Thursday May 5, 1960 University Daily Kansan
A. Measuring Stick Revisited
Page 3
Editor:
The theme of the U.D.K. recently has been generally uniform—so much so that one reads of the shortage of cadavers ("first in a series") and the shortage of teachers in Kansas ("the last in a series") without being really aware of any differentiation, wondering always if there is a synonym like relation between the two words or, after a little more thought, if there is a cause and effect relation: "Old teachers never die, they just... etc."
At this point, we run across one of the many letters to the editor. This one entitled, "A Measuring Stick." And, it is just that, extending down the full length of the page and calibrated nicely by paragraphs. The length and paragraphing is so nice that we suspect that this is a U.D.K. stunt to bait out reader response—not really so much because of the journalistic neatness of the story as our unwillingness to believe that anyone named "Ignatius Schumacher" could come from Hays, as the signature below the letter tells us.
It would have been in keeping with the general character of has remarks to have observed that Democrats not only ... "intend to force medical care down our throats..." (beautiful image!), not only plan to completely monopolize industry along with their "labor cohorts" (such exacting descriptions!), not only plan to "rob Peter to pay Paul" (what could be more blasphemous?), but also they cause wars, are communist dominated, and a prominent one of them is a bald divorce!
It is a remarkable article, cleverly worded and as amazingly sound in its political and economic analysis as only a Western Kansas graduate student's letter could be. We must make this small reservation, though. Mr. Schumacher seems to have missed several punches:
Also, it would have been in tune with the high academic level of his discussion to have included the observation many of our fathers made during the 1928 election about the proposed undersea tunnel connecting Washington with the Vatican. (Surely, we can think of some clever wording for this point to equal Mr. Schumacher's 3rd point, the "...unholly alliance with Labor..." )
O! 'tis foul, 'tis foul, Mr. Schumacher! You tell us that Johnson "...by the way, would probably be a Republican but for the accident of his birth in Texas." May we suggest that you, by the way, would probably be an idiot but for the accident of your birth in Hayes, Kansas, U. S. A., where education is provided by a welfare state. But, as you would say, perhaps we expect too much from even a welfare state.
R. Alan Kimball Derby Junior
(Editor's note—You have struck a low blow indeed, Mr. Kimball, for in two references you spelled the name of our dear home town two ways—Hays and Hayes. We abhor the statement that our education was provided by a "welfare" state. Despite our ideological differences with Mr. Schumacher, we must admit that he does exist and that he also is from Hays. He can be seen in person at 13-C Sunyside, Mr. Kimball, if you persist in your unwillingness to believe that he exists.)
I was dismayed to see the Kansan's gross overplaying of the NCAA story.
NCAA Overplayed
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It would appear that our university life evolves around intercollegiate athletics. The UDK headline announcing that KU had NOT been punished by the NCAA was as large as that of a few weeks back stating that the chancellor had resigned. What would you have done with the story if KU had been placed on probation? You'd better have some bigger headlines on hand—what if Jack Mitchell resigns?
I believe there are more important things happening on a university campus than the actions of the governing body of big-business athletics.
John Henson Hoxie freshman
From the Magazine Rack一
"The classic idea of the judiciary as a priesthood infuriates Professor Mason as does 'the myth . . . that the Justices are but mouthpieces of the law and may themselves will nothing...' He proceeds to a survey of the Supreme Court under five Chief Justices (though he hardly mentions Vinson), hailing the Justices who reject 'Robeism.' rebuking those who plead it, controverting Justices who say they do not legislate, cheering Justices who admit they do —always provided their legislation is of a certain kind. ..."
The Judge as Priest
"In short, Professor Mason's volume represents a school of jurisprudential positivism influential for some forty years in the United States whose spirit was faithfully represented by one of its earliest evangelists: 'The ideal of a government of laws and not of men is a dream. . . Rules and principles are empty symbols. . . Of the many things which have been said (about) the judicial process, the most salient is that decision is reached after an emotive experience in which principles and logic play a secondary part. The function of juristic logic and the principles which it employs seems to be like that of language, to describe the event which has already transpired . . . To those who place more faith in fact than fables it seems a distinct advance, for which we are indebted among others, to Mr. Justice Holmes, that legal science is slowly being washed "with cynical acid".'
"But if all this is true, and Professor Mason gives little hint that he would deny it, some very grave corollaries arise. The simple fact is that the judicial power was grounded in our kind of polity on exactly the opposite assumptions. Judges were given life-and-death authority over the rest of us precisely because our fathers assumed they were priestlike in function and commitment, that they did rule by abstract principle and absolute law. We believed there was, precisely, a 'brooding omnipresence in the skies,' a natural law, ordained in the making of the universe, under which were all men, including kings and judges, and of which Supreme Court Justices were the anointed oracles. It is too bad that the Warren court, which has consulted some of the American studies of the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, seems to have overlooked his emphatic warning that 'undoubtedly the idealist concept of American law as an emanation of "netural law" is a force which strengthens the rule of law in America...'
"Because if there really isn't any natural law, if judges are just like other men, if their robe is a conscious fraud, if they rule by emotive experience and only invoke principle after the event to camouflage the lawless way it happened, then many a thoughtful American will begin to notice that these plenipotentiaries whose friends proclaim their emancipation from conceptual restraints are also quite beyond electoral control. To talk of ballot pressure on a quasi-priest in communion with the mind of God had something of the impious about it and only the near-impious ever proposed it. But to be told that the judge is merely a more powerful kind of politician, except that he cannot be reached by electors whose dearest aspirations he may disappoint—why, that is something different.
