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EDITORIAL
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1940
The Kansan Comments-- EDITORIALS LETTERS PATTER
With hundreds of successful enrollmentstudiers going through the last "Look-at-thebirdies" and "Hold-it" for senior pictures, reality strikes with blitzkrieg force that not all diriomas, particularly those under the arms of women, will secure for their owners anything like a future—let alone a successful one. Unfortunately, what looks promising now may turn out to be as undependable as an M.S.C. election.
It's Not All Roses Now
Pull or exceptional ability may make a few women students succeed. A string of influential friends may put Suzy Graduate in as one of the better blackboard-scrawlers in one of the better public schools. Talent or aptitude may lead her to any number of tops—or near-tops, but it will take every nerve she owns to get her there.
Instead of headlines and fat salary envelopes, the rest may see only "No-helpwanted" and "Experience-necessary" signs. Common is the example of women with degrees who take a six-week typing-shorthand-filing course before employment. A former-boss reference in the hand of an applicant rather than a diploma is the usual prequisite for even "thataddress-fits-beautifully-madam" jobs.
More secure, possibly, is the woman graduate who hangs her diploma beside her marriage license in a home somewhere.
★ ★ ★
Invention Vs. Stability
Thirty-four years ago only two automobiles rumbled in Kansas City's streets. Yet, the two drivers managed to meet one day . . . in a head on collision. In like manner, the draw-backs of technological advance have caught up with its good points and the resultant collision is causing a chaotic ruckus throughout the economic world.
About nine years ago, when Technology arose to fame, its advocates envisioned the perfect Utopian paradise in which mighty machines, operated by simple push buttons, would do the work of thousands of men, while modern Rip Winkles sat back on their haunches and thrived off the land. True, these technologists were somewhat wild in their dreams, but they did not far miss their mark. Spurred on by the prospect, scientists and inventors pushed technology to the zenith. In shoe factories, each revolution of a wheel completely soled 200 pairs of shoes. Paper-making machines a city-block long could turn out a strip of paper 21 feet wide and 300 miles long in a day's time. A radio for every six persons in the United States provided entertainment for all, while technology transformed the universe into a synthetic paradise with but a minimum of manual labor.
Strangely enough, however, along with this transformation came other problems to be fuddle and harrass the mind of the day-dreaming genius. At least two under-currents were flowing. First of all, the machines were too efficient and put so many men out of work that unemployment figures approached the ten-million mark. Too, this efficiency flooded the world markets with products that could not be absorbed. This tendency was unsafe because it plainly upset a system that was based on
scarcity. With a start, the technologist awoke from his dream-turned-nightmare to find that, alas, no age is golden, and that Christmas is just a state of mind.
Who is at fault in this paradoxial situation? Naturally, the laborer blames the cog-wheel brain-truster, saying that if it were not for his infernal machines there would be no unemployment. The technologist mutters something to the effect that he is not his brother's keeper and bemoans his lost dreams.
A summation does not prove that either the laborer or the technologist is to blame. Formulated into a convenient economic law, the real reason might run like this: In a system where two ideas of economic planning are prevalent, both based on sound reasoning and existing only for the good of mankind, that system will persist which benefits humanity most directly. Or in the jargon of the man-in-the-street, "One simply cannot have his cake, and eat it too."
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICIAL BULLETIN
! Vol. 37 Friday, April 26, 1940 No. 137 FIRESIDE FORUM; FireSides Forum will meet this Sunday at 7 o'clock at the home of Mr., and Mrs. King at 1100 Ohio. The informal discussion of a "Modern View of Religion" will be continued. Everyone is welcome.—Lorraine Polson, publicity chairman.
KAPPA PHI: There will be a regular meeting for all members tonight from 7 to 8 o'clock. Officers will be elected—Helen Naramore, president.
LEWIS PRIZE ESSAY CONTEST IN APPLIED CHRISTIANITY: Contestants for this year must hand in their essays at the Chancellor's Office not later than Wednesday, May 1.
NEWMAN CLUB: Sunday is Corporate Communion Sunday for all Catholic students. The Corporate Commu nition will meet at the 7:30 Mass. Rev. E. J. Weisen ber twill speak and lead the open discussion on "Courtshi j and Marriage", immediately after the breakfast which will follow the Mass. A 10 cent breakfast will be served and no reservations need be made—Albert Pretva, vice-president.
PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION: The last examination of the regular term will be held Saturday, May 4. at 8:30 a.m. Juniors and Seniors who have not passed an earlier examination should take this one. None but Juniors and Seniors are eligible. Candidates must register in person at the College Office. Room 121 Frank Strong Hall, between April 29 and May 1.
SENIORS: Don't delay in placing your orders for announcements now on sale at the University business office. The deadline is April 27.-John Oakson, chairman.
