Daily hansan
57th Year, No. 51
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Thursday, Dec. 3, 1959
SOCIALIST VISITOR—Scott Nearing, an independent socialist who recently returned from Communist China, spoke last night at an international committee forum sponsored by the KU-Y.
Soviet Students Termed 'Basically Different'
Russian students resemble KU students in many respects—they like to sit around a campfire and joke and dance and sing—but basically they are different.
This is the contention of Robert A. Nebrig, Jr., Leavenworth junior, who spent three weeks with 400 young Russians in a sports camp last summer.
Nebrig spoke at the faculty forum luncheon yesterday in the Kansas Union.
Different Education
He attributed the difference between Russian and American students to the difference between the education and youth groups of the two countries.
"It is different from the very beginning." Nebrig said.
"Russian children in kindergarten are aged three to seven. Every four months they leave home to live in a Children's Garden for a month."
Nebrig said officials told the visiting students that the garden was designed to promote health among the children. But a nurse said it was intended to create a new socialist group.
Nebrig said the Russian students enter their middle schooling comparable to U.S. grade school, junior and senior high schools—at the age of seven, where they begin to study mathematics and science.
During the middle schooling, Nebrig said, students are encouraged to live away from home at a boarding school for six days a week.
"Students in this age group belong to the Pioneers—an organization which provides entertainment, nature lore, summer camps, sports and trips," Nebrig said. He continued:
The students are taught that (Continued on Page 12)
(Continued on Page 12)
Socialist Calls American Stand on China 'Absurd'
An independent socialist who returned from Communist China less than a year ago said yesterday the United States is being "laughed at and ridiculed by all nations for its absurd stand of non-recognition of Communist China."
Scott Nearing, an economist and political scientist, said that the mainland of China is the cleanest and most cheerful Asiatic nation. Mr Nearing ran for the U.S. Senate on the Socialist ticket in 1919, but was defeated. He has been a professor at several universities.
He said the Chinese have made greater gains agriculturally than India has during the same period of time. He spoke before an informal group of students and faculty at Summerfield Hall.
Comparison Not Realistic "To compare China and India is not entirely realistic," Nearing said
"But the programs the Chinese have initiated in their two-five-year plans and the results they have obtained make India's accomplishments minor," he said.
Mr. Nearing and his wife explained that their trip to Communist China was strictly against State Department regulations. Mr. Nearing said:
"We feel we are scientists, and that our responsibility to find out what is happening in China comes before our obligation to the State Department.
Passports Taken Away
"When we returned from China.
Damage Is Slight In Strong Hall Fire
Students wrinkled their noses this morning at the acrid taint of smoke still clinging to Strong Hall after last night's fire.
Smoke had billowed up the old elevator shaft, next to the north basement entrance, and poured into the auditorium. Firemen used air packs for breathing as they extinguished the flames at the base of the elevator.
Firemen found the flames had originated next to the heavy wooden door opening on the shaft from the sub-basement.
the State Department officials took our passports away from us. We can't leave the country without facing two years imprisonment and a large fine."
Cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Damage was slight.
Mr. Nearing held several positions as a professor and instructor at various universities, including Pennsylvania, Swarthmore, and Toledo, before the United States entered World War I.
He wrote in 1917 a pamphlet explaining the causes of the war as
Nearing Sees Suicide of West
Scott Nearing last night said western civilization is committing collective suicide.
He told the KU-Y International Commission:
Mr. Nearing said as the western pattern of society destroys itself, collective socialism will employ, not destruction like the United States, but elaborate production.
"The crippling competition of the last forty years will eventually destroy western civilization."
"We are suffering from potential starvation and possible death even though we are living in a period of abundance."
He said western civilization would decline eventually because of the western idea of democracy.
"I am convinced that the pattern which we call the American way of life is unadaptable to the forms of technology which have developed during the last 40 years."
Culture Will Survive in East
Mr. Nearing said:
He said if culture patterns are to survive it will be in the "new world of the cast, not the old world of the west."
