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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN. LAWRENCE. KANSAS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27,1950
Fine Arts Dean Noted As Composer, Soloist
Dr. Thomas Gorton, 40-year-old dean of the School of Fine Arts, still thinks the school has the finest reputation—just as good as the "many comments he heard all over the country" before coming to the University on July 1. "I am impressed by the friendliness on the campus," he said.
Dean Gorton has not disclosed any immediate plans for the school for he feels that it is too early for such an announcement. Some changes may be announced in the near future, he added.
A change made this fall is the attendance at concerts and recitals. All students are required to attend the Thursday afternoon student recitals this year as well as the concert course series. They need attend only 40 per cent of the other concerts, he mentioned.
The dean is a newcomer to Kansas. Before taking his position at the University, he had only visited and traveled through the state. This fall he is teaching Music Appreciation.
Dean Gorton is an outstanding pianist, composer, and conductor. His original compositions include "Piano Concerto," "Symphony," and a suite for orchestra, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow." He has written incidental music to Eugene O'Neill's play, "Marco Millions," as well as "Variations in Fugue for Symphonic Band." piano pieces, and songs.
Dean Gorton estimated he spent one and one-half years writing his "Symphony." Other pieces of music have taken him from two to three months.
He is a man of moderately stocky build, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, brown hair turning gray, and dark blue eyes. Dean Gorton has a moderately low voice and even though he has spent many years in both Texas and Ohio, no regional accent is noticeable.
His compositions have been performed by the Rochester Civic orchestra, the Houston symphony, and other orchestras. He has appeared as piano solist for the St. Louis Symphony orchestra under Golschmann; the Rochester Symphony orchestra under the direction of Howard Hanson; and the Houston Symphony under the direction of Ernst Hoffman.
He began piano lessons at the age of 8 and liked them from the start. He recalled only one incident "when my family and I argued violently about whether or not I should do my music lesson or play baseball."
—Kansan Photo By Ed Chapin
Dean Gorton spends much of his time playing the piano, either for his own enjoyment, practicing, or composing. In his spare time he enjoys comprehensive reading from mysteries to biographies, as well as bridge, chess, and fishing.
DEAN GORTON
He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in music. He also taught at Riverside Junior college and also headed the Memphis College of Music in 1938.
In 1939 he organized and became head of the University of Texas piano department. As a conductor, he directed the University of Texas Women's Glee club, Austin. He directed the Riverside Community Opera association, Riverside,
Calif.. from 1935 to 1937.
Dean Gorton served as a lieutenant in the naval reserve from 1944 to 1946 as navigator and executor of
the U.S., Antares, a supply ship. He was on duty in the South Pacific and later in Okinawa, Korea, and China.
Communist Riots Fail Austrian Student Says
By LEE SHEPPEARD
Paul Imhof, special student in law and an exchange student from Austria, believes that both the government and the people of his native country are making every effort to prevent Austria from becoming "another Russian satellite."
Imhof, whose father is a government official in Vienna, said that the recent Communist strike was one of many Red attempts to create disorder in Austria. The Communists are trying through violence to make it appear that they have widespread support among the people, he explained.
Actually, Imhof pointed out, the Reds got only 5 per cent of the vote in the last elections, and there are only five Communists in the 165-member Austrian parliament. Of the remaining members 45 per cent belong to the "Volkspartei," the party sponsored by the Roman Catholic church, and 35 per cent represent the Socialist party. These
ment's defiance of the Red ultimatum to grant a 20 per cent raise in wage rates.
PAUL IMHOF
In some small districts in the Russian zone where over a thousand Communist party members are registered, only a few hundred votes were cast for Red candidates in the last election. Imhof said this discrepancy was caused by the fact that many workers in the Soviet zone are forced by the Russians to join the Communist party.
two functions present a united front against the Communists, Imhof said. The other 15 per cent belong to the Independent party, which Imhof described as "possibly neo-Nazi."
As an example of the resistance the Communists are meeting in Austria. Imhof cited the govern-
Workers are also forced to assist in strikes in other zones, he said. These workers are employed USIWA, a giant coalition of industries confiscated by the Nazis when they took over Russia, and taken from them by the Russians in 1945. USIWA has a large force of "factory guards" which, Imhof explained, is actually a pretext for training Austrian Communists. Imhof described these "Werkshutz" as "row-dies who don't want to work and former Nazis whom no one will employ."
He pointed out that the Russians are in a position to sever all public utilities in the American, British, and French zones of Vienna. They can blockade all communication except radio, and all transportation except that which could be handled by two small airfields. An airlift like the one that defeated the Berlin blockade would be impossible, Imhof explained, because the only large airfields used by the Americans and British are out in the Soviet zone.
ROTC Chief Now In Japan
The Russians try to threaten the people by kidnapping politicians and others who are their open opponents. They also take engineers and technicians who may be useful to them, he said.
The Austrian police have had difficulty keeping order in the Western sectors, but they were issued guns and helmets Wednesday. Austrian firemen are also helping to break up riots. Imhof said that their use of hoses to clear mobs off the street was very effective.
Lieutenant Col. John Alfrey, former commander of the ground force R.O.T.C units at the University, has been named chief of the operations division, office of the assistant chief of staff, G-4 (supply), of the Japan Logistical command, with headquarters in Yokohama.
During World War II, he was in charge of supply for the anti-aircraft artillery command in the Southwest Pacific theater of operations. In recognition of his war-time services, Colonel Alfrey was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.
Colonel Alfrey left the University July 1 for a two-year tour of duty,
Arriving in the Far East command in August, Colonel Alfresco joiended his wife and two children in December. They live in Yokohama.
Washington, D.C.-At the outbreak of hostilities the International Red Cross Committee, composed of neutral Swiss citizens, offered North Korea and South Korea its services as a clearing house for information concerning war prisoners.
POWs Aided By Red Cross
The Republic of Korea immediately accepted the offer and the provisions of the revised Geneva Convention, signed in 1949 by 57 nations, governing the treatment of war prisoners, wounded soldiers, and civilians in enemy territory. A committee representative visited South Korea, inspected prisoner-of-war camps, and found them satisfactory.
The Red Cross organization most active in the conflict, however, is the American Society. By Sept 1, the ARC had sent 25 field directors into action with combat units, three women recreation workers to Pu'an's evacuation hospital, 15 field directors and 12 hospital personnel to military areas and hospitals.
BEAT NEBRASKA
Living Index To Be Revised
Washington - (U.P.) - The nation's cost of living index is being revised to offer an "improved" consumer price yardstick, the government announced today.
Commissioner Ewan Clague of the bureau of labor statistics also reported the index rose one-half of one per cent during the month ending Sept. 15 in spite of a two-tenths of one per cent decline in food prices.
Clague forecast a continued cost of living rise through the winter. The latest index was 173.8 per cent of the 1935-39 average and only four-tenths of one per cent below
Korean Minerals Underestimated
Washington, D. C.-The Korean peninsula's strategic mineral reserves, largest in the Far East outside Manchuria, have received surprisingly little attention in the various estimates of long range Communist strategy in the Orient.
Korea has valuable deposits of some 200 minerals and ores. About five-sixths of the mining production is in North Korea, but several of the most important metals are found in quantity only in the South.
In general, Korean resources are more important for their variety than quantity. Coal, iron, gold, nickel, zinc, magnite, graphite, lead, titanium, and phosphate are over a few of them.
Before World War II Korea produced about one-third of the world's graphite, so important in the electrical industry. The deposits of barite, with many industrial applications, are among the best in the world. Gold production has been as high as $50,000,000 a year. Coal reserves are over a billion and a half tons; iron ore has been estimated at more than a billion tons, although only part of it has a high iron content.
A recent Department of Defense announcement that North Korean industry was being moved into Manchuria indicates the close economic ties between those two areas under Communist control. Both have been developed as heavy industry centers. North Korea has been a customer of Manchurian coke, industrial salts, and agricultural products. Manchuria has used North Korean fertilizer, sulphate ammonia, minerals, and electric power.
Russia's interest in Korea, particularly the northern part, has been evident for more than half a century. It is significant that as ago as 1896 Tsarist Russian and Japan engaged in some political maneuvering which had as its aim a possible division of Korea along the 38th parallel.
The index is used by government economists to develop economic programs and by labor-management negotiators to compute wage adjustments under escalator clauses in an increasing number of contracts.
Clague said the revisions will be completed about the end of the year, although they originally were not scheduled to be finished until the summer of 1952.
the 1948 postwar high.
By ALAN MARSHALL
27-Inch Telescope To Be Installed Soon
The telescope, first used in 1929, has been lying useless in the basement of Hoch auditorium since the summer of 1944 when its original site, the Mt. Oread observatory, was razed to make way for the construction of Lindley hall.
The telescope was given to the University by William Pitt, a Kansas City machinist interested in optical work. The reflecting disk was made from a 200 pound disk of Pyrex glass provided by the University. Mr. Pitt, with the assistance of Dinsmore Alter, former professor of astronomy at K. U., ground and polished the mirror for almost a year until it was within one millionth of an inch of the perfect paraboloid.
The 27-inch Pitt telescope will be installed in the observatory in Lindley hall as soon as contractors have bid for and completed the work. The board of regents has appropriated $18,000 to finance the installation.
Mountings for the telescope were cast in the Fowler shops foundry and the framework was designed by Manley Hood, son of George J. Hood, professor emeritus of engineering drawing. Much of the work of erecting the frame was done by Hood and when he graduated, his brother, Henry Hood, completed the work.
The telescope was first used in
1929 to make photographs of the moon. It was used continuously until the summer of 1937 when the mirror was sent to California School of Technology to be coated with an aluminum reflecting surface. The coating process was relatively new then having been developed in 1932 by Dr. John Strong, prominent University alumnus.
Ever since its completion, the telescope has undergone minor changes and improvements until it embodied all the features of the modern telescopes. Clyde Tombaugh, 35, who was later to gain fame as the discoverer of the planet Pluto, made many of these improvements in 1938 and 1939 when he was doing graduate work at the University. He wrote his master's thesis on the telescope.
The old observatory was built in 1920 on the present site of High auditorium. In 1926, it was shifted to a new location west of Haworth hall. A six-inch telescope was installed in the new Lindley Hall and the Pitt reflector was stored for the duration of the war.