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University Daily Kansan Monday. Jan, 9. 1956
2017/08/03 15:40:11
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Ike's Farm Plan HasSeveralFlaws
As a desperation move, the United States will probably now adopt some form of the only feasible farm plan for this productive nation.
The cabinet of President Eisenhower, faced with the call of the Democratic pack against the present economic plight of the nation's farmers, has officially endorsed a program of taking land out of production, rather than of paying for products after they have been grown.
Both of these problems could be taken care of by some form of government ownership of marginal land, operated as ranges such as the present Yellowstone National Park and other national reserves. Mountainous land in eastern Colorado that is now being farmed should be in trees. Kaw Valley land near Lawrence is rich land that should be farmed. Yet the chances are strong that the Kaw valley land will be planted in grass while the eastern Colorado farmer struggles along on his dusty, dry, and nearly useless farm.
But the plan, as listed by the President in his State of the Union message, has several important flaws.
True, the plan-encourages the short-run rebuilding of soils. But it does not encourage the planting of trees and other long-term projects. The Republicans simply do not want to go into a long-term program. They cannot as long as they simply pay the farmers for taking their land out of production.
A second major flaw is that there is no way of insuring that the marginal or poorer land will be the land that is taken out of production. The land that is taken out of production will be the land of the farmer who works in town instead of planting a crop.
The solution will not be found by merely paying the farmer to go find another job for awhile. The farmer is not going to plant trees on his land as long as he knows the program is on a temporary basis.
It should be much cheaper to prevent crops being grown, rather than to destroy them before they rot.
The program as advanced by the President is a step in the right direction, but the size of the step will determine the step's effectiveness. Nothing will be accomplished by the "babysteps" now being undertaken. —Ron Grandon
Here is something which should attract the attention of educators everywhere: The University of Tennessee has installed a project the object of which is to make all students more proficient in writing and speaking English. Instructors in every class, from agronomy to zoology, may grade a student not only on the subject being studied but also on the effective use of the language. If the student is deficient he is required to make up the deficiency before he receives his degree in his major.
That sounds sensible. Possibly those of us who are in the business of writing the language feel more keenly on the subject than others but it appears to be little short of folly to educate a student in the sciences yet turn him out from his school without the ability to be articulate and specific in his use of the language.
There has been an increasing interest in the teaching of cultural courses in our professional schools. It is stretching the point a little to refer to the proper use of the English language as purely cultural—it is too practical for that, yet it points to the same direction for the very reason that one cannot become proficient in writing and speaking without some cultural background. That requires a most unusual person.
Vols Get English In Zoology Class
The Brookings (S.D.) Register
One nice thing about the warm weather—it eases the parking problem as it becomes possible for students to walk to class without feeling like Eskimos.
Wonder how many KU males are deeper in debt after financing diamond rings during Christmas vacation.
Almost All Have Had Polio; Some Defeat It—Some Don't
Almost all of us are infected by the polio virus at one time or another. Generally, we don't even know we have the infection. We may feel perfectly well, or we may have a sore throat or an upset stomach.
The critical battle in the fight against polio takes place, as it always has, in the bodies of human beings. It is a battle between the polio virus and tiny particles, called antibodies, which can destroy the virus in the blood stream.
If almost everyone is attacked by the virus, there must be an important reason why some people succumb and some do not. There is.
Sometimes, however, the polio virus does serious damage. It attacks the central nervous system, destroying nerve cells and causing paralysis.
For nearly all of recorded history men knew no way to influence the critical battle of polio within the human body. Then, in 1951 and 1952, research supported by the March of Dimes revealed that antibodies from other people's blood—contained in gamma globulin—could be "loaned" to an individual by injection and would give some protection against paralytic polio.
Now—for the first time we have an effective means for controlling polio. The Salk vaccine, in the most extensive and careful field trial ever given a vaccine, was shown to be 60 to 90 per cent effective in preventing paralytic polio. The vaccine now being manufactured is even more effective.
First, of course, the vaccine must be manufactured and distributed. Since the fall large supplies have been becoming available for use. It is too much to hope that all of the 165,000,000 people in the United States can be vaccinated before next summer, but many millions of children will surely be innoculated, including almost all in the highly susceptible five-through nine-year age group.
When an individual is infected by the polio virus, the virus enters his system and begins to multiply. At the same time, the human system begins to produce defensive antibodies.
Every parent naturally has questions about the vaccine. Foremost is the question: Is the vaccine safe? The answer to this is yes. Last spring, according to a U. S. Public Health Service report, live virus was found in a small amount of vaccine that had been released. More stringent government safety standards were promptly established to prevent a recurrence of this incident.
But the loaned antibodies would last only a few weeks. And to be effective, they had to be injected before or at most within a few days after a person was exposed to polio, and it is not generally possible to tell when this is.
Since polio attacks more children than adults, it is by vaccinating children that the greatest effect can be achieved, in terms of preventing cases of paralytic polio.
