAS NOT happened heretofore is due only to the fact that many of you cyclists are
... Letters ...
burdened with great steel behemoths with fat balloon tires and steel rims which withstand this type of accidental shock quite well. (This same construction also makes them difficult to ride up even the slightest grade, as those of you who are cursed with them have undoubtedly found out in this hilly town.)
Fortunately the University has not yet required us to register bicycles or to buy parking permits for them. If such a day should ever arrive, I am sure it would be the signal for the greatest civil disturbance in all Kansas history.
Carl Scott Zimmerman
Carl Scott Zimmerman West Hartford, Conn., graduate student
"Vicious Authority" Slammed Editor:
Is there only one side to the "Old Miss" problem? I think you are "all wet" in your argument upholding the vicious authority of the federal government.
Gov. Barnett is taking the practical, logical course of action, a cooling off period, by taking out the students for awhile.
Why do we have to accept as sacred the opinion of nine old fossils of the Supreme Court? It is tragic that federal force was used by our President to enforce an unjust cause. It is fine to be idealistic in upholding human rights; it is another thing to be practical. What would happen to the South if all the ignorant Negroes of the South were forced or allowed to vote? We have overemphasized human rights and forgotten individual responsibilities.
A good colored and white college could have been built for what it cost the idiotic government to handle the matter in their chosen way.
Read George Sokolsky on the subject ... he approaches the issue realistically.
What will be accomplished?
Nothing but a point. Are federal marshals going to encourn (sic)
Meredith for two years at school?
Frank Rosser, principal Delia Rural High School Delia, Kansas
Union Cafeteria Criticized Editor:
Every now and then irate students express their views that the Kansas Union seems to be more interested in profit than in serving the student. The reaction on the part of the Union officials has the tone of shaming these students for even having questioned, along with
a reassurance that Union fund handling is entirely in the student's interest, above board and irreproachable.
Yet attitudes of students and common observation indicate lack of satisfaction and the thought that all is not so pure and good. The Union cafeteria is a case in point. It is peculiar that private restaurants can equal cafeteria prices yet not be run under such fortuitous circumstances or with such noble motives. We must remember that private restaurants 1) are run for profit, 2) have only a limited volume of customers in comparison to the cafeteria, and 3) must employ a greater number of personnel per number of people served. Additional factors can probably be thought of.
Also, there occurred an event which may well characterize Union motives and attitudes toward its student clientele. At the noon meal recently, an exotically named entree was served in individual bowls (cost: 67 cents). That evening the same item was served with a plain name and not in the fancier bowls (cost: 40 cents).
Stephen Goldfarb
San Diego, Calif.
graduate student
Short Ones
A poet can survive everything but a misprint. —Oscar Wilde
If every politician who has told a lie in his campaigns were barred from office, the entire system of government offices in the United States would be vacant. -Bill Mullins.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
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Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, Represented by National Advertising Services, Inc., New York, 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 holidays. Universities, holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Scott Payne Managing Editor
It Looks This Way
Clayton Keller and Co-Editorial Editors Bill Sheldon
Vital Debates Needed
Last week Võx Populi challenged the University Party to debate campus political issues. Interviews with UP leaders indicate that the party welcomes the idea.
Of course, the idea is not exactly new. During the past month, representatives of both parties have appeared before KU dormitories and organized houses to debate issues and explain party goals. But original or not, we think an expanded debate program is a good idea.
WHO KNOWS? A series of vigorous party debates might even beat some life into that perennially dead horse: campus politics.
It's hard to imagine, but a series of vigorous debates might even make campus politics interesting for more than the handful of students who actually run for office or seek political appointments.
But the key word here is vigorous. Vigorous debates—debates based on significant campus issues, debates which bring out clear-cut and differing party stands—might lift campus politics from the mundane to the meaningful.
HERE'S WHERE the rank-and-file student comes in. Vigorous debates depend upon significant issues—and the typical student can supply these issues. He can, quite simply, back the party representatives into the corner and force them to take stands on issues which, to him at least, are meaningful. A few well-aimed questions could be electrifying.
Take the debate coming up this Wednesday evening in Corbin Hall. What would happen if a Corbin freshman fired this one at a Vox spokesman:
"Why all the concern in your Oct. 4 meeting about the 'false image' of Vox as an 'all-Greek' party? Is the image actually false? As an independent, exactly what role could I play in your party?"
"Why the emphasis, in your recent proposal before the ASC for decentralization of the polls, on the placing of three of the four polls in independent dormitories: Corbin, Joseph R. Pearson and Lewis? Were these locations selected for purely geographic reasons, or were they a deliberate attempt to place polls inside the centers of your voting strength?"
The opportunities for individual issue-making are almost unlimited. Other questions, for example, might concern party stands on:
OR THIS ONE at a UP man:
- A request by the Civil Rights Council that the report made last spring by the Human Rights Committee for the ASC be referred back to the HRC for reconsideration.
- The role, if any, of the ASC in national issues such as the current University of Mississippi integration dispute.
- A host of relatively minor issues: the possibility of later closing hours for Watson Library because of the expanded student enrollment and the limited library facilities. The possibility of later (or earlier) women's closing hours on Sunday nights. The desirability of later closing hours for the Kansas Union every night.
And so on. This is only a partial list, hastily drawn. We're sure the average student can do a lot better.
We hope he tries.
—Dennis Farney
Worth Repeating
A proposal to eliminate material from a curriculum is apt to be met with about the same psychological resistance as a proposal to remove bodies from a graveyard.—Byron S. Hollinshead
A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. -O. Henry
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
I UNNERSTAN YOU GUYS WANTED TO SEE ME — CAN WE SPEED IT UP?