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University Daily Kansan
Friday. Feb. 20. 1959
Docking and KU
Yesterday's press conference with Governor Docking was a revealing experience.
The governor indicated that he would back the fund requests of the Board of Regents for the state's schools only when he is convinced the money is to be used for meaningful and worthwhile ends. He is far from convinced of that now.
The governor is a determined man on this point. He called for a thorough examination of the University and its faculty before any additional funds are granted. He expressed serious doubt that the administration and the teaching staff of the University are producing ethical young people.
He accuses the University of being a trouble spot in the state because its faculty is not doing its job in teaching ethics. This is an extremely serious accusation. If it is true, action more serious than just withholding pay increases and building funds should be undertaken.
But the governor's manner indicates that his reasons for opposing the funds increases could be personal.
The governor should not allow personal feelings to influence his decisions on this important matter. And he should not attribute his reasons for opposing funds to his interest in the people of Kansas when they should be attributed to his personal feelings for the administration of the University and/or Lawrence.
The governor made such broad accusations yesterday that it is difficult to decide how to bring about the corrections he says are in order. If he feels the faculty is failing in its role, he should take steps to clean house.
But the governor should not hold back approval of the funds for reasons so illogical as those expressed yesterday. The welfare of the state is one thing. Personal feelings are another.
—Robert C. Harwi
Original Manet in Art Exhibit
Rv Mary Helen Clark
A rare opportunity will be offered to the University community Sunday when an unusual and fascinating exhibit opens at the Museum of Art. An open house will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. The exhibit contains new additions to the museum's collection.
Perhaps the most exciting new acquisition is an original oil portrait sketch by Edouard Manet, the great French Impressionist. The sketch was made from the famous portrait of Line Camp-nenau which is in the William
Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City, Mo. It is the first major painting by one of the great 19th century French painters to enter the University's collection. It is a gift of Charles E. Curry, class of 1940, who now lives in Mission.
Other outstanding gifts include a set of twelve silver plates by the English silversmith, Paul Stoor. Dated 1805-06, these plates were given by Mrs. William B. Thayer, Redlands, Calif.
Two 17th Century Flemish tapestries, an 18th Century Bavarian
coat of arms, two portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, an 18th Century silver church chalice from Germany, a 17th Century Portuguese table, and a 15th Century Italian Renaissance throne are also among the gifts.
GETTING READY—Charles Quaife, Netawaka sophomore, and Leslie Monroe, Lyons junior, make preparations for the exhibit which opens Sunday in the Museum of Art.
A particularly interesting piece is an elaborately carved drinking cup fashioned from a coconut shell and mounted in silver. This cup is quite beautiful and is remarkable because of the curious material from which it is made.
There will also be on display a collection of items which the museum hopes will be purchased for the permanent collection. In this display are many medieval pieces including several censors, a silver reliquary and an exquisite silver panel.
Also on display will be engravings by Master E. S. and Martin Schongauer, an exhibit organized and installed by Jerry Buchanan, Wichita graduate student, and a collection of modern woven textiles from the Scalamandre Museum of Textiles in New York.
The program Sunday should be of special interest to everyone because of the varied nature of the displays.
A series of short films will be shown between 4 and 5 p.m. on Lascaux, Van Eyek, Goya, Calder, and "Fiddle-Dee-Dee."
The exhibits were installed by KU students under the direction of Edward Maser, director of the Museum of Art.
When a Phoenix, Ariz., family left home they left the door open so their dog could go in and out. When the family returned they found the dog was gone—and so was $6,000 in cash, jewelry, clothing and furs. Dog gone!
Short Ones
Better things for better living . . .
cost plenty!-Mad
Movies are better than ever . . .
too bad the prices aren't.-Mad
A good memory is needed after one has lied.-Pierre Corneille
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
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alien - lentz
By Stuart Levine Instructor in English
THE ENEMY CAMP by Jerome Weidman, Random House, $4.95.
"The story of a man's bondage to passion and prejudice," says the jacket of this book, and this is fair enough warning that the contents are in the manner of a mediocre popular novel. "The Enemy Camp" is just that in many ways, and yet it represents a good example of what may be a significant tendency in our "everyday" literature.