WESLEY FOUNDATION HAYRACK RIDE: Those going on the Wesley Foundation hayrack ride will meet at the Methodist Church at 5 this evening. Those going will be assessed 10 cents for food and are asked not to wear their best clothes—Russell H. Barrett, publicity chairman.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Official 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 week; published on Saturday. Entered as second class matter September 17, 1971, for public office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Associate Editors
Editor-in-Chief ___ Reginald Buxton
Publisher ... Walt Meininger
Gene Kuhn ... Betty Coulson ... Jim Bell
Feature Editor ... Virginia Gray
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor ... Jay Simon
Campus Editor ... George Sitterley
Campus Editor ... Elizabeth Kirsch
Stone Structures
Sports Editor ... Larry Winn
Society Editor ... Kay Bozarth
Sunday Editor ... Ralph Boyce
Juggle Editor ... Roscoe
Wire Editor ... Bob Trump
Rewrite Editor ... Art O'Donnell
Business Manager ... Edwin Browne
Advertising Manager ... Rex Cowan
Class of'40 Graduates As Certified Literates
By Mary McAnaw, c'42
The big black bugbear, sometimes known as the proficiency examination, is graduating its first class this spring for the College class of 1940 is the first to graduate under this requirement.
These tests are given twice each semester to juniors and seniors in the college, who must complete 24 hours of work in residence after passing the examination. Failure to pass the examination by the end of the senior ___ year prevents graduation.
The quizes were instituted to prevent, if possible, the graduation of persons obviously not proficient in practical usage of the English language.
This cheerful sentence prefaces the
Such sentences as "A house was for sale by a man with two large bay windows," combined with period and comma faults, dangling participies, and the incorrect use of then and than, lay and lie, an and help fill the preparatory class conducted for those failing the test. This class meets on Tuesdays at 13:0 p.m. under the direction of Mrs. Genevieve Cain of the Correspondence Study Bureau.
If you would believe the reports of those who have taken the test it is really a bugbear but actually it's not so far removed from examinations in College rhetoric. At least that's what the Committee on Proficiency Examinations thinks, and to support their statement they pull out a copy of a typical test.
quiz questions. "The essays are judged for unity, coherence, clearness, and correctness." This is followed by three questions, as follows:
"1. Write two paragraphs of 100-200 words each defining two of the following subjects: a ski-suit, an ice cream cone, or a radio, an epic, neurosis, or knitting."
2. In a composition of 300-500 words explain in some detail one of the following procedures; greasing an automobile, studying for an examination, spoiling a child, or making a date.
3. Suppose that an older acquaintance has inquired of you the probable expense of maintaining a son or daughter in the University. Answer the inquiry in a letter of 300-400 words."
And having completed a test like the one above all you have to do now is wait until the results are announced. If you pass, congratulations. If not, just remember to try, try, again.
ROCK CHALK TALK
By Marilyn McBride
Overhead the endless playing of piano scales, the shrilling of soprano voices; outside a demolishing crew at work tearing the back off the building . . . that is the quiet scholastic atmosphere of Ad building.
Artie Shaw, that young man with a clarinet and Lana Turner, is back in the band business with a smooth new orchestra with more strings and less brass. He is making the deliberate records he likes, playing his clarinet . . . casually and superbly. One of the first of his new record crop is a haunting oriental arrangement of the beautiful but morbid, "Gloomy Sunday," which was banned from the air when it made its first appearance several years ago. Other side of the disc is a subtle little tune called "Don't Go to Sleep."
Columnists Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner have written the American volume in the current colored-book series; its title: "American White Paper." In this behind-the-scenes pamphlet is revealed the way U.S. policy-makers long foresaw World War II, pondered in advance each complex consequence. At best (Allied victory) the four bigwigs . . Roosevelt, Hull, Welles, Berle . . foresaw world-wide economic chaos; at worst (German victory) the U.S. would be "in the unfortunate position of an old-fashioned general store in a town full of hard-bitten chains".
What they say: "The day's mirages had set me thinking. Purple is discriminated against. You don't want to live in a purple house, and Gelett Burgess doesn't want to be a purple cow. Why not? You've both had anti-purple conditioned against. Red means nasty things, too. It means stop to a driver, communist to a conservative, and charge to a bull. Whereas white is tops; chastity and communion lilies. Color is just a state of mind. Color is what you think it is." (William Van Til in "Danube Flows Thru Fascism.")
Good music, an excellent and hard-working cast, and some pretty high peaks in entertainment; that was "Sing n Swing." Yet the campus-musical failed to play to capacity crowds; W.S.G. A. dived into the financial hole. The usual windlind K.U. enthusiasm for all things local has ceased to be a tradition and become a fixation.
The war in Norway is a cosmopolitan gathering with the Allied Expeditionary Forces composed of Canadian and Scotch regiments, a brigade of Poles, and at least one division of French troops.