Backus Finds Soviets Normal
What most surprises Oswald P. Backus, professor of history, about the Soviet Union is that American scholars have created an artificial image of the Soviet man.
Prof. Backus has returned from a two-year leave of absence. He spent one year in Finland and Russia and the last year at Harvard University studying and writing a draft for a book on theft in Russian law.
Prof. Backus said the books and stories written since World War II give the idea that the Soviet people had been remolded by Communist doctrine.
"Because of this, I expected to find a rather dull type of person," he said. "However, each person is different from another."
Prof. Oswald P. Backus
"The people in the town are better off and the ones in the country worse off than I'd thought," he commented.
"I had assumed from production figures that the population had enough to eat—not lavishly but enough," he said. "The country people have food but look emaciated. The town people on the other hand have extra money and spend it on food, champagne and beer."
He explained that there is a surplus of money in the town because clothes are too expensive to buy. No one has nice clothes though they splurge on food.
Prof. Backus told of a conversation he had with an old farmer who works on a collective farm. Prof.
Backus said the man lives in a little, unpainted house—about twice the size of a garage—which he seemed embarrassed about. He would not invite Prof. Backus inside. Some of the windows were covered with burlap rather than having glass, Prof. Backus said.
On the man's plot of land, which was 40 feet by 160 feet, he also has a small shed, about half a dozen chickens and two pigs. Half of the chickens and one of the pigs belong to his neighbor. The neighbor grows vegetables for both of them and these they either sell or eat, as they prefer.
"The government gets 90 per cent of the hog," the man told Prof. Backus, "and I can afford to grow a hog only every two years. This means I only have a little meat every other winter."
The share of the produce the farmer got from the collective farm is not enough to keep him going, Prof. Backus said. The Russian insisted things had been better.
Prof. Backus described the man as looking "absolutely awful." Of the countryside, he said, "Nothing in the Midwest looks that bad."
The Russian people are friendly and warm toward Americans, Prof. Backus found. But they have been fairly well taken in by their government's propaganda and believe the real problem of war will come from the United States. However, they do not think their government is "illy white" either, Prof. Backus added, because they do not trust politicians in general.
Prof. Backus described walking back to his hotel one afternoon and getting caught in the middle of a crowd of Russians. When they found he was an American they deluged him with questions. He finally had to get a policeman to get him home.
"I never encountered anyone who cursed Americans—even unfriendly questions were not cursing," he said.
"And if someone did ask a displeasing question, others in the crowd directed hooting noises at him. They have a real admiration for American things, especially cars."
Prof. Backus, when asked if he was free to go as he pleased, or was guided everywhere, explained that a woman from Intoistur was sent with him to arrange appointments for him at various libraries the first time he went in. The second and third times he went alone, since he then knew where he wanted to go.
Daily hansan
57th Year, No. 23
Need Poll Workers For ASC Primaries
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Volunteer poll workers are needed for the freshman primary elections October 27 and 28.
The All Student Council constitution states that members of all political parties shall supervise balloting during elections. The recent disbanding of the Allied Greek Independent party has left the campus with only one political organization, Vox Populi.
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 1959
"We could use all Vox members, but we'd like to have some former AGI members working at the polls," Lynn Anderson, Atwood junior and chairman of the ASC elections committee said.
Crash Injures 4 KU Women
Four KU women were hospitalized yesterday as the result of a collision involving a sand truck and two cars $1 \frac{1}{2}$ miles east of Eudora.
Injured were Patricia A. Campbell, Melvern sophomore; Judith A. Boyle, Kansas City, Kan., junior; Lucy J. Weisbender, Manhattan junior, and Linda L. McKinney, Independence, Mo., senior.
Miss McKinney is being held at Watkins Memorial Hospital for observation. Dr. Maurice Gross, Watkins Health Service, said she
Enrollment Zooms Over 1958 Mark
The official fall semester enrollment of the University of Kansas is 9,435, up 194 or 2.5 per cent above the 1958 mark, James K. Hitt, registrar and director of admissions said today.
The new student enrollment figure is 2,849, an increase of 60 since 1958 and is second only to the veteranswollen influx of 1946. Of this figure, 1,531 are new freshmen, 808 entered with advanced standing and 510 entered at the postgraduate levels in law, medicine and the graduate school.
The women's enrollment continued its rapid growth to all-time high's of 2,638 at Lawrence and 286 at Kansas City for a total of 2,924. This is an increase of 144 from 1958. Hitt said.
