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University Daily KansanTuesday, Oct. 6, 1953
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Freedom, Right to Know Go with NNW's Slogan
National Newspaper week is being observed Oct. 1-8 with the slogan, "An informed press, an informed people." Sort of a corollary to the "free press, free people" idea that has been bandied about so much, but still a good idea.
Perhaps these ideas are just so many words; they sound good in speeches. Surprising to many people may be news of the threat to this right to be informed, as seen in one small Kansas town and as chronicled in a recent issue of the Kansas Publisher.
It could never happen here, we thought last summer when Sen. McCarthy ordered certain books removed from the overseas library, and when President Eisenhower made his speech-of-the-moment (later of course, he reneged) about book burners.
But it did, to some extent.
The Kansas movement was little heralded by the state or national press at the time it happened. Here's the way it happened:
A group of do-gooders in Augusta, Kan., forming the "Augusta Committee for Decent Literature," took it upon themselves to protect the morals of Augustans by handpicking newstand literature. And they subsequently threw out several dozen comic books, as many more pocket books, and 110 magazines, "including most of the photography magazines normally appearing on the stands."
Public opinion scotched the movement only after the local newspaper gave it "the treatment" with a full story and pictures of the crusading committee at work.
"Morally objectionable literature" was removed from the newsstands by the committee as the drive gained momentum and moved into its second week of "purifying" the literary tastes of the town.
May we suggest a full treatment be given the Kansas film censorship board. Few Kansans know the identity of the board's members, the scope of their activities, or on what they base their "censorship" decisions—only that its very narrow ideas about what is "fit and proper" seem rather outdated now. Perhaps the informed press plus the informed public, in this case too, would result in a greater freedom of choice.
Mary Betz
UPA, Bosustow Bring 'Art' to Cartoon Field
Movie-goers taking in "From Here to Eternity" at the Jayhawker this week witness also a bizarre venture in the animated cartoon field: the United Productions of America (UPA) adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the first serious subject to get the cartoon treatment.
With James Mason's quiet, deadly narration, the seven-minute film alternately broods and explodes into violent surrealistic nightmares. Like the Poe short story, the incident is told through the eyes of the madman.
It's a brave venture on the part of Stephen Bosustow, head of the burgeoning UPA enterprise, which has its merits and its faults.
The merits first: We feel the expressive medium of Mr. Bosustow's frankly two-dimensional, wildly colored, disjointed technique can excellently portray a mood such as madness—which could not be caught in any other manner.
The spellbound attentiveness which the short commanded of its audience when we saw it attests to this fact.
And the faults: With so much telescoped into so little, it's difficult-almost exhaustive-to keep up with the story as it sprays weird patterns across the screen.
The blank screen at times in "The Tell-Tale Heart" distracts considerably, and the story at several points be confused.
However, as a first attempt, "The Tell-Tale Heart" need make no apologies. Technique can be smoothed out, and we feel certain that more impressive efforts will be forthcoming from UPA.
The young studio has much to its credit already: the Mr. Magoo series, several Gerald McBoing-Beoing sagas, and the recent charming "Madeline." Forthcoming are a James Thurber story and a promised feature-length UPA film.
Incidentally, a forthcoming Disney feature humorously relating the life of man from the cradle to the grave unabashedly borrows Mr. Bosustow's technique. And has anyone noticed the recent Bugs Bunny shorts?
Last year—before any publicity on the new Disney film had been released—a Kansan editorial predicted that Mr. Bosustow and UPA would revolutionize the animated cartoon field.
Jerry Knudson
We're not crowing—just glad it's coming about.
Now that the World Series is over it's time for students to write home for extra money to pay off all their bets. And Yankee bettors can fold their long green, put on a smug grin, and tell all their Bums-supporting friends "I told you so."
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Home-was-never-like-this dept.: The foundling bunny pictured in the Daily Kansan several days ago now resides in its foster parent's closet, dining on warm milk and carrots.
The Hawk's Nest philosopher believes that Union coffee is sufficient grounds for not drinking the stuff.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler Wife, Red Car
Does Mr. Stewart hope to gain anything by stooping even lower than his criticizer? Or does he perhaps support the theory that if you shout loud enough about the other fellow's defects, no one will notice your own? Whatever the reason he certainly seems worried about those "half dozen or so" listeners Mr. Abels is purported to have.
If the listening audience is this small anyway, all that fuss seems just a little ridiculous.
We have never heard Mr. Abels' program but from now on it is on our regular listening agenda. Obviously, here is a man after our own heart. At any rate, no matter what the maligned Mr. Abels said, it certainly for sheer viciousness, could not have equaled this editorial.
We are all new at the University this year and have found very few things about the school which merit criticism. One thing, however, has sickened us beyond measure. This is the group of scathing editorials in your paper which have been written by one Tom Stewart.
To the Editor:
By far the worst of this person's literary endeavors to date was the one appearing in the Thursday, Oct. 10 edition of the title Kansas Writer, Answers Townsman."
Letters
You will note that we have purposely misspelled the word "endeavors" in the second paragraph. This is for the benefit of Mr. Stewart. If he can not think of any decent answer to this letter, he can criticize the spelling.
Editor's note: It was hardly necessary for the writers of the above effort to point out that they are freshman. On the matter of Mr. Abels, we are willing to concede a point. We would amend "half dozer or so listeners" to "twelve or more."
Marvin Carlson, Kenneth Staley,
college freshmen; Donald R. Fox,
Vernon H. Lindhorst, Harry Hiskett,
Robert E. Hess, engineering freshmen
Short Ones
Forthcoming events: the first frost,
Hallowen, Homecoming, and flu shu.
All's quiet on the home front. Sen.
McCarthy is off on a three-week
wedding jaunt; the Jayhawker football team on a three-week road trip.
Surprised the senator would accept a red car as a gift—even a Cadillac.
Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina, where the golden anniversary of the first airplane flight is being celebrated in 1853, got its name, according to legend, from a brand of rum so potent that it could "kill the devil."
To the Editor:
We in America are great believers in the high sounding phraseology of our Constitution, but anyone who wishes to openly promulgate these principles, or worse still, have them put into practice, is just a little bit ahead of his time. Can you imagine anyone being so radical as to believe that,
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside;" or that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States?"
No, these are the times that we applaud the memory of slavery at freshmen open house when girls sing "In the evening by the moonlight, you can hear those 'darkies' singing';" these are the times that we reserve the right to serve anyone we please in our restaurants.
James L. Biair college senior
Some 28,380,000 passengers traveled 15,500,000,000 passenger-miles on U.S. domestic and international scheduled airlines during 1952, a newspaper survey shows.
Wife, Red Car Change Life For Senator
The Rita Hayworth-Dick Haymes marriage (or fiasco, as you will) had to take a back seat last week as the country's No. 1 communist hunter, Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) married his former secretary, Miss Jean Kerr.
Billed as one of "the" weddings of the social season, the event went off smoothly, with dignitaries ranging from cabinet officials to Jack Dempsey attending. Dick and Pat Nixon (of vice presidential and television fame) represented the White House—the president regrretted—but the Veep couldn't stay for the reception, poor boy.
That the senator is persistent in something besides hunting communists was demonstrated by his persistent pursuance of the lovely Miss Kerr, former Northwestern beauty queen.
Not only did she stand him up twice when he had dates with her, but she also accepted, and then turned down a job offer from him, because she found another opening "more interesting."
But the clever senator won out when he finally got her to work for him by keeping her after work so he could check her research.
Among the wedding gifts was a coup de villa Cadillac presented by a Texas friend. Miss Kerr picked either a pink or red one. Said the senator, "Heck, I've never even driven one."
Well wishing friends of Miss Kerr sent word they are glad Sen. McCarthy will have someone who believes in his fight against communism, someone who will keep up the fight with him. He needs help?
-Don Tice
Adviser Calder M. Pickett