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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1941
The KANSAN Comments...
For Whom the Whistle Blows
"The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth."—John Donne.
At 20 minutes after the hour during class hours, a whistle atop the power plant blows shrilly, announcing that class is over.
This whistle can be heard for some distance from the campus—except by a few professors who either are deaf or slow in their reflexes. Some talk on for a while, then casually announce that the whistle has blown and class is dismissed. Others beg permission to clear up a point, ignore the outraged roars of students, and orate for five minutes or so.
Well, you say, you're here to get on education, what if the professor talks overtime? The point is, professors know that class lasts 50 minutes, and they must have had some part in setting that time. They should prepare lectures to last 50 minutes. Naturally, lectures will run overtime on occasions, but our main gripes are against the following:
1. Teachers who shriek in unholy mirth at their own Pleistocene Age humor, then run overtime trying to present the regular lecture.
2. Those who orate at length on the abject poverty in which a teacher must live, and become aware of the necessity for lecturing about five minutes before whistle-time.
3. Those who give a 40-minute travelogue, then try to squeeze in a 50-minute lecture.
4. Those who spend most of their lecture time offering opinions in some field other than what they teach.
Fifty-minute classes and 60-minute lectures do not work. Let us change one or the other.
Moscow—Still the Hub
It is reported that Russia is moving her capital 450 miles east to Kuibyshev. But this by no means indicates that Russians are ready to say, "Go ahead and take Moscow. You won't be taking our capital." The city of Moscow remains the center of Russia's defense hopes.
Moscow is the hub of the Russian communication system. That hub Hitler wants to destroy; Russia cannot stand to lose. If Hitler held Moscow, the problem of aid to Russia from Britain and America would be complicated, since the important rail lines pass through that city. German armies have already intercepted communications west of Moscow.
One objective of Hitler's drive against Moscow has been to separate Russia's three armies, one of which is now in Leningrad, one in Moscow, and one in the Ukraine. If this is accomplished, Russia's capital, wherever it is moved, will have an acute headache. Fighting three little armies will be peanuts for Germany, compared with the tougher and bloodier battling that is required against one gigantic, unified force. As long as Russians hold Moscow, Hitler's chances of isolating each army are diminished.
That Moscow is vital to Russia's defense was shown when United States, Britain, and Russia conferred in that city last week. Russia's representative begged all-out aid for the protection of Moscow; Britain and U.S. were in a fever to see that the city be protected. They understood that if Hitler took Moscow, he would be taking Russia's heart.
It is important that Russia move her capital offices out of harm's way. Technicalities of government must be carried on. But Moscow is still the key to defense; the city which must not fall,J.A.V.
AMERICANS CHANGE THEIR MINDS
Editorial opinion of representative student newspapers in American colleges and universities, as well as the attitude of the general public, on the question of America's entry into the war has been completely reversed, recent surveys reveal.
Time magazine found that these student newspapers, including the Kansan, were almost unanimously in favor of staying out of war a year ago, yet in September, 1941, had about-faced to a belief that this country should participate.
Interviewers for the Gallup poll in September, 1939, asked: "Should we declare war and send our army and navy to defeat Germany?" Ninety-four per cent of those interviewed said "No"; six per cent said "Yes." The October poll, completed about two weeks ago, indicated that seven out of ten Americans now felt Hitler's defeat was more important than keeping this country out of war.—R.W.D.
Church goers in Washington, D. C., won't have to worry about parking their cars anymore. An obliging Episcopal rector has agreed to pay the costs at a nearby parking lot.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol.39 Tuesday, Oct.21, 1941
No.27
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.
TAU SIGMA: Tau Sigma will meet at 7:30 tonight in Robinson gymnasium. Come dressed for dance work.Anna Jane Hoffmann, president.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION: The e Christian Science Organization will hold a regular meeting Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in the Pine Room of the Memorial Union building. All students, graduates, and faculty members are welcome.-Betty Charles, secretary.
MEETING OF ALL UNIVERSITY WOMEN: There will be a meeting of all University women in the Union ballroom at 4:30 Tuesday, Oct.21, for the purpose of voting on the revised W.S.G.A. constitution.
ARCHERY CLUB: Archery club will meet Tuesday afternoon, from 4 until 6 p.m., in the Community building at Eleventh and Vermont streets. No previous knowledge of archery is required; special help will be given beginners. Everyone is invited to attend.
JAY JANES: Meeting Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 in the Pine Room of the Union Building. Genevieve Harmon, president.
CERCLE FRANCAIS: Le Cerclé Francais se reuimira le 22 octobre a trois heures et demie dans la salle 113 Frank Strong. Tous ceux qui parlent français sont invités.—Marjorie Mossman, president.
RHADAMANTHI: Rhadamanthi will meet Thursday evening at 7:30 in the west end of the ballroom, Memorial Union. All interested in verse are invited to attend.-John Waggoner, president.
