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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Feb. 2. 1956.
What's Wrong With The Greeks?
What's wrong with the Greeks?
Many people are asking that question today because the Greeks have not provided the leadership on the campuses of America as they used to. They no longer dominate campus activities to the degree prevalent before 1951.
The Greek organizations no longer have the outstanding personalities that once dominated the campus. The Greeks no longer lead in campus political or social life.
At one time, prior to 1951, it was fairly well accepted that members of Greek organizations held every important political and social post on the campus. Today, the situation is almost a reverse of what it once was.
Yes, today there are many Greeks holding important positions on the campus. But they appear to be incapable of providing the leadership that once dominated the campus. There are no longer rough and tumble politics between Greek and Independent to gain campus positions.
There are few organizations today made up completely of members of Greek organizations. Those completely dominated by Greeks are groups with small membership rolls.
Today, there seems to be no outstanding example of leadership on the campus. There are no individuals on the campus who stand out above the rest as the recognized leaders. Leadership, outstanding that is, appears to be somewhere in an unidentifiable vacuum.
Since the Greeks have the best resources available to develop campus leaders, it seems right to ask "What's wrong with the Greeks?"
What appears to be wrong, and it seems to be true in every Greek organization on the campus, is that the art of leadership has been lost in the race to please the educator, who is racing to please the college-and university-rating institutions.
One main reason for the loss of recognized leadership on the campus may be laid to the veterans of World War II, who were in their prime on this campus from 1946 to 1949. During that period there were so many top-notch campus leaders, it was difficult to distinguish the best from the good.
The veterans failed to indoctrinate the youngsters of that period in the art of leadership. Consequently, there is a definite lack of it today.
There also appears to be a stifling of individual leadership on the campus, not necessarily from the administration, but from the student body. It's not that they don't want a leader, it's just that most are afraid to step on someone's toes in getting to the top.
There is no one on the campus today who can say, without being disputed, that he speaks for one-third of the students on the campus. There are too many counselors and not enough leaders.
The Greeks on this campus, as on other campuses, are on their way out. We feel the big reason is that they do not today have an effective leadership within their individual organizations—and they are certainly not united under one leader on the campus. They are on an aimless path with the ultimate destination lying in dissolution.
Saint L. J. Jones
Daily Kansan Editorial Editor
—Sam L. Jones
Eden's Arrival Tops News Of Past Week
(Editor's Note: Following is a summary of the news events which occurred during the past week-and-a-half, when the Daily Kansan was not published.)
British Prime Minister Eden arrived in the United States this week for talks with President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles. He arrived shortly after the President had rejected Soviet Premier Bulganin's offer of a "20-year treaty of friendship," and as this country's own foreign policy was due for serious re-evaluation.
Sir Anthony was accompanied by the newly appointed foreign secretary, Selwyn Lloyd. Eden said the President's rejection of the Bulganin offer was "admirable." He was expected to press for discussion of the situation in the Far East and the troubled Middle East, where U.S. and British policy are not far apart.
As Eden arrived, speculation continued as to the President's intentions for 56. At his press conference last week, Eisenhower gave two pats on the back to Vice President Nixon, and stopped talk of drafting Chief Justice Warren in the event Eisenhower does not run. Eisenhower's contention: the Supreme Court should be kept out of politics. The view, of course, also is that of the Chief Justice himself.
As discussion of '56 continued, a strong Republican newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune, urged the President in a front page editorial to run again if it be humanly possible for him to do so.
This country's foreign policy debate stemmed from the now famous Life Magazine article praising Secretary Dulles as one of our greatest secretaries of state, quoting Dulles that this country had been to the "brink of war" three times since January 1953.
Another cabinet member was in trouble, but he has been in trouble before. He is Agriculture Secretary Benson, and his trouble stems from a letter written by an Agriculture staff member (perhaps the same one who fired agricultural expert Wolf Ladejinsky). Bensons' aide wrote a form letter to the editor of Harper's Magazine, praising an article that had referred to the American farmer as "our pampered tyrant." The letter was signed by Benson, but he says he never saw it.
Benson was stirred up himself last week, frowning through Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now," based on the plight of the farmer. In a stormy statement at the end of the program, the secretary denied that the farm problem is as bad as it had been painted in the CBS documentary.
The French achieved a new government on the heels of the calamitous election of Jan. 2 which placed several right wing Poujadists and a good many Communists in office. It is headed by Socialist leader Guy Mollet, who went before the Assembly and received a strong vote of confidence, thanks partly to support from Mollet's old enemies, the Communists.
And elsewhere, the news the past several days saw:
A major disaster in California, where 29 were killed and 50 injured in a crash of a Santa Fe train near Los Angeles. The engineer reported he had "blacked out." Another California disaster—new storms in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area that set off a huge oil tank explosion.
Snow in the Midwest, bringing cold weather, slick roads, and a cutback to the drought that has imperiled crops, particularly spring wheat.
