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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1941.
The KANSAN Comments...
Still Cause for Thanks
This week we pause to commemorate a 320-year-old tradition started by our early Pilgrim fathers when there was but small cause for thanks.
Except during the four years of the Civil War, Americans have had more reason than any other people to be thankful for benefits received and to be received. It is a commonplace to say that we have more liberties and creature comforts than any other nation, but this platitude, worn as it is, is as pertinent today as in the past.
Today we are engaged in an undeclared war. There is domestic strife which is testing the durability of democracybut the black side of the ledger still gives us real cause for thanksgiving.
War has touched us only casually and not at all cruelly, except in a few instances. As between our nation of today and other countries, the difference is so tremendous that this should be one of the happiest of all Thanksgiving Days.
The future may tell a story of a different tone. Few things will be as "usual." We may expect more casualties at sea. Taxes will be heavier. But the likelihood that strikes will continue to increase is less today than it was a week ago. The possibility that we shall send an expeditionary force to Europe is every bit as remote as it has been.
There is want and poverty here, but food and clothing are abundant and shelter is available for everyone in America. The people still have an opportunity for amusements. The young men in our army and navy are well cared for. Education is advancing day by day.
Americans should be able to be more truly thankful this Thanksgiving Day than on all previous ones. From the existing situations in stricken lands, we can easily gain a greater appreciation of our blessings in 1941.
Science, Germs, and Drugs
To make modern warfare really modern, more is involved than mere improvements of mechanical nature, as so many of us are wont to believe. Along with longer-range guns, bigger tanks, faster pursuit ships, and more spacious bombers must come the improvements of science. And that improvement is constantly keeping pace, although the majority of us are at least partially unaware of it. Science played its role well in the first World War. It was in comparative infancy then; it still has much to learn, but is growing faster.
While scientific advance goes on constantly in peace-time, too, it always experiences a jump in activity during wartime. Necessity is the mother of invention and this struggle emphasizes that maxim more every day.
With sulfanilamide and quick blood transfusions, science has stepped up the rate of human recovery from abdominal wounds from 38 per cent (World War I) to approximately 60 per cent. The proper vitamins can now be administered to patients to effect more rapid healing processes. Formerly it was not known just what vitamins were needed, nor how to give them to the patient.
The newest angle on blood transfusions— that of each soldier carrying a small packet containing his type of blood in powdered form is a real boon to men in action.
A new drug, gramicidin, has been found to be unusually effective in combating germs. More research is necessary with this new discovery, however, to find ways of stopping the destruction of red blood cells that accompanies the administration of the drug. The new preparation, which in tests healed a 15-year-old leg ulcer in three weeks, will in time prove to be just another of the milestones in the march of science.
Science has done the seemingly impossible. If there were only some way now for it to put an end to human warfare and needless destruction of life, real progress of genus homo sapiens would be made.-F.D.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol. 39 Tuesday, November 25,1941 No.51
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 will have a short meeting at 12:55 Monday noon, Dec. 1, in the Pine room.-Genevieve Harman, President.
HISTORY CLUB will meet Monday, Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m., Kansas room of Memorial Union. Professor Frank E. Melvin will speak on the historical background of the founding of the University of Kansas. Meeting is open to the public.
FACULTY OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 4:30 in Room 210 Frank Strong Hall.-Deane W. Malott, Chancellor.
NEWMAN CLUB MEMBERS—There will be no Corporate Communion or Breakfast next Sunday. Because of a conflict with the Kansas State Sodality Union convention at Leavenworth, Father Weisenberg can not appear to lead the discussion—Matt. Heueritz.
UNION TRAVEL BUREAU-All students or faculty members who want rides or have room for passengers for week-end or holiday trips, notify the Travel Bureau in the Student Union Activities office in the Memorial Union immediately. Phone K. U. 71.
FRANK ARNOLD. Manager.
ALL STUDENTS graduating at the end of the first semester who expect to teach should secure blankets and complete a registration in the Teachers' Appointment Bureau immediately. It is probable that a considerable number of vacancies will be received during the holiday season—H. E. CHANDLER, Secretary.
R. Q. BREWSTER, Chairman
University Deferment Committee.
NOTICE TO MEN CLASSIFIED IIA for Selective Service—Every student classified IIA for Selective Service is requested to call at the Registrar's office to see Mr. Hitt.
NOTICE TO PREMEDICAL STUDENTS: Due to the abnormal situation there are some students desiring to enter medical school next fall who did not take the Medical Aptitude Test at the regular time last spring. For these students, the Association of American Medical Colleges is arranging to give a special test at 13:0 p.m. on Friday, December 5, 1941, in Room 206 Marvin Hall. Those students who wish to enter medical school next fall should take the test at that time since the regular test to be given next spring will come too late. Will such students please register AT ONCE at the Medical School Office, Room 10 Frank Strong Hall. A fee of two dollars will be charged for this special test. For further information, inquire of Parke H. Woodard, Assoc. Professor of Physiology, Room 8B, Frank Strong Hall.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ... Stan Stauffer
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor ... Bill Feeney
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Charles Pearson, Katherine Bozarth
Feature Editor ... John Harvey
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Campus Editor...Heidi Viets
News Editor...John Conard
Sports Editor...Clint Kanaga
 Society Editor...Betty Abels
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Subscription rates, in advance, $3.00 per year, $1.75 per semester, Published at lawrence, Kansas, daily during the school year except Monday and Saturday. Entered as second class lawyer on March 17, 1978, office at lawrence,办公室 at lawrence, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Rock Chalk Talk
DEAN OSTRUM
Strictly on the Q.T., it was disclosed last evening that a mysterious new secret society has come to Mt. Oread. There are now six charter members and membership is limited to six. What the purpose of this organization might be, few know. It is, obviously, a matter of grave concern to this University, and is being thoroughly investigated.
