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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1933
If You Don't Please to Vote, Please DON'T
The semesterly tribal rites are upon us again, and everyone and his brother are either encouraging other people to get out and vote, or brother couldn't care less what happens at election time, on the assumption that whatever the ASC does is ridiculous and childish, filled with all sorts of sophomoric issues and "gee, isn't it fun to be a politician?"
"Politics" has even taken a bad sound, partly because of the shenanigans of our past and present Congressmen in Washington, and partly because of the shenanigans of past and present campus politicians who wander back and forth across the campus mouthing platitudes and screaming about good government.
BUT POLITICS is really the science and art of government, and stems from the Greek for "belonging to the states," and from the French for "citizen."
Politics is not, or should not, be a nasty thing.
However, two things are apparent. Good "politics," or good government, cannot be without good politicians in office.
Voters, then, have a duty not just to vote, but to vote for good and responsible people for public office. Only in that way can the ridiculousness which often characterizes student government be corrected.
But at the same time, uninformed voters cannot be expected to choose wisely. The responsibilty for spreading information is given partly to the candidate, partly to the press, partly to the voter.
BUT IF YOU, the voter, are uninformed, for whatever reason, you cannot be expected to choose wisely, and you are, in effect, contributing to continued bickering over trifles and continued chest-thumping about issues which do not concern student government.
For that reason, we ask you, the voter, to do several things.
One, if you have not followed the statements of the candidates in the Daily Kansas or in their speeches, or if you have not considered the party platforms and decided between them, stop and decide if you know enough about the issues and the candidates to make an intelligent choice. If the candidate has offered no platform, no plans, he probably would not make a good representative.
NEXT, DECIDE if you really want intelligent student government, because the All Student Council does affect every student, no matter what you may think about the ineffectiveness of the ASC.
And decide what you are voting for, not what you may be voting against. Then, see if you feel qualified to make an intelligent choice.
IF SO, go vote. Please.
But if you don't think you know enough about the issues, or if you don't care about the issues, or if you just don't please to vote—please don't.
— Blaine King
Be Fair
Editor:
The People Say...
Pheasants aren't the only beasts getting shot at these days; it looks as if Mr. Teragawachi and his sympathizers have declared the annual open season on the English Proficiency examination and the English Department.
It is not my purpose to defend the test, which is a University and not a departmental operation, or to quibble about several doubtful points of fact and logic in Mr. Terapawachi's speech. I do think he is being unfair to our able and hard working assistant instructors, and I want to say a few words in their defense.
Like Mr. Teragawachi, I am for bigger appropriations, but these would not solve all our problems. It would be just as impractical for a large English Department to try to function without assistant instructors as it would be for a large
hospital to try to get along without interns. Like interns, our assistant instructors work under the painstaking, sympathetic scrutiny of experienced specialists and achieve professional growth even while passing on the best available professional knowledge to their clients.
These assistant instructors are carefully selected from numerous highly qualified applicants. Intraining and experience they compare favorably with the English staffs of many small colleges. Indeed, I know no school where the freshman English student is the subject of more skilled concern than at KU.
And to say that these enthusiastic and dedicated young people are not, on the whole, good teachers is unjust. They bring a kind of zeal to their work which jaded oldsters have sometimes lost; in fact, assistant instructors of English are regularly named by graduating College seniors among the most memorable teachers they knew on the Hill.
While we continue our efforts to make the basic English courses at KU even better, let's be accurate and fair in our appraisal of things as they are in this imperfect world.
George J. Worth
Acting Chairman
Department of English
Gift Changed
Editor:
It is a shame that Carol Knupp did not check with members of the class of '62 before writing the sarcastic, insulting editorial ("Memorial to Stupidity," Nov. 11).
"Come Back And See Us A Year From Now, And We'll Explain Things In More Detail"
Had she investigated, she would have learned that the gift in its present form represents a definite misuse of the 1962 senior class funds. I feel competent to make such the preceding statement because I was a member of the 1962 gift committee and an early advocate of the class's final and clearly defined selection.
Tonya Kurt Pratt graduate student
I am wondering who received authorization from whom to change the gift.
Daily Hansan
111 Flint Hall
UNiversity 4-3198, business office
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
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UNIVERSITY 4-3198, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 Street, New York, NY International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except summer and holiday months, with holidays and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Blaine King ... Editorial Editor
NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Mike Miller     Managing Editor
Terry Ostmeyer  Trudy Meserve,
Managing Editors
Managing Editors; Kay Jarvis, City
Editor; Linda Machin, Society Editor;
Roy Miller, Sports Editor.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Bob Bush, Business Manager
Joanne Zabornik, Advertising Mgr.; Alice Rueschhoff, Circulation Mgr.; Brooks Harrison, Classified Adv. Mgr.; Hirshman, Marketing Mgr.; Donald Dugan, Promotion Mgr.; Jerry Schroepfer, Merchandising Mgr.
Sincere and Modest. Chuong is a Gentleman
Tran Van Chuong has come and gone, and although he had nothing to say of real importance, he is to be commended for his modesty, sincerity, and extremely good taste.
Chuong did not choose to heap ashes on the dead. When asked about Ngo Dinh Nhu (his son-in-law) and Ngo Dinh Diem, both of whom were killed in the Nov. 2 coup, he said simply—"They were my friends." In life they were his bitter political enemies, and it would be easy for a lesser man than Chuong to be smug, to scream "I told you so." In his speech he commented, with convincing sincerity—"Alas, I was too good a prophet, but I have no reason to rejoice.
AT THE NEWS conference preceding the speech, newsmen from the area repeatedly asked questions on whether he plans to take part in the new government. Chuong patiently explained that he had no plans and he had not been contacted by anyone in the Vietnamese government. A Topeka reporter rephrased the question for what must have been the fourth time—the question seemed almost rude in that it had been repeated so often. Chuong replied with a smile—"I am not a man to fly home to victory."
The nation's press has been dooling for months over the human interest angle in the dispute between Chuong and his daughter—Madame Ngo Dinh Nuu. This must be embarrassing to the head of an Oriental family in which filial respect and family unity are more important than in the West. Chuong repeatedly maintained that their differences were only political and stated that they are now reconciled. Last week he went to his daughter's side in Los Angeles after her husband's death was announced.
A MAN TRAVELING alone in a foreign country, Chuong, who has made one of the big news stories of the year with Madame Nhu will probably be soon forgotten by the American press and the world unless he gains a prominent place in the new government.
However, such a man could hardly be forgotten by his friends and associates and others who have glimpsed his personal integrity.
Tom Coffman
BOOK REVIEWS
AMERICAN HERITAGE (October 1963. $2.05)
Denitely in keeping with topics of the day is the new edition of the magazine of history. E.M.Halliday has written an article in which he suggests that recent Supreme Court holdings on separation of church and state are quite in tune with the beliefs of our founding fathers. So, with a learned appeal to reverend authority, the stamp of approval is placed upon our present court.
The Halliday article is the keynote article in the new Heritage. The author points particularly to Jefferson and Madison as being most dedicated to separation of church and state. And he believes that even the conservative Washington would have approved the decision.
Other articles describe the dream of Jean Ribaut to found a colony in the South, an eagle mascot named "Old Abe," the John Henry folk song, the Gibbons v. Ogden decision of the Supreme Court on regulations of interstate commerce, Calvin Coolidge and the Boston police strike of September 1919, the island of Niihau in the Hawaiian group, the American parlor of yesteryear, and Ethan Allen of Revolutionary days.