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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1955.
Don't Crash The Christmas Party
—(Lawrence Journal-World photo by Rich Clarkson)
Don't Mix Gasoline, Alcohol
Alcohol and gasoline don't mix.
If you pour them together in a bucket, the gasoline will float to the top. The specific gravity of alcohol is about .78 and that of gasoline is .70 and the two liquids just won't mix.
Or. If you pour one into your car and the other down your throat, you've still got a bad mixture.
Sure, you've heard it before. "If you drive, don't drink, if you drink, don't drive." But just because you've heard it before doesn't refute the fact that in 1954, drivers had been drinking in 20 per cent of the fatal accidents reported by 22 states. And even this does not give a complete picture, because the condition of the driver was not reported in 28 per cent of the cases.
Even if you've had "just a couple." even if you can hear and talk and walk and focus your eyes, your responses are slowed down after a couple of drinks, whether you know it or not.
The nerve cells that carry impulses to and from your brain don't touch each other. The axone of one is separated from the dendrite of the other by a space biologists call a synapse. The synapse is filled with a fluid which helps conduct the impulse, and when it gets diluted with liquor, the impulse is slowed down.
And if your reaction for a specific response, say the act of getting your foot from the gas pedal to the brake, is delayed for just one second, it can make a difference.
At 40 m.p.h., you're traveling about 44 feet per second, and a one-second delay means you go 44 feet further before you stop.
If you're not a chemist or physiologist or a physicist, just take their word for these statistics and don't try to prove them for yourself. Don't mix gasoline and alcohol.
Larry Heil
Cone Of Bulbs Ruins Tradition
The Christmas spirit has arrived on the campus with colored lights, gay decorations, and many high spirits. Probably the most important campus decoration is the old, traditional Christmas tree, which in past years has stood in the rotunda of Strong Hall.
This year, however, we not only are deprived of a tree but are presented with a conglomeration of revolving golden bulbs in an upside down cone formation. Even with the un-life-like Nativity scene below the center of the cone, the tradition and beauty of the decoration has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Students might remember past controversies over the color of the tree and the decorations which it was to display. But no one can deny the
beauty of a tall, genuine Christmas tree, despite color or ornaments.
There is no beauty and certainly no genuine Christmas spirit in a cone of golden bulbs.
The display might be effective from the artist's point of view, but even the principal characters in the Nativity scene have their backs to the front of the rotunda.
A simple, traditional Christmas tree in Strong rotunda with old-fashioned lights and tinsel is a campus decoration anticipated by many students. Certainly, it is not a custom and decoration to be made modern along with the times.
Christmas is a tradition no one should attempt to change or improve.
Marion McCoy
Tots Still Need More Toys
Have you given any thought to the "Toys For Tots" drive currently being conducted on the campus?
To most students, a Christmas tree with many gifts at the base of its decorated branches will help make the Christmas vacation a joyous one. But what about the underprivileged tots who have no Christmas tree with gifts to look forward to? To them, Christmas will just be another day, perhaps a bit sadder than the other 364.
Last year, KU students and many local organizations unselfishly gave 5,000 toys to be given to these tots.
Again this year, a Toys For Tots drive is being conducted by Alpha Phi Omega with the Panhellenic Council and Inter-Fraternity Council assisting with the publicity. The goal has been set at 6,000 toys. This mark can be reached once again
Already, gifts have started coming in. The Student Union Book Store gave seven stuffed animals, approximately 100 paint brushes, and 200 jars of tempera paint. Oread Hall donated $40 which will be used to buy toys in an effort to reach the 6,000 mark.
with the same support and cooperation that were given last year.
There is sufficient time left to plan Christmas parties or collections and help provide these tots with a happy Christmas holiday. Organized houses may hold Christmas parties and exchange gifts that can be donated to the drive afterwards.
Collection boxes have been set up in the Student Union lounge and Strong Hall rotunda. Organized houses will be contacted by members of Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity.
