PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, SEPT 21, 1949
The Editorial Page一
The Music War
Competition between the big boys is usually looked upon as a healthy thing in our capitalistic system. Theoretically, the battle for the public dollar should kick down prices and boost up quality. In most instances, it probably works that way.
However, the current war between the makers of phonograph records has turned into a squabble which neither side is likely to win, and which leaves the consumer the biggest loser of all.
Briefly, the history of the affair is this: both Columbia and R.C.A. have developed new records which are admittedly superior to the conventional type. Turning at slower speeds, they make it possible to hear more music on smaller discs. The joker is that neither of the two new types nor the conventional record can be played on a common machine. The situation is about as practical as a kitchen stove with a gas burner, a kerosene burner, and an electric oven.
The Capitol company has thoroughly confused the situation by deciding to turn out their popular records for the R.C.A. system and their classical records for the Columbia. Decca is yet undecided.
Of course, the new machine sells for the equivalent of a G.I. check, whereas, in the past, a record player cost between $30 to $40. But think what you get: one for the price of three!
Although it sounds like a terrible mess, there is a way out. American ingenuity has again come to the fore. It is now possible to buy a machine with attachments to play all three types: the Columbia, the R.C.A. and the conventional.
Meantime, scientific research marches forward. Maybe if they try real hard we can get a kerosene-gas-electric stove someday.
J. W.S.
Over the long years since the Civil War—with periods in which it lay dormant—the Ku Klux Klan has forcibly intruded itself in American life. And consistently it has come forward as the staunch defender of "white, Gentile, Protestant America"—anti-Negro, anti-Jew, anti-Catholic. Consistently it has resorted to terrorism, even to violence, in order to enforce its prejudices, even as its organizers collected tribute from the gullible. Consistently it has exercised its outside-the-law force under the hypocritical mask of white hoods, safeguards against identification.
Clean Sheets
Now, though, the Klan has a new imperial wizard—Sam W. Roper, retired policeman and state officer. And Roper takes up a theme that the former Klan head, the late Dr. Samuel Green, stumbled on late in life: The Klan prohibits the public wearing of masks, it is "absolutely opposed to any violence"; it isn't against anyone but wants "to build better citizens among all classes and creeds."
Would some disinterested spectator like to step forward and explain just why there should be a Klan at all if what Wizard Roper says is true? —St. Louis Star-Times
"Small Things"
Lights atop Fraser; a huge searchlight in front of the Union; a spotlight on the University smokestack. Who turned that Hollywood press agent loose?
As usual, the powers-that-be have managed to tear up all the streets and sidewalks just in time for school to open.
We hear that one slogan the Democrats definitely will not use in 1952 is "A deep freezer in every kitchen."
The new slow-spinning phonograph records have eliminated one of life's minor frustrations—now we can read the record labels while they're playing.
In a span of 50 years, science has conquered the air, smashed the atom, and produced a toaster which automatically turns on when the bread is inserted.
And furthermore, the ad says, the toast rises silently from the toaster when done. "No more popping or banging." Wonderful. Nothing in this vale of tears is more maddening than a piece of toast popping and banging.
A doctor reports that one million American women are overweight, and we presume that this figure is in round numbers.
He ran screaming from the house where he had obtained a night's lodging. In the bathroom he had found a towel marked "His," another marked "Hers" and a huge one marked "Its." Bill Vaughan, Kansas City Star.
Six Missing After Shipwreck
In Foq Bank Off Nova Scotia
Radio quiz shows are really a sadistic modern form of Roman gladiator spectacles, but instead of giving the "thumbs down" sign for the kill, today's audience screams to "go for the jackpot!"
Coast Guard headquarters said the 112-foot Corinthian was rammed by the 437-foot freighter Mormacfir in dense fog about 53 miles southeast of Halifax at 7 p.m. E.D.T. Monday.
