Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesdav. April 26. 1961
Attitudes Examined
Since the inauguration of President Kennedy, the UDK, like many of the nation's newspapers, has devoted much space to publicizing the Peace Corps. Then yesterday a story appeared in this paper that might indicate that the UDK has been wasting its breath in even mentioning the President's brainchild. It seems that the Peace Corps climate isn't too favorable—in some cases—around here—and a question that comes to mind now is, "Why is KU different from other universities where the idea—and ideal—has caught on?"
In all fairness to those interviewed, some were in the position of being able to do little more than show their interest. Others apparently had given the stringent qualifications of the Peace Corps some thought before answering negatively to the question "If you had the chance, would you join the Peace Corps?" Still others adopted an always-wise "wait-and-see" attitude.
BUT THERE WERE SOME WHO ADOPTED a totally negative attitude of "me-firstism" or an attitude of "will it get me out of military obligation?" This is disturbing to see, but it does not exist only in Kansas. And it might also be said in the case of those who gave a more favorable response, saying and doing are two different things. Still, honesty has to be congratulated wherever it is found...
But then again, this is a nation where an emphasis is placed on self-honesty and the ability to make a good deal. One of the strangest ways of discovering this fact happened during the Korean War:
DURING THE KOREAN WAR, AMERICAN prisoners of the Chinese Reds were, in a manner of speech, bowled over with kindness. There were no physical tortures, no toenails pulled out, no bamboo splinters hammered under a prisoner's fingernails. The Chinese captors used the approach. "Now look, be honest with yourself—wouldn't you rather have a clean bunk or more rice or more something than your buddies...?"
Once the prisoner made a deal—isolated himself from the rest because he put self-honesty and interest before his better judgment and his fellow prisoners, that was it. He would do anything to keep that clean bunk, that extra ounce of rice—even become an informer. One out of every 20 American prisoners in Korea was a collaborator. In any war before, not one in 500 had aided the enemy. The Chinese quite naturally lauded American self-honesty and the ability to make a deal, too...
PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS AND PRisoners in Korea. No, the situations are not the same—but there are some similarities. First of all, those prisoners, too, were Americans. They went to American schools. They adopted American attitudes—or at least they must have been, because the American prisoners had those attitudes of "Can I make a deal"—and "me-firstism" that are latent in us all. Those prisoners were no better or no worse than the 19 out of every 20 who did not collaborate. They just let self-honesty conquer what they knew was right, what they knew was harder to do. To condemn, one would be to condemn all. No one can do this...
KU does not differ from other universities much. KU students do not differ from other students much. Students who dissent do not differ from each other much. Nationalism—or would a better word in America be patriotism?—is in us all . . . it just is more easily brought out in some.
NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A PEACE CORPS worker, nor should everyone want to be. The Peace Corps has lofty ideals and vague means of achieving these ideals. The Peace Corps can be the greatest humanitarian movement of history and our first line of defense at the same time but this will take hard work on the part of some. It will take appreciation for this hard work on the part of everyone else.
Dan Felger
Editor:
From the Right
... Letters ...
I am always amused when Charles Menghini decides to sprint off after the "evil fascists of the right" like some sort of Crusader Rabbit. Several weeks ago he sought to defend his liberal position by promising to stamp out conservatism if it took "his dying breath." Now, on March 24th, in a letter beginning with an apology, Charles Menghini exemplifies the doctrinaire liberal approach—when cornered.
In paragraph 3 he weeps pathetically about "guit by association" being employed against his liberal friends. He then uses 6 paragraphs to show that two members of the Young Americans for Freedom National Advisory Board are members of the John Birch Society (one being the brilliant former dean of the Notre Dame Law School) and that another member is "indirectly connected" (her husband is a member of the John Birch Society.)
When one realizes there are 150
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
members of the Y.A.F. Advisory Board including people like Henry Hazlitt, William Breckley, Jr., Gen. Mark Clark, Taylor Caldwell, Ralph de Toledano, Admiral Lewis Strauss, one can see the assinine extent to which Menghini has gone in his efforts to defame the Y.A.F. by associating it with the Birch Society. Apparently, "guilt by association" is alright only when utilized by Menghini and the liberal Left.
"IT WAS MY TURN TO SIT BEHIND BIFFO—YOU SLEPT BEHIND HIM IN HISTORY."
Kansas City, Kan., first year law student
Scott Stanley
But, he doesn't like the term "Liberal Left." Though he openly admits to being a liberal he claims liberals are not members of the left. Presumably Charles has now gone so far with his doctrinaire liberalism as to claim "in him there is no East or West" — i.e., right or left. I can only say, I am amused. I wait now to hear from Menghini that Jesus Christ was the founder of the A.D.A. — or worse.
Editor:
Professor Stammler — Amen,
and I mean not to be prophetic.
The sort of mulcting gibberish (with country the price) that Professor Rapoport evidently chanted here is no less saddening than the sorry magnitude of the very truths of which you spoke (UDK, April 21). The U. of M. professor's prescription is rather like proffering sleeping pills for an acute case of "encephalitus lethargica."
Phillip Jacka Lawrence junior
Short Ones
The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart.—Viscount John Morley
. . .
To know one's self is interested is the first condition of interesting other people.—Walter Fater
"Hello, Kiddo..."
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
ROBERT E. LEE, by Earl Schenck Miers. Vintage. 95 cents.
It is strange that Robert E. Lee has come to symbolize the antebellum South for so many. True, he embodies the graciousness and the courtliness and the love of his land that so many attach to the old South (W. J. Cash would say the attachment is not entirely valid). But he became commander of the army of Virginia only after experiencing many qualms, and he is far from being a Calhoun or a Yancey or a Rhett.
Robert E. Lee belongs to all the people now, and this is part of what Earl Schneck Miters says in this brief and at times superficial biography. He emerged to greatness and even in the grim period of Reconstruction he never lost that greatness. Jefferson Davis is no folk hero; Lee, and, to a certain extent, Stonewall Jackson, are.
How much of his generalship was great generalship is another matter. He won many of his battles because of northern incompetence. This fact seems borne out by the blunt recitation provided in this volume. Had McClellan been any good in the peninsular campaign, had he pursued Lee after Antietam, had Burnside been less of a bungler, and Hooker less of a bungler, and Meade less cautious, the story of the Civil War might have been different.
Yet, even Grant didn't really win in the battles of the Wilderness that led up to Appomattox. He just wouldn't admit he had lost. He poured more troops into battle, and northern military and industrial might was helping, for the South had little left by 1864.
Miers tells the story of the war, and he also describes the Lee family, the affection for Arlington and the former home at Stratford, the warm associations that marked the Lees. It is a loving story, and even damn Yankees—or especially damn Yankees—can appreciate it.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22,
N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates:
$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon
during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University
holidays and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence,
Kansas.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
John Peterson ... Managing Editor
Bill Blundell, Carrie Edwards, Lynn Cheatum and Ralph Wilson, Assistant Managing Editors; Tom Turner, City Editor; Bill Sheldon, Sports Editor; Sue Thieman, Society Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Frank Morgan and Dan Felger ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
John Massa...Business Manager
F. Mike Harris, Advertising Manager; Tom L. Brown, Circulation Manager; Richard Horn, Classified Advertising Manager; William Goodwin, Promotion Manager; Marlin Zimmerman, National Advertising Manager.