The KANSAN Comments...
PAGE SIX
Why Fraternities?
The recent statement by the University Senate regarding the "seeming undue influence" put on fraternities and sororities leads one to inquire as to the true value of such organizations. Do they have a legitimate part to play in University life? And are they properly filling that place?
One of the most important functions of the fraternity groups from the viewpoint of the University is their encouragement of students to come to K.U. We all know that at this time each year there are several hundred students who do not know if they will go to college, and, if so, where. Contact with the various fraternities does more than any other one thing to encourage those students to come to K.U.
TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 1941.
Granted that a few college men and women have too much money for their own good, and granted that a few of them come to school just for the social life they can get. Still, there is no other agency which does as much to promote the University of Kansas as the fraternal organizations.
One of the chief values of these organizations is their promotional work for the University. Take a look at homecoming, for instance. Just how many alumni would come back to K.U. if they did not have their own frat or sorority house to go to? How many floats would there be in the parade if there were no organized houses. Where would intramural sports be if there was no such organizations to compete?
The average student thinks of these Greek organizations largely in the light of their social functions. They have more parties than the independent students do. But that is far from being their only function. For years on this campus, the scholastic standing of both fraternities and sororites has been above that of their independent brothers and sisters. Surely this means something. But even that is not all the fraternities accomplish.
An old grad who had been out of school for almost 15 years dropped into the journalism office the other day.
A Dove Editor Returns
When this particular man was a student here at the University, he was the editor of the Dove. In those days the Dove was a real "red" sheet, and this man had been its guiding hand.
But that was 15 years ago. Since that time, this newspaperman has worked mostly on conservative papers, and somehow his attitude slowly changed.
Such field trips give students a closer view of their chosen vocation, and might instill in them a deeped love for it.
The other day, when he was here, the old grad said, "It's funny how we radicals go reactionary when we get hold of some of that good, green money!"
Getting out all the editions of a city daily including the gathering of the news, editing it, making up the paper, etc.,—is a lot of work. Any professional newspaperman will agree to that. When young, untried journalists do it with willing, eager hands, they must be interested in their work.
More Field Trips
Judging by the way journalism students plunged enthusiastically into the work of putting out the Ottawa Herald and the Topeka Daily Capital, one might suppose that practical field trips are of some value to students.
MEN WITHOUT POCKETS
Spring styles for men have one new feature of universal importance to both men and women—the absence of pockets. The ordinary man's business suit now has fifteen pockets. Without plenty of pockets, it's going to be hard for a man to outfumble his companion when it comes to paying the dinner check. Gone will be the excuse that the keys are in the pockets of his other suit. Girls will no longer be fooled by the expanded chest of a man—which really is just the bulge of his breast pockets. The men probably will have to carry handbags, too. If they drop theirs as often as women do, it is going to be practically impossible to get on and off a street car of bus. —Written by Mary France McAnaw for the Topeka Daily Capital.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol. 38 Tuesday, March 11, 1941 No. 103
Notices due at Chancellor's office at 3 p.m. on day before publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
EL ATENEO: The Spanish Club will meet at 3:30 on Friday instead of Wednesday. Motion pictures dealing with Mexico will be shown. The meeting will be open not only to club members, but to anyone interested in seeing the pictures.-Merle E. Simmons.
FRESHMAN MEMBER—STUDENT INTRAMURAL BOARD. Men wishing to be considered as candidates for the academy of a freshman member of the Intramural Board of Managers must state qualifications in a written application addressed to Senior Intramural Manager. Applications will not be accepted after Wednesday,—Lee Huddleston, Sr. Manager. 107 Robinson Gym.
JAY JANES: Jay Janes will meet in the Pine Room of the Union Building tomorrow at 4:30.-Ruth Spencer Ashcraft, president.
SCHOLARSHIPS: Applications for scholarships for the school year 1941-'42 should be made in Room 1, Frank Strong Hall, before March 15—Lela Ross, executive secretary, Committee on Aids and Awards.
PILAMBDA THETA: Pledging services will be held at 4 o'clock in room 116 Fraser on Thursday.-Mary Lou Randall.
SOCIOLOGY CLUB: Mr. Ernest Mannheim, a teacher at the University of Kansas City and a German exile, will speak to the Sociology Club on "Peace and War." The meeting will be held at 4:00 on Thursday, in the Kansas Room of the Union building. Everyone is welcome—Patty Riggs, publicity chairman.
TAU SIGMA: There will be no Tau Sigma meeting this evening.-Carolyn Green.
W. S.G.A. COUNCIL: W.S.G.A. Council will meet this evening at 7:00 in the Pine Room.-Doris Twente, secretary.
W. S.G.A. TEA: There will be a W.S.G.A. tea on Wednesday from 3 to 5 in the Men's lounge of the Union building. At this time the candidates for election to the W.S.G.A. Council will be presented, and all University women are urged to come and meet them—Jean Klussman, social chairman.
