University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1948
Lawrence, Kansas
STUDENT NEWSAPER
Chambers May Agree To Test By Lie Detector
Washington, Dec. 14. -(UP)—Ex-Communist Whittaker Chambers was expected today to say yes if house investigators propose a lie detector test for principals in the Red spy case.
There was no indication whether Alger Hiss, the former state department official accused by Mr. Chambers of taking government secrets for Russia, would go along.
When the question of a lie detector test first was raised in August, Mr. Chambers, self-styled Communist spy courier, agreed to take part, Mr. Hiss declined then on the ground that lie detectors were not reliable.
The proposed test, he said, would be held behind closed doors "without fanfare or Kleig lights." The committee will decide within a day or two whether to make a formal request for the test.
Acting chairman Karl E. Mun-
r.-S.D.) said the house un-American activities committee is considering asking both men again if they will agree to the tests. He said the committee may also ask to use the instrument on Mr. Hiss' brother, Donald, another former state department aide, and other witnesses "whose names we cannot give out at the moment."
Meanwhile, the committee scheduled a morning session to hear a man who, Mr. Muntd said, "could be a very important witness." He refused to reveal the witness' name. But he said the man was picked up as the result of a "lead" given the committee by one of its sources.
"The people involved in this case do not have to fear the test as long as they are innocent," said Mr. Mundt. He said he understands that the lie detector has never "convicted" an innocent person.
At today's session, the committee also was to get a report from Rep Richard M. Nixon (R-Calif) who appeared yesterday before the New York grand jury which is investigating Communist espionage.
Mr. Nixon and federal prosecutors agreed to a compromise in their fight over who should hold the micro-filmed government papers found in a pumpkin on Mr. Chambers' farm. Under the agreement, Mr. Nixon offered to let the F.B.I. inspect and copy the micro-films. The federal prosecutors agreed that the films should remain in the custody of the committee.
Christmas Party For Union Group
A Christmas party for Student Union activity members will be held at 7:30 p.m. today in the Union ballroom. The party will follow a regular business meeting at 7 p.m. in the ballroom.
A jitterbug contest will highlight the entertainment. The three winning couples of the contest held Nov. 18, will compete in this final contest. They are Mary Ellen Batie, art education senior, and Chester Lewis, College sophomore; and J. L. Eatam, engineering sophomore, and Virginia L. Dressler, College sophomore. Winners will be given Wizes.
The Kappa Sigma quartet also will be on the program. Members of the quartet are William Sapp, education senior; Allen E. Green, engineering junior; Elwood D. Keller, business junior; and Robert L. Swain, College freshman.
A Juke box will provide dance music.
Eight Finalists Picked In Contest
Eight students have been selected for the finals of the Annual Campus Problems speech contest to be held at 8. p.m. tomorrow in Fraser theater.
They are John Basnett, College senior; Robert Bennett and Edward Stolenwerck, College juniors; Robert Pfeifer, College sophomore; Duane Morrow and Nancy Sewell, College freshmen; Theodore Joyce, business senior, and Donald Kerld, engineering freshman.
Le Gallienne Wins Applause
Eva Le Gallienne's performance Monday in her recital of excerpts from "great plays" drew loud applause from her audience, which filled a good part of Fraser theater.
The excerpts began with the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet" and ended with a scene from "The Cherry, Orchard."
Scenes from "Macbeth" brought the greatest applause, although the audience seemed well pleased by her performances from "The Way of the World" and "Ghosts."
She was assisted by Jon Dawson.
She was assisted by Jon Dawson. Miss LeGallienne devoted the first half of her program to a lecture on the desirability of a government-subsidized theater. Explaining that "angels" or financial backers of plays will not support the production of any play unless they are sure of its financial success, she said that many great works are not performed in this country for this reason.
She said that subsidization would be necessary to bring the theater to the public at popular prices.
Miss Le Gallienne said that while we would never limit our libraries to the current best selling novels or our symphonies to dance music, we limit the American stage to the "show the best seller of the moment."
