Page 2 University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Jan. 11, 1956
We Should Learn From Dr. Fine's Experience
Last Friday Dr. Benjamin Fine, education editor of the New York Times, admitted before the Senate Internal Security 'Subcommittee that he had been a member of the Communist Party for about a year in the 1930's while a graduate student at Columbia University.
Both the subcommittee and Dr. Fine's employer displayed a sane approach to the incident and did not attempt to punish Dr. Fine. They recognized he had made a mistake during his youth which could happen to anyone.
It took courage for Dr. Fine to admit his error instead of hiding behind the fifth amendment as did several other newspaper men being questioned before the same group.
It is a relief to observe the sensible viewpoint which the subcommittee and the Times took on the issue. What a better taste in the mouth this attitude leaves than that which Sen. Joseph McCarthy displayed during his heydey.
It is hard perhaps for members of our generation to understand how a man such as Dr. Fine could get himself into a predicament such as he did. However, to most members of the faculty perhaps it isn't so difficult to ascertain.
During the late 1920's and early 1930's it was considered by many to be socially proper to join organizations which supported the newly formed government in Russia. Most of these organizations were actually Communist Party fronts, and many prominent persons, both knowingly and unknowingly, were contributing support and money to the Reds.
Sen. McCarthy took the attitude that once a Communist always a Communist. With his rabble-rousing techniques he caused many valuable men, who like Dr. Fine, had once made a "tragic mistake," to be thrown off government research projects and out of government jobs.
To be sure, we must be careful not to allow the Communists to infiltrate our security system. It is too bad, however, to lose the services of a valuable scientist or statesman forever because he once made a mistake. Many of our prominent leaders made bad mistakes during their youth from which they recovered and went on to donate valuable public services.
During his testimony Dr. Fine issued a warning to present day students not to make the same mistakes which he once made. This advice should be taken to heart by all students at colleges and universities across the nation.
Choose your friends well. Listen to what the other fellow has to say, but don't necessarily take it for the gospel. Be especially aware of the sage advice of the brilliant scholar; it has become increasingly evident that communism has made deeper inroads among this class then with the slower-witted, better-balanced students.
So take part in the every day "bull sessions." Listen to both sides of the question. Then go off by yourself and think the issue out soberly and sanely and don't be the victim of a good old-fashioned "snow job."
—John McMillion
Lights For Ice Skating At Potter Lake Desired
Potter Lake was frozen for several days before and during the Christmas vacation. Each year the lake freezes during the winter Although it is not very big, the lake could become a good skating area in the winter if it had proper lighting at night.
Now the only lights available to nighttime skaters are the headlights from passing cars and a slight reflection from the Campanile.
The ice is often very rough and without lights of any kind it is almost impossible to avoid the bumps and the resulting hard falls.
Ice skating is one sport which many people can enjoy, even if they're not figure skating champions. Often in the daytime the lake has several skaters on it. At night, the few who attempt to skate must do so in darkness.
The University does not have the equipment to scrape the ice and smooth it as the indoor rinks do. The ice on the lake cannot be flooded and smoothed either, but, even rough ice can be fun to skate on if you can see where you're going.
Also, even though the lake is not deep, it would be much safer to have lights on it when it is frozen to help skaters avoid areas of thin ice.
The ice can be used for skating for only a relatively short time each year. It is probably not practical to place permanent lights around the lake for skaters, but surely some kind of movable lighting equipment could be used on nights when the ice is suitable for skating. —Darline Montgomery
Daily Hansan
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Gretchen Guinn ... Managing Editor
Sam L. Jones, Marion McCoy, Dick Walt, Ted Blankenship, Assistant ManagerEditor; Barbara Bell, Assistant City Editor; Bob Bruce, Telegraph Editor; Bob Lyle, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Jane Pecovsky, Society Editor; Gladys Hertel, Assistant Society Editor; John Ehlett, Editor Kent Thomas, Assistant Sports Editor; John Stephens, Picture Editor
WASHINGTON (U.P.)—The dispute about the effect of organized labor's rising wage scales on the well-being of American farmers may be headed for Congressional inquiry.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles  Sledd   Business  M
The top leaders of organized labor are touchy on the labor-farmer relationship. So are the politicians most closely identified with the big unions. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra T. Benson gave the issue a once-over-light treatment a few months ago in a New Orleans sneech.
Farmer- Labor Inquiry Due Next
He was rebuked by Walter Reuther, then president of the un-merged CIO. The evidence indicates that the White House passed the word to Mr. Benson to lay off, Mr. Benson had said that higher wages under a new CIO contract in the farm machinery industry had been a factor in the cost-price squeeze about which the farm belt angrily is complaining.
Charles Sledd...Business Manager
Jack Fisher, Advertising Manager; Paul Bunge, National Advertising Manager;
Robert Wolfe, Circulation Manager.
His department made the same point in broader terms, extending to industry in general, in a study of food marketing costs published last week. The labor leaders and labor politicians challenged that one, also.
The mere fact that Mr. Benson said what he said and that his department's study backed him up does not prove that there is real and basic conflict of interests between organized labor and the farm community. The fact that Mr. Reuther and others deny it, however, does not necessarily prove that the basic conflict does not exist. If all the facts are to be had in satisfactory form they will have to come from a serious and well-conducted Congressional investigation.
