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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Sept. 22, 1955
Kansas Censors May Try Again
The abolition of censorship of motion pictures in Kansas received another setback early this summer when the Kansas Supreme Court found that the method in which the bill abolishing the Motion Picture Review Board was passed was illegal.
by Dick Bibler
This step toward ending censorship in this state serves to point up another movement toward censoring of the material that the public is allowed to see. The movement in question is that being now waged by the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency, which serves as a censorship board for all Catholics in the United States.
James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles, sent a "special statement" to 267 churches in his archdiocese to instruct all the parishioners that there is an "obvious trend toward laxity in some motion picture productions."
This is just part of a widening breach recently between the relaxed Hollywood Production Code and the Legion, which is waging a strong campaign to keep their numbers from seeing the pictures that Hollywood sees fit to produce.
"Mighty nice of 'em to let you use th' dog track for track practice, eh coach!"
Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, took a firm stand against the movement. He said that while the motion picture industry welcomes criticism it feels that it is doing a fine job and will make no concessions to anyone for anything.
Columnist Max Lerner makes an even stronger statement for the continuance of non-censored pictures. He says, "There are many things wrong with Hollywood movies, but the . . . attack on them should remind us that . . . groups would replace what we have with a far more intolerable straitjacket to stifle all creativeness."
The Catholics meanwhile feel that the use of pressure to control the production of public offerings is one of freedom's weapons. J. M. O'Neill, in Commonweal magazine, says that Mr. Lerner's statement about "straitjackets" demonstrates his inability to understand the difference between adverse criticism and censorship.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
It is groups such as the Legion, however, that maintain that such pictures as "The Moon Is Blue" and others of equal candor are indecent in that they show life as it actually exists. And through their efforts, many persons are kept from seeing perfectly innocent pictures which are condemned merely because they may contain a few words which this hierarchy feels the public should not be exposed to in the movies. A condition such as this should not exist in a free country.
—Harry Elliott
The problem is how to do it. This question will be the subject of a 2-day conference opening next Tuesday at the President's Denver headquarters. The invitation list includes 129 leaders in sports, education, and related fields.
There are many facets of the conference's big problem. For instance, selective service records show that farm youths are not necessarily huskier and healthier than boys brought up in the city. Thus more outdoor living and physical activity in themselves are not the simple answers.
As a group the young people of America are far from being in the best of shape physically. The proof is in the large number of rejections for the military draft. Currently the rate for those turned down is 38 per cent of the eligible youths. It has been as high as 42 per cent. With this condition in mind, President Eisenhower is calling for a corrective program.
Youth Not Fit
The task is to work out the right kind of a program for the need. If this can be done, as the President suggests in his conference message, this country will have a younger generation "better qualified in all respects to face the requirements of modern life."
The President is concerned with much more than the unfitness of so many for military service. He has said that lack of active participation in athletics is a factor in the increase of juvenile delinquency. Mr. Eisenhower's goal is to move more young people out of spectators' seats and onto the playing fields.
—Kansas City Star
etters ..
The Editor:
When a boy I learned (I don't remember where or why) the pseudo-German ditty that goes:
Ach du lieber Augustin!
Schlott machine.
Run bei schtiem!
Run bei semien.
Pudt a half a dollar inn.
Und nodding comes audit
It's explosive cadences driller back to me yesterday when I deposited ten cents in a milk dispensing apparatus in the Strong Hall basement. I believe I was the third sucker of the day, and a number of others followed. All of us put our dimes in and as the song goes, "nodding comes audt."
Archibald Dome wrote the other day about a coke-machine kicker who suffered consequent foot disorders. A fearless enemy of rancid business tactics was he, and I am his spiritual brother.
I believe it is every civic-minded person's duty to attack. Don-Quixote-like, these monstrous vending contraptions which take and don't give. And who is the culprit, the man behind these automatic usurpers of the public wealth?
Peter Earle.
The Editor:
Graduate Student
Amen!
I heartily agree heartily with the Kansan's editorial of Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1955, which bemoans the fate of the student who is left holding several out-of-date text-books at the end of the semester.
With parking fines the way they are, the poor student needs every cent he can scrape up at the end of the semester. So, let's have fewer changes of texts and a reduced rate for the last semester a text is used.
yesterday the University Datty Kansas ran a story and picture about the fountain behind Watkins Hall filled with soap bubbles. You refer to this as the "Chancellor's Fountain."
The Editor:
It is perhaps understandable that anything that is the Chancellor's is fair game, no matter how childish the game.
Dick Walt, Journalism junior
You should know, however, that this fountain was erected by the University in honor of Mr. J. R. Pearson, after whom the small road leading to the fountain has also been named. The late Mr. Pearson, it will be remembered, through his generosity and interest in young men and women has made possible the construction on this campus of modern dormitory rooms for nearly 700 students, both men and women. The first two dormitory units in which Mr.
Pearson interested himself, Sellards and Pearson Halls, are in the near vicinity of the fountain.
