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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1951
Thought for the Day
Prefer geniality to grammar.
—H. W. Fowler.
The Editorial Page-
From 1951 To '1984'?
By LEE SHEPPEARD
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."
Thus the late George Orwell imagined a terrifying world in his 20th-century oracle, "1984." Could such a future result from the world of 1951?
Orwell's novel pictures three world-states, each resembling a refined Soviet Russia, growing out of a stalemated World War III. In Oceania, the book's setting, "the Party" rules through fear, hatred, and thought control.
All party members are government workers; the majority of the people are "proles," doing only manual labor and eliminated if they show any sign of other ability.
Oceania is perpetually at war with one of the other two world-states. Actually small in scale, this war serves to provide an object for the hatred the Party uses to hold the people's emotions. It also diverts their attention from the low standard of living that has resulted from Party rule.
All publications are controlled by the Party, and words are defined by the Party so as to channel thought. If "freedom," for example, can mean only the right to obey the Party's orders, there is no way to express an unorthodox opinion on freedom.
The three slogans of the Party—"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength"—exemplify "doublethink," the mental process by which members of the Party are to accept its word and reject the evidence of their own senses.
Posters of "Big Brother," the Party's leader, are everywhere—captioned, "Big Brother is watching you." The party member knows that his actions at any time may be observed by the secret police, so he lives in constant fear that he may make a mistake. The Party arrests thousands of "spies" each year to keep this fear alive.
Every day party members participate in the "Two Minutes' Hate," venting their emotions against the artificial "enemies" the Party has provided.
Is a "1984" world a possibility? Total war in the next few years between Communism and the West might conceivably gut economic and manpower resources of both camps and result in stalemate.
In that case, could wartime emergency powers eventually make the government all-powerful, with all capable personnel in the government's employ? Could the government force "wartime sacrifices" to the point where a low standard of living would be accepted?
Could the politicians' traditional carelessness with words develop into a thought-control slogan language? Could "witch-hunts" become actual purges, rather than legal procedures?
Could patriotic zeal replace rational thinking? The Party's "Two-Minute Hate" and the U.S. sport fan's emotional outbursts at unsympathetic officials might not be so far apart.
Orwell's picture of the ideal party member, eager to support group activities without considering and judging the group's objectives, is amazingly like the Great American Joiner.
"1984" makes its vision of the future so horrible by being so believable. It should be required reading for any American who wants to avoid that future.
Is Costello On Trial?
I'd like a little information, either from you or from one of my better-informed co-students here at the University. This probably wouldn't rate a letter were it not for the fact that I feel the issue is one of vital concern for everyone.
Dear Editor:
Just what is the legal standing of the Kefauver crime committee? I have been following the committee hearing of Costello recently, both in the newspapers and on the radio, and thanks to Ed Murrow of C.B.S., I have heard some tape recordings of the proceedings. Now the plight of Mr. Costello's threat (he has refused to testify because of laryngitis) doesn't worry me in the least. Of all the people in the country who rate sympathy he is probably one of the least deserving. What does worry me is that while Mr. Costello is not under arrest and has no charge placed against him, he has been threatened with arrest and charge of contempt if he refuses to testify, and with charge of perjury if he gives an untruthful answer.
I will agree with Senator Kefauver, and with anyone else that wishes to talk about it, that the success and power of our bigtime criminals is a disgrace to the country and that something should be done about it. But—the present proceedings of the Senate crime committee smack unpleasantly of "police state" proceedings. If they can be justified I want to know how, and if they can't, everyone should know of it.
J. R. Brown Graduate Student
Quote-of-the-week: After attending the ceremony at which her 20th baby was baptized, a Massachusetts woman told newsmen, "This is getting publicity the hard way."
Full Schedule Of Music Events Follows Vacation
Twelve student recitals and annual spring concerts by music organizations will be given by the School of Fine Arts beginning with Easter and continuing until the end of the semester.
There will be eight senior recitals, beginning with one on Wednesday. April 4. by Roger Butts, pianist.
Recitals following are Sunday,
April 8, Carl Bilger, cellist; Sunday,
April 15, Myrna Lynch, soprano;
Monday, April 16, Lyle Wolfram,
cellist; Sunday, April 22 Betty Ann
Schoewe, pianist; Monday, April 30,
Jay Nixon, baritone; Sunday, May
13, Maurice Pololl, cellist; and
Sunday, May 20, Joan Templar,
flutist.
Four graduate student recitals are Wednesday, April 11, Betty Rae Thomas" mezzo-soprano; Sunday, April 29, Billie George, pianist; Wednesday, May 2, Mabel Hanson, pianist; and Monday, May 14, Richard Gayhart, organist.
