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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MARCH 24,1947
PAGE SIX
Kansan Comments
Era of Piddlers
This is the fifth year of the atomic age. It should be an era of giants and great men. But even as man learns to control the fire of stars, the American people are becoming a generation of puddlers. Our century of mechanization and production lines and of inflated advertising and packaging is reducing God's noblest creatures to the level of absurd inconsequentialities.
As recently as 20 years ago, a school boy, when asked by his teacher what his father did, could stand up proudly and answer. "He's a farmer," or "clerk," or "railroader." But now the poor child must hang 'his head and mumble apologetically. "He's the man who pushes the little bits of cotton in the tops of aspirin bottles." Or "He's the one who goes 'Whoooosh' on a tobacco program." Who could be proud of a father who puts the little cork disks in the tooth paste lid or licks the price tag that is glued in the neck of a shirt?
Others, not satisfied with fiddling away their lives, do their utmost to drive the rest into a psychotic condition. It is this group of wretches who author the directions on metal jar lids that read "To open, simply pry up with knife blade," knowing full well that it will take the blow of a 10-pound sledge even to budge it. Or the perfidious crew who write, "To open, cut along the dotted line," and then hide the line or don't print it at all.
If we in America are to retain our position of world leadership, we must eliminate this cancerous group. Personally, we can be thankful that the men in our family were worthy of the name and did man-sized jobs. In fact, my father was the man who put the cut glass flower vases in Maxwell sedens.
Someone beat us to the idea.
—Reverdy Mullins
Use Trash Cans
The Buildings and Grounds department already was working on campus trash cans when the Daily Kansan suggested it. One has been placed in front of Green hall, and others will be distributed over the campus soon.
There's one thing you shouldn't put in them, though: lighted cigarettes. The reason trash cans have not been available for some time is that the burlap sacks of paper inside were frequently set fire, and the paint on the outside of the cans was ruined.
- The Washington Senators signed a pitcher named Early Wynn for the 1947 season. It shouldn't be hard to decide who's going to pitch in the opening game.
Congratulations to the University for this small yet important improvement. Now let's use it!
It would appear in the current three-power game in the Mediterranean that with Russia holding an ace up her sleeve and Britain cashing in her chips, the United States has drawn a "cold Turkey" and will sit the hand out.
In a prehistoric dinosaur cemetery, a Russian scientist recently found the skeleton of a creature just at the turning point from reptile to mammal. Isn't it amazing how little progress some men seem to have made?
Dear Editor----
Sunflower's All Right
One would think that after the build-up (?) the Daily Kansan gave Sunflower Village a year ago, it would steer clear of the ills and inefficiencies of our Village. That does not seem to be the case, as regards the article in the March 17 issue.
May I remind one Phyllis Hodgkins that the mark of an educated person is the ability to adjust himself to his surroundings—graciously, that is. May I also remind her that nineteenth of the people in the world would be grateful for the roof over her head in Sunflower.
I have met several people (not many, thank heaven) like Miss Hodgkins whose sole purpose in life, at this point, seems to be to impress upon people that this is not the kind of environment they are accustomed to. Most of us are from nicer homes.
As far as space is concerned, did you ever live with in-laws, even in a 20-room house? I'll bet you'd be glad to get your own home "no bigger than a submarine" if you have.
Students in the New Village do not suffer from "shaving casualties" due to the proximity of the lavatory and the bathroom door. For the poor men who do have the troubles you describe, I suggest they shave with the bathroom door open—if they know their wives well enough.
Was that article necessary? Across the page was an article which was a credit to house trailers. Couldn't we have something written which is a credit to Sunflower?
Mrs. Albert Poznik.
(Editor's note: The article is one of the ways Mrs. Hodgkins laughs at life. She encountered everything from brawls to bedbugs to follow her husband before he went overseas; she manages the Village situation while carrying a full curricular load herself. Her complaints about Sunflower were some of the least earnest we've heard).
In reading Wednesday's issue of the Daily Kansan I made a startling discovery. Most of the women speakers in Tuesday's "Careers for Women" conference were single women. Witness:
Miss Ava Van Lee, Miss Ruth Stout, Miss Louise Noble, Miss Jane Schroeder, Miss Lorraine Carlson, Miss Helen Fahey, Mrs. Marguerite Faber, Mrs. Robert Holt, Dr. Clara Nigg (?) . Dr. Geraldine Hammond (?) . Dr. Marie Castellani (?).
