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University Daily Kansan
Friday, May 4, 1956.
Folly Of'56
Senior Class Gift Useless
Current among many on Mount Oread is the opinion that the class of 1956 "really gave KU the bird!" There seems to be a tongue-in-cheek attitude prevalent concerning the "unanimous vote" of seniors to give a $2,800 four-foot bronze statute of a Jayhawk as a gift for which the seniors of '56 are to be remembered.
Though this proposed bronze bird has been the object of ridicule and many jokes, both on and off the campus, it is not our purpose here to criticize an attempt to contribute something to the school, regardless of its apparent value and how it may be regarded in the future.
However, here is a suggestion for future giftgivers and do-gooders (perhaps the graduating class of 1957): Since campus beautification (of buildings and grounds) for the most part is taken care of by vast appropriations for that specific task each year, wouldn't it be wise to set up scholarships for those who actually need that assistance?
This question might well be asked: is this to be another of those situations in which the University will be required to expend $10,000 in order to accept a gift of $3,000?
Looking back on the gifts of classes since 1873 it's possible, with a little thought, to get a better perspective of what is of real worth and how those gifts are regarded now and will be regarded in the future. In 1895 $18.25 was given to a student loan fund—a small gift, but a useful one.
What better monuments could a class leave than living ones which continue to progress and improve? The knowledge that students were aided by a gift of two or three thousand dollars which a class made possible should be of some value.
True, it possibly couldn't be labeled with a marker in the same manner as a bronze statue, but neither could such a gift very well have paint sprayed or thrown on it, regardless of precautions to prevent such acts. Certainly a gift of educational aid would be something of which any class could be proud.
In the future it is our hope that great care will be exercised in the choice of a useful, worthwhile gift for which an entire graduating class is to be remembered.
Jim Tice
15 Years Ago
Britain Struggles To Defend Her Empire
The big news 15 years ago this week was primarily concerned with the war Britain was fighting trying to defend her empire from the Nazis. There was fighting on three major fronts, but all Europe was involved.
British Middle East headquarters announced April 30 that 80 per cent of the original British Expeditionary Force in Greece had been safely withdrawn. The original force was 60,000 so this meant 48,000 escaped.
Heavy losses to equipment and transports were reported. Headquarters said they would be replaced. Intense German bombing made Piraeus, the port of Athens, impossible for use in evacuation.
The next day the English rear guard battled and defeated thousands of German parachute troops which landed on the Gulf of Corinth in a last desperate effort to cut them off. Throughout these last final hours the British were under a merciless deluge of German bombs which made the evacuation from Greece "worse than Dunkerque."
Then on May 3 fighting broke out in Iraq. Troops of Rashid Ali Beg Gailani, the German supported premier who seized power by a coup d'état a month before, attacked the British airport at Habbania where for some years the British had kept a unit of training airplanes.
In the meantime acting quickly upon instructions from President Roosevelt to amass 2 million tons of existing domestic and foreign shipping for use in helping Britain and her allies turn the tide of battle in the Atlantic, the Maritime Commission began arrangements for the early diversion to the service of Great Britain of up to 50 American-owned oil tankers.
Also on that day President Roosevelt called upon the nation to go on a basis of "24 hours a day and 7 days a week" to meet the increasing demand for munitions, planes and ships in the critical situation which confronted the country. He also made public his views on how the $3,500 million in additional taxes should not "make the rich richer and the poor poorer." The tax bill, he said, should be based on the ability to pay.
On May 4 diplomatic informants said they had circumstantial reports that 26 American merchant ships with war material for the Middle East armies, accompanied by American warships, had reached the Suez Canal.
It was also learned that clashes had occurred between British and Iraqi forces in the Basca area of Iraq. The Iraqis were said to have been driven off by the combined attack of British bombers and artillery.
Roosevelt recalled in a May 5 speech that the U.S. had fought in the past for its faith in the freedom of democracy and, declared that "we are ever ready to fight again." Meanwhile, Hitler said that the German armies would be "still better" next year.
The next day he ordered the creation of the
world's most powerful fleet of heavy long-range bombers, capable of blasting Nazi factories and communications upon which the German war machine depends. The government released figures indicating that production of military planes would reach the unexpected total of 20,000 next year.
The tide of war in Iraq turned to favor the Britains on May 6.
Ann Kelly
On May 7 Secretary Stimson in a radio address called for use of the Navy to assure the delivery of American-made munitions to Great Britain and to secure the seas for American defense.
..Short Ones..
The last big headline was perhaps the most ominous. Josef Stalin became prime minister of the Soviet Union after the resignation of Vyacheslav M. Molotov who had served as premier and foreign commissar.
We're sorry to see that Sam L. Jones has given up his lifelong campaign of rabble-rousing for the security of retirement. However, don't count Sam out yet, as they said Phog was retiring too, and look what he's accomplished since then.
We were sure the NCAA wouldn't be outdone by the AAU, and now they've gone out and proved it. However, if the AAU manages to get itself investigated by a congressional committee, it will take some doing for the collegiate group to equal such a mark.
Our nomination for the most bitter group in the world are those unfortunate seniors who are struggling for a D in a "pud" course which they took only because they needed the hours to graduate.
See where the faculty of the School of Business defeated the students 22-21 in a softball game. Must have taken three accounting majors and an IBM machine to keep the box score straight.
Best suggestion we've heard to improve the service at the Student Union is for them to start selling reservations in the Hawk's Nest for the days on which convocations are scheduled.
Wonder if that $2,800 voted by the senior class includes the lifetime salary of a guard hired to protect the beautiful bronze bird.
If the total surface area landscaped in the past two years were covered with cement, there would be many more places to park.
Those business students aren't as smart as we thought. Here they take a whole day off from classes, and it's the same day that classes are shortened for convocation. This shows very poor planning.
.. Letters ..
Editor:
As a member of the senior class of 1956 I feel that, in order to preserve my own dignity for the future, I must make my stand concerning the class 'gift' known. I feel that perhaps many other members of the class share my view on this matter but having been given a choice of the statue or of a ticket booth, (which many feel is already adequately provided for), they chose "the lesser of two evils".
In my opinion the gift is a non-functional, non-productive addition to the University. Indeed, rather than becoming an addition, I am sure it will become a detraction which must be constantly covered with a dull oily coating to protect its surface from deacement.
That, in the future I may not be connected with this 'gift', I hereby renounce my membership in the senior class of 1956. I should rather be an outcast of my graduating class than to have participated in the "Folly of '56."
Kenneth W. Felts Dodge City senior
Kenneth W. Felts
Daily Hansan
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