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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Dec. 12, 1955
SNOW?
SLOW!
During the past weekend, Lawrence experienced its first heavy snow. In a 48-hour period from Friday night to Sunday night, 15 accidents occurred in the city.
Was there any cause for these accidents? Yes, not one but two causes—the weather and careless driving.
We wonder how many of the automobiles involved in the accidents had tire chains. At 20 miles per hour it takes a car without chains 69 feet to stop on packed snow. With chains on the rear wheels, the car can stop in 40 feet. Those 29 feet may save a life.
And if it's necessary to drive on slippery surfaces without tire chains keep an even pressure on the accelerator. A quick movement from the pedal to the brake is likely to cause a skid.
We wonder how many of those cars had clear windshields when the accident happened. Remember, you don't have to be a marksman when driving. You can hit what you can't see. Make sure the headlights, windshield wipers, and defrosters all are working.
Bad weather creates the most hazardous kind of driving. In 1954, according to reports from 28 states, one out of 6 fatal accidents happened in rainy, snowy, or foggy weather. And poor weather was reported in one out of five of all accidents.
Remember—slow down here—show up there.
You Can Drive Well; How About Others?
By JUDITH KOPPERS (Of The Daily Kansan Staff)
Safe Driving Day has come and gone in Kansas and there were two fatal accidents that day. Why did SD Day fail?
Was it the fault of the two victims? Was their judgment faulty, or were their automobiles defective? Perhaps it is too late to moralize on how these fatalities could or should have been avoided. It is not too late, though, to avoid a repetition of these accidents in the future.
All kinds of slogans and clever sayings concerning safe driving have been conceived since the invention of the "horseless carriage."
"When you drive, look out for the person on the right, the person on the left, the person in front, and the person in back, and then be careful of that darned fool who is coming from somewhere else," drivers are told.
That not-too-original saying does contain quite a bit of truth, however. It is no longer enough to merely watch out for one's own self—there are too many other drivers on the roads today.
Making sure an automobile is safe to drive is essential, but is not enough. The good condition of an automobile is not insurance against the person who may be in the wrong lane on the other side of a hill, or the person who may be pulling out from a country road.
If—and it is a rather big if—drivers would first examine themselves, their cars and driving habits, and make certain they are without grievous fault, and then treat every other driver on the road as though he were completely irresponsible and likely to do any manner of strange thing at any time, SD Days, and ordinary days too, might not be such traffic failures.
Isn't it worth a try?
..Short Ones..
A Tulane U. professor recently stated that a human chess player could defeat a machine in a match. And we thought the IBM was well-nigh perfect.
What every college student should have, as advertised in the Minnesota Daily: "Hockey helmet, combination shoulder and arm guards."
Another ad appearing in the Minnesota Daily: "1955 Grad wants girl to share 4-room apartment." Hmm-m-m.
A headline in a recent issue of the Baker Orange stated: "Work Under Way on Fortune Teller." We wonder who needs the crystal baller more, the students or the faculty?
Don't Crash The Christmas Party
—(Lawrence Journal-World Photo by Rich Clarkson)
Letters
Miss Santa Contest Attacked
Editor:
Don't go around thinking I'm bitter just because my spindles are knock-kneed and varicose-veined. Your Miss Santa leg seminar is for me a matter of principle rather than one of envy inspired by comparative sex appeal.
At the risk of appearing irrevent, I should like to say to Mr. Sledd that the contest's "originality," professionally recognized by two magazines, awakened no yuletide fire in my soul. Obviously he feels that it should have. Just as obviously he feels that all Miss Santa adversaries should be dull enough to agree automatically with whatever favorable "professional" opinion might be expressed.
Our consulting psychologist, Dr. Deepsees, has told us in this regard that most people still are only indirectly affected by newspaper promotional campaigns. However, he foresees in the not-too-distant future widespread collegiate delirium over this dazzling successor to the old-time—and apparently—obsolete Santa Claus. To the question "How empty-headed can newspaper readers get?" Deepsees could only reply mysteriously: "The psychic efficacy of collegiate newspaper promotion may have no limit in the present era."
Mr. Sledd defends with special ardor the gracious participation of merchants in this enterprise: "The merchant evidently believes in the contest. . . ;" they support it with enthusiasm. . . ;" they are under no pressure to participate. . ." ad nauseam. Just how are they able to make this magnanimous sacrifice, anyway?
Peter Laree
Graduate student
Finally, what is the ingeniously derived appendage of feminine gams to Santa's upper half supposed to do for Christmas? Or is that no longer a "timely" question in the light of your promotional zeal?
Mr. Wispy
If the esthetically incongruous and spiritually vacant image of Miss Santa must exist, and if she must have something functional for the holiday season, toss her a sprig of mistletoe and send her on her way. Then use your record-breaking donations for more worthy charity.
