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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Oct. 9, 1958
Censorship in the U.S.A.
Three items in the news this week point to a disturbing trend of recent times. Apparently unrelated, they actually all show various degrees of actual or attempted censorship.
First, President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles issued warnings that criticism of the Administration policy in the Far East was weakening the United States and aiding the enemy.
Monday, the U.S.S.R. ambassador to the United States made a complaint about a TV drama uncomplimentary to Russia, and said he expected our government to see that such "insults" were not repeated.
On the campus, the University administration has said that financial records for Sunnyside housing are closed and will not be available.
Censorship is a nasty word, and it is rarely mentioned. Instead, we hear about "national security" and "University policy." It all adds up to the same thing.
The basic facts are thess; The power of government comes from the people. The people have, therefore, a right to know what their government is doing. That right is guaranteed to some extent in the Bill of Rights.
The State Department and the University are both government organizations. What they do is of interest to the people concerned. Those happen to be you and me.
There is an alarming growth of the practice of suppressing facts which might be embarrassing to officials, under one pretext or another.
The University administration is officially in favor of a strong student government.
The administration has also forbidden (so far) a student committee to examine records which are both pertinent and essential to its work.
If the administration has a sound reason for these conflicting policies, we would like to hear it.
-A. J.
Let's Celebrate!
The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, alias the hucksters' friend, has issued its trade promotion calendar again.
The C. C. has given all of us more than 400 occasions to celebrate, and you'll need a running start to keep up.
Don't think this is just the second week in October or the fourth week of school. This is National Letter Writing Week, National Better Living Week and International (wow!) Pizza Week. Presumably, you Live Better if you eat Pizza, and if you get indigestion you Write a Letter to the International Pizza Makers.
Before long it will be Save the Horse Week
(Oct. 12-18) followed by Pass the Laugh Week (Oct. 19-24)—a horse laugh, perhaps?—with its Father-in-Law Day (Oct. 20).
Following International Cat Week and Save a Wife Week (hmm) will come National Long Underwear Week (Nov. 16-23). With Cats, Wives, and Long Underwear boosting the economy, we usher in National Prosperity Week (Dec. 1-7).
Even if you celebrate all these you've missed 350 others between now and New Year's (National Smile Week, Portable Radio Week, etc.).
But don't worry about it. Just as sure as death and commercials, there will be even more next year. Jack Fenton
A Short Hurrah
Editor:
B. Dean Alexander's letter to the editor in the October 1st UDK should be printed in capitals on the front page of every university newspaper.
Amen, Mr. Alexander, amen.
Wichita sophomore
Flaw in the House?
Editor:
Theoretically, both our national and state governments are built upon the principle of representative democracy. However, the structure of the Kansas House of
... Letters ...
Representatives seems to refute this American ideal.
For example Sedgwick County, which has a population of 325,000, has three representatives while Greeley, Wallace and Starton Counties, with a combined population of 6,000, have an equal number. Is this true representative democracy?
Furthermore, this unequal distribution is not limited to Sedgwick County, but is common throughout the state. Its onerous effects are felt with equal injustice in Shawnee, Johnson, and Wyandotte counties. These last three share a population of 450,000 and elect merely seven representatives. Thus, 36 per cent of the state's citizens have 8 per cent of the representation.
This gerrymandering by neglect is the result of the Kansas Legislature's refusal to amend our antiquated constitution or to call a constitutional revision convention. No reapportionment of the House has occurred since 1909 when Kansas was predominantly rural. This is no longer true, for the majority of Kansans live in cities. We would do well to recall what S. A. Kingman, a former chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, said in 1900—"This is a government of men, not acres."
"OKEY WHO'S TH' WISEGUY?"
Shannon R. Brown Topeka senior
Short Ones
This is a time of decision for the coeds. Whether to wear ski sweaters for the early classes, or Bermudas for afternoon.
We're a little leery of taking a trip to the moon 20 years from now. We can't even take a bus to the big city without losing the baggage check.
Neither party has committed itself on the "Right to Work" bill, but reports have it both sides are for home, patriotism, and apple pie.
Telephone VIkling 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEFARMENT
Malcolm Applegate ... Managing Editor
BUSINESS MANAGER
Bill Irvine Business Manager
FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Al Jones  Editorial Editor
It Looks This Way...
By Al Jones
Some of the mail we get here is excellent humor, though very little of it is intended to be.
For instance, this week we got a "press statement" from the International Union of Students, which looks like a Red front, party line group if ever there was one.
The statement is a properly proletarian mimeographed job, with a fancy six-language letterhead and a nobby emblem off to the side. One tipoff is the dateline—the letter is printed in Praha., which is the natives' term for Prague.
You can read most of the first page, and very dull reading it is, before it strikes you that something is wrong. Then you start seeing phrases like "imperialist aggression" and "exploitation by foreign monopolies."
Well, we wanted to go along with the gag, so we hunted up our hip boots and waded into the dialectic. This student meeting was held in Peiping, and the kids decided:
To fight for peace (such a quaint phrase); to fight for co-existence; to fight for a halt to nuclear tests (obviously, this was before Russia started her latest series); to fight against "imperialist domination" (one thing you've got to admit—when they get hold of a ringing phrase, they hold on until it thunders); and so on, far, far into the wee hours.
The specific plans of the "congress" were to demand withdrawal of Anglo-American forces in the Middle East (no mention of our Soviet brothers in Hungary); to halt U. S. aggressive and provocative acts off the Chinese mainland (page 7, revised Party handbook for 1958); abolition of nuclear weapons and destruction of existing stockpiles (page 4, ibid.).
Well, those students always had a great little sense of humor. We may start subscribing to this instead of the Harvard Lampoon. Have another meeting soon, fellas, and don't forget to write.
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