University Daily Kansan STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 46th Year No. 65 Monday, Jan. 3, 1949
World's Wars Quiet Down As 1949 Begins
By UNITED PRESS
The New Year brought lulls today in most of the world's wars.
Nowhere was there major fighting. The prospects of peaceful settlement of several long-standing disputes appeared better than at any recent time.
It was believed that the response of Mao Tze-Tung, Chinese Communist leader, would be dictated at least in part from the Kremlin. Whether the Communists, who recently have had a long succession of military victories, would settle for anything less than complete control, was doubtful.
In China, Nationalist leaders awaited a response from Chinese Communists to weekend peace feelers extended by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and Premier Sun Fo. Chiang had indicated possible willingness to resign if the Communists would make peace.
Chinese fighting was almost at a standstill. The Communists were at the gates of Peiping, they were on the approaches of Nanking, and they were lobbing occasional shells into Tientsin. But they did not appear to be pressing their attack at any point pending a decision as to peace or continued war.
In Palestine, there were minor clashes in the Negev, but the latest Israeli campaign there appeared to have achieved most of its objectives, and the Jewish state was believed ready to sit tight while new peace attempts were made by the United Nations and perhaps by direct negotiation.
In Kashmir, the princely state of the Indian sub-continent, forces of India and Pakistan were reported respecting a un-arranged cease-fire. A plebiscite was in prospect to determine whether Kashmir will adhere to Hindu India or Moslem Pakistan.
The Israeli charged that two Egyptian planes bombed Jerusalem, in the first air raid in five months on the holy city, and suggested the possibility of reprisals against Cairo. But the overall prospect appeared to be for another lull in Palestine.
In Indonesia, the Dutch appeared to have smashed nearly all organized resistance of forces of the Indonesian republic, and Dutch spokesmen reported that only "police actions" of minor character against isolated guerilla-type groups were continuing.
The Dutch were in full control in Java, and they held most of the key points of Sumatra. It was not to be anticipated, observers believed, that real peace is near in Indonesia. Guerrilla resistance to the Dutch was expected to continue on a considerable scale.
The "cold war" between Russia and the West, centering around the Berlin blockade dispute, had slipped from the world's front pages.
The big transports of the Anglo-American airlift continued to hurdle the blockade with increasing amounts of food and supplies for the western sectors of Berlin. The Russians showed no signs of lifting the blockade. It wasn't news any longer.
It was news, however, that Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia appeared nearer than ever to turning his country toward the west. In a New Year's broadcast Saturday, he had renounced one of the basic tenets of Communism—that the end justifies the means—in warning the Cominform that its attacks upon his regime would fail. And he made clear that, if he could not trade with Russian-bloc nations, he was prepared to turn to the Marshall plan countries.
Brain Busters At 9:30 Tonight
Brain Busters, the faculty quiz program of KFKU, will start the new year with Dr. Franklin D. Murphy, dean of the University Medical Center, Kansas City, and Allen Crafton, professor of speech, as guests and Emil L. Telfel, assistant professor of journalism, the permanent faculty member on the program.
Larry Edwards is moderator for the Brain Busters broadcast at 9:30 p.m. every Monday.
Blizzard Hits Western Kansas
A raging blizzard struck northwestern Kansas today, bringing snow, 50-mile-per-hour winds and a sharp drop in temperatures. Weather bureau officials predicted readings from zero to 10 above in Western Kansas tonight.
BY UNITED PRESS
The blizzard, moving into Northwestern Kansas from Nebraska, struck the Colby, Kan., area shortly before 8 a.m. But the 50-mile per hour winds were accompanied by only a light snow and drifting was not severe. West of Colby, however, reports were that heavy snow was drifting badly, blocking highways.
Some public schools were close,
immediately after the storm struck
in Colby. Busses and trains still
were attempting to keep schedules,
but they were running considerably
late. A few busses canceled trips
State highway patrol headquarters issued an order for all motorists to remain off highways in Northwestern Kansas.
Farmers, who had been warned of the storm, remained at home, caring for livestock and predicted the loss would be small if the storm is a short one.
"If it lasts as much as two days, though," one farmer predicted, "the loss will be pretty heavy."
The weather bureau forecast a continuation of the storm into tonight, when winds are expected to abate. It will remain continued cold, however, tonight and tomorrow, the forecaster said.
