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University Daily Kansan Friday, November 6.1950
TV Hoax
The television disgrace has pierced the flimsy armor that long has sheltered Our Way of Life.
Americans are bewildered.
We have been exposed to the world as gullible victims of a fantastic hoax. It was put over on us for years and if anyone suspected the deceit, he failed to cry out.
The world will wonder at our soundness. How could the people of a great nation be duped by a small handful of unscrupulous men? The answer is clear.
Centralized mass communications media, and
The hoax was made possible by:
A willingness on the part of the public to believe in a fraud because truth has given way to apathy.
The hoax points to a lack of moral responsibility that characterizes our way of life.
It exposes a decadent nation of false values— a nation in which the people have substituted
apathy for action, materialism for ideals, and conformity for living.
We will be vulnerable to the future designs of liars, cheats and petty dictators until the day we snap out of our complacency and earn our freedom.
We must:
- Control mass communications by frequent exercise of public opinion.
- take part in all forms of government by controlling our representatives through letters.
- Regain the desire to live life instead of letting others do it for us.
There is yet time to preserve our fundamental concepts of liberty, equality and justice—to prevent a larger, a fatal, hoax from crushing our heritage.
We are no longer the unchallengable, but there is strength in us.
We must earn back our power by action alone.
St. Benedict's Asks
Do They Really Know America?
A foreign student came onto a campus . . .
and there he stayed. Not much else can be said
about it.
Of course it was a tremendous experience for him. He ate hot dogs and went to ball games and dances and even occasionally he would give a talk to the local Rotary Club or Old Women's Sewing Circle . . . but more and more he got the impression that Americans — and particularly American students — didn't care about the rest of the world or what was happening in it.
Little by little he gathered proof (like the sweet young lady—a junior—who, upon hearing that he was from Sudan, asked him if he had driven all the way to school this year. Or the kindly fellow on the basketball team who exclaimed: "Ah yes, Sudan . . . how is that part of England nowadays,") and finally he came to the conclusion that Americans really are the 'ivory tower' people of whom he had heard.
At the end of the year he went home.
A few years later he became an official in his government and was confronted by an American ambassador straight out of "The Ugly American," (he read that book in the U.S., but he noticed that other students didn't, nor did they discuss its implications) who tried—in his way—to convince him that Americans do care and that's why such-and-such a program should be tried.
But he didn't buy that line. He knew. He had spent a year on an American campus.
The story mentioned here didn't have to end that way . . . after all, there are international relations clubs which might take up this slack in basic American diplomacy—with beneficial results for both the American students and the foreign guests on campus.
The story did end that way on some campus somewhere in the United States. The campus might have been ours. Was it?
St. Benedict's College Rambler
—Stephen A. Lucas
Editor:
Ise 'Immortalized'
Editor:
A "poem," dedicated to Prof.
John Ise:
There is a professor called Ise,
Whose dreams of Utopia are nice.
He expounds with his theory,
that capitalism is dreary,
and socialism all sugar and spice
It's high time we all joined in a chorus.
Though dear John will likely abor us.
To proclaim loud and clear,
"Utopo is HERE--come down to
dear John and enjoy it!"
Assistant professor of journalism
Advertising Discourse
Admittedly the writers of this letter fully recognize the wisdom and stature of Professor Emeritus John Ise as one of the foremost economists of our day. It is, however, our sincere belief that Prof. Ise has, as quoted by the Daily Kansan, expressed certain sentiments with which we cannot be even partially in agreement.
We favor the school of thought that advertising serves a basic function in today's marketing and distribution processes. While we don't for a minute pretend to be as glib or adroit as the professor at definition-twisting, we will strive as well as "hucksters" can to answer the charge leveled at our chosen profession.
Editor:
Our first point of contention is with the fact that we regard America, not only as a place to live, but also, a place which will continue to progress economically, socially and culturally through the demands of a population which is
aware of the advantages and potentialities existing for it. We contend that advertising is the means to inform our fellow man of those benefits which can accrue to him by the utilization of the available potentialities within his grasp.
Contrary to Prof. Ise's insipid implication, advertising organizations reap no remuneration from loan companies, mortgage holders or credit extenders. To go further, according to the economic texts of the day, we find the American worker with less drudgery in life
And why is he in such a better condition? Because he knows he has a choice, a choice to do as he wishes—from buying a new or old home to brushing his teeth with salt or with an improved, better and more pleasant toothpaste.
and more return for his endeavors than ever before in the history of this country—or any other country for that matter.
Yes, people have wants. Why shouldn't they? If they did not have wants, there would be no market for the products of American industry. The American worker would then find himself in the same position as the Chinese artisan who labors to produce an article only to find that there is no
one who wants it. And the Chinese must settle for 12 cents a day for his troubles.
If that were the case in this country, the American worker would soon lose interest in production. And then where would America be as the world's leading producer?
-Tenv Morrow
Kansas City, Mo., senior
Kansas City, Mo., senior —Tom Schmitz
Editorial Photo
Dailu fansan UNI PRITT
Founded 1889, became bireweek 1904,
triviewed 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
University of Kansas student newsnaner
Telephone Vikling 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 Ave., New York, N.Y. Postmaster. National. 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 nominee for office 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Jack Harrison ... Managing Editor
Carol Alien, Dick Crocker, Jack Morton and Doug Yocom, Assistant Managing Editors; Rael Amos, City Editor; Jim Trotter, Sports Editor;
Carolyn Fraalley, Society Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
John Husar
Sandra Hayn, Associate Editorial Ed-
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Kane ... Business Manager
Ted Tidwell, Advertising Manager;
Joanne Novak, Promotion Manager;
Ruth Nieder, National Advertising Manager
John Massa, Classification Manager; John Smitza, Classified Advertising Manager.
THE NEXT HOAX?
(See related editorial.)
By Janet Juneau
If you think your campus newspaper is lousy . . .
If you complain about editorials, news stories, cartoons, letters to the editor, sports pages, society pages, pictures . . .
If you read the campus newspaper every day avidly . . .
If you are disappointed if you miss a day in your read
If you read the campus newspaper every day avidly . . .
If you think that the journalism school has only pqourses . . .
If you forget that the campus newspaper is put out by amateurs who are striving for the best . . .
If a member of your living group is assigned the duty of picking up the campus newspaper daily . . .
If you gripe because the item you turned in concerning the Horse Club meeting was not published that same day . . .
If you write letters to the editor to see your name in print as a non-conformist . . .
F
If you answer "yes," you're a University Daily Kansan fan —whether you admit it or not.
If you think that editorial editors never know what they're talking about . . .
The charm of indolence creeps over the mind, and we end by loving the inaction which at first we detested.—Tacitus, describing life in Rome under Domitian.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"I BELIEVE IN BEING FAIR WITH MY STUDENTS—I GIVE A LOT OF TESTS IN THE BEGINNING IN ORDER TO GIVE THEM PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY TO DROP MY COURSE."