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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Dec. 11, 1958
Vicuna Vicissitudes
That vicuna coat is still haunting Republican headquarters.
Shoppers' reports for Christmas say vicuna is selling very well this year, and Bernard Goldfine is still in the headlines to remind the public of Sherman Adams' "impropriety."
Almost the only asset left in Republican vaults from the 1952 crusade is President Eisenhower's personal popularity. The GOP has lost its claims to superior morality, its majority in Congress has disappeared, and party finances are in sickly condition.
The Adams-Goldfine case was only the latest act in a series of disclosures that tarnished the GOP shield of purity. Preceding it were the Dixon-Yates adventure and the Miami-Mack-Channel 10 faux pas.
These well-spaced blunders are certainly no
worse than the mink coat, deep freeze, and 5 per cent scandals during the Truman administration. But they demonstrate that morality, or lack of it, is a bipartisan matter.
Since 1952, the GOP has depended on President Eisenhower's popularity to carry it. The party has failed to develop young leaders, and the shortage showed up in November.
Now that Eisenhower seems to be moving away from politics, the party is taking steps to promote its new men. But meanwhile, the out-of-power Democrats have been forced to bring along new faces as fast as they could.
The Democrats go into 1960 with a majority in both houses of Congress, a half-dozen potential candidates, and a healthy treasury. The GOP has a long way to go to match that happy state.
—Alan Jones
It Could Be Worse
KU students may now conclude that in spite of piled-up work, this is not the worst of all possible worlds. Some other students have it worse.
In New Jersey Monday, Monmouth College President Edward Schlaefer announced classes would run through Christmas vacation so Monmouth could "stay abreast of the Russians in education."
The students, naturally, rioted. They hung an effigy, threw rocks at it, feathered (no mention of tar) and burned it.
Then they besieged the president in his office and sang "Jingle Bells." No use. Mr. Shlaefer stood four-square for American supremacy, and renamed:
"We must utilize all of our time and facilities in this national emergency to keep up with the Russians."
This drastic step has not been generally considered by other schools, and it's a good thing. If 500 mutinied at Monmouth (enrollment 1,200), what would happen at KU? For that matter, how would our robust cousins at K-State take it?
President Shlaefer's office is on the third floor, and it sounds as if he's gone soft in the upper story.
Just what profound Communist-beating knowledge will be imparted during those two weeks, we don't know. It better be good.
The sanest comment on the whole affair came from former Monmouth president Eugene Leahman. He watched the proceedings with interest, then got up and said he was "glad to see the students of this college stirred up at last."
-A.J.
I had a chat, some weeks ago, with a member of the Music faculty who said, wistfully, that he had not played a note of music for his own pleasure since he came to Kansas. He was referring to the fact that KU does not enjoy the kind of spontaneous and informal music-making which enlivens the campuses of some eastern schools.
Last night's chamber music concert in the Faculty Recital Series, was, of course, an "official" production. But it was at least encouraging to see that there were some on the Swarthout Recital
Hall stage who were having a good time. This is as it should be. Chamber music is a social art.
The program opened uncompromisingly enough. A quartet composed of Raymond Cerf and Theodore O. Johnson Jr., violins; Karel Biasa, viola, and Raymond Stunt, cello, performed Beethoven's wonderful "Serioso" Quartet, Opus 95 in F Minor. It was pretty grim.
This is a brutally difficult work—Beethoven is trying to do more than can be done with a string quartet—and I suppose it would be conventional to say that the
group attempted to play something over its head. But these men are polished professionals, and I should think that they would prefer being treated as such; there should be no need to make excuses for a bad performance. I thought that most of the trouble resulted from a kind of stiffness on the part of the first violin, but the piece was generally ragged, except for the very nicely executed espressivo section of the third movement and the lovingly played fugal portions of the second.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
When the quartet, augmented by piano played by Robert Baustian, returned at the close of the concert to perform another F Minor work, this time by Cesar Franck, the audience was treated to a sensitive and eminently sympathetic reading. Some of the stiffness was still present, but the performance was fluent and thoroughly convincing. This is no mean feat in this work. The cyclical outlines of the Quintet, its characteristic Francian modulations and themes seem forever about to lead into something from the D Minor symphony, and what is logical and moving in the symphony seems a trifle shallow and rhetorical here. It takes impressive musicianship to make the Quintet effective; our recitalists rose to the occasion.
But the high point of the evening was the middle work, Mozart's Quintet K.452 for piano and winds. The performers were a group of students and faculty members: Thomas Gorton, piano; John Walker, oboe; Don Schied, clarinet; Johnny Woody, horn, and Austin Ledwith, bassoon.
The group demonstrated a nice sense of Mozartian phrasing; the tempi were good, and all the piece's bubbling good nature and grace came across clearly. Mr. Ledworth does not have the biggest bassoon tone in the world, but he plays with wit and precision. Dean Gorton allowed just the right amount of flexibility in the piano line, and Mr. Woody can play horn in my orchestra any old day.
Stuart Levine.
Instructor of English
Quill- Well Done
By Bob Harwi
Those responsible for putting together the new issue of Quill may take a low bow. The 40-page magazine, published by the Quill Club, contains some literary efforts that are quite reassuring.
No more than four pages are devoted to any single story or poem. A small job well done seems to have been the goal.
None of the pieces could be called light-hearted. The authors seem to take life pretty seriously.
There seems to be a common thread of loneliness connecting all the stories. The lives of these heroes and heroines are not ideal—it would be so much easier if they just had someone they could really talk to. Has anyone heard that tune before?
"Something to Love," by Del DeShazo, the only tale of the collection with any true passion, is a polished story about a 10-year-old monster who has a hard time distinguishing between love and hate. His adoring mother makes him sick and he doesn't know how to escape her. He indulges in a successful bit of violence—and suddenly wonders if he has the solution to his problem.
"The Harmonies of Night," by Phillip E. Jacka, has an interesting central character and good balance, but it could do with fewer adjectives. It is the story of a young man on the make. He works himself into a situation not exactly undesirable, but then the reader is left to wonder if he will see it through.
"The Edge of the Rain," by Jordan Crittenden, is a gentle story about a little boy who discovers he cannot place his faith in the stories of his older brother. He is a pathetic little figure. But he has youth on his side, though he does not know it, so his tragedy is minor.
"Tell Me About Yourself," a dramatic monologue by Sally O'Brien, lets a gushy dame named Gladys, who tries to be just a bit too acceptable, scare off her date. It is hard to understand why anyone would be roped into a date with this character in the first place, but we'll go along with Miss O'Brien at least that far. There are, we hope, no KU coeds like Gladys.
"The Inferno of Alfred Dalinto," by Lloyd Karnes, builds up a part sinister, part corny, atmosphere but then is damaged in the end by an unfortunate technical device.
"The Leave Taking," by Carolyn Davis, describes a bittersweet moment in the life of a starry-eyed girl.
In the poetry section of the magazine, watch for Karla Rugh's wit in "An Ode to the Id," and the marvelous bitterness of P. Gangdhara Rao in "A Rao Miscellany."
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper
University of Kansas Student Newspaper
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