Here is what happens when a child is given vaccine. Some seven to 10 days after his first shot he begins to develop polio-fighting antibodies. These help strengthen his defenses against paralytic polio. When he receives his second shot, the number of antibodies again rises. Then, approximately seven months later, when he receives his third shot, there is a further rise in antibodies, and he then has the full protection of the vaccine.
During last summer there were suggestions that a single shot of the vaccine might give some protection against paralytic polio, and so parents may wonder if such an injection is not enough. The answer is that it is not enough for full and lasting protection.
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room, KU 251, Ad Room, KU 370 Member of the Inland Daily Press association. Represented Colloq. College Association. Represented by the National Advertising service. 420 Madison Ave. N.Y.Mall subscription rates: $3 a semester or month. University of Kentucky Lawrence). Published at Lawrence Kans., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays for extension periods. Entered as second complaint, Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
The battle against polio in the summer of 1956, so far as prevention is concerned, is being won or lost right now. Success will depend on how many children are vaccinated. If we vaccinate every youngster for whom we have vaccine, this year should begin to show a significant decrease in the number of paralyzed children.
Gretchen Guinn ... Managing Editor
Sam L. Jones, Marlon McCoy, Dick Walt, Ted Blankenship, Assistant Managing Editors; John McMillion, City Park Editor; Jeff Fountain, City Editor; Bob Bruce, Telegraph Editor; Bob Lyle, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Jane Pecinvsky, Society Editor; Gladys Henry, Assistant Society Editor; Ken Thomas, Assistant Sports Editor; John Stephens, Picture Editor
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Daily Hansan
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
NIMES DEPARTMENT
Charles Shearer, Advertising Manager
Jack Fisher, Advertising Manager; Paul
Burke, National Advertising Manager;
Robert Wolfe. Circulation Manager.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Leo Flanagan ... Editorial Editor
Louis L. Heil, Lee Ann Urban, Associate Editors
a bit o' blarney
By LEO FLANAGAN
(Daily Kansan Editorial Editor)
A short while back we received a letter from Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Inasmuch as the campaign for the March of Dimes is now in full swing, we think it appropriate to publish excerpts from that letter.
"Dear Editor:
"The National Foundation is faced with a unique problem.
"The problem is this: Many people mistakenly believe that now that we have an effective polio vaccine, the fight against the disease is over and there is no further need for the March of Dimes.
"Polio challenges still confronting the American people include:
1. Continued scientific research to improve the vaccine and to find ways to overcome crippling left by the disease itself.
"2. Assistance to the tens of thousands of persons already stricken with polio and to those who will come down with the disease before the vaccine is universally used.
"3. Professional education to increase the number of skilled heads and hands in polio hospitals and laboratories.
"4. Education to increase_public demand for polio protection.
"In all candor, continued progress toward the eventual control of polio can proceed at full speed only if people realize that we still have a long way to go. And even as I thank you for all your past cooperation, I appeal to you anew to throw your full editorial support behind the 1956 March of Dimes."
Today we are constantly being asked to support heart campaigns, tuberculosis campaigns, muscular dystrophy campaigns, and polio campaigns. Most of us get a little irritated at this constant tug at our pocketbooks. But if we would give a moment's thought to the scenes that we have seen depicting the ravages of these diseases, that irritation would soon pass.
Diseases, ever-present threats to man, have outlived empires. They have never died out completely, but only have become dormant, or have assumed a different characteristic. It has been only through the diligence of such men as Jenner, Pasteur, and now Salk that man has caught and finally dominated diseases in the race for survival.
In this race for survival, we must press forward, because a halt may mean extinction. If we allow diseases once conquered to regain the upper hand, then the super bombs need have no fear for us. The diseases will exterminate us much more thoroughly than any such bombs.
It goes, almost without saying, that we endorse the March of Dimes wholeheartedly. Elsewhere on this page you will find the first in a series of articles on polio and related subjects. If you read these articles with some thought, we guarantee you'll get information of value from them—for yourself and especially for your children.
.. Short Ones ..
Wonder how we could go about getting on the judging committee for the entries for the Rock Chalk Revue's program cover. Bet there are more boys interested in judging the "beautiful legs" contest than there are girls interested in entering.
The warm weather has certainly been wonderful to all the thousands of KU males who received convertibles for Christmas. Since we're not in the aristocratic class, guess we'll have to take a can opener to the old fliver.
The most exciting thing about returning from Christmas vacation is the yearly hand-painted tie exchange session which takes place in all the men's houses.
"If the postman stopped to kick every dog that barked, the mail would never be delivered," says Phog Allen. Maybe Col. Henshel is afraid Phog's bite is worse than his bark.
Judging from the locks of the ring fingers of a number of our female acquaintances, many KU coeds got a head start on leap year.
If the weather stays as it has been, perhaps KU could begin competing with Colorado and Florida in advertising as a vacation resort.