The KANSAN Comments...
PAGE SIX
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1941.
Meritorious but Obscure
One of the most meritorious movements on the Hill is the Independent Students Association. Almost as obscure as it is meritorious, the ISA is the only organization of independent students on the campus.
The local organization is a member of the National Independent Students Association. Both the national and the K.U. organizations were founded in 1938. The national headquarters of the organization is at the University of Oklahoma. The 29 member organizations are governed by an Executive Board of six students and two faculty representatives. The local Association has 500 members, the largest membership in its history.
The aim of the Independent Students Association is to provide an extra-curricular activity program for all unorganized students.
Two thirds of the students in the University are independents, and their only articulate agent is the ISA.
An organization which offers to the independent student the opportunity to participate in campus affairs should have more than 500 members.
The independent student at the University of Kansas has the chance to make himself and his organization a force in the activities of the Hill, if he will assert himself and take his rightful place of influence on the campus.
Meritorious but obscure is the label of the ISA—only so long as the independents themselves refuse to be independents collectively. When "independent" is spelled with a capital I, the association will take its deserved place at the head of campus organizations.
Isn't it remarkable how a minority, reaching majority, seizes authority, and hates a minority?
God may help the man who won't marry until he finds a perfect woman, but God should help him still more if he finds her.
God helps him who helps himself, and the English insist they have the divine powers on their side.
An Investment in Education
In inflationary periods like the one into which we are now entering, difficult problems always confront the investor. The man with money in the bank may find that today's dollar will be worth fifteen cents next week. Everywhere there is a rush to convert liquid assets into tangibles so that inflation will not wipe away one's life savings.
But today it seems to some that there are no safe investments. Land, which is ordinarily sound, now is subject to consuming taxation. With improved crop cultivation and the possibility of bringing formerly waste land into production, this investment is no longer too attractive. Utilities are poor risks because of the inclination of the government to put private utilities out of business. One hesitates to invest in wheat or sugar because of the great excesses of staples on the world market today. So the problem of the average investor is considerable.
But how about an investment in education? When the depression comes after the war—as it most certainly will—could there be any safer investment than a well-trained mind? Whatever may come after the war, even if it be socialism or some form of governmental regi-
mentation, the well-educated man will be in a better position to support himself than will all the others.
Perhaps education would be a plausible investment for middle-aged people who fear for the future. A few thousand dollars invested in some promising young man might mean security in one's old age. With other investments looking none too good, this might be worth a trial.
Minds are like parachutes. They function only when they are open, but a great many Americans seem to be having trouble finding the rip cord.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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.
Friday, Feb. 21, 1941
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION: Christian Science Organization will hold a regular meeting Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in the Pine Room of the Union building. All students, graduates, and faculty members are welcome.-Patricia Neil, secretary.
ENGLISH PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION: The third examination of the year will be given Saturday March 1, 8:30 a.m. Juniors who have not already passed the examination should take it at this time. The examination is open only to juniors and seniors. Register at the college office, February 24, 25, and 26—J. B. Virtue.
FALL SEMESTER GRADES: Grades for the fall semester may be obtained tomorrow morning for those unable to appear at the scheduled time.—George O. Foster, registrar.
NEW ADDRESSES FOR DIRECTORY SUPPLEMENT: Students who changed addresses between semesters and who have not reported new addresses to the Registrar's office should file those addresses at once, so that corrections may appear in the Directory Supplement.—George O. Foster, registrar.
NEWMAN CLUB: The regular Monthly Corporate Communion will be at the 9:30 Mass Sunday. The business meeting and the discussion will be held after the breakfast in the Parish Hall.-Joseph A. Zishka.
NOTICE TO ALL STUDENTS: Dr. E.T. Gibson will be available for personal conferences at Watkins Memorial Hospital on Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 5. Appointments should be made at the Watkins Memorial Hospital.—Ralph I. Canuteson.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION: A make-up psychological examination will be given at 9 o'clock Saturday morning, Feb. 22 in 112 Fraser.—A. H. Turney.
SIAMESE ART EXHIBITION: There will be an exhibition of SIamese art in room 320 West Frank Strong Hall from Feb. 10 through Feb. 23. This exhibition includes hand-woven textiles and craft work of Siam from a collection belonging to Mr. Wallace Lee, Federal geologist—Marjorie Whitney.
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.
