PAGE SIX
EDITORIAL
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1940
The Kansan Comments -- EDITORIALS ★ LETTERS ★ PATTER
Enfeebled League Should Die
The League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson's idealistic phantasy of wishful thinking, always has been inadequate to mediate successfully conflicts between major powers. Its role in the present European conflict, and more particularly the Soviet-Finnish war, has accentuated its shortcomings to the point of making it appear absurd.
On December 10, the Assembly of the League, empowered by the League's Covenant, to "deal . . . with any matter . . . affecting the peace of the world," asked the Soviet Union to halt the war and undertake negotiations. Russia's reply on the following day was a curt refusal, and the Reds pressed their attack across Finland. Then, on December 13, the League formally and ambiguously recognized Russia as the aggressor in the conflict. Russia was summarily dropped from the League's rolls as a feeble punishment for its failure to accede to arbitrative measures.
The League has been a noble experiment. Its work, outlined in the Covenant as superviving "the execution of agreements in regard to the traffic of women . . . and the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs" and in matters "for the prevention and control of disease," has been notable.
But these matters were only of secondary
New Spain Rises Under Franco
The outbreak of war in Europe crowded Spain from the top place in world news which it held during its civil war, but lack of news is no indication that Spain is remaining dormant. Reconstruction is taking place politically, economically, and socially.
The two chief political aspects of the reconstruction are the handling of Spanish Loyalists and the steering of the country along the straight and narrow way. Loyalists have already been taken care of by expulsion, execution, and confinement. Franco is for maintaining the status quo politically, but such groups as the Falange, the Carlists, who want the return of feudal Spain, and German, Russian, and Italian pressure groups, are creating a small European situation inside the general's country. Right now Franco faces the problem of turning a military government into a civil one and curbing Spanish sympathy for Finland.
Spain needs raw materials, for her trade with Germany has almost ceased. Before the war, one-half her exports and imports were with Germany. Now she is making trade agreements with the allies. She recently put 3,500,000 pesetas into circulation, instead of borrow from the democracies. This may easily have an inflationary effect. At the same time, agricultural production has not yet recovered.
Franco should be given credit for his management of the different phases of the reconstruction. Specifically, his determined effort to concentrate on a ten-year rebuilding plan is admirable. Rebuilt cities and towns already have begun to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of war.
The influence of the church and the large popular wish for return to a monarchy, are the social elements arising from the foundation of Spain.
importance. The League has failed in accomplishing its real mission. Dissolution of the present League seems the only honorable recourse—even though it means the breaking of a beautiful bubble.
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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Vol. 37 Tuesday, March 5,1940 No.104
DELTA PHI DELTA: Delta Phi Delta will meet this evening at 7:15 in the women's lounge of Frank Strong Hall—Roberta Smith.
EDUCATION FACULTY: The faculty of the School of Education will meet at 3:30 Thursday in 115 Fraser. —Deane W. Malott, president.
I. S.A. DISTRICTS: I.S.A. Districts I and II will hold their first business meeting at Corbin Hall, this evening from 7 to 8 o'clock.-Fred Robertson, district chairman.
MATH STUDENTS: The Mathematics Club will meet Thursday at 4:45 in room 203. Edison Greer will talk on "Functions: The Geneology of Variables". Visitors are welcome—Marlow Sholander, president.
MUSIC ROOM: The Music Room will be open tomorrow afternoon from 3:30 to 5:30, and tomorrow evening from 7:30 to 9:30 - Ernie Klema, chairman.
PHI CHI DELTA: Phi Chi Delta will have a regular meeting this evening at 5:30 at Westminster Hall. The program will be mission plays directed by Dee Ellen Naylor-Esther Tippin and Emily Jane Yount, program chairmen.
PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION: A limited number of students who desire aid in preparing for the examination of May 4 may be accommodated in the special class now forming. Consult the undersigned, 305 Fraser, Tuesday and Thursday, and at 3:30 Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Friday. The class meets at 1:30 Tuesdays—J, B, Virtue.
RHADAMANTHI: Rhadamanthi, Poetry Society, will meet this evening at 7:30 in the Union Building Hope Hunn will lead the discussion. All are invited—Gordon Brigham, president.