Y. M.-Y.W. MEETING; The regular meeting of the study group will be held in Henley house at 4:30 on Wednesday. The meeting is open to all students. Mary Helen Wilson.
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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. Entered as second class matter September 17, 1910, at the post office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879.
1,450,000 Gallons a Day--- Muddy Kaw River Water Purified In City Plant
By FLOYD G. DECAIRE
When the whistle ushered you out of the classroom and you wandered down the hall toward the water fountain for a sip between classes, did you stop to think whether or not the water was safe to drink? It's a sure bet that you didn't. You'd probably declare, "Certainly it's safe! I wouldn't drink it otherwise!" But suppose you were asked how you knew it was safe? You—who spend hours computing a problem in calculus, or weeks writing your term paper—have you ever tried to find out just what is done to the water from the time it leaves the muddy Kaw until it bubbles with silvery clearness over the top of that fountain?
Water From River
Visitors are cordially welcomed at the city's treating plant, so let us drop down to Third and Indiana and follow this process that rolls on incessantly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A spot two city blocks northwest of the plant is pointed out as the place where the water is taken from the river. There we observe a rectangular concrete structure about 10 by 15 feet, some 75 feet from the bank. This "gravity intake" catches the river water, which then flows downhill through a pipeline 20 inches in diameter (slightly larger than that of a basketball hoop) and directly east 250 feet inland to a circular reservoir known as the intake well. Adjoining this well is a pumphouse equipped with four service pumps that force the water uphill past the treating plant one block to a large pool comprising what are called primary filtering basins. The water is now at a higher altitude than the main plant, and, when it is released, will naturally flow to that unit.
In these primary filtering basins, the principal purpose is to allow the water to settle; the larger particles of foreign matter sink to the bottom. In the first basin, lime is added for softening. As the water passes into the second basin, it is churned by a series of moving arms known as flocculators. These arms, on which the ends are shaped like those of a windmill paddle, rotate up and back in a semicircle as your mother's wash machines does. Just as the wash machine works the dirt loose from the fabrics by continually shuffling up and back, so the action of these flocculators churns the water, causing sediment to loosen up and work
toward the bottom. We are curious to know what happens to all this mirk that results from the settling in these basins, and are told that a separate pipe, known as the main dump line, carries the residue back to the river at an outlet down-stream from the point of intake.
Residue Flitered Out
By now the water we are purifying has passed through the second basin and is starting downhill to the main treating plant, where it empties into a third settling basin. In past years, the water had been piped through the aerator before going into this third basin, but the caretaker tells us that the aerating equipment is outmoded and in need of repair; consequently it is not being used. It is not the type of aerator in which water spouts high into the air, but is merely a flat bed of concrete and metal over which the water is intended to flow and expose itself to the germ-killing rays of the sun.
So that we might follow the process more closely, the attendant explains that beneath the concrete floor upon which we are walking there are two sets of huge filters, the first ones known as roughing filters and the others as final filters. Since we cannot see them, we try to visualize. We understand "filter" in the ordinary sense of the word, and we can almost see a series of them down below, the water passing through first one, then another, and another, each time leaving behind lesser and lesser amounts of residue as it assumes a purer state.
Chemically Treated
After leaving the third basin, the water goes through these roughing filters, from which it flows for chemical treatment into the first of four (continued to page eight)
(continued to page eight)
You Said It
The editor of the Kansan welcomes letters of opinion from students and faculty members to be published in the letters column. If the writer wishes, his name will be withheld, but the Kansan must have the names of all writers of letters.—
To the Editor:
Liberalism (a la Wheeler definition) is in dire straits. Universal agreement prevails among the liberal social engineers as to the undesirability of a social order based upon Nazi "principles." We differ, however, upon embroiling American youth in the battle of "democracy."
Is this a battle of democracy? I question that it is. I question the motives of a government that hesitates to state its objectives. Has the British government, whose conservative leaders aided and abetted those "saviors" of privilege they now fight, changed its attitude to benevolence toward the "mob"? Are the Beaverbrooks and Halifaxes interested in democracy or the maintenance of British privileges as against Nazi tyranny? And British privileges can be equally tyrannical as it becomes incapable of satisfying demands made upon it.
The United States has embarked upon a program of defense with the express intent of "quarantining" the Fascist nations. Yet before our very eyes we observe Fascist legislation ushered in. We are about to enact Fascist laws to compel labor obedience in order to prepare against Fascism. It is a rather ironical fact that labor, which began its battle for democracy with the United fronts in France and Spain and thoroughly denounced Fascism from the outset, should now be looked up by our 10 per cent profit patriots as enemies of democracy.
I say to Hades with Beaverbrook democracy! British labor will bleed to preserve British privilege. It will be compelled to abide by the decisions of that privilege when the war is over—Respectfully, A Graduate Student.