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University Daily Kansan Friday, March 17, 1961
Thanks, Lawrence
A city is lucky to have a major university. It's a valuable asset any way the town looks at it.
Economically, the school is usually the lifeblood of a community. A constant flow of capital into the city is circulated and remains there. A major portion of the money that is brought in never leaves.
Culturally, a university is an asset which even a large metropolitan area, with its museums, libraries, galleries, and concerts could not match. An academic community seems to radiate a cultural spirit that is found in no other type of area. The community's school system and activities reflect this.
BUT A UNIVERSITY also has a lot to gain from the city. It's a two-way street. Commercial interests, housing, recreational facilities, the physical beauty of the place, and just a plain homey atmosphere gives as much to the school as vice versa.
Lawrence offers all this to KU—and more.
One example of the extraordinary bond between the University and Lawrence is in progress right now. For no other reason than to give a helping hand to students, a group of Lawrencians
started working several months ago on a program to be known as HELP-KU. It’s just that.
Citizens of this area are digging down into their purses and pockets and coming up with coins and bills to help KU students who have to have financial assistance to continue their schooling.
MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING to college than ever before and more need financial help than ever before. The loan funds available to students are evidence of this. In ten years at KU, there has been a 600 per cent increase in the number of loans to students and a 1,750 per cent increase in the amount of funds available through the Greater University Fund. And still, there is not enough. About 97 per cent of the funds are in continuous use.
THE ONLY RESOURCE for loans is through private contributions. The state has no provision for allocation of money of this type. Money is needed.
The people of this community answered the call for help with HELP-KU. Quite a few students are going to have an easier time in school because of the people in this city.
Thank you, Lawrence.
The Demise and Rise
The student body president and the chairman of the ASC have both expressed concern over the present political struggle by the two campus parties. Both men know the consequences of a heated campaign and the danger it presents to all aspects of student government.
The last several years have seen a remarkable rise of the All Student Council in assuming responsibility and taking the initiative on difficult student issues.
Too often, student government is nothing more than a page out of Max Shulman. The University has had this type before — the group shouting and resolutioning for better parking facilities, longer vacations, shorter class hours, and beer in the Student Union.
Fortunately, this type is now in the past. Perhaps, it is merely the past catching up with this ASC. Their work has been confined to more weighty problems like human rights, and student inequities.
As the two student leaders said, no party candidate or campaign is worth sacrificing the advancements made by student government.
This could easily happen if the parties attempt to divide the current issues into factional disputes. Government has to be above the party level in order to function best. If the present campaign continues as it has, we may see the ASC stunted in its growth and even return to its ineffective form.
Two parties are healthy and necessary for the interests of the students but not if one party's whole program is based on the intention of humbling the other. This appears to be the situation now.
Both parties have engaged in hurling charges, counter-charges, and counter-counter-charges about the relative demerits of each. This is nonsense and driving in the opposite direction of the goals for which they should be aiming for.
Let's have a little more N. V. Peale thinking by all candidates and parties, not only until the election, but also afterward. Working positively will build instead of destroy.
There is nothing profound in this little sermon, but it is something the two campus parties have apparently overlooked.
Frank Morgan
Open Letter to William Gibbs
Open Letter to William Gibbs
Mr. Gibbs (alias—the "patriotic person"):
I am familiar with one of the worst hazards of Journalism—the quote. We shall assume, however, that your beliefs were presented in "GIBBS DENIES 'BIRCH' TIE" (UDK, March 14). I shall now proceed with the crucifixion.
WE AGREE ON ONLY one point: you "don't really know yet what to think. . ."
If you believe that an organization like the John Birch Society (to be more intimate, the "Johnny Birchers") could bring anything but tyranny to KU, you—my Wichita freshman — are greatly mistaken. There are, most probably, no Communists on our campus. There are "good people," thinkers, and brilliant men but not a "whole-hell-of-a-lot" of Communists. But believe me—and history—that if John Birch's boys started their totalitarian-like investigations, the Red-baiting would begin and in its wake would lie nothing but falsely accused and unemployed professors, injured reputations, and a depleted KU—deprived of its greatest assets because of a Neo-McCarthyistic revival.
PERSONALLY. I never wish to have my mind moulded by Welches or Kochs. (Not even by Goldwaters or Hoovers.) But... We must remember that. I am
We must remember that I am an "ideological" member of the
... Letters ...
We must remember that I have done work with the CRC and, therefore, am a "wild-hare" out-of-stater.
BUT GO ON LITTLE MAN—air your views. If, however, your little organization modeled after the John Birch Society becomes a big organization modeled after the John Birch Society, I'll preach true Americanism from atop the milk machine in Strong Hall basement.
NSA Committee and, therefore, a "leftist."
Comm unis t? Unfortunately,
that's what you would say. It
doesn't matter, though, because
you're wrong!
Go on little man. But if the John Birchers climb too much farther, I'll organize the true patriots and we'll march down Jayhawk Boulevard and sing the Battle Hymn of The Republic. When we reach Society Headquarters, we'll tear it to pieces just as The Society is now, unknowingly, trying to tear our America to pieces. All in the name of Americanism.
GIBBS, THE PITY of the whole thing is that you really believe that you are giving assistance to the cause of freedom. You're ambitious and you are truly trying to help.
Please--for the good of KU, America, and our sick world--model neither your mind nor organization after an anti-Democratic group like the John Birch Society.
Please--for the hope of the world-use your ambition to retain democracy. Use your mind to promote pro-democratic rather than anti-Communistic ideals. That's where our hope lies, you know. Before we can cast stones at Communism, we must be without sin. . .