W. S.G.A. TEA; There will be a tea for all University women in the women's lounge of Frank Strong hall from 3:00 to 5:00 Wednesday afternoon. Alpha Chi Omega sorority will be hosted—Ethylene Burns.
TAU SIGMA: Tau Sigma will meet tonight at 7:30.
—Geardine Ulm, president.
Y. M.-Y.W. FRESHMAN COMMISSION: There will be a joint meeting of the freshman commission Thursday afternoon at 4:30 in the Kansas Room of the Union Building, Professor Wheeler of the Psychology Department will speak. All freshmen are cordially invited to attend—John Conard, Helen Martin, publicity chairmen.
Y. W.C.A. ELECTION: There will be an election this Thursday from 9:00 until 5:00 in the basement of Frank Strong Hall.—Eddie Parks, president.
Y. M.C.A. ELECTION; There will be an election this Thursday from 9:00 until 5:00 in the basement of Frank Strong Hall.—Kermit Franks, president.
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Professors Like 'Whodunnits' Students-Dignitaries Read Variety of Books
By Stewart Jones, c'40
Not many students know that a secret hobby of their most saturnine professor may be that of reading detective stories.
But it's true.
In an interview which disclosed a number of interesting facts about University reading habits, Mrs. Dorothy Marsh, for 12 years proprietor of a local book store, said recently that a number of college professors are regular customers at her murder-mystery rental shelf.
The scholarly gentlemen, she said, often relax by reading a book in an evening and solving the "whodunnit" as others would a conundrum.
But professors read extensively in other literature, too—and this practice is emulated by a sizable minority of University students. Incongruous though it may seem in light of the frivolous spirit of undergrads, Modern library classics (Hardy, Dickens, Poe, Stevenson, and others) keep pace with the popularity of contemporary books.
"Days of Our Years", "Grapes of Wrath" and "Kitty Foyle" are on the students' best-selling list, but so are "The Complete Novels of Jane Austen" and "The Complete Poems of Keats and Shelley."
In Mrs. Marsh's shop are nearly 2,000 books, 350 on the rental shelf. Books are taken out and returned to the rental shelf at a rate of more than 200 each week.
"This is an especially good year for art," Mrs. Marsh declared. "Several books on painting, drawing, and music have been published the past few months, and they are popular with students and professors alike." Two current best-sellers of this type are Rockwell Kent's book of "World Famous Paintings" and a collection of "Vincent Van Gogh's Paintings and Drawings."
Engineering students, asserted Mrs. Marsh, are more intensive readers of current non-fiction than any other students of the University.
With complications in international affairs has come a surge of interest in acquiring a background for the study of political relations. The popularity of "Mein Kampf" and "Inside Europe" are exemplary.
Student reading, Mrs. Marsh has found, covers a wide field and today's student, who is backgrounding his studies, becomes acquainted with the theme of both contemporary works and older, more established literature.
ROCK CHALK TALK
Bu HARRY HILL
Hot chalklet: W.S.G.A. meets tonight and may approve plans for sponsoring a musical show this spring. . . The proposed production was written by Rolla Nuckles, et al. . . It probably will be shown in April. . . Several years ago, W.S.G.A. retired from the student show business when their presentations began to stink worse than their politics. . . But with fresh leadership, talent and ideas, the enterprise can be made entertaining and successful.
★
"IN HORROR AT TRTDE MARK"
—reads a headline. We don't doug't it.
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Even if he didn't have a "Don Wilson" radio voice, our John Ise morethan held his own on the Chicago U. roundtable over NBC Sunday. . . His economic reasoning was as sound as you'll find in any book,
★
Cecil (as in nestle) King, our favorite sports writer, has the baseball situation all figured out. Says she: "A holdout is a standout looking for a handout."
yet he tempered his opinions with good Kansas common sense.
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A committee has been named to head plans for remodeling the Memorial Union basement. . . Besides chairman John Blocker, members are Hermina Zipple, Henryq Werner, Leo Hemrichs, Jean Robertson, and Bud Owen. . . It is intended to allow more space for the fountain in the new arrangement. . . Along that line, it was Mr. Werner's idea to extend the fountain from the bay windows on the west over the street below. . . Construction of this addi-
Unionnews.
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