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University Daily Kansan Wednesday. Dec. 12, 1956
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A Journalist Shouldn't Be Neutral
Kansas Newspaper Viewpoint
A neutral campus newspaper is a poor laboratory for training reporters and editors. American newspapers have a noble tradition of championing the cause of good government and social reform and freedom. They have had a dynamic part in creating the American way of life. The history of American journalism is filled with the stories of brave publishers, editors and reporters who dared to take sides.
Burton W. Marvin, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information, has declared that it is absolutely essential that the Daily Kansan "remain neutral in all political situations."
We wonder what the great Emporia editor, who was seldom neutral about anything, would think of such a dictum.
- Can a man be neutral about Communism, for example? We think not. Many persons and nations have tried and failed. Such "neutrals" all have deep pink complexions. If you aren't against Communism, you're for it, at least in a passive way.
And yet surely the philosophy of neutrality is a subject that should not be taught in any institution of higher learning. This is not a neutral world. This is an intensely partisan world in which men must take sides whether they want to or not. Men who do not ally themselves with right causes automatically become the enemies of justice, decency and good order.
It is easy to understand Dean Marvin's point of view. He is in a ticklish spot because the University is a tax-supported institution. If a student journalist whipped out some sophomoric bit of political writing that offended powerful persons, the dean would take the rap.
Think of William Lloyd Garrison, the editor who risked his life again and again in his fight against slavery. And, on the other side, remember the noble Memphis Appeal, which would not quit
publishing when the Yanks took the city. The Appeal loaded its presses in freight cars and continued to plead the South's cause, sometimes printing its papers while under bombardment from Federal guns. It fled through the South and surrendered in the final days of the war when its last scrap of newsprint was gone.
Think of Joseph Pulitzer, the Hungarian immigrant, who founded the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a weapon to support and enhance the American freedom he so earnestly loved. And William Allen White, who battled so long and well in behalf of Kansas civilization and who never hesitated to tackle powerful and entrenched prejudice, ignorance and arrogance. And Ernie Pyle, who went with the soldiers so that Americans could know the names and the fates of the men who were fighting their war.
The U. S. Census for 1880 shows 130 colleges and universities with libraries of over 10,000 volumes.
There are, of course, neutral newspapers and neutral newspapermen. We are reminded of one bored, cynical editor of such a paper who said, "We're neutral. We take our stand between right and wrong."
And think of—But their name is legion. Some of the great newspapermen became rich and famous. Some of them played humble parts and were unknown outside their home towns. But all of them made themselves and their profession respected.
They were all partisan men. We defy Dean Marvin to name one man who has brought honor to journalism by being neutral.
America doesn't need such people in any field. A school of journalism should, we think, teach its students how to fight by writing. It should teach them how to choose the better cause and support it effectively. It should teach them, not to be bored hacks, but to be great, smart, able editors and reporters in the noble American tradition.
Letters Defends Critic Theater Comment
The attempt to misrepresent opinion regarding The Daily Kansan's drama critic, Tom Sawyer, by a number of letters is pathetically apparent.
If there were some effort to make this campaign even vaguely subtle, it would be less tedious.
These discerning persons have taken on the task of learning the true purpose and service of the critic and criticism—which is not only to say that what is good is good, but to tell how something may be enhanced.
Persons who have taken the trouble to find out that Mr. Sawyer did not consider himself an expert on Federico Lorca, but took much time and effort to learn of Lorca and his plays from A. V. Ebersole of the department of Romance languages, who was a student of one of Lorca's associates.
Mr. Ebersole is an expert on Lorca, his plays (in the original Spanish) and their backgrounds. With Mr. Sawyer he devoted considerable of his time so that readers of The Kansan who planned to attend "The House of Bernarda Alba" would be better prepared to understand and appreciate what Lorca said in his works.
Mr. Sawyer is more mature in years, experience and understanding than those who were led to criticize him. His article was printed as a feature in The Kansan before the opening of "Bernarda Alba."
An interesting point which should be taken is that the only humor calculated by Lorca (according to those who know) is in the form of pure irony and not in any lower, less subtle, form.
Entertainment is not always something which evokes guffaws. Pathos, irony, etc., are also a part of the thing called entertainment.
Those who take part in drama should realize that a University audience shows a certain degree of appreciation by being present. A newspaper expresses its appreciation by bothering to review a production. The cast cannot expect to run very far on the mere fact that they have put on a play. It is the
The first attempts to organize baseball teams in Kansas occurred in the spring of 1866.
Editor:
I would like to say a few words about the recent production of the University Theater, "The House of Bernarda Alba." To many people the play had (as the director predicted on some of his thoughts in the program), a stark and heady theme, with its characters too far away from our realm of experience.
—The Wichita Beacon
The author, Federico Garcia Lorca, follows this pattern in three of his plays: "The House of Bernarda Alba," which is a drama of virginity; "Yerma," which is a drama of frustrated maternity; and "Bloody Wedding," which is a drama of defeated maternity.
In these plays, Lorca tries to revive the concept of honor which the Spanish people had in the 17th century, as expressed by Calderon and Lope de Vega, among others. This concept of exaggerated honor, was never justly comprehended outside Spain; and even in Spain it came to be unappreciated when the Spaniards started admitting norms of life which were opposed to that of their grandparents.
So it is of no wonder that to a non-spanish audience, in this century of the atomic age, that sentimen of honor, in the form of a mother who deprives her daughters from living because her concept of life is contrary to nature, may seem out of place.
However I think that Lorca, as an intellectual of our time, did convey a message in the play. In line with ancient tragedy, he offers a "transparent" style, which fits the modern demands of the spirit.
Federico Garcia Lorca was a very good friend of the painter Salvador Dali, of the composer Manuel de Falla, and of the bullfighter Sanchez Mejia. The influence of these men on Lorca, can be detected in many of his works.
responsibility of the cast to entertain the audience after it arrives. It is the responsibility of the press to review it according to its merits.
Mike Cardenas
Chihuahua, Mexico graduate student
Kansas City, Kan., senior
Jim Tice
Official Opposes Give-Away Policy
He said the federal agriculture marketing service aids in these programs, but does not always match costs in every stage.
TOPEKA — (UP) — Roy Freeland, head of the state board of agriculture, told members of Gov.elect George Docking's budget committee Tuesday that "government give-away programs are not the whole answer to the farm problem."
Mr. Freeland said, for example, the government matches 50-50 on some marketing programs aimed at developing new uses for farm products and new merchandising production—but not all.
He said the state bears the cost alone in some research projects such as "merchandising the farmers products, better packing, getting his goods on the market and getting them accepted by the public"
University of Kansas student newspaper
truweekly 1908, daily. Jan. 16, 1912.
truweekly 1908, daily. Jan. 16, 1912.
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