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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1942
The KANSAN Comments...
The State and the Nation
In the present war we see, not only in Germany and Great Britain but even in this country, the increasing state control of our economic life which may, in the final outcome bring the system of free enterprise to an end.
For at least six or seven years in the United States, there has been increasing state control, or state participation, in the direction of economic life. The investments made by the Federal government have totaled five times the private investment in new enterprise.
There have been advancements in the direction of price control, drafting of labor, a more strict foreign trade control, more priorities, control over wages and of prices and production independent of market competition. It was on this basis that James Burnham in, "The Managerial Revolution," estimated that about one-half the population of the United States is now directly or indirectly dependent on the government.
The significant thing is that a new system is coming into existence and it is all based on state control. The longer the war goes on the more likely is this new system to become established, and the more likely it is to spread. Profit is to be taken out of production, by increased taxation or by limiting the profits themselves, and the state may inevitably take over industry, too. Only the state run industries when they are not profitable. The question is whether the people can retain control of the state once the state has become their employer?
So far, all the legislation has been imposed with the consent of the people. War is a great unifier, and when a nation is faced with the danger of annihilation, national unity comes spontaneously. After the war, when the danger is removed, however, will it be possible to preserve a democratic form of government and a democratic way of life?
Democracy as we have known it is not doomed. The survival of that democracy depends, however, on our attempt to solve the problem of how to control the unlimited state. We cannot do this unless we recognize this type of state is bound to come. We must not be so blinded by our hates and fears that we fail to realize what is happening.
Our only hope of preserving democracy is in perceiving the development of the world and learning how to control it in ways that will make possible the survival of our cherished democratic government.—P.C.
Sense and the Censor
Is our voluntary press censorship adequate? Does it fill the bill? According to Edward L. Bernays, guest editor of The Saturday Review of Literature, March 7, 1942, America is headed for the same pitfalls she encountered in the World War I if she doesn't change her direction.
Bernays reviews a book entitled "Censorship—1917," which was written by James R. Mock, in which Mock explained what happened to the United States during the World War I and after the first war.
Censorship was official in the last war, too. Executive order in April, 1917, created a committee on Public Information in which functions of publicity and censorship were joined. Actually, the American people were indifferent to its foundation. Mock says, "Today it will be both a revelation and a warning for
the American people to know that a censorship board with complete powers being carried out on a broad scale was functioning in all the fields of incoming and outgoing communications to the United States." Agencies suppressed, deleted, or delayed cables, telegrams, press dispatches, and mail.
Bernays says that censorship is often propaganda, and propaganda of the deed is more potent than words. Where the censor gauges his deletion on a basis of military necessity he is forgetting about the people. He must remember that censorship is a prime function of the broad psychological front which is concerned with the public morale. Bernays explains the use of ideas as weapons. He says they must go hand in hand with our military planning and our economic strategy. The three factors, psychological, military, and economic are an integrated whole—and each factor is necessary to accomplish victory.
The Christian Century, April 1, 1942, has a point well chosen. Instead of allowing the Office of Facts and Figures to launch "a powerful campaign" to "sell the war effort" to the nation through "a propaganda campaign superimposed upon the informational services of federal agencies," The Christian Century and Editor and Publisher magazine agree that the government should employ advertising space and tackle its public relations job as openly as any great corporation would.
The British have profited by the mistakes of the French government. Their press is no yes-yes press, and yet the British censor has learned to keep a balance between what he tells his own people and what he believes is news to the enemy. He has learned to split hairs. Shielding the truth from the public is, according to the British, the shortest road to complacency.-J.S.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol. 39 Thursday, May 7, 1942 No.132
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.
KAPPA PHI—The last meeting of the semester will be held Friday evening at 7 o'clock at 1209 Tenn. St.
The Kora meeting at Manhattan will be reviewed. All members please be present.-Eleanor Patty, Publicity Manager.
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.
Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ... Kenneth Jackson
NEWS STAFF
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Managing editor Floyd Decaire Campus editors Charles Pearson,
Ralph Coadren, Joy Miller, Ben Flemem.
Sunday editor Bill Houghton.
Sports editor Alan Hougton.
Society editor Ruth Beeler.
News editor Virginia Tieman.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-chief Mary Frances McAnaw
Associate editors Alan Houghton
Don Keown, Joe King, Charles Roos
Feature editor John Harvey
Imitation kangaroos was carried out by means of hopping about the room with baby dolls tied about their waists.
Monday evening is "fun night" at the Chi Omega House—fun for everyone but the freshmen. This week the stunt presented by the comedians consisted of a group of animal imitations.
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"The only time that modern youth has any respect for old age," stated master of ceremonies Allen Crafton at the Fine Arts banquet Monday night, "Is when it comes bottled."
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Gene Williams, Phi Gam freshman, is a victim of the new rage of the scientific world—he claims to have become a victim of the mumps germ by mental telepathy. His brother, who is in attendance at Oklahoma U., contracted the disease one day last week, the next day Gene also had the mumps.
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The historical feud between the men of Phi Kappa Psi, 1100 Indiana street, and the maidens of Kappa Alpha Theta, somewhere (Sims is a Phi Psi) over on Tennessee, is renewed.
It all began when the Phi Psi's, thinking they were doing their former (continued to page seven)
Day and night thousands of civilian volunteers at Army authorized observation posts report Aircraft Flash Messages to Army "filter" centers-by telephone. From this information, each plane's course is charted on filter maps...relayed to operations boards such as the one shown above-by telephone. Should checking prove the aircraft to be an enemy, the telephone would play an important part in the defense strategy...in warning endangered communities...in mobilizing civilian defense units.
Friend or Enemy? They're taking no chances
Bell System men cooperated with Army authorities in designing and providing the telephone facilities used by the air defense system. This is but another example of a war-time job well done.
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