"So different that the wiser judicial positivists, from Holmes to Learned Hand and Felix Frankfurter, have from the first interpreted positivism not at all as a warrant for Professor Mason's 'unblushing taking sides on burning issues,' but as a peremptory mandate to the exact contrary. Both Hand and Frankfurtur urge in the most anxious and emphatic way that just because judges have no higher law to rely on, just because they are exactly as other men, just because they are out of reach of the electorate, they should not presume upon their privilege. For this privilege, to put it summarily, grows out of assumptions which the positivist judges deny. There is something disquieting, to use no harsher term, about judges who reject the premise while aggrandizing the privilege."
Students at Missouri's Drury College rebelled against a "dress-up" edict for evening meals at the college dining hall.
(Excerpted from a review by C. P. Ives of the book "The Supreme Court from Taft to Warren" by A. T. Mason. The review appeared in the Winter issue of Modern Age.)
Fraternities and sororities at Southwest Missouri State aided the cause by setting up a soup line for Drury students denied admission to the dining hall for lack of coats and ties, hose and heels.
Cummerbund Anyone?
Dressing for dinner, commented Drury's president, is "part of our educational plan to teach something about the social amenities."
I disapprove of the lecture system on either side of the Atlantic. If what is said is worth saying it's in a book, and if it isn't in a book either it isn't worth saying or it's about to be published in a book. The printed page is less obtrusive than the professional personality.—Harold Fitzgibbons and Anthony D. Loehnis
Worth Repeating
Perfection of means and confusion of aims is a characteristic of our time.—Albert Einstein
Nixon is a well-mended political wind sock.—Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California
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Intelligence is not an emotional problem.Dana L. Farnsworth
ADVERTISEMENT
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Almost by definition, a School of Education lacks wealthy alumni. —Francis Keppel
Lewellyn Looks at
You don't think so? Compare the cover with the double spread ad on pages 42-43. Here you will find every breed of sex symbol known to the image makers, but it missed the boat. If the picture doesn't convince you, try the copy for a rather nauseating version of the "you too can be seductive" pitch. Sweetness and Light wins again.
And believe me, this week he looked and looked and looked — and so will you. No "Average KU Male" can still claim the title (trips to Zone A notwithstanding) without giving place of honor among Playmates et al. on the wall to this week's cover girl. Her name is Yvette Mimieux, and this, my friends, is pure, unadulterated sex.
And guess what, kiddies. Jack is back. That's right, Kennedy. Although it starts out on page 24 as an account of the stumping and hand pumping of brothers Kennedy and Humphrey, you soon find yourself more involved in the intricacies of "politicking" in Logan County, West Virginia, than in who's winning what in the primary. But it's a worthwhile side trip.
Those of you who "believe in the principles of democracy that made our country great" and other such stuff may have a rude awakening in store for you as the story of the "Lever Brothers" is unfolded. Hardly the type of thing you'll find in a Principles of Government text, it's a real close-up of political machinery, oldstyle. A quick glance at the story and pictures gives one the impression that this may be something the boys at the agency forgot to mention to the candidates as they brushed off their images and sent them wandering through the countryside.
Men of the Aero Hut (relax, Pi Phis spell it arrow) who have Astronaut aspirations will find Part IV of the first-hand reports on Astronaut training a piece of interesting reading. As seems to be customary, we have color shots of water, Astronauts and space capsules, which is about par for the course. Lcdr. Alan Shepard does the tale-telling this week and does it quite well.
And for the botanists—ecstasy! Four, full, fantastic pages of (of this) water lilies—in color, yet. Seriously, they are beautiful. No doubt there will be a rush in Carruth to flood the heads and begin at once to cultivate these captivating beauties. (We're still talking about water lilies, not the cover girl.) If by chance you do have an empty stagnant pool on the premises and have designs on filling it, page 76 carries full instructions for potential pool planters. Buildings and Grounds could have a ball with this sort of thing at Potter Lake.
Last week marked the beginning of a series on high school dropouts. This week, Part II presents "A Hopeful Second Chance." Aside from the fact that this is one of the best picture editorials of the year, the article does a commendable job of presenting Detroit's answer to what has thus far been a much-too-neglected problem. Job Upgrading, the name of the Detroit program, is a challenge to all communities and to the Ed majors wandering out into the cold world. It's a story we tend to ignore merely because we are in college. If you've forgotten how fortunate you are, take a look. It begins on page 102.
Since images seem to be the thing these days, it's not surprising to find that banks are out to create them. But the shape they are taking is surprising. Becoming every day more like big "money super markets," the banks are out to entice the consumer, particularly the woman, to save, borrow, write checks or just come in and powder her nose. Difficult as it may seem, one bank has gone so far as to declare that it desires a "big, friendly, shaggy dog image." Try putting the local bank in a shaggy dog suit and you've got yourself a job. The how's, why's and wherefore's are all found in the article, "Our Flashy, Lovable, Open-Handed Banks."
Speaking of Potter Lake (as we were about 3.1914 paragraphs ago) may I suggest you check page 88 for the latest dredging from our beloved body of water. Sorry, fellas, there aren't enough to go around. Keep this week's cover, and happy hunting.