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University Daily Kansan Monday, Dec. 3, 1951
Little Man On Campus
Kansan Editorials
by Bibler
Pity The Poor Lantern
The Ohio State Lantern has had an irritating year. First the administration came forth with the "gag" law, forbidding outside speakers on campus without first being approved.
Then the Lantern's news sources started to cause trouble; reporters were thrown out of meetings and news stories were almost suppressed.
But last week the Lantern raised its arms in a gesture of complete disgust and helplessness. "Some things," it said in an editorial, "are so stupid and vulgar that they aren't deserving of comment. But this little verbal atrocity calls for an answer."
The Lantern's target was columnist-author Upton Close, who recently told a convention of Ohio Kiwanians, "Professors are men who can't compete in the business world and protect their weakness in academic freedom. Academic freedom to them means freedom to sponge off the public and freedom to think crooked."
"Such a statement," cried the Lantern, "is not only foolish . . . it's outrageous."
Regarding the speaker's "gag" law at Ohio State, Close said, "I would not trust the faculty as a whole. They have mischievous instincts and like to do sensational things. There should be a board of deans or selected older men of approved American instincts to make decisions as to who should speak. The average American is too confused to speak for himself.
"... If you want to destroy our society completely, just invite anyone you want to talk to our children in schools and colleges. Maybe we should bring in murderers and rapists and someone to preach free love and a free world."
Asked the Lanters; "... Are we to assume that 'approved American instincts' are to be designed as mere confusion? And when it comes to doing sensational things, after all, Close is better qualified to judge sensationalism than we."
"We could go on," continued the editorial. "He said a group of murderous Communists has control of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He attacked internationalism. He . . . well, what's the point of going on?"
Sports And Columnists
Frustrated columnists have found a "safe topic" to write about. They have made national spectator sports their scapegoat.
Writers who have written as few as 10 words on sports have devoted at least nine of them to criticism of at least one national sport.
This criticism reflects the temper of the times. International tension and corruption in the national government have created an attitude of distrust for all things. This is bubbling over into an area that is usually reserved for the momentary escape from the ills of the world.
A fix on a basketball game, a death in the prize ring, the big time aspect assumed by football, the monopolistic practices of baseball, and the pet ills of all other sports are not to be minimized.
But, to point out what are often isolated instances of abuse, and to magnify them to the extent that they appear as common practices is not fair. To continually point out the mistakes and abuses committed by a minute part of all athletes, writers make the cancer seem larger than the victim.
Writers can play an important part in rejuvenating sports. By telling their readers what they should expect to see in a particular type of contest, writers can influence athletic organizations to produce what is expected of them. By congratulating a player for performing an outstanding service in sports, or an act influenced by what he has learned from sports, writers will positively inspire all other athletes to act with higher motives than the dollar bill.
If we keep emphasizing the good, the fair, the honest, the lack of these on the part of any one player or organization will not need broadcasting.
The player or organization not practicing true sportsmanship, would bring unpopularity upon itself, and unpopularity in spectator sports means a box office drop. The positive approach, although not always easy to take, will prove to be the best friend that spectator sports can find.
Dear Editor:
'A Dozen Eggs Fried By The Union Costs Me $1.20'
Monday the Daily Kansan announced what the student-consumer had already found out. That increased wholesale prices must be passed on to the consumer. But we must look at the facts. To compensate for a six cent increase on the wholesale level, the Union's retail price on a case of milk has risen 28 cents.
Higher prices, diminished quantity, and poorer quality are the bywords of the Union cafeteria as every student-consumer knows. Let's look at the latest. Prior to Nov. 1, the wholesale price of milk in half-pints was $1.26 a case, or five and one-fourth cents each. The Union price was 8 cents. On Nov. 1, the wholesale price was increased to $1.32 a case, or an increase of one-fourth cent a half-pint.
Letters To The Editor
price of a fried egg from 8 cents to 10 cents, which amounts to a 25 per cent raise. This means that one dozen eggs costs $1.20 after being fried by the Union.
In effect, half of what I pay for an egg goes to the Union for frying it, and the other half is passed on to the wholesaler, the farmer, and finally the chicken.
Is this the Union "efficiency" that we want expanded by the present building project?
