Page 3
. Books in Review
By Calder M. Pickett Associate Professor of Journalism
We read A. J. Cronin, I suppose, for the same reasons that we read Nevil Shute. He tells a good story, often with feeling and sympathy. He writes calmly and dispassionately. He describes Britain and the English countryside. All of these have their appeal.
THE NORTHERN LIGHT, by A. J. Cronin. Bantam, 50 cents.
In "The Northern Light," now available in paperback, Cronin tells a story that is not too different from our rather numerous exposes of expose magazines. The Northern Light is a provincial newspaper, dating back to even before the Napoleonic wars, edited by one family for generations. Suddenly it faces strange and unexpected competition: a London tabloid publisher, wanting to capitalize on a contemplated military installation, buys a dying paper in a nearby community and applies sensational techniques in an attempt to kill off the Northern Light.
The plan fails, for the people of the community (rather surprisingly) rally round the banner of the Northern Light. Then the bright young men who publish the competing sheet learn that the daughter-in-law of the publisher of the Light once had been charged and convicted of abortion. How the problem is resolved provides, of course, the climax of the novel.
Pretty thin stuff, probably. And almost devoid of style. But for some of us A. J. Cronin is making some good points about journalism. What does the public have a right to know, for instance. It is what the public has a right to know or what an unscrupulous, self-seeking publisher wants the public to know? Is something that happened years before news? How important are values in journalism?
The American press no longer is dominated by the Hearst mentality. But on its fringes, sometimes even on its respectable fringes, we still find publishers, editors, and reporters whose instinct is that of the savage, who shrug their shoulders and mutter about "freedom of the press" and that new shibboleth, "the right to know." What they really mean, sometimes, is their right to publish, make money, and make a great reputation for themselves.
This is what "The Northern Light" is about. Its publisher—here does not feel that a banner screaming sex and sensation is necessary every day. Local government and activities of the flower society are worthy of space, too. Some would say this publisher is an anachronism. Let's hope not. The only journalism in American or English history that is worthy of the name of journalism is that which has been decent, responsible, crusading when there is good cause, providing a full report, refusing to magnify the inconsequential for the sake of a big headline. The philosophical approach of Confidential magazine, it must be remembered, has not been restricted to Confidential and its many scummy imitators.
From the Newsstand
Our Celluloid Envoys
"What the Tower of London is to England in foreign imagination, so is Hollywood to the United States in those parts of the world which do not fly the Stars and Stripes...
"...the face Hollywood gives to America and which glares out on the world is still contorted with the grimaces of a kind of idiot ferocity. Watching those fictional reconstructions of war which show the American soldier as a subnormal sex maniac with little idea of discipline and less of self-respect, those crime stories in which the police are no less brutal and only one degree more moral than the criminals themselves, it seems at times as though the whole thing were some gigantic act of sabotage, a conspiracy backed by foreign influence, to parody rather than to reflect the soul and spirit of the nation...
"Perhaps Hollywood is too absorbed in technical, material proficiency (and here, perhaps, American characteristics are truly reflected) and in the business, as opposed to the aesthetic side, of film-making to find time to express, even subconsciously, the real American fears, hopes and preoccupations...
"English and Continental people are apt to find American diplomacy tinged with self-righteousness and given to moralizing, and here American films which are often shot against European—and Japanese-backgrounds are faithful in reflecting a national characteristic. The American film hero, finding himself in Rome, Paris or Tokyo, acts in precisely the opposite manner to the Henry James character who is formed and conquered by environment and an older civilization than his own. The American film hero may have a good word to say for St. Peter's or Notre Dame, but by and large he remains unaffected by whatever of beauty or culture surrounds him, regarding the natives with some benevolence, convinced that his own country and its ways are best. In that he is, of course, not unlike the Englishman abroad, or, if it comes to that, the inhabitants of most other nations finding themselves in foreign places, and, indeed, the American film hero often represents the generality of mankind at its dullest and stupidest. He never appears to read anything and has no interest whatsoever in anything that concerns the mind. His conceptions are simple and materialistic to an extreme. He is sentimental and incapable of precise thought and logical expression. His ambitions are puerile and his morals a mess, although he gets them sorted out in conventional order in time for the last reel. He is, however, presented and "put over" with astonishing technical skill, skill so unfailing and self-confident that it almost amounts to genius. Perhaps it is genius; it is certainly very American."
(Excerpted from The Times Literary Supplement, Nov. 6, 1959, "Hollywood and the Face.")
Items for the Official Bulletin must be brought to the public relations office, 222 Strong, before 9:30 a.m. on the day of publication. Do not bring Bulletin letter to Daily Kansan. Notices should include name, place, date, and time of function.
Official Bulletin
Spring ASC elections, April 5 and 6 All day in Strong.
The Department of the History of Art presents a new public lecture series, *The British Museum*. Prof. Marilyn Stokstad. Museum of Art Lecture Room. 4:00 p.m. Everyone invited. Coffee served. *The Prayer Flower*. 9:30 p.m. DanFox Chance.
