---
Page 2
J. J. SMITH
University Daily Kansas
Monday. Nov. 23.1959
193
Reclining America
Like a dangerous plague creeping across the continent, public apathy continues to spread. Here and there isolated examples appear. The sickness is too often diagnosed quickly and passed off as not serious.
But like any other contagious disease, apathy will continue to spread until it is too late and the whole of our nation crumbles under the weight of indifference.
A case has appeared here on our campus regarding student government. When an area for improvement is pointed out to students, they say, "so what." The prevailing attitude seems to be that it is all a bunch of Mickey-Mouse politics, and with that the subject is forgotten.
It is forgotten but not gone. The problem still remains. The reason that it remains is obvious—indifference. An exercise in how to apply the principle of self government is wasted. But the real crime is that the indifference doesn't stop here.
Sen. Humphrey comes to our campus and tells the students to stop bellyaching and do something about their government if they are dissatisfied. The students applaud, and the next day forget.
Why does the problem of public apathy towards government exist and what can be done about it? The problem exists because of smugness, because of an insulating layer of fat in the form of a prosperous economy.
It is hard to sympathize with another person's problems when one's belly is full, he has a good home, and it is possible to forget world problems for 16 hours a day.
Perhaps if there were no booming prosperity and the American people were again educated in the values of what food and material comforts mean, they would not pass off so lightly the troubles of the less fortunate.
The obvious answer to the question of how this apathy will be overcome is through necessity. At least it would seem so now.
By necessity we mean that people will come alive to the problems of the world, their nation, and their communities when they are faced by no other course of action but action.
For now it would seem that all we can do is to hope that when the need for action is so pressing the people will awaken, and that it will not be too late when they do.
Chaperoning Virginity?
Ray Miller
In the October issue of Harper's Magazine there is an article discussing a typical midwestern university—the University of Wisconsin.
The article includes a rundown on the housing situation at the university and says:
"Apartment living is new and will increase but the rules are old and outmoded,' an official pointed out.
"In truth they smack unpleasantly of a police state. A male student living in a building into which an unmarried woman moves is required to move out."
While the regulations governing men's housing at KU are not so strict, they are, in some respects, just as senseless.
There is a rule here that a male student shall not allow a woman student to enter his room or apartment. This rule, however, is ignored by the administration. Evidently the administration doesn't feel such a rule is worth enforcing.
Possibly one of the reasons for such a regulation is that the University feels its presence helps assure the parents of the KU woman student that their virginal daughter will not be allowed such a degree of close, unchaperoned contact with the impassioned KU male.
If the University doesn't consider this regulation important enough to be enforced, why isn't it eradicated?
Is this type of protection necessary? It seems that the parents of the KU woman should have enough faith in the judgment of their daughter so as not to worry about what she does. Even if the parents don't have faith, by the time a woman is a freshman she should know what to do and what not to do. If she doesn't, it's about time she learned before she goes out into the world where there are no housemothers to serve as her conscience.
Dick Crocker
AWS Closing Hours
The recent Associated Women Students action to extend closing hours Saturday from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. must be commended. Although relatively small, this is the first significant move by that group in several semesters.
Last year the AWS met to discuss prospective rules changes. Representatives from each women's house convened in a series of meetings Nothing happened. The powers that be favored
the status quo and the short-sighted girls concurred.
Even though the closing hours extension was not a rules change, it is a sign that the girls are coming around to a more healthy attitude concerning campus rules and regulations. We look for a more progressive rules conference in the spring.
