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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday. May 9. 1961
The Frayed Image
Last week a popular news magazine carried a story in which the Shah of Iran bitterly remarked of the United States, "It never goes out of its way to try to save anyone." This is a particularly revealing statement of what the image of this country might be on a world-wide scale at the present time for the Shah was not enticed by Moscow or Peiping to make such a comment. He has been sitting in the Western camp for some time now. But if a declared ally like the Shah would say such a thing, what is the rest of the world thinking?
IN THE LAST TWO YEARS COMMUNISM has gained strength in this hemisphere and in southeast Asia with only token resistance from the United States, the natural head of the free nations. It is unnecessary to conduct a worldwide poll to discover just what other nations are thinking of U.S. appeasement policies. To find that out, it is necessary only to examine some of the attitudes of Latin American countries and neighbors of Laos in southeast Asia.
Even considering the part the United States played in the recent Cuban fiasco, many Latin Americans believe that Uncle Sam has shirked his duty in keeping communism from the shores of the Americas. Ambassadors of the small Central American republics have not been silent on this issue. Not long ago one of them remarked that the United States forgets that the small republics have internal problems that must be solved before attention can be turned to Castro. Go and do what you think is necessary, he said, and then you will have our support.
Of course, it must be remembered that whatever the United States does in Latin America is "contrary to the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine"—as our neighbors to the south "officially" view our moves in that area.
IF CRITICISM OF THE U.S. POLICY OF appeasement is strong in Latin America however, it is vitrolic in Southeast Asia. Here the threat of Red domination is great. Here the United States has once again failed to provide the necessary leadership in halting the Communist menace. Should Laos fall, or accept a coalition government, that will prove easy prey to Red intrigues, other nations friendly to the West will find their borders threatened by emissaries from Moscow and Peiping.
The Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand have been quick to realize this. Each nation has forces well-trained in jungle and guerrilla warfare who are unafraid to meet Pathet Laos—or Red Chinese—in the jungles and rugged hills of Laos. The have volunteered troops to fight in Laos. They have been turned down by the United States, which insists that our policy must prevail in a situation in which force can only be met with force.
THE FAILURE OF THE UNITED STATES to back the Pakistanis, Filipinos and Thais all the way creates a bad impression of this country in other parts of the world. Certainly those neighbors of Laos that would battle in that country understand the situation. They have lived with the threat of a powerful Communist China since 1949. The United States, by refusing to help these countries insure that Pathet Lao forces are crushed, is forsaking its duty to Southeast Asian allies. Perhaps, the cease-fire will produce a truly neutral government, but perhaps it will not. If the United States accepts anything other than a truly neutral government in Laos at the expense of alienating some good friends in that area, the world-wide image of Uncle Sam as the guardian of the free may have a frayed coat collar. Dan Felger
A Deserved Award
The class of 1961's selection of Allen Crafton, professor of speech, as recipient of this year's HOPE award in one respect resembles the finest play Prof. Crafton has directed in his many years at KU—neither could have been better. With the selection by the class of 1961, Prof. Crafton joins Clayton Krehbiel, associate professor of music education and choral music, and R. Q. Brewster, professor of chemistry, in a select circle. Other progressive educators will be admitted in future years, but right now those three stand taller than any others in the minds of students.
IN INTRODUCING PROF. CRAFTON AT yesterday's Senior Coffee, class president Frank Naylor described him as a man "who has devoted hours to helping students in and out of the classroom, and who has stimulated the minds of countless students to greater intellectual achievement." To those students who studied under Prof. Crafton this was apparent always. But like the
two men before him as HOPE awardees, Prof. Crafton's reputation has spread outside his particular school. If a student in any school of the University were asked to list the name of one man in the speech department, the name probably would be that of Prof. Crafton. That, too, is a fitting tribute.
Prof. Crafton came to KU in 1923 as a full professor of speech and drama. He has been chairman of the speech and drama department since then. When he arrived, the field was new and untested at the University. A certain prejudice against speech and the dramatic arts had sprung up in many parts of the country.
