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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1056
Letters Criticize Reviewer; Alabama Students; Mr. Kech
Editor:
On Feb. 9 there appeared in the UDK what was purported to be a review of Nicholas Halas' book, "Captain Dreyfus: The Story of a Mass Hysteria." The result (what-ever it might be called) was certainly not a book review since less than fifty per cent of the article was devoted to the book itself.
Instead, the reviewer apparently chose to air a "private gripe" about the United States Army and did not honestly review the book itself. The proper place for this sort of business is in an editorial; not a book review. A second serious charge can be leveled at the reviewer. In his attack on the Uniform Code of Military Justice he deliberately distorted the provisions of the code in an apparent attempt to mislead the reader into thinking that a man forfeits all rights under the Constitution upon entry into the armed forces. He claims that UCMJ does not fall under the Supreme Court's jurisdiction. UCMJ is a law passed by Congress in 1948 and, like all federal laws, is subject to judicial review. The reviewer also neglects to mention that the ultimate court of review, the Military Court of Appeals, is made up entirely of civilians. He does not mention that all convictions of serious nature must be reviewed by the office of the judge advocate general.
His attack on Article 15 of UCMJ is also unjustified. Article 15 was designed to cover petty infractions such as missing formations etc. A commanding officer may inflict a minor penalty on the offender for an infraction. However, the commander is severely limited in the amount and nature of whatever punishment he chooses to inflict. No punishment may exceed more than four hours a day nor may the punishment last for more than one week. The punishment (which is usually labor or police detail in the company area) must not be degrading to the offender. Most important of all is the
requirement in the article that the commanding officer must ask the offender if he is willing to accept nonjudicial punishment. Should the offender choose not to accept company punishment the commanding officer must either ask for a summary court martial or forget the incident. The commanding officer has no right to inflict company punishment under Article 15 against a man's will but the reviewer chooses to ignore this important provision.
The reviewer then tells us in the paragraph following this diatribe on Article 15 that "this same power is what convicted Alfred Dreyfus and is what has convicted many men in our own armed forces." Apparently we are to assume that either treason is a petty offense subject to company punishment under Article 15 or that treason is not covered in UCMJ. Both assumptions are incorrect, of course. Treason is a crime of the most serious nature and, in the military establishment, is subject to a general court martial only. Any conviction of treason must be reviewed by the Military Court of Appeals. The high crime of treason bears little relation to the petty infractions which Article 15 is supposed to cover.
It seems fairly evident to me that the reviewer is guilty of deliberately distorting the purpose and spirit of UCMJ and is guilty of using what he purports to be a book review as an excuse to launch a personal invective against the armed forces. Why he chose to attack the military establishment in such a vile and vituperative manner I do not know. I do feel that a writer for any newspaper has the moral obligation to his readers to tell the truth as he knows it. I must conclude that this reviewer is not only guilty of moral dishonesty but is also guilty of a calculated attempt to incite the same sort of mass hysteria he decried in the article.
John S. Lewis Manhattan graduate student
Editor:
Why is it? Why does it happen that out of the 3,000 college students at the University of Alabama who participated in that mob action, not one had compassion and guts enough to step out and speak up? Antherine Lucy was cornered in Graves Hall by a mob of idiots and cowards.
I can not believe that they were all idiots. I find it hard to believe that among those 3,000 supposedly educated people there were not a few who knew and felt the wrong that was being done. Had one single person raised a loud enough protest against the mob, I find it hard to believe that others would not have done the same. If there was such a person, he was not afraid of Autherine Lucy, nor did he fear the “decadent influence” of Negroes in his school. He was afraid of the mob!
There must have been at least one such person, and if there was, I hope that from now on he goes to bed at night thinking about his cow-ardice and wakes up in the morning thinking about it. I hope he thinks about it so often that he can't live with himself any longer and has to go out and do something about it. And I hope he does a good job.
