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University Daily Kansan Monday. May 25.1953 State Hot Potato-
Ode to Caps & Gowns Trouping down th' Hill
Gimme that degree, I wanna go, go, go! Fed up with teachers, bleachers, class notes, campus votes, test tubes, classroom rubes, final exams, fine arts hams, text books, book nooks, and faculty schnooks.
Wanna go to work, wife, mother or dog; gimme a paycheck, uniform, get me out of this smog. Through with learning. Wanna do, did, does, get it done. Wanna earn, not learn.
Enough o' these ideas. Wanna put me down to some practice, pleeuz.
Gotta get me out to meet 'em and greet 'em. And tell 'em and sell 'em. They don't care 'bout Pliny and Winnie. They want pounds and gallons and lumber feet. Know how to build and pave a street. Thought and told are through; bought and sold are new.
Thinkers are out; computers are in. Figure the wage with a new kind of gauge, forget the trends, intellectual bends. Run, don't walk, down the venerable Hill. Too many bennies, late-study pills.
Think? Becomes a sphinx. Egypt is done; drive is our fun. Books we'll condense and let 'em be, propped in a row above the TV. Why books when we got TV? And a degree.
Let them fix the plot, follow it through. Ugh, heap Injun, he's a schmoo. Operas of course, but soap and horse.
Culture? Well, sure, but not a big dose. Time's short; we've got to cut close.
Maybe at sixty, think and reflect. And decide on the ways that better all men. Service to men? Customers first.
India, China, spots on the sun. No import now; life has begun
Does the other matter? Darn tootin' it does. It matters as much as a good home and love. Free choice is the arrow; the intellect the bow, to be used as best and as right as we know.
Got to think, chug-a-lug, think, chug-a-lug, think, chug-a-lug,
to serve ourserves and the guy next door and the Guy up above.
—Chuck Zuegner
The storm which the Blue Valley people have raised over Tuttle Creek dam is growing into a cloud of intellectual dust covering the nation from the Rockies to Washington. Big Dams vs. Little Dams is the issue of the day.
Editor's Note: This is another in a series of editorials dealing with the control in Kansas, where the column is open to views of readers.
When two old hens engage in a scrap there's always plenty of dust stirred up, plenty of emotion on display, and always an abundance of feathers left over. Anyone who has watched knows that they fight blindly and instinctively, with caution and reason thrown to the winds.
Mueh of this dust is fraught with emotion, motivated principally by fear of losing home and security. When a man is in danger of losing his home and all that is dear in it, he fights and fights fiercely, like a mother hen at the intrusion of an antagonistic Plymouth Rock.
The analogy holds for the dam fighters. Even the editorial geniuses who plead for reasoned deliberation end their little masterpieces on a high note of horror.
What both groups fail to realize is this:
Soil Conservation Can Save Valley
A swollen stream at flood time is at least 50 per cent silt. The faster the water, the greater the silt-carrying capacity, and consequently, the greater the volume of the stream.
Furthermore, that silt is rich, productive topsoil, of which Kansas is blessed with a covering less than six inches thick. In some cases, it is much less. Occasionally, it is simply non-existent.
Nowhere, in this battle of words, have soil conservation and the Soil Conservation service been mentioned. Yet, if any agency can claim the title of "most interested in flood control," it is the SCS.
the water on the farm, where it falls. By utilizing terraced slopes, grass waterways, and drainage ditches, crop rotation, cover crops, and a host of other devices, the individual farmer-be he Josh, Ned, or cousin Bill on Turkey creek—can keep water from rushing off his farm in a muddy torrent, carrying with it millions of dollars worth of income-producing potential in the form of rich topsoil.
Stand in the middle of a terraced field during a heavy rain and watch the water flow slowly around the slope, returning the mud to the field from whence it came.
from whence it came.
Watch the clear, gently flowing water leave the rest of its load on a grass waterway and quietly slither into a farm pond, where cattle which were once gaunt from late summer thirst now drink contentedly, and where men and small boys spend Sunday afternoon laughing, joking, and fishing.
Drive a short distance down the road and watch the muddy torrent from another farm tumble through a huge gully and join other coffee-colored torrents rushing down a swollen creek. Note the height of the corn or the density of the wheat and oats on this farm. Note the color of the soil and the condition of the farm buildings.
Then drive back to the first farm and note the better color and the better stand of the crops there. Note the fresh paint on the house, the new barn, the new tractor, the new subsoller and the new one-way plow.
Theology, Democracy Reconciled in Pakistan
The modern man is so lulled by technological advancement and so engrossed in materialism that spiritual values appear inane. Faith and religion are scorned as downright orthodox and completely primitive. Yet if we analyze the present 'Communism hysteria', the lack of faith in institutions and ideology becomes evident. The Material God has shown its clay feet.
