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University Daily Kansan Monday, Dec. 10, 1951
Kansan Editorials Today's Commercialized Christmas
Christmas is here already. Or at least the downtown merchants would have you believe so. For them, it arrived the day after Thanksgiving.
by Bibler
143
Christmas used to be a time to settle back, take it easy, and enjoy oneself. The presents exchanged were given for the joy of giving. That may still be true in isolated cases. But often it is not.
Ohio State university's troubles are not confined to disappointments on the football field these days. Students and faculty are even more excited about the "gag" rule clamped on the school by its trustees, especially since the limitation on freedom now has the public support of Gov. Frank Lausche.
The first test of this rule came when Bevis was asked to approve the appearance of Cecil E. Hinshaw of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a Quaker pacifist organization. Not only was permission denied, but the rule was subsequently supplemented by an order that henceforth no student or faculty member might prepare any kind of questionnaire without approval of the university president.
The trouble started last summer after Harold Rugg of Columbia university made a speech at Ohio State. Since he is regarded by some as an educational radical, the trustees adopted a rule that no person may be asked to speak on the campus without a clearance from the university president, Howard L. Bevis.
The New 'Gag' Rule
Bevis sought to quiet the protests by saying that relatively few speakers would be held objectionable since the rule would be applied only to those disloyal to the United States.
This was construed as interference with freedom of investigation. It led to the appointment of investigating committees by the Ohio State faculty as well as by the American Association of University Professors. Non-academic people also joined in the protest; among them Roman Catholic Bishop Michael J. Ready and Methodist Bishop Hazen G. Werner.
But is it disloyal to oppose war on religious grounds? Or is it disloyal to advocate social and economic changes which do not have the approbation of all members of the community? Further, is education to be advanced by an enforced uniformity of opinion?
Or should a school provide the widest possible opportunity for the discussion of controversial subjects? Are not sound values strengthened by contrast with the unsound in what Justice Holmes called the free market place of ideas?
If there is to be an enforced American orthodoxy how can administrators claim the right to say what is right and what is wrong, what may be said and what may not be said?
Perhaps the Ohio authorities had better give a second thought to their own haughty attitude, and put a little more confidence in the good judgment of their teachers and their students. They have less to fear from free, orderly discussion than from limitations on such discussion.
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Little Man On Campus
Nowadays we give because we feel we have to, not because we want to. The commercialization of Christmas is an insidious development which we can only herald with great misgivings.
It's nice to have the main streets lined with tinsel and greens and what not. Store windows look attractive with the usual Christmas trimming in them. But are they there for the purpose of decoration or to drag customers into the store?
It's nice to give and receive presents from friends and loved ones. But all the fun is taken out of it when you give a present you feel it is your duty to give.
Gone are the days when a simple, oftentimes homemade present would suffice. Now it's all or nothing. And the stores do their utmost to discourage the latter.
The accent is now on the gift and not the giving. What with all the advertisements, slogans, and so forth, a conscientious gift-buyer begins to wonder just what Joe is going to give him. This he needs to know so that he may decide upon a similar sum for the present he is going to give Joe.
But all the blame cannot be laid upon the merchants. We are also at fault for allowing ourselves to lose the spirit of Christmas. Many, particularly the younger set, look upon the holiday strictly as a time of merry-making. Certainly that is part of it. But it is forgotten that it was originally intended to celebrate a birthday.
By the time all the various social duties have been disposed of, the true celebration is either purposely overlooked or completely forgotten. The old-time, really merry Christmas has been lost in the rush of today. Everything is moving too fast for us to be able to sit back and celebrate in the way it should be done.
Will we ever be able to truly revere the birthday as it should be done? How many of us members of the "younger generation" can remember having done so? A.G.M.
In the last month or so Franchot Tone has racked up quite a record. Actor Tom Neal knocked his block off, sending him to the hospital. When he got out he celebrated by spitting in a female columnist's face. Then he and his wife of seven weeks, Blonde Barbara Payton, sued for divorce. There's a Tone that's really gone sour.
short ones
John Ise writes "Merry Christmas While We Last." If war conditions get any worse and there is a good shortage, it may be "Merry Christmas While We Fast."
