PAGE 2 University Daily Kansan Daily Kansan Editorials Is UMT Necessary? There is a lot of talk these days about universal military training, and it probably is only natural that most of the opinions heard around a university are unfavorable to the plan. A lot of World War II veterans are inlined to regard all this ruckus about deferment by intellect as a farce. They don't remember being deferred for additional education just because they happened to be bright boys. They went into the service and, although most of them didn't like it even a little bit, they stayed in until they were told they could go home to Mamma. The hubbub about how this country will die off from a lack of technicians unless certain bright lads in certain courses are allowed to continue their schooling sounds ridiculous. There were plenty of equally bright lads who did nothing but carry rifles during the late war; yet the technical progress of this country somehow managed to keep moving without their fine intellects around to aid it. Students themselves can't even agree on how the government should figure deferments. Some of the ideas expressed in a poll of college students were "if he's trying, let him stay" (in school), "those most interested in their work should be deferred," and "only the better students should be deferred." Graduate students differed from the rest. Twenty-six per cent of them thought no student should be deferred, while only 15 per cent thought all students should be deferred. Some of those ideas should provide veterans with another big laugh. Probably nothing would make the young campus sports want to try harder for good grades than the prospect of exchanging the sonorous tones of a lecturing professor for the ratchet-like sounds of an irate top sergeant. Likewise, interest in "their work" would increase considerably in the face of this prospect. No one has explained yet exactly what constitutes a "better student." Any student with anything less than a burning desire to fight would consider himself as one of the "better students" and be mighty unhappy if he wasn't classified accordingly. The boys who are fighting UMT say there's no reason for it because not many men are needed. Enough men are needed—and have been needed since the brawl in Korea started—to make it necessary for a lot of World War II veterans to get a close look at the highly uninviting Korean countryside. Our ex-chancellor, Deane W. Malott, sounded off a few days ago against the universal military training program. He said the UMT's six-month training program "would cost billions of dollars, drain off thousands of officers and enlisted men to staff, and provide merely superficial training, inevitably out-moded amid the demands and portents of a possible World War III." Nobody will dispute the statement that a training program would mean heavy spending. Armies, Navies and Air Forces come pretty high these days. It may be true that we aren't in a war. These days it isn't a war unless the entire world is involved. What we are in is a "police action." The only drawback is that you can be killed just as dead in Korea as you could in the Battle of the Bulge or on Okinawa. The six-month training being asked under UMT may be "superficial," as Mr. Malott says. Perhaps it should be 12 months. Nevertheless, the six months of indoctrination would provide a tremendous potential army which could be mobilized more quickly and efficiently than if the bulk of the personnel had received no previous training. All these arguments about how much it would cost to build adequate national armed forces, and that it is unnecessary because we aren't really at war, have a sinister and familiar ring. They were used right up to the time the Japanese blasted the daylights out of our Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. The ships, planes and men that were lost in that attack represented a good-sized investment. The Pearl Harbor debacle gave the United States an awesome lesson in the matter of unpreparedness. How many of such lessons, how many of our ships, planes and, more important, men, must be blown to pieces before we realize that America isn't populated solely by 150 million ostriches? —J.W.Z. News Room Student Newspaper of the Ad Room KU 251 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS KU 376 Member of the Kansas Press Assn, National Editorial Assn, Inland Daily Press Assn, Associated Press Assn, and The New York Times Assn by the National Advertising Service, 40 Madison Avenue, New York City. EDITORIAL STAFF EDITORIAL STAFF editor-in-Chief Jack Zimmerman editorial Assistants Anne Snyder, Joe Taylor Editor-in-Chief ... Jack Zimmerman Editorial Assistants ... 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Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except the following months: September, October, November, December and March. (master Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., Post Office under act of March 3, 1879) The Hurricane of Miami university recently presented a self-portrait of the guy who never manages to get to classes on time. Here is how the fellow described himself. Comments . . I'm the jerk who always marches into class late. I like to hang around the snake pit or the slop shop, and when the bell rings, I pay it no mind. "I'm A Jerk". . . I have no qualms about disrupting a class that has been in session for five or ten minutes. I blithely walk in front of the room, strut in front of the professor, and look about for a seat near one of my friends, meanwhile making as much noise as possible. After I'm seated comfortably, I ask my neighbors what has happened prior to my arrival, unmindful of the fact that I am annoying others in the room. Then I ask the professor to explain the assignment all over again, as I missed it, thus taking up more