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University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 17, 1952 Letters:
Editorials
Should Spies Be Executed?
Two Americans—a man and his wife—are in Sing Sing death house awaiting execution. Their crime is espionage, both of them having been found guilty of transmitting vital atom bomb secrets to Russia.
They were first tried and sentenced to death last April. On Feb. 26 the United States Court of Appeals affirmed their conviction. The two—Julius Rosenberg, 33, and his wife Ethel, 33—plan to take their case to the Supreme court.
Rosenberg, an electrical engineer, was coordinator for the Russian spy ring—a highly placed figure who recruited men like David Greenglass (a former Los Alamos technician who told at the trial how the Russians gained detailed knowledge of the A-bomb at least seven months before the first explosion at Alamogordo). Rosenberg dealt with the ring's big boss, Soviet Vice-Consul Anatoli Yakovlev, who fled home to Russia in 1946.
Greenglass also testified that Rosenberg, who was not only interested in the A-bomb, personally stole the secret proximity fuse when he was working for the Emerson Radio corporation.
His wife, Ethel, was the sister of confessed spy Greenglass. She helped Rosenberg collect and record vital espionage data.
There seems to be no doubt that the Rosenbergs are guilty. The question is what to do with them. Their death sentences were the first under the 1917 Espionage act, and it would seem that capital punishment is too tough a punishment for espionage. Why martyr them? A life prison term, would seem to be enough punishment. Or we might take "The Man Without a Country" as an example and have them outlawed in every free nation in the world. Give them to the tyranny they served, but don't murder and martyr them.
Ellsworth Zahm.
You report in the March 12 issue of the UDK that the five exterior decorators who were questioned by Dean Woodruff " . . did admit smearing the Pioneer."
They admitted no such thing, because they did not apply their festive pigments to the noble digger of ditches, but rather to the adjacent sidewalk.
The lads heaped up a small pit of dirt near the statue, dabbed an inscription on the cobbles, and silently stole away, only to be apprehended later by the local constabulary. The lads returned to the scene of their indiscretion and tidied up the place.
Dear Editor:
Lacks Talent To Be Pavement Picasso
Now it seems these men are to be punished simply to set an example which the administration hopes will frighten away the engineers on St. Pat's Day. I use the word "punished" because I have a feeling that they are not really "too eager" to paint some stranger's house. Could it be that they agreed to do this under pressure from Dean Woodruff in order to avoid more distasteful disciplinary measure?
It seems to me that they have already rectified their heinous,atrocious, odious outrage by scrubbing the (water base) paint they applied.
Would that I too had the talent to be a pavement Picasso.
Don Mosher College Junior.
Comments . .
Vote Of Confidence Given
To Help Week At Dubuque
Greek leaders at the University of Dubuque, (Iowa), gave Help Week a vote of confidence recently.
The student newspaper The Cue asked this question;
What do you think of the campus trend across the nation to adopt a "help week" program rather then the regular "hell week" in Greek letter societies? Could something be done at the University of Dubuque?
The majority opinion was summed up by a Gamma Phi Delta, who said: "This beneficial program will not only help the University but will give the pledges a greater sense of belongingness and doing something worthwhile for their chosen sorority . . . Let's not dispense with all the fun, but keep the hazing to a minimum."
Captain Carlsen's attempt to save his ship the Flying Enterprise was met with opposing views out east. At Princeton there's a Carlsen club, but at Harvard there's an anti-Carlsen club.
A dissenting opinion was this: "I think it would take the fun out of pledge week . . . The effects of such a program would curtail the memories of fraternity and sorority life."
Harvard vs. Princeton Again
The Daily Princetonian suggests debate between the two clubs, "while touch football games, fencing duels and even a friendly murder or two might result. Friends of Carlsen, Unite!"
Boston —(U.R.) A prosic washboard is used by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to produce the final flourish of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." One of the percussion men of the orchestra runs his fingers swiftly across the ridges to create a percussion glissando effect.
Washboard Makes Music
NoSureRepresentation In Proposed Revision
The major fault of the proposed revision of the constitution of the All Student Council is that it does not guarantee representation for the districts.
Although candidates for ASC will be nominated by their parties from the residential districts, they will be elected by the student body as a whole. This means that a candidate can receive a majority of the votes cast in the district which he is trying to represent and still be the loser. If his opponent gets a larger campus-wide vote he (the opponent) will be the winner.
For example, suppose a student named John Publican becomes the nominee of the Publican party for ASC representative from District III. Opposing him as the Ocrat party candidate is George O'Crat.
But George O'Crat becomes the man who represents that district on the All Student Council because the Ocrat party has rolled up enough votes in other districts to put him in.
John Publican is well liked among the voters in his district and makes a good campaign. Therefore, when the voting is over he finds that he has carried the district by more than 60 per cent of the vote.
Thus under the proposed ASC revision an entire district can be cheated out of its desired representative.
The proposed change presents another complication. Even as it is with only a small number of candidates presented for all-school voting it is difficult to arouse general student interest. Few persons are challenged enough to find out personally about the candidates.
But with the new system even fewer will do anything. Instead of having about a half-dozen names with which to cope, there will be more than four times that number.
This means there will be less thought given to trying to vote intelligently and consequently more voting by the straight ticket. It also will mean a decrease in the amount of participation taken by the student body.
The proposed revision actually will bring more new problems rather than solutions to the old ones. Therefore, all who are interested in the advancement of the All Student Council should vote to defeat the constitutional amendments at the special all-school election, Wednesday, March 19. Joe Taylor.
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"And I suppose you study between classes?"