PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25. 1948
The Editorial Page-
Responsibility In Europe
Every ton of freight being flown into Berlin by the air lift adds to the prestige of the United States in Western Europe. After a long record of isolationism, our grim determination to stick it out in that besieged city has had a heartening effect in European capitals.
Soon after our troops landed in Normandy, special detachments moved into liberated areas to assist in restoring self-government to the people. The efforts of the Americans in establishing this self rule provided a spiritual lift to the people long under Nazi domination.
The people of these areas, in desperate need of food, medical supplies, and other necessities of life, were ripe for the promises of communist agents who could and would promise anything. Only determined backing by the United States prevented serious infiltration by these forces.
Lacking any military forces to defend themselves from an aggressor, countries of Western Europe could easily be forced to succumb to any power they believed would be the eventual master of Europe. Our avowed intent to stay, coupled with visible proof of the air lift, has given the United States this position.
Moral as well as material help still is needed to prevent a breach in the dike containing communism to the East. Any weakness on our part may start a wholesale movement of Western Europe into the communist orbit. —Chris Butler
Too Many Traffic Bosses
Robert Corwin, chief of traffic control at the University, has resigned because of "too many bosses." Mr. Corwin said too many people are trying to run traffic control.
Perhaps Mr. Corwin's resignation will drive home to the administration that the traffic situation at K.U. is a mess. Corwin had to "fight for a year" before he could arrest traffic violators. He asked for more parking lots two years ago and ended up with less space than he had to start with.
Mr. Corwin will be hard to replace. We hate to see him leave, and we wish him success in his new job of building air conditioners. Perhaps he will send us one to help get rid of the stuffiness and lethargy at K.U. which caused him to leave. —J.L.R.
- Letters To The Editor -
Distorted View
Dear Editor:
I feel that you are holding a distorted view as to the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
War is horrible. Probably the most terrifying aspect of it is the effect it has on defenseless civilians. But, were these "defenseless civilians" not our common enemy? Do you believe that people, because they stay at home, can be exempted from the string of death?
Who were these civilians we so "ruthlessly murdered?" I will tell you who they were. They were the bone of the Japanese war machine. They were the people that made the death-dealing materials that killed our relatives and comrades. They were the men and women who believed in the mighty heritage of the Japanese Asiatic domination. These were the people that the greatest scientists in the world "ruthlessly murdered."
Please, dear editor, instead of spending the rest of your life with thoughts of guilt and fear, thank God. Yes, thank God that a Japanese scientist didn't devise this fearsome bomb before Pearl Harbor.
I do not know if you have had the misfortune of meeting a warcrazed fanatical son of Heaven. If you have, I do not see how you could possibly feel that any American should feel one shred of guilt.
Remember, for every Japanese killed in Hiroshima, there are three to five more Americans living today.
Donald A. Moser,
Freshman
When storing fresh eggs, it is best to make sure no water reaches them. Water removes their protective coating and may cause a strong odor.
Lustful
Dear Editor:
Your editorial of Oct. 19. "Arn's Alcoholic Rainstorm," calls for comment. Also the general implication of the editorial cartoon appears without factual base.
First, Mr. Arn perhaps underrates his sponge. The hypersensitive state officials do have present powers to increase the law forces and could control the bootleg rainstorm to a small-time sprinkle.
Second, repeal won't rid us of of bootleggers. That is without precedent. Present criminal dealers would continue to sell, but openly. Are these the Legal Control council's citizens?
Third, with any enforcement, lustful drinkers and society cream that dote on being obstreperous, dizzy, and menacing to rights of others and whose weak minds can't endure necessary restraints of civilization have their thirst limited by costs and inconvenience. Neglecting these factors, then where could staggering amounts of liquor be hidden that appear so impossibly in wet states?
Fourth, repeal may reverse guilty consciences of the "vote yes" people, but it can never reverse the social evils of liquor. Popular practice does not make anything right; it does multiply the wrong. This is why Kansans will not sell out but will vote "no" for decency.
Union Fees
Engineering senior.
Dear Editor:
What is thought to be the first five-cent automobile fare in the United States was originated in Phoenix, Ariz., in 1913, when the original "jitney bus" was started. Similar systems soon were adopted in many other cities.
This is my third year at the University and in this time I have spent quite a few dollars for an ambiguous heading under the topic "Fees" on registration cards. Since I'm working to pay the largest part of my college expenses, I don't have money to throw away and I like to know where my money goes. The ambiguous heading which I am wondering about concerns the Student Union.
