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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1942
The KANSAN Comments...
The Service of the Press
There is usually someone ready to accuse the press of profiteering in wartime. Many think the press favors war so that it might stuff its coffers. They say "Yeah, the newspapers love war because they can make more money by selling more papers; that's logical isn't it?"
No, it's not logical; what's more it's ridiculous, the product of juvenile thinking. Newspapers receive as heavy a jolt in wartime as any other enterprise does. The mere increase in circulation does in no way compensate for the increased operating expenses.
Paper is growing scarcer every day and its price is steadily rising. Some equipment is impossible to get, typewriters for example. As price goes up, quality of equipment goes down because of priorities on raw materials.
We mustn't forget the increased reporting costs brought on by wartime coverage, either. Yes, the press associations, pay the increased expense directly—but the newspapers pay the associations. Then, too, the large metropolitan papers often have their own staff of correspondents, and they can't be hired for nothing.
Lastly, advertising has taken a heart- breaking slump. Many advertisers are marking time to see what happens; others are letting go with a wee bit of institutional advertising just to keep their firm or trade names before the public. Many small papers over the country have been forced to curtail their regular frequency of publication because of this factor.
It all boils down to this conclusion: The American press is unselfishly serving the public. It is doing this by providing news coverage on a wider scale and at a greater expense in order to reach more readers and leave them better informed, while it goes on making less money than it did before the war started.
The Denver Post informs us that a large part of the world has never seen butter of any kind. Which makes our quibbling over the impending shortage seem trivial.
Razors Raise a Problem
Razor blades have been curtailed now, and it seems probable that the end of this war will see a crop of bearded heroes similar to those who won the Civil war.
There may be a frantic dash to stores in last minute attempts to purchase the old-fashioned straight razor, long in disfavor. Authorities assure us that it will be to no avail. They aren't making them either. Only the few rugged individualists who have clung to the straight razor through the years can be assured of the daily shave. Electric razors haven't yet fallen under the ban, but it is assured that they will soon.
Several problems come to mind. Romance will probably suffer. Women, more sophisticated than their grandmothers, will likely refuse to have anything to do with males who camouflage their faces behind the tangled shrubbery which will spring up during the duration. The smooth-shaven lad who troups down the street with a girl on each arm while his be-beavered colleagues look admiringly on may be recognized a mile away as the owner of a straight razor.
Men may become unmanageable. Personal beauty has long been recognized as one of the strongest motivating factors in human behavior. Any number of ghastly crimes may occur as feverish males steal razors or blades from each other. Some future author, dealing with this particular period, may write books on the "Razor Murders."
On the other hand, beards do make men look dignified. Look at Charles Evans Hughes. The beard has always been a respected mark of manhood until the last few barbaric decades. The ancient Greeks regarded the beard as a sign of wisdom—naturally if you had no beard your mind couldn't be too mature. The Romans started this custom of shaving, but they were a bunch of barbarians, anyhow.
Anyhow, it is one of the wages of war. We must make sacrifices, you know. Everyone has heard that except Standard Oil and the German chemical trust. If we must wear beards, then that is what we'll do. Who cares? The women are going to have to wear cotton stockings, and they don't look so darn good in them, either.
And incidentally, a night-spot called the Jesse James has been held up. Which serves to disavow the slogan "You won't be held up at the Jesse James."
The fire chief of Liberty, Mo., went to a fire recently on horseback. He denied that he was saving tires, stating that he had been exercising one of his private steeds at the time.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol.39 Thursday, March 26,1942 No.110
CLASSICAL CLUB: There will be a meeting of the classical Club on Friday, March 27, at 4:30 in room 206 Fraser, Professor Lind will present an illustrated lecture on "The Entomology of Words."
—Norman Hearin.
Tau Sigma will meet at the regular times this week
—Anna J. Hoffman, Pres.
Everyone interested in the YMCA Conference at Estes Park this spring is invited to attend the Estes Jamboree at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, March 28, at Henley house. Topics for the spring conference will be discussed at the meeting. For further information call Marion Hepworth.
SCHOLARSHIPS: Applications for scholarships for fall, 1942, should be made in Room 1, Frank Strong Hall, before April 1.-Lela Ross, Executive Secretary.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION 1942 Active Member
Publisher ... Kenneth Jackson
EDITORIAL STAFF
NEWS STAFF
Editor-in-chief ... Charles Pearson
Editorial associates ... Maurice Barker and
...
Feature editor ... Bill Feeney
Managing editor ... Heidi Viets
Campus editors ... Betty Abels and Floyd Decaire
Sports editor ... Chuck Elliott
Society editor ... Saralena Sherman
News editor ... Ralph Coldren
Sunday editor ... John Conard
United Press editor ... Bob Coleman
BUSINESS STAFF
Business manager ... Frank Baumgartner
Advertising Manager ... Wallace Kunkel
Advertising assistants ... John Harvey, Charles
Roos, LeMouve Frederick
Ole Joy Miller upset ole Jack Wertz horribly the other day by passing him a slip of paper in class with the single word "Date?" written on it. Wertz the Backward was so upset that the professor stopped his mutterings and asked what the heck was the matter in the back row, etc. and so on.
"Oh," chorted Joy, "I just asked him what the date was today. "Gulp!" said Jack in a small, amoebic voice, "Is that what you wanted?"
Ode To a 7 by 11 Photograph Sitting On a Female Dresser.
Twinkle, twinkle, little man
I am just an also-ran.
You are in the army now.
I'm out to pasture. . . like a cow.
Travel Troubles Call Union Office
If you want a ride home, call the Student Union Activities office, and through the travel bureau the activities board will try to find a ride
Students driving out of town for a weekend are urged to call the office and leave word where they are going and when. This information is used in finding rides for students who call in seeking transportation.
"We're backing them up"
Marching right along with the armed forces of this country are thousands of telephone workers.
They work side by side with the Army and Navy. Wherever the need is communications, you are likely to find telephone men and their trucks and materials.
Day and night the order is for speed and more speed.
They wear no uniforms, these telephone workers, but men in uniform know how much they are putting into the Nation's biggest job. They see it first-hand and they know it is first-rate.
METROLINE INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGY
DELL SYSTEM
INDUSTRIAL COMPANY
ASSOCIATED WITH
INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES