BER 21,1949
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN. LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1949
This Santa Claus Comes To Aid Of Forgotten Men
THIRTEEN
Oklahoma City, Okla. Dec. 21—(U.P.)—A Santa Claus without whiskers was hurrying Tuesday to put the Christmas spirit of good will into the hearts of a legion of forgotten men.
Vinson has received letters from risoners in almost every state.
One came from a man who has been in prison seven years whose three children "think I'm out West on a ranch."
"I don't buy things," he said. "I just find people who want to help those who are unfortunate. I have 25,000 or 35,000 volunteer helpers in Oklahoma."
The requests he filled did not come from eager children. They were written by convicts who want their children's stockings filled on Christmas eve.
"I'd like to send them some western clothes for Christmas," the convict wrote. "I can't tell them where I am."
This year, he is concentrating on helping the children of convicts. He wrote letters to prison warriors and sent them his plans and explaining that he learned about convicts when he built roads with prison labor.
Their benefactor was "Uncle Dan" Vinson of Oklahoma City who is determined to find gifts for kids the regular Santa Claus forgets each year.
"Those men love their kids just like anybody else," he said.
A rancher in Western Oklahoma will fill the prisoner's request—and more.
"The kids will get their outfits, and when the man gets out of jail, he'll have a job on a ranch." Vinson said. "Then after a few months he can go home and tell the truth."
Not all of Uncle Dan's requests come from convicts, however.
One woman asked for a house in California for "myself and my three children." Uncle Dan said he simply couldn't fill that request.
Vinson said he started helping others in 1944, when he went into semi-retirement on royalties from his asphalt business. He's carried on his Christmas hobby ever since
One of the letters he received came from a man in the death row at an Oklahoma prison. Uncle Dan answered that one in person to assist the loser that his son would get the best bike possible for Christmas.
"You don't know how much that means to me, Dan," the condemned man replied. "I've been thinking about his Christmas. I'm ready to go."
Washington, — (U.P.)—Veterans are proving themselves excellent loan risks.
More than one and a half million ex-servicemen are paying for new homes with loans that are partially backed by the veterans administration. Up to now fewer than 5,000 have defaulted on their loans. That's a fraction of one per cent.
Few Default On VA Loans
The Veterans administration is "out of pocket" 6 and a half million on loans defaulted by home-buying veterans. It has lost $7 million on business loans. The V.A. expects, however, to recover a substantial amount on these losses by selling property taken over after loan payments lapsed.
Only 53,000 veterans have obtained loans to buy farms and according to the V.A. just 1.6 per cent have defaulted on their loans.
The record isn't that good on farm and business loans approved for veterans. But of the 112,582 veterans who received business loans since end of the war only six per cent have failed to keep up their payments and defaulted.
Little Man On Campus
By Bibler
"I was chosen to play Santa for our sorority an' I'm just waiting 'til they all get to bed. Who are you going to pla Santa for?"
Students Sing Swedish German Songs At Party
The significance of Christmas is Christ, Herbert Ketterman, president of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, told members recently. The church and the throne he pointed out, divide Christ's life into three phases.
A 16th century German Nativity play was presented at the annual German department Christmas party Monday in the Museum of Art. Don Dixon, assistant professor of speech, directed the play.
The cross, believes Mr. Ketterman,
is God's most eloquent word for
mankind. Through it a person can
find God's love.
The musical direction for the play was done by Clayton Krehbiel assistant professor in education. Other directors were: Muriel Burzle, former instructor in German, costumes; Thomas Shay, graduate student, stage; and Milton Commons, graduate student, lighting.
Christ on the throne, he said, is "king of kings and lord of lords." Yet, Christ is king only as men receive him and give to him their loyalty and devotion, he pointed out. An individual can accept or reject the "throne".
Two selections from Beethoven's "Quartet in C Minor, opus 18," were played by a string quartet. Members of the quartet were Merle Clayton, the senior senior, cello; Isabella Addams, the junior cello; violin; Donald Stewart, College sophomore, first violin; and Lawrence Long, College freshman, viola.