'Inauguration Too Big!'
Washington, Dec. 14—(UP) President Truman's military aide thinks the Jan. 20 inaugural will be "10 times as large as the president wants it to be."
One trouble, said General Vaughan, is that the Republican congress appropriated too much money for the Jan. 20 festivities because "they though they'd have a different leading lady."
The idea of having a four-hour parade, he said, is "ridiculous." The plan to end it with a steam calliope the general scoffed, is "even more ridiculous."
And, complained Maj. Gen. Harry H. Vaughan, it will be "three times as big as it has any sense being."
Mr. Hildrew wouldn't say anything about the calliope. But a member of the committee said it'll be in the parade, sure enough, probably in the Kentucky section.
"We have endeavored to give an expression of the popular interest in the president," he said.
In the first place, said Mr. Hildreth, the parade is going to last 2½ hours—not four.
Factuous.
But inaugural chairman Melvin D. Hildreth said the general has things all wrong.
"We don't know definitely where it will go," he admitted. "It won't go at the end. It might head it. Or maybe we'll suspend it from a blimp."
Power Supply Still Critical, Bayles Says
The power shortage at the University, which resulted from the explosion of the Kansas Electric Power plant near Topeka, remains critical, C. G. Bayles, superintendent of buildings and grounds, said today.
If the days remain dark and the temperature stays above 30 degrees it will be necessary to handle the situation the same way every day, Mr. Bayles said, although the process wastes steam. Ten per cent of the steam is used in the turbine and 90 per cent is used to heat the buildings.
The University power plant was cut off from the K.E.P. system Monday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. because of the double load of industrial and private home needs. The 750-kilowatt turbine which ordinarily heats the hill with exhaust steam was operated with the exhaust escaping through the roof of the plant, in order to produce maximum power without overheating the buildings.
The emergency the past Thursday, the day of the explosion, when the lights were cut off until the load was only 800 kilowatts, showed that with cooperation, the load can be easily handled, Mr. Bayles said. He added that it was useless for janitors to turn off extra lights because others turn them on again when the janitor is gone.
With the growing load and the probability that the K.E.P. system will be unable to regain maximum output for some time, there is the further complication of a shortage of pipe needed for the new 2,000 kilowatt turbine to be delivered in the spring. Mr. Bayles added that with any sort of luck, the new turbine may be in use within a year.
China Hears Peace Rumor
Shanghai. Dec. 14—(UP)—Talk of peace and a coalition government of Nationalists and Communists spread through embat led China today.
It was touched off by the remarks of Paul G. Hoffman, director of the U.S. Economic Co-operation administration, at a press conference in Shanghai Monday.
Mr. Hoffman said that the question of American aid for China after next April might depend on whether a government representing a majority of the Chinese people is established.
All this was interpreted in Shanghai to mean that the United States is backing a drive for a coalition government in Nanking. Some rumors suggested Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's national government already has started secret peace talks with the Communists.
He declined to answer a direct question as to whether he expected a coalition government to emerge in China. But he did say that all American aid would be halted if a solely Communist government were established.
Farther south, a government rescue column pushed within five miles of the trapped Nationalist 12th army groups above Nanking. The rescue forces seized 12 villages from the Communists in day-long fighting Monday.
On the Chinese, battle-fronts, Communist forces began shelling the western outskirts of Peiping, China's second largest city. But it was too early yet to say whether the shelling marked the opening of a battle for the city or a diversionary maneuver.
Stowe Is Alarmed By US Defeatism
By JAMES SCOTT
Leland Stowe, foreign correspondent, told a large convocation audience in Hoch auditorium today that he is alarmed by the current attitude of defeatism and resignation on the part of the American people.
Requests for apartments from students at the University of Kansas who plan to be married during the Christmas holidays have created another housing pinch in Lawrence. Applications for housing from married students now living at Sunflower or Eudora, who wish to find accommodations nearer the campus, are increasing daily in the University housing office.
That Dan Cupid has played his part in the situation is indicated by the six weddings already scheduled in Danforth chapel during the Christmas holidays.
