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University Daily Kansan Tuesday. Oct. 28, 1958
And They Call Us Educated
A new campaign technique has covered Lawrence like a heavy, semi-literate dew. We presume the rest of the state has also received the favors of Kansans for Right To Work.
Friday's mail, for most of us, contained a small comic book, on pulp paper but with trimmed edges and in four colors. This 16-page booklet expounds, in its simple way, the virtues of voting for right to work.
It does this indirectly, through a hypothetical case study of some union goon squad activities. That the amendment cannot cure labor racketeering ills is blithely ignored.
The title of this masterpiece is "Naked Force!" and that is their exclamation mark, not ours. In brief, this is the story:
There are these two working stiffs named George Earner and John Workman (typical midwestern names) who get their houses bombed because Workman tried to go through a wildcat picket line and the wife and kids are out on the street crying and the strike is because a shop steward was fired for smoking at work and starting a fire and the picket line is all ugly goons who talk out of the corner of their mouths and then good old John and George hold a meeting of workers who decide their union is no damn good and they should go vote for right to work so they won't get bombed anymore and "I'll bet this right to work would keep our union
president tending to union business?" and then come some testimonials from people including some who are dead and can't defend themselves like Sam Gompers and F.D.R. and Earner says we shouldn't worry about free-loaders if the only other choice is to sacrifice our freedom, which is about as simple as you can put an issue.
Except for unavoidable phrases about constitutions and unionism and compulsion, the whole thing is made up pretty solidly of one-syllable words. The book is an admirable attempt to clarify the issue so that only one side is presented.
"Some union leaders twist the facts about right to work to hold on to the personal power compulsory membership gives them..." says Earner, with an expression of outraged justice on his face.
The comic book does not say that this "Naked Force!" takes place in Kansas, but the good guys all decide that since Kansas is voting on right to work they should find out all they can about right to work principles. "People have a right to know," says earnest Earner, "—freedom is at stake!"
We cannot help feeling a little put out by this assault on our intelligence. When we are sent 16 pages of monosyllables and pictures reminiscent of Superman cartoons, we somehow feel the publishers have a low opinion of our ability to grasp a situation without having a picture drawn for us. Al Jones
As We Were Saying
I thought, or rather hoped, that the booing at the KU-OU football game was an impulsive reaction which was later regretted by everyone.
However, it seems that some people are actually proud of this childish behavior. One can hold nothing but contempt for those people who judge school spirit by how much we boo.
Dennis Jackman
Prairie Village freshman
Chastised
Editor:
Where does an alien go to register at KU? I can't possibly attend another KU football game until I've learned a little more about the standard procedure of the KU student body and fans. I have discovered the basic rules of conduct are:
1. Sit quietly during the game unless you feel the need to join in the booing chorus which performs at frequent intervals, or unless there is a kick-off.
...Letters...
2. Never show any enthusiasm or cheer for the team, even though they are playing their hearts out.
3. If the cheerleaders lead a cheer, sit sedately back and watch their performances.
Now, if there are others, would you kindly print a list so I may properly join the KU fans come Saturday?
If you want a winning team, you will have to prove it to me by showing some participation in Saturday's game. I'm convinced the team and coach will come through with their best. That's good enough for me—but you, well, I'm just not sure!
Mrs. Naomi Johnso $ ^{12} $
Sunnyside
There is no question that the editorial department desires a good football team. Although it consists of two healthy individuals, it sincerely doubts it could have any effect on Saturday's game—participating or not—Ed.
Patriotism
Editor:
I would like to protest the practice of flying the United States flag on Fraser Hall at night. According to Public Law 829, passed by the 77th Congress on Dec. 22, 1942, the flag may be flown only from sunrise to sunset, weather permitting. The only exceptions to this are that it may fly 24 hours a day over the White House, the U. S. Capitol, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore, or upon special occasions when it is desired to produce a patriotic effect. Since Fraser Hall doesn't seem to come under any of these categories, I think that the matter should be looked into.
Wavne C. Wolsey Battle Creek, Mich. graduate student
The Kansan contacted a professor of law who said the universal custom is to fly the flag only during the day. He added, special congressional resolution permits Fort McHenry the honor of displaying Old Glory around the clock.-Ed.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"GRAB A PENIL MISS GRAVES — IVE JUST FOUND AN EXEELLENT ESSAY QUESTION!"
