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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1943
Bill To Lower Kansas Voting Age Deserves Support of Students
The bill before the Kansas legislature which would lower the voting age in Kansas to 18 deserves a lot more attention and a lot more support than it is getting.
The bill was introduced by Senator Toland (Republican-Iola), one of the youngest members of the legislature, who claims that any person who is old enough to defend his country and get married is also old enough to help run the country.
The bill is political dynamite because it would increase the voters of the state by about 100,000—enough to swing any state election. As if afraid that the addition of all those voters would upset political alignments, an old guard, conservative opposition has arisen.
Representative of that opposition, the Lawrence Journal-World has declared that the younger citizens have neither the experience nor the interest to become conscientious voters.
Experience? In Kansas, high school students are taught early the fundamentals of civics and encouraged to practice them. Of course, they do not have practical experience; they are refused the chance. They should be given an opportunity to develop their schoolbook theories into a realistic attitude toward the Kansas political scene.
Interest? We say that the average college student today has more fundamental interest in what is going on in his state than half of the "older, more mature" element who, half the time do not even take the trouble to visit the polls on election day.
Whether a high school student goes to college or not, the three or four years after his graduation are the formative years of his life—the years in which he forms attitudes, beliefs, and intentions regarding his civic consciousness. The right to vote would, in many cases, make him a better citizen from the start. The right to vote would wipe out that vacuumlike transition period of three or four years in which he struggles to change from adolescent to adult. The right to vote would be a sensible means of making him an actual member of the society he is now fighting and dying for.
This is no war-inspired measure. The bill now being considered meets a need which has been created by modern living but which has been shunted aside by static tradition.
Kansas should lead the way in making America's young people full-fledged participants in the democratic processes they are now fighting to preserve.
Kansas Set To Lead Nation In Post-War Plastic Industry
Kansas is potentially endowed to become one of the dealing post-war industrial states of the nation. Considered good only for producing wheat, the "breadbasket of the United States" is also well adapted to the growth of the soy bean, essential to the plastics industry.
The plastics research laboratory soon to be established in the engineering experimental laboratory at the University may well point the way to new industrial activity for Kansas.
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Just Wondering
If Homebody Eleanor doesn't now understand all that Franklin has had to put up with, these many years!
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In the scientific, industrial world to follow the war, Kansas will take a frontline position.
No one man realizes the great possibilities of Kansas more than Charles F. Kettering, General Motors research scientist, who spoke at convocation Tuesday. In speeches before the Kansas Industrial Development Commission and in discussion with the heads of engineering and chemistry departments of several midWestern universities, Mr. Kettering has declared that Kansas has the basic chemical materials to make nearly anything the chemical industry demands-coal, gas, limestone, salt, and farm products.
"With the natural resources here in Kansas, you have a tremendous opportunity for doing lots of things. . . . In Kansas you have an amazing situation. It's a farm state but it has so many fundamental materials. You'll be crossing gas wells with cornstalks before you're done," Mr. Kettering insisted.
Finding the chemists, engineers, and state leaders very much in earnest about the future development of Kansas resources, he said, "I have never seen a group of men who had as great a moral responsibility and an opportunity such as comes only once in a lifetime . . . It's a rare opportunity from the viewpoint of the local community and the nation at large."
With men like Mr. Kettering interested in the progress of Kansas, and with the Kansas Industrial Development Commission doing all in its power to advance the state industrially, Kansas leadership in post-war industry should become an actuality. J.M.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-chief ... Bob Coleman
Editorial Associates ... Dean Sims, Joy Miller,
Jim Gunn, Matt Heertz
Feature Editor ... Betty Lou Perkins
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor ... Virginia Tieman
Sunday Editor ... Joy Miller
Campus Editors ... Alan Houghton
Clara Lee Oxley, Milo Farneti
Sports Editor ... Milo Farneti
News Editor ... Florence Brown
Picture Editor ... James Gunn
Society Editor ... Phyllis Collier
Progress in hirsute adornment: So far the only respectable beards grown on the campus for the Abe Lincoln varsity have been those of Charlie Taylor and Danny Bachmann.
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Innocents on horseback: Some of the girls who are taking equitation don't understand the fundamentals, or so it is rumored. Maxine Wells, Corbin hall, was complaining the other day because: "I never knew that horses smelled . . ." and "I wonder if I'll be stiff tomorrow."
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Packing them in at the mid-week. They were packed so tight that one fell got caught out in the middle of the floor when he got cut and had to cut a girl he didn't know to escape to the side-lines.
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Lullabies in the music room: Keith Criswell, 938 Louisiana, went to sleep the other day in the music room while the attendants were attending to musical preferences. He was roused out of his sleep to hear the attendant ask him if he would like to hear the other side. "Yeah," said Keith, and went back to sleep.
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Big money in shoes: Antonio "Toto" Lulli, Phi Psi, in his first day at his shoe-store job sold one 10-cent pair of shoe laces, making a commission of $00.006.
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Shades of Scheherezade: The influence of the new picture at the Jayahawkar, Arabian Nights, is being felt upon the campus. At an informal tea the other evening, the Corbin hall girls masqueraded in Arabian costumes, with Turkish towel turbans, red wigs, and veils. Remember the 1001 stories? I'll bet stories were told at the tea, and almost as many if not the same variety.
Duane Smith Has Big Job Happy When Busy
One can easily believe Duane Smith, college senior, when, in answer to the question of how he spends his leisure time, he replies, "I don't like to have any leisure time."
Duane Smith has been almost 100 per cent self-supporting since he came to the University. He began work his freshman year as a research assistant in the psychology department of the University. At the end of his sophomore year, he applied for and received the job of business manager of the Jayhawker. Last spring he was appointed business manager for another year.
Obviously, then, Duane Smith is happy. His ness manager of the Jayhawker Magazine for years has made Smith one of the busiest men on the Hill. And this is not the only activity that claims his time.
Obviously, then, Duane Smith is happy. His job as business manager of the Jayhawker Magazine for the last two years has made Smith one of $ ^{ \textcircled{4}} $ ___
But Smith's former activities were not confined to this one position. During his years at the University, he has been freshman counselor, a member of the Men's Student Council, on the Inner-Council of the Pachacamac party, and on the Varsity tennis team. By virtue of his participation on the tennis team, he became a member of the K-Club. Edited K.U. Calendar
Nor has Duane Smith allowed his activities to overshadow his grades. He was on the Dean's Honor roll last year.
Although the position of Jayhawker business manager leaves little time for other activities, this year Smith is vice-president of the Pan-American League, an intramural star for his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, editor of the K. U. calendar, and still participating in the work of the Pachacamac Inner-Council.
Smith says tennis and hunting are his favorite hobbies, and that tennis appeals to him whether he is a participant or a spectator. Although Maureen O'Hara rates as his favorite screen star, evidently
he loses taste for the red-heads in real life, for his engagement to Christine Turk, Chi Omega, a definite brunette, was announced recently.
He prefers eating steaks to any other kind of food and declares that he is particular about the cooking. As for his favorite type of stories, he likes them with lots of adventure.
Enlisted In V-7
Smith is in V-7, naval reserve, and hopes to finish his last year here. He is making few plans for the future in his major, sociology, until after the war.
College Offers Air Transportation
Iowa Wesleyan College is inaugurating an extensive course in air transportation to prepare its students for positions in the coming flying age.
Students Represent 22 Religions
The 601 church-going students of Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pa., represent 22 sects and denominations.
The College Jeweler Wants to See You.