valuable class time. I wouldn't dream of waiting until class was over to ask for any explanations. Yeah, you know me—I'm the jerk. Students Need Help. . . The magazine School and Society, in an article on "Comparative College Success of Men and Women," arrives at the following conclusion: "Further research is sorely needed. But enough research has already been completed to indicate that most students need help in learning to study and to budget their time, that students are apt to flounder around vocationally (and academically) for a long while unless given an opportunity to explore widely through survey courses and vocational information, and that students, too frequently, are left on their own before they have an adequate opportunity to adjust to a new and demanding situation." The article asks a number of questions, which, it says, might hint at solutions to the problem. Some of these questions are: How much failure and unhappiness is due to inadequate teaching or an unrealistic standard of excellence? Is there undue pressure on the male students to participate in campus activities or athletics? "How realistic are the admission criteria? Could it be that parents are more interested in a college education for their son than the son is himself?" Poetry About Football I think that I shall never see A coach so good that never he Does have to worry for his job, Poem from the College Exponent, State Teachers college, N. D. Or try to please the supporting mob Of fans and students and business men Who want the team to win again. They have a 10 game winning streak They lost but one—who is up the creek? Though they had lost to a better team. It is the coach that's off the beam. Walt Whitman, the poet, visited Lawrence in September 1879. Some of his other stops in Kansas included Topeka, Atchison, Wallace and Sterling. The first three members of the first supreme court to serve in Kansas territory were Samuel D. Lecompte, chief justice, and Saunders W. Johnston and Rush Elmore, associate justices. They are known to have met as a supreme court as early as July 30, 1855. "Oh Bruno, you shouldn't have . . . Wait a minute! These aren't the ones I picked out!" Arab League A Potential Ally The hopes of the democratic world for presenting a united front against aggression in the Near East lie in the Arab league. In March, 1945, the league's seven founder nations signed a pact which stated that the primary object of the league was to strengthen the ties of brotherhood and to co-operate for the furtherance of Arab interests. For years the seven nations, Iraq, Trans-Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen stuck puritically to the premise of a foreign policy based on the narrow interests of Arab nationalism. The crisis of the league occurred with the defeat of Arab armies by Israel in the fighting of 1948-49. The league defied the United Nations and staged a seven-month war against Israel and lost the decision. It emerged a wiser league, however, being convinced that it was neither economically or culturally capable of waging war on a modern scale. The Arab leaders had their chance to re-establish lost prestige when the Korean crisis appeared. But Egypt took a hasty lead in failing to support the security council's resolution on Korea and was not followed in its move by the other league members. A dismounted front resulted and the chance was lost. As tension in the Near East has increased, the awareness of the Arab league also has increased. They no longer think in terms of collective Arab security. They have abandoned their previous aloof attitude toward the cold war and have put themselves alongside the democracies. Arab nationalism is demonstrating an awakening based on common language, culture, history and geography. This renewed fervor does not, however, imply a wholly self-centered attitude. Although an isolationist policy would be very favorable to the Arab nations, which need a chance to build, it is not a feasible plan and the nations realize it. The Arab leaders recognize their dangerous geographical position and are sparing no effort to overcome the danger of an international crisis. For more than a quarter of a century the Arab nations have aspired to freedom and unity. Their potential is great and if the Western powers can aid in the attainment of these goals they will have a powerful ally against the forces of aggression. —Roger Yarrington. At present the Arab league countries are sympathetic with Western policies but cannot readily participate in their advancement because of deep-rooted suspicions and fear. Several of the league countries have strong resentments toward Britain and France, and they are looking with a searching eye at the United States. They have come to hate imperialistic nations and will proceed with caution. News From Other Campuses He stresses memorizing over a long period of time, concentration and a review system based on the curve of forgetting. He suggests doing this by the daily reading of the recent pages in the student's notebook. Arrange your study schedule by the speed with which you forget if you wish to get the most out of studying, advises Prof. James D, Weinland of New York university's School of Commerce. In a survey of the health interests of 500 men and 500 women at Santa In a list of 50 health items, men placed their interests in the first five items in this order: sex instruction, lifelong care of the eyes, tobacco and human health, causes of mental illness and preparation for marriage Barbara college, Dr. Joseph Lantagne found that men were more concerned with exercise and safety and women with family health. The corresponding five items given first rank by the women were: Causes of mental illness, lifelong care of the eyes, sex instruction, preparation for marriage and juvenile delinquency.