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University Daily Kansan
Friday, March 5, 1954
Publick Occurrences BOTH FORREIGN AND DOMESTICK
CAMPUS
Look for Basketball Coach Forrest C. "Phog" Allen to predict that his Jayhawkers will have no chance in the upcoming NCAA playoffs—but don't bet against them.
Those people who expect Wes Santee to run a four-minute mile every time he steps on the track are only fooling themselves, especially during the indoor season when he has to run 11 or 12 laps to a mile. Best chance for that "dream mile" probably will be at the Compton Relays late this spring.
Some University officials believe the best way to handle the traffic situation is to ban student drivers from the campus. It probably won't happen, however, since traffic violations are decreasing.
Look for a student-sponsored Kansas Centennial celebration soon. The plan is probably in motion now.
STATE
Spring rains will bring an end to dust storms in southwest Kansas and eastern Colorado. The moisture will be too late, however, for many farmers whose wheat crops already have blown away.
Rough economic sledding is easily predictable for many of these wheat farmers, since the violent Feb. 19 dust storm wiped out nearly one-third of the allotted wheat acreage in 16 Kansas counties.
Expected is more state Democratic scrambling for a gubernatorial candidate. George Docking, Lawrence bank president, is getting the most political attention at present.
And it is reported from Topeka that former U.S. Treasurer Georgia Neese Clark Gray—the AWS Women's day speaker here—may try for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator. She's admitted having an eye on Sen. Andrew Schoeppel's Washington position.
NATIONAL
You can expect a rash of bills to be introduced in the House of Representatives in the next few weeks—all concerning security measures to protect legislators from any more incidents like Monday's shooting.
A major effort will be made to identify the Puerto Rican Nationalists with the Communists. Even if that effort is not successful, the Nationalists will be driven underground.
President Eisenhower is reportedly steaming mad at the tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, but Republican leaders will attempt at almost any cost to avoid a real showdown as it might seriously hurt the Republican party in this fall's elections.
The Bricker amendment is dead for this session of Congress, but it seems almost certain that the fight will start all over again next January.
Expect growing apprehension in Washington as time for the Geneva conference nears. Not all are in accord with Dulles' statement that the conference "will be 100 per cent what we have wanted."
INTERNATIONAL
The trouble in Egypt (Naguib-Mosser) is not over. Although President Mohammed Naguib is back in power, that power cannot be too great when his own homeland (Sudan) stages a demonstration against him. Look for further changes in the immediate future.
India is ordering American observers out of the country because of the recent U.S. decision to send foreign aid to Pakistan, but relations with the U.S. probably won't become too strained. India still has no intentions of going Communistic, and will probably back the western powers on most important UN decisions.
SPORTS
Expect the high coffee price to push consumption of that beverage down. Tea, the drink of the British, should gain followers.
The New York Yankees will hardly miss departed pitcher Vic Raschi. The younger Harry Bird, acquired in the winter from the A's will win more than "Iron Vic" won last season.
One Man's Opinion
hill. Losing prestige can be a bad pill. Caucuses, meetings, coalitions, and
Four little parties all in a row,
pachacamac, FACTS, F.O.R. NOW;
Wheels on the campus going down-
bill
ITS ALL A BIG JOKE
ANYWAY
groups, trying so hard to line up the troops. Why fuss with elections and ASC plans?
plans?
Decisions revert to the Chancellor's
hands!
John Barber
John Barber college senior
Letters
To the Editor:
Dean Alderson is just plain lucky to be mistaken for a student by my staff but of course such flattery does have its drawbacks.
I remember having similar trouble several years ago, so I grew a big mustache and then the library people assumed I was a faculty member. This solution probably won't work for Dean Alderson though because this is the Lawrence Centennial year and we're not going to let every bearded bucko into the stacks.
So if the good Dean will call at my office we'll fix him up with a union card that ought to assure him of the respect he obviously deserves. The same goes for any other lissome faculty member (if he can convince me that he's not a student).
