Page 2 University Daily Kanson Wednesday, Jan. 16, 1952
Daily Kansan Editorials
Ike And His Monday Morning Quarterbacks
Now that Eisenhower has indicated his willingness to run, the "experts" are trying to figure out where he stands.
Since Eisenhower has never sought a political office, there is no record for reference. At his military post with NATO he has not spoken on political issues for almost a year.
Thus there is no clear cut indication of his stand on most current foreign and domestic issues.
Realizing that the delegates should know where a candidate stands before they vote for him, certain "enlightened" persons have undertaken the job of informing the rest of us of the general's views.
This task has taken two forms. One starts from the premise that Eisenhower is basically an honest man of high integrity.
The second approach is to go back over past statements by Eisenhower. Quotations are patched together and segregated into various categories. The finished product is presented as the general's stand.
Next it is determined what any honest man of high integrity would do in each situation, and it is concluded that this represents Eisenhower's stand.
The first approach is an obvious inversion of reason. It begins with a conclusion about Eisenbower. From this conclusion it deduces certain factors about the man, and winds up with the conclusion again.
If one does not become too dizzy from this weird circular motion, it might be realized that
the approach does not bother to validate the original conclusion. To question it is to be reasonable.
The second approach at least uses normal forms of reasoning. It attempts to formulate a stand for Ike by presenting a patch work of past quotations:
The chief fault of the second method is the difficulty experienced in applying Eisenhower's past statements to specific issues at present. The general result can be little more than a list of generalities. The notable exception is, of course, the general's stand on the welfare state.
Again, the further one gets from the original quotations in applying them to present situations, the more the chance of guess work increases. As an example, although we are told Eisenhower is a stern internationalist and a proponent of "international understanding" and the United Nations, what shall we put down as his stand on the recognition of Communist China or aid to Chiang?
Nor can the argument be accepted that candidates are not expected to take firm stands. Since he has no prior record, Ike must be taken at his word. To date this has been nil.
If Eisenhower chooses to remain the aloof, noncommittal candidate, his attitude should be recognized for what it is worth—a bit of political strategy.
The efforts of some of his supporters to build a leg for him to stand on, except that they are part of this strategy, are an interesting spectacle of blind reasoning and animated emotions.
—Ben Holman.
Are We Headed For A 'Preventive War'?
The United States is now engaged in a rearmament race. It is a race which will enable us, if need be, to safely repel aggression from any quarter. In preparing our defenses it has become necessary for us to use dates—we find ourselves saying that we can produce so many pleasure cars and at the same time have a certain number of tanks available by such and such a date.
We can make ice boxes and stoves, and this and that, and still be ready on a certain date with all the arms that we and our allies will need in order
to hold the bridge.
Daily Hansan
This date is an essential in our calculations, and we find ourselves accepting the year 1954 as the proper figure for our equation. However, the farther one is from home, the more this date sounds like a D-Day, the day on which we will be prepared to start a preventive war.
News Room Student Newsmen of the Adv. Room K.U. 251 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS K.U. 376
Let's stop this nonsense of raming dates. The plain facts are that any day is Russia's D-Day, and no day is ours. We must steel ourselves against the desire to flex our muscles once we have recovered from our 1845-46 illness and guard against giving any substance to the belief that we will then desire to pick a fight.
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Asn.,
Inland Daily Press Assn., and the Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison
Ave., New York City.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-In-Chief...Alan Marshall
Editorial Associate...Anne Snyder
NEWS STAFF
NEWS START
Managing Editor Charles Price
Assistant Managing Editors Nancy Anderson
Benjamin Holman, Lea Sheppeard, Ettwiler Dixon
City Editor Joe Taylor
Sports Editor Charles Burch
Telegram Editor Don Sarton
Seedling Editor Kathrin Schutz
News Advisor Victor J. Daniell
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager...Bob Sydney
Advertising Manager...Dorothy Hedrick
Assistant Adv. Manager...Dick Hale
National Adv. Manager...Bill Togart
Creative Manager...Elinne Elaine
Promotion Manager...Ted Barbara
Business Adviser...R. W. Doores
We must adjust ourselves to the idea that 1954 will not bring us "surecase from sorrow" but that if up to that time we are successful through strength in avoiding war, then 1955 and 1956 and all the years to come will see the continuance of our burdens or a large portion of them.
Nineteen fifty-four is neither a year in which to attack nor a year in which to let down. It is just another year which will be filled with tensions and with dangers—just as every year will be until the Iron Curtain has been melted and the Russian people have learned that free peoples are not the enemies of other free peoples.