Death in Baltimore, where the sage of that city, old-time iconoclast H. L. Mencken, died at 75. His obituaries were almost published in 1948, but the irascible Mencken pulled through, to continue delivering blasts—though not too often—at the "boooisie," the "Sahara of the Bozart," and other phases of American life that displeased him.
The doctrine of "interposition" in the South, where southern legislatures wrote laws reminiscent of the "nullification" of the 1830's and four governors met to plot further opposition to the integration of schools.
New controversy from the memoirs of former President Truman, this time arising from, among other things, Truman's statement that he advised Eisenhower against running for the Presidency in 1948.
Though I find the assertions in the article, "Cellophane Keeps Out Real World," exaggerated, I agree with you in general that it is disappointing to hear what college students are talking about.
Release of the patents of the International Business Machine corporation following a government "or else" order.
In Kansas:
W. W. Harvey retired as a State Supreme Court justice, Attorney General Harold Fatzer was named to succeed him, and Hall appointed State Sen. John Anderson, Jr., of Olathe, attorney general.
The Legislature fought tax bills and appropriations measures, notably educational budgets.
Rep. Warren Shaw of Topeka announced he will be a candidate in the primary, opposing Hall for the governorship.
Editor:
Andrew Gray, husband of Georgia Neese Clark Gray, former treasurer of the United States, shot and killed an intruder believed to have been connected with the recent burglary of the Gray bank in Richland.
.. Letters ..
But what is there to read in the Daily Kansan? On the front page one often finds trivialities in caps, such as a listing of the candidates for the next beauty contest, the loss of a cheerleader's megaphone, or the discovery of slugs in the coke machines. Every week a page or two is dedicated to the announcements of pinnings, and if one wants to "know what's happening in France or Germany or Egypt" (above article, Jan. 12), he finds perhaps a few lines in the corner of an advertising page.
And finally:
Tokyo Rose, born an American citizen, was released from a federal penitentiary only to face a deportation order—certainly a historical action if the government is successful.
Prince Rainier II, clearly wearing the royal trousers, has told the press that Grace Kelly WILL retire from the movies following their marriage.
I must admit that you do make an effort toward presenting news of greater significance, for instance your introduction and discussion of candidates for the presidential election. I also realize that the Kansan is designed essentially to inform the student body of campus affairs, and that it is an instrument through which students of journalism may gain experience.
—C. M. Pickett
But on the whole I think everything that was pointed out in the article concerning the conversational topics of students can be applied to the Daily Kansan, and for that matter to most American newspapers.
Are the students to be blamed for the sort of superficiality when the whole information system is no better?
Jurgen Bakenhus,
Graduate student
(Editor's note: You can't please
everybody.)
Book Review Prescott Of The Times
THE FIVE-DOLLAR GOLD PIECE. By Orville Prescott. New York: Random House. 1956. 243 pages. $3.50.
Orville Prescott, who has written the daily book reviews for the New York Times since 1942, has written a pleasant, charming autobiography that might be called an Odyssey in Books.
In this age of sports and television it seems amazing that one should care so much about books, and more amazing that one should write about them. It is encouraging to observe that Prescott doesn't apologize for being an intellectual; these are the things in which he is interested.
COLD NO'S
The title stems from a promise his grandmother made him when he was a little boy, that if he learned how to read she would give him a five-dollar gold piece. He learned how to read, and he has kept basily at reading, through private school (the Prescotts were comfortably wealthy Clevelandites), Williams College, and work on Newsweek, Cue, and finally the paper that doesn't call itself "the world's greatest newspaper" but possibly is.
He also became a lecturer, hitting the Chautauqua trail, or its modern-day equivalent.
Mostly, though, Orville Prescott has been a reader, and a reviewer. He has helped to make the New York Times book reviews some of the best, if not the best, in America.
No, that's not such a good idea, lady. A little skidding goes a long way on ice. But it is a good idea to get the feel of the road surface before starting out. Try your brakes lightly while driving slowly and when no other vehicles are near. Test acceleration, too, because "gunning" a car is as dangerous as brushing suddenly.
—C. M. Pickett
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extension 251, news room
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association,
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service: United Press. Mail subscription
rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Pub-
lished Lawrentry. University degree.
Saturdays and Sundays, University holi-
days, and examination periods. Entered
as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at
public office in post office under
March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Marion McCoy ... Managing Editor
Larry Hell, John McMillion, Harry Elliott, Jane Pecinovsky, Assistant Managing Editors; Barbara Hall, City Editor; David Webb, Telegraph Editor; Daryl Hall, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Ann Kelly, Society Editor; Felicia Fernberg, Assistant Society Editor; Kent Thomas, Sports Editor; Bob Lyle, Assis-
tistant Editor; John Stephens, Picture Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Sant Jorge, Editorial Editor
Dick Walt, Associate Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
NINESS DEPARTMENT
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