PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
The Editors Report -
MAC HAS A KNACK
For Spook-Hunting
by Harrison Madden
When Mac and I were boys we said we wanted to grow up to become G-men. We saved box tops to get ourselves Junior G-man badges, fingerprint sets, and other detecting equipment so that we could "track the criminal to his lair."
We dreamed of saving our fathers' businesses, protecting women and "children." We track down, and captured the bandits who robbed the big brick bank on the corner.
After seeing spy pictures at the movies, Mac and I would play at catching slippery foreign agents who were trying to destroy our democracy. We searched everywhere for spies, and wherever we looked we'd come up with at least one.
Mac was better at this sort of thing than I was. He seemed to have a knack for the "international" stuff, for saving our American Way of Life from sinister plots.
Now we are both grown up. I've lost interest in becoming anything like a G-man, but not Mac. He still yearns to "protect defenseless Americans from those who would oppress." However, Mac has learned a few things.
For instance, he has discovered that being a federal agent isn't all glory. It involves much detail work, getting facts and more facts before acting. It means having rather conclusive proof of a person's misdeeds before accusing him. More often than not it means working in obscurity and letting someone else in the organization—get the credit.
This doesn't appeal to Mac; he likes the spotlight. He wants to have his picture in the paper so all can see that HE, at least, is on guard. What is more, Mac doesn't like the monotonous task of gathering facts.
If there is a rumor that a certain person, and especially a government official, has bumped into another person, who is suspected by some "to tend to have an affinity toward criminal tendencies," that is enough for Mac. He is ready to expose that official and compel him to prove his innocence beyond any reasonable doubt.
Of course, with our libel laws, such "exposures" are a bit dangerous, so Mac needs some "legal apron" behind which he can hide—his mother was always around in the old days.
Yes, hunting down the criminal still has its appeal for Mac. But working through the F.B.I. just hasn't got it. That's kid stuff. Mac now wants to be a congressman.
BROADER HORIZONS FOR
Western Civilization
by Kay O'Connor
The University's Western Civilization is a five-year-old nowadays. He's growing up to be strong and healthy. He's taking an important place in campus affairs.
What can we say to the proud parents of this sturdy progeny? Can we pat him on the head and pronounce him a perfect offspring? Or should we tell them frankly that we think he is basically a fine addition to our world but that he isn't perfect and badly needs some training?
We think perhaps it should be the last choice. We think the underlying idea of Western Civilization is sound: to trace and understand the factors of Western culture which have contributed most to our American culture, and to obtain an integrated conception of social progress in the world.
We think the material used to achieve these objectives is well selected so far as it goes. But we also believe that there are two glaring faults in the present course, and that it could be improved greatly by removing them.
First, much of the usefulness of the course is lost because of the way it is presented. The student is handed a notebook and bibliography, meets his proctor once every two weeks, and is told to go ahead on his own. Those who support the program say this teaches independence and responsibility.
Yet the contents of the course could be much more valuable if the outside reading was augmented by lectures. Most students get a great deal out of the course as it is now taught. But think how much more they could get if lectures were added to the readings.
Western Civilization is rightfully a freshman-sophomore course. It provides much material that can be used in future courses. Rightfully, it should come early in the college curriculum.
But why force another—and big—adjustment on the new student as he struggles to fit into University life? If the course is to continue being taught on paper, why not reserve the sophomore year for it? Students will be ready for something new then.
This seems to us to be the great fault of Western Civilization. The other is its concentration on political philosophy.
Why not broaden the course to include slide lectures of the art, architecture, music, and literature of fields other than political philosophy? Other schools, such as Stanford and Lindenwood college, have done this and come up with excellent courses. Students in these colleges gain a real and complete background for understanding daily events. Why can't we?
The Kansan soberly reported that a crab's teeth are in its stomach, and Uncle Swaybak says as far as he knows the ones he swallowed in '08 are still in his stomach, too.
Little Man On Campus
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1950
By Bibler
"Just don't let an engineer stand you in front of a WIND TUNNEL!!!"
Prisoner Of Nazis, Russians Escaped, Now Enrolled At KU
At an age when most young Americans are worrying about the big football game or the next high school prom, Ted Tiber Szabo, engineering junior, was imprisoned in a German concentration camp in Poland.
Ted was taken out of his senior year of high school in Gyro, Hungary, and placed in the camp with his parents and 18-year-old sister. He was freed by the Russians after a year of what he termed "miserable living," but his parents and sister were killed by the Germans shortly before the Russians arrived.
After leaving the prison, Ted learned that the Russians planned to transport him to Russia. He escaped and wandered through Poland before finding his way back to Gyro, where he finished high school. He attended the University of Budapest one semester, then entered a displaced persons camp in the American zone of Germany in February, 1946. He studied at the University of Paris for one semester and sailed for America in March 1947. After attending Bergen junior college, Taneck, N.J., and New York university for one semester each, Ted transferred to K.U.
"I guess I was just lucky," Ted commented. "You never can figure those things out."
Ted commented that American colleges are more systematically conducted than are European schools and that their curriculums are practical instead of theoretical. Of the most notable differences between Americans and Europeans is that Americans are more outspoken.
Chicago—U.P.)—Joseph Yanul, a motorcycle policeman, didn't have his usual means of transportation with him when children in the neighborhood shouted that a boy was escaping with a stolen bicycle. Yanul hopped on his son's bicycle, chased the culprit four blocks and caught him.
Patrolman Cycles For Thief
"In America if someone doesn't like something, he has the privilege of coming right out and saying so—and he usually does," he said.
"For me," he said, "Europe contains nothing but bad memories. It all seems like a terrible nightmare that is better forgotten. Besides, I am plenty satisfied with America."
Ted has no definite plans for the future other than working on his master's degree after graduation. He will know that he will never return to Europe.
R. M. Churchwell, petroleum engineer for the Ohio Oil company, will interview June graduates in petroleum engineering Wednesday. Further information may be obtained in the engineering office, 111 Marvin hall.
Engineering Seniors To Be Interviewed Wednesday
Department of Speech and Drama Presents
The University Players
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
in
Tonite, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday April 4,5,6,7
FRASER THEATER Curtain 8:15 p.m.
I-D CARDS ADMIT
Present I-D Cards for Reserved Seats
Ticket Office, Basement Green Hall Open Daily 9-12, 1-4 Phone KU 412