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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 19, 1960
The Isolationists
Today's Letters to the Editor column has been blessed with correspondence from a well-meaning gent who is playing critic to the culture of this great state of Kansas. The White Prince, as he calls himself, fills his cheek with tongue and proceeds to toss out a few generalities in which he concludes we Kansans are definitely backward, quite homepun and not totally literate.
Unfortunately, this White Prince character is never going to obtain much of a following if he continues to write in such non-specifics. If the guy wanted to make a more valid point he should have said that KU students can well be compared to ostriches. Neither species has much interest in the world around them.
TAKE OUR STUDENT COUNCIL for instance. While other student councils across the nation have been passing resolutions opposing such abstract problems as racial segregation in the southern United States and South Africa, loyalty oaths, H-bomb testing, capital punishment plus a few more issues of national importance, our ASC is content to debate items concerning KU and only good ole KU.
A couple of months ago ASC members could have passed a resolution either opposing or backing the loyalty oath. What happened? Not a word from the Voice of the Students. They were preoccupied with discussing where campaign posters should be placed.
DISREGARDING THE POSSIBILITY of the ASC favoring white supremacy, they could be making some noise about Negro sit-down strikes, apartheid or limited nuclear testing.
The student councils of Louisiana State University, Loyola University of the South, Chicago University, the University of Minnesota as well as other colleges scattered across the nation have passed resolutions opposing or backing the Loyalty Oath, Negro segregation or nuclear testing.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA and the University of Indiana have recently had student-organized marches protesting the South African apartheid policies. We realize it is difficult to compare these radical free-thinking schools with KU. Indiana has elected a Negro student body president. Can you imagine any sensible rational-thinking school doing that! They should be investigated for un-American activities. After all, it is contrary to our white Anglo-Saxon tradition.
We would propose similar protest marches to be made here by our students if we hadn't decided long ago that complacency has infected too many of our companions. Keep the animals in beer and booze — but don't trouble them with complicated problems seems to be a good rule to follow.
THE ASC IS THEORETICALLY COMPOSED of well-qualified students who have an interest in running our affairs. Their resolutions would be welcome.
The protests probably would not change any policies south of the Mason-Dixon or in South Africa. But the publicity given resolutions is a reminder of the opposition facing those working for segregation as well as recognition of those striving for equal rights and opportunity.
— Doug Yocom
Foreign Students Threaten ASC With Court Action
Editor:
As you are aware, the foreign student representative on the ASC has been trying for some time to rectify the anomalous nature of his position, caused by the failure of the Elections Committee of the ASC to carry out its constitutional duties as defined by ASC Bill No. 2, Section I which states: "it shall be the duty of the Elections Committee of the ASC to supervise the freshman and general elections and the election of the foreign student representative."
The ASC has never defined who is entitled to vote in this election—which invariably is highly irregular, and two or three months late—nor has it decided whether it should take place in the spring or autumn general elections.
When the foreign student representative proposed that the foreign students should only vote in their
The only occasions on which the ASC ever recovers from its well-known lethargy and anpathy are when it smells an opportunity to deprive the independents of their influence on the Council; the foreign student representative is invariably an independent.
The ruling depriving the foreign student representative of his vote was based on the argument that otherwise the foreign students would vote twice in the election something which would be impossible if the Elections Committee were carrying out their duties instead of neglecting them.
The International Club has supervised this election in recent years — at the request of the ASC. It wishes, however, to give advance notification that it will not do so in the future. Firstly, because this is clearly absolutely unconstitutional. Secondly, on account of a recent ruling of the ASC that the foreign student representative is incapable of casting a vote at the ASC, a ruling in our opinion entirely contrary to the intention of the constitution, which classified him with the other representatives (and also contrary to previous practice at the ASC which gave the foreign student representative a vote). We do not wish to give an appearance of consent to this as we do not want to be a party to robbing the foreign students of their rights on the Council.
own elections, the President-elect asked: "if we give this privilege to you, will not the Negroes ask for it next?" This remark was so confused and prejudiced that we prefer not to comment on it.
This election of a foreign student representative is already overdue.
Moreover, if the ASC does not soon provide for the election of a full representative for the foreign students as required by its constitution, the International Club Committee will take the matter before the student court.
