21
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1942
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
Shoemaker Compares Germany with Old Spain
Germany's position in the present-day world is much like that of Spain in the sixteenth century. The seeds of Spain's downfall were sprouting at the time of her greatest expansion much as they are in Germany now.
So thinks Prof. William H. Shoemaker, chairman of the department of romance languages. Professor Shoemaker, a thorough student of Spanish history, draws some remarkable parallels between past Spanish history and present-day Germany. much as Germany now.
"Of course, I don't have any inside knowledge so I have to draw my conclusions from what I read," Professor Shoemaker said. "All I know is what I read in the papers but just the same, it seems to me that the likeness is clear to any one who knows Spanish history."
"History Repeats Itself"
Times have changed both politically and economically since Spain was at its peak. Nations are no longer ruled by the mercantilistic theory and the sudden influx of gold that helped runin Spain economically is not apt to strike Germany. Despite this, however, history repeats itself, Professor Sheoemaker indicated.
Spain reached the point of its greatest military strength after the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors. This act struck a death blow to much of Spanish culture and commercial activity. Industry and commerce dwindled although as a military power Spain did advance after this. Economically she prospered because of the New World gold but as the supply of treasure decreased she dropped from power. The same gold that sustained her power undermined her economic structure for it prevented the natural development of her industries.
Germany's great military power has come since her expulsion and persecution of the Jews but like Spain, she lost much of her finest culture by this act. Many of her most prominent men of letters and science have left the country and her industries appear to be sadly disjointed.
Nazis Control Thoughts
Politically, Professor Shoemaker believes the parallels to be even more remarkable. "In Spain it was the Inquisition that drove the people out; in Germany it is the Gestapo," he explained. "The purpose of both organizations was to control the thoughts of the population. In Spain they wanted one religious faith, Roman Catholicism. In Germany they want one political faith, National Socialism, itself a religion of fanatical communicants. In Spain the absolute power of the king and the Inquisition killed the first faint stirrings of democracy. In Germany Hitler's power and the Gestapo have done away with freedom and substituted an absolute dictatorship."
Spain, like Germany, had its reluctant allies. The people of that day had no more to say than the people of Roumania, Hungary, and others, when they entered the war on the side of Germany. The ties that bound people together then were not nationalistic but dynastic. It was not the advancement of governments that was sought but the advancement of ruling families. The people followed after and suffered whether they wished to or not. It was the power politics of the day. Spain held the Netherlands, had armies in Italy, had sections of Germany and was trying to overcome France, a defeated but not conquered country,
Spain Had Troubles
Spain too had her troubles. Her armies were the finest in Europe but were thinly spread trying to control the subjugated countries. The Dutch were in open revolt, and unrest was rampant in the other countries. Spain, like Germany, had found it easier to acquire new territories than to hold them. Much as the Russian and African wars are draining German-man-power did the Americans drain that of Spain. Over-extended, she gradually weakened and collapsed.
England presents itself as the last point of similarity between the positions of the two countries. Germany must conquer England to hold Europe. Spain needed control of the sea to hold Europe and England was threatening that control. Hitler has not tried his long predicted invasion of England but Spain under Philip did try and failed. The Great Armada, beaten by storms and British seamanship, was Spain's great effort but even its defeat did not ruin Spain. A new Armada was built and destroyed when Drake at Cadiz performed his famous "singeing of the King of Spain's beard." A "singeing" much as the R.A.F. has singed Hitler's "beard" with their continual bombing of the invasion coast.
"That's the way it appears to me," Professor Shoemaker finished. "Spain over extended herself and could not beat England. My only hope is that the parallel won't continue and that Germany won't be years in weakening as Spain was. Spain's rise was slow and her fall was slow. Germany's rise has been swift and may her fall be equally swift."
Tyro Teachers Take Up Tasks
Students in art whose applications were approved are Jean Blue and Cordella Reazin. Rilla Jensen was accepted to teach social science. Warren Newcomer, Irene McAdoo, T. P. Hunter, Bob Johnson, and Ed Hall will be practice teachers in physical education.
Applications from 22 students for supervised teaching in the University High School this semester have been accepted by the committee on administration of University Teachers Diplomas.
Applicants accepted in music were Jeanne Anderson, Ada Catherine Croll, Marilyn Duncan, Edgar Haage, Aliere Witherup, Wilma Jean Pennick, Jeanne Crites, Phoebe Jane Hahn, and Clamell Wehrli. English teachers will be Patricia Gordon and Wilma Miner.
Jean L. Miller will teach home economics, and Loyd W. Breakey will be the practice teacher in science. Elizabeth Newman will be the supervised teacher in the subject of speech and dramatics.
Quill Members Select Staff For Magazine
The staff for the magazine published by the Quill club was named at the meeting of the group last night. Robert Humphrey, college senior, will be managing editor; Bill Feeney, college junior, prose editor; John Waggoner, college junior, poetry editor; and Jean Sellers, college junior, business manager.
Assistants will be Virginia Tieman, college junior, in charge of advertising; and Lucille York, college junior, in charge of subscriptions. Peggy Benson, college junior, is in charge of sales.
