PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5. 1950
TODAY'S MAIL Sorehead, So-Called
Sir:
I am sorry that the Kansan, the one medium of student information which is not subject to A.S.C. control, has taken up the game of partisan politics. I was however, amused at the ignorance exhibited in the editorial by Pete North by his assumption of the existence of a so-called "so-called Independents party."
The so-called so-called Independents party was dissolved shortly after the election last spring, at which the so-called Independents suffered a sound defeat. THERE IS NO INDEPENDENTS PARTY—so-called so-called, so-called, or otherwise called.
Mr. North's editorial was subtly worded and apparently rational, but, as a broken spirited and disappointed so-called Independent leader (as long as Independent leadership is no more than so-called I can call myself a leader and qualify as well as anyone) I see between the lines of it an attempt to further degrade the name of "Independent."
I must contradict Mr. North's generalization that the Independents party represented "an even smaller minority than Pachacamac." Perhaps this conclusion came to Mr. North as a result of plenary inspiration (Ed. Note: plenary inspiration by dictionary definition would mean due process of thought.), for it is obvious that no factual basis exists for such a statement.
I will admit, however, that some of the Independents political leaders have been motivated by purely selfish aims. Indeed, the reason for the dissolution of the Independents party was the sell-out committed by one such leader who managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the other Independents. This person was able to reach a position of some prominence in campus politics by standing on the caress of the party he stabbed in the back.
May I congratulate you then, Mr. North, for your excellent use of journalistic subtlety in making stupid generalizations appear rational. You should be proud, for you have done your task well, but nothing will likely come of your efforts to induce Independent opposition.
The Independents realize full well that under the present election procedure, it will take more than a mere "quirk of fate" to defeat Pachacamac. (Such a feat would call for a miracle.) Nor do the Independents any longer cling to their old ideal of a university that does not discriminate against a student on such flimsy grounds as social affiliations.
We passively pay our activity fees, not even rebelling when Pachacamac throws our money away on Delta Sigma Rho trips for the A.S.C. president and his stooges, or on imaginary tepees for the Sachem society. I will admit to thinking a few harsh words when the Independent Students' association, a non-political organization, was denied any funds at all, but then I'm just a sorehead whose party lost a fair election.
The Independent opposition you are seeking. Mr. North, is not going to materialize. We Independents are convinced at last that a person who wears a pin is a better person than one who does not.
Robert C. Casad College senior
The Editors Report —
AN OPEN LETTER TO A
Sorehead, So Called
ye Ed
食二
Dear Mr. Casad:
In view of the charges you wrongfully make at the University Daily Kansan, I will attempt to answer your letter to us. You say our information is incorrect. Yet you yourself have not the least idea what you are talking about.
For instance, you say the University Daily Kansan is the one medium of student information which is not subject to A.S.C. control. Where may you have obtained such incorrect information? As editor-in-chief, as a member of the Kansan board, I have many times seen a copy of our constitution. In the Kansan board constitution is a section on general policies. In that section is A.S.C. bill no. 6, A Bill on Publications. We suggest you read that bill, paying particular attention to chapter four, before you go around handing out misinformation.
Yet even if the Kansan is under the control of the A.S.C. as the "official student paper of the University of Kansas," we are nevertheless non-partisan. We do not, will not, shall not take the part of any group or individual on the campus. Yet this does not mean we may not, will not, shall not comment on the activities of groups and individuals on the campus.
Mr. Casad, let me ask you a few questions. We can only hope for answers. As a man who feels others are ignorant, let us find out if you can enlighten them. Here is your chance to be something other than a so-called ex-Independent leader. Here is your chance to stop calling other people names and do something constructive. You say our facts are incorrect, will you do us the favor of straightening us out?
As we see the truth, are able to find it, to get facts to back up what we say, so shall we call our shots. And evidently this time, one of our shots has struck home.
We'd like to know, for instance, just what was the reason for the Independents nominally disbanding? Was it an attempt to discredit the A.S.C. as the students' governing body for once and for good? Did the Independents, by "saying" they were dissolving, think they could coerce the administration into scrapping the All Student council?
We wonder about these questions. We also wonder about your readiness to take offense about something that isn't. Could it be that the Independent party actually is still around? You, Mr. Casad, seem pretty anxious and eager to refresh everyone's memory that you were (or are you still?) one of the so-called leaders of the so-called Independent party.
And would you be so kind to tell us just who it was that sold out to Pachacamac and rose to prominence "by standing on the carcass of the party that he stabbed in the back," as you so poetically put it? Can you prove it?
Would it be too much trouble to ask you to substantiate your claims that Pachacamac throws away our money on trips and canapes for A.S.C. members?
Would you be willing to give us the benefit of your apparently unlimited knowledge? We have many more questions we'd like answered.
We wonder, Mr. Casad, after reading your letter over, if it just wasn't because of leadership like yours that the Independents never got any farther than they did. We wonder if, with leadership, or even so-called leadership, as the Independents have had in the past that they will ever win any election.
You charge Mr. North with generalizing. Yet he might charge you with the same thing. He would, however, have the advantage. He did not become vituperative. He was, although a Greek, a gentleman.
We have many more questions we'd like you to answer, Mr. Casad. But we tire of bickering with someone who does not have the least idea about what or with whom he is arguing.
Which brings us down to the reason Mr. North was not allowed to reply to your foolish outbursts. It was to evade any further charges that the University Daily Kansan is politically partisan.
We want to let you know that there are others on the "official student paper of the University of Kansas," non-Greeks, who also would like to see a return of the two-party system to the campus. Yet none of us, can, by any stretching of the imagination, see how this can be called political partisanship.
Editor-in-Chief.
by Keith Leslie
James S. Morris,
Quebec—(U.P)A worried husband told the judge that he didn't think much about it when his pretty 21-year-old bride twice threatened to poison him after they were married four month ago.
"When she hit me on the head with an axe last night and tried to clip off my leg after I had fallen to the floor, I decided it was serious," he said.
Graduation days will soon be here, and Huey P. Muckpump, political science senior, is beginning to worry about the finals in Baby Kissing II, Hay Pitching 170, and Plain Dirt Farming 220.
Dallas, Texas—(U.P.)—The Dallas police radio dispatcher last night solemnly asked a squad car to report to the headquarters of Alcoholics Anonymous—to pick up a drunk.
We were pretty worried about the international situation there for a while, but now that "Daddy" Warbucks is back, we expect everything to turn out all right.