PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1943
Huge Losses in Person and Property From Traffic Accidents Hinders War
"Over 300 killed; nearly 2000 injured."
No, it is not a war headline. These figures recently were released by the State Safety Department on traffic accidents occurring in Kansas during the year 1942. Such reports brought before the public midst the astounding figures of war casualties are likely to be overlooked or cast aside without the full significance of such summaries taking effect.
A huge loss of life and loss from personal injury as well as the loss of property in one state alone is causing the nation to suffer a great decrease in war production. As the center of the nation, well supplied with airplane factories, munitions plants, and vital occupations, Kansas should realize the importance of cutting down the accidents that will hinder the war effort.
With the government restricting travel to thirty-five miles an hour on highways, and with most cities regulating speed at twenty-five miles an hour or less, reckless driving can be called nothing but sabotage, especially when it may result in injuries or death to a necessary defense worker or when a vital defense shipment may be wiped out. Not only Kansans but Americans throughout the nation should realize that a crash at a railroad crossing today might destroy a train load of munitions or valuable war material or might disable or kill a trained defense employee.
At the present time, the lack of physicians to care for such accident patients and the lack of labor to repair machines and reconstruct damaged bridges, railroads, and highway sections has caused the Federal government, as well as individual states to appeal to persons to be more careful than ever before.
When such valuable and vital persons and material as doctors, nurses, and the blood bank supply are used up for careless accidents on the home fronts, the men in foreign service and the complete war effort will suffer.
Political Philosopher Appeals For Understanding With Russia
The suspicion is gradually growing in American minds that the leader of liberal thought in this country is not Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or Norman Thomas, or Harry Hopkins, but Henry A. Wallace, the nation's vice-president who is rapidly becoming an important national figure.
Wallace is more than a mere politician, more even than a statesman. He is, perhaps, America's first active political philosopher since the days of Woodrow Wilson. He is possessed of a deep insight into the American mind, a quiet understanding of the troubles of the less fortunate, and a manner of speaking in the language of the common man while dealing with problems of great complexity. He is passionately devoted to the cause of world peace, determined to do his utmost to prevent a repetition of the present conflict.
Today Vice-President Wallace is sounding a warning to which Americans should lend an ear. He has pointed out that the seeds of World War III can very easily be sown in the next few years, for only if a definite understanding can be reached soon between this nation and Russia will there be any real chance of a lasting peace.
Just Wondering
If the students who painted the statue of Uncle Jimmy Green this week realized that someone of the buildings and grounds department would have to be taken from a necessary job to clean off the paint.
Should the United States and Great Britain again return to their old policy of cold-shouldering the Reds in the fields of international politics and trade, it is not only possible, but probable, Wallace points out, that the Soviets will find themselves united with the Germans—whose Prussian instincts might once again be fostered as a threat to Russia—in a war against the United States. Such a struggle would dwarf even the present war.
It is time, people such as Wallace believe, that Americans discard their old conceptions of Russians as bomb-tossing, bearded sinister individuals, and look upon them as a vital people energetically engaged in a great building task, with no time left over for imperialistic ambitions.
There is much of wisdom in what Wallace says. Russia must be given a fair hearing at the peace table with natural defensive boundaries being kept in mind. She must be given en equal privilege of trading in the world's markets, and most important of all, she must no longer be regarded as the social blacksheep of the world's family of greater nations. She has proved her right to be considered among those countries whose strength and integrity merit a position of importance in the post-war world scheme.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-Chief ... Virginia Tieman
Editorial Associates ... Don Keown, Jimmy
Gunn, Maurice Barker
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor ... Joy Miller
Sunday editor ... Bill Haage
Campus Editors ... Jane Miner, Florence
                     Brown, Clara Lee Oxley
Sports Editor ... Matt Heuertz
News Editor ... Phyllis Jones
Picture Editor ... Bob Schultheis
Society Editor ... Annie Lou Rossman
Wire Editor ... Virginia Gunsolly
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager ... Oliver Hughes
Advertising Manager ... Betty Lou Perkins
Assistant Advertising Manager .. Mary Eleanor Fry
Advertising Assistant ... Mary Morrill
By MARY MORRILL
West Hills tragedy: About half of the Delta Gamma freshmen were campused the other night. Swarming in a south dorm, the girls grew bored and began morse-coding with the lights. At regular intervals Doris Bixby, Donna Claire Jackson, Harriet Allen, Joyce Hartwell and others SOSed to the D.U. house for help. But the D.U.'s didn't catch on. All they could think of was the story about the little girl lightning bugs. They considered the possibility, decided that they knew the D.G.'s better than that and went on reading. The D.G.'s went on being bored. It was such a lovely evening.
Crime still isn't paying: The other morning Bob Martindale (the boy who drinks goldfish water) was awakened by the clang of an alarm at 3 a.m. He turned on the light, searched around with half closed eyes but failed to locate the timepiece. About then the noise stopped so he went back to bed—only to be electrified in another minute with the same clang. He got up, looked around; the noise stopped. With nerves completely shattered Martindale retired again. The alarm went off again. After approximately five repeat performances, Bob located a Big Ben repeater hidden in a dark corner of his closet. Thy say Alan Martinnek is campused for practically the rest of the semester.
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The gauntlet is on its way down: While the rest of the campus awaits spring, the Theta Tau's anxiously scan their newspapers for some forecast of snow. After the very first storm of the year a few engineers got into a snow fight with a few Phi Delt's. One imprudent T.T. called the opponents a bunch of Betas. Whereupon the whole Phi Delt chapter 70 some strong shot indignantly out of the house and almost decapitated the outnumbered engineers. Now that recruiting regulations and exemptions have evened up the factions, the engineers live for an occasion to again issue the supreme insult.
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The decline of astheticism: Someone at the Rock Chalk co-op brought an embryo from the ruins of the anatomy building and hung it (if readers (continued to page seven)
for least crowded schedules and best days to travel!
- To make your trip more comfortable—do one thing: call the man who can point out the least crowded trips and days. Your courteous bus agent can give you pointers that will help you travel
more comfortably and help the bus lines serve America best. Buy tickets early—be on time—take only one suitcase. Bythelesslacrires you help win the war.
Union Bus Depot
Phone 707 638 Mass.
THU
AP