PAGE FOUR
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, 1951
Lee Sheppeard
straws in the wind
Snowballs ...
An Associated Press release on the front page of Tuesday's Kansas City Star brought up an old misconception which is still in the minds of most Americans, possibly placed there intentionally by a part of the nation's press.
The Star's story, which was about two proposals by Senator McMahon (D.-Conn.), said in part:
The second would urge a special session of the United Nations assembly to consider disarmament—under proper safeguards.
The United Nations has tried unsuccessfully for the last five years to agree on such a disarmament program. The failure has hinged on Russia's refusal to go along with a system of international inspection.
"The failure has hinged on Russia's refusal . . ." says the story, but that's not the whole truth. That half-truth is so prevalent, however, that the Star's copyreader and possibly even the A.P.'s staff writer aren't to be blamed for not knowing better.
During the U.N. General assembly debate on disarmament, which began Oct. 7, 1948, the American press dwelled at great length on Western objections to the Russian proposal, and explained that the Soviets did not provide an adequate system of inspection of armaments by the international control body.
The American press as a whole, however, did not explain Russia's objections to our proposals—which were that our proposals would create an international control body dominated by the Western powers as the U.N. itself is.
powers as the U.N. itself is.
Assuming that the Russians have as much right to distrust us as we have to distrust them, their objections to our proposals were as valid as our objections to theirs.
But neither side would offer a compromise that answered the objections of the other.
In other words, the situation was comparable to a winter day with two small boys standing on a street corner, each holding a snowball—each saying, "I'll drop mine if you'll drop yours first."
Joe Taylor
taylor made
One of James J. Metcalfe's verses is erected in the children's zoo at Swope Park, and it's too bad John Bannigan isn't around this office to write another editorial like "No, Virginia, There Isn't Any Santa Claus."
People's China, Communist mouthpiece, says "A total of 2,068 planes, 112 guns and other equipment has been contributed to aid the volunteers in Korea."
Philanthropy isn't the sole property of these dirty capitalists.
An article on K.U.'s reading lab asks the question, "Can you remember facts a couple of weeks after you read the text?" Our favorite coed, Iva Latepaper, says she thinks she knows the prof who would do a crummy trick like asking questions on material two weeks old.
We are inclined to doubt this though. We've never known Iva to follow a class closely enough to know if the stuff is two weeks old, two months old, or even in the department.
"OK! OK!, come in my office sometime and we'll discuss that last test."
(Because of space limitations, the editor reserves the right to condense letters of more than 100 words. Anonymous letters will not be published, but names will be withdrawn on request. Letters should be addressed to the editor of the Kansan.)
Letters—
The Joy . . .
Dear Editor:
Though the editor admits "the student can't interpret facts unless he has the facts to interpret," he chooses to retain an all-too-painful attitude among students today: I want my knowledge, my education handed to me on a silver platter. Let someone else do the digging, the study, the interpretation, the understanding, give to me sifted, plucked, ready for use.
It disturbed me to read the editorial "L'aberal Education at K.U."
It is the student with the facts which he has gathered and learned himself, who must do the interpreting, the understanding, and if you don't mind, the thinking. Without a basic knowledge of the physical sciences the student cannot understand fundamental concepts, he cannot understand man's relation to his environment. We must do our own deducing, we must become liberally educated through our own powers of comprehension and not through the conclusions of others.
The North American student, almost more than any one else in this world must realize that there is no "dead language." We have been criticized for being "nationally provincial" by many foreign elements. We are reluctant to learn the languages of our world neighbors.
If ever there is to be this "one world," North Americans must realize that the languages and cultures of the world, as long as they concern living humanity in any way, are vitally important to a general liberal education. Generally speaking, a European, Asiatic, or South American does not consider himself educated unless he can speak at least one other language in addition to his native tongue. Why should we?
I won't labor the point that knowledge need not necessarily be more than an end in itself. The joy of youthful discovery is beautiful and meaningful enough without having to classify it or use it for practical purposes.
The most liberal education that can be obtained at K.U. as at any other institution is the elimination of academic laziness, and the achievement of the ability to understand in the light of facts, willingness to interpret in the light of experience and knowledge, together with a generally good, healthy intellectual curiosity.
Bernice Dacks,
Assistant instructor,
Romance languages.
Pearson Undergoes Second Operation
Charles G. Pearson, instructor in journalism, underwent a bone graft operation on his leg at Wadsworth Veterans' hospital, Wadsworth, in August and will be on leave from six to nine months.
His leg will be in a cast, the first three months. The operation was the result of an infection caused by the improper healing of a broken bone. Mr. Pearson broke his leg during the Christmas vacation of 1950.
He taught Reporting I and Editing I in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information last year. Before, his operation this summer, he was employed as news editor by the Leavenworth Times.
Mail subscription: $3 a semester, $4.50 a year, (in lawrence Add $1.00 a semester postage). Published in Lawrence, Kans. every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. Entered in second class periods. Entered as second class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kans., under act of March 3, 1879.
Shabby Ford's Theater Is A Big Disgrace To Lincoln
Ford's theater, where President Lincoln was shot, is a shabby disgrace to a great nation.
It is cob-webbed, the floors are dusty and the department of interior charges visitors a dime a head to walk through the dirty aisles.
And aisles are about all people have to see. Except a few relics under glass. The stage is empty of props, the original curtain long since has rotted away and the gas floodlights are gone too.
In fact there is nothing much to see but a miniature reproduction of the original scene. The presidential box still remains, but it is in a sorry state of disrepair. Most of the seats have been removed.
Sen. Milton Young, (R., N.D.), would like to fix all that. He is thinking about re-introducing a bill he sponsored in 1946 to make the place a shrine. The first bill died in committee.
Young's idea is to restore the building as it was that awful night of April 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth, a mad-cap actor, shot the president.
Ford's at that time was new and glittering. The elite met the elite there and the president was a frequent patron. The night of the assassination, Mr. Lincoln sat in his box, which was draped with flags and bunting. Under the proposed bill, all of this would be reproduced precisely. So would the scenery for the play "Our American Cousin" which was showing at Ford's at that time.
Booth got behind the president's box, fired, and jumped through the box onto the stage. He was wearing spurs. He caught a spur on the furls of the American flag, stumbled, and broke a leg in his jump. But he managed to get to the stage door and out into the night, where he mounted a horse and beat it into the woods.
Later he was cornered and shot to
death by federal troops at Port Royal, Va.
Lincoln was carried across the street to the home of William Petersen, a tailor, where the president sighed his last the following day.
Naturally, Ford's theater never put on another show after the assassination. The government bought the property for $100,000 a few years later.
For a time in 1893 it was used to store government pension records. Tragedy came at that point, too. The second and third floors fell in and 22 persons were killed and 68 hurt.
For many years afterward, the showhouse was a sort of government waste-basket, with an odd collection of things the Congress didn't know what else to do with.
It is to be hoped that Senator Young will have more luck in getting recognition of his bill than he did the first time.
A geology professor who said he "dabbles in amateur photography" took 60 or 70 shots of the rampaging waters. Eleven of the best are on the main floor bulletin board.
Flood Photographs Displayed In Lindley
Photographs of local floods this summer are on display in Lindley hall this fall.
Prof. R. M. Dreyen, the self-termed amateur, said the only trouble encountered was in taking off and landing a plane from which he took his pictures. The local airport was inundated and it was necessary to use Highway 10.
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