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University Daily Kansan Monday, Nov. 30, 1959
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Personalities and Issues
Judging from Sen. Hubert Humphrey's speech here and Sen. John Kennedy's recent talk in Kansas City, the next presidential election will be decided on issues rather than on personalities.
Nothing could be healthier for politics and the country.
The Democrats have taken the initiative and are hitting hard. It will be impossible for the Republicans to avoid the issues of this election as they have done since 1948. They will not be able to sell a personality on his public appeal.
From the Kennedy and Humphrey speeches, one can almost draw the Democratic platform. Better long-range planning by the executive and legislative departments,the beneficial use of agricultural surpluses,more federal aid to education,and a more active foreign policy will be primary planks.
There will be more in the platform, but the two presidential aspirants clearly stated that these stands will be fundamental to their campaigns.
Rather, they will be forced to take an equally firm stand on the problems facing America. Then, the election will come into proper focus: It will not be a case of "May the best man win." The theory will be, "May the best ideas win."
The issues the Democrats are pressing are not new. But they have become accepted by a public, once apathetic, that now realizes their critical nature.
Kennedy said little of civil rights, but Humphrey made it clear that he will press the issue in the affirmative. From these indications, the Democrats will have to make a decision. They will have to soft-pedal the issue or follow Humphrey's method of "counting."
They will have to defend the Eisenhower administration and take issue with Democratic stands right down the line. This is the way elections are to be decided under the American system. This is the way it should be.
Also from the speeches comes evidence of what was a foregone conclusion: The Democratic campaign will center on weaknesses in the Eisenhower administration:
Kennedy: "The present Republican occupancy in the White House has been a period of indecision and doubt."
Humphrey: "The present administration is thinking in terms of the budget rather than in human terms."
Regardless of who is nominated by either party, the nation can only benefit from the upcoming struggle for the presidency. For the people have come to realize that it is not the man, but what he stands for, that is important.
The Republicans will have to answer to these charges, and it is evident that they can't do it with a personality.
—George DeBord
A Visitor's View
By Peter Posch and Walter Meuse
These lines are thought of as a weekly present coming to you from KU foreign students. As a present they should make you smile, and perhaps make you think of some nasty or profound remarks.
Learn to smile about yourself. It promotes "human understanding." Every week this present will be gathered, wrapped in foreign English and carried to the Daily Kansan. Here it is for this week:
There is a difference between conformity here and in Russia. In Mr. Khrushchev's country you don't have to pay for it.
America is where the girl expects the first kiss the second time you take her out.
America is where generosity and hospitality give the critical European a feeling of shame and affection.
America is where students have to read too much to be able to think about it.
America is where the sight of the Homecoming decorations are funnier after the game than they were before. They sort of reminded one of the American rockets that were not shot at the moon. Some talk about winning—others do.
America is where student advisers are abundant. Why not establish a special adviser to advise the advisers on the advice needed from the advisers. (In the meantime we found out that such a person actually exists.)
Robert Cobb, assistant professor of English, on universities: "The only difference between a university and an asylum, is that in the latter, you have to improve to get out."
Robert Frost on education: "Hanging on till you catch on."
Letters to the Editor...
Liberal Politician
Editor:
Editor.
I want to congratulate George DeBord on his editorial on Senator Humphrey's speech. It was a fine speech and DeBord did a good job of appraising it.
We need more leaders like Humphrey—who are willing to look to the heart of current issues and who aren't afraid to stand up for what they believe to be right.
Instead of telling a lot of jokes to evade pertinent issues, Humphrey spoke directly to the collegiate audience on current problems for which he offered sound solutions. Humphrey wisely urged that we "plan ahead" for effective domestic and foreign policies.
He pointed out that peace is active rather than passive, and that we need to help solve the economic problems of hunger, poverty, and illiteracy in foreign countries to promote peace, rather than sending these countries arms and adding to our own military supplies.
Humphrey urged that if we think politics are crooked, we should enter the field of politics to clean it up. He issued a challenge to each of us to take an active part in government.
We need intelligent and conscientious leaders in our nation, rather than popularity figures.
We do not need more politicians who are wishy-washy and who carefully evade the real issues. We do not need conservatives who are afraid to find fault with anything or to take an open stand for fear of losing votes.
We do need liberals who are willing to speak up and work for the improvement of our nation. We need more individuals like Humphrey.
Judy Weatherby
Lawrence junior
* * *
Too Busy 'Thinking'
Editor:
The idea of having student governments sounds good in principle. It's supposed to train us in citizenship. But it has an inherent and fatal weakness in that there is little or no governing needed. What
In your November 19th editorial you complain about the lack of interest students exhibit concerning student government. May I suggest an explanation: Students are not interested in student government because it is itself uninteresting; it is trite; it is a farce. Why?
