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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 27,1953
Sighs, Pride Mix in Aftermath
This is the day to look back, take stock, heave a sigh, and wish we had it all to do over again.
Life has moved along at its usual pace during the schoolyear; a little fast and furious now, and normally slow then. Regardless of the pace, the Daily Kansan staff has tried to ride the crest of the wave, and keep students informed.
There have been mistakes as well as moments of gratification. But, all in all, the staff is rather proud of the Daily Kansan produced this year.
We are proud of the part we played in promoting the election (regardless of the outcome) and of our efforts in making public the decrepit conditions of some of the housing for upperclass women.
The editorial page has this year, we believe, fulfilled its acknowledged purpose of providing a
forum for student opinion. There have been slaps at various campus sacred cows. There have been bouquets for jobs well done.
None of the editors ever expected students to accept editorials as the gospel. If a sizable portion of the student body was stimulated by an editorial, it was, in our opinion, a success.
Mary Betz of Glen Elder will take over the editorial page reins for the first eight weeks of the fall semester. In doing so, she will be the first native Kansan in the position since March 1952.
Mary will soon find that the editorial page chief inherits the job of interpreting student opinions and broadcasting them to the public.
May she find this trust as stimulating as we did.
—Bob Stewart.
Bob Stewart
Air Admiral' Heads Chiefs of Staff
POGO
The appointment of Adm. W. Radford as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has made a controversial figure even more controversial.
Adm. Radford, formerly commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, is an avid naval aviator. He is expected to make more use of sea and air power, building up the Air Force —particularly the Naval Air Force.
Emphasis in U.S. defense and war efforts is expected to be shifted by the admiral from Europe to the Far East—especially since the other new members of the JCS are familiar with the situation in the East.
Gen. Matthew Ridgway, new Army chief, is a former Far Eastern commander; Gen. Nathan Twining, Air Force chief, commanded the 13th and 20th Air Forces in the Pacific during the war, and Adm. Robert B. Carney, chief of naval operations, was chief trouble-shooter in the war for Adm. William Halsey in the Pacific.
Adm. Radford is against unification of the armed forces. The Air Force fears he will fight back now, because they once tried to cut naval air forces to a minimum and squeeze the Navy out of the long-range strategic bombing program.
Adm. Radford, an "air admiral," has squabbled frequently with fellow Navy officers; he regards "battleship admirals" as slightly behind the times. In 1949 he revolted against the "bomber generals" who were fighting to preserve heavy bombers.
He vigorously attacked the generals' theory of atomic blitz warfare. Claiming that there is no short cut to victory, he advocated -instead
a combination of ground, sea, and air forces, offensive and defensive, tactical and strategic strength.
He is known as a man who forms his own opinions and expresses them fearlessly, and believes the downfall of the communists in China should be the chief U.S. goal. Although there is doubt as to his carrying it out now, he once proposed establishing a naval blockade around China to defeat the Reds there.
The admiral and his policies should be watched in the future. The Buzz
It's about time the country changed its currency.
But don't get excited; you might like the idea. The proposal is to change the pictures on the currency.
For the infrequent $2 bill, we'd suggest a picture of Native Dancer to replace Thomas Jefferson. Might as well be practical about this. And for the $10,000 bill, better put Sarah Churchill. This would please Winnie who, we understand, gets a
Currency Needs Glamour To Keep Up With the Times
good number of these anyhow. Salmon P. Chase doesn't quite fit.
It's O.K. to plaster these doles on the big money; no prejudice against the rich. Just so the Treasury department (when it adopts our little scheme, which we're sure it will) doesn't forget the fellow who files the short form on March 15.
Here's the rest of our completed list:
Sweden has the right idea. On one of its highest denominations of currency appears the picture of 25-year-old, blond, beautiful Greta Hoffstroem. Get the idea?
$1: George Washington—Joanne
Dru.
Trouble with this is that the ordinary guy-in-the-gutter seldom gets his hands on anything higher than a fiver, and this only long enough to hand over to the better half.
$5: Abraham Lincoln—Jean Simmons.
$10: Alexander Hamilton—Janet Leigh.
$1,000. Crover Cleveland—Susan Hayward.
$500: William McKinley—Jean Peters.
$20: Andrew Jackson—Pier Angeli.
$50: Ulysses S. Grant—Cyd Char-
lase
$5,000: James Madison—A v a
Gardner.
$100: Benjamin Franklin—Debbie
Reynolds.
You say you don't like this list? Well, to each his own.
Bob Nold
Letters Hit Reporter, Play Editorial FACTS Member Denounces Reporting
Editor. Daily Kansan:
Just out of curiosity—what manner of Daily Kansan reporter is it who writes nasty stories about being barred from attending meetings of Pachacamac party, and then when he is personally invited to the FACTS meetings, not only doesn't bother to show up, but also fails to get the story which is handed to him into print?
Does he really have such a surplus of column inches for his reporting course that he doesn't need any more?
Just in case anyone might be interested, a new party constitution and a new set of by-laws were adopted at the FACTS meeting last Wednesday night. Dennis Henderson was re-elected party president for the coming year. Dave Miller, college freshman, was elected vice-president. Margot Baker, college freshman, was elected secretary, and the treasurer will be selected in the near future.
