PAGE TWO
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1951
Marvin Arth
the editorial page
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Comes now the time of year when Building and Grounds employees take an extra-special dislike to students.
You see, these men who guard our flora do so with a zealous disregard for the whims of our student population. They erected barbed-wire barricades across campus shortcuts, move trees with helter-skelter abandon so that students will, in their confusion, miss favorite and illegal path entrances, and, rumor has it, they spread rumors that any student caught on the grass will be penalized several gradepoints.
Why Is The Grass So Green?—
We, for one, are going to fight to expulsion any such restriction of privilege. Why, only yesterday we purposely walked out in the middle of the campus and pulled a handful of grass. They're not going to keep us from cutting across the campus. No screee!
In this land of freedom are we to be restricted from walking on the grass? It's absurd to think that such few men can take such great power in their hands.
It can become very annoying at times. And strictly unconstitutional.
But they'll try...
-FJK
Editor's Note ---
We hesitated blowing our own horn, but after passing up the first, second and third opportunities to do so, we just couldn't bring ourselves around to doing it again. Besides, it makes good copy.
A little more than two weeks ago, Francis J. Kelley, our chief editorial writer, wrote an editorial on sending troops to Europe. The next day, Congress moved to send troops to Europe. Not the power of the press, just timely luck.
The following day, Kelley wrote an editorial opposing the draft aptitude tests, and press dispatches the day after it ran said that congress was likely to take action against General Hershey's draft aptitude test proposal. Again it was timely luck.
A few weeks ago when spring seemed to be about here, Kelley wrote the above editorial—with tongue in cheek. We held the editorial for warm weather after winter made its comeback, and shortly after noon yesterday we sent it down.
Then came the bad luck. Kelley wrote an editorial on April 11 predicting that MacArthur would be fired. It was to run April 12. At 1 a.m. April 12 MacArthur was fired. Kelley grimfacedly rewrote his editorial the next morning.
While the editorial was being set in type, we wandered onto the campus. The first thing we saw were the many barbed-wire fences being erected by buildings and grounds workers.
We only hope the luck of the Irish doesn't leave Kelley.
Francis Kelley
galley-west
I have a heckler. Some folks would probably say he's a "heller," but since I must watch my language, he's tabbed as a heckler in my book. This guy, a particularly vociferous gent, has sworn to best my best efforts in this column. And he's nasty about. He does.
- * *
He writes letters to the editor and frankly puts forth his opinion that I am in error or that I didn't carry a certain point to its logical conclusion. He also gives examples. However, I am forced to admit, in all fairness to myself, that his examples are unfit for publication in this newspaper. It's the only defense I have. And his "logic" is questionable at times. For instance, here's the way he analyzes one of his numerous experiments with drunkenness:
Logically enough, here's the way he figured it: He was drunk for three days. He changed drinks every day. The only constant factor of his binge was water. Therefore, water was the cause of his drunkenness.
He set aside four days for the experiment. On Monday he got drunk on gin and water. On Tuesday he took an overdose of scotch and water. On Wednesday he "took" inebriated on bourbon and water. On Thursday he sobered up and analyzed the previous three days.
He's really a nice fellow. And like most persons who try to live by their wits, he's 50 per cent successful.
After listening to a broadcast of the speech today by General Douglas MacArthur, we can only say: Shoot, Doug, you're faded.
We hear Chancellor Malott gave a bang-up luncheon recently. The chancellor provided his guests with cigarets and matches after the meal. The matches exploded.
With the controversy-of-the-half-century still raging, it's refreshing indeed to have your 3-year-old daughter ask, "Who's Mac-Arthur?"
$$
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$$
★★★
Wish-I'd-said-that dept: A professor is a man whose job is to tell students how to solve the problems of life which he himself has tried to avoid by becoming a professor.
Typing exercise for backward students: woN si ehtemit rof lla loop nem ot emoc et oht efd foi right.tyrap
More Accent On Gov't
Events of the past week have demonstrated once again that one of the big needs of the country is a knowledge of how our government functions.
Reaction to the firing of Mac-Arthur showed that few Americans have the vague idea of what powers the president and congress have. Many persons seemed amazed to discover that our government is based on the idea of superiority of civil power over military power.