—John Husar
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became bieweeky 1904,
trineweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. RepRESENTED by National Advertising Service. 420 Madison Street, NY, United States. International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturday and Sunday, and periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910. at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Jack Harrison ... Managing Editor
Carol Allen, Dick Crocker, Jack Morton and Doug Yocam, Assistant
Managing Editors; Rael Amos, City
Editor; Jim Trotter, Sports Editor;
Carolyn Frailey, Society Editor.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
John Husar .. Co-Editorial Editors
Sandra Hayn, Associate Editorial Editor
George DeBord and
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
Bill Kane ... Business Manager
Ted Tidwell, Advertising Manager;
Joanne Novak, Promotion Manager;
Rhianna Riley, Sales Manager;
Tom Schmitz, Circulation
Manager; John Massa, Classified Ad-
vertising Manager;
"OH HELL BE NO TROUBLE BY THIME WE REACH 'HAR-LOUSE
SLIPPED A COUPLE OF TRANQUILIZERS IN HIS COFFEE."
An Open Letter
(An open letter to a certain member of the political science department:)
We understand you made the following statement to one of your classes recently:
Dear Sir:
"If it's in the Daily Kansan, don't believe it."
We, the editors, hereby offer you the columns of this page to defend your statement, and invite you to name specific instances in which this newspaper has abused the truth.
We put no stock in broad generalizations. We could, if we wished, recall instances in which you and other members of your department have been guilty of too liberal an interpretation of the facts.
However, we do not announce to our assembled readers:
This would be inane.
However, we do not announce to our assembled readers: "If it comes from the political science department, don't believe it."
The invitation stands.
The Editors
From George DeBord
Dear Fred.
In case you're wondering what I'm doing, I've been comparing Max Schulman with H. L. Mencken and find today's college student a Knight astride a lame-legged stallion hobbling toward a rotting inn to rest his brain.
His steel armor takes a heavy toll on stamina, and this fatigue, I suppose, leads to the muddled state of his mind. His wit has all the sharpness of a lecture on thermodynamics, his goals the virtue of a ward politician and his thoughts the clarity of Los Angeles smog.
So there's not too much hope for him as the majority of educators have turned their balding heads to the heavens in search of truth and a better place to land a rocket. The few professors who've kept their eyes fastened to the ground are being labeled as "Hinderances to Progress" and will no doubt be shoved into retirement along with the humanities, man and other things which slow the advance. So, I'll turn my attention to dogs—the last hangers-on for the dignity of man theory.
get sent below, keep a sharp Veblen. He's probably in charge of puppy eradication or some such department although he holds a degree in economics and may have a hand in admissions—if the fee is worthy. He used to write about the Leisure Class you were so fond of and hated dogs like a kid hates bathwater.
By the way, if you don't get your wings and should happen to
get sent below, keep a sharp look out for a character named
We got a new pup at the office the other day and in anticipation of some protest by the administration, I set about to prepare a defense for his presence. After consulting several University regulations and pamphlets on animal husbandry, I came across this
book by the afore-mentioned Veblen. Noting a passage on the place of dogs in society. I took a few notes which I pass along to you:
"The dog has advantages in the way of uselessness as well as in special gifts of temperament. He is often spoken of, in an eminent sense, as the friend of man, and his intelligence and fidelity are praised.
"The meaning of this is that the dog is man's servant and that he has the gift of an unquestioning subservience and a slave's quickness in guessing his master's mood. ...
"He is the filthiest of the domestic animals in his person and the nastiest in his habits. For this he makes up in a servile, fawning attitude towards his master, and a readiness to inflict damage and discomfort on all else.
"The dog, then, commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery, and as he is also an item of expense, and commonly serves no industrial purpose, he holds a well-assured place in men's regard as a thing of good repute."
The notes aren't much help in my project, but having once taken biology, I'm a firm believer in the systematizing of knowledge and will file them in my ever-growing "Hogwash" folder.
You were many of the things Veblen said you were—probably all of them. But that's not what counts, because I never cared what tricks you employed to make me keep you in charge of table scraps. I liked having you around and that was enough.
It's the same with any friend: What he is doesn't matter if he's willing to give you the best that is in him.
But this idea seems to be going the way of the humanities instructors, and probably will be packed aboard one of the moon shots in the near future.
Watch for it if it comes your way.
I can't seem to stomach a guy that doesn't like dogs. Or one that puts progress ahead of people. But I don't suppose you meet any of them where you are.
Keep your nose cold,
George