Page 3
Heredity, Geography Social Effects Studied
By Gilbert M. Cuthbertson
MAINSPRINGS OF CIVILIZATION, Elizabeth Huntington. Mentor Paperback, The American Library, New York, $75.
Huntington's book analyzes the effects of heredity, geography, and climate upon social and biological structures.
Allen-Lentz
The book is written in the tradition of such "classic" authors on the subject as Montesquieu, Gilpin and Haret. Huntington, however, supplements his hypotheses with statistical data.
Huntington's statistics also indicate a positive correlation among the Kansas death rate, climate, and population density. There is also a relationship between migration to cities and IQ in Kansas.
There are three major areas of controversy covered in the work: environmentalism, cyclicism, and the "theory of kiths."
Wheeler correlates data on these types with sunspots and world climatic conditions as exemplified by historical weather records and the growth rings of California sequoias. His findings, which are representative of those of Huntington, are that the nationalistic type with its political centralization and aggressive wars predominates during warm periods. Individualism with its accompanying decentralization and civil war is associated with climatic cooling.
Particularly interesting are the cited studies of Professor Raymond H. Wheeler of the University of Kansas on historical and environmental cycles as related to mass psychology. Wheeler maintains that variations in climate are the determinants of historical cycles. Two fundamental psychological types are differentiated, the nationalistic and the individualistic.
Wheeler's drought clock further exemplifies the "mainsprings of Civilization" in organizing a periodicity in political events in relationship to climate. Wheeler finds major periods of civil wars associated with drought approximately every two centuries with severe outbreaks every five hundred years. The latter cycle ends between 1960-75.
A typical application of the effect of the climate on government is the Kansas drought of 1895 for which the Cleveland administration was held responsible.
Huntington's "kithal theory" emphasizes the genetic factor in history in the form of selective migration. The kith itself is a subracial grouping with common distinguishing physical and usually ideological characteristics, which results from the selection process. Huntington's "Mainsprings of Civilization" serves as an excellent survey of materials in this modified outgrowth of "social Darwinism."
\* \* \*
A Critique Upon English Music Critic By Stuart Levine Instructor in English
MORE ESSAYS FROM THE WORLD OF MUSIC by Ernest Newman, Coward-McCann, $5.00.
This is a delightful book, the second collection of essays by the astute music critic of London's Sunday Times. I suppose that Mr. Newman has come closer than any other contemporary musical journalist to making his field a real discipline, and he has done so through his insistence upon finding standards for judgment, his unfailing good taste, and his common sense.
Mr. Newman makes things hard for himself. His reviews and discussions offer accurate evaluations, but they also define larger musical problems, and do what they can to resolve them. Just what is it, he wants to know, that makes such and such a work so impressive? What is the nature of a great composer's greatness? What are a conductor's duties? This last is a representative example of Mr. Newman's concerns.
Music criticism, you see, is too easy to write. Anyone with a fair acquaintance with concert music, a knowledge of a handful of terms, and a set of Annie Oakleys can review a concert, and, in fact, if he writes well, can do a fairly adequate job of it. It is surprising how many music critics lack even these basic tools.
Clergy Sessions Start Monday
We live in the era of the so-called virtuoso conductor, but Ernest Newman is properly suspicious of prima donnas of the podium as well as the notion that a conductor's main job is to "interpret." If you play allegro what the composer has marked lento, he insists, you are not interpreting; you are distorting. This volume contains nine essays on the art of conducting, and they make good sense.
Dr. J. J. Pelikan, professor of theology at Chicago University, will speak Monday afternoon at the first "Kansas Conference for Clergy" to be here Monday through Wednesday, coinciding with the start of Religious Emphasis Week.
I should also mention that "More Essays from the World of Music" contains a considerable amount of historical and aesthetic musical criticism. Besides being a man of good taste and common sense, Mr. Newman is a musical scholar of the first rank, equally at ease in the standard concert repertoire and in the productions of his contemporaries.
During the conference 100 to 125 ministers will hear panel discussions and talks by students. University administrators and church officials.
The Rev. Mr. Pelikan will be the ill-student convocation speaker Monday in Hoch Auditorium.
It is in a way unfortunate that these essays are limited to newspaper-column length. The articles on Brahms, for example, or on the Bartok String Quartets could be expanded into satisfying books.
Monday night, an hour will be set aside for ministers to attend informal counseling meetings with students.
Let us also note that Mr. Newman is an accomplished prose stylist, witty enough to be entertaining even when his discussions, as are those of all musicologists at times, are opinionated.