Long Beach, New York senior
Student Body Vice President
---
You're not, buddy!
I'm not and neither is America. Eh McMullan
Ed McMullan
The International Banquet Editor:
The International Banquet Sunday evening was one of the best opportunities for us U.S.-bound students to take a world tour at little cost. While the cuisine was delicious and the entertainment of the highest quality, the most beneficial thing of all was the spirit of hope that was transmitted there. If cultural exchange programs and banquets such as this can take place as frequently as Kashmir incidents, RB-47 flights, and Arab-Iraeli skirmishes, a semblance of common culture may emerge that will aid in ending international warfare.
Our sincerest thanks to the International Club for providing a most memorable experience.
Jim Lawing.
Lawrence graduate student
Larry Moore,
Toneka junior
Topeka junior
To Discriminate or Not Editor:
The cause for improving race relations has taken a beating here at the University and in Lawrence almost as badly as it did a few months ago in New Orleans. Only the publicity was lacking. Sit-ins are bad and "illegal," the CRC is ineffective and hence must disband, discrimination is in practice, in spite of statements to the contrary, condoned in non-University housing. The renter has the right to discriminate, the student has the right to live where he is forced to. The naturally conservative impulse of the Kansan is to not make a fuss, not to stir up trouble, not to give the University a bad reputation. That divine status quo!
MUST THE UNIVERSITY attempt to prevent students from having a beer in his apartment, or inviting a friend of the opposite sex to his apartment for dinner, and in addition deny him the right to live where he chooses? Would it not be a simple matter for the University to remove the name of any person from its housing list who has been reported to practice discrimination? Must the blessed status quo prevent us from moving in a direction which is basically right because of the fearing of reprisal from the bigoted and the selfish?
John L. Hodge Kansas City, Kan., senior
** **
Chalk Circle Revisited Editor:
We would like to request space to correct some rather glaring misconceptions which appeared on March 9th in the review of Brecht's "Caucasian Chalk Circle." 1. The word "epic" is misused. The reviewer uses it in the Hollywood sense, whereas in the legitimate theater, and particularly in Brecht's theater, it has an entirely different connotation.
2. THE REVIEWER complains about multiple "centers of activity" distracting from the "major focus of action." This is exactly what Brecht intends, so that the viewer obtains an objective view of the entire situation historically and politically. It is true that from the point of view of consistency Brecht has violated his own theories in the creation "in depth" of characters Grusche and Azdak. This is a fatal flaw in the technique and motivation of the dramatist and is a reflection of a greater dilemma.
3. THE REVIEWER was unhappy with certain minor roles causing "jarring distortion." Brecht always intended these roles to distract the viewer from any "major focus of action." This is part and parcel of the "epic" technique.
4. OBJECTIONS WERE voiced over "distracting" effect of mobile scenery. Its purpose is primarily to distract, to make the viewer think as he sees, to prevent empathy on his part. The fact that this was not always successful in the KU production is as much the fault of Brecht as anyone else.
5. Brecht's characters with few exceptions, do not appear in "any dramatic production." They are politically and socially conceived, and the "traditional", psychologically complex "hero" of 20th century drama is not possible in a Brecht play.
6. THE REVIEWER criticized the play as not "cohesive." Epic drama means non-cohesive drama.
7. In other words, the reviewer unfortunately missed the whole point of the play. Traditional drama cannot be used as a criterion for epic theater. The reviewer was looking for something which he did not find because it was not there, and when he was unable to find it, he was displeased. Brecht tried to prove that the biological law is not necessarily valid, that man is more socially than biologically conditioned, and in order to present a new idea, he used a completely new method.
THE KU THEATER, Mr. Beck and the cast are to be congratulated on a fine effort. This sort of production is essential to an educational theater, and Bert Brecht would be the first to admit it.
I. C. Loram
I. C. Loram
O. M. Sorensen
Department of German
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Mr. Stanley:
An Open Letter to Mr. Scott Stanley
You have attacked the National Student Association (NSA) as being a "leftist" organization. You also mentioned that the students who belong to and support NSA are misinformed and do not know the facts.
As an informed student, proud to be a member of the NSA committee of our campus, I wish you could (I doubt if you can) answer two questions that immediately come to mind.
They are
1. What is your definition of a leftist? Knowing that you are a national officer of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and that they praise the same principles as the John Birch Society, I am led to speculate that anyone who advocates constructive criticism and freedom of speech as the bulwark of democracy is a leftist. Anywho who doubts the system—the only "Supreme Authority" of the YAF and the Johnny Birchers—is ipso facta a leftist. Anyone who disputes the "truths" of these organizations is a leftist. Anyone who is not an ultra-conservative and wishes to give to all peoples the equal opportunity to improve themselves is a leftist. And anyone who believes in and supports the United Nations is also a dangerous leftist.
2. What do you know of the NSA and its misinformed dupes? Very little I am convinced. Let us compare membership. Your organization (Y A F) represents 21,000 students and has a sum total of 67 chapters. My organization (NSA) represents more than one million students attending 400 colleges and universities. These are facts. It is obvious that NSA is the more representative group, but you say these students are misinformed. Give us your reasons, we are cager to prove you wrong. Or are they misinformed because they don't agree with the reactionary ideals of your organization? If my previous assumption is correct, I will fight your stand with every breath I take because your idea of democracy will obliterate the freedoms of thought, political belief, and speech without which democracy would become only a word for a tyrannic dictatorship.
Charles A. Menghini
NSA committee member Pittsburg junior
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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