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University Daily Kansan
Editorial
Language Training Vital in Atom Age
Stressing America's lack of trained linguists, a convention of modern language teachers was recently told, "Many Americans must command a knowledge of one or more foreign languages" if we are to continue as a world power.
The speaker was Earl J. McGrath, U.S. commissioner of education.
He was emphasizing a need pointed out on this page three weeks ago.
In his address, Mr. McGrath spoke of a recent international meeting of teachers who heard a delegate from Egypt address them in faultless English one day, French the next, and carry on informal discussions in perfect German.
"At this conference the United States was represented by five persons all of whom held Ph.D. degrees. Yet not one of them could use a foreign language well enough to carry on private conversation, much less deliver a formal address.
"This is not an unusual situation," said Commissioner McGrath. He went on to explain that the entire nation is relatively ignorant of foreign languages and totally unprepared in this field for international living.
Commissioner McGrath proposed a complete reconsideration of the place of foreign language study in American elementary education. He believes the reason for our lag is the late start American students get in language study. "In many other parts of the world, second and even third languages are begun in the early grades," he said.
Children learn a language much easier and more idiomatically than adults because they are not so set in their language patterns.
A program to teach languages earlier in the grades would make "a vital contribution to the well-being of our people, to our national prosperity, and to international understanding and peace," he said.
We are in thorough agreement with the commissioner. The shrinking world is rapidly making a background in languages more and more necessary. Unfortunately, language study is becoming like piano lessons—children are scared of them but when they get older they wish they had made the effort.
Education in the United States is attempting valiantly to keep up with the times by using modern teaching methods. Let's hope that new methods and new curricula will be introduced in tune with the nation's changing needs. —Roger Yarrington.
Letters
Editor of the Daily Kansan:
In spite of the efforts of the Democratic candidate with his polished phrases to confuse the voters, it is obvious that the main issues of this presidential campaign are free enterprise and state's rights. The candidate, whose stand is the most American on both of them is the one who deserves the support of every right-thinking patriot.
About free enterprise, little need be said. Whereas Gov. Stevenson inherits his slogans from the proponents of unjustified government interference in the nation's business, such as Woodrow Wilson and F.D.R., both of whom were, in the final analysis, pale pinks, Ike stands squarely in the traditions of President McKinley, Coolidge, Hoover, and Sen Taft. So by his stand for free enterprise, Ike is right.
But it is in the issue of states' rights where Ike must refute his detractors. If it is true a man can be judged by his friends and supporters, then Ike stands well judged. We have seen pictures of the general smiling and shaking hands, on his recent and triumphant southern trips, with such outstanding national leaders as James Byrnes, Herman Talmadge, and many others.
It is Gbv. Byrnes of South Carolina who is so sincere in his defense of states' rights that he threatened to dismantle the public school system of his state rather than accept non-segregation, even if it should be ordered by the Supreme Court. And it is he, who, according to a report in Newsweek,
Herman Talmadge, by his refusal to cooperate with federal authorities who were investigating a so-called "lynching" in his native state of Georgia, protected states' rights there, and gives every indication he will live up to the stature of his father, Gene Talmadge.
write the speech Ike delivered in Columbia, S.C.
Don Steinberg.
These men represent the true traditions of the old South, and they are Gen. Eisenhower's friends. They have broken with the Democratic party to support him. Ike's crusade will have the electoral votes, it seems, of at least a good share of the "solid South."
Daily Hansan
News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 373 Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily Press Assn., Associated Collegiate Press Assn., Represented by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City,
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. Entered second class, then 19th of March, Post Office Under Act of Lawrence, March 3, 1879.
One Man's Opinion
"Titled 'Adalai's Gullible Public," the article sets out to confirm an opinion that Gov. Stevenson is putting over a fast one on people he considers his lessors rather than his peers.
16 One of the most fallacious articles we have read on the current presidential campaign appeared in the October issue of Newsweek in Raymond Moley's column, "Perspective."
Bv ROGER YARRINGTON
The Stevenson speeches are marked by "a bored acceptance of the hopeless weakness and dumbness of the average man," says Mr. Moley, Gov. Stevenson regards himself as the people's "patron, not their comrade," he adds.
The program which he has outlined for the American people and the future as being their potential is not the picture of an inferior or even stupid people. Offering people work, continued struggles, and high taxes is not the appeal of a man who considers his people blind to the truth. Rather it is a testimony to a faith in the common sense intelligence of a people.
This article is a textbook example of the depths a man can sink to when pressed for a point of argument. To attack a man on his strongest point and call it his weakest is like trying to score a touchdown with nothing but cery plunges against a team with an exceptionally good line. It will get the attacker nowhere and will win only ridicule.
The analysis of Gov. Stevenson's speeches which the columnist claims to have made must certainly have been a very biased one. To find a "mightier-than-thou" attitude in the governor's speeches would take a close inspection by a man who was willing to accept most anything as proof.
To submit oneself and his political beliefs clearly and honestly before the voters as Adlai Stevenson has done, requires not the amazing amount of treachery which Mr. Moley implies but rather an integrity with which Mr. Moley evidently unacquainted.
Keep the gang together for trips to the big games or other fall events. You'll have more fun—because you can go when you please, stop when you please, and return whenever you wish. When you go by CHARTER coach, Greyhound takes you right to the stadium and is waiting right there for you after the game. Best of all, it will cost each one of you less than if you went alone.
Use Greybound's regular service for week-end trip or vacations. You'll have a better trip and pay less for it. You'll enjoy Greybound's frequent, convenient, well-timed schedules and downtown depots - plus low fares
GREYHOUND BUS DEPOT
638 Mass.
Phone 707-708