For considerations of space,
Eldridge Was Student of Sociology Until Death
(The following short biography of Seba Eldrige, professor of sociology, who died Feb. 16, of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 67, was written by Carroll D. Clark, professor and chairman of the department of sociology and anthropology. It reprinted in condensed form from *The Sociological Review* issue of June 1953.)
Although Seba Eldridge had a progressive condition of arteriosclerosis for some years and had been able to give only part-time services, he did not miss a class until the day of his death. His intellectual powers were unimpaired, and he was vigorously implementing a six-year program for a research investigation on a sociopsychiatric problem in his last months.
Thus his death seems sudden, and to his closer colleagues here and elsewhere, a truly poignant loss.
The route by which he came upon sociology was so devious as to seem quite improbable.
His family were respected rural folks near Dunn, N.C., but their tradition provided little toward the cultivation of a love of learning—the love that came to dominate his life. He surmounted serious obstacles to get a college education, and the degree he took at North Carolina State was in civil engineering.
Nevertheless, there were currents in the college atmosphere that fanned the sparks of his intellectual quest. Perhaps this, coupled with a disillusioning year spent at engineering work, explains his shift to the human relations sciences.
tivities.
The decisive trek in the new direction took him to New York City where he earned an A.B. from Columbia university in 1911, while engaged in social work and civic reform ac-
In the classroom he came under the influence of Giddings. Spurred by Ogburn and others, the "drive toward objectivity" was on, with copious beer mellowing the controversies. Social philosophy became the center of his studies, his doctoral dissertation having been completed under John Dewey in the Columbia university philosophy department.
He served as secretary of the department of social betterment of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities for three years, and organized the Commission on the Federal Constitution which he directed until 1915.
His sociological interests ripened under Dewey, but he became a sharp critic of the latter's pragmatic philosophy even while serving as an assistant in the Columbia University department.
Eldridge went forth from Columbia University as a sociologist. After short tours of duty at Smith College and at Rockford College, he joined the staff of the University of Kansas as associate professor of sociology in 1921 where he remained the rest of his life.
In 1930 he might have succeeded to the chairmanship of the department. However, he loathed administrative chores, cared nothing for the titular prestige and preferred to bring another—a student who differed with him as to the goals and methods of sociology—to fill the place. That the department has since had years of relatively smooth sailing is in no small measure owing to his informal leadership, his tension- relieving dry humor,
shall not attempt to report in detail on the new constitution and by-laws, but it is to be hoped that the regular Kansan reporter may get around to covering the story sometime.
and his propensity to practice the social cooperation he advocated.
No effort will be made here to assess Eldridge's position in the stream of American sociological thought. He was at his best as a political sociologist and believed that in "The Development of Collective Enterprise in the United States," he and his colleagues had refuted a main thesis of Karl Marx—no small undertaking even if it were but half successful, and a noteworthy effort on the part of a man who did not hesitate to proclaim in and out of the classroom that Marx was a great social thinker. In his earlier "Political Action" Eldridge pioneered in a direction now catching the fancy of political scientists and industrial sociologists, but he employed the instinct psychology then in vogue with the results one might expect.
His ardor for a citizenship more rational and based on sound education employing concrete situational training is reflected in his "The New Citizenship," "New Social Horizons," "Public Intelligence" and his last published work, "The Dynamics of Social Action."
Seba Eldridge rejected the prevailing pattern of bereavement behavior. He was put away simply, by cremation. Afterward, we held the routine February meeting of the department. No mention was made of a vacant chair, but before the minutes of the last meeting were read, we talked—and joked some—about Eldridge and his ideas and his all-too-human ways. We think that is the way he would have wanted it.
Other instances of failure to properly cover his beat might be mentioned—such as, for example, the fact that the complete FACTS platform from this past election has never appeared in the Daily Kansan, despite the fact that the other party's platform received complete coverage on the front page—but a complete coverage would be beyond the scope of the present study.
This brief account is intended to serve, however, those few students, who may be interested in some phase of student government sides the parties calling each other dirty names.
Will Adams
Incidentally, Daily Kansan reporter Tom Stewart has my permission to include this letter in his string count if he should turn up short, since this was supposed to be his story.
win Adams graduate student
When the editorial, "Squirming Audiences Predicted for Jayhawker Traveling Troupe" appeared April 1 in the Daily Kansan, the only possible answer at the time would have been to meet one man's opinion with another man's opinion.
Newfield Reports On Play's Reception
Editor. Daily Kansan:
Obviously, under such circumstances no constructive discussion could take place. Now, however, the facts concerning the success or failure of "The Contrast," given by the University Players on tour, are available and they are as follows:
"The Contrast" had 14 performances in 14 different towns in eastern Kansas and neighboring Oklahoma. Only in two places did the audience read, as your editions of "The Contrast" were Bartlesville, where the University Players performed for a junior high and grade school audience.
Seven receptions were called "good" by members of the cast, whom I had asked to report their impressions as well as the results of interviews with members of the audiences. Five receptions were classified by the same people as "very good or excellent."
Since the same pessimism, concerning the production of "The Contrast" and the advisability to send it on tour, has been uttered in an article of the recent edition of Trend, I would be grateful if you would print the above mentioned facts.
John Newfield director, University
Rube Marquard won 19 games in 1912 for the Ne Giants.