A Russian choir under the direction of Sam F. Anderson, instructor in German, presented a Cossack dance and sang two numbers. The songs were: "The Russian Bell-Ringing Song," and "The Troika in the Moonlight and the Snow."
A Swedish group led by Per-Hugo Sjojgren, instructor in German, performed a traditional Swedish folk dance around the Christmas tree. The group sang three Swedish Christmas songs while dancing. They were: "Hej," Tomtegubbar," Skara, skara, harve," and "Nu ar det Juligen."
Community singing was held between the various parts of the program. Songs included "O Tannenbaum." "O du frohliche," "Herbei, O Ihr Glaubigen," and "Stille Night."
Significance Of Christmas Told
Seven faculty members of the School of Engineering and Architecture attended a meeting of the Kansas chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Topeka Dec. 16.
Seven Attend ASCE Meet
F. A. Russell, professor of engineering drawing, received a certificate of life membership in the society. He has been a member of the organization for 26 years.
Those attending from KU were
George W. Bradshaw and W. C. McNown; Professors of civil engineering; D. Haines; Thurmal McMahon, D. P. Schiesswohl, assistant professors of civil engineering; and Robert Smith, assistant professor of applied mechanics.
R. L. Peyton, concrete engineer of the Kansas State highway commission spoke on "Kansas Experi-员 of Parking Permits." 14-2. *Parking regulations*
Some parking regulations will be removed in University parking zones during Christmas vacation but restrictions on Jayhawk drive will remain in the park, Donald Alderson, chairman of the committee, said today.
The revision will begin at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and will remain in effect until 8 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1950.
However, traffic tickets will be issued anytime to drivers who park overtime on Jayhawk drive between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and between 8 a.m. and noon on Satdays. Tickets will also be given to anyone who parks at the curb areas painted red.
ISA Plans 'Bum's Ball' 'Apple Polishing Party'
The "Bum's ball" was set for Feb. 4 and plans were discussed for an "Apple Polishing party" at an Independent Student's association council meeting Monday.
Joe E. Sheldon, College sophomore, was appointed bulletin board chairman. Auditions will be held by an entertainment committee at Watkins hall Jan. 6 and 7.
The Independent Students association has been granted $450 from student activity funds, Raymond Nichols, executive secretary, said Chancellor Deane W. Malott made the grant to enable the L.S.A. to carry out the program they have planned for the year.
ISA Granted $450 From Activity Fund
The association had asked the All Student Council for $780. Their first request was denied and their second request yielded only $300.
The L.S.A. is planning a "Bum's ball" for Saturday, Feb. 4, movies at special prices for L.S.A. members polishing parties during orientation week of the second semester, and a spring formal dance Friday, April 21.
Second Hiss Trial Replica Of First
New York—(U.P.)-Alger Hiss told his second perjury trial jury that the political philosophy he demonstrated as one of the state department's outstanding young diplomats could not have been that of a "fellow traveller."
Hiss' oath that he never violated "the trust and confidence" placed in him left the jury with the same choice as the first trial jury—whether to believe Hiss or his accuser, Whittaker Chambers. The first jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Hiss began testifying Monday in his own defense and repeated his belief that he ever stole confidential government documents for a communist spy rpyr.
He is charged with lying to a federal grand jury when he denied that he ever stole documents for Chambers or saw the former Comer 1, 1937. When asked whether he did either the "Pumpkin Papers" or "Baltimore Papers" placed in evidence by Chambers, Hiss replied:
"No. I did not
Hiss said his opinion differed with that of several of his state department superiors who feared that the United States would lose its neutrality if it aided the allies then. The defendant inferred that his position showed that he was not pro-Russian.
Hiss pointed out that in 1939, a few weeks after Chambers first denounced him as a Communist, he wrote a memorandum arguing that there was nothing in international law to prevent the United States from aiding the allies against the Nazi-Soviet bloc.