Editor-in-Chief Ken Jackson
Editorial Associates: Arthur O'Donnell, C. A. Gillmore, Mary F. McAnaw, and Eleanor Van Nice
Feature Editor Kay Bozarth
NEWS STAFF
EDITORIAL STAFF
Managing Editor ... Bob Trump
Campus Editors ... Orlando Epp and Milo Farnett
Sports Editor ... Don Pierce
Society Editor ... Hail Wits
Sunday Editor ... David Whithee
News Editor ... Chuck Elliott
Copy Editors .. Art O'Donnell and Margaret Hyde
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager          Rex Cowan
Advertising Manager         Frank Barretta
Accountant              Ruth Brush
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.—
Editor, Daily Kansan:
We wish to go on record as not favoring the Negro student Varsity Dance as planned for Friday evening, Feb. 23, and assign our reasons the following:
1. That we do not favor the appropriation as granted by the Administration.
2. That we were not represented on the committee which accepted the appropriation aforesaid.
We firmly believe that an appropriation of a yearly $200 grant for the purpose of giving a so-called varsity fails in its purposes in several respects.
3. That, had we been represented, we would have gone on record as being opposed to the appropriation and would not have accepted it.
First: Because it is granted by the Administration on a "take-it- or-leave-it" basis.
Second: Because the grant, itself, for the purpose of giving a dance on one day during the school year is not adequate compensation for the other activities, such as the right to participate in intramural athletics, the right to the use of the gymnasium and its privileges at convenient times, the right to freedom of movement in the Union fountain, etc., from which we are excluded nine months out of the year.
Third: Because, even if the varsity dance were accepted by us as adequate compensation for the other activities from which we are excluded, the grant by the Administration to defray the expenses thereof is not adequate to provide a decent social function, one which people of the college level of intelligence and sensibilities would feel other than "down-right" ashamed to attend.
We have assigned the foregoing reasons as the basis of our dissent in the earnest hope that they will be considered not as evidence of dis-unity in the ranks of the minority group (nor that we would be absolutely satisfied with a money-grant sufficient to assure the giving of a really fine varsity.) We state them in the earnest hope that they will be accepted by others as an honest contention for what is ours by virtue of the fact that we pay our fees; our parents pay their taxes; we make our grades. We are only asking for what is ours by right according to our ability to see the right.
The simple principles of democracy, which are based on liberty, equality, justice, and humanity, require that everyone should be rendered his due according to law and equity. Let us convert these shibbolleths into a living, vital force between man and man—EVA MAE BREWER, Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha; RALPH J. RODGERS, president, Alpha Phi Alpha.
ROCK CHALK TALK
By HEIDI VIETS
Among screwy dreams, here's a killer. Last Saturday night men from the Co-op at Baker University and their dates came up to share a dance in the Kansas Room with local Rock Chalk and Jayhawk Co-ops. After the dance, one Rock Chalk boy went to bed and dreamed that he got into a poker game with the Baker Co-op boys and won $740.
The next night he dreamed that a cartload of girls came up from Baker and called on him, explaining, "Since all the boys down at Baker are broke, we want you to show us around." Which he did.
Sounds like a psychiatrical case.
At the Alpha Chi house the other day Margaret Hatway called up the hall, "Who's got the tub?"
"No one," was the bright answer, "It's right where it always is."
In Spanish class last week, Gay Richards, college freshman, answered "17" to "Quantos manos tiene?" or "How many hands do you have?"
If the professor asked "Quantos anos tiene?" or "How old are you?" would he answer, "Two"?
Visitors at 1041 Tennessee were recently presented an unrehearsed horror drama by two of the boarders.
The landlady and her guests were chatting when Bill Feeney, college sophomore, burst into the room carrying a card table and a Monopoly board. Asked why the haste, he cried, "A bat is chasing me," and raced out the back door.
Two seconds later Jimmy Draper, sophomore engineer, ran in wielding his favorite weapon, a baseball bat. Draper hates Monopoly, and goes into a frenzy whenever anyone asks him to play.
Before showing the weekly film to his Moving Picture Appreciation class, the other day, Professor Allen Crafton walked on to the stage of Fraser theater and announced, "Bids are now open for the popcorn concession."
Margaret Meek and Betty Willis, fine arts juniors, have developed technique in daily exercising by watching a Phi Chi do his daily dozen in front of an open window across the street.