By constantly referring to and aiming for a date in the future, when our military strength will be sufficient to wage war, we are running the risk of making people of other nations believe that when we are strong enough we will start a preventive war. William Stanfill.
Letters To The Editor Editor Of Upstream Objects
Dear Editor:
The article about Upstream magazine in the Daily Kansas of January 14 is misleading because it contains several quotations and distortions out of context. Most important among the latter is the following statement: "The original magazine was intended to appeal to the masses."
This is, of course, unshred. There are do "massus" to appeal to. Upstream attempted to gain in its early years a "mass-circulation," and all that means is 1,500 sold copies
This objective was not reached because today's conditions are not favorable to "little magazines" of the Upstream type, not because the articles were "written down." No such snobbish and domestical policy was ever followed.
rather than 560, which is our present circulation.
Dan Gallin,
Editor, Upstream
It is equally unique that today's Upstream is "meant to appeal to a limited reader audience." Our "limited reader audience" is unfortunately a product of external circumstances, not of editorial policy. We
rather hope that in spite of this we did not "fail miserably" in terms other than circulation.
Moreover: (1) Upstream has two editors, Mary Kiehl and myself; (2) there is no such thing as Tau Sigma Alpha - Pi Sigma Alpha is an honorary political science fraternity; (3) there is no "old" and "new" Upstream except in format. There has not been a chance in policy, which is still one of critical analysis of facts from all possible sides; (4) several of our contributors and staff members sharply resent being called liberals.
"Mr. Bruno, would you please pay attention to this anatomy?"
To Be Or Not To Be President
Following the Eisenhower announcement last week which put the general into the presidential race, the big question left is what will Harry Truman do?
The only solid fact that can be found among the political talk in Washington is that Mrs. Truman is ready to return to Independence Mo. She never has particularly cared for the hustle of official life and her past few years in the White House have increased her feelings.
This attitude has become even more obvious since the attempted assassination of the President by two Puerto Ricans in November or 1950. From that day on she has shown no hesitation in expressing her desire to return home.
Everyone who is close to the Truman family, either in the camp or at home in Missouri, knows this. But no matter what Bess says or does the belief still exists that Harry is interested in running for another term. He feels that although he served only a few months less than the full four years of his first term, it was not his. He would like to be elected twice on his own.
The initial attempts to get Judge Thomas Murphy of New York to head the government clean up committee also indicated that the President was anxious to have a good record behind him. But the more recent announcement that the investigation will be done by attorney-general's office is likely to undo any credit received the first move.
Youngdahl has been the GOP's best vote getter in Minnesota for several years now. He was returned to office by a sizable margin in 1948 while the state was going heavily for Truman and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey. If he had remained in St. Paul and headed the Republican ticket again in 1952 the Democratic presidential nominee would certainly have found it hard sledding.
Also he believes that he can be re-elected if he makes the race. President Truman has turned up loser at the polls only once and so is pretty sure he knows the ropes. Among his close friends he laughs frequently over the surprise he pulled in 1948. This he attributes to what he likes to call his "Missouri political horse sense."
Mr. Truman has been acting, talking and maneuvering like a candidate. Last summer he took a big punch out of the Republican party in Minnesota by naming Gov. Luther W. Youngdahl to a job as a federal judge in the District of Columbia.
At his news conferences he has said that he will make up his mind sometime before the convention. Beyond this he is almost as coy as was President Roosevelt before his last two conventions.
Mr. Truman is going to have to say yes or no soon or else the Democrats will be behind the eight-ball for candidates. There are several who would like to run but who don't want to buck the President. But if he would announce his intentions they could either hold on to their plans for future years or begin the spade work which is necessary to get the convention votes. — Joe Taylor.
News From Other Campuses
An Expensive Cage Trip
Basketball fans at DePaul university in Chicago who have $77.50 will have an opportunity to ride a special train to New York to see DePaul play Manhattan college in Madison Square Garden. The trip will be made between semesters.
The University of Minnesota Health Service has been working X-ray machines overtime the past weeks searching for breaks in student
X-Ray Broken Bones
bones. Ice and packed snow, several inches thick, cover the sidewalks giving student feet about as much traction as "banana peels on a ballroom floor." Most of the injuries so far have been minor.
Mall subscription: $a a semester, $4.50 a year. (In Lawrence county, $8 a semester postage). Published in Lawrence Kans., afternoon during the University days and Sundays. University holidays: examination period. Entered as second class after Sept. 1910, at the Post Office at Lawrence Kans., under act of March 3, 1979.