The egg situation is similar. While the wholesale egg prices have been holding steady at less than 60 cents, the Union has seen fit to increase the
With the coming of Mr. L. L. Woolley to the directorship of the Union, I am sure many of us voiced our approval with the hope that his commendable work with the Student Union book store would be passed on to the cafeteria.
Daily Hansan
News Room Student Newspaper of the Adv. Room KU,251 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS KU 376
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., 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
Managing Editor Charles Price
Assistant Managing Editors Nancy Anderson, Benjamin
City Editor Joe Taylor
Sports Editor Charles Burch
Telegraph Editor Don Sarten
Society Editor Katrina Swartz
News Adviser Victor J. Danilov
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager...Bob Sydney
Advertising Manager...Dorothy Hedrick
Assistant Adv. Manager...Dick Hale
National Adv. Manager...Bill Taggart
Circulation Manager...Elaine Blaylock
Promotion Manager...Ted Barbera
Business Adviser...R. W. Doores
I challenge Mrs. Ruth Monroe and her cohorts, who hold inefficiency and profit in higher esteem than student needs, to show in what way the present policy of the "Student" Union cafeteria has any semblance of student welfare in mind.
In examining these two highly incompatible examples of business forms, we find that one passes profits on to the student-consumer, the other passes on the increased wholesale costs. I can hope for a cafeteria modeled after Mr. Woolley's book store, but all I can see is a cafeteria directed by individuals who consider themselves elevated above the pulse of the University.
Curtis D. Terflinger College junior
Mall subscription: $3 a semester. $4.50 a postage). Published in Lawrence, Kans. every afternoon during the University year. Published in university holidays and examination periods Entered as second class matter Sept. 17. Underwent university visit. Kans. under act of March 3, 1879.
"Worthful, these past few weeks have been wonderful—how soon did you say you're taking the casts off?"
Fight Fire With Fire
Dear Editor:
You say, "why worry about" America's future. We do not think that we are victims of hysteria when we refuse to sit on our hands and shrug our shoulders in the face of the Red menace. There are more active Communists in the U.S. today than there were in Zarariist Russia at the time of the Bolshevist revolution.
We have in the past approved whole heartedly of the Kansan's courageous stand against guilt by association. We are dismayed, therefore, to find that the same dubious methodology was employed in your editorial of Nov. 29, comparing hte Huntington, W.Va., anti-Communist league to the Ku Klux Klan. Do you disapprove of the method per se or merely of the stratagem when it crucifies your pet fads?
You suggest that "fear of Communism is a deep distrust of Democracy." The leaders of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary can not "fear Communism;" according to your logic they have achieved a glorious bran dof Democracy. You ask, "Are we in America truly worried about our way of life?" WE ARE! (100,000 casualties in Korea can not be laughed off as a figment of Red-hater's imagination.)
You accuse Mr. Foley of being afraid of Communism. Our only reaction is that it is better to be afraid OF Communism than to be afraid FOR it.
Reuben E. Short
Graydon D. Luthey
Peter S. Gross
Roy S. Bennett Jr.
Law Freshmen.
Editor's Note: Our point is this: we feel that this Communist business is assuming the trappings of a witch-hunt. If our editorial suggested to you that we are not opposed to Communism, then something was wrong somewhere. Society of Red Haters is, we think you'll admit, a rather childish title for an organization adults. A.G.M.
Praises Sociology Program
Dear Editor:
May I take the liberty of using your "Letters" column for a purpose other than taking a blast at something or somebody?
I have in mind the excellent series of radio talks on radio station KLWN call "Sociology On The Air." The speakers, to date, have been getting over to both students and townpeople many of the important ideas of the present day.
John Ise's recent talk on flood control broadened my whole view on this problem. I had not quite exactly thought about flood control in the way that he did. So to with the talks by Chancellor Murphy and
Merely training college kids to be capable technicians is not enough. We've got to have people who are capable of tackling the issues facing us today—issues bordering on the realm of economics, political science and, of course, sociology.
Dean Lawson. Both Murphy and Lawson strongly felt that one of the purposes of education was to develop a feeling of social responsibility in the young adult. I now agree with this point of view.
The sociology department should be commended for this fine series of radio discussions. Let's have more
Clark Alden Grimm College Senior.