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University Daily Kansan Thursday, May 21. 1953
State Hot Potato -
It's Later Than You Think, Chillun
Editor's Note: This is another in a series of editors' by staff members on the Kansas flood control situation. The
Once upon a time the rains came.
And the creeks rose. And the tributaries rose. And the rivers rose. The Year of the Great Flood was at hand.
The floods grew and grew. It became a rampaging monster that swept through great industrial areas and down the mainstreets of small towns.
It was a terrible disaster. Thousands of people were uprooted from their homes and returned to find nothing but muck and debris. Farmers were torn from their rich bottomlands and returned to find desolation.
The waters finally subsided. The people regarded the land with despair and resignation. But grass again grew on the rich bottomlands. The industrial areas boomed forth once more.
Then—with the mire shovelled out—the people turned to finding ways and means to avert other Great Floods. And the water swirled again—only this time it was the waters of men's opinions.
There were two currents of thought: One favored Big Dams. The other wanted Little Dams or No Dams. The controversy raged.
The Big Dam people charged that the Little Dam people were reactionaries, and the Little Dam people countered that Big Dams were socialism. Big Dammers pointed to the horror of the Great Flood, and Little Dammers were aghast at the prospect of having their rich farm valleys flooded behind Big Dams.
Anti-Dams pasted stickers on their cars crying. "Down with Big Dam Foolishness" and sent delegations of housewives to Washington to protest the "totalitarian" tactics involved in moving them from their land.
Pro-Dams were backed by the Corps of Engineers who provided reams of slick statistics to prove that everyone against Big Dams was unreasonable; editorial writers referred to the Little Dam farm people as "Josh" and "Ned."
Everyone got in on the discussion. A sportsman (who especially liked fishing) said he was all for conservation of the water resources. Pros cited the "outstanding" example of TVA. Cons said the big dams would fill up with silt before they were finished.
University professors thought long and sagely and remarked, "sinners will sin and floodplains will flood."
Someone thought of the rain-makers who made headlines and claimed credit for rain over northwest Kansas during the summer of the Great Flood, Congress promised to investigate.
A farmer on the watershed laughed at the "exaggerated claims" of the Great Flood and went ahead breaking out steep hillside land to plant to wheat. Other farm people said they had received no protection against the dust-blackened skies of the early 30's and asked why those who chose to risk farming or packing meat along the rivers should be "coddled."
Everyone became an authority on the flood problem. There never had been so many authorities on a single public question except perhaps on Russia and Communism. A babel of voices were heard. Pick-Sloan became a household word.
And there were a few — a very few — who tried to slash through the charges and countercharges to find some substance of fact. These few tried to approach the question as rationally as the sound and fury would permit. They urged moderation and an intelligent re-examination of the basic issues.
But few went unheard and the babel on went on. Confusion reigned and emotions went on a binge.
Then—at the height of the hullabaloo—one summer afternoon it started to rain . . . and rain . . . and rain. —Jerry Knudson
Allies Squabble While RussiaMoves
The currently popular anti-America feeling a mong the British has grown out of a merry-go-round of misunderstandings between the Western allies and is not due to any one cause.
POGO
Since the Russian "peace offensive" began with the death of Stalin and the rise of Malenkov, the Allies have been broaching plans for a peace conference between Russia and the West.
Prime Minister Churchill of England submitted plans for a peace conference with Malenkov soon
Daily Hansan
after the recent NATO meeting in Paris. President Eisenhower criticized the plan because France was left out, and he urged more emphasis on the Korean peace and a treaty for Austria.
Lack of common objectives on the part of the Western nations would further impede progress toward a Big Four settlement. Great Britain is pushing Germany ahead of Korea and Austria in the "must" list of what to discuss.
other countries.
Churchill refused steadfastly to make the proposed conference conditional upon Korean and Austrian settlements. Premier Rene Mayer and Foreign Minister Georges Bidault of France were naturally dissatisfied with Churchill's proposal, since it left them out. Later the Russian ambassador to France assured them they would be included.
With the weakening of the Western alliance the Communists need not be in a hurry for an early Korean truce. Truce negotiations in the East can be delayed if the four-power conference is held.
France is aiming at an Indo-Chinese truce as No. 2 objective—with a discussion of armaments before talks on Germany, Mr. Eisenhower already has said he wants the Korean and Austrian settlements first.
If such a conference is held, Russia likely will be "top dog." Russia knows what it wants. The squabbling Allies cannot agree on anything. —Mary Betz
A four-power conference might force the West into long-drawn-out negotiations on the fate of Germany—and the West can't afford it. Germany is the only one of the European nations to have ratified the European Army plan so far, and the proposed conference would block progress in its ratification by
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 376
Student Criticizes Editorial's Truth
Al Tradi's article, "Neo-Fascists Hamper Austrian Anti-Reds" in the Daily Kansan Monday, is so grossly inaccurate that readers and my country deserve a correction.
The Austrian Socialist Party does not command a majority of 79 seats. The division of mandates in parliament is: People's Party 74, Socialists 73, Independents 14, Communists 4 seats.
The government crisis early this year arose out of a conflict over budgetary matters. The Socialists favored a continuation of high government spending which by then had made prices so to about 9 times the 1945 level, whereas the People's party wanted to make an effort to check inflation and stabilize the economy.
This was in line with urgent demands by the ERP mission which takes a justified interest in the stability of an economy subsidized by US funds.
