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Summer Session Kansan Thursday, July 30, 1959
Hard-Headed Swiss, Shallow Yanks Are Impressions of Tourist Abroad
Special to the Summer Session Kansan
By Jerry Knudson
(Editor's note: Jerry Knudson, former instructor of journalism, is touring Europe this summer. The following are the seventh and eighth of a series of letters.)
Zurich, Switzerland—The Swiss are the hardest-headed business men in all Europe. ___
The other day an elderly British woman, who is married to a Swiss and has lived here 28 years, collared me and let go with a tirade against her husband's countrymen.
"Peasants," she snorted. "They were all peasants before the war, and look at them now—damned millionaires!"
The woman, it seemed, owned a scissors-making firm and had just lost a large order because the Germans are now producing scissors more cheaply.
"Think, of it," she yelled at me, "buying from the Germans! Why, this country wouldn't have lasted three minutes during the war if Hitler could have spared a half million men."
She went on to tell me that the Swiss worker labors under almost impossible conditions — no fringe benefits, long hours, short pay.
Whatever the reason, the Swiss franc is one of the most stable monetary units in Europe.
This is not so elsewhere. The French economy is constantly bobbing back from disaster, plagued with a yo-yo political instability. Things look much brighter since Gen. De Gaulle has assumed power and inaugurated the economicpolitical bloc of the French Community of Nations which met recently in Madagascar.
Spain is currently having economic nightmares, despite the 2 billion dollars of military aid the U.S. has pumped into the country since 1953, when both countries signed a Mutual Defense Agreement.
Polaris Debut Likely in 1960
! WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The chief of the Navy's $2,600,000,000 Polaris missile program said yesterday that the weapon is "on schedule" and will be operational by the end of 1960.
Rear Adm. William F. Raborn made the statement to a reporter as he prepared to defend the missile project in testimony before the House Space Committee.
The committee opened the second day of hearings in which military witnesses sought to dispel the professed concern of members about test "failures" at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Lt. Gen, Bernard A. Schriever, head of the Air Force Research and Development Command, testified Tuesday that there was "no cause for alarm" in the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile program although he was upset about five failures this year.
The failures caused a 60-day delay from July 1 in getting the Atlas into the hands of combat units.
The Atlas entered some testimony of its own late Tuesday when the second consecutive successful Atlas firing came off smoothly at Cape Canaveral. The Air Force said the missile performed smoothly on the 5,000-mile flight to a pre-decimated impact area near Ascension Island.
Then there's that romantic tune beginning, "Every little Z should have a bu."
The peseta recently was devalued (from 42 to 52 to the dollar) in an attempt to retrench the country's gold standard and trade balance. But this is only a stop-gap measure
Behind the economic chaos lies the bigger dilemma of roiled political waters. What will happen when Generalissimo Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco Bahamode dies? (Besides giving the tombstone engraver a stiff headache?)
For the last three years, Prince Juan Carlos has been groomed for a revival of the monarchy, but a Falangist-sponsored king might be denied by the people who hate Franco.
Perhaps a revolution, trapping the 20.000 American civilians and military men now in Spain, will occur before then.
Something must happen — and soon The Falange-church-army alliance maintains shaky control over the country. Spain today fears imminent violence.
While the population has risen from 25 to 30 million in the last 20 years, agricultural production has remained the same. More than 20,000 people live in caves outside Madrid alone.
Whatever happens in economy-weak Spain will affect all Western Europe because today the economic community — despite disgruntled Swiss scissors makers — stretches from Italy to Sweden, from the Soviet Zone in Germany to Ireland.
European countries will stand or fall together, economically and militarily.
ROME, Italy — My experiences with youth hostels this summer has been one of steady disillusionment.
Rather than serving as gateways to foreign cultures, I find they are converted into miniature American colonies by junketing students.
These shallow youth spend the entire day drinking, talking, or playing bridge inside the walls of the hostel. The foreign culture remains safely outside.
Most objectionable among student travelers are those from the supposedly distinguished Ivy League schools. These youngsters are noblish, self-centered, and almost completely disengaged.
Their vocabulary consists mainly
of two words—"fantastic" and "fascinating." They seem to have spent all their time fitting into the mold of Ivy League smoothness, with the result that they are poorly educated.
Their brains are as smooth as their well-cropped heads, but they might as well be spending the summer at the Westchester Country Club, since they are trying to remake Europe to fit this image.
One wonders how long the Ivy League schools can continue to perpetrate their gigantic fraud on American education. For my money, almost any large Midwestern school is more virile and dynamic.
Princeton be damned.
Honest ignorance is at least understandable. Like the young American couple who were asked if they had seen St. Peter's. The husband turned to his wife and said, "I don't know. Have we. dear?
Rome is the most exciting European city I have yet visited (and only London is left in the running). The Eternal City with its seven ancient hills is truly lovely. It makes almost everything else in Europe seem rather thin.
From the Forum and Coliseum to St. Peter's and Vatican City, the city is studded with fountains and tree-lined streets. Around every corner is another monument, through every window a postcard view.
The Italian people join my list of "good guys" in Europe, along with the Spanish, Dutch and Danes. The Italians are childishly quarrelsome and exuberantly noisy, but one cannot help admiring the nerve with which they go forward to meet life.
One of the most imposing structures in a city of imposing buildings is the monument to Victor Emmanuel, built in 1909. Its gaudy white marble is piled tier on tier like a giant wedding cake in flamboyant splendor.
Pope John XXIII, who holds public audiences every Wednesday, looks like a happy farmer.
Outside the entrance to the secluded Vatican City — where 1,500 people live—stand Swiss guards in brilliant scarlet and orange costumes. They are recruited from noble Swiss families and serve two years in Rome.
The list of attractions in Rome is almost endless—the Appian Way, Catacombs, Castle San Angelo, museums, galleries, and churches by the score.
Pizza here makes American pizza taste like cardboard by comparison. And, naturally, one washes it down with America's contribution to world culture-Coca Cola.
FROM DRIVE-INS TO DINING ROOMS, THESE RESTAURANTS OFFER THE TOPS IN FOOD IN LAWRENCE
"The Best Hamburgers in town"
Air Conditioned
Old Mission Inn
1904 Mass. VI 3-9737
The
Castle Tea Room
Air Conditioned
1307 Mass. VI 3-1151
'Debate' Hidden in Dirty Shirt
NEW YORK — (UPI)— The taped Moscow debate of Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was "smuggled" out of Russia in a dirty shirt to permit its immediate showing on U.S. TV networks, it is disclosed.
Philip Gundy, vice president of the Ampex Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., brought the tape into New York by plane Saturday morning.
Gundy said he'd expected Nixon and Khrushchev only to make a few ordinary remarks before the cameras at the American fair's demonstration of video tape, and was amazed to discover he'd taped instead a bit of "living history."
After the two men watched a play-back of the tape, Gundy said, his first thought was to get the record to the United States "as fast as I could."
Now thru Saturday Rory Calhoun in "THE SAGE OF HEMP BROWN"
co-hit
EXTRA ! EXTRA !
JOHANNSON vs PATTERSON
CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT
PICTURES !!!
Now and Friday
June Allyson
Jeff Chandler in
"STRANGER IN MY ARMS"
Starts Saturday Rock Hudson, Jean Simmons Dorothy McGuire, Claude Rains in "THIS EARTH IS MINE"
Now thru Saturday
Gregory Peck in
"THE BRAVADOS"
with Joan Collins
co-hit
Dana Andrews
Jane Powell in
"ENCHANTED
ISLAND"
Extra: Saturday Night
DOUBLE OWL SHOW