1. 2023年1月1日
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University Daily Kansan Friday, Oct. 12, 1950
Don't Let Them Call You Common
The following column is by Bill Baggs, Miami (Fla.) Daily News columnist. It was written to his six year old son who was starting his first year in school.
Little Man, today is Doomsday! You got to go to school. Forever and ever you got to go to school. And when you don't have to go to school anymore you will be old. Maybe 21 or 22.
Now as you ramble through this eternity, over and over you are going to hear two words. One of them is "common" and the other one is "man." The two words are always forged together in this enlightened society. "Common Man." Just like "Yoyo."
"Common Man" will ever be presented to you as something fine. As you grow up, the men and women who contend for public office are likely to identify themselves as representatives of the "Common Man."
Indeed, Little Man, many of the politicians at the stump anchor their candidacy on the boast that they are all Common Men.
Perhaps many of the ills of the society can be traced to the Common Man we have elected to office.
I submit to you, Little Man, that contrary to everything good you hear about the Common Man, you should never aspire to be one. This also applies to the cousins of the Common Man. They are known as the Little Man and the Average Man. Whatever, you do, don't join the family.
The political appeals you hear from the fellow who says he is a Common Man, just like you and the crowd, are insults. They are cheap attempts to net your vote on the single appeal that they are just plain, ordinary, simple, honest dumbjohns like you.
What we need in our country is un-Common Men. I recall a campaign in 1950 between the late Robert A. Taft and Joe Ferguson. The two men were contesting for the senate in Ohio. One day, Mrs. Taft represented her husband and followed Mr. Ferguson on the platform.
As I remember, Mr. Ferguson asked me for the vote on the single appeal that he was a Common Man. He had been cut out of the herd by the state political committee and in that sense, he was a Common Man. Mrs. Taft followed and her first words were:
"My husband is not a Common Man."
This horrible trend has now reached the proportions in our country when someone who reveals a little intelligence in a political race is accused of having done something wrong. It was not always so. Thomas Jefferson was an intellectual giant and he did not try to disguise himself as a Common Man. Neither did George Washington or Benjamin Franklin or Sam Adams.If the Continental Congress had been populated by Common Men we would yet be singing God Save the Queen and paving up to the British collectors in London.
Strive always. Little Man, to be un-Common.
I should want my son to serve Society better than I have, and you should do more for Country than your father has, Little Man, and this is merely the pattern of building a civilization. If and when the pattern is broken, the building stops and the civilization becomes stale and dies.
So stalk into the schoolhouse with the fixed notion that you are not a statistic, you are not a faceless boob, you are not a Common Man.
And when you grow up and the candidate appeals to you on the grounds that he, too, is a Common Man, turn your back and walk away. You have just been insulted.
... Letters ...
Editor:
Last Spring I, the first undersigned, attempted to register to vote in Lawrence. Even though I signel a statement swearing that I met the legal qualifications, I was challenged by the city clerk's office and so completely confused and angered that I did not complete the registration. Later, in the summer I successfully registered without difficulty and counted the earlier incident off, attributing it to confusion and bureaucratic interference.
Two weeks ago I, the second undersigned, attempted to register to vote in Lawrence I was told that my legal residence is where my parents reside. This struck me as being peculiar since I have not resided with my parents for a year and a half and the city of Lawrence has assessed me for personal property tax. (I paid the tax). After due consideration, I decided to renew the matter. Yesterday, as I attempted to register, I was told that I am required by law to register where my parents are registered. Later, after a 15-minute telephone conversation with the city clerk filled with indecision, I presented myself
at the City Hall and was allowed to register.
It is not our intention to create the impression that the franchise is being denied. But it does seem that the process is being unduly complicated by the city clerk's office. Now, what we want to know is:
1. Is it a policy of the City Council to make it difficult for students to vote in Lawrence?
2. If this is the case, is the University aware of the policy, and does it endorse it?
3. Have other students met this problem? If not, why are we being discriminated against?
4. Does the city clerk's office have the authority to make the judicial decisions seemingly implied in their actions?
5. Now that the second undersigned is registered in Lawrence, is he violating the law requiring him to register where his parents do?
Wisconsin has 28 state parks and 7 state forests.
Loy Binder back
Lawrence graduate student
R. Steven Edwards
Lawrence senior
Loy Bilderback
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904, triviseek year 1908, daily, Jan. 16, 1912
1913
Telephone Viking 3-2700 Extension 251, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. News service: United Press. Mall subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence. Eugene after employment. University year except Sundays 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.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Dick Walt ... Managing Editor
Margaret Armstrong, Gerald Dawson,
Larry Stroup, Louis Stroup, Assistant
Managing Editors; Kent Thomas, Assistant
City Editor; Jane Pecinovsky, Telegraph
Editor; Joan George, Assistant Telegraph
Editor; Daryl Hall, Sports Editor;
Gerald Thomas, Robert Riley, Assistant
Society Editor; Dona Seacat, Assistant
Society Editor.
Todd Crittenden ... Business Manager
Leo Flanagan, Advertising Manager; Joe
Gound, National Advertising Manager;
John Switzer, Classified Advertising
Manager; Wayne Helgesen, Circulation
Manager; Jim Gamper, Art Director
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Ray A. Wingerson  Editorial Editor
Dayid Webb  Associate Editor
National Nurse Week began Thursday and is being observed by the KU Pre-Nursing Club.
Veterans U.V.O. STAG Sat. Oct.13 - 8P.M. Little Red School House Refreshments - Entertainment MEMBERSHIPS ONLY Memberships Will Be Sold At The Door
Observe Nursing Week
"Every day one of each 60 Americans needs a nurse," according to the National League for Nursing. This nurse may be in a hospital, at home, in a clinic, at school, or at a factory.
Wednesday in 110 Fraser.
Miss Jean Hill, director of the department of nursing at the University of Kansas Medical Center, will talk to club members at 4 p.m.
The Pre-Nursing Club was founded in 1942 to inform women about all fields of nursing and to help them become acquainted with other pre-nursing majors. Miss Sara Patterson, associate professor of home economics and nursing arts, has been sponsor of the club since 1945.
Club members have helped in the pediatric department at the Medical Center.
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