Page 2 University Daily Kansan
Sooner's Threat May Change Rule
With the prospects of Oklahoma withdrawing from the Big Seven conference growing more probable, and the feeling that is building up among the member schools against the ban on post-season football games, the Big Seven is faced with the problem of eliminating a rule which has created great criticism in the Midwest.
But the Big Seven has its reasons for keeping the ban on bowl games for its members. The conference regards the National Collegiate Athletic association as its parent organization. Because the NCAA has set up its own tournaments in basketball, baseball, and track, the Big Seven conference has ruled that its members may participate in such post-season activities.
However, the NCAA does not provide bowl games for its members' football teams. While the NCAA has established minimum standards for bowl, the Big Seven does not consider that as official as the tournaments.
Many persons have cried that the Big Seven is discriminating against grid teams by allowing post-season games in all sports except football. But the Big Seven is sincere in its belief that the policy it is pursuing is more in keeping with the lines set up by the NCAA.
Many of the members of the Big Seven have been taking a more definite stand on the question of bowl games lately, and the tide seems to be turning in favor of bowl games for Big Seven teams.
If Oklahoma continues to seek admittance in the Southwest conference, the Big Seven may have to reverse its stand on bowl games. Sooner Coach Bud Wilkinson has insisted he wants to stay in the Big Seven conference. He believes the Big Seven to have a healthier program for all athletics. But the Oklahoma Board of Regents is applying great pressure to jump the Sooners into the Southwest conference.
Coach Wilkinson prefers to stay in the Big Seven and work to change the existing rules. And that appears to be the most logical plan. Rules should never become so necessary that they can't be changed.
When a rule does not serve the purpose for which it was intended—as the ban on bowl games does not—then it should be changed.
Bob Longstaff.
Truman-Ike Truce Held Only 7 Days
The political truce between President Truman and President-elect Eisenhower was one of the shortest on record—an even seven days.
1. 8. 13
It was two weeks ago that Mr. Truman stated the ground rules for the new Democratic opposition. He said then that the incoming Republican administration should be given a chance to show what it can do before being subjected to a lot of criticism.
He said, for example, that he would have no comment or criticism of Eisenhower's nominations to high office until the new administration had a chance to take over and show its stuff.
On Thursday of last week Mr. Truman blasted, in language unusually strong for a presidential news conference, at Eisenhower's method of approaching the country's greatest policy problem. That is what to do about Korea, and how.
What Mr. Truman still identifies as the Korean police action is the most stubborn and challenging of the unsolved problems he is leaving to the new administration.
The President said it was demagoguery for the President-elec to approach the Korean problem with a campaign pledge to visit that country. Second guessers now are convinced Eisenhower's pledge to go to Korea was one of the top factors in his election triumph.
Mr. Truman sensed the deadly political impact of Eisenhower's pledge the instant it was made. He was and is sensitive on the subject of Korea. Right or wrong, Mr. Truman is personally responsible for the United States being involved there. He personally made the decision although he had the advice of his cabinet and military associates.
Mr. Truman assumed further individual responsibility in the spring of 1951 when he fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur said then, as he says now, that he had a plan to end the war.
Right or wrong, Mr. Truman rejected the MacArthur plan for the plan of his diplomatic and military advisers and the war goes on. That again was the President's personal and final decision and responsibility.
Mr. Truman's intention to give the Eisenhower administration a chance to show its stuff before shooting at it, collapsed after a week under the weight of Korea and all the name of that nation implies.
Eisenhower will find it hard to forgive Mr. Truman's barbed language so directly challenging his motives. There is speculation here about what the two men will talk about Jan. 20 during the inaugural parade from the capitol to the White House—or, whether they will talk, at all—United Press.
The older folks complain "that this modern generation moves too fast," and a Los Angeles grandmother turns right around and holds up three banks in a month's time to bring back memories "of the good old days."
In The Editor's Eye
Rv ROGER VARRINGTON
It is very interesting to watch the people on the street at Christmas time as they pass or stop at a Salvation army offering booth.
Some pass but many stop to drop in a coin and receive a word of thanks from the worker there.
Those who do give are a cross-section of all economic classes. It is comforting and pleasing to note the ones that give. It is comforting to know the well-to-do are interested enough in the needy to give and it is pleasing that the not-so-well-to-do are big enough to share what they have also.
It is too bad that many cannot preserve within themselves the spirit of sharing the entire year. However, it is a wonderful experience at Christmas time, when the opportunity to share is so great, to note that our supposedly cold and disinterested capitalists are still interested in the other guy.
A SIGN IN THE J-SCHOOL has resulted from a suggestion in a recent One Man's Opinion authored by Phil Newman. The signs are posted on various bulletin boards and in the newsroom. They read "A Newspaper Should Lead - Not Follow."
That famous editor said newspapers should not veer from their "traditional position as leaders of public opinion to mere peddlers and purveyors of news."
Unknowing to those who proposed the idea, it is only a slightly reworded sentiment of William Allen White, for whom the school is named.
A FRIEND OF OURS, who is a Fulbright scholar here, came home boiling mad the other evening because a professor had told him that he gave higher marks for well-written papers which showed little thought than for papers which evidenced a great deal of thought but were not so well written.
"Under those circumstances," said our friend, "the greatest insult to my intelligence would be to become a success at this University."
Under those circumstances, we would be inclined to agree with him. We are hoping, however, that such professors are in the minority here.
* *
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS on the Hill have been up for several weeks now and compliments are certainly due for the seasonal beauty they have added to the campus.