THROUGH HIS WORK, PROF. CRAFTON squelched any bias against the speech program at KU. The HOPE award is only a small token of appreciation for the gift of Prof. Crafton to the University.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Dan Felger
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Bill Blundell, Carrie Edwards, Lynn Cheatum and Ralph Wilson, Assistant Managing Editors; Tom Turner, City Editor; Bill Sheldon, Sports Editor; Sue Thieman, Society Editor.
Managing Editor
Frank Morgan and Dan Felger ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
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He that is not handsome at twenty, nor strong at thirty, nor rich at forty nor wise at fifty, will never be handsome, strong, rich or wise. —George Herbert
Short Ones
Half the world knows not how the other half lives. —George Herbert
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The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues. —Rene Descartes
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Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed. —Sir William Temple
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New opinions are always suspected and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. — John Locke
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Hatred comes from the heart; contempt is from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. —Arthur Schopenhauer
Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Editor:
3rd View on Seating
Editors
I was impressed by your coverage of the reserved seating issue in Monday's UDK, but I would like to point out some fallacies in the present plan that were omitted in the editorials.
FIRST IS THE fallacy that reserved seating can relieve congestion at the gates. It seems obvious to me that one cannot pass through the gates faster with a reserved seat ticket than an ID card, and if everyone with a reserved seat ticket waits until shortly before game time to try to enter the stadium, there will be worse congestion than before. Then too, one can't forget the possibility of the Monday morning crush in the reserved ticket line. If the powers that be are interested in relieving congestion, they should open the gates earlier and open more of them too.
SECOND IS THAT reserved seating can handle all of the students that are expected at the games. From my seat in the stadium last fall, it seemed that everyone was packed together tightly enough for the Athletic Department's approval. I fail to see how the plan can provide more space for the increasing student body if there is not enough now.
Of course, everyone can see that the extra money would benfit the campus, but equally obvious is the extreme irregularity of the proposed source. Surely a better source can be found.
Gary E. Irwin
Kansas City, Mo., senior
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There is No Race
I read in the UDK (May 5) letters concerning the racial identity of Jews and insulting replies to those who seek to correct obvious wrong views. Therefore, I am compelled to reply.
NEITHER ARE THE Jews necessarily or strictly a religious group as Mr. Blundell suggested in the UDK. Yes, while one Jew may express his Jewish identity in a spiritual manner, another may express his Jewish identity in an intellectual fashion, and a third may express his Judaism in historical and nationalistic terms.
ARE THE JEWS a race? To think so is to believe an untruth, to indulge in specious reasoning. One need not be an anthropologist or even take Anthropology IA to discern the obvious fact that the Jews are not members of one race. At every time in history and in every place where they have lived Jews have mingled and intermarried with the surrounding populations. Even the Old Testament tells us that Moses married a non-Hebrew — Zipporah — a daughter of a priest of Midian (Exodus 2.2). It is also historically recorded when the Hebrew tribes left Egypt "a mixed multitude went up also with them" Exodus 12:38). Even a simple comparison of appearances will tell you that the Jewish "race" is a myth. The Jew from Turkey or Ethiopia is quite dissimilar in physical appearance to the European or American Jew.
All are valid expressions of Judaism for the Jews are not a race but a people sharing the same social, cultural, religious and historical experiences.
Ira Wolinskv
New York City graduate student
Worth Repeating
It is a disquieting thought to have to be revolutionary. It is the kind of thought which causes Mexican politicians to wake up in the middle of the night and resolve to do something really revolutionary the next day in order to get back to sleep. Possibly it explains why many Mexicans are ardent supporters of Fidel Castro...Michael Rumney
Let those who object to birth control declare themselves in favor of higher mortality instead. The world's present population problems could be solved for a long time by a few mass famines, by a world-wide repetition of the Great Plagues or, for that matter, by a few well-placed H-bombs. Do we want to see them solved this way?—Dennis H. Wrong