He said:
"The new social order (Communism) which is growing rapidly in Europe and Asia has advanced to a point where nothing short of a nuclear war will stop its growth. During the decades ahead the pattern will explosively expand across the world."
being commercial. He was indicted, tried and acquitted for treason under an espionage act. But he lost his accreditation as an instructor and has not held such a position at a university since 1918.
Given Wrong View
Mr. Nearing said contemporary articles have given the people of the United States the wrong impression of the commune system in China. He said:
"The communes will not separate families when they reach their state of completion. The reports that people are living in barracks is only partially true. It is an interim move until permanent housing is completed. It is impossible to criticize the communes yet since they have been in operation for only one year. The writers who criticize communes have scanty information."
Attitude Harmonius
Mr. Nearing said from his impressions on his tour that the attitude of the Chinese people is one of near harmony with the government. He laughed at any attempts Chiang Kai-Shek might make to cause a revolution on the mainland. He said:
"Conditions are vastly improved over the period when Chiang was in control. His army on Taiwan is aging. One-third of it is of the native island population, which has no desire to go to the mainland. And the rest of Chiang's men once fled the Communists and want to go back, but not under Chiang.
Becoming Independent
"The Chinese government is becoming more independent of the Soviet Union as the nation develops. During the first five-year plan, the Russians played a prominent part. Their influence decreased greatly during the last five years and will decrease even more in future development."
He said the Tibet incident was natural because the Chinese have traditionally claimed Tibet as part of their territory.
"It is simply the breaking down of the feudal system that has dominated the country for so long," he commented.
"They are just installing the communistic system of government. Mongolia is a similar example of a part of China that has not broken with the feudal type of rule yet."
End of a System
Temptresses Seduce Students
By Ray Miller
On the KU campus are 130 sleek, chrome temptresses which are seducing $80,000 in nickels, dimes and quarters from the pockets of students.
The annual budget report for KU, which includes figures for the union, a non-profit corporation, shows that the concessions division in general grossed $240,447.52 for the year ending June 30, 1959. The net income after costs was approximately $17,400.
This figure represents the gross take for $52,000 worth of vending machines owned and operated by the concessions division of the Kansas Union.
"About a third of the profit, or around $5,400, came from the vending machines. The bulk of the remaining profit came from the athletic concessions (food sold during games) and the concession stand in
Kevin A. Remick, concessions manager, said today:
Fair and warmer tonight. Partly cloudy west tonight and over state tomorrow. Turning moderately colder tomorrow. Low tonight 30 to 40.
Weather
the lobby (of the union)."
Mr. Remick explained that each of the student employees is assigned to service a certain number of machines.
Mr. Remick said the profit is put into a general operating fund for the union.
"We have six students and two full-time employees servicing the machines. The students get a certain percentage of each item sold and average about $90-$100 a month.
Mr. Remick said that the "take" for each machine varies from building to building and that sales vary from day to day.
"Any week following a vacation shows a decided decline in sales generally. I guess the students get full-up on food when they are home
An interesting side light to sales is that the rate of coin seduction seems to rise during a period of economic decline in the nation.
"Economy varies sales. We saw a big increase in the sales during the recent recession in 1957. I guess students were supplementing hot lunches with candy and coke," Mr. Remick said.
Mr. Remick said that the temperamental temptresses "cheat" their clients out of about 1 per cent of the total number, of transactions.
"We average about 10 rebates (money paid back to students for machine malfunctions) per machine per month.
"The biggest trouble we have, however, is that people don't seem to know how to work the machines. They put their money in and then step back and look at the machine as if to say 'the next step is up to you.' You have to push a button or pull a knob," he said.
Like women, some types of machines are more temperamental than others. Mr. Remick has found that the mechanical machines are much superior to the electric machines.
"You have to be an electrical engineer to service and maintain an electric machine," Mr. Remick said jokingly.
Birth Control Topic Of Forum Tomorrow
"Implications of Birth Control" is the topic to be discussed at the Current Events Forum at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the Kansas Union Music and Browsing Room.
John Grumm assistant professor of political science and Ray Cuzzort, assistant professor of sociology will lead the discussion.
ANOTHER DIME DOWN THE SLOT—Coffee bars are included in the vending machines which seduce nickels, dimes, and quarters from KU students.