The 1959 fall semester enrollment lacks 56 of being the second largest in KU's history. The all-time high was 9,751 in the fall of 1948. Then veterans of the armed forces comprised more than half the student body. Now they number 1,374 nearly half of whom receive no assistance from the government.
Registration on the Lawrence campus is 8,711 while the KU Medical Center in Kansas City has 724.
Six of the University's 10 schools have larger enrollments. The most marked change is in engineering and architecture which has 1,765 students,298 fewer than a year ago.
Enrollments in the other schools of the University and the changes from 1958 are: liberal arts and sciences, 3,344, up 235; graduate school, 1,505, up 231; education, 829, up 48; medicine, 810, up 30; fine arts, 530, up 4; business, 442, up 12; law, 129, down 8; pharmacy, 100, down 20; and journalism, 70, down 10.
Weather
KANSAS — Partly cloudy and cooler northwest portion, otherwise fair and mild this afternoon continuing south portion tonight and tomorrow. Considerable cloudiness and cooler north tonight and tomorrow with occasional drizzle or light rain northwest portion. Low tonight 30 northwest to 50 southeast. High tomorrow 50s northwest to 80 southeast.
*has a possible back injury which he described as not serious.
Three Girls Released
The three other women were released from the hospital this morning. Dr. Gross said they suffered from minor cuts and bruises. All were riding in a car driven by Miss McKinney.
The accident occurred when the car containing the four women was forced to slow for a sand truck which slowed suddenly in front of them.
State Police said a second car driven by Ralph Robert Kurtz, Rt. 1, Bucyrus, was attempting to pass but was forced to cut back into the traffic by on-coming cars.
The Kurtz vehicle hit the women's car, smashing it into the rear end of the truck. Miss McKinney's car was rolled over on its side.
Damages Total $725
Total damages to the three cars was estimated by State Police at $725. Miss McKinney's car was completely demolished.
State Police said Kurtz was taken to Douglas County Jail and booked on three charges: illegal passing; driving while under the influence of alcohol, (DWI), and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
Police said he pleaded guilty in County Court this morning on the charge of DWI. He was fined $250, sentenced to 90 days in the county jail; and his drivers license was revoked. The sentences are pending until confirmed by a blood alcohol test.
Shakesperian Actress Entrances KU
By Carol Heller
She stepped into the blue stage spotlights wearing golden slippers, a long flowing gown of avocado, and a mauve stole.
The words of Shakespeare flowed in the way Shakespeare enthusiasts dream of hearing Shakespeare's words read.
Margaret Webster entranced her audience.
The actress and director of Shakespearian drama brought tears, laughter, or silence to her listeners at will.
Miss Webster presented a Shakespearian anthology, "His Infinite Variety," at KU last night. Delights Audience.
Delights Audience
Whether she gestured and moved about the stage, or stood motionless, the actress's warmth and sincerity brought Shakespeare's words pulsing to life.
She delighted the audience with her portrayal of Portia and kept it tense and breathless as she depicted Cleopatra's last moments before death.
Speaking in a low, rich voice and laughing often Miss Webster answered questions frankly and quickly as students and faculty members questioned her after the performance.
Offstage she was a woman who could maintain her charm and sophistication while smoking a cigarito.
Did you make money on your "Othello" production?
Makes Money
"Yes, I really made a lot of money on 'Othello.' Everyone in New York was afraid to take the chance. It took us five years, but it came at just the right time, during the war . . ."
Do you think any full-scale Shakespeare will be done on Broadway?
"No, it costs too much."
Settings Not Important
What do you think of departing from the traditional settings of Shakespeare?
"I've know directors who wanted to do 'Macbeth' in the Great Smokies or the 'Twelfth Night' in India, but as long as you know what the play is about, it doesn't matter where you do it.
"My quarrel is that a play must not be falsified by forcing an effect on it for the sake of effect, or by the director showing off by trying to do the play a way never done before."
Lost Training Device
The actress said that both young American and European actors have lost a good training device in the disappearance of touring road companies in the wake of television, movies, and swift transportation.
In discussing young actors, Miss Webster said the English have a greater facility for Shakespearian language.
"The English do not consider Shakespeare a foreign language," she explained. "It has been so familiar to them all their lives that they take it in their stride. It is difficult to get them to show as much guts or truth as do American actors." The actress criticized the Americans for relying too much on newspaper reviews of plays.
"If the New York Herald Tribune doesn't like you, then immediate arrangements are made to fold up a show.
"In England people pay no heed to the critics. They go to see the show for themselves."
Margaret Webster