Thursday, Feb. 19, 1959 University Daily Kansan
The Rev. Alan J. Pickering, instructor of religion and Presbyterian student pastor, said the conference will provide an opportunity for the pastors to meet with students from their churches, as well as an insight into the techniques and methods of counseling.
ATO's Listed Top Scholars
The KU chapter of Alpha Tau Omega had the No. 1 grade point average of the 121 chapters of the fraternity for last semester. The KU chapter was 25.75 per cent above the national grade point average.
There are about 5000 companies in the United States which specialize in exterminating bugs and insects.
Air Force ROTC Group Flying to Florida Base
Thirty-two KU Air Force ROTC cadets and three staff members left Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, this morning for a three-day tour at the Eglin Air Force Base proving ground, Florida.
At Eglin the group will view the testing and research facilities for the newest Air Force aircraft, missiles and support equipment. They will visit the Climatic Projects Laboratory where aircraft, like the intercontinental B-52 Stratofortress, can literally be baked or frozen for long periods of time in temperatures ranking from 165 to minus 65 degrees Fahrenheit. A BOMARC missile site will also be observed.
Included on the 800-square-mile proving ground are 10 airfields and 32 bombing, rocketry, gunnery and missile ranges for testing new equipment under simulated combat conditions.
Staff members accompanying the cadets are Ammon S. Andes, professor of aeronautical engineering; James B. Tiedemann, associate professor of aeronautical engineering and Capt. Donald T. Hawkins, project officer of the AFROTC staff.
Cadets making the trip are Richard Bower, Norton; Donald Catlin, Olathe; Larry Dunlap, Salina; Robert Lewis, Russell; Jerry Miller, Lawrence; Duane Morris, Salina; James Naylor, Liberal; Paul Nielson, Riverside, Ill.; Floy Palmer,
Independence; Hardin Ramsey, Kansas City, Kan.; Ronald Womack, Lenexa. All are seniors.
Edward Bailey, Atchison; William Baker, Kansas City, Kan.; Gerald Brown, Kansas City, Mo.; Peter Curran, Manhattan; Kenneth Gates, Kansas City, Mo.; Gary Gibson, El Dorado; Jon Giovig, Mission; Ellis Hitt, Wellington; Bob Kralicek, Independence, Mo.; Richard Laing, Lawrence; John Morrissey, Prairie Village; Gary Schwenk, Independence, Mo.; Denis Stewart, Mission; Charles Tommey, Independence, Mo.; Richard Willhite, Toronto. All are juniors.
Gary Bergmann, Lenexa; Gerald Gordon, Lawrence; Neil Hall, Kansas City, Kan.; Kenneth Krehbiel, McPherson; Dale McKemey, Downs; Joseph Morris, Emporia; Robert Mueller, Leavenworth. All are sophomores.
John Durrett, Prairie Village freshman; Charles Yeokum, Belton, Mo., fifth year engineering.
1909 Class Plans Reunion
Plans for the reunion of the class of 1909 will be made by the reunion committee at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union. The reunion will be held during commencement week in June.
Wrens will stay away from anything painted yellow.
...As an RCA Engineer
Receive your MS in Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering or Physics at RCA's expense, through the RCA Graduate Study Program. At the same time, you're beginning your RCA career as an engineer on a fully professional level, getting a head start in the field you prefer. RCA pays the full cost of your tuition, fees and approved texts while you take graduate study part time at the University of Pennsylvania or Rutgers University. Or, you may prefer a different path ahead. . . RCA Design and Development Specialized Training. Here is another of RCA's programs for careers, in which you begin by working full-time on planned technical assignments. Experienced engineers and interested management guide your progress. You may receive assignments in design and development of radar, airborne electronics, computers, missile electronics, television, radio and other equipment fields, as well as in Electron Tubes, Semiconductors and Components, MS, PhD Candidates are eligible for direct assignments in the above mentioned fields.
There's a lot more that's extremely interesting about an RCA engineering career. You should have these facts to make a wise decision about your future. Get them in person very soon when an RCA engineering management representative arrives on campus—
March 5,6
Right now, though, see your placement officer. Get squared away on a specific time for your interview. And get your copies of the brochures that also help to fill you in on the RCA picture. If you're tied up when RCA's representative is here, send a resume to:
Mr. Robert Haklisch, Manager College Relations, Dept. CR-11 Radio Corporation of America Camden 2, New Jersey
Tomorrow is here today at RCA
RADIO CORPORATION of AMERICA