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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Jan. 19, 1961
Kennedy's Burden
When President-elect Kennedy takes office Friday he no doubt will immediately be harassed by both the Communists and our allies to make clear the United States position on further testing of nuclear weapons.
From the Communists will come a sweet-sounding invitation to arrive at a decision on the question of underground testing, either at the Geneva negotiations or at a summit meeting.
From our allies will come sincere pleas for a quick choice of whether or not we are going to share our scientific secrets concerning nuclear weapons with them, thus expanding membership in the "Bomb Club" to include some nations not now considered major world powers.
SO FAR THE GENEVA TALKS HAVE been fruitless. The United States is insisting upon an effective inspection system to insure compliance with a test ban should the Russians agree to a ban. The Soviets want us to honor their word that no tests would be made.
Although he has not publicized his policy plans on either of these problems Kennedy has indicated that he will attempt to establish an agreement deadline for the next Geneva conference. If an agreement is not reached within a reasonable time Kennedy has indicated that he would favor the United States resuming tests. Republican leaders also favor issuing an ultimatum to the Soviets calling for quick agreement or the resumption of full-scale underground tests.
American scientists have advised Kennedy that the present test ban gives Russia an advantage because the weapons not under the two-
nation ban serve the Red's military needs best. They maintain, however, that the United States must have better nuclear weapons that the underground tests would develop, in order to deter Soviet aggression.
France's recent entry into the realm of nuclear powers will pose another problem for the new president. It is now the fourth nation to enter the world's "Bomb Club" and the second in Europe. Our European allies, as well as France, are clamoring to share the nuclear secrets of England and the United States for fear that war might result from another Berlin crisis.
IN SOLVING THESE PROBLEMS BOTH the eastern and Western powers must now consider that four more nations, Red China, Israel, Japan and Sweden, and possibly others, anticipate having nuclear weapons in a short time.
It is no longer the responsibility of only a few nations of the world to determine the use of weapons which could destroy the world. Nations such as Israel, which has only a fraction of the world's population, soon may be able to start a nuclear war and thus must be considered in any test ban talks.
It Kennedy does have a plan to facilitate accord on the test-ban dilemma thereby insuring against a global nuclear war, he must, of course, proceed with caution. But more important, he must push ahead before it is too late for talking. He must also be cognizant of the importance of these small but potentially potent nations in any worldwide settlement.
— John Macdonald
A Familiar Fable
Long ago, long before guns were ever invented, people fought wars by throwing rocks. While this would seem to make the wars pretty even, it actually had the opposite effect. The armies of some kingdoms had good, hard, baseball-sized rocks for throwing. Other armies only had the cindery kind that couldn't make a dog yelp if you plunked him squarely in the ribs with it. Since this was an age of power, some nations grew big and strong while others remained comparatively weak.
Thus, it happened that two kingdoms grew more powerful than the rest. One was far to the west and the other was about an equal distance to the east, which was probably just as well because they didn't like each other very much. Each one was always looking for a way to gain the upper hand. And, one day, one of the kingdoms thought it had found the answer. . . .
BESIDES THE GOOD, HARD, BASEBALL-sized rocks for throwing, there were plenty of hut and castle-crushing boulders laying around throughout the kingdom. "Why," some of the earls and dukes wondered, "can't we use some of those boulders in a machine that could catapult them into the Eastern Kingdom if we ever had to?" So, they summoned the wise men, and some wondrous machines were built. They were made of stout trees bent almost parallel to the ground with some huge boulders balanced on the limbs and the tip of the trees secured to the earth by a strong vine.
But meanwhile, the other kingdom had been building some similar war machines. And they could hurl the castle-crushing boulders just as far.
Soon, everyone was spending the whole day looking around his respective kingdom for big trees and big rocks. Sometimes the rocks and trees were found nearby. Sometimes they couldn't be found at all, and then the kings of the smaller countries obtained both trees and
rocks by trading something cheap for them like human dignity or valuable land. But finally everyone had the wondrous war machine.
This was a bad situation . . . each day the prime ministers would order the guards of the machines to take a few practice swings at the vines with sharp swords. There was always the chance the swing might be carried too far... soon the Eastern and Western kingdoms realized this. They knew that the trees had to be allowed to grow straight and tall again and the boulders dropped in the ocean.
Both the big kingdoms wanted to do just this, but they didn't trust each other enough to act alone. "Why do you want war machines?" they asked the smaller kingdoms in an effort to clarify their own problem.
The answer always was the same. "War machines mean respect!" This, the big countries decided, was tragic—anyone who had the war machine thought he had respect, too. And this was all the smaller nations really wanted anyway... respect.
But the big kingdoms knew respect really meant other things. Things like having enough oxen to till the fields and having enough grain to feed the people. Most of the small countries were not as well off as the Eastern and Western kingdoms in this respect. Yet these countries wanted to be treated as equals since they had war machines too. The whole idea was foolish.
There was only one thing to do: both large kingdoms conferred on the problem. "What we'll have to do," they decided, "is shape our castle-crushing boulders into grist stones for our flour mills. Maybe these other kingdoms will do the same—we hope."
Worth Repeating
And, things turned out just the way they hoped. Soon everyone was well-fed. Then, everyone found it easy to respect everyone else...
At least that's the way Mother Goose tells it.
