Page 2 University Daily Kansan Tuesday. May 19, 1953 State Hot Potato New Jayhawker Editor Panic, Not Reason, Urges Big Dams Outlines '53-'54 Policy Editor's Note: This is another in a series of editorials on the Kansas flood control controversy by a member of the Daily Kanesan staff. Previous articles have outlined the issues and facias. The letters column is open to views of money which would be used in building useless chunk of concrete Editor's Note: The Daily Kansas has asked Krusdun, journalism junior and editor of the 1932 *dayakman* magazine,纵里 his views on what the school year entails. He will be followed. Like all neophyte Jayhawker editors, we would like to set forth the aims and intents we're formulating for the 1953-54 Jayhawker. There'll be some changes made. It seems to us that a yearbook fails of its purpose unless it is just that—a yearbook—a graphic record of the year's events portrayed in action and news pictures together with well-edited copy that shows a little insight. Group pictures and individual photographs are the bedrock of any annual. It's important to any student to find himself integrated with the scope of a University year. But representation of the student only begins, not ends here. To capture the spirit and flavor of nine months of feverish activity of some 6,000 individuals with multilateral interests and ambitions is no easy task. But we feel that it can be done, by presenting such universal facets as: coffee in the Hawk's nest and a jammed library before finals, the scramble of campus politics and a rain-drenched Homecoming. And the best focal point of student interests lies in the myriad clubs and activities. One major aim of the 1953-54 Jayhawker will be to extend the broadest possible coverage to the doings of these student and University organizations: the band and orchestra, Modern Dance club, University Theatre, campus publications, religious groups, and so on. groups, and so on. This coverage will not be in the staid form of group shots and listings of officers, but featured articles and pictures covering areas of extra-curricular activities. Specific changes: sports representation will be placed in perspective. The national and international news preface will be dropped. (We suspect that editorializing in these pages may appear somewhat ridiculous in future years.) It will be replaced by a short "color" article of the year's directions and associations in the final issue. Harking to considerable student criticism, the Big Wheels on the Campus section will also be killed. Selection of persons to appear in these pages in the past has been completely arbitrary. But—more important—the philosophy behind the idea is alien to a university-level attitude. It seems to us that any student taking part in extra-curricular activities should derive enough personal satisfaction simply from that participation without Big Wheel glorification. Activities work will be recognized, of course, with the senior picture identifications and the treatment of clubs and organizations. We believe this method much more democratic. And special sections on the schools of the University seem to us more in order than personal articles written by professors or the history of architecture at KU. In short, we hope to give a sampling—with the student always in the forefront—of the workaday, play, and cultural aspects of the University; a one-year personality sketch of KU. Those are our standards and objectives, sweeping though they are. Come this time next year, we'll expect to be measured by them. —Jerry Knudson Daily Hansan UNIVERSITY University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 376 Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily Press Assn., Associated College Press Assn., National Service Association, National Service, 420 Madison Avenue, N.Y. City. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-chief ... Bob Stewart Editorial Assistants ... Chuck Zuegner, Asst. Mgr. Editors ... Bob Nold, Ron Kull, Clarke Keys, Jerry Knudson News Editor ... Robanne Atkins Society Editor ... Rozane Cal皮特 Editorial Advisor ... Caldert Pickett Managing Editor Bab Longstaff Asst. Scc. Editors Valma Gaston, Henry Horn Sports Editor Chuck Marelack Asst. Sports Editor Don Tice Maurice Dawson Picture Editor Ken Coyle News Editor Victor J. Danilov BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager ... Virginia Mackey Adv.-Promotion Mgr. ... Patty Vance Retail Adv. Mgr. ... Tom Breckenridge National Mgr. ... Dan Lau Relation Mgr. ... Max Urban Classified Adv. Mgr. ... Larraine Golding Business Advisor ... Dale Novatny Comments Cookeville, Tenn —(U.P.)- Elbert Sullivan found a bald eagle with a six-foot wingspread on his farm near here. Sullivan, who said the eagle's left wing was broken, took the bird to a veterinarian for treatment. The eagle was clutching a crow in one of its feet when Sullivan found it. --placed. Now consider an alternate proposal. Spend the Greenwich, Conn., (U,P)—State Trooper John Martin Jr., was given a commendation for action "above and beyond the call of duty" for a rescue. He used a rowboat to force his way through the ice on a private pond and rescued a duck frozen into the ice. Tehachapi, Calif. — (U.P.)—Authorities have a different problem on their hands now that the California Institution for Women here has been abandoned because of earthquake damage. Instead of hunting prisoners who escaped by climbing - * * Editor's Note: This is another in a series of editorials on the Kansas flood control controversy by a member of the Daily Kansan staff. Previous articles have outlined issues and factions. The letters column is open to views of Like anything else, the only way to stop flood damage is to get to the source of the trouble. So you build a big dam. You spend millions for a huge hulking chunk of concrete that will slow the river down, and give a feeling of security to the farmers in the river bottoms and the cities in the path of a periodically rampant river. In time, and not a very long time, the silt basin of the big dam fills up, the dam is useless, and you are right back where you started. This does not even take into consideration the fact that there are going to be thousands of acres of good farmland sacrificed to these false gods of protection. The river-bottom farmers are willing to let this land go under to protect themselves. Might there be an angle of less competition here? Anyway, the farmers that are