This situation would be undesirable enough in normal times—with world politics in their present state it is disgraceful and alarming. The uninformed are perfect targets for subversives. Only by understanding our form of government will we be able to compare it to other forms and realize its inherent strength. Only by comparison can we realize some of its weaknesses and correct them.
The fault doesn't lie wholly with the citizens. Our educational system doesn't demand that students learn about their government. True, a few courses in history and political science are required, but those requirements are set far too low. Many good political science courses are offered; but enrolling in them is strictly a matter of personal choice.
Our government is the lifeblood of the country, the adhesive force that keeps the nation from falling apart. Strange, that so little knowledge of its functions in considered necessary.
Yesteryears
Whistler's Mutter
Our concept of government is not merely a subject for academic discussion among scholars. A knowledge of it is a prerequisite for good citizenship.-Jack Zimmerman
(From the U.D.K., Sept. 24, 1945)
A 200-pound German transport whistle was brought 25,000 miles by Capt. Robert A. Haggart, U.S. Maritime service, to K.U. to replace the "factory whistle" which was installed March 25, 1912. Captain Haggart, a former student, obtained the whistle from a German vessel which had been scuttled in the Italian harbor of Leghorn when the Germans had to retreat before the Allied forces. The whistle is an organ type whistle with three tones which can be adjusted to make different chords. Captain Haggart presented the whistle to the chancellor and the All-Student Council May 2, 1945, on his return to the United States.
University
Daily Hansan
News Room K.U.251
Adv. Room K.U.376
Member of the Kansas Press Asm.
National Association for College
Press Assn., and the Associated Collegiate
Press. Represented by the National Ad-
dress Service, 420 Madison Ave. New
New York City.
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Editor-in-chief Marvin Arth
Managing Editor Business Manager
Harold A. Benjamin James W. Murray
Asst. Managing Editors: Janet Ogan,
Mona Millikan, Richard Tatum, John
Johnson
Chief Editorial Writer: Francis J. Kelley
Assoc. editorial writer: Jack Zimmerman
Editor: Rob Robertson
Asst. City Editor: Don Robertson
Feature Editor: Richard Marshall
Teacher Editor: Nancy Anderson
Teography Editor: Robert Sanchez
Asst. Telegraph Editors
Faye
Marvin Krieger, Marion Rieker,
Sports Editor
Alan Marshall
Asst. Sports Editors: Bob Johnsen, Forrest
Advertising Mgr. James Lowther
National Adv. Mgr. Dorothy Kolb
Circulation George Jackson
Circulation Ad. Mgr. Vivian Roberts
Promotion Mgr. Robert Sydney
University Daily Kansan
Mall subscription: $3 a semester. $4.50 postage). Published in Lawrence, Kansas every afternoon during the University of Kansas university's varsity holidays and examination periods. Entered as second class matter Sept. 17, 1895. Published in Lawrence, Kansas, under act of March 3, 1879.
Kansan photo by John Corporon
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS EMPLOYEES got out their fence posts and barbed wire Wednesday afternoon and erected barricades along rows of shrubs and across campus shortcuts. We don't know whether (1) they just didn't have anything else to do, (2) wanted to beautify the campus for the K.U. Relays crowd, (3) just happened to have some extra barbed-wire lying around, or, (4) wanted to drum up a little business for Watkins hospital.
Whatever their purpose might have been, we feel that they carried it a little too far by using barbed-wire. We don't particularly object to the installation of gates across our paths. Or to the toe-catching stakes which were driven into the paths. But the barbed-wire? That tore it.
We wonder if number nine clothesline wire with an electric fence charger attachment wouldn't have worked just as well. Or 16-feet-deep covered pits at strategic points. Or maybe even just a few rusty bear traps? Anything but barbed-wire!
We'll admit that barbed-wire has its points, but we can't see the need for it here. That is, unless we turn the campus over to the R.O.T.C. units for use in war games. The way it stands now the campus has a face only a mortar could love.
by Bibler
Little Man On Campus
Dean, I'm the last person in the world to complain, but those barbed-wire barricades . . .