None of these women championed the career of marriage. In my opinion marriage is the most important career that any woman could choose. However, I may be slightly prejudiced. My mother was a married woman.
Prairie Acres, south of the campus, was left in buffalo grass to show "how nature makes her garden." The bottles and tin cans strenu over it now probably would prompt the buffalo to commend that "home was never like this."
(Name withheld by request)
(Editor's note: Aren't men conceited?)
College Sophomore
If you're not satisfied with your
ot—build on it.
The Poor Man's Ernie Pyle, Boyle Wrote Of The Little Things
At his first press conference after the invasion of Normandy in 1944, General Omar Bradley eyed the expectant correspondents around him and asked.
"Where's Hal Boyle?"
He wrote of the small things in their lives—the cold K-rations, the soggy blankets, and the sleepless nights. Like Ernie, he found a story in each slit trench he shared with a G. I.; and like Ernie, he recorded the name of each man. These two, more than any others in the ranks of correspondents, wrote for the boys at the front and for the families at home.
For blue-eyed Hal Boyle, like the late Ernie Pyle, had followed General Bradley's troops through Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and finally into France. And like Ernie Pyle, Hal Boyle had realized the importance of the deadly monotonous, grimy life of the mud-smeared infantrymen.
Hal Boyle is a midwestern product. Born in Kansas City Feb, 12, 1911, his first job was as a night office boy in the Kansas City office of the Associated Press. After his graduation from the M. U. School of Journalism in 1932, he worked for a year in Columbia. Then followed jobs at the A. P. offices in Kansas City and St. Louis, and finally in New York where he was night editor before his overseas assignment.
Hal himself had great admiration for Ernie Pyle. Once when they met in North Africa, Hal, the husky Irishman, grinned at the slight Ernie and extended his hand.
"So you're Ernie Pyle. Well, shake hands with the poor man's Ernie Pyle."
Legends have grown up around Ernie Pyle and the grimness with which he stuck to his task. Hal Boyle, genial and hardworking, is still alive. No legends have grown up around him, but across the lands where American armies marched a hundred tales were told about him, and hundreds of ex-G. I's remember him today.
There was the time, for instance, when he was watching a victory parade in Paris. He had waded ashore in Africa and Italy without a scratch, but as he stood on this narrow avenue a motorcycle skidded into him and knocked him off his feet. Hal Boyle was still a correspondent. On the operating table he calmly took down the names of the doctors and their assistants before they smothered him under the ether.
In one small village in Africa, the mark of his humor will long remain. Hal entered the village with invading troops and obligingly taught the natives a few words of English.
The University Daily Kansan
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily Press. Represented by the National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave, New York.
York City.
Managing Editor ... Billie M. Hamilton
Editor in Chief ... Alamada Bollier
Asst. Man. Editor ... Marcella Stewart
City Editor ... William T. Smith Jr.
Manager ... Mark Walters
Art Editor ... Elisee West
Business Manager ... Bob Bonehrake
Advertising Manager ... Alma, Wuthnow
Circulation Manager ... John Beach
Classified Adm. Man ... LaVoye Keevan
Admin ... Kennec
Promotion Manager ... Mel Adams
"Vote for Boyle, son of the soil"
"Won't Help the South."
"Honest Hal, the Arab's pal."
Days later when the staffs of American generals and colonels entered, they were greeting by yelling natives who shouted triumphantly.
Yes, legends have grown up around Ernie Pyle. Young Hal Boyle can claim no legends. But like Ernie, he can claim a place in the hearts of many Americans because he told them of Johnny when they so wanted to know about Johnny. He told them of Johnny in Africa, in Italy, in France and in Japan. How Johnny felt, what he was eating, how he was sleeping, and how he longed to be home.
Like Ernie, Hal Boyle helped a nation bridge a gulf of loneliness a little better because it knew a little better how its sons were faring. Like Ernie Pyle, Hal Boyle made the little things count.
-Phyllis Hodgkins
Just Contact Petrillo
North Platte, Neb.—(UF) — The new North Platte National Guard company has received its first piece of equipment—a bugle. Now the company is trying to enlist a bugler.
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