in a panic now because of the recent devastating flood should consider: do they want rich land or safety? The same river that periodically sweeps away their homes and crops also brings the silt and soil that makes the bottom land so rich. True, the river is fickle. Sometimes it brings sand instead of silt, but the fact is that the river bottoms are fertile, and they would not be so if there was not more silt deposited than sand. As for the useful lifespan of a dam, it is rather short. The Hoover, or Boulder, dam was built in 1836, and some good estimates of the time left for it to operate are about 11 years. This means that that tremendous undertaking will last for just over 30 years before it will have to be blasted out and replaced. money which would be used in building another useless chunk of concrete to educate and subsidize farmers to build terraces in their fields. Catch the water as it falls and keep it on the ground. It will not only keep the river from running high, it will keep the valuable soil where it belongs. This would be hitting at the true source of the problem. If the water stays where it belongs, you will not have floods. And once you have shown the farmers how to save their land from erosion, you will not have to do it again. If you resort to dams, you will have to spend tremendous amounts periodically to keep the dams in repair. How would the cities feel about this? Well, it seems they would prefer to pay taxes for a permanent project once and get it over with, than to keep on paying for dams every 30 years. Then too, they would be saving valuable land, which after all, does feed them, from inundation by big dams. dams. How would the Blue valley and Kaw valley farmers feel about it? Well, they might not like the idea of all that up-river land staying above water, but they would be just as safe as if they had had dams. Maybe safer—ever read the story about "The Day the Dam Broke" by James Thurber? It was funny, all about how everybody ran for high ground when somehow there was a rumor started that a dam had "burst." The funniest part was that there was not a dam within 100 miles of the town. They panicked. That is just the trouble now. Everybody is panicked, they are willing to run under trees to be safe from lightning. And they are willing to build big, high-priced dams instead of spending the money for a permanent flood control—education. Down with Big Dam Foolishness. —Don Nielsen New Review Session Beats Cram Courses —Don Nielsen At last they've done it! After several semesters of letting commercially-operated "cran courses" attempt to pull students through their Division III bugaboo the Western Civilization department has authorized its own review session. According to several students who enrolled in the review session last week, instruction from proctors at the lectures was good—much better than that offered throughout the semester at the newly devised series of Western Civ background lectures. The lectures were disappointing, most students agreed. To the College or pre-professional school student, Western Civilization often seems an almost insurmountable barrier to a pleasant school year. The 14 units of reading—no matter how important it is as background for other courses—is dull, dry, required reading. Introduction several semesters ago of a student-operated "cram course" and a set of student-written notes on the course put money in their originators' pockets—and gave the distinterested Western Civ students a "way out." Now it is possible for a student to take the quiz and "erack a C" without opening the books. The character-building possibilities of independent study under the proctorial assistance have zoomed to an all-time low. Western Civilization administrators perhaps should receive a pat on the back for setting up the review sessions. The only flaw is that the review is a review; the cram course, a cram course. The review presupposes that a student has read the material; the cram course spoon-feeds a vacant mind, pumps it full of carefully condensed "main points," and turns out a superb finished product one who can get without giving. Mary Betz the 12-foot fence around the institution, they search for thieves who, break in and make off with equipment. Philadelphia — (U.P.) – Pin-ball enthusiasts now won't mind missing a * * train at the Pennsylvania railroad's 30th street station here. The railroad announced the opening of a 16,000-square foot "game room" with 47 nickel amusement machines. It will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. P Letters Sunnyside Loblolly Draws Rightful Ire Dear Sir: Editor, Daily Kansan: Door Sir: This is to call someone's attention to the loblolly in Splinterville; it has gone on unattended long enough. Not that I wish to do this in a complaining spirit, you understand, for it gives the children a place to play, and being the children of faculty people they at least deserve that much. But what with all the publicity about the sodding of the grounds and the campus beautification projects, the Sunnyside potholes and malaria swamps should be covered up somehow. I don't know whether you can do it with a letter, but that's what gave me the idea of writing this one. And then the alligators! Now that spring is here they're stirring about a little more hungriily than usual. They tell the story about the faculty member who thought something was getting his children. . . I know the place will be torn down someday to make room for a modernistic apartment-style dormitory for impeccable faculty families, but while Sunnyside still stands, let's give it its due, shall we? Take the military doings we've had down here the last week or so: Cadets with muddy britches, Midshipmen with their anchors fouled . . . all because they have to pass through Sunnyside on their way to the drill field. Sincereley, Wm..J. Sollner Editor's note: For the record, Webster defines a loblolly as a mud puddle, or a thick gruel. Either one would be applicable to the slimy sloughs used as playthings by children in Sunnyside. Maybe a letter will get results, we hope so, but failing in that, maybe one of our harassed photographers can be talked into trying the job. "One picture is worth 10,000 words..." Mail Subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a semester if in Lawrence). Published every afternoon during the University every afternoon on Sundays and Sundays. 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