A typical recital consists of older music, music from the romantic period, and music from the contemporary period. Dean Thomas Gorton of the School of Fine Arts said. A variety of compositions are presented on the $ ^{*} $recitals.
The University A Cappella choir, directed by D. M. Swarthout, professor of piano, will present their concert Monday, April 9. A combined concert by the University Men's Glee club, directed by Joseph F. Wilkins, professor of voice, and the University Women's Glee club, directed by Clayton Krebhel, instructor in music education, will be presented Wednesday, April 18.
The University band, directed by Russell L. Wiley, professor of band and orchestra, will give their annual spring concert Wednesday, April 25. He will also direct the University Symphony orchestra in their concert Monday, May 21.
A music week will begin Sunday, May 6. The schedule includes a concert given by a combined chorus and orchestra and a faculty concert of chamber music.
Miss Frances Magnes, violinist, will be presented as the young American artist of the year, and Rise Stevens, Metropolitan opera star, will present the final concert of the University Concert course.
The world's record striped bass (rockfish) was landed in the Albemarle Sound near Edenton, N.C., in 1890. It was a 125-pounder taken in a net.
Daily Hansan
University
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City Editor ... Marion Kliewer
Asst. City Editors: Richard Marshall,
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Assoc. editorial editors:  Lee Shepeard
Jack Zimmerman
Society Editor ... Patricia Jansen
L Society Editors: Nancy Anderson,
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Telegraph Editor... Richard Tatum
Asst. Telegraph Editors: John Corporon,
William White.
Sports Editor... Bob Nelson
Asst. Sports Editors: Alan Marshall,
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Advertising Mgr . James W Murray
National Adv. Mgr . George Lukens
Japanese Adv. Mgr . Jin Han
Classified Ad. Mgr . Dorothy Kobl
Promotion Mgr . Jim Brunson
It's Too Easy
By MARION KLIEWER
Getting a driver's license in many states is almost the equiv of going into a drug store and plunking down 25 cents.
Many youngsters get their driving training from their parents. Usually this incompetent internship results in a family quarrel. Johnny thinks Dad "an old fogey," and he goes on to learn by himself.
Result: 7,000 youths between the ages of 15 and 24 killed and about 300,000 injured yearly in automobile accidents.
Solution: a nation-wide program of driver education in our high schools.
The public needs to be convinced that the results of this program in its 16th year can be multiplied.
In Cleveland, Ohio, where they train their youngsters for driving, trained drivers were involved in about half the accidents as untrained drivers. Arizona, with its driver education program, reported in 1944, 23 teen-age accidents; in 1945, 11 teen-age accidents; and in 1946, 6 teen-age accidents. Delaware has an equally good record.
The American Automobile association has emphasized education as a major factor in its nation-wide safety campaign. It reports that in 1941, the last pre-war year, the traffic death rate has dropped from 12 to 7.5 deaths per 100 million miles of travel despite the fact that traffic volume has increased over 4 per cent.
The National Education association says that 28,000 high schools in the country in 1949 had driver training. Only about 20 per cent of the students in these schools took the course. The cost was $25 per student.
Driver education should be made compulsory in all our high schools. Students not only learn how to operate a car, but also do drive a car while in training. The training is expensive since it involves hiring specially-trained teachers and the cost of cars for training drivers.
It is the best long-range program to reduce our highway fatalities. It will replace the leniency of drivers' test and show Dad that Johnny can be taught to drive.
We're disappointed in the newsroom punster. A bass fiddle has been missing from Hoch auditorium, and we haven't yet heard him say, "Yeah, the baseball coach told one of the players to steal first base." Or maybe someone read the fashion article—"Women's hair should be flaming on the campus this spring"—and wanted to play Nero.
Someone should contact Scotland Yard to find if there might be any connection between England's Stone of Scone (scoon) theft and the heist of the engineers' "blarney stone" a couple of decades ago.
Yesteryears
Slacks? Horrors!
Thus Paul Yankey, b'41, expressed the, as yet, unofficial opposition of the Men's Student Council to the proposed attire of slacks for the new girl cheerleaders, and the remark touched a sympathetic chord in the heart of each member present at the special meeting held last night in the Pine room of the Memorial Union.
(From the UKD, Oct. 8, 1940)
"No girl looks good in slacks."
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Now or soon after Easter
get your
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At the Business Office
Frank Strong Hall
THE ONLY PLACE TO
SECURE YOUR
OFFICIAL RING
Dixon Vance, Chairman
1951 Ring Committee
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