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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MONDAY, NOV. 14, 1949
Coplon, Bridges Back On Trial; Hiss Is Next
By UNITED PRESS
Three important trials involving this country's rejection of Russian communistic principles open in the United States this week.
The famalier names of the main defendants are Alger Hiss, Judith Coplon, Valentin Gubitchev, and C.I.O. Longshoreman labor leader Harry Bridges.
Miss Coplon, a former justice department employee, and Gubitchev, her Russian former sweetheart, were brought to trial today in a New York federal court charged with conspiracy to commit espionage by transmitting stolen government secrets to Russia. The 28-year-old former government girl already has been convicted of a similar charge, removing papers from the Justice department files for delivery to Gubitchev, and faces a 40-month to 10-year prison term now under appeal.
At San Francisco today, the government began its third attempt to throw Harry Bridges, the west coast dock leader, out of the country by proving he is a Communist who should be deported.
With two lieutenants from his powerful C.I.O. International Long-shoresmen's and Warehousemen's union, Bridges is accused of perjury and conspiracy to obstruct naturalization laws when he swore under oath in 1945 that he was not a Communist.
The government will try to prove that Bridges, Australian-born, has been a Communist since 1933. Bridges, 47, twice before has defeated governmental efforts to deport him.
Alger Hiss, the former State department official, will go on trial a second time for perjury on Thursday in New York City; accused of lying to a federal grand jury when he denied participating in a pre-war Russian spy ring. Hiss was charged with perjury but his first trial ended the past July 8 with a hung jury.
His principal accuser is Whittaker Chambers, a former Time magazine editor, who said Hiss later an aide to President Roosevelt at the Yalta conference, passed secret State department papers to him
A fourth trial of national interest, that of Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, (R.N.J.) on charges of defrauding the government by payroll padding, was scheduled to start in Washington today, but will be postponed because Thomas' attorney is involved in another case.
Thomas' illness previously had delayed this trial which involves government charges that Thomas forced some of his congressional office employees to kickback portions of their salary to him.
Beauty And Beast Chosen At Dance
Patricia Perkins, fine arts junior,
and Claude Houchin, business sen-
ior, were chosen Campus Beauty
and Beast at the Pumpkin Prom
Nov. 12.
Second for Beauty went to Kathryn Conrad, College freshman. Three girls tied for third place. They were Elaine Elvig, journalism junior; Judith Johnson, College freshman; and Nancy Lindsey, College sophomore.
sophomore.
Runners-up for Beast were Jack Carby, College freshman, second place, and Dean Frazier, sophomore in the School of Medicine, third place.
First place winners received miniature potted cactus plants.
Couples dressed in jeans, plaid shirts, and cowboy boots danced to the music of Gene Hall and his orchestra. At intermissions Dean Banker, business senior, and Thomas Foster, College sophomore, played ukuleles and led singing.
Project To Find Substitute For Cortisone Begun At KU
A research project to find a substitute for the scarce new drug cortisone, a hormone that is successful in alleviating the symptoms of rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis, is being carried on at the University.
Director of the project is Dr. Joseph Burckhalter, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry.
"An urgent need exists for an adequate method for synthesizing this hormone" he said. "About seven million persons in the United States need cortisone and the present price is $200 a gram, enough dosage to last a patient five days. Even at this price only enough cortisone is available for experimental purposes."
Dr. Burekhalter was one of 12 chemist who recently attended a conference in Chicago to consider a better and more efficient method of producing cortisone.
"There isn't enough available to begin to take care of what is needed." he declared. "There is no certain source in sight at present other than ox bile."
The present means of obtaining the hormone is by chemical synthesis from a constituent of ox bile, Dr. Burckhalter explained.
"When given to a person afflicted with rheumatic fever the fever subsides and the patient is able to resume normal activity," he said. "Since rheumatic fever often afflicts children it is important that enough cortisone be available to attack the disease while the patient is young."
"The hormone is very effective in relieving rheumatoid arthritis." Dr Burckhalter pointed out. "In this disease the adrenal glands apparently do not generate enough cortisone. When supplied, the stiffness disappears and feeling of well being results. It has not failed to be effective in a single case. ACTH, a hormone which generates cortisone in the body, has helped in most cases but again this hormone is available in pathetically small amounts from the heads of hogs."
The cortisone problem can be approached in three different ways. These are partial, total, and substitute synthesis.