If Mr. Reuther and his associates are confident they can prove that their wage hikes do not contribute to the price squeeze, it is likely that the Democratic House or Senate will undertake such an investigation this year. The unions are closely allied with the Democratic Party and could apply much pressure for an investigation if they want it.
Meantime, some of the farm organizations seem to go along with Mr. Benson, notably the National Grange and the American Farm Bureau Federation. The left-wing Farmer's Union likely will be lined up with labor and the labor politicians in any showdown.
The Grange and the Farm Bureau obviously sense a conflict of farmer-labor interests. Both, for example, favor the adoption by all states of the so-called right-to-work laws which organized labor opposes on the grounds that it is union-busting legislation.
Organized farmers appear to be disturbed by the political power accruing to labor, especially since the AFL-CIO merger. The Farm Bureau favors labor's right to organize, but regards "with concern the threat of political monopoly by
a bit o' blarney
Probably the top local news story of the new year concerns the verbal duel between Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen and Col. Harry Henshel.
By LEO FLANAGAN
(Daily, Kansan Editorial Editor)
By LEO FLANAGAN
Because of the legal implications which have entered the picture, Phog's actions have been tried and judged by many would-be lawyers.
One of these is the sports editor of the Kansas State Collegian. His statements show the trouble one can get into, when he doesn't know about what he's talking.
To straighten out this young man, and any others who may have misinterpreted the facts, or who would just like to know what's on going, we thought we'd give a little legal review of the situation.
First, Phog's remarks were not libelous. Libel consists of written defamation. Inasmuch as Phog's remarks were spoken, they could only come under the heading of slander, or oral defamation.
But even here there is no legal weight to the charges of Col. Henshel, with possibly two exceptions. The first of these is if it's a felony in Missouri to hitchhike.
If it is, then Col. Hensel would have some ground for an action in slander, because of the imputation that he was committing a felony. However, the other three requisite of slander per se—being unchaste—does not enter into the picture.
There is still one more way for Col. Hensel to take legal action, but it would take a vivid imagination to conjure a guilty decision from it.
This would be if the case were tried as slander per quod. This would be if the case were words other than at their face value, or as having double meaning.
From reading what Phog said, we certainly can't see any implied meanings in the words he used. As usual, he was quite direct.
We mentioned before that the Missouri law would be considered. This is simply explained because the remarks were made in Kansas City, Mo., thus Phog would be subject to the law of that state, not Kansas.
We feel that the entire outburst will eventually blow over and be forgotten. We will likewise forget the young K-Stater's mistakes of thinking that Col. Henshel had a solid foundation for action in libel, and that the case would be tried in Kansas.
labor unions." The Bureau, however, advocates collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The Bureau also is on record with a citation of "featherbedding, jurisdictional conflicts and boycotts" as substantially increasing costs to farmers and all consumers. Spokesmen for both organizations told the United Press a farmer-labor political combination would be unrealistic and impractical. The Bureau spokesman explained, further, by saying the interests of labor and farmers are not identical, although not necessarily contradictory.
A Congressional investigation could produce some interesting information—if it ever takes place.
Scientists Search For Vaccine Cell
Scientists hope that somewhere in the world there is a kind of living cell that will make production of polio vaccine cheaper and simpler.
March of Dimes investigators in six laboratories from Boston, Mass. to Minneapolis, Minn. are searching for such a cell. Whether they will find it or not, no one can yet say.
To make the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk huge quantities of polio virus are needed. This virus is grown on cells of monkey kidney tissue, which means that thousands of costly rhesus monkeys must be imported from India. These monkeys are not only expensive, but if the supply of them should be interrupted for any reason our production of polio vaccine would come to a stob.
What is needed is a normal human or animal cell that can continue to reproduce itself indefinitely—in a test tube.
This cell must also support the growth of the polio virus and support it well. In other words, if the virus grows on the cell only with difficulty this cell will not help as much.
There are two major problems in finding the cell that is needed. One is the actual discovery of the right kind of cell and the other is the development of suitable methods for growing it.
Human cells were obviously designed to grow in human beings and don't take kindly to cultivation in laboratory test tubes. They must be carefully nourished for laboratory use, and the mixtures used to feed them are many and complex. The fluid used to grow monkey kidney cells in Dr. Selk's original vaccine experiments contained 63 ingredients. A mixture now being tried out in the growth of human cells contains 32 ingredients, ranging from penicillin and streptomycin to common salt and such complex amino acids as methionine and histidine.
Some encouraging results have been reported already but it takes time to study promising cells. One strain of human cells grew for 22 months in an eastern laboratory but finally became sluggish and grew so slowly as to be virtually useless. More hopeful strains, called embryonic fibroblasts, have lived in laboratory vessels since December 1954 and January of 1955 and they continue to grow and multiply. These are optimistic signs but much more remains to be done.
The cell that will eventually answer the problem undoubtedly exists somewhere. It may be one that has already been grown briefly in a laboratory but for which we have not yet found the best method of nourishment and culture. The cell may come from a kidney or from a liver. It may come from one of a score of different kinds of monkeys. It may come from a human being. Time and hard work will tell.
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