Dale D. Morsch Lawrence junior
Editor:
Sen. McCarthy is in the news again. This time he doesn't seem so pleased about it.
It seems as though a Mr. Keeh donated $2,000 to the good senator's campaign fund. The fiery communist hater also mentioned a trip from California in a Superior Oil company plane belonging to a different Mr. Keech, president of the oil company, and the source of Sen. Case's famous campaign donation.
It appears as though Keches sure do hate communists.
Theeron L. Pursley
Lawrence graduate student
Theeron L. Pursley
Sir Laurence, Monroe Plan Movie
Last week Sir Laurence Olivier, England's beloved and beknighted actor, signed a contract to co-star with Marilyn Monroe in a movie version of the London stage hit. "Sleeping Prince."
The adaptation of British playwright Terrence Rattigan's romantic comedy, in which Sir Laurence played the prince during its London run, will be the first offering of Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc. Miss Monroe, president of said corporation, also has signed Mr. Rattigan to do the screenplay for her fledging opus.
All of which causes us to wonder just how some of our European friends—who rather snobbishly maintain that the United States is the cultural outhouse of the world—are going to reconcile these facts.
Two weeks ago TIME magazine quoted Sir Laurence as saying: "I should be delighted to make the picture with Miss Monroe. I have never met her but I saw her films. I regard her as an actress and a comedienne of the first order, wonderfully easy to look at . . ."
And this, dear apologists for American culture, comes from a man whose opinion on such matters is not to be taken lightly. When Laurence Olivier received the Order of Knight Bachelor in 1947, he was at 40 the youngest British actor to attain the honor.
Olivier's guiding role in the British film productions of Shakespearean classics has introduced the Bard to a vast new audience. The pageantry and sweep of "Henry V" in 1946 jolted movies out of the postwar dolrums. In 1948 his production of "Hamlet" scored a popular as well as artistic success, and the movie carried off five Hollywood "Oscars."
Now eagerly awaited in this country is his latest cinematic effort, a 165-minute version of "Richard III" which boasts technicolor, Vista-Vision, and the impressive supporting cast of John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom, Pamela Brown, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
The last Hollywood role which Sir Laurence accepted was the cast-off lover in the Paramount adaptation of Theodore Deiser's "Sister Carrie."
filmed in 1950 under the direction of William Wyler. It was Wyler who introduced the British star in 1939 to his first notable American motion picture, "Wuthering Heights," in which Sr. Laurence played Heathcliff to Merle Oberon's Cathy. "Rebecca" and "Pride and Prejudice" followed in 1940.
To cite the theatrical laurels of Sr. Laurence or either the stage or screen triumphs of his wife, Vivien Leigh—who we regard as far outstripping the knight in the family—would be exhausting.
Now, we don't think that the curvaceous La Monroe represents the most promising dramatic talent which our much-maligned Hollywood has to offer, but she is—like it or not—as much a part of current American culture as baseball, Sandburg, or Grandma Moses.
And it is our opinion that Sir Laurence Olivier's recognition of this marks him a great artist as well as a great showman, a shrewd businessman as well as a fine tragedian.
Further, his added comment that "Who would resist an approach from Miss Monroe?" marks him as being definitely human, too.
Worcester, Mass., whose industrial career began in 1685 with a gristmill, has produced inventors who revolutionized manufacturing around the world, the National Geographic Society says. Eli Whitney built the cotton gin, and pioneered mass production; Elias Howe patented the first lock-stitch sewing machine; Erastus Bigelow invented a power carpet loom. The first American piano wire came from a Worcester mill. The city originated the steam calliope, the street lunch cart and, some say, the first Valentine greeting card in the United States.
—Jerry Knudson
CHICAGO—(U.P.)—A tip on a man carrying a cloth-wrapped machinegun at Greer Trade School sent detectives and uniformed squads out on the double.
The suspect was spotted carrying a cloth-wrapped object. And it was a machinegun.
It turned out that an FBI agent had taken the gun to the school for repair.
Daily Transan
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