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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Nov. 5. 1958
Back to Work
The national elections are over for another two years, and the nation can take a breather from its strenuous efforts of the past few months.
Offices, shops, and classrooms can go back to the normal schedule that was interrupted by the World Series and the fall campaigns, and even year enemies can speak to each other again.
The United States, despite a consistently low percentage of voters, takes a great interest in its politics. There is a fair amount of mudsling and irresponsibility, but campaigns on the whole are waged on a reasonable level. They get only moderately vicious.
The strain that comes with November splits families, breaks up office car pools, and disrupts bridge clubs. But the American tendency is to forget the differences shortly after the election.
This is preferable, we think, to the system in some other countries, where feuding partisans hold a year-round vendetta.
Politics is a fascinating game, in America and throughout the world. We take it less seriously
than some other nations, but then we can afford to.
Fortunately, the system set up in our Constitution and in our body of law is almost proofoil. (Some of the fools we have elected over the years prove that.) No matter who wins, the country will not to go to hell in a hod, nor will the government become a helpless captive of special interests.
Whichever party wins, there is always the system to hem it in and hold it fairly close to the American tradition.
True, there have been radical changes in this century. Government has changed from a minimum government to one that approaches the welfare state in many ways.
But unlike many nations, our revolution has come about within the normal system—by ballot, by amendment, and by law. We have never had a blood purge (barring the Civil War), nor a coup d'etat.
The guys that laid things out back in 1787 had a pretty good idea of what they were doing.
-Al Jones
Return of the Natives
Just a short reminder, if you can shake the election thoughts out of your head momentarily. This is Homecoming Week at KU.
Starting about Friday, thousands of old grads will pour into Lawrence (a few will have to be poured in) to visit the campus they remember so well.
For alumni who have missed a few years, there will be a lot of shocks. Stouffer Place, new dormitories, construction of a new business building —maybe most of all, the dried remains of Potter Lake—will cause nostalgic sighs among the alums. Back when only a few students had cars, the lake was the logical campus rendezvous for couples, and the site of many a proposal.
Then there is the drive around Lawrence—the house decorations, the end-of-season, maple
trees,the traditional bumpy brick streets of town.
On Friday, in rapid succession, there is the freshman football game with Missouri, the freshman-varsity basketball game, and a special performance of "The King and I."
When the visitors return to the campus, they will find a heavy schedule laid on for the weekend.
On Homecoming Day, there is the morning for meeting old friends and recovering from Friday, the Nebraska football game—core of Homecoming—and the Homecoming Dance, topped by the music of the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and ruled by the Homecoming Queen.
Enough to satisfy the most energetic alumnus. And by the way-students may attend all these, too. A. J.
Editor:
...Letters ...
A sudden, unexpected appendectomy delayed the completion and delivery of the following item to you.
The caption for the front page article on the Nobel Prize in physics (Oct. 28) apparently should have read "RUSSIANS BLAST EIN-STEIN'S THEORY." For indeed the UWI would have its unsuspecting lay readers believe that Pavel Cherenkov has achieved what Einstein's general relativity theory holds to be impossible:
"Light was created when radiation accelerated electrons in the water, driving them up to a velocity greater than the speed of light."
Russians have achieved some startling successes in physics, but this is not among them. Stanford University has a linear electron accelerator capable of accelerating electrons to one billion electron volts, yet even these fantastic energies fail to drive electrons beyond the speed of light.
The simple explanation is that no measurable velocity can exceed that of the speed of light, and as the above enormous energies are poured into the electron, it increases in mass according to the now-famous equation. $E = mc^2$.
Vive l'Einstein!
Alvin F. Shinn
Lawrence graduate
student
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
Short Ones
Well, the elections are over, so there's a new shortage of radicals, reactionaries, and crooks. The candidates have returned to being just people.
The campus hermit still hasn't found a buyer for his case lot of Bull Moose buttons. Now he has to wait until 1960.
Unemployment is due to take an upswing this month. Half those candidates will be looking for work.
Dailu hansan
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Malcolm Applegate ... Managing Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Irvine  Business Manager
HUMAN APPPLICATION ... BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BILL WORKER
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Al Jones     Editorial Editor
It Looks This Way...
By George DeBord
Some fads like the hula-hoop sweep across the country with the speed of a jet fighter. Other fads crawl and never achieve wide recognition. Gamesmanship is one of the crawlers.
Gamesmanship is the art of making people feel uncomfortable. Here is an example:
The gamesman joins a party of three or four persons who are telling drunk jokes. After a particularly funny story which makes the drunk look ridiculous, the gamesman fails to join in the laughter.
When the others in the group stop laughing, the gamesman excuses himself, and says:
"I've got to go down to the A.A. My brother is taking the cure, you know."
There are numerous opportunities for the gamesman around college circles. This sequence happened last week at an informal gathering at the Hawk's Nest.
The student gathering was discussing marriage and finances.
Gamesman: "I guess you're right. Well, I have to go now. I'm supposed to meet my wife at the loan company at 5 o'clock."
Spokesman: "I don't see how the married guys make it. How can they go to school and support a family. They must live like pigs. I couldn't live on the skimpy budgets they stare on."
While downtown last night watching the election returns, we witnessed a perfect example of unconscious gamesmanship.
Shortly after the returns indicated a sizeable majority for a local politician, the winner began telling a bystander why he had won.
"I couldn't lose," he said. "Nobody would vote for a bum like my opponent.
opponent.
"I don't know where he got the nerve to run. He probably bribed the party for the nomination. I hear he hasn't got a friend in this town."
"Oh. I don't know," said the bystander, "He's my uncle and our family likes him real well."
Anyone can master the art with a little practice. Gamesmanship is based on the subtle reply. The object is to make a person uncomfortable while this person is laughing at faults in others.
The politician slithered away. The bystander, unknowingly, had exhibited all the traits of a full-fledged gamesman.
A KU gamesman has this advice for beginners;
"Be constantly on the alert for people who slam things. The perfect squelch is the life-blood of a gamesman.
"When someone tears down sports cars, tell him you own one
"When he tells you hula-hoops are ridiculous, tell him that you have a lot of fun with yours."
Tell him anything—misery loves company.
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