Conditions in Colby proper were general throughout the area, to the west. The storm, moving eastward, struck Norton some 40 minutes after it hit Colby.
Cold waves are expected in Nebraska, Western Kansas and Western Oklahoma today, spreading over the remainder of Kansas and Oklahoma tonight and Tuesday.
Burton W. Marvin, dean of the journalism school, and Elmer F. Beth, professor of journalism, will attend the annual Kansas Press association convention in Wichita, Jan. 13, 14, and 15.
Temperatures tonight will range from zero to 10 above in Nebraska and Northwestern Kansas, 10 to 15 in Northwestern Missouri and Eastern Kansas, 10 above in Northwestern Oklahoma and Southeastern Missouri.
Marvin And Beth To Press Meeting
Dean Marvin is a member of a three-man panel which will report to the convention on the Kansas Better Newspaper Clinic . The clinic consists of the study and judging of Kansas newspapers by journalism faculty members of the University, Kansas State college, and of Wichita university.
14 Yale Students Killed, 13 Hurt In Plane Crash
The newspapers are judged according to typography and makeup, editing, advertising, the editorial page and appearance. The makeup includes the headlines, front page makeup and the inside pages makeup. The editing of the paper includes the types of material and the style of handling.
Seattle, Wash., Jan. 3—(UP) — Fourteen persons were killed and 13 others injured when a plane bearing 27 Yale university students and three crew members crashed on a fog-shrouded, ice-covered runway at Boeing field.
The twin - engineed DC-3 plane faltered on the take-off from the runway which witnesses said was a "sheet of ice." The craft ploughed into an earthen hangar and burst into flames.
Three of the students escaped uninjured. Three of the 13 injured admitted to King County hospital were in critical condition.
The students, all of whom lived in the Pacific Northwest, had chipped in to hire the plane from the Seattle air charter company to fly them back to Yale, at New Haven, Conn., after the holidays. The plane previously brought them home from school for the vacation. Eleven of the dead, all burned beyond immediate recognition, were taken from the plane shortly after the crash. The bodies of three others were found hours later and authorities were still searching for the missing man in the wreckage this morning.
Witnesses said the dead were jammed into the front section of the plane which ploughed against a 50-foot tower near the earthen hanger. The impact was so terrific that tractors were needed to pull the twisted wreckage from the tower.
The crash was witnessed by parents and sweethearts of the youths who had come to see them off as they returned to school.
A full night crew was working inside the hangar but escaped injury because the DC-3 missed the hangar opening "by a miracle."
Withdrawals In Decline
Student withdrawals are decreasing because more students are paying their own fees, according to James K. Hitt, registrar.
Only 108 students had withdrawn from the University by Nov. 1, 1948, when the official attendance for the fall semester was figured. In 1947 there were 143 withdrawals, and 157 in 1946. These figures show a withdrawal percentage decline from 1.93 in 1946 to 1.05 this year.
Mr. Hitt attributed the improvement principally to a persevering student body. Two years ago, many of the veterans started to college because the G.I. bill provided an opportunity, he said. Those who found that university - level education meant little to them dropped out before this year, he added.
The official enrollment, computed each year on Nov. 1, was 9,751. After the 108 withdrawals are subtracted, this leaves an actual attendance of 9,643.
Dr. N, P. Sherwood, head of the bacteriology department, has been reappointed chairman of the laboratory advisory commission of the Kansas State Board of Health. The appointment was made by Governor Frank Carlson.
Dr. Sherwood Heads Advisory Commission
The five-member committee prescribes and checks standards for the licensing of laboratories throughout the state. Much of the committee's work results from the legal requirement of pre-marital blood tests.
'Shakespeare' Film To Be Tomorrow
The English department is sponsoring a movie, "Scenes from Shakespeare," at 4 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in Fraser theater.
This English-made film contains scenes from three of Shakespeare's masterpieces, "Othello," "Julius Caesar," and "Macbeth." Admission is 25 cents.
New Sour Owl Out Tomorrow
The first issue of the new Sour Owl, campus humor magazine, will go on sale tomorrow at the Union, Watson library, and Frank Strong hall. Included in this issue will be the winning contributions in the recent Sour Owl contest.
"Each buyer will get more than his money's worth," Bill Barger editor, commented today. "The Owl is jampacked with every form of humor—cartoons, articles, pictures, verse, and jokes."
In additions to the humor, the magazine will offer several new campus service features.