Your recent editorials and the A.S.C. investigations have shown me how little I know about how this money of mine, and of my friends, is spent. No one I have asked knows who is in charge of its expenditure.
Who decided to change the wonderful proposed Union annex to an elite dining room? I'd like to see the council get busy, not only on publishing a financial report, but also on the facts behind the report.
Name withheld on request.
Free Debate
Dear Editor:
We consider free discussion of the issues of any election an essential part of the democratic process. In accordance with this belief the A.V.C., with the co-operation of the Forums board, has tried to arrange a forum at which the points of view of all political parties taking part in the election would be presented by the student supporters of these parties.
These were the results: The representative of the Young Republicans flatly refused with the comment that the Republicans have nothing to gain and everything to lose. None of the Young Democrats or Jayhawkers for Wallace were willing to participate. Students for Norman Thomas was the only organization willing to submit their views to the judgment of public opinion.
This is a tragic commentary on the vigor of our democracy and on the nature of the three platforms which were not able to muster a single defender.
In case this sad result was due to the fact that not enough members of these defaulting parties were contacted, we should like to offer a public challenge to debate any or all other political parties on the issues of this election.
Students for Norman Thomas
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., Nassau
Assn., and the Associated College
Press. Represented by the National Ad-
mission Service 420 Madison Ave.
New York City.
Editor-in-Chief ... James L. Robinson
Managing Editor ... Wallace W. Abbey
Asst. Man. Editor ... John Staifer
Asst. Editor ... Harold D. Hanover
City Editor ... John Wheeler
Asst. City Editor ... Leonard Snyder
Asst. City Editor ... Robert Newman
Asst. City Editor ... Richard Barton
Asst. Tel. Editor ... Patricia Bentley
Sports Editor ... Anne Murphy
Asst. Sports Editor ... Larry Funk
Society Editor ... Mary Lou Foley
Business Mgr. ... Paul Warner
Advertising Mgr. ... Bill Nelligan
Sports Mgr. ... Bill Nelligan
Asst. Circ. Mgr. ... Ruth Clayton
Classified Mgr. ... Elizabeth Berry
Asst. Class. Mgr. ... Jane Belfair
Don Nell ... Don Nell
Promotion Mgr. ... Don Tennant
Asst. Promotion Mgr. ... Charles O'Connor
Sorry, But Glad
Dear Editor:
I would like to go on record that I disagree with your comment that the people of the United States feel guilty for devastation caused by dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Perhaps you have forgotten that there were close to fifteen million men in the armed forces at that time and there were over one hundred million people waiting for their return.
You have to view both sides, the good and the bad. I think in this case the good outweighs the bad. Having participated in three invasions in the Pacific area I know whereof I speak when I say they are terrible. They would have been a picnic compared to a full-scale invasion of the Japanese homeland.
Many experts in war planning estimated that from one-half to a million men have been wounded and killed in a full-scale invasion of Japan. The entire population would probably have destroyed itself in order to ward off the "terrible Yankee pigs."
The atomic bomb gave the Japanese the alibi they needed to save whatever face they had left. The dropping of these bombs did what other weapons had been unable to do. It stopped the war, and perhaps saved the lives of millions of people as against the 135,000 killed and wounded at Hiroshima. The people that it saved mostly were Americans, who had been brought into this war by an unjust act.
You say that guilt hangs over all of us for the mass murder of the defenseless people of Hiroshima. I cannot agree. The Japanese did not hesitate to drop bombs on Pearl Harbor without one bit of warning to the civilians there. We were not prepared for such a blow, where they had four years in which to prepare for the worst. Our main purpose was not to destroy civilians, but to destroy industrial production of weapons so we could put an end to the war.
It should be clear to every of us that if Germany or Japan had developed the bomb, they would not have hesitated to use it, regardless of the outcome. I'm sorry that the bomb was born, but I am glad that we gave birth to it.
Curtis B. Harris,
313 East 17th Street.
The famed Boston serod is a mythical fish. Actually the name is applied to young cod and haddock which weigh from $ 1 \frac{1}{2} $ to $ 2 \frac{1}{2} $ pounds.
Lawrence Optical Co.
1025 Mass.
Racking Your Brain trying to think of a gift for that wedding or shower?
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