The 45-year-old lawyer seemed to have lost some of the smiling assurance he had at his first trial. He was thinner, tight-lipped and solenn. While testifying he kept his eyes on his wife, Priscilla.
Washington U Head To Speak Feb. 27
Dr. Arthur H. Compton, chancellor of Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., will speak Monday, Feb. 27, 1950, at the opening convocation of Religious Emphasis week.
His topic will be "Power With Purpose". Dr. Compton directed the plutonium research for the government from 1942 through 1945.
In 1927, Dr. Compton won the Nobel prize for work on X-rays. He was chairman of the physics department and dean of the physical science department at the University of Chicago before becoming chancellor of Washington university
Washington Fraternities Play In Garbage Bowl Game
Seattle,—(U.P.)—Titles for bowl games just about reached the end of the line here when two University of Washington fraternities battled for possession of the intramural football trophy.
The Phi Gamma Delta team defeated Sigma Alpha Epsilon 6-0 in a game played on a recently filled-in portion of the city dump; just off the campus.
The contest goes into the record books as the first annual Garbage Bowl game.
Soviet Naval Plans Include 1,000 Super Subs
London, Dec. 21.—(U.P.)-The authoritative naval yearbook "Jane's Fighting Ships" said Tuesday, that Soviet naval plans call for completion of 1,000 super-submarines by next year and a number of battle-ships firing radio-controlled aerial torpedoes.
Janes's appeared skeptical that the Soviet submarine plan would be fulfilled but predicted that "revolutionary" types of warships would appear in a few years, including atomic bomb carriers.
"It is doubtful whether the Russians have the shipyard capacity and the trained technicians necessary to build an underwater fleet of this size in such a short time," Jane's said.
The Soviet super-submarine fleet was scheduled to be completed under the latest Soviet five-year plan by 1950-51. Jane's said. Four hundred would be placed in service in the Far East, 300 in the Baltic, and the remainder in the White and Black seas.
"It is reported that a type of submarine with a very great range and a very high submerged speed is being built."
The section on Russian submarines showed craft with recorded speeds up to 18 knots. It reported the belief that the Russians now have 360 submarines, including former German underseas boats.
The new 1949-50 edition of the annual, published Tuesday, was described in naval circles as an interim type of edition necessitated by the changeover from wartime to peacetime navies. It predicted startling changes in naval warfare soon.
"In the next few years we are likely to see several categories of warships of revolutionary type, the atomic bomb carrier, guided misfire control ship, the task force commander, anti-submarine cruiser, rocket desterners, fast low-lying frigates, and gas turbine ships," Jane's said.
"There are signs that new warships are in the making. Warships are being designed, not as improvements or developments of previous classes, but from first principles for a specific role of countering a potential enemy type."
Williams Air Force Base, Ariz., (U.P.)-The air force has begun operations here on an ejector launch tower that will hurl pilots thousands of miles an hour to simulate emergency, escape from high-speed jet aircraft.
Air Force Installs Pilot-Hurler Tower
The 28-ton tower, the first of its kind installed for pilot training, was built by a former naval officer, Merril A. Mader, now a civilian engineer with the Allis-Chalmers standard jet plane seat mounted on company, Milwaukee.
Mr. Mader said the tower has a an inclined track 100 feet high. The pilot, equipped with full flight gear, is strapped to the seat and shot in to the air by the explosion of a 37-nm. cartridge.
Mr. Mader said the pilot will travel 40 miles an hour at the start and will rise to a height of 50 feet subject to a pressure of 16 times the force of gravity. The pilot is returned to the ground by a special braking mechanism on the track.
The tower, Mr. Mader said, is similar to the pilot ejector mechanism now installed in jet aircraft. He said explosive force is necessary since air pressure makes it impossible for a pilot to escape from a plane travelling 500 to 600 miles an hour.
The tower installed here was built from a test model developed at Wright-Paterson field, Dayton, Ohio. An air force spokesman said all personnel of the jet fighter training school here will go through tower tests.