Short Ones
Brigitte Bardot says that she doesn't want to meet Elvis because he's "uncool." For such a statement anyone else would be considered a real square, but that description just doesn't fit Brigitte.
The Saturday game spirit was aided considerably by an ever-increasing rain of confetti as various game scores were announced and the students started tearing up their parlay cards.
Daily hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
triweekly 1908, daily. Jan. 16, 1912.
trieweekly 1908, daily. Jan. 16, 1912.
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College of Business and International Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Entrance to campus beginning Sept. 1910, at Lawrence, Kan. post office under act of Mariefc 3, 1879.
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Malcolm Applegate ... Managing Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Irvine Business Manager
Books in Review
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Al Jones ... Editorial Editor
By Calder M. Pickett Assistant Professor of Journalism
HERBLOCK'S SPECIAL FOR TODAY, by Herbert Block, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1958. $3.95.
The Eisenhower Crusade, Phase No. 2—secrecy, China policy, Middle East, Little Rock, Nixon, budget, gas and oil lobbies—has been chronicleled the past three years for readers of the Washington Post by cartoonist Herbert Block. That chronicle of savage, witty, searching cartoons is now out in book form.
It is not likely to please good Republicans, organization men who approve of what Herblock calls "togetherness in politics," or apologists for Faubus. Or those who have been convinced since November 1952 that the Holy Land was being rescued and the sacred Grail wrested from the grasp of the corrupt infidels, the Democrats.
Herblock's story of the crusade is told in both cartoons and text, the latter occasionally seeming superfluous alongside the biting drawings that require little explanation or analysis. There are few heroes in these pages, few who come off easily, except for the overburdened grade school teacher (a mother in a crowded classroom urging special attention for her Johnny), the average citizen (his watchdogs—government regulatory commissions—letting the burglars in and out). Miss Liberty.
But there are many villains. Over and above all others there is his symbol of the hydrogen bomb, a Frankenstein monster that tosses a baby labeled "nuclear fallout danger" while his boss, the AEC, comments that there is nothing to worry about. Another is the Red assassin of Hungarian liberty.
The President, of course, is no hero to the left-of-center Herblock. He is the cartoonist's "Administration," inept, seldom at home, full of bland good will, saying "How do you do" to the symbol of peace as she heads over treacherous waterfalls in a boat labeled "Middle East Situation." He is the President's face on the Great Sphinx, saying "Let's Go Slower" on the question of desegregation, or the President throwing a memorial wreath to a drowning "school bill."
Dulles is another villain, being led by Chiang Kai-shek, and preceding the President and Uncle Sam, through an alligator-filled swamp. Elsewhere, in a Superman costume, he is shown pushing Uncle Sam to the brink.
And there is Nixon, flexibility personified, a huckster who can support any and every program, a lazy cat sleeping in the California sun, waiting out the Knowland-Knight battle. He is the young man wondering which clothes to wear today—his Dead End gang outfit, his All America boy sweater, his "Look, folks—I'm a statesman" dress suit, his "political pitchman" checked coat.
The McCarthy era had passed before the time span of this new collection, but McCarthyism lingered in the security risk disputes. The Supreme Court ruling on integration was handed down in 1954, but its fruits are demonstrated in these pages—Faubus turning loose the crocodile of racial violence, Eastland defying the Supreme Court, sneering at the oath to defend and support the Constitution.
Most of all, "Herblock's Special for Today" is concerned with the spirit of the late 1950s. Herblock sees a period in which the testimony of professional informers has held sway in congressional circles. He sees executive inactivity that has produced a period of temporary ascendancy of the legislative branch. He sees rampant lobbying, unchecked power in some labor unions, a foreign policy of breathtaking climbs to, and from, the summit, of a one-man State Department in a world on fire. He sees bureaucratic delays in the age of Sputnik.
But always it's the Great Crusade, mounting the bastions, banners furled—"Only God can make a tree." "The dog is a noble animal," "M-O-T-H-E-R spells mother," and "There's no place like home."
Before Winter. . .
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