The Socialist refusal to compromise led to a five-week deadlock during which a coalition between the two parties of the Right appeared as a less preferable, but the only possible alternative.
Less preferable so much because the League of Independents is neo-fascist—its platform does need further explanation; it would correspond to that of the Republican Party over here—but because it would have forced the Socialists willy-nilly into some sort of a united front with the Communist party.
as the undisputed leader of the People's party since 1945 he has shown sufficient moderation and willingness to cooperate to make the Socialists agree to his nomination as head of the cabinet of which they form a part.
One of the leading opponents of National Socialism before, during, and after the war, it was left to correspondents of Tass and an American magazine to describe him as a former Nazi.
The new chancellor, Julius Raab,
is an outspoken right-winger; he
The "Heimwehr oath" was a resolution passed quite a number of years after 1930 at a meeting at which Raab was not even present. A difference between right and left in the unhappy period before 1938 in Austria was hardly that one of them was more undemocratic than the other one, but rather that only one was in power to practice it.
It seems that the journalistic profession could do with a good deal more accuracy and less prejudice.
Egon Sohmen
Editor's Note: The main information for the story came from the April 16, 1953, issue of Time, the well known weekly magazine. I have personally suggested that, instead of Time, a publication with a more influential circulation than this newspaper—but I know he did not. The story he is complaining about has been written in a book called *The Discourse* course that he quit because, he told me, "it was rather stupid for him." since it dealt mainly with American politics. He should have stayed there, if he is right. He did not have the pleasure and wanted at least to give us a true picture of his country.—Al Traldu.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-chief Bob Stewart
Editorial Assistants Christine Nielsen
Nielsen
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn. Inland Daily News Representation, associates with Representative by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Avenue, N.Y.-City.
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor ----------------- Bob Longstaff
Asst. Mgt. Editors ----------------- Bob Nald, Ron Kull,
                Clarke Keys, Jerry Knudson
News Editor ----------------- Mary Cooper
Society Editor ----------------- Rozanna Mitte
Asst. Soc. Editors ----------------- Velma Gaston,
                Gladys Henry
Sports Editor ----------------- Chuck Morelock
Asst. Sports Editor ----------------- Don Tice
Esr. Editor ----------------- Maurice Maughan
Picture Editor ----------------- Ken Coy
News Advisor ----------------- Victor J. Danilov
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager ... Virginia Mackey
Adv-Promotion Mgr ... Patty Vance
Retail Adv. Mgr ... Tom Breckenridge
National Mgr ... Don Landeres
Maurice Burea
Classified Adv. Mgr ... Lorraine Goddin
Business Advisor ... David Novotny
Oveta Hobby Runs New Cabinet Post Like a Home
Mail Subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year (add 1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods Enterence School of Law, October 17, 1970, at Lawrence, Kan., Post Office under act of March 3, 1972.
Beyond the door, in her mulberry-andcream office, stands the huge mahogany desk over which the business of the third largest of the cabinets, budget-wise, is transacted. Over this desk she must fend off more pressure groups and lobbies than any 10 Senate committees, and she must woo and win a shy but fascinated Congress.
In thirty-seven years ago a sixth grade teacher in the public school of the small Texas town of Killeen announced to her class that the prize for the best speller for the term would be a handsome Bible. Scarcely before the dismissal bell had rung, a self-assured, pigtailed little girl came forward to the desk and announced to the teacher in a firm voice that she might as well go ahead and inscribe the Bible. Eight months later the same little girl smiled down at the Bible she held in her hand—inscribed to Oveta Culp.
Three weeks ago this same woman, now married and the mother of two, smiled again at her name—this time on the inner door of the office of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the nation's newest cabinet post.
Amid a bewildering mass of unrelated facts, figures, and projects, Mrs. Hobby already has discovered a theme of organic unity. As she recently said in a press conference, "a common thread of family service runs through the departments. Cut one, and you destroy the lifeline of the others." Her job brings her into direct contact with more U.S. citizens than anyone else in government.
In the name of Public Health and the President she manages one of the world's greatest medical research centers, provides operations for ailments ranging from hare-lipped children to blue babies, maintains hospitals for merchant seamen and drug addicts, an insane asylum, and a leprosarium.
As supervisor of the Social Security administration she is custodian of old-age funds for 67 million people, disburser of pensions and welfare funds amounting to $4 billion a year, a protector of the nation's disabled, needy, orphans, and old folk.
Through the Office of Education she contributes funds to land-grant colleges, and administers the teacher-student exchange program with foreign countries.
She is legally concerned with such diver-
sities as the problem of tape-worm control among Alaskan caribou, cancer research, and with the Congressional attitude toward the fluoridation of children's teeth. She prints Braille books, extends credit to deserving citizens, and bosses Howard university in Washington, the nation's largest Negro college.
The exact reason for President Eisenhower's choosing of Mrs. Hobby for this position has been greatly discussed. In part, his choice was due to the fact that she was a Texan and he owed Texas an election debt, and he had promised to install women in positions of responsibility. But he chose Oveta Culp Hobby principally because she possesses a rare talent for tactful administration, a talent sorely needed in Washington at the present moment.
And as Senate minority leader Lyndon Johnson, also a Texan, put it, "Texans don't always agree on everything, but there's one thing there's no disagreement on—that's Oveta. She's the type of woman you'd like to have for a daughter or a sister, a wife or a mother, or the trustee of your estate."
—Gladys Henry