He believes that the odds are against another war within but added that "talk of the inevitability of war by walking ignorar
Cupid Creates Housing Need
Other persons, ranging from married graduates wishing to return for work, to a man and his wife who are expecting a child and who are now living in a damp basement apartment, must be accommodated before the beginning of the spring semester.
One student, whose English fiancee is in this country on a visa which expires December 27, must be married before that date to prevent the necessity of her returning to England. He was one of the first to apply for housing but has not yet been able to obtain it.
"Twenty-four requests have been submitted to the housing office in the past three days." Mrs. Ruth Nash, housing secretary, said, "It is expected that they will continue to come in at that rate."
There is no present need for single rooms for either men or women. Only apartment accommodations are lacking.
Firms Want Choice Grads
Firms are becoming more selective in hiring than at any time since the war, Frank Pinet, director of the business placement bureau, said today.
Mr. Pinet said 30 firms have been on the campus so far this semester to interview graduating students. Fifteen more companies are scheduled for the job interviews which will last through January.
While there are a large variety of openings still to be bad, it is difficult to place below average students," he said. "I urge January graduates to do a lot of doorknocking during the Christmas vacation."
One hundred twenty-five business students have registered with the bureau. Mr.Pinet estimated that more than 200 will be registered next spring.
The business placement bureau will supply firm addresses to students wishing to contact companies during the Christmas vacation. Many are in Wichita, Salina, Hutchinson, Pittsburg, and Chanute. The Kansas City area has many openings.
Only three companies are hiring men for overseas service. They are oil companies looking for personnel to be sent to South America and Arabia.
Mr. Stowe said those who speak of inevitability refuse to recognize the possibility of change. "Stalin won't live forever," he said. "Who can deny that his death would not bring about* change?" He added that William Randolph Hearst, Colonel McCormick and Franco also will not always be with us.
Speaking of an off the record talk he had two years ago with Eduard Benes, late premier of Czechoslovakia, Mr. Stowe reported Mr. Benes as predicting that there will be "no early war." Mr. Benes also told him that if war did come, the United States will be the greatest loser, no matter who wins the military victory.
Mr. Stowe said, "Of course we will be the greatest losers. We have the most to lose.
"If Americans can be made to understand this, the chance of having your children burned to death in an atomic bomb blast will be much less."
He also said that if war does come, this country will remain in the grip of a military dictatorship for many years after the war. He said, "You cannot have great destruction on this continent without having the controls last long after the war."
He believes that bacteriological warfare would reap great destruction in America if war should come. "All food crops and cattle in this part of the country would be destroyed," he said. "What would we eat then?"
Mr. Stowe said that in order to avoid war, we must know the facts.
"People who don't know them are menaces," he explained. "Walking ignoramuses are dangerous, and it is your duty to see that they are not elected to congress."
Mr. Stowe admonished the audience "not to kid yourselves, because if war comes, the people of the United States will be hit as hard as anyone in the world."
He said that visions dreamed up by the "air force brass" of demolishing the Soviet Union in three months with no damage to ourselves, are ridiculous.
Mr. Stowe said it is too late to prop up the Nationalist government in China, and that if the Communists do conquer that nation they will face tremendous difficulties in administration. He said that if the Soviets try to move in, they will be asking for the eternal hatred of the Chinese, who strongly resent foreign domination.
He does not believe that the loss of China to the Communists will result in complete disaster, although it will result in a loss of prestige for the United States.
ed by saying that responsibility of students is great. "You must survive my generation," he said, "and that will not be easy. Most of the minds of my generation are set and shut—we can't worry about the world—you cannot survive a world revolution unless you study it, read about it and elect intelligent men to congress to contend with it."
WEATHER
Kansas—Cloudy today, tonight and tomorrow. Occasional light drizzle or snow flurries west. Rain east today, ending southwest tonight, becoming light rain east and north tonight and continuing light rain east tomorrow. Colder today. High today 30-35 west, 40-45 northeast.