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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1942
The KANSAN Comments...
"War Class" in Action
Since the Senior class meeting yesterday morning there has been much discussion of the attitude evidenced there. You see, the Senior class met in Fraser theater to complete plans for Commencement activities and to select the class gift to the University. The odd thing—and the situation causing all the discussion—was the manner in which the meeting was conducted. Queerly enough the 400 Seniors present considered and passed on the business to be decided without any of the horseplay which caused three meetings to be held in 1937 before any agreement could be reached.
The credit for the intelligent meeting can well go to the Senior class committees who studied the situation and made the well considered recommendations. No little credit goes to the class president.
goes to the class president. Dubbing themselves as the "war class," the seniors of 1942 may be remembered also as the class which could organize itself for action and cooperate with the organization it set up.
Peace With Permanence
Said Jawaharlal Nehru, the great Indian statesman, of the present conflict: "A great revolution ending an epoch of history and ushering in an order which will be entirely different." Just what this difference will be, few authorities can agree. However, almost without exception they predict a new emphasis on internationalism.
It will be a new internationalism-not the old imperialism they tell us. No longer will one race be able to force its culture and its laws upon its neighbor. Cooperation will be the keyword of the great new order.
Such authorities upon world affairs as Dr. Felix Morley predict that in Europe the new world plan will be made or destroyed. Can this magic word—"cooperation"—heal the wounds of thousands of years of strife and hatred? Can it make the vanquished forget their defeat. Can it turn the thoughts of the victors from spoils to mercy?
Needed in Europe is a collective post-war international collaboration, not an Anglo-Saxon dictatorship. The task of America will be to supply all shattered peoples with the necessities of life. We can best leave the governing and policing of these states to the races who are familiar with the political problems of the continent. The growing attitude that the Anglo-Saxon peoples are the masterrace chosen to direct world policies is dangerous. It is little more than another Nazi doctrine with a different heading.
England has suffered much during the present war, and, without United States backing, will be in no position to impose her demands upon the continent following the war. This is as it should be, for the Free French, the Slav guerilla, the Russian artilleryman, and the Greek warrior have played a part in the conflict that is equally as important as Tommy Adkin's. Not to be forgotten, either, is the work of the Italian democrat, the Rumanian saboteur, and the German churchman, who will come to the front when the totalitarian elements of their respective governments fall. All will have their voice in word government.
The method of controlling the European's just for "power" is a knotty problem. Scores of suggestions have been made, but few have
passed the test of severe analysis. All agree that peace can best be retained by a governing body with more than token authority. This would seem to call for a federation of the European states.
Such a federation would probably be a loose one of a democratic character possessing such powers as military disarmament, economic disarmament, monetary stabilization, and control of communications. The division of legislative power would, perhaps, best be made along the bi-camelal lines of the United States of America. Thus the smaller states would be assured of some voice in the federation.
A sore spot in many ways would be the choice of an executive. Tradition dictates a British statesman; however, Russia promises to be the most powerful European state following this war, and would naturally expect the federal head to be a Soviet citizen. Perhaps the answer lies in a compromise, with a French or Swiss diplomat being named to the post.
The solving of such problems as these, however, are only the beginning. Still facing the formers of a European government would be such questions as: How can communism and capitalism exist under the same constitution? Is it true that the German peoples are, as William Shirer says, essentially "sadists," and therefore unfit to take part in any international government? How can the many European boundary disputes be settled without leaving scars?
These and many other questions would have to be solved before a European federation capable of retaining peace on that continent could be put into successful operation. It seems like an impossible task now. However, when one thinks of the alternative—series upon series of destructive imperialistic wars—one wonders if, perhaps, from somewhere man might draw upon a previously hidden store of human understanding and accomplish this job. If he should, the other five continents would probably follow fast in Europe's footsteps.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol. 39 Tuesday, May 12, 1942 No. 135
Notices due at News Bureau, 8 Journalism, at 10 a.m. on day of publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
JAY JANES: The Jay Janes will meet at the Union Building at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon to go on the picnic.-Mary Kay Brown, president.
SIGMA XI: The spring initiation and annual banquet of the Kansas chapter of Sigma Xi will be held on Tuesday, May 12, at 6:15 p.m. in the ballroom at the Union building, Prof. W. C. Stevens of the Botany department and president of the Kansas chapter of Sigma XI will give an illustrated lecture on "The Habits of Some Kansas Wild Flowers."
SENIORS - The Diploma Fee should be paid by May 15. Seniors expecting to receive degrees either in June or at the end of summer session who have not filed application for degree cards in the Registrar's Office should do so immediately.-Laurence C. Woodruff, Assistant Registrar.