Although the lights in front of Strong hall seem rather gaudy for the idea which the season is celebrating, we think the tree in the rotunda and the soft blue lights at Danforth chapel are beautiful.
AN EDITORIAL in the December
UNIVERSITY Daily Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 373
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Dairy Press Association, Association for Advertising Represents by the National Advertising Firm, 420 Madison Avenue, N.Y. City.
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Editor-in-Chief ... Roger Yarinason
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Asst. Mgr. Editors -------------- Mary Cooper, Bob Stewart, Chuck Zuegner Max Thompson City Editor --------------- Dean Evans Society Editor -------------- Jeanne Fitzgerald Sports Editor -------------- Don Nielsen Athletics Editor -------------- Case Keen Astros Editor -------------- Chuck Morelock Graph Editor -------------- Phil Newman Tire Editor -------------- Daron Sarten
Managing Editor  Diana Stonebaker
Asst. Mgr. Editors  Mary Cooper, Bob
NEWS STAFF
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager      Clark Akers
Advertising Mar.     Elbert Spivey
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Correlation         Patricia Vance
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Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $45 a year (add 1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published in Lawrence, Kan. every afternoon during the University year except Saturday and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Entered second classmate at Lawrence or at Lawrence Kau. Post Office under act of March 3, 1879.
To the Editor of the Daily Kansan.
Although the Air Force does a good job in keeping my schedule well filled, I still find the time to read the University Daily Kansan—as I did in my recent four years at KU. I was particularly interested, and concerned, with a recent editorial by Miss Taylor entitled "Jayhawker Policy Needs Clean Up."
First of all, Miss Taylor asks, "Why should last year's Jayhawker close its books with a profit of $1,000—why not make a better book instead of filling the pockets of the staff?"
Granting that the Jayhawk should and will make improvements in the future management of its affairs—as is true in other activities of the University—there are certain questions asked by Miss Taylor, which although rhetorical, should be answered.
Disregarding the editorial's general and pervasive tone of sarcasm—which, at times, can be effective in editorial writing, there are certain statements that should not be left unchallenged. Just as Miss Taylor concedes, "that the editor of the Jayhawker is responsible for the smooth running of a $27,000 enterprise," the editor of the Kansan likewise has certain definite obligations—perhaps the most important of which is reflecting valid student opinion, without intentional or accidental distortion of the truth.
Perhaps it was accidental, but Miss Taylor's references to the Jayhawker a "closed shop" for a "chosen few" were passed on to the UDK's readers as fact—wholly unsupported by the rest of the editorial. The Jayhawkier is certainly not a closed organization when the hundred or more students who work on its staff are considered—and the "few" are chosen by a board of experience and ability: the dean of the School of Journalism, the bursar of the University, the executive secretary of the University, the deans of men and women, the chairman of the ASC's publication committee, former editors and business managers—among others.
(Editor's Note: Win Koerper was the
auteur of *The Filler* and the *Daily Kansas;
On the Filler* of the *Daily Kansas;*
Forgetting Miss Taylor's misrepresentation of fact (the profit rei-
10 issue reported that the ASC wanted the Kansan to clear up the editorial board situation for the many students who are unclear about that body.
Ex-Editor Denies Charges
The editorial pointed out that the board had been objectively reported and explained in the Nov. 14 UDK and that copies of that issue were available in the office.
To date no one has called for any of the back issues. Either a lot of people are saving their Kansans at home or the ASC was wrong. Either solution seems highly improbable.
In our case, with the 1952 Jayhawker, it was not apparent that we would make a profit until early spring—when increased sales and ads made the difference.
mained after expenses and bonuses were paid), the answer is relatively simple. At the beginning of each school year, when the budget of the Jayhawkner is set up, it is impossible to predict the exact number of subscriptions and advertisements which will be sold. That is the time of the year when contracts are signed with printers and engravers.
There is hardly any practicable way to spend an extra thousand dollars on the last issue—with contractual commitments already made. In fact, if Miss Taylor's intimations were correct—it seems that we would not have left a profit—but would have "filled our pockets" toward the end of the year through our "liberal" expense" accounts. We did not, however, and the profit went into the revolving Jayhawker fund—which in future years should make possible the production of better Jayhawkers.
Second, Taylor asks, "If you Jayhawker edit and business manager receive salaries, why shouldn't the same position on the Kansas receive compensation." Fundamentally, while the journalism students who edit the UDK do not receive salaries—they do receive credit hours
— and, more significantly — grade points. There is not even a mention—much less credit—on my transcript, or on Bill Howell's or Kenny Dam's for our Jayhawker work. The question of whether a Kansan editor's "A" or "B" is equal to a Jayhawker editor's salary is certainly debatable—but, evidently, that is not what Miss Taylor chose to discuss.
As to the question of proper salary—most of the people who are acquainted with Jayhawker work will agree that $35 or even $45 per month amounts to an extremely low per hour wage. Of course, there is the pleasure, and somewhat dubious honor to be considered—but, in my opinion, this factor is well balanced by the heavy restriction on other activities, the limitation of credit hours carried, and the surrender of much leisure time which is automatically accepted by the Jayhawker editor upon his election.
Miss Taylor also put forth the statement that "no one knows how much money comes in, or where it goes." Quite to the contrary, the bursar of the University who is also chairman of the Jayhawker advisory board has complete records of income and expense—as does the student business manager. Such a statement indicates, at least to me, an unknowing display of dangerous journalism—and an unwise policy for a Kansan writer to follow.
Win Koerper '52
2nd Lt., USAF
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