We seem to be in the age of the problem novel, when social difficulties of the most complex and painful types are debated in paperbacks whose covers promise contents of a rather different order. "The Enemy Camp" is still doing a brisk business at your neighborhood rental library, so it has not yet appeared in paper, but it will, friends, fear not.
Mr. Weidman's hero is a young Jew who regards the Christian world around him as the enemy camp. This is a serious and even a difficult theme, and it must be said in the author's favor that he understands it thoroughly.
Jews are, in fact, guilty of a kind of counter-prejudice, a defensive reaction against the unpleasant age-old experience of being stepped on. Looked at in another way, any minority has a certain desire to maintain the difference, and even, as in the case of the Jewish community, to be proud of it. But why should this complicated and subtle problem be the subject of so cheap a book, and why should it sell so well?
I suppose that what sells copies are the book's weakest features. The style, while never distinguished, is occasionally downright melodramatic. The plot is contrived and frequently hammy, complete with a totally improbable coincidence-scene in which the hero encounters his old flame in a twenty-dollar girl store.
Characters are stereotyped. Daniel Shaw is an impossible black villain, the hero's wife is pure as driven snow, and the hero is not especially intriguing either.
To be fair, some of Weidman's people, despite their familiarity, have a certain vigor. The hero's foster mother and his Albany uncle are fairly impressive creations. Similarly, the New York east side setting of the hero's youth rings true.
For the most part, however, these merits and the "problem" theme fail to offset the book's triteness. I think that the problem and the setting are best regarded as background materials, which serve as a sort of equivalent for local color.
I don't mean that Mr. Weidman inserted them for that purpose, but that might explain the book's popularity: "And the hero has this old girl friend, y'see, and she's lame, and he meets her in a you-know-what kind of house, and this hero's a Jew—imagine—and he's married to a Christian girl—the loveliest creature..."
Case for Beatniks
Editor:
First, anyone knowing the story will tell you that Greenwich Village is a has-been and no Beatnik would go there intentionally because that would be an average conformist's action.
It is obvious, Mr. Crocker, that you know little or else you have been misinformed, badly, on the subject of Beatniks.
When you say that Beatniks have been known to take dope, listen to wild poetry, and sin, I ask you: Does this differ from any other group of people? Remember, there are always a few "out people" in every crowd!
You state they are opposed to everything American. This is one big laugh, for the beats probably know more about life and living than most Americans, who are caught in the conformist rat race for survival. We Americans are supposed to be a peaceful people, but few know what a real moment of peace is!
On your terminology: A Bohemian is a person who was first noticed in Eurcore for his casual dress and lackadaisical mode of life. It was picked up in the United States where the term has been kicked around like an old rubber ball. Since Americans have to be original they have become Beatniks, after a columnist in San Francisco
Most Beatniks see the world through very observing eyes, and the sincere and appalling things seen around us every day are enough to make anyone quit smiling. Why smile at someone when you don't mean it?
Shaving is a nuisance and also a social fad. There have been many societies in the past in which nearly everyone wore beards and those that could not were scorned.
I don't suppose it ever entered your head that most Beatniks, because of their affiliations with art, are often doing work which is not usually done in a good pair of slacks and a dress shirt. If you get oil paint on clothes it does not come out easily. This is why we put on the "uniform"—as for wearing dark glasses on rainy days, don't be ridiculous!
As for an organization, Beatmiks need no organization because everyone is a little beat, and after a careful analysis almost everyone but the really "out people" will agree that to get out of the rat race of life would be great, but...
cubbed a group of North Beach artists such in an article for his newspaper.
The Beats are lucky; they know and have what they want, which is more than most people can say.
Daniel K. Ralston Topeka sophomore
\* \* \*
Editor:
Praise is due Stuart Levine for his well written and perceptive review of the fine concert by "I Muscii" (Daily Kansan, Feb. 17). More such discussions will be
Review Praised
highly welcome. Speaking as an interested non-musician, I found both the concert and review very stimulating.
Alan Svverud
Alan Syverud Lawrence graduate student