"Partial synthesis," he said, "is preparation from a readily available, but complex naturally occurring substance, such as ox bile which is now used. Other sources that may be developed are soy beans; tall oil, a by-product of wood pulp; and abietic acid, obtained from the resin of pine."
At the meeting in Chicago, Dr. E. C. Kendall, a scientist at the Mayo clinic, and the first man to synthesize cortisone, told the group that if the entire annual crop of soy beans in the United States were used for the manufacture of cortisone it would produce enough to last the U.S. only three days of the year.
The K.U. project which is directed by Dr. Burckhalter is trying to find a synthetic substitute. The program started Sept. 1.
"Total synthesis is preparation from simple organic compounds. Coal and petroleum are the principal sources. This approach is perhaps the least promising because of expected low yields."
"Synthesis of a possible substitute is a third choice."
We are preparing organic compounds which resemble cortisone in structure in a hope that one of these will resemble cortisone in effect," he stated. "I feel the attempts are justified on the basis that other natural occurring drugs and hormones have been replaced by relatively simple organic substances." Dr. Burchkalter said that "under the most favorable circumstances several months will be required before any substance will be ready for clinical trial. Groundwork for the project is still being laid. At present more than 30 steps are required to convert the ox bile constituent to cortisone. We are attempting to get a simpler structure and in fewer steps."
Dr. Burckhalter's assistants are Joseph Sam and Peter Jackson, graduate students who are working toward doctor of philosophy degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry.
The K.U. work is being financed by the Research corporation. A laboratory for the research was equipped the past year. Similar cortisone studies are being carried on at Harvard university, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern university, and the University of Wisconsin.
Ruth Keller Is City Editor
Ruth Keller, former assistant managing editor, was named city editor of the University Daily Kansan today by John Riley, managing editor. Other appointments announced by Riley are;
Doris Greenbank, Keith Leslie,
and Dale Mullen, assistant city editor;
George L. Brown Jr., sports editor;
Richard Dilsaver, Robert Nelson,
and Nelson Ober, assistant sports editors; Darrel Norris, telegraph editor; Dale Fields and Norma Hunsinger, assistant telegraph editors; Frankie Waits, society editor;
and Faye Wilkinson, assistant society editor.
All are journalism seniors except Miss Wilkinson, who is a College junior; Fields, a journalism junior; and Nelson, a College sophomore.
Students Describe Latin America
Students from Latin America told about the geography, history and social customs of their home countries at the meeting of the Spanish club. Nov. 10.
The students and the country they represented were: Samuel Duran, Hector Donoso, both from Chile; Flora Flores, Nicaragua; Arturo Lemus, Guatemala; Antonia Mettewie, Belty Reif, Panama; Philip E. Smith, Paraguay; and Rodrigo Solera, Costa Rica.
are from the country they reported. The next meeting of the club will be the annual Christmas program on Wednesday, Dec. 7. A play "El Drindis del Bohemio" will be presented.
All except Smith, and Miss North are from the country they reported.
Sunflower Rent Deadline Friday
Sunflower students who are paying adjusted rental rates which expire Wednesday, Nov. 30 must request renewal by Friday or regular rates will be charged for December, John A. La Monica, Sunflower housing director said.
Unemployment Drains Funds
Washington, Nov. 14.—(U.P.)-Government economists express concern today over continued high unemployment and the heavy drain on state jobless funds.
Even without counting those idled by the coal and steel strikes, the number of unemployed has remained above the three million mark consistently since the first of the year. The October figure was 3.576.000.
As a result, state unemployment benefits through September have run to $1,282,000,000 more than twice the amount paid out for all of 1948. A record monthly total of $170,-629,000 was spent in August.
Fuegner returned to school, and was graduated from the Commercial university of Prague in 1948. He worked for the International Refugee organization in Germany for 13 months.
President Truman has ordered government purchases channelled into areas where unemployment is the most serious, but it is too early to say whether the program has been or will be successful. Initial reports received at the White House from government procurement agencies show the program has been of some help in certain areas.
Several states are running short of money and are planning to ask more federal aid in giving financial help to the jobless. Rhode Island and Connecticut are among this group.
Some of the trouble spots have unemployment as high as 30 per cent of the labor force. That equals the level in the midst of the 1933 depression.