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
FLOSSY CALLED OFF THEIR MARRIAGE AND WRECKED HIS ENTIRE FUTURE—SHE WAS GOING TO GET A JOB AN PAY FOR HIS NEXT 3 YEARS OF COLLEGE!!
pressing problems have so far this semester confronted the student government at K.U?. Whether or not to have Homecoming decorations? School spirit? The discipline issue? These, I maintain, are rather minor issues in the Atomic Age.
If such questions as these were to stir the student body to mass
demonstrations in the streets of Lawrence, I would conclude that the students' sense of values was sadly distorted.
One issue on this campus — a really important issue — was touched on by Sen. Humphrey in his speech Thursday. He asked, "Where are we going?" This is a question which has had to be answered by every individual ever born, and every nation ever formed. But it is not a public issue nor a campus affair. It is personal and private. Therefore it cannot be solved in a debate at the Tuesday evening meeting of the All Student Council; it is analyzed and answered in the private thoughts of each student's mind.
The privacy of this issue is characteristic of all the important issues confronting a student during college. Can you blame us if we lack interest in a student government whose only purpose for existence is to debate the question of the lack of interest in student government?!
So don't call us apathetic just because we don't make any noise. Give us some peace and quiet . . . we're busy thinking . . . about the really important issues of this campus.
John Swogger Toneka senior
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Yea, Maverick
Prior to reading Mr. S. T. Guy's letter concerning his "TV Pain." I had thought that the new Templin Hall had very little in common with the old one which I inhabited in my undergraduate days. Indeed the new Templin is different, since
it has several TV sets. However, the undergraduate attitude toward culture seems neither to have changed nor to have become highbrow, as some recent Daily Kansan editorials might lead one to think.
editorials might lead one to think.
There was a time when old Templin did not have a TV set or a console radio. Miller Hall did have a console radio, and my roommate and I had a third music-loving friend who lived at Miller. The three of us gathered by the console for each Saturday afternoon broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera. Since we were not required to listen and we were not music majors, our fellow dorm dwellers regarded us askance. We silently but emphatically shounced away intruders, although we would have welcomed sympathetic listeners. However, our actions never aroused enough interest in any of the other girls for them to find out what program was "that good." I suppose that none of them were opera starred, as we were. Perhaps none of them later lived in and visited New York as we did. Therefore they would not understand how much the background so easily picked up during these winter afternoons came to mean to us on our numerous subsequent visits to the Met.
Keep watching the classics, maverick
Martha Ann Mueller
Lawrence graduate student
Muddy Husar?
Dear Editor:
I admire Mr. John Husar. I admire the way, day after day, issue after issue, he absorbs haymakers thrown by outraged readers and yet keeps coming back for more. I wish I had his courage, his determination, his patience.
I wish I could also admire his journalism. In one of his recent efforts (UDK, 11 18/59) he bestowed a well deserved accolade on Professor Russell L. Wiley. Yet at almost the same moment that he was complimenting one man, Mr. Husar was taking a gratuitous swipe at some five or six or seven thousand other persons—maybe more—on the KU campus. That's pretty large scale swiping. Here is what Mr. Husar wrote;
"The least we can say about him (Professor Wiley) today is that he has always done his best for the University, which is much more than can be hoped for from the majority of KU residents."
"Hoped for—not just "said for," but "hoped for." And not just professors, not just freshmen, not just fraternities, not just student politicians or the people who don't vote for them—but "the majority of KU residents." Oh yes, we can all claim we're members of the select minority Mr. Husar exempted, undemocratic as that may be. But
we're still up against that "hoped for," no matter how we squirm.
It would be a shame to think Mr. Husar had turned cynical at so early an age. A young cynic is an anomaly, like a young conservative. If you must, turn cynical, turn conservative, even turn reactionary—later, when you feel life has passed you by and the world is going to the dogs. But please, Mr. Husar, not so soon.
Or could it be that Mr. Husar just didn't say what he wanted to say—that he really isn't a cynic after all, that there is hope for the rest of us, or at least some of the rest of us, even if we're not doing our real best right at the moment? Well, if it's this and not cynicism that Mr. Husar suffers from, perhaps he'll let me quote him a few lines from a well known but not often enough heeded manual for writers. If Mr. Husar doesn't own it, I recommend it to him highly. The late Professor William Strunk, Jr., wrote them a few years back:
"Although there is no substitute
"Although there is no substitute closest to being one . . . Clarity, clarity, clarity . . . Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded roadsign. heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter. Think of the tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair."
Arnold H. Weiss
Assistant professor of
Romance languages
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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- Editorial Editor
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