. . . Books in Review . . .
By Calder M. Pickett Acting Dean, School of Journalism
THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT: THE POLITICS OF UPHEAVAL by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Houghton Mifflin, $6.95.
Few university-age students recall the Age of Roosevelt. Their impressions are based, in all likelihood, on their recollection of hearing Dad praise or condemn the controversial president. Here is the third volume of a work that is likely, despite its detractors, to become a classic interpretation of the New Deal president.
"The Coming of the New Deal" dealt with only the first two years, 1933-34, of the stormy era. "The Politics of Upheaval" is a fascinating excursion into the next two years. 1935 was the year of the Supreme Court warfare upon NRA and Triple-A. 1935 was the year of victory, when only Maine and Vermont gave their electoral votes to the Republicans, when a wag put up a sign at the Maine-New Hampshire border, "You are now leaving the United States."
In Louisiana, there was the man Schlesinger calls "The Messiah of the Rednecks." Huey P. Long, who built roads and a magnificent football team at LSU and ran the Legislature like a group of trained seals there to do his bidding. In California there was Dr. Francis Everett Townsend, who led the old folks of America on a crusade for a pension to tide them over after 65.
ELSEWHERE THERE WAS the leader of the Silver Shirts, William Dudley Pelley, who claimed to have died in the 1920s and regained life after several minutes. There was Seward Collins, editor of the American Review, and there was Lawrence Dennis. There was always William Randolph Hearst, giving aid and comfort to the native fascists in his many yellow journals.
THIS WAS 25 YEARS AGO. Demagogues were abroad in the land. Roosevelt, of course, was one of them; even the admiring Schlesinger can point to some demagogyuery in the Roosevelt record. A spirit of pragmatism was abroad, also, though this had become more of a philosophical approach by 1935 and the coming of the Second New Deal, when Jim Farley was starting to be lost in the new coalition that was shaping up for 1936.
Schlesinger's brilliant opening section treats the demagogues and the movements, right and left, that either were fighting or trying to ally themselves with the New Deal. In Detroit there was the radio priest, Father Charles E. Coughlin, early favoring the New Deal, later allying himself with the worst remanents of Louisiana-spawned fascism.
In Minnesota there was the radical leader of the farmers, Gov Floyd Olson. In Wisconsin there were the almost legendary LaFollettes. In California, the old Socialist Upton Sinclair was telling the voters how to "End Poverty in California." In New York, Fiorello LaGuardia was a busy and energetic liberal reformer.
It was meanwhile the era of the Communist conspiracy, when the audience at Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty" became as aroused in the cause of labor as the people on the stage. Young men like Whittaker Chambers (and probably Alger Hiss, though Schlesinger seems unconvinced) were becoming involved in a movement that to many seemed one of idealism.
THESE ARE ONLY A FEW aspects of the years that brought the politics of upheaval. Early 1935 saw Franklin D. Roosevelt in retreat, pulling back before the opposition, seeming to be waiting for something to happen. The year also saw a conservative majority on the Supreme Court seeming to tell the government that constitutionally it could do nothing about the depression.
Roosevelt's forces were working with the traditionally Republican Negroes, the intellectuals, the women, and the labor unions, building a coalition that would be tremendously potent in November 1936. Old-time machine politicians like Farley and Curley of Massachusetts would be left behind, unclear as to what was happening.
Relief, the Wagner Act, the opposition of the court, and above all the magnificent appeal of Roosevelt would keep the New Deal (a slightly amended version) in power. And Alf Landon of Kansas, who was really a liberal after all, would fall before the surging coalition of '36.
Worth Repeating
I have seldom seen one of these young men (social scientists) in a condition of genuine intellectual puzzlement. And I have never seen any passionate curiosity about a great problem, the sort of curiosity that compels the mind to travel anywhere and by any means, to remake itself if necessary, in order to find out. These young men are less restless than methodical; less imaginative than patient. . . Listening to their conversations, trying to gauge the quality of their curiosity, one finds a deadly limitation of mind.—C. Wright Mills
This specialized intellectual efficiency, unfortunately, is picked up by graduate students, a notably timid group. Because of the recent wealth of fellowships and grants, careerism gets off to an early start among graduate students', who are inclined anyway to be opportunists at best and sycophants at worst...
It is well to remember that the graduate student, often subsidized by the university, desperately needs his department's recommendation. This, more than anything else, will determine where he is placed, and his initial placement may well set the tone of his career. Graduate professors, on the other hand, have the assurance of a captive and submissive audience.—David Boroff
New Students Must Complete Physical Exams
Dr. Ralph I. Canuteson, director of the Student Health Service, today warned all new freshmen and transfer students to complete their physical examinations by Oct. 1.
Dr. Canuteson said new students at KU who have not completed their physical examinations by Oct. 1 will be withdrawn from the university.
Thursday, Sept. 22, 1960 University Daily Kansan Page 3
He estimated about 600 new students have not completed their examinations.
DR. CANUTESON said this would include many new students who were asked to report back to Watkins Hospital after Orientation Week to complete their examinations but have not done so. He said he thinks that some students have appeared at the hospital to begin their physical examinations.
Dr. Canuteson said he will inform James K. Hitt, registrar, after fees have been paid the names of students failing to complete their physicals. Mr. Hitt said these students will then be withdrawn from the university. (Fee payments are due Sept. 28, 29, 30 and Oct. 1.)
Mr. Hitt said students so withdrawn from the University who wish to be reinstated must first complete their physical examinations and pay a $5 reinstatement fee before they can be re-enrolled.
FOR THE FIRST time this year students did not take their physical examinations at Watkins Hospital. Each student was required to send or bring to the Student Health Service prior to his registration a medical history which he was to fill out.
Also, students were to send a record of a physical examination done by their physician. The forms were sent to students this summer by the Office of Admissions.
During Orientation Week, students were to report to Watkins for a review of the medical history and physical examination report previously submitted, and for the following additional tests: speech, hearing, color vision, tuberculin test and a chest X-ray.
Official Bulletin
Items for the Official Bulletin must be brought to the public relations office, 222 Strong, before 9:30 a.m. on the day of publication. Do not bring Bulletin should include the Daily Kansan. Notices should include name, place, date, and time of function.
Ph.D. Reading Exam in German. Oct.
1. 9 a.m., 314 Fraser. Sign up in 306
Fraser by noon, Sept. 23.
Christian Science Organization. Danforth, Chanel.
Episcopal Morning Prayer and Holy
Bread in am. Breakfast follows.
Canterbury House.
Episcopal Evening Prayer. 9:30 p.m.
Danforth Chapel.
NASHVILLE, TN
KUKU' Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. 306
Attendance forms not required. Attendance required.
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