Don't let these underprivileged children down
—Arthur A. Mountain
KU's Safety Record Good
Let's Keep It
By JAMES E. PONTIUS (Of the Daily Kansan Staff)
In recent months American newspapers have carried a number of grim stories of automobile accidents involving young people.
The 18-24 age bracket, the one which embraces most University students, has shown a steadily mounting rate of auto accidents in the past few years. Even though young persons, between the ages of 18 and 24 drive only one-fifth of the nation's automobiles, their toll of one out of three casualties is alarmingly disproportionate.
These facts appear to be somewhat depressing, but considering the statistics available on accidents in Lawrence, it is evident that the students at the University and the citizens of Lawrence are doing their best to keep those figures down to a bare minimum.
"The biggest single occupational group involved in auto accidents is students." Chief Hazelte said, "but it doesn't overshadow other groups." He said that this group included all students from 14 on up through the University level.
John C. Hazelet, Lawrence Chief of Police, has reported that during the month of November there were 60 accidents as compared to 80 for the same月 last year and of those 60 accidents only seven were injury accidents as compared to eight for the same月 a year ago.
Safety experts, declaring that nine out of ten accidents are the fault of the driver, not the car, decided in 1934 to try "driver education" as a possible answer to the problem.
Considering the fact that there are 8,000 students in Lawrence, the chief said that it was almost expected that they be the largest single group of offenders.
Backed by the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies, representing many of the nation's casualty insurance companies and the American Automobile Association, courses in driver education have become a major project.
Both the Lawrence High School and the University have driver training programs and it is thought that this accounts for the fact that Lawrence is "among the top 15 in the nation" with a relatively low number of automobile accidents.
At McPherson College, the father of five children began college as a freshman this fall. After five kids he must have decided he could take anything.
Labor Merger Confuses GOP
By UNITED PRESS
WASHINGTON—The AFL and CIO merger finds the Republican party confused and unable to come up with a plan for living with the new giant. Some would welcome a little guidance from Jack-the-giant-killer.
Top level Republicans are playing it by ear, each more or less on his own. There is considerably disharmony. President Eisenhower told the merger convention this week that AFL-CIO had a right to play politics but also a responsibility to protect the rights of union members who disagreed with the leaders' party line.
Harold E. Stassen, a top man on Mr. Eisenhower's personal staff, sees a "dangerous trend for the future well-being of the workers and the nation." Republican national chairman Leonard W. Hall recently charged that "power-hungry labor bosses control the (Democratic) party." Sen. Gold-water and others in the party's right wing accuse labor leaders of conspiring on a national scale to control the 1956 presidential election.
The party's comparative left wingers disagree. Sen. Clifford Case (R-N.J.) recently said such attacks on union political activity were hysterical. And so it goes, with Mr. Eisenhower apparently determined to walk a middle road between his disputing fellow Republicans.
The charge that some labor leaders hope to take over the Democratic party is one often and always denied. Time will tell about that. It does appear that the CIO has become a partner in Michigan's revitalized Democratic party. In near-by Minnesota, there is an active labor partnership with the Democrats on a somewhat different basis. The official name in Minnesota, by court order is: Democratic-Farmer Labor Party.
Whether labor does or does not take over the Democratic party, it can and does exercise a solid veto in Democratic national conventions.
The odds are at least 1000-to-1 that most of this political activity will be for Democratic candidates and against Republicans. Small wonder that Republican statesmen are alarmed. That the AFL-CIO will in one way or another go all out for next year's Democratic presidential candidate is a practical certainty. There's a sound reason for that.
John L. Lewis has been able in some states to vote his United Mine Workers almost en bloc, sometimes one way, sometimes another. In any industrial state, the organized labor vote is a powerhouse when it can be delivered, which is not always. The AFLCIO reply to Republican charges came in a convention resolution calling for expanded political activity by the 16,000,000-member organization.
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