Every newspaper has its critics. Some give constructive criticism, others just like to see their work in print.
Peter Earle.
The above individual has called himself a "letters to the editor hobbyist." In the newspaper business this type is generally referred to as a crank.
We'll let the reader decide into which of the two categories mentioned, the above person falls.
Editor:
I want to add my word of support to the others that are being so generously given to the toy drive on the campus. This seems to me to be a very worthwhile cause which all of us ought to support. I know there will be great personal satisfaction to each one of us in knowing that some child is having a happier Christmas as a result of our sharing.
It is my hope that the students of the University of Kansas will carry their full share of responsibility here as they do in so many other ways.
Martha Peterson Dean of Women
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News room, KU 251, Ad Room, KU 376 Member of the Inland Daily Press association. Associated College Press association. Inbound verifying service, 420 Madison Ave, N.Y. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year (add $1 a semester if in North Carolina). Kansas, every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examinations matter. Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Gretchen Guinn ... Managing Editor
Sam L. Jones, Marion McCoy, Dick Walt, Ted Blankenship, Assistant Managing Editors; John McMillion, City Editor; James Levine, City Editor; Bob Bruce, Telegraph Editor; Bob Lyle, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Jane Pecinovsky, Society Editor
Gladys Henry, Assistant Society Editor; Robert J. Smith, Kent Thomas, Assistant Sports Editor; John Stephens, Picture Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Lee Flanagan  Editorial Editor
Loe Hall, Lee Ann Urban, Associ-
ate
Loe Hell
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles Sledd Business Manager
Jack Fishman Advertising Manager
Advertising Manager
Bunge, National Advertising Manager
Robert Wolfe, Circulation Manager
a bit o' blarney
By LEO FLANAGAN
BY LEO PERRIER
(Daily Kansan Editorial Editor)
Tomorrow night the All Student Council will vote on membership in the National Student Association. Just what is the National Student Association and what recommendation do we make as to this issue?
The full title of the organization is the United States National Student Association. It is composed of some 300 member schools representing 600,000 students. Among its members are the Universities of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Most of its members are from the eastern and midwestern parts of the United States. It is the only national college group.
The NSA grew out of a congress of students in Vienna in 1946. It was associated with the International Union of Students for a short while, but when that group began to show its Communist leanings, the NSA broke off relations and formed an independent organization.
However, he also made it clear that although each member organization is obliged to ratify the national and regional bylaws, these bylaws and resolutions are not necessarily binding upon the individual members. Only when the local student organization incorporates these bylaws as part of its own constitution, do they become effective.
The NSA provides a voice for the student nationally and internationally; it facilitates the exchange of ideas, operations and programs; it brings educational benefits to students; and it co-ordinates intercollegiate projects.
Membership in the NSA will cost the ASC $190 annually. Three-fourths of the group's funds come from the Ford Foundation.
Backers of the NSA include Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, former President of the Association of American Colleges, the Very Reverend Vincent J. Flynn, Erwin D. Canham, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, Gov. G. Mennen Williams of Michigan, Sen. Herbert H. Lehman of New York, and last but especially not least, President Eisenhower.
The President has said: "By making possible ever greater opportunity for the exercise of democratic responsibility on the campus, and by enabling American students and students of other lands to work together toward the solution of their common problems, the United States National Student Association is rendering a significant service to the people of this country and to the world."
The purpose of the NSA as stated in its promise is to "maintain academic freedom, stimulate and improve democratic student governments, develop better educational standards, improve student welfare, promote international understanding, guarantee to all people equal rights and possibilities for education and foster the recognition of the rights and responsibilities of students to the school, the community and God, and to preserve the interests and integrity of the government and the Constitution of the United States."
Our recommendation in regard to this issue is that each member of the voting bodies give thought to the facts and to the desires of his constituents and follow a logical line in his voting. We believe that this is an issue that must be decided by the individual himself and not by editorial writers.
When the campus cafeteria at New York University began handling beer recently, it sold 480 cans in the first day. NYU's nickname is the Violets. Would you say they were somewhat wilted?
One of the key phrases in this preamble, as far as Greek organizations are concerned, is the one concerning the guarantee of equal rights to all people. This is directed at the segregation clauses in the laws of such organizations. When the NSA representative visited the campus he made it clear that the NSA has resolved that such clauses are undemocratic and that the group works toward their elimination.
From the Toledo U. Campus Collegian;
From the Toledo U. Campus Collegian:
Psychiatrist to worried patient: "My dear man,
there's really no puzzle to it—you ARE inferior."
A headline in the Pittsburgh Collegio said: "Hart to Chamber." Which one gas or bed?
The McPherson Spectator stated recently: "Faculty Eat Together." We're certainly glad to see they're back on speaking terms.