1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100.
Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesday. March 15, 1961
The Johnny Birchers
Eleven years ago, Joseph Raymond McCarthy donned flowing robes and declared himself High Priest of Anti-Communism. He struck the brazen gong called Fear, and the multitudes flocked to his temple.
THERE THEY GORGED themselves on lies, viewed the crucifixions of the innocent perpetrated in the name of National Security (which to them was Baal), and joined their priest in an orgy of accusation and character assassination that divided this nation and its people so deeply that the chasm has not yet been entirely bridged.
One tragic thing about the entire McCarthy era was that there was need for attention to internal security. President Truman himself admitted that the security program he instituted was "not in the tradition of American fair play and justice." Later events were to indicate that it was not efficient either.
In a climate of fear, McCarthy took command of the anti-Communist movement—and subverted it to his own ends. His assault on Communism was a phony war; his objective was not a free America, but naked personal power for Joseph Raymond McCarthy. He used the multiple untruth, the smear, coercion economic and political! His unreasoning interrogations and accusations left behind the shattered ruins of scores of honorable reputations, but the major problem was virtually untouched. He returned from the wars with "the scalp of a pink dentist," but the Communist movement in the United States suffered less than a free people who became afraid to think free thoughts.
Now we hear in the distance the echo of McCarthy's knell of fear, sounding again in this decade.
WE REFER to the rumblings of several extreme right-wing organizations which are militantly anti-Communist, so much so that they make the fatal mistake of fuzzing over the very real differences between a liberal and a Communist or Communist sympathizer. They are proponents of the shotgun technique, sure that a barrage of accusations against a motley group of communists, socialists, liberals (and even liberal Republicans!) will be sure to bring down at least one opponent. What may happen to the others is discreetly never mentioned, and a fanatical few in these organizations do not even trouble to make distinctions between Communists and other ideological varieties on their left.
ONE SUCH GROUP is the John Birch Society. It is essentially a secret organization, antincome tax, anti-UN (in its present form), antiforeign aid, highly disciplined, organized on several levels, sworn to obey the dictates of the national headquarters, and seemingly confident
that it alone knows what is and is not good for America.
The discipline suggested in the Blue Book, the Bible of the society, is an iron one. "We are not going to have factions developing on the two-sides-to-every-question theme," warns the Blue Book. All dissenters may leave or be thrown out, it says. Argument? "There are many reasons why we cannot stop for parliamentary procedures or a lot of arguments among ourselves."
An organization much like the Birch Society may come to KU. We welcome it, as we have always welcomed every shade of opinion on this campus We will defend its right to speak to the student community and expound its views. We will not tolerate any attempts to coerce or agitate against those who would bring it here, although many of the principles and tactics outlined in the Blue Book are distasteful to us and destructive of what we consider to be the right of free speech.
BUT WE HAVE been hearing and reading disturbing things about the Birch Society. It seems evident that this group has been guilty of what can only be called terrorism in Wichita and elsewhere. The principles and tactics we spoke of have been used to damage individuals and institutions, much as Joseph McCarthy once played on fear like a fiddle and watched the State Department burn.
This we will not tolerate here. We deplore the phone calls in the night, the anonymous notes, the baseless accusation, the intimidation of faculty members, the whispering campaigns. We cannot give any credence to a charge of "Communist" when the pointing finger belongs to one who cannot distinguish between a liberal and a Communist, or one whose definitions of Communism have been spoon-fed to him by a man who has accused Dwight D. Eisenhower and Allen Dulles of being Communists.
In an unseemly burst of journalistic irresponsibility the Topeka Daily Capital has accused the UDK of "fanning the flame" in regard to the Birchers and the organization proposed to oppose it. This "fanning the flame" was allegedly done by reprinting an article in Time magazine! If "fanning the flame" means making available to our students information about an organization that may well affect the entire campus, we will continue to do so.
If the Birch Society, or another secret group like it, comes here as it came to Wichita and other areas, this newspaper will fight it with every resource at its command. If it comes as an open organization, interested in disseminating its point of view without the accompaniment of slander and malice, we welcome it.
But keep in mind we will have no fuzzy-faced McCarthys here.
the Editors
Wichita Not So Bad
Editor:
I am becoming more than a bit angry at the attitude of some Kansas newspapers toward the University of Wichita, and I would like to take this opportunity to speak up for WU.
Such terms as "Wichita's white elephant" and "Wichita's hot potato" are all very interesting and probably arouse certain emotional reactions in the reader, but do they mean anything?
IT IS ALLEGED that WU is
... Letters ...
more of an athletic institution than anything else. I don't really know how much money WU spends per capita for its athletic program, and I really doubt that any of the papers which have editorialized on the subject know either. I do know, however, that WU doesn't pay Hank Foldberg (the football coach) $17,000 a year.
The University of Wichita, overall, is certainly not as high-ranked educationally as Kansas University; probably, it doesn't quite come up to Kansas State's stature.
Moreover, there are certain departments where WU ranks about as high as KU, or even higher; music, chemistry, and aeronautical engineering, to name three.
Nevertheless, WU is clearly superior to the other three state schools.
Daily Hansan UNIVERSITY DEPTT
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone 3-2700
Extension 376. business office
LET'S FACE IT. The rest of the state of Kansas doesn't want to assume a slightly higher tax load to support a Wichita State University — and this is understandable. However, many of these same people do want to continue sending their sons and daughters to WU, and they do want Wichitans to continue paying a double tax load
Telephone VIking 3-2700
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
... Managing Editor
- supporting not only Wichita University, but also adding more tax money than from any other city in the state to help pay for KU, