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Tuesday, April 27, 1954
'Misquoted' Prof Gets Boot
The question of academic freedom is one that comes up occasionally in the nation's schools. And when it does, the answer each time seems to be that college and university professors aren't at liberty to say what they think.
A recent case involves an ex-assistant professor of political science at the University of California, as reported by the Associated Collegiate Press.
It seems that the professor, in an off-campus speech, made the following statement: "It is all right to be conservative when the juice is dried up in you, but there is something wrong with a young person today, especially in our rich and affluent U.S., who is not idealistically inspired to the point of belonging to a Communist, Socialist, anarchist or similarly inspired group."
At least that's what the Daily Californian reported he said. The professor himself said he had been misquoted, and what he actually had said was this: "I can well understand how in the comparatively rich U.S. during the decades of the 30s and 40s young people were idealistically motivated to join Communist, Socialist or anarchist groups. Conservatism, when the juice is dried up in one's veins, is understandable, but there is something wrong with a youngster who is not motivated by generous compassion for the underprivileged of the world."
There's quite a difference in meaning between the two statements, to say the least.
The Daily Californian said it had checked on the story with the professor before it had been printed, but regardless of who was wrong, he was dismissed from the faculty.
The professor said he was dropped because of political reasons. The University chancellor said the decision was made "on the basis of teaching, research, university and public service, and professional competence."
The chairman of the political science department said the man was a good teacher, however, and he denounced what he called "thought control." And the Daily Californian said that "even if his position were entirely indefensible, he should be perfectly free to say what he wishes."
How about that? Does a college faculty member have the right to say what he believes, even though what he says may embarrass the school administration with charges of communism in the classroom?
To us the important thing is to investigate thoroughly such situations as the affair at the University of California. If an instructor is an avowed supporter of communism, perhaps the school is better off without him. But professors shouldn't be fired because they voted for a socialist in 1932 or prefer vodka to beer or understand what Marx was talking about. —Sam Teaford
If you have ever tried to take class notes on a single sheet of paper, you have probably found, as we did, that the majority of the desks in classrooms on this campus don't lend themselves well to that sort of thing.
Evidently many students, finding themselves too far above the courses in which they are enrolled to take notes, while away the time in class by carving and scratching everything from fraternity letters to obnoxious pictures on the desk-tops.
Taking Notes Can Be 'Rough Everyplace But Myers Hall
There is one building on the campus, however, where one does not encounter this kind of foolishness and destruction—Myers hall, home of the School of Religion.
What is it, we wonder, that keeps students from scratching up the desks in Myers when they do so everywhere else on the campus? Perhaps they feel that the teachers in the School of Religion, most of whom are ordained ministers, feel more strongly about such things than do the rest of the instructors and professors on the campus.
Perhaps they feel that Myers is akin to a church and (we sincerely hope) most students wouldn't go around carving up the woodwork in a church.
But what is the difference between perpetrating such destruction in Myers and doing the same thing in any other classroom? The arm of the law wouldn't be any longer or stronger concerning such acts in Myers than in any other building on the campus, so that must not be the consideration.
It would seem to indicate that many of the students on this campus, and many other people in all walks of life, for that matter, must consider morality a thing to observe only when they feel "someone is watching" them.
Is "someone watching" any less in the rest of the buildings on the campus than in Myers hall? —Don Tice
Page 2 University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 27, 1954
To the editors:
Recent developments in the H-bomb experiments in the Pacific have raised some moral problems as to the feasibility of supporting our country's present policies.
...LETTERS
But the entire situation poses a special problem to the modern Christian, because the possibilities of the disastrous effects of thermonuclear weapons are not the basic issues confronting him.
Perhaps this may exclude some people, but one who is striving to be a Christian disciple must face up to a few realities. He cannot object to our present foreign policy merely because it might bring possible destruction.
What discipline anywhere really believes might shall bring right? He cannot both have Christ as Lord and support construction and stockpiling of destruction and contribution to international armies.
The Christian is called to testify that such a policy shall fail because it is the complete antithesis of the life surrendered to God.
The distinguishing marks of a life striving to be surrendered to God is its loyalty to something above society. Certainly this implies what Peter Coleman said a few years ago, "... Christian teaching teaches you if necessary, to die for your faith, but not to kill for it."
The fact of the matter is that Christ demands his followers to deny themselves to follow him. This is far different from sacrificing to society so as to deny him the claim to our lives.
Let all Christians remember that to do the opposite of God's will is to travel a downhill road, and the fact about a downhill road is that to come back along it is to go uphill.
The corollary to this is that the demands Christ puts on us shall be much greater than those of supporting modern American society; taking his way is not an escape from sacrifice even unto death. But this denial of one's self asked by Him differs from that asked by society in that it is for the purpose of showing where the source and bulwark of our motivations are found—in Him, not man.
This, then, is what the Christian is called to do if he be sincere: He must testify by his life to the fact that there is a third way open to the world. It is not merely a problem of military preparedness and wartime economy versus Communism.
And to him who would think Christ's way impractical, let him stop a moment, look at the world and where it is going, and then ask himself if the present method is a practical way of life.
Phil Hanni college junior
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"Don't select one of th' professors for th' commencement * speaker--we're limited for time."
FHA Scandal Slows Fate of Housing Bill
But for the alleged irregularities in the Federal Housing administration that first came to light just two weeks ago, the Eisenhower-backed "omnibus" housing bill's fate might already have been decided by the Senate.
As it is, the bill that incorporates President Eisenhower's request for 35,000 public housing units yearly for the next four years has passed the House of Representatives and is tabled in the Senate banking and currency committee until the conclusion of the FHA hearings.
The bill, introduced in the House Feb. 12 by Rep. Jesse P. Wolcott (R.-Mich.), passed that body April 2 by a roll call vote of 353 to 36. Rep. Wolcott is the House banking and currency committee chairman.
As can be observed by the overwhelming majority by which it survived its test in the lower chamber, the bill is receiving little opposition, even from the Democrats. Most of the few dissenting votes came from southern Democrats, but one Kansan—Rep. Wint Smith of Mankato—cast a "no" vote.
On the other side, though, one of the few southern Democrates who voted with the administration, Rep. William M. Colmer of Mississippi, said, "It would be to the best interest of all concerned, if the federal government should make a straight-out gift (of public housing units) to the proposed occupants. Having the responsibility of home ownership they will no longer be under the compulsion to remain in the low-income class in order to have a place to live. Thus, their initiative would be restored."
Because it directly coincides with President Eisenhower's housing wishes, it has almost his 100 per cent blessing. Rep. Wolcott said the bill contains 99 per cent of what the President wants in his housing program and will make it possible for "the American people to have over 2 million units of housing a year."
A New York Republican, however, said he thought the measure, rather than bettering the nation as most others have said it will, would lead the U.S. into statism.
That amendment, introduced by Rep. Charles B. Brownson (R-Ind.), lowered the proposed minimum down payment on FHA-insured old and/or new houses. Rep. Brownson, in explanation, said the original down payment stipulations were not low enough in view of the rising cost of living. His amendment, one of more than a dozen proposed, passed 102 to 93.
The current bill, which got a surprisingly quick trip through committee and past the entire House, had only one amendment tacked onto it before going over to the Senate.
Now the bill must get through the Senate committee, headed by Sen. Homer E. Capehart (R.-Ind.). Then it probably will be pushed quickly onto the floor because the President wants it passed with all possible haste. —Stan Hamilton.
Daily Hansan
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