PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
17
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1950
Thought For The Day —
"Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.= Henry Van Dyke.
Our 'Lost Generation'
We are another lost generation—those of us who were born in the early twenties. Just at the time when we began to see the world about us, we became the innocent victims of an economic depression in the thirties that caught us up in this hungry wake and taught us what it means to want.
Then, just at the moment when we began to feel the responsibilities of adulthood, World War II gathered us together, hardened us, and sent us out to kill.
It was a long, hard war. Those of us who survived hoped that we had accomplished something. We were "rehabilitated" and as our minds cleared we began to ask questions. We waited patiently for a normal world. But this was not to be.
The dream we had was one of "order"—orderly societies living in an orderly world. We believed that out of the chaos of our lives would come an orderly world. We hoped that what suffering we had gone through would be followed by a reward, not only to ourselves but to all mankind. What a laugh! What maudlin, sentimental, dreamy tripe.
So we feel cheated, sour grapes? But what have we to look forward to? Looming up in front of us is the prospect of another war. We may sit around combing our gray old beards before we know the meaning of a peaceful, orderly existence.
The future veterans of World War III were born in the thirties. They are more cynical than we of the twenties were when we marched off to do something.' Many of them have no goal. Those who do doubt that they will ever attain it. The draft is a frightening interruption in their lives. War poses unanswerable problems.
Some say: What can we do? Nothing. So let's sit in a circle and contemplate our navels. Others say let's have as much fun as we can while we can. While others are unpurposeful in their pessimism.
Perhaps it is too much to ask the people of this earth to live in order. Maybe war is part of our nature. General Patton thought so. History appears to back him up. But hope springs eternal in the human breast however futile. One person summed it up: "We must tread around gently and be very, very careful." Another said: "The real tragedy is to have been born in this century." About the only thing we can add to these comments is that it certainly hasn't been dull.
—Edward Chapin.
Wonder if Senator Kefauver's visit could have anything to do with the A.S.C. politics?
Rumor has it that the campanile is being fitted out with seats to take care of the students who griped about the K.U.-Nebraska seating fiasco.
Read the University Daily Kansan—Patronize Its Advertisers.
Little Man On Campus
"Professor Snarf, would you mind if we staple one of our little folders to all the "F-papers" before you hand them back?"
The Public's Pulse
Opera At KU?
Dear Editor:
From the early period prior to about 675 B.C., when popular contests in music and poetry began in Sparta, through the period of hymns and odes, down through the 16th century when Giovanni Bardi formed a group known as the "dilettanti" inquiring after some method of dramatic expression, and later through the 17th century when under the able and mature musician Monteverdi opera sprang into full bloom in Venice, man has ever striven to express himself through music in the most sensationally exciting manner possible.
Today opera has come down to us in a rich and thrilling fashion. And we can do much that is emblematic of acting out our lives through its medium.
I have been wondering why opera could not be given by the students of K.U. Surely we have talent and resources enough to present such operas as Mozart's "The Magic Flute", "Don Giovanni" and "Bastien und Bastienne", or Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable", or Gounod's "Faust" or Ibert's "Le Roi d'yvetot." Moreover, most of the operas given could be done in English.
Finding talent would not be nearly as difficult as it would appear on the surface. Where, for example, could one find a better group of young singers than right here on our own campus? In regards to the selection of the voices for an opera performance, an audition could be held with such distinguished artist-teachers as Professors Donald M. Swarthout, Joseph Wilkins, Alice Monerief, Reinhold Schmidt, Irene Peabody, Meribah Moore and others as judges.
Where, too, could one find a more efficient student orchestra than the one we have here at K.U. under Professor Russell Wiley?
Fresh new scenery could be designed by our splendid art department and announcements could be made through our timely newspaper—the "Daily Kansan".
The concomitants that would burst forth from such a co-operative student effort are innumerable. For example, students would undoubtedly develop a greater feeling of belonging to the group, of subordinating their personal wills for the good of the group, of seeing a closer link among all of the various schools by working together. But such an effort would do more for it would give the K.U. student tools of co-operation and hard work that he could readily transfer into his experiences in his various communities.
Opera has become to me a perennial spring which flows endlessly through the breast of men, and I believe if given a chance to be performed by us (I, personally, have sung the thrilling role of "Valentine" in the opera "Faust" under the able direction of Mr. Endreze Kreackmann, leading baritone of the Paris Opera for 20 years) it can become here at K.U. an ever exciting-art form.
Otis D. Simmons
Junior, Eduation
(School of Fine
(School of Fine Arts)
Editor's Note: We think this is a sound suggestion and would be worth a try.
Dear Medics,
Advice To Medics
You would be wise to keep a copy of your recent letters to the editor. They may be very valuable at a later date. You see when the AMA has expended the 200 dollars (It was 200, wasn't it? Subversives claimed it was in the millions?) which it recently received through forced contributions from doctors throughout the country (by forced contributions I mean the doctors 'forced' the AMA to take their money) to conduct anti-health insurance propaganda, you may feel 'Impelled' to force them to take some of your money rather than witness the closing of the campaign.
However, if you keep a copy of your recent letters, perhaps you will be able to overcome the temptation to send a check to headquarters. Instead you will be able to merely forward a copy of the Kansan accompanied by a note saying "See, I have long been aware of the shadow of catastrophe hovering over us. When I was yet in college I struck a valiant blow for my God, my Country, and my Association."
If you receive a letter in reply which points out that any attack on government health insurance signed by medical students is about as ineffectual a form of propoganda as it is possible to conceive of, you can always reply that you had no friends outside the profession who were willing to front for you by signing the letters. This explanation will undoubtedly be accepted with perfect understanding.
So I say, let every true American take off his hat to you, medics. It is most heartening to know that in these dark days when our liberties, and even our lives, are hanging by such slender threads, there is yet in this great and glorious land a small but powerful organization sincerely and unselfishly devoted to the common good. With such truly enlightened leadership we may yet be saved from the folly of our own stupidity.
Robert L. Richards
"Grateful" Grad (student)
Editor's Note: Need we say more!
University
Daily Kansan
News Room Adv. Room
K.U. 251 K.U. 376
Student Newspaper of the
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Member of the Kansas Press Assn. national service, the Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by the National Ad- service 242 Madison Ave, New York City.
Editor-in-chief John A. Bannigan
Managing Editor Business Manager Emily C. Stewart Gerald Mosley
Asst. Managing Editors: Edward Chapin, Francis J. Kelley, Patricia Jansen, Arthur McIntire.
City Editor John Corporation Assistant City Editors: Dewayne Oglesbee, Charles Price, Bud Rodgers, Dean Evans, Marion Kilweer.
Photograph Editor Harold Benjamin Society Editors: Janet Ogan, Melva Lutz Asst. Soc. Editor Virginia Johnston Telegraph Editor John Hill Telegraph editor Bill White, Sheppeard, Lloyd Lloyd Beck, Steve Ferro.
Sports Editor Bill Stratton Asst. Sports Editors: Bob Nelson, Marvin Arth, John McMillion.
Editorial Assist Pete North
Advertising Mgr. Joseph Ward Advertising Mgr. Charlie Hagen Circulation Mgr. Joseph Lewis Classified Ad. Mgr. Virginia Copedge Promotion Mgr. James Murray
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