One such feature is the job survey which tells what kinds of jobs graduates of various schools and departments (including business, journalism, political science, and fine arts) may expect this year, what their salaries will be, and where the jobs will be located.
Another service feature is the section on Kansas City and Topeka night life, telling students where to go and what they'll find.
There is also a column on records and the doings of musicians.
The Sour Owl, published by Bigma Delta Chi, honorary journalism fraternity, begins its 31st year of publication. First appearing in 1914, the Owl was suspended in 1942 because the war reduced chapter members below a working minimum. An unauthorized version appeared in 1944, was banned from the mails, and caused the appointment of the first dean of student affairs.
Study Potentiality Of Kansas Oil
A publication, "The Stratigraphy and Structural Development of the Salina Basin of Kansas," which describes central and north-central Kansas rocks at all depths, is now ready for distribution by the State Geological Survey of Kansas, said John C. Frerve, executive director.
Thickness maps and cross sections are an essential part of the publication. The maps show areas which are non-productive because of erosion or non-deposition. They also show potentially productive zones. More than 2,000 well logs were studied and correlated and samples from more than 300 wells were examined microscopically.
The report, by Wallace Lee, Constance Leatherock and Theodore Botinelly, is a description of rocks that range in age from the ancient granites of the Pre-Cambrian to the more recent Quaternary alluvial deposits.
Copies of the report, issued as Bulletin 74, may be obtained free at the offices of the State Geological Survey at the University, or by mail for a charge of 25 cents.
WEATHER
Kansas—Blizzard accompanied by cold wave west and north central today, north winds fifty miles an hour, heavy drifting snow. Cold wave with light snow remainder of state. Tomorrow clearing and cold; highs today 5 to 10 west, 45 south-east, falling to 5 to 10 below zero west and 10 above east tonight.
Congress Meets With Democrats Back In Action
Washington, Jan. 3—UP) — The 81st congress convened at noon today with the Democratic leadership confident of enacting a Truman new deal over the opposition of a wrangling Republican minority.
Back in political power for the first time in two years, the Democrats made their election victory official by installing their own senate and house officers in place of the outgoing Republicans.
But Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Mass., who wants to replace Taft as chairman of the senate GOP policy committee, said he isn't giving up.
Then they opened the floodgates to a big backlog of bills through which the Democrats hope to make good on the program on which President Truman led them to victory last November.
But it was the lone member of the American Labor party who was among the first to introduce a bill in the house to carry out part of the Democratic platform.
Rep. Vito Marcantonio, ALP, N. Y., introduced a bill for repeal of the Taft-Hartley law. That was a key plank in the president's platform, along with higher taxes, expanded economic controls, civil rights, and continuation of the cold war against communism.
Another in the early rush of legislative proposals was the oft-defeated repealer of the tax on colored oleomargarine.
The most controversial item on the first day's agenda was a Democratic motion to curb the powers of the house rules committee, which often has been accused of throttling important legislation.
House Republicans promised to fight it to the last ditch, and they hoped for enough support from Southern Democrats to kill the motion.
A smouldering rebellion of "progressive" Republican senators against the old guard leadership of into the open at a GOP conference Ohio's Sen. Robert A. Taft broke just before congress convened.
The insurgents were soundly beaten. One of their number left the meeting acknowledging that "the old guard is in complete control."
That internal fight probably will tell heavily against the GOP in the legislative battles just ahead.
President Truman fires his first shot of the 1949 legislative campaign Wednesday when he will deliver his state of the union message to congress, outlining in broad terms his overall recommendations.
The first chore of the happy Democrates was to install Rep. Sam Rayburn of Texas as speaker in place of Rep. Joseph W. Martin, Jr., (R, Mass.), and Sen. Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee as president pro-tempor of the senate, replacing Michigan's Republican Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg
8 More Give $100 To Memorial Fund
The World War II Memorial association has reported the following bell ringers donating $100; Frances Strickland and Mrs. Ralph Rounds, Wichita; Dr. John L. Colene, Aberdeen, S. D.; James Brouk, Tulsa, Okla.; Dr. Pearl Mattheai, San Antonio, Texas; Whitson Rogers, Kansas City, Mo.; J. Wayne McCoy, Topeka; and Charles Baldridge, Chicago, Ill.
A sum of $250 was contributed on a co-operative bell in memory of Lawrence Johnston of Fort Scott. It was given by his wife and his parents. The money was given in response to a recent letter to alumni.