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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 7, 1957
African Gold Coast—
Red-Letter Day For Ghana
A new nation, adopting an old name, became one of the nine sovereign states of Africa Wednesday. The British Gold Coast, called Ghana after an ancient African empire, became the first Negro nation in the Commonwealth.
Vice President Nixon is there to represent President Eisenhower and the United States at ceremonies celebrating the independence of the former colony. His trip will include visits to other African countries and to Italy.
Ghana, with about 5 million persons, joins the world's free nations as conceivably the most politically advanced of the African countries.
Social reforms have brought a high standard of living compared to the rest of the continent. Half of the children of proper age attend school, and reading classes for adults have reduced illiteracy. There is no hunger, even though there is poverty. Modern medicine has eradicated malaria and yellow fever. Backward tribal customs are disappearing in the wake of new reforms.
Problems caused by racial distinction, such as occur in South Africa, are almost non-existent. There is no color bar. The Gold Coast was once called "the white man's grave" because of rampant disease. Whites came to trade but not to settle, and racial problems were averted. Europeans cannot hold land in any quantity in Ghana.
The idea of democratic reforms for his country has been championed by Prime Minister Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The 47-year-old leader was educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He keeps Communists out of his Convention Peoples Party and has strong and friendly ties with the United States.
Queen Elizabeth will be sovereign of Ghana, and she will appoint a governor general. The new Legislature will have a national assembly of 104 members and a speaker. There will be assemblies in each of Ghana's five regions, and they will have a large degree of local autonomy. The new constitution provides for universal suffrage and the secret ballot.
Tribal feuding may be one of the major deterrents in Ghana's future political development. Two tribes, the Fanti and Ashanti, have fought for centuries. The Ashanti are opposed to Nkrumah and the Convention Peoples Party. Unless the prime minister can win their cooperation, the prosperity of the new nation may be jeopardized.
If Ghana can meet the problems it will inherit with sovereignty, its success will be an inspiration to other African countries feeling stirrings toward self-government.
Dig This Jazz, St. Pete?
—Joan George
The music of Mozart has survived "ragtime," "jazz," "be-bop," and "rock'n roll." But will the modern composers be able to survive these musical fads which draw the interests of the American people?
If today's music is a thing of beauty which will endure forever, the prospect of immortality is a dismal one. The background music of Paradise might well be in the hands of some celestial disc-jockey who became accustomed, during his life below, to be-bop, rock 'n roll, calypso, or so-called serious works written with the effects of airplane propellers, electric bells, a cat's meow, or an automobile horn.
Music should not be something one would want to throw into the trash can after hearing it once. Yet that is exactly what is happening today in most of our concert halls. It has been said that not one-twentieth of the modern classical music written today has a chance for survival.
For the cheap taste in music in the United States, the major blame goes to conscienceeless radio hucksters who interspace their spiels for toothpastes, remedies for acid stomach, and nonhabit-forming sleeping pills with the coarse, vulgar foolish talk of the "pop" platter. By crowding the airwaves with trash, they actually prevent the awareness of what is good.
Too many people hear nothing but jive and sickly sentimental lyrics all day long. Consequently, the radio-program director, having to combat the degenerated taste which he himself has nurtured, can truthfully plead the uncommercial value of good music. The broadcast of a program of Metropolitan Opera Company or of a New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra music is becoming extinct. —Marilyn Mermis
A Thank You To Librarians
The undergraduate library in the basement contains periodicals, daily newspapers, browsing shelves, study tables, and a reserve library.
Many freshmen students tour Watson Library in the fall to become acquainted with the general facilities provided for their use.
The education room on the main floor, above the freshman library, contains reserve books and study tables. Books are not on shelves where a person might read or study them.
At the head of the reference department is a woman named Miss Jovce McLeod.
On the second floor where the main circulation desk is located, a person will find a complete card catalog, Library of Congress listings, foreign book lists, and other reference books.
The north half of the second floor, commonly known as the reference library, contains almost every kind of reference book any person would need.
Recently Miss McLeod told one class in a small lecture room on the third floor about the books in the Reference department. Miss McLeod
performed a small feat that day when she talked about seven classes of reference books.
The classes were handbooks, directories, concise books, encyclopedias, biographies, indices, and documents.
Miss McLeod mentioned 52 books and explained generally something about each one. In one regular class period of 50 minutes, she talked about each book for an average of 48.6 seconds.
It is doubtful that Miss McLeod ever gets much thanks or appreciation from students who ask for necessary reference information. References supplied by her may never be written in the final draft of a paper.
Somewhere there should be a special place reserved for appreciation of reference librarians. It seems that a reference librarian is the link between present and past information, and the present and future information.
The geographical center of the United States is near Lebanon in Kansas.
John Battin
. . . 25 Years Ago
Dean D. M. Swarthout, head of the School of Fine Arts, will present to the "Hall of Fame" collection of framed celebrities now hanging in the corridors of the University Auditorium, an autographed photo of John Philip Sousa which the bandmaster had given him.
March 7.1932
. . .
The Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals are playing an exhibition "World Series" at their camps in the south. In the second
game of this series the Cardinals started their famous rookie Dizzy Dean. Dean, who had been touted very highly, was driven from the mound by the Athletics who made six runs in one inning.
Better Believe It!
Don't drive on another guy's bumper, - it might be your end!
Ad: Why not spend two of the five dollars you'd ordinarily spend for a big evening's entertainment and enjoy four hours of dancing in a real collegiate atmosphere, with a famous recording band for your entertainment. The Junior Prom.
Jim Tree
Jim Tice
Don't smoke in bed—the ashes you leave may be your own.
—Groucho Marx
Daily Hansan
From the eastern boundary to the west the vertical relief of Kansas rises nearly 3,000 feet.
University of Kansas student newspaper
trifweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912,
trifweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912,
Member Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated Collegeate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. News service: United Press. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published at The University of Kansas. Mon–Tuesday noon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan. post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Telephone Vikling 3-2700
Extension 251, news room
Extension 376, business office
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Kent Thomas ... Managing Editor
John Battin, Felicia Ann Fenberg, Bob
Lyle, Betty Jean Stanford, Assistant
Managing Editor; Jim Banman, City
Manager; Chris McKinnon, Merriman,
Assistant City Editor; Hireshi
Shionozaki, Telegraph Editor;
Mary Beth Noye, Delbert Haley, Ass-
istant Telegraph Editor; Dick Brown,
Sports Editor; George Anthan, Assi-
stant Sports Editor; Marlyn Mermis,
Society Editor; Pat Swanson, Asso-
nt Society Editor; John Eaton, Picture
Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Jerry Dawson ... Editorial Editor
Jerry Thomas, Jim Tice, Associate Editors.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Dale Beckey, Advertising Manager; John Dave Dickey, Advertising Manager; John Hedley, National Advertising Manager; Harold Metz, Classified Advertising Manager; Conboy Brown, Circulation Manager.
Dance
to the music
of
JIMMY DORSEY
at
THE GREEK WEEK DANCE
Saturday, March 9
Everybody Welcome
Admission $3.00 Per Couple
8:30-12:30 -- Student Union Ballroom