At least that's the way Mother Goose knew
— Dan Felger
My greatest pleasure when a young English instructor was polishing my brilliance in front of a captive audience. And when some student made an error-especially one that received a wide audience-I thrust myself forward, and with acid voice or pen dipped in vitriol I had the student skewered. I possessed everything then but the quality that makes a bright young man a teacher-understanding.-Q. P. Banes
Short Ones
The Chinese Communist dove of peace may be flying high these days—but it's still roosting in Mr. Nehru's backyard, D.F.
. . .
Communism, Mr. K. boasts, will put a car in every man's garage—apparently garages aren't too popular in Russia.-D.F.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extinction 711 news room
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Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by National Advertising Service. 18 East 50 St., New York 22,
N.Y. News service; United Press International. Mail subscription rates:
$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon
during the University year except Sundays and Sundays, University
holidays and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept.
17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Ray Miller ... Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
John Peterson and Bill Blundell ... Co-Editorial Editors
No Apology Wanted Editor:
Editor:
I was about to send my first letter to the editor congratulating the Kansan and Ralph Wilson on the editorial, "A Record Questioned," when I read the editorial appearing the, following day, "Apology to Joe."
Charles Martinache
Pittsburgh junior
* * *
South Shall Sing
As far as I am concerned the apology was completely unnecessary and a waste of time, effort and space. The first editorial actually discussed the situation with which the University is faced: an "incompetent" police force. However, the apology referred to the force not as "incompetent" but as having, "no adequate facilities."
It would appear that if this is actually the case, and it may well be, then the force should not be referred to as the Campus Police department, or even as those "responsible for traffic and security." Instead, the name given them should be fitting, perhaps, as suggested in the first editorial, "traffic directors and ticket givers."
In conclusion I might add that I sincerely hope that further editorials in the Kansan will follow the style indicated in "A Record Questioned" and that no further "Apology to Joe" editorials waste your space.
Consequently, many pedestrians are forced to run, one way or the other, to avoid being hit. Once again, it is this agility that prevents accidents, not the "competent, but under-manned police force."
Concerning directing traffic, the apology lauded Chief Skillman and his staff for their fine record in campus automobile accidents. May I suggest that the major reason for lack of injuries in traffic accidents could very well be the agility displayed by many of the students attempting to cross Jayhawk Boulevard between classes. Once drivers on campus leave the corner where the "traffic directors" are controlling the flow of traffic they seem to be completely ignorant of the fact that there are "campus police." By the same token it appears that the "police" are ignorant of the fact that there are drivers any place on the street except where the "traffic director" is.
According to unconfirmed reports, there now exists in certain quarters of that section of the nation known as the South an undercurrent of sentiment that all Yankees are not all bad. I do not wish to argue the various pros and cons of this proposition, but only to remark a rather interesting item which may relate to it.
That the motivations of this man—one John Brown—were worthy is questionable (the often seemed driven less by love for the Negro than by a profound hate for mankind in general), but that he was an insane, brutal, bloodthirsty terrorist there can be no doubt. If Brown were indeed an excellent
It concerns a letter in the Jan. 12 production of the UDK which set up as a shining example of patriotism, fairness, justice and morality a certain gentleman who was hanged in the state of Virginia slightly over one century ago.
Editor:
example of Yankee patriotism, fairness, justice, and morality, it is no wonder the southern states seceded from the Union; William Sherman would have been their hero. Of course, I prefer to interpret this sentiment about Brown as the product of an individual rather than that of Kansans in general (who must have more in their long history to boast of than one lunatic).
But one must sympathize with a stunned Southerner of the time who, listening to rampant Northerners sing "John Brown's Body" with a righteous fervor, had to think the worst. Perhaps, even now, we are not always all right, and perhaps — just perhaps — all Southerners are not really all bad.
Gerald Prager
Cincinnati, Ohio, junior
No Heart
Editor:
You are businessmen first and, possibly, Americans second. You have answered a question which you are not even aware of. You know who you are.
If you admit that national feeling is significant, in these times, you must adhere to that which is yours. "All men are created equal." It is a cliche by now, but cliches exist because they best express something. (This particular one is, in theory, our foundation.)
This election year was fraught with the cry "We, as Americans, must gird ourselves to the challenge of the Communist world." The pity was, few took time to examine what it meant to be an American.
The question overlooked is,
then, will I lose business if I serve
the wrong people? For some, the
answer has been a fearful "yes."
The choice is taken.
Thirty cents for your beer, then, and you can drown in it. The movement of the cash drawer means more to you than the best of the heart.
Terril H. Hart
Mission senior
Rao Recalled
Editor:
All of us here in the University Library are delighted that the poetry of our good friend P. Gangadhara Rao has recently been receiving due recognition in the Kansan. We'd like, however, to make one small correction in the record and thereby proudly claim Mr. Rao as one of our own colleagues. In fact he came to KU not as a student but as a cataloger in the Library after completing his professional training at the University of Minnesota, and then two years later he returned to practice his profession in his own country.
It's easy to understand why many people thought he was here as a student because Mr. Rao thoroughly enjoyed the friendliness and the social facilities of the Kansas Union. As some of his poems indicate, the Lawrence community unhappily did not readily offer him much of an opportunity for social life. In light of recent happenings it is interesting to recall that Mr. Rao's most poignant poem on the matter of segregation was based in an incident at a local "tavern." I still remember the distress with which he came to see me following that initial experience.
Robert Vosper Director, KU Library
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