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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Oct. 31, 1958
Election Day
In just a few days it will be time to go to the polls. For many students it will be the first time.
We are not talking about anything as minor league as a popularity contest to elect the queen of Phi Poo or an LMOC. We are referring to the state and national elections Tuesday.
Even if you are not interested, the current campaign is difficult to ignore. Every medium has been used to publicize the campaign and its issues. Radio, television and newspapers follow the candidates as they vie for the citizen's vote. Even car bumpers proclaim "vote no on amendment three."
All this is not just a lot of talk over a lot of foolishness. Among the questions to be decided will be whether the people will re-elect Democratic Gov. George Docking or if Kansas will return to its traditional Republicanism by electing Clyde Reed Jr.
It will also be decided whether Republican E. P. Scrivner will return to the House of Representatives or if Democratic Newell A. George will take his seat.
Nov. 4 will also be the day that the controversial right to work amendment will be decided.
If you do not know about what is going on in the campaign you should do one of two things. Either learn about the candidates and the amendments or do not vote.
There is no question that not enough Americans take part in the democratic process of choosing their government. Butthe solution lies in an electorate of greater quality, not quantity.
This may seem like a shocking thing to say after the posters, billboards, radio announcements and precinct workers, all urging every citizen to get out and vote.
It is worse to be an ignroant voter than to be a non-voter.
So if you have kept awake during the campaign, taken note of the candidates, their platforms and qualifications and know the pros and cons on all the amendments up for decision, go to the polls and cast your ballot.
If not it would be better to stay away from the polls. —Martha Crosier
The Off-Year Invasion
Late autumn, an off-year election, and most Americans were speculating on the size of the Democratic majority and wondering when jobs would open up.
The United States was recovering from an economic setback, and the rest of the world seemed unimportant, despite occasional news stories about new super-weapons and the continued threat of war.
Sunday evening, October 30th, a series of news broadcasts came over the radio—"A space ship has landed in New Jersey." "We have been invaded by Martians...police and Army troops are being rushed..."
The year was 1938, and it was Orson Welles' now-famous broadcast of "War of the Worlds," a science-fiction novel resurrected for a Halloween show.
Although the show started with an announcement that it was a dramatic presentation, thousands of listeners went into a full swivet.
Citizens on the East Coast swamped switchboards with telephone calls. Many Jerseyites
bundled into cars and fled through the night, heading west away from the Martians.
The next morning, the nation looked sheepishly at itself and its unthinking panic, and went back to work with mixed anger and chagrin.
Shortly after, a federal law was passed forbidding phony news broadcasts. Welles, the network, and radio in general became suspect and were berated around the nation for causing the shock.
The people have not yet forgotten that October night when they were flummoxed. Three years later, the news of Pearl Harbor was discredited by many who remembered the Martian invasion.
But if the panic was great in a year when rocket warfare was something only crackpots took seriously—think what that broadcast could do today.
A hoax broadcast today—if it were not for the lingering memory of the first one—would make the 1938 panic look like a sack race at a company picnic.
Perhaps we should be glad it happened them.
—Al Iones.
—Al Jones
Words and Phrases
... Letters ...
Editor:
This is by no means original but was taken from a reprint from the Floriipiper. The Flori Pipe Company, St. Louis, some time back. Thought you might find it of value since some of the vocabulary gets
generous use here on the campus.
Thomas A. Webster
Kansas City, Mo., graduate student
BUSINESSMAN'S VOCABULARY
A PROGRAM — Any assignment that can't be completed by
one telephone call.
TO EXPEDITE — To confound confusion with commotion.
CHANNELS — The trail left by interoffice memos.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
COORDINATOR — The guy who has a desk between two expediters.
— AN' WHY NOT A BIG HEAD? I CRAMMED ALL NITE FOR THIS TEST.!
TO IMPLEMENT A PROGRAM
— Hire more people and expand the office.
A CONFERENCE - A place where conversation is substituted for the dreariness of labor and the loneliness of thought.
UNIMPEACHABLE SOURCE The guv who started the rumor originally.
UNDER CONSIDERATION —
Never heard of it.
THE ISSUE IS CLOSED — I'm tired of the whole affair.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904.
Published weekly from 1912 to 1956.
Telephone Viking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association,
Associated Collegiate Press. Represen-
ted by National Advertising Service,
420 Madison Ave., New York.
National service representative to
international subscription rates: $3
a semester or $4.50 a year. Published
in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon
during the University year except
Saturdays and Sundays, University
holidays, and examination periods. Entere
as second-class matter Sept. 17.
01.01 at 8:30am. Under cover of uni-
tory under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Molecular Analysis Molecular Biology
Malcolm Applegate  Managing Editor
KLEINES, DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Irvine .. Business Manager
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Al Jones  Editorial Editor
Pennsylvania Trends
The two main races in Pennsylvania involve a professional politician, a pretzel manufacturer, a Phi Beta Kappa and a chicken farmer.
The gubernatorial campaign pits the mayor of Pittsburgh, David L. Lawrence—a Democrat with big-business support—against Arthur T. McGonigle, a greenhorn Republican who seems to be lost in the political shuffle.
The close fight is for the Senate. The youthful Democratic governor, George Leader, and Congressman Hugh Scott are waging what appears to be the main event.
Both parties are counting on their strong candidates to pull the weaker ones through. In Pennsylvania, the strong runners are Lawrence and Scott.
Democratic Lawrence earned fame by a highly successful urban redevelopment program during his four-year reign in Pittsburgh. During this time he showed an ability to work with businessmen which endeared him to these normally strong Republicans. An old guard politician, he has spent most of his life in the game.
His opponent, pretzel maker McGonigle, not only lacks strong businessmen's support, but is not a polished campaigner. In a speech before the Pennsylvania Tavern Assn. (PTA), he mistook the group for a parent-teacher gathering, and condemned taverns for selling liquor to minors.
In the Senate race, Republican Scott (the Phi Beta Kappa) holds the edge over Leader. Scott has 16 years as representative from Philadelphia's elite 6th district.
Chicken farmer Leader began his political career eight years ago in the State Senate and jumped to the governorship after stumping every Pennsylvania county. Leader is known for his easy-going manner. He shows a capacity for being pushed around, for the state sales tax doubled within a year after his 1956 promise to have it repealed.
Ten years ago, state Republicans claimed a million more voters than the Democrats, but the edge has dwindled to a mere 269,000 with the tide still turning.
Should the Democrats sweep the election, they will own both Senate seats and the governor's chair for the first time since 1860.
So far, the Republicans are campaigning against Democratic bossism and crime. Scott, a strong campaigner, is concentrating on the normally Democratic Jewish and Negro populations.
The Democrats are taking issue on unemployment, a big problem in Pennsylvania.
Political experts say the Democrats have a 100,000 majority at present, attributed to party changes and new registrations. The Democrats must carry Pittsburgh and Philadelphia heavily to offset Republican strength in the suburbs, rural counties and some mid-state cities. John Husar
The BIG SURPRISE Is Almost Here
And now, featuring a new and more delicious hot chocolate Only 10c a Cup
Meanwhile Enjoy Delicious HOMEMADE PIE 20c—CHILI 35c
The Blue Hills Drive-In
1601 E. 23rd St.
HALLOWEEN DANCE
Trail Room Kansas Union
OCTOBER 31
9-11 p.m.
Music by the Collegians
No Admission Charged