Perhaps Ned and Josh should stop yelling about big dams and little dams, and perhaps both should drive down to the county seat and see their Soil Conservation service technician. When the issue is stopping water, he's a good man to know.
Soil conservation technicians know how to stop
Editor's Note: The following article, tenth in a series by foreign students, was written by Imitaz Ahmad Khan, graduate student in economics from Pakistan.
Pakistan is a new country. Many people seem to be unaware of it (with due apologies to Miss Velma Gaston). In fact it was the indomitable faith in Islam, among the 100 million Moslems of India that found its geographical expression in Pakistan. This faith sustained the country in successfully facing the influx of eight million refugees, defying all parallels in modern history. It is this faith that serves as a bulwark against Communism.
Jim Baird
Pakistan has already declared itself an Islamic State. This means simply that she is going to incorporate the historic tenets of Islam with the principles of democracy in her constitution. The framing of the constitution was guided by the Objectives Resolution passed by the Constituent Assembly on March 12, 1949. It was the outcome of a belief that political, social, and economic unrest mainly are due to the fact that material progress has not gone hand in hand with spiritual advancement.
There is tradition of the Prophet which says that there shall be no consensus of opinion on an error amongst his people. By adopting this attitude, Islam has acted in accordance with human nature. All philosophies and religions can thrive only on a conviction and a voluntary surrender of the human will to its precepts. From the point of view of political philosophy, this attitude of Islam is not only correct but very essence of wisdom.
Thus it is my conviction that Pakistan as an Islamic Democracy can set an example of peace, prosperity and harmonious progress for a world torn between conflicting ideologies.
—Imtiaz Ahmad Khan
This fear is unfounded. Islam does not tolerate the growth of priesthood, nor does it encourage the division of the people into a clergy and a laity. Indeed no particular class has been given authority to interpret the principles of Islam.
But so far as the Moslems as a community are concerned, they have been entrusted with organizing themselves into an instrument for practising and propagating the message delivered to our Prophet in its final form.
There are certain popular fallacies regarding an Islamic State which need to be exploded. The first springs from the fear that an Islamic State will ultimately be ruled by a set of persons vested with sacerdotal authority like some old Catholic Empires of Europe.
The second fallacy is that Islamic State will be a theocratic state. Islam envisages the Moslems as a secular society believing in the principles of Islam and, acting upon its precepts. It trusts the mass of the Moslems to do their duty. It provides for discipline and goes even to the extent of punishing the black sheep.
Letters
'Big Dam-ers' Chastised; Writer Replies
Dams Won't Save Good Kansas Soil
Editor, Daily Kansan:
I have been reading your reports on why we need a Big Dam. The Army Corps has a lot of money the government has "issued" it, so it must get rid of it.
They need a dam on the Kaw? "You heard what the General said, men, that's an order!" They don't care how many farms it covers or how many people are moved from their homes.
The Soil Conservation service introduced a plan to make many small dams on unproductive land, which could never be used for other purposes. The idea is to stop the water from going into the river all at once
Let's look at it this way: is it easier to stop water flowing down a small ditch or is it easier to stop a river?
Common sense will tell you it's easier to stop water in a small ditch. It's much cheaper to build small dams, too. The place to stop a flood is where it starts and it definitely doesn't start on the Kaw. Yes, that's where the damage shows up but not where it originates.
Why doesn't the SCS put its plan into action? It's because the Army Corps had the most money at the time. The SCS was spending it's money to build up farms and keep them up. It is doing a successful job. I might add.
Here is a summary in a nutshell. The Army wants a big dam which
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This gives it a chance to soak into the earth. Most people do not know of the SCS and its plan. They only want to get something in front of the flood that doesn't need to materialize.
will cover good, fertile, productive land. The SCS wants to make several small dams which will stop the rapid run-off of the water.
I hope we won't be too sorry for rushing into something we know so little about.
John E. Willis college freshman
Editorialist Replies To Slanting Charge
Editor. Daily Kansan:
In reply to Egon Sohmen's letter —complaining about my slanting of the story about Austria, with information taken from the Time magazine—I have to add that the substance of that story, the oath by Raab, his curriculum and sympathies, the Neo-Nazi tendencies of the Union of Independents, etc., are clearly affirmed in that article.
It is pleasing to see that even big shots like the Time editors can be proved wrong by a native of the country they are writing about. I hope Time will publish Sohmen's letter, as the Kansan did.
I am glad that he enjoys writing letters to the editors. I hone he has been writing as many letters to Austrian papers to keep them well informed about the U.S., and that he will keep writing to the Daily Kansan even when he returns to Europe.
So will I.
Al Traldi graduate student
POGO