EIGHTEEN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1949
The Editorial Page-
Three In Three Years
Although a great many people judge a University by the quality of its football team, there are still some who look upon academic achievement as something worthwhile.
In athletics, K.U. has had one All-America football player. We're proud of him, and rightly so. Yet from the academic standpoint, K.U. has had three All-Americans in three successive years—the Rhodes scholars. Of course, we're proud of them, too, but sometimes our enthusiasm doesn't seem to measure up to the accomplishment.
Larry Miller, Thad Marsh, and now, Ralph Simmons have brought considerable glory to K.U. and have added tremendously to our reputation. Their achievements deserve recognition. Out of the six scholarships from this district (including Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota), the University has claimed three in three successive years.
Rhodes scholars are selected on the basis of intellect, character, personality and physical vigor.
Simmons was described by the state Rhodes scholarship selection committee as "Outstanding for his facility to keep problems and facts in orderly arrangement in his mind. He is logical and calm with a brilliant reasoning power."
We congratulate Ralph Simmons and the K.U. Rhodes scholars before him.
Sinister Plot
"Another cup of coffee, please."
The waitress brought the coffee, turned over the bill and began to make additions to the already astronomical charge.
"Hey! What are you doing there?"
"We have to charge for the second cup of coffee now, you know, It's gone up."
This scene has been repeated over and over again all across the nation in the last two weeks. Always it is the same answer, "Coffee has gone up, you know."
All of which is an example of the evidence which points to the fact that there is an insidious plot on the part of various nefarious characters known as speculators, prompted to action by the government, to create an artificial shortage of coffee and thus increase the price of such item.
This can be considered as a direct attack on college students in general, for where is there such a multitude of chronic coffee drinkers as there is in the American colleges and universities?
Since college students are the recipients of such a malicious design on one of their necessities of life it is the natural thing for them to find the causative force behind the price increase.
Now there are two possible logical causes of a rise in the price of coffee. Either there is an actual and valid shortage or there is an artificially created shortage, as was intimated above.
It is easy to see that there is no actual and valid shortage in the supply of coffee. Figures from the Department of Commerce show that coffee imports through September, the first month of the resumption of the college year, were approximately 2.1 billion pounds, a jump of 150 million pounds over the same period of 1948 which in itself was a record import year.
Therefore, the only assumption is that an artificially created shortage is the cause of the increase in coffee prices.
But not only are the speculators to be condemned for the perpetration of this crime but so is the present administration, because they have thrown their full support behind the speculators' activity.
The speculators, expecting a future shortage in the supply of coffee because of an estimated smaller crop this year, have bought the existing supply of coffee and stored it in order to realize large profits when the anticipated shortage hits.
But it is not so apparent as to why the administration would be a partner in such a scheme. Upon closer scrutiny, though, it does become clear.
The administration is cagey, you must give them credit for that. They realize that the graduation speakers are right—the students of today are the voting public of tomorrow. And if the students of today cannot get their coffee they cannot stay awake to study. When they cannot stay awake to study they miss, speaking in generalities, their lessons which give them over-all intelligence leading to an understanding of politics.
By this method the present administration is able to maintain a befuddled electorate and continue its victorious ways in elections.
'Small Things'
"No," we told the freshman, "the recent lecture on Faust was not concerned with the brewing art."
A survey at Northwestern discloses that half the women there are "out to get a man." "K. U. women," says the senior cynic, "are out to get a fraternity pin, an engagement ring and their picture in the paper. If a man comes with these things, it's just incidental."
Charles Laughton ended his program by quoting Lincoln's first political speech and reciting the "Gettysburg Address." This does not necessarily mean he plans to run for public office.
Dear Editor-
Moronic Play
Dear Sir:
I have always been an avid reader of the "Letters to the Editor" column in the Daily Kansan. A letter by one Richard Rowe was particularly illuminating. The statement that a moronic play produced by a second rate director "took the Catholic church apart!" was quite interesting. This seemingly impossible task has been going on for some 1,900 years and the only ones who seem to think it an accomplished fact are various doctors of philosophy scattered about the campus. As for a university being a place for a free discussion on any subject, I, as a political science and history major, question this. Last year when Rep. Hartley spoke for the Taft-Hartley law, as a member of a class of history students, I was obliged to hear it. I have never heard any representative of labor being accorded the privilege of answering Mr. Hartley. As for a university being a place for free discussion, I have never heard socialism or communism discussed—freely. If "permitting such a sensational play is fulfilling an educational function", let's have Paul Robeson or Gypsy Rose Lee to help us in our academic endeavors.
(Name withheld by request)
Rules
Dear Sir:
While reading Monday's issue of the Kansan I came across an article to which I would like to call your attention. The sports editor in his column "Spotlight on Sports" wrote regarding the Purdue game: "The referees missed one in the last three minutes if no more." He went on to say that on a certain play, Purdue was not given an uncontested free throw and the ball out of bounds during the last three minutes. He further accused the officials of being asleep by saying that they woke up later.
As a member of the officials profession, I have often been struck by the wholesale criticism of officials, many times unjust, especially by college students.
The new rule as given in the article is that used in high school games. In college games, the last two minutes is the unit of time in which an "offended" team gets the free throw and the ball out of bounds.
I feel any criticism of officials should at least be based on an adequate knowledge of the rules.
(Name withheld by request)
Rattlesnake Gets Bath
Stillwater, Okla. —(U.P.)-Dan Welch, a student at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College is majoring in wildlife management. He tried to give his pet rattlesnake a bath.
Welch was reported to be re-recovering from snakebite today.
- Richard Hudnut Max Factor
- Coty
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