Robert Vosper Director of Libraries
Origin of the first alphabet, from which all present-day alphabetical systems were evolved, has been lost in antiquity, says the National Geographic society. At different times, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Cretans and Hebrews have been credited by archeologists as the most likely inventors.
The John Brown house at Providence, R.I.-called the "finest mansion in America" by John Quincy Adams—is occupied today by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Exhibits of silverware, paintings and furniture are also housed in the mansion which was built in 1786.
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NEWS STAFF
Managing editors... Tom Stewart. Mary
Betz, Velma Gaston. Ed Howard
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LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
House Shooting Recalls Attempt to Kill Truman
The shooting in the House of Representatives by fanatical Puerto Rican Nationalists recalls the attempt on the life of former President Harry Truman on Nov. 1, 1950.
Oscar Collazo and Grieslio Torresola, Puerto Rican Nationalists, went from New York to Washington and, guns blazing, stormed up the steps of Blair House, where the President and his family were living while the White House was being repaired, in an attempt to kill Mr. Truman. The President was taking an early afternoon nap in an upper bedroom at the time.
White House police quickly rushed up and began firing, and when the shooting was all over Torresola, lay dead and Collazo was critically wounded.
One of the guards, Pvt. Leslie Coffelt, 40, was killed and two other policemen were wounded.
Mr. Truman was aroused by the shots and got up and watched the shooting from a second floor window.
Secret Service agents found documents signed by Pedro Albizam Campos, the Harvard-educated leader of the Puerta Rican revolutionary Nationalist party which hated the United States, in the pockets of the Puerto Ricans, and linked the assassination attempt with an uprising in San Juan.
Two days earlier San Juan had been the scene of a bloody revolt in which 33 persons were killed. Campos later was convicted of attempted murder in connection with the revolt and sentence to prison.
Collazo was brought to trial in federal district court in Washington and convicted of first degree murder in the death of the White House guard. It was established that the bullet which killed Pvt. Coffelt had been fired from Torresola's pistol, but the court held that Collazo was equally responsible and sentenced him to die in the electric chair.
Leo A. Rover, Collazo's court-appointed counsel and now United States attorney in Washington, appealed the case and lost. The Supreme Court refused to review the appeals court decision
After execution had been set for Aug. 1, 1952, a clemency petition signed by 3.000 Puerto Ricans was field with the Justice department. Mr. Rover said he would not file a clemency petition, because Collazo had requested him to take no further steps to save him from the electric chair.
On July, 25, 1952, Mr. Truman commuted Collazo's sentence to life imprisonment. He did this largely because the laws of Puerto Rico do not provide for capitol punishment, and he felt that since a convicted murderer in Puerto Rico would not get the death sentence he shouldn't get it here in the United States. In a recent statement after the shootings in the House, Mr. Truman reaffirmed this stand and said he would commute the death penalty again if he had it to do over.
Such a situation is not likely to arise, however, as all five of the wounded Representatives are expected to fully recover.
Last November it was reported that a 24-hour police guard had been placed over Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., United States ambassador to the United Nations, because of fears of an attack on him by Puerto Rican Nationalists.
Another Puerto Rican Nationalist, Pedro Orozco, 24, is currently being held for a federal grand jury. He has been making repeated threats that he is "going to kill the President" while objecting to being finger-printed in connection with a non- support charge against him. At a hearing, however, Orozco denied having intentions of killing anyone.
The Library of Congress has reported it can find no exact precedent for the recent shooting in the House chamber. The nearest thing to it came in December 1952 when Rep. Melyvin Joseph Maas talked a lunatic into disarming.
As Speaker Joseph Martin recalled it, the man stood up in the gallery. Mr. Maas walked over and said, "Toss me the gun, buddy," and the man did. Mr. Maas was given the Carnegie silver medal for his heroism.
—Court Ernst