Students who have taken the courses in Home Nursing and Child Care are eligible for Red Cross Certificates in Home Hygiene and Care of the Sick. Former students who are interested should make inquiry at the office of the Department of Home Economics. Room 104, Fraser hall.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ... Kenneth Jackson
The Sigma Chi party featured an unscheduled performance Saturday night—that of the local fire department making an entrance in quest of the "big fire." Someone (sworn to have been a jealous outsider by all the Sigma Chi's) evidently had sent in the alarm calling the trucks to the party.
One good thing about it all, commented one Sigma Chi, determined to see good in everything, was that:
"We had our own private cop directing traffic when the party broke-up." Also the Sigma Chi's elected a new pledge trainer last week—Larry Smith, Kansas City, Mo. senior. As a sort of "hello and good-bye" this year's freshman class trundled him off to Potter's Lake where he was properly dunked.
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Someone at the Kappa house, for some ungodly reason, removed the iron grating from off the top of the pit in front of a window at the back of the house. (This vicinity being noted as the place where the fonder "good-nights" are said to Kappa's—being sort of shadowy and secluded.)
We are said to Kappa - being sort of shadowy and secretive Anyway, Saturday night about 12:30 some late-arrivers heard some moans and groans being emitted by the cavity formerly covered by the iron grating. Investigation disclosed that Kappa Betty Lou Young and O.D. Butcher, Phi Gam, in saying their "good-nights" had fallen in and now lay on the bottom in semi-conscious states.
They were extracted; both were embarrassed.
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Another victim of the pit chanced to be another one of the neighboring Phi Gam's who, in passing the house, decided to peek in and see who he could see. He managed to pull himself out of the trap (with no little noise) and the Kappa's watched him run.
Ruth Beeler, Alpha Chi junior, received a letter yesterday containing two one-dollar bills. She read the letter, looked at the bills, put all the contents back into the envelope and tore it up.
Five minutes later she began searching for the two one-dollar bills she couldn't remember where she had hidden.
Now Ruth Beeler has twenty pieces of two one-dollar bills.
Class of'42 Recalls Other War Commencements
Yesterday's decision by the Senior class of 1942 to buy war bonds from the government instead of a parting gift for the University serves to remind the students that after 24 years of peace, the University's seventieth commencement exercises this year will be held for the first senior class to graduate after the United States entered World War II.
This year's commencement, the seventieth, will be the third commencement exercises to be held when the United States was engaged in a major war. The other two war-time commencements were the forty-fifth and the forty-sixth, held in the springs of 1917 and 1918 when the United States was also at war with Germany in the first World War.
However, in 1852 when the bond matures, a present for the University will be selected by a committee of members of the class of 1942 still surviving at that time.
When the forty-fifth commencement was held, the United States had been at war less than two months and as yet the war had not affected the University a great deal although the files of the Daily Kansan for 1917 reveal that by commencement week more than 500 University men had enlisted in some branch of the service. The first registration for the first draft had not yet been held although the date had been set and would fall on the second day after commencement.
That there was already some shortage of men, especially in the Senior class, is shown by the fact that the farewell reception and ball for the departing seniors was arranged on a Saturday night so that the senior men in the army at Fort Riley could attend on a furlough. The shortage of men for the senior dance was expected to be so great that the president of the senior class announced that dates to the ball were not necessary and that it would be perfectly proper for women to come without an escort.
Most noticeable of the effects of war was on the graduating senior class where, out of 450 diplomas granted, only 40 senior men were present at the commencement to receive theirs. According to an announcement of the senior president made at the senior breakfast, all 40 of these men had applied for war work of one kind or another.
In the School of Engineering, out of 43 senior engineers to be granted diplomas, 42 men had already enlisted or had been called by commencement, leaving only one man present to receive his degree. This record of service to the nation was exceeded only by the School of Law, where out of 18 degrees granted, not one law student was present to receive his degree; every one being in some branch of the service.
The commencement address was also in keeping with the wartime spirit and the speaker, James W. Gerdard, a former ambassador to Germany, told of his experiences in Germany and condemned the German people for having started the war.
By the forty-sixth commencement held June, 1918, the effects of the war were a great deal more noticeable than in 1917. Instead of the scheduled week of commencement exercises and activities, the program had been shortened to last only three days. Commencement ceremonies this year included the unfurling of the University's service flag in front of Robinson gymnasium on commencement day. This service flag contained 1647 stars for the University men then in service and eight gold stars for the University men who had already fallen in action.