A year ago, the University determined to landscape this area gradually, so that it will become a spot of real beauty on our beautiful campus.
It is thereby hoped that in appreciation for Mr. Pearson's interest in housing for our student body and in the interest of continuing beautification of this campus, this area, including the fountain, will be permitted, without desecration or damage, to develop into the appropriate memorial which we have planned and which he so richly deserves.
I do not think that this is too much to ask of men and women adult enough to attend a university.
Franklin D. Murphy,
Chancellor.
Collector Has File Of 50,000 Stamps
Norfolk, Neb. —(U.P.) - Marvin Jones' stamp collecting hobby has grown and grown.
At latest count Jones had more than 50,000 stamps tucked away in bound volumes—the product of 18 years of collecting.
Among, they are 25 one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamps issued many decades ago.
Mother's Degree
BURLINGTON, VI. — (UP) — Ruth ATKinson, 57 and a grandmother, was so proud when she saw her son, John, graduate from the University of Vermont in 1950 that she decided to get a degree herself. This year John was in the audience while his mother received a degree in education.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper
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Represented by the National Advertising Association, 492 Bldg., Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year (add $1 a semester if in school). Attendance during Lawrence Kans., every afternoon during Lawrence university year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examinations. Second class matter, Sept. 17, 1910 at Lafayette, post office under act of March 3, 1879.
John Herrington
Managing Editor
Madelyn Brite, Gretchen Iguene, Irene S.
Six, Lee Ann Urban, Assistant Manage-
tor, Assistant City Editor;
Bob Lyle, Assistant City Editor;
Mc Kait, Telegraph Editor; Marion
McWalt, Society Editor; Jane Pecini-
cello, Society Editor; John Mc
Million, Sports Editor; L. J. Mon-
sick, Assistant Sports Editor.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Ron Grandon           Editorial Editor
Fed Blankenship        Associate Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Paul Bunge Business Manager Robert Wolfe Advertising Manager; Giles Sicil National Advertising Manager; Jack Fisher, Circulation Manager;
NewReserveLaw Defers Draft Age
A new law recently was passed which will affect 100,000 young men annually. It is the new National Reserve Plan as proposed by Presiden Eisenhower.
The law affects youths between 17 and 18$^{1}$ who are approaching draft age. The law makes it possible for them to enlist in the Army Reserve for a total of eight years. They are deferred from the draft or from call until they are graduated from high school and then are required to attend a six-month training session at an Army camp Upon completion of camp they are transferred to the Ready Reserve for $7 \frac{1}{2}$ years during which time they may be called up for Army duty in case of a national emergency.
While at camp these young men will be paid $50 per month. While in the Reserve, they must attend 48 meetings a year or the equivalent and also attend a two-week summer session at each They are allowed to take a 30-day summer session and have no weekly meetings during the year, but only if they are unable to attend the weekly sessions.
At the present time, the Air Force and the Navy will take no short term reservists such as those under this system.
Proponents of the law said those who already had served were called for duty during the Korean campaign. They say this new plan will provide a large Ready Reserve for such emergencies.
This program, as presently being organized will cost the taxpayers $123 million per year for 10,000 men to be trained.
While in the past it has been almost impossible for the government to call men for peacetime service, this system, which has the approval of U. S. courts, will provide such men with such training in peacetime as might be necessary in a hurry later.
Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson has argued that this system will give young men a chance to plan their lives ahead of time. It makes speedy mobilization possible with the men trained in advance.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Carter L. Burgess said the Korean War showed the weaknesses of the present reserve programs and he showed further that at the present time 83 per cent of the reserves in the U. S. are over 24.
Despite all these criticisms, the pressure was strong enough by the Administration and by those Congressmen favoring the bill to see to its passage. In a relatively short time, the new program will get underway and the New National Reserve Plan will go into effect.
Lobbying strongly against the passage of the bill, the National Grange said the best military men choose the armed services voluntarily. The Grange feels that the new law substitutes compulsion for incentive, thus lowering the efficiency of the military service. It also felt that the eight-year requirement of the new law takes a big stride toward military indoctrination of the nation, which it says ultimately will lead to totalitarianism.
The American Federation of Labor said it felt training under the new system would not be good enough in that infantry drill would probably be stressed during the six-month training session, with not enough technical training.
Further criticism of the bill was leveled by the Board of World Peace of the Methodist Church. It felt that the burden of such a reserve makes the country weaker, not stronger. It also felt that the program oversteps the guaranteed freedoms.
The editors repeat they welcome letters to the editor. And as we said before, there are some reservations:
Harry Elliott
We cannot print unsigned letters and we cannot print letters not having classification designated. It would be a simple matter to look up names in the Student Directory if the Directory were complete.
Please Sign Letters
But the Directory does not include new transfer students and freshmen.
We have received several printable letters, but unfortunately we cannot use them because authors' names or classifications cannot be.
We think the letter is a valuable part of editorial section.
Please enclose all the necessary information.