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY EXAMINATIONS: Proficiency examinations in French, German, Latin, and Spanish will be given at 10 a.m., Saturday, October 25, in Frank Strong 107. Students who have had at least two units (years) of credit in any one of these languages are eligible for the examination in that language. Students who pass the examination are not required to take further work for the Bachelor degree. Dictionaries are permitted.
Registration must be made at the College office by 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23—W. H. Shoemaker.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
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; monitored as second class teacher, except on Wednesday or post office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the Act of March 2, 1879.
Rock Chalk Talk
By HEIDI VIETS
The selected group of campus leaders who were given a sneak preview yesterday of the football edition of the new stream-flash "Sour Owl" were knocking themselves out today every time they thought of certain "out of this world" features of the new magazine.
Between titters they mentioned as special stand-outs the sorority pledge lists prepared by date-raters Bob Barton and Dean Sims, answer to prayers of the Hill playboy with no time to compile a little red book, and the classy cover shot of Don "Red Dog" Ettinger, taken by Jean Brock.
The Sigma Nu's are ready to top anybody's story of outmoded vehicles. Other men, they say, may keep their flivvers and wheezy buses. The Sigma Nu's have a tractor.
The building of their new driveway tore up the front lawn considerably. To repair the damage, the boys borrowed a tractor and a harrow from brother Carl Perkins, who got it from his father's farm outside Lawrence. Now they have gone to work sowing grass amid the wreckage.
As yet, however, they have not started to plant winter wheat on the Sigma Nu "back forty."
"Australia, please," said Betty Roudebush at the A. D. Pi house about midnight Saturday night. The telephone operator sat up and blinked. All the girls in the house listened intently.
Betty was calling Shirley Fitzpatrick, whom she has never seen, in Sidney, Australia. She started writing to Shirley after a friend returned from Australia talking about the girl in Sidney and what good pals Betty and Shirley could be. Since then, a correspondence friendship has been built up.
The telephone call Saturday night took more than two hours since it had to go through numerous relay stations and censor boards. When Shirley was finally reached about 2 o'clock, interested women were still in the A. D. Pi halls with ears wide open.
The 3-minute conversation cost Betty $14.75, but she is not complaining.
Mary Margaret Gray strolled to a cabinet in the Chi Omega parlor to get a score pad for a quiet Sunday afternoon bridge game. Suddenly the sweet-ness and light was shattered by a scream. From the dark interior of the cabinet a big black cat had leaped out at her.
The cat was as scared as Mary Margaret. He had been shut in the cabinet after dinner by one of the dinner guests, and had since been meditating on the time required for nine lives to suffocate away.
Named Edgar after Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote a scare story about one of his kind, the black cat has become a permanent pet at the Chi Omega house.
Since Brenda Joyce, movie star who was an honored guest at the American Royal in Kansas City last weekend, is a Delta*Gamma, her sisters on the Hill called her to invite her to their open house Sunday. She protested a full schedule but assured them she would like to come, adding, "Don't be surprised if I drop in after all."
She did not come, but two Kansas D.G.'s contacted her at a luncheon at the Muehlebach Grill Saturady. The girls, Peggy Schell and Betty van Blarcom, gave Miss Joyce flowers, had a picture taken with her. After the luncheon she rushed around to thank them privately and promise that whenever she hits this part of the country again, she will visit the Lawrence chapter.
Miss Joyce was a D.G. at the University of Southern California.
A certain large American newspaper carries a section on its financial page called "The Small Business Man's Department." A thoughtful tribute to an extinct species whose motto is, "All is not priority that glitters."
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Chicago stores are selling lisle hose at $1.35 a throw. When most of today's glamour girls were in the 6th grade you could get them for a mere 65 cents with red clocks thrown in. Fashion isn't merely spinach; it is imported broccoli.
The little green men tell us that:
Some Strictly Alien Corn
One of the ballerinas on tour with the Ballet Russe this season is coyly called Tatiana Riabouchinska, a pleasant enough handle onomatopoically speaking, but not very utilitarian. Imagine, please, how that would look on four feet of pink registration cards.
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This week a Chicago woman made the sacrifice supreme. Her husband is a radio salesman, so the cooperative wife contented herself with a local anaesthetic during a major operation, that she might listen to a certain radio broadcast. Investigation reveals she is the author of "How To Push Your Husband Ahead In The Business World."
South Carolina troops are busying themselves in their spare moments while on maneuvers by camoflauging the leaves on dead trees. Nature, it appears, is defying the defense program and being a definite bottleneck this season.
The Association of Mine Sweepers of World War I is having a three day convention in Boston this week. Truly the man without a club is the man without a country.
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Strictly in the line of duty, the Army will organize 100 new bands within the next 8 months, bringing about for the first time in American musical history, a shortage in oboe and bassoon players.
A letter to the editor in the "Boston Herald":
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"Dear Editor: I sent a letter to the White House asking for one of the President's stamps. One day the mailman gave me an envelope from the White House. I opened the letter and it said: 'The President was very busy, and we couldn't call his attention to the letter; we know you will understand.' Well, anyway, I came pretty close to getting it—'Leonard Burg.'
Merely another Burg who got iced. . .