But in others, there has been no improvement at all. The chief reason is that some cities with high unemployment do not manufacture goods the government needs. Another is that so many of their industry articles against which consumer resistance has built up and government orders are spread too thinly to be of much help.
Czechoslovakian Student Scorns Height Of 'Hill'
He left his job and returned home before May 5,1945, when the American third army liberated his country.
At least one student believes the University is situated on flat land. He is Miloslau A. Fuegner, graduate student from Czechoslovakia.
Cutbacks in a dozen or so industries have accounted for part of this situation. Textiles, machinery, anthracite coal, jewelry and metal products have been in far less demand this year than they were during the war and postwar boom days
He fled to Germany when the
He was born and educated in Prague. When the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia in March, 1939, he was attending high school. Immediately after he was graduated in 1942, he was sent to Germany to work in an airplane factory. The German factories had been badly damaged by allied bombing. It was his job to travel throughout Germany checking the output of airplane motors and to coordinate the supply.
Fuegner, a former skiing instructor, is depressed by the lack of opportunity for participation in his favorite sport. He advises Kansans not to learn to ski because he says skiing is like a sickness, and once you have tried it is hard to stop.
Russians gained control of Czechoslovakia.
"When the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia," he said, "the streets were filled with German soldiers, but the Russian dominance is different. You see no Russians on the streets. They control by dominating the principal offices. It's almost worse than the German occupation because under Russian domination your own people are compelling you to do things you don't want to do," he said.
He planned to study in Australia but when the U.S. Congress passed the displaced persons act he was able to enter the United States. He worked at a prison and after a short trip to New York he came directly to Lawrence.
Fuegner has friends in California that he intends to visit during Christmas vacation if he can find a ride. He is especially interested in the possibility of skiing in California.
He has taken out his first citizenship papers and scheduled to become an American citizen in September, 1954.
Clubb Resigns Chairmanship Effective July 1
Dr. M. C. Clubb, chairman of the English department, has resigned his position in order to devote more time to his teaching and writing.
Clubb has been chairman of the English department since 1945 when he came to the University. He had previously held the position of Chairman of the English department at Oklahoma A. and M. He will remain on the staff of the department.
A desire to devote more of his time to teaching, writing, and with the general education program of the University was expressed in his letter of resignation. No successor to Dr. Clubb has been named, and probably will not be in the near future, Paul B. Lawson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said.
"The chairman of a department which is as large as the English department is called upon for a tremendous variety of services both to students and faculty." Dean Lawson explained. The departmental chores required are in addition to his work as teacher and scholar, and also in addition to services to the University of both general and specific sorts. Professor Clubb has with great earnestness and with long hours of hard work, performed all these services in his years at K.U. Now, however, he has cause to feel that he is attempting too much, and therefore, has asked to be relieved of his duties as chairman at the end of this school year.
"It is easy to see why a man who is such a fine teacher and scholar as Professor Clubb desires more uninterrupted time to concentrate on his teaching and scholarly work. In addition, perhaps more than any other man in recent years, Professor Clubb has given much time and energy to the University's program of general education, a program in which he is tremendously interested, and to which he has already made signal contributions. This work he wishes to continue."
Prague, Czechoslovakia, Nov. 14—(U.P.)—Diplomatic sources reported today that the government had confiscated the homes of thousands of middle class business men arrested last month, and had banished many of them from Prague momentarily.
Prague Ousts Business Men
Word of the lawyers, engineers, shopkeepers and other professional men arrested on the street, in their homes, and at their desks by security police has begun to filter back to relatives.
The confiscations and banishments were believed to be a part of a plan to turn Prague into a so-called "workers" city".
Most of the victims of the roundup, aimed at wiping out remnants of capitalism, were sentenced to 18 months to two years in forced labor camps, the diplomatic sources reported. Many of their businesses have been nationalized.
Western diplomats have pieces together the following rough and still incomplete picture of events during the police drive which started about Oct. 2.
They were reported to be getting good treatment in labor camps. Much of their time, the reports said, is spent in studying "Marxism and Leninism."
Judge Says No To Hayriders
Detroit, Mich.—(U.P.)-Traffic Judge George T. Murphy declared hayrides dangerous both for the persons on the wagon and for the motorists. Judge Murphy found a woman guilty of crashing into a wagon. But he suspended sentence. The judge said hayrides are never properly lighted and their slowness holds up traffic.