Hungary has abolished Christmas in favor of celebrating Stalin's birthday. Aren't they Russian the season a bit?
A committee of six Protestant clergymen has begun work to mobilize public opinion against President Truman's attempted appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. It looks like now in addition to a fifth column, we'll have a sects column in this country.
Daily Kansan
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EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-Chief...Alan Marshall
Editorial Associate...Anne Snyder
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor ... Charles Price
Assistant Managing Editors ... Nancy Anderson, Benjamin
Holman, Lee Sheppeard, Ellsworth Zahm
City Editor ... Joe Taylor
Sports Editor ... Charles Burch
Telegraph Editor ... Dan Sarten
Society Editor ... Katrina Swartz
News Adviser ... Victor J. Danaley
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager...Bob Sydney
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Assistant Adv. Manager...Dick Hale
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Business Adviser...R. W. Doores
Comments...
Unique labor contracts may yet stem from a recent communication to the wage stabilization board Countering a union request that air hostesses be assigned choice routes by seniority, an airline wrote: "It is necessary to assign hostesses not on the basis of seniority, but on the basis of the best chest development."
Recent tightening of laws governing the sale of catfish in Texas has shifted most of the business for nonfishing Texas catfish consumers to Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma markets.
Editor's Note: We'd sure like to be around when those contracts are signed.
Mail subscription: $5 a semester, $4.50 a year. (in Lawrence add $1.00 a semester postage). Published in Lawrence, Kans., every afternoon during the University campus Saturday and Sundays. University hours are posted online. Entered as second class matter September 17, 1910, at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kans., under act of March 3, 1879.
"We might as well let him in—that boy is eager!"
Pre-Election Ballyhoo
Pre-election ballyhoo for 1952 is gaining momentum every day, and signs of increasing Republican strength are causing members of both parties much concern.
Republican leaders, remembering the bitter defeat of 1948, tend to soft-pedal comment on growing indications of party power. At least until Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower makes a statement of his position, they must face the fact that their strongest candidate, Sen. Robert Taft, is also the most controversial figure in the party.
President Truman's recent statement that he hoped Senator Taft would be his opponent, and Taft's reply that such a situation would suit him fine, are indications of the approach most party representatives are taking toward the election.
Labor is not rallying to the Democratic camp as readily as was expected, and some branches of labor are showing definite reluctance about supporting the incumbents at all. Many Negro members of the CIO express hostility to the administration for its failure to carry out promised civil rights legislation. The carpenters' union, one of the largest AFL affiliates, is headed by a professional Republican who never has approved of the Labor-Democratic marriage.
On the other side, Democratic leaders are faced with disquieting reports of growing Republican power in the wake of scandals in high government positions.
The president's idea apparently is that Senator Taft's voting record would provide far juicier campaign material than the past activities of other possible Republican candidates. By the same token, Mr. Taft obviously feels that the President would be the most likely person on whom to hinge accusations of incompetence and dishonesty in government.
Most Republicans seem actually to fear, in public at least, the signs of their growing support. They had an extremely rude shock in 1948 and are loath to build their hopes on the strength of pre-election indications.
Both parties seem to be developing a negative approach to the coming campaign. Each seems to be less concerned with finding its strongest candidate than with the opposition selecting its weakest man.
On the other hand, a few Democrats, not underestimating the vote-getting power of the President, probably would prefer to be out of power for a while in order to mend the splits within their party.
The entrance of General Eisenhower into the race could do much to restore some degree of confidence to one, or both, of the parties. Meanwhile, the contest is degenerating into a "may the party with the least undesirable candidate win" affair.
—Jack Zimmerman.
News From Other Campuses
Twenty per cent of the students enrolled in the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Agriculture at Texas A&M college are on probation, according to the deans of the respective schools.
20 Per Cent On Probation
The faculty of Florence State Teachers college of Alabama has started a program designed to
Emphasis On Teaching
screen and select students to be trained, graduated and recommended by the college for teaching positions.
Broaden Lower Division
Three new courses, communication arts, biological science and social science have been made mandatory for freshmen at the University of Houston. The university officials feel that the first two years of college have become "too specialized."