Boston, Mass., Sept. 20—(U.P.)-Six Gloucester fishermen were sought in fog-blanketed waters off Nova Scotia today after their 32-year-old wooden trawler was rammed and
sunk by a freighter.
Little Man On Campus
By Bibler
WUTHNOW'S CONOCO SERVICE
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British Scientists Study Reactions Of The Octopus
"Oh, come now, Miss Swerf! That's the reason why we start you out on these little one-minute speeches, so you won't be so nervous."
Professors have found a new use for the octopus. In experiments similar to those conducted with monkeys, British scientists are studying the creature's reactions to shocks during feeding, with the hope of turning up hints on its mental processes that may have a bearing on human reflexes.
The octopus is a member of the family cephalopoda, which means "headfooted." With eight writhing feet, or arms, reaching out from a mournful ghostly face.
This cephalopod is rated among the most resourceful of marine animals. One observer watched it hold open a clamshell with a rock in order to get at its prey. A favorite octopus dish is crab, supplemented with sea turtles, mussels, and other mollusks and crustaceans.
Although smaller members of the octopus group are usually inoffensive, and even timid, the big ones are dangerous. Bristling along their flexible arms are hundreds of suckers ready to attach themselves to an object with a death grip. The reaching arms, linked together by membranes, can be spread over a victim somewhat like an umbrella. A powerful, parrotlike beak completes the armament.
Not the least of the strange aspects of octopuses (or octopi) is their way of getting about. Balancing on their arms as they walk forward along the floor of the sea, they appear to pirouette like ballet dancers. In swimming, they usually move backward, by shooting water through their siphon apparatus in a kind of jet-propulsion technique.
For protection against their enemies, octopuses have an ink sack which is both a manufacturing and storage unit. When attacked, they can squirt out this fluid, thus providing a "smoke screen" to cover their movements or hide their retreat.
The octopus also seeks safety by blending in color with the landscape.
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Crawling over the sand they can turn to a merging grayish-white. At other times, they may be brown, vermillion, or yellow. Some authorities suggest they show emotional responses like humans—turning red or purple when annoyed, and blushing when tickled.
Each year there are at least two eclipses of the sun, which occur when the shadow of the moon falls on the earth. There may be as many as five in a single year.
'Richest Girl' Home To Regain Health
New York. —(U.R.)—Barbara Hutton, once "the richest girl in the world," has returned to the United States to regain her health after three years abroad.
The Woolworth five-and-ten cent fortune heiress, now Princess Troubetzkoy, arrived on the Queen Elizabeth and revealed she will undergo extensive medical check-ups.
"I'm suffering from some odd complaint," the pale, nervous heiress said. "Nobody knows what it is." "I hope you'll refute the myth that keeps following me," she told reporters. "The myth that this trouble is from dieting. I haven't dieted since I was 20, and I'm 36 now as you all know."
University Daily Kansan
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily Press Assn., and the Associated Collegegie Press. Represented by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York City.
Editor in Chief ... James W. Scott
Managing Editor ... Marvin Rowlands
Asst. Managing Ed. ... Ruth Fisher
Asst. Managing Ed. ... Joel Chesne
Asst. Managing Ed. ... Ross Olsen
Asst. City Editor ... Norma Hunsinger
Asst. City Editor ... Robert Overton
Asst. City Editor ... Kevin Leslie
Feature Editor ... Douglass Elder
Feature Editor ... Bud Wright
Asst. Sports Editor ... George Brown, Jr.
Asst. Sports Editor .. Jim Van Kalkenburg
Telegraph Editor ... Kay Dyer
Asst. Telegraph Ed. ... Don Novi
Asst. Telegraph Ed. ... Douglas Jennings
Society Editor ... Anna Albright
Society Ed. ... Frankie Waits
Business Manager Lew Sclortino
Custodian Manager Dean Knuth
National Adv. Manager Dean Knuth
Promotion Manager Chuck Foster
Circulation Manager Carol Hubert
Circulation Manager Barbara Hubert
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