TODAY
TOMORROW
Paul Seaton, Supt. (Kindergarten thru 6th grade) from Antichord District of Merriam, Kansas, will interview in the Teachers Appointment Bureau.
Mr. G. Toll of Security First National Bank of Los Angeles will interview for operations trainees, installment loan trainees, industrial loan trainees, branch loan platform trainees, trust trainees, agricultural loan trainees, and bank investment portfolio trainees in 202 Summerfield.
Mr. H. Collins of the R. T. French Company will interview for careers with the French Company and particularly in the aspects of the business in 202 Summerfield.
Newman Club Daily Mass. 6:30 a.m.
St. John's Church
Episcopal Morning Prayer, 8:45 a.m.
breakfast following. Canterbury House.
Monday, April 4.1960 University Daily Kansan
Fifty Phi Delta Theta men held a "golden spike" driving ceremony Saturday patterned after that of the Union Pacific railroaders in 1869.
Phi Delts Drive Gold Spike After Service Day Project
The fraternity men's service climaxed some six hours work of picking up litter from highways within the Lawrence city limits. The job was the chapter's annual service day project for the community.
Seniors Have Until Tomorrow To Nominate for Hope Award
The "golden spike" for the Phi Delta Theta men was a rusty nail found during the pickup. That "spike" wasn't driven with a sledge hammer into a railroad tie as was the first golden spike of Utah. John (Mike) Allen, Hutchinson senior, chairman of the service project, stopped on the nail with his foot and drove it into the Kansas soil.
The deadline for HOPE nominations has been extended until tomorrow. Seniors from each school should turn in their nominations to either Rick Barnes, senior class president; the alumni office; or the committee representative from their school or college.
Four KU students have been appointed by the Atomic Energy Commission to Nuclear Science and Engineering Fellowships for 1960-61.
Four minutes later hoses were being rolled up and everything was going on just as it had been before.
Milford A. Johnson Jr., Iola senior, an honor student in chemical engineering; Norman D. Shutler, Arkansas City senior, an honor student in petroleum engineering; John M. Walton, Wichita senior, an honor student in chemical engineering, and Harry G. O'Brien, Merriam graduate student, who will earn an M.S. degree in nuclear engineering this summer.
One City of Lawrence truck and 25 men headed west from Sixth and Massachusetts Streets. The men filled the truck with litter picked up from both sides of Sixth St. up
At exactly ten minutes till noon Saturday the first of three fire trucks came to a quick stop in front of Robinson Gymnasium.
The committee representatives are
Each will receive a basic stipend of $1,800 and payment of fees. Those with dependents will receive additional allowances.
Both Johnson and Shutter will study at KU for M.S. degrees in nuclear engineering. Walton will do graduate study at Iowa State University and O'Brien plans to study for a Ph.D. degree at the University of Michigan.
The four are:
KU Students Given Grants
A burned out electric motor in Robinson Gymnasium was the cause of all the excitement.
3 Fire Trucks Take Care of Gym Fire
Marilyn Shaw, Education; Jane Crow, Liberal Arts and Sciences; Robert Iott, Pharmacy; Susan Smith, Fine Arts; Ken Wagann, Business; Jack Harrison, Journalism, and Michael Johnston, Engineering.
In writing his recommendation, the senior should try to relate his comments about the faculty member he has chosen to the following criteria:
1. Willingness to help students.
2. Success in stimulating students or challenging the students toward thinking.
3. Devotion to profession.
4. Contribution to general cultural life of the University.
Publications and creative work will be considered but will not weigh as heavily as the considerations listed.
Playwright Vidal To Run for Congress
POUGHKEEPSI, N. Y.—(UPI)—Playwright Gore Vidal yesterday announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to oppose Rep. J. Ernest Wharton (R-NY) for his seat in congress.
Vidal, grandson of the late Sen. Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma and author of the hit play "Visit to a Small Planet," wrote the political drama "The Best Man," which opened on Broadway last Thursday and received favorable notices.
Fisher's "66" Service 23rd & Louisiana
Hrs. 6-12 VI 3-8474
STOP IN TODAY
to Iowa St. They continued their pickup South on Iowa St.
A second truck and 25 men picked up litter as they headed west on Twenty-third St. from Happy Hal's Restaurant, continuing north when they reached Iowa St.
The "golden spike" driving ceremony took place at about Fifteeenth and Iowa Streets when the two crews met.
John Redick, Bethel junior, said the men picked up seven truck loads full of litter and rubbish. Redick said the worst two findings picked up were a dead dog and a dead skunk. He said:
Last year the men painted the steam engine in Central Park for the fraternity's service project. They cleaned a nursing home at 1406 Tennessee St. two years ago.
The men went on the trucks and in cars beside the trucks to the Lawrence dump to see the pile of all they had collected.
Redick said the Phi Delt's were more enthusiastic about the project than he had expected them to be. He said the men didn't leave the work sites for lunch, but ate sack lunches beside the trucks.
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