After further probing, it has been learned that the white cross of Sigma Chi and the famous anchor of Delta Gamma indirectly had a hand in the formation of the group. Anne French, Adean Hagan, and Mary McCleary of Delta Gamma and Hal Edgar Weber, Bill Butler, and Fred Meyn of Sigma Chi are reputed to be the six members.
During a telephone conversation with semi-official sources late last night, the alphabetical name of the society was revealed—the "S.S.O. Club."
If S.S.O. doesn't stand for "Small Scale Operators," then I sincerely advise the best friends of the above mentioned group, for God's sake, to tell them!
Boys rooming at 1325 West Campus are continually complaining about the Gamma Phi Beta's not pulling down their shades at night. What they expect the Kansan to do is beyond all imagination, but what isn't beyond all imagination is that landlady Vickers has a waiting list of around twenty fellows—all for that room with the "fine southern exposure!"
Following the 10:20 exodus from Watson library yesterday for that midmorning smoke, library-goers saw a bit of the unusual.
Burly Joe Butler, cover-man for the latest Sour Owl and Sig Alph pledge, was up to his old tricks again. Caveman Butler with Pi Phi pledge Betty Frank Carey in his arms went staggering down the stairs to study.
An occasional kick and a minimum of screaming gave the impression that carried Carey didn't seem to mind much.
The mobilization of the Phi Gam house decorations demobilized pledges Jim McKay, Marshall Hulett, and Jack Reynolds this past weekend.
Basic for the Phi Gam war tank was the body of the freshman Ford vintage unverified.
A touching scene enacted nightly at the Phi Gam house, according to a certain Pi Phi pledge (she's heard), is the putting to bed of O. D. Butcher, freshman trainer, by Ray Helgesen.
"Butchy-Wutch" is carefully tucked in and tenderly kissed. Batchelor, something tells me this is going to make someone moody.
Test K.C. Drivers
Demon Rum The Winnah Cops Set 'Em Up
Demon Rum apparently threw the prohibitionists for a loss at Kansas City recently when the Missouri Highway patrol and the Kansas City police held a series of tests to determine the effect of alcohol on a person's ability to drive. Most of the drivers scored better after they had downed two or three two-ounce drinks of bourbon whiskey than before they had taken a drink and one man drove better even after taking six two-ounce drinks.
Although the prohibitionists have not yet replied to these tests, it is safe to assume that within a few weeks they will fire a broadside of facts, figures, and statistics of their own bolstering their side of the argument. Perhaps they will hold a series of driving tests proving that one whiff of alcohol transforms a Mr. Milquetoast from a safe cautious driver into a dangerous irresponsible maniac at the wheel.
The driving tests were held in the American Royal building at Kansas City and consisted in driving over a figure-eight course marked by wooden pylons and driving, backward and forward over a 150 foot course keeping the left wheels in a 16 inch lane.
Besides the driving tests, the happy volunteers were tested on vision, speech, breath, and ability to walk a straight line backwards and forwards. One standard test was to lean back, close the eyes, and try to touch the tip of the nose with the first finger. For balance, the drivers were rated as "swaying," "wobbling," "sagging," and "falling." For speech they were rated as "slurred," "stuttering," and "incoherent." After drinking a drunkometer gauged the amount of intoxication from the blood pressure and alcoholic content of the breath.
H N
Hero of the occasion was an anonymous driver who, after tossing off six two-ounce shots of bourbon in a three hour period, drove a perfectly straight line 150 feet long, both forward and in reverse, and twice traversed the figure eight course, grazing only two of the wooden pylons marking the course. However, this entrant lost some of his glory ten minutes later when he passed out like a light and had to be carried home and put to bed by a policeman.
Final results of the tests will not be made public for two or three weeks but preliminary observations show that while some drivers are dangerous after a couple of drinks, some drivers could carry a pint and still drive carefully and well.
Only note of dissension came, not from a prohibitionist, but from a scotch drinker from away back who insisted that the could not do his best driving on bourbon.
And what do you say to that, Roger Babson?
Campus Geologists To Work Fossil Area In Tennessee Basin
Dr. L. R. Laudon, assistant professor of geology, Dr. R. C. Moore, state geologist, Arthur L. Bowsher, and R. M. Jeffords, graduate students, are prospecting in the West Tennessee basin along the Tennessee river south and west of Nashville. They will work over an area which is famous for its fossils and excellent exposures of geological formations.
The area is soon to be flooded by the government and many universities have been taking specimen before the dams are completed. The geologists will return one week from tomorrow.