A new meeting date was set in order that Quill club would not conflict with the new World at War course being offered Thursday nights. The club voted to have super meetings at the Memorial Union cafeteria at 5:30 p.m. Thursday twice a month and continue the meeting until the hour of the World at War class.
The first dinner meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday in the Union cafeteria.
Lab Technicians Needed by U.S.
An alarming shortage of trained bacteriologists and technicians has already been revealed since this country has been at war, Dr. Noble P. Sherwood, chairman of the department of bacteriology, said today in outlining the opportunities afforded young women to be of service to their country in this field.
An almost overwhelming flood of letters asking for the services of competent technicians, both in government and in private service, lay on Dr. Sherwood's desk as he spoke of the opportunities for service.
Urgent requests were there from Col. W. H. Bailey, chief of the military hospital at Ft. Sill, Okla., for four technicians. Col. Bailey is a son of Prof. Bailey, former professor at the University of Kansas for whom Bailey Laboratories are named. There was a request from Tulane University, from Wayne University, from the Kansas State Board of Health, and a whole file of others.
More than 200 Kansas graduates, he said, have been placed in positions as laboratory technicians in every state in the Union, and in U.S. possessions. A half dozen, he indicated, are located in Honolulu.
Dr. Sherwood looked at them regrettfully. "I am sorry," he said, "we just don't have enough girls to fill these important positions."
Fine Arts Senior Gives Piano Recital
Ada Lee Fuller, fine arts senior,
presented the second of this year's
series of recitals Wednesday night.
She was assisted by Mary Louise
Belcher, fine arts junior, and Lois
Worrel, fine arts sophomore.
Miss Fuller's piano numbers included the Bass-Busoni chorale prelude, "Come Holy Ghost"; Chopin's Etude, opus 10, no. 7; the Scherzo in C sharp minor; Liszt's "Dance of the Gnomes"; and the Liebling Florence Waltz.
Fill Army Mail Boxes Men Want Letters
In a letter recently received from Bob Rowlands, an ensign in the U.S. Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor, Rowlands makes a request for all friends of Americans in Hawaii to send them as many letters as possible. "Mail," he writes, "is one of the few pleasures we have out here."
"The appreciation of the American way of life and the sacredness with which it is cherished will never be illustrated more dynamically than it was by these boys and men as they rose up 100 per cent strong to strike back, on that fateful day, at the misinformed humans who challenged the veracity of its value.
The letter was received by the Soroptimist club, a local women's organization, of which his mother, Mrs. Mary Rowlands, is a member; because the club had sent him a box of candy for Clifford. Rowlands, grandy.
"I have a request that I wish to make to you, and I would appreciate very much your passing it on to as many people as you possibly can. It is this. If you know anyone in the service outside of the continental limits of the United States, please write them a letter or a note. Whether they be a friend of yours or a friend of an acquaintance, drop them some kind of a line.
Letters Help Morale
ated from the University in 1938.
The letter reads:
"I wish it were possible for me to put in writing the experiences that have been mine since I left Lawrence; of life as it is now lived on a blacked out island and of many other things that are but questions in your own minds. I could fill pages with acts of heroism that I saw myself and many more with acts that I have merely heard about.
American Way Cherished
"Mail is one of the few pleasures we have out here, and our only contact with our former way of living. A letter, a remembrance, does more for the morale of a man than anything else. No matter how small the acquaintanceship, the idea that there is someone on the mainland who realizes that he is over here, who has bothered to wonder how he is, and has had enough interest to write him, creates a certain satisfied feeling that cannot be explained by words.
"There is no sadder sight in the world than a sailor, several thousand miles from home, hungry for news and remembrance, walking away from mail distribution empty handed, knowing that it will be ten days before he can possibly get any mail."
Bonds or bondage? Buy U.S. Savings Bonds.
Mrs. Marvin LeSeur To Speak Over KFKU
"Why Buy Defense Bonds?" will be the subject of an address by Mrs. Marvin LeSeur, County Auditor of Douglas County and former professor of public finance at the University of Kansas, to be given at 6:15 tonight over radio station KFKU under the auspices of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.
The address will be one of a series entitled "Democracy as Usual," and will carry into action the wartime program of the League of Women Voters as recently promulgated by the national organization. In wartime, these women hold, there is great necessity for understanding and cooperation of all citizens, and at the level of local, state and national problems of purely civilian import, there is the problem of preserving the mechanics of democracy in good working order while attention is likely to be centered elsewhere.
Mrs. Laurel Anderson, president of the Lawrence League, will open the broadcast.
Marshall Butler Recital Wednesday
Marshall Butler will present a prono recital Wednesday evening in the auditorium of Frank Strong hall. Butler, a fine arts senior, was to have performed in April; but since he is subject to military call very soon the date of the program was advanced.
Butler is a student of Ruth Orectu, and came to the Hill from the University of Kentucky. He has appeared a soloist with several musical organizations.
The program he will present will include solos from Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Abigen, Vogrich, Mompou. The last number will be the opening movement of the Tschaikowsky "Concerto in B flat" with Miss Orcutt at the second piano.
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