Ernesto M. Vergara, president,
International Club
Arve Johnson, discussion coordi- nator
nator
nator
Lea Gotlib, secretary
Sheila Lemon, vice president
Denis Kennedy, liaison officer and
former foreign student representative to ASC
ASC Criticized Again
Editor
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Congratulations to our reactionary ASC! Now they have destroyed twelve years of cooperation with the KU debate squad. Mr. Vondraeck apparently believes that the ASC has been acting unconstitutionally for twelve years and that his council, by tightly limiting their interpretation of their own constitution, are doing something for the school. Not surprisingly, the finance committee had to twist the significance of the debate squad to do this. They decided it could be classified as "public relations and education." God help Daniel and Noah Webster! After the ASC cuts off the rest of the organizations they are pledged to support, they should have a bigger budget surplus than the state of Kansas.
Charles David Nicol
Blue Springs, Mo., soph
* * *
K-State Has Work to Do
Editor:
Regarding the editorial in the UDK on Tuesday, April 12, reprinted from the Kansas State University Collegian:
I stand in complete agreement with the editorial as printed. Surely no one really believes that the mere utilization of the answers suggested could accomplish the enormous task of transforming Kansas State "University" into a "quality" institution.
Alan Coombs Arlington, Va., senior
Editor:
Backward Kansans
While it is true, Kansans are having some difficulty in mastering the English language, I am certain that within a few short centuries they will make a dramatic breakthrough, and, who knows, may emerge totally literate. Naturally the utmost in patience and understanding is necessary because any austere ability could be easily misinterpreted by these simple, but well-meaning little folk.
Everyone is surely aware of the vast cultural differences in the many, many regions of this country. Therefore, we may safely assume that each individual personality may be properly categorized in one or the other of two primary descriptive spheres. Unfortunately, I find through careful observation that the people of Kansas seem to be shackled inherently to the most loathsome of my two great divisions. Loathsome, by the very nature of their wretchedly nondescript existence. I liken my presence here to that of a missionary on an errand of mercy in the wilderness of Tanganyika.
Perhaps the most intriguing feature of a Kansan is watching them as they partake of their delightful home spun recreations. Personally I cannot think of a more enjoyable way to spend an evening than observing a typical young couple — call them Zeke and Emma — really tearing it up at a local hoedown, or better yet, a watermelon feed! By cracky, none of these new-fangled wingdings for Kansans. They don't cotton to such things.
Despite their many quaint, and often imbecile characteristics, I believe that salvation is still quite feasible. All they need is a closer contact with civilization. Oh, they have a rough-hewn version of it here; but somehow in these last outposts, the refinements of life seem to have been enveloped by a herd of transient buffalo, and whipped away for all eternity. With the proper tutelage of a suave, aristocratic, gregarious, and metropolitan personality, like me, you shall cast your mold in a different die and henceforth live happily ever-after.
Pax Vobiscum.
The White Prince
From the Magazine Rack
Israel's New Bridges
"Some time ago, in New York, I heard Henry Steele Commager say that the role Israel is now playing is forging links between the non-Communist nations of Asia and Africa and the West is of far more importance and interest to the historian than anything the Zionists have to say about themselves, their ideology or their work in the past...
"I did not realize the extent to which his comment was true until I arrived in Israel. After an absence of more than two years, I discovered a number of developments which have great potentialities, though they are not free of possible pitfalls.
"Israel has successfully vaulted the barrier of hatred erected by the surrounding Arab countries and established contact with the new African and Asian nations. Today, the entire world recognizes Israel's role as the transmitter of Western science and Western democratic institutions to them. They trust Israel far more than they would trust the West, and in Israel they find much to emulate...
"Afro-Asian leaders on all levels come to Israel to learn how to 'make the desert bloom,' how to fight malaria and soil erosion, how to organize and run clinics, and most of all how to use communal and semi-communal settlements. The socialist and cooperative trends appeal to Afro-Asians more than the individual enterprise of America...
"The scientists of the world, Eban told me, are keenly aware of the danger facing Africa from soil exhaustion. 'We, in Israel,' he said, 'have had experience with that problem since the beginning of modern Jewish colonization in Palestine 80 years ago. By now we have almost solved the problem. At any rate, we now have a surplus of trained and experienced agriculturists who could be of use to the new nations of Africa and Asia...'
"I am inclined to think this is sound statesmanship, though there are people who are concerned lest it be complacency: the complacency of a new nation attempting to bring together two worlds, the complacency which arises from youth and a good number of accomplishments. And Israel has had both experience and success with many of the problems confronting the new nations: soil conservation, land reclamation, reforestation, water control, malaria, as well as the social and cultural adaptation of new populations. This, plus Israeli emphasis on socialism and cooperation, makes the country an increasingly important link to the new nations."
(Excerpted from "Israel: Afro-Asian Bridge" by M. Z. Frank in The New Leader, March 7, 1960)
UNIT DEPTT
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Vlking 3-2700
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Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the university year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
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LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler