Page 2 University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 8, 1952
Editorials
Real Issue Lost In Election Squabble
The real issue in the campus primary elections squabble has been lost in the heated discussion over the right of the All Student Council president to declare the Pachacamac party primary invalid.
The Pachacamac party at no time violated the ASC ruling calling for a closed primary. The ruling did not call for identification by membership cards but merely stated that the voting in each party's primary election was to be only by the members of that party.
The only thing which was not followed was an interpretation of the meaning of the ASC ruling. The interpretation did not come from the bill itself or from the student court but from the council president.
This interpretation was not binding nor is it believable that it could be made so without further support. This support would have to be in the form of additional legislation which, of course, could not be made retroactive to cover this election.
The purpose of a closed primary was defeated
by the requirement of membership cards or similar identification. A closed primary election is held to allow the avowed members of a party to select their candidates. It is closed to prevent outsiders from taking part.
A person is a member of a political party by his declaration and not by a membership card. If this were not true it would be the card and not the man which had the privilege of voting. The card is merely a symbol that a person has made his statement of party affiliation.
Thus, the only difference between the FACTS member who came to the voting booth with a party membership card in his hand and a Pach member who came and asked for the Pachacamac party ballot was the number of times each made his party declaration. The FACTS man did it twice, the Pach man did it once. But in both cases the result should have been the same. In both cases the voter should have been qualified to vote.
It is time that this discussion is put onto the real issue so that the proper answer may be obtained. —Joe Taylor.
Reds Beating In Radio Propaganda
Day and night, hundreds of radio transmitters in Russia, Red China and Eastern European satellite countries disgorge Communist and anti-democratic propaganda.
The broadcasts go in 47 languages and dialects.
It is a tireless and ever-growing effort to sell the Soviet propaganda line to people from the pampas of Argentina to the rice paddies of Thailand.
Surveys by the U.S. government show that the Communist radio output now totals more than 1,240 weekly broadcast hours, compared to only 902 hours produced by the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting company, the two most important sources of anti-Red air-waves warfare.
Communist international broadcasts, costing an estimated $500,000,000 dollars annually, cover every corner of the earth and constitute an important part of the Soviet foreign policy.
American officials who are concerned with counteracting Soviet propaganda believe its ultimate success or failure may well determine the fate of the Gremlin's global policy. They think likewise that the success of America's foreign policy hinges largely on Washington's ability to explain the aims of the free world in the cold war.
Both the Communists and the Western powers devote the greatest chunk of their total propaganda appropriations to the radio war. The funds available to Moscow broadcasters are far greater than those granted to the VOA and BBC.
The Red radio campaign is based on what Western officials call the technique of the "Big Lie." It attempts to monopolize the idea of peace for the Communist world.
Red broadcasts hammer home the contention that Russia stands for peace while the United States and Britain are busy preparing for a new war.
Western officials admit privately that Russia's campaign of the "Big Lie" is more effective, because of sheer repetition if nothing else, than they would like to see it. That is particularly so in the crucial areas of the Near East, southeast Asia and parts of western Europe. They deplore the fact that the Western powers lack the funds and the
equipment to counteract more effectively Russia's campaign.
However, in this war of ideas the democracies are showing ingenuity and imagination that frequently upset the plans of the Kremlin and of the Agitprop. Russia's central propaganda agency. Despite the overwhelming technical superiority of the Soviet propaganda apparatus, the Americans and the British are holding their own.
With the intensification of the cold war in 1951, the Communists stepped up considerably their radio activities. Figures supplied by the foreign broadcast information service of the U.S. government show that between Sept. 1, 1950, and Sept. 1, 1951, Soviet international broadcasting has increased by 30 per cent; that of the European satellites by 21 per cent and that of the Peiping radio by 76 per cent.
The most significant increases in Moscow programs have been in English to Britain and to North America. Moscow now broadcasts 50 hours weekly to the United States, employing 16 separate short wave lengths but has had small success in building American audiences.
in March, 1951, the Russians began appropriating time on satellite transmitters to relay their own programs to Western Europe, Yugoslavia, Greece and North America.
The VOA increased its own broadcasts in 1951 as its output rose by 76 per cent over 1950. Further increases are planned this year. The BBC, however, cut down its programs by 15 per cent last year.
The most disturbing Red radio superiority is found in the most sensitive theatres of the cold war. Thus, Moscow and Peiping broadcast 27 hours weekly to India in Bengali, English, and Hindustani. The BBC and the Voice beam a weekly total of 15 hours in seven dialects. The BBC and the Voice do somewhat better in general English language broadcasts to Asia that can be heard in India.
Interestingly enough, there are no Russian-language broadcasts beamed to Asia or anywhere else in the world. Russian being reserved for the immense home service of the Soviet Radio.—Tad Szule, United Press Staff Correspondent.
Political Trickery Denied By Student
,etters:
\ear Editor;
As a representative of the ASC om FACTS party I read your littoral of April 4 with great interest. To put it mildly, I was very unhappy with what I read, for I was formed that I am attempting to sep my party in power by using cheap political trickery" and making a mockery of my party's pledges or government.
I ask you, Mr. Taylor, is it cheap litalic trickery to try to uphold e ASC constitution? Is it unfair vermment to try to make all stuuts obey the laws of the ASC? Last November, the ASC by a
two-thirds majority passed a bill requiring all campus political parties to nominate their party candidates by closed primaries in which only duly qualified members of each party should vote. (FACTS does not have a two-thirds majority on the Council.)
Therefore its primary could not be valid if the constitution was to be upheld. Consequently, as a member of the ASC elections committee, I felt compelled to uphold the ASC president's written objection to the Pach primary and
The ASC ruled what should constitute a duly qualified member. This ruling was not appealed so it must stand. Pach party wilfully violated the ASC constitution by declaring that its primary was open to all who presented only ID cards.
I did not wish to see the names of any students desiring to run for an office left off the ballot, because that would be unfair to them. Thus I was happy to agree to waive the deadline for filing and allow these students' names to be placed on the ballot under Sec. 5, Chapter 2, ASC Bill 2.
leave the Pach candidates off the ballot for the general elections.
The committee has done everything possible to be fair to the students, whose constitution' must be upheld and to those students whose party violated that constitution. But you say we are guilty of "cheap political trickery." Is that a fair unbiased judgment or some political trickery of your own?
Shirley Thomson, Education Junior.
Short Ones
A Danish explorer believes sea serpents may exist in the lower depths of the ocean. An Australian fisherman tried to prove it by catching a 2,300 pound shark.
The latest Communist peace offensive is like an inflated paper bag. It makes a lot of noise when it breaks but all it contains is hot air.
Freshman co-ed can't understand why Chancellor Murphy would want to go to K-State.
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