University Daily Kansan
Friday, Dec. 4, 1953
Death Lurks Near On Narrow Roads
As a person drives down the highway there are only a few feet or even inches between him and sudden death.
Highways are narrow. On many highways there are only inches between two cars as they meet rushing down the highway. If the driver happens to miscalculate the distance between himself and the other car, two cars traveling 70 miles an hour may collide, with the probability that everyone in those cars will be killed. Lack of sleep or heavy drinking may put the driver in such condition that he is unable to judge distances.
There are only a few inches between a car and the edge of the road on a narrow highway. Because of the poor condition of many highways, such as holes along the edge, if a driver goes off the road it may be the last driving he does. U.S. Highway 59, north through Oskaloosa, has holes along the sides where the highway is deteriorating. A car hitting one of these holes even at a reasonable rate of speed can over turn but imagine a car going extremely fast hitting one of these holes.
On Kansas highways, concrete or steel bannisters border culverts and creek crossings. There may be only six inches between a car and a solid mass of concrete. Accidents occur and people are killed because a driver misjudges the distance between his car and the abutment. Sometimes weather or blinding lights cause the misjudgment of distances.
Last Thanksgiving six University students were injured when their car struck a culvert abutment. Misjudgment of distance during bad weather caused the accident. One of the accident victims missed a half semester of school and had to wear a neck brace for months.
Until highways are improved and widened, drivers must carefully judge all distances. People who are overly tired or who have been drinking should never drive, because they cannot judge large distances accurately, let alone a few feet or inches.
Some people simply cannot judge distance. Drivers license examinations should also include distance perception tests, which take only a few minutes and would weed out persons not qualified to drive.
When the weather is bad or when blinded by oncoming lights—slow down—because the miscalculation of a few inches could mean someone's life, maybe your own.
Elizabeth Wohlgemuth
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
Page 2
"—On the other hand—This 'F' JUST MIGHT reflect a pretty poor rich of teaching."
job of teaching."
The January issue of the Reader's Digest should carry an interesting lesson in how to pass the proverbial buck when that magazine's editors attempt to explain how they were duped by George DuPre.
By Don Tice
It seems it came to the attention of the Reader's Digest that Mr. DuPre, a prosperous and respected Canadian business man, had some interesting stories to tell about his experiences as an intelligence agent in France during Word War II.
The Digest sent Author Quentin Reynolds to talk to DuPre, and Reynolds subsequently wrote "The Man Who Wouldn't Talk", relating DuPre's exciting underground experiences.
It seems he had not even been connected with intelligence work. When he returned from a stretch with the Royal Canadian Air Force he started relating his supposed experiences to neighbors and friends. When the word got around he startled, thinking speak ing, and in his own words, "the story grew beyond my ability to control it."
The book was published by Random House publishing firm and was carried in the November issue of the Reader's Digest. But then a little missive from Mr. Sullivan hit never been to France, much less as an intelligence agent.
An enterprising reporter of the Calgary Herald, Douglas Collins, himself an ex-intelligence agent, asked DuPre some elementary questions about his wartime work and DuPre fell in up to his neck.
An interesting sidelight to the matter is that Mr. DuPre evidently was not interested in any monetary gain, because when he learned that he was entitled to part of the royalties on the book, he said he would turn his share over to the Boy Scouts.
In fact the story grew so much that he soon found himself giving talks all over Canada. When Mr. DuPre was being interviewed by the Reader's Digest everyone was impressed with his "sincerity and strength of character."
If he does, the Scouts should profit handsomely, because at last report Random House is considering putting out a 100,000-copy additional printing to meet the vastly increased demand.
It might be well, however, for them to change the foreword which reads: "George DuPre's extraordinary story both challenges and renews one's faith in human nature. As sheer exciting reading it has few equals in all the under cover operations of the British Intelligence Service." Ha!
Less than fifty years ago, traffic in the District of Columbia was monitored by bicycle-mounted police who could overtake and arrest "speeding" automobile drivers, says the National Geographic Society.
The Caspian sea between Russia and Iran is the world's largest lake, says the National Geographic Society. It covers 168,890 square miles. A distant runner-up is North America's Lake Superior, with 31,820 square miles.
Publick Occurrences BOTH FORREIGN AND DOMESTICK Friday, December 4, 1953
CAMPUS
The Army may have a 10 per cent manpower cut next year, but this will probably have little to do with the college draft deferment program. If anything it will probably be harder to get a deferment next year.
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The English Proficiency examination Saturday will bring many more cries of grief and anguish from students who don't punctate and paragraph as the residents of Fraser hall think they should.
The Jayhawk Brotherhood, a new group organized to fight segregation on the campus, will probably start an active campaign in the next few weeks.
STATE
Kansas is faced with the highest traffic fatality rate in its history. This will be an incentive to build a greater number of bigger and better highways.
Retailers are depending on Christmas business to bring their earnings up for the year, but all indications show that merchants will not have the usual Christmas rush. Consumers are feeling the squeeze between high prices and lower income and are increasing savings accounts instead of buying.
Look for an extensive 1954 March of Dimes drive in Kansas. State headquarters for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis reports that Kansas' resources for the continuing care of polio patients is at an all-time low.
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The Tuttle Creek dam issue will probably come up again early next year since some congressmen are trying to get the plan considered for next year's budget.
NATIONAL
Bud Wilkinson is crying the blues again because his Oklahoma Sooners have been made three points favorites over Maryland in the Orange Bowl clash. We'll ride with the gamblers who made that choice.
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Random House, publishers of "The Man Who Wouldn't Talk," may be claiming red faces because "The Man" turned out to be a fake, but one can't feel too sorry for them since they may have to print another 100,000 copies to meet the increased demand.
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Many Democrats are going to be after chief G-man J. Edgar Hoover's hide since he entered into the Harry Dexter White case and made Harry Truman look rather silly.
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This is Salvation Army week, the celebration of the founding of the organization in 1878. You can bet they'll still be marking anniversaries in another three quarters of a century, with their theory of self-help, and the former doughboys' memories of free food being passed out.
ENTERTAINMENT
Television and movies will, in the near future, be hand-in-glove in their operations. New plans for television on a pay-as-you-go basis have cleared up a lot of Hollywood producers' worries about losing business.
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A few years from now it will be possible to see world premiers of movies on your television set at home. Broad plans are underway to bring this wide-spread premiere plan about.
Now that June Haver is negotiating for a new Hollywood contract she will rise on a wave of popularity, built on curiosity, but this will soon vanish and she will be another forgotten singer.
The new film version of Eddie Cantor's life will soon be showing in Lawrence theaters. Hollywood could find no more deserving person to salute. We just hope they tell the wonderful Cantor story and don't ham it up, as they are so fond of doing.
A good team of arctic sled dogs pushed by an expert driver, can cover 100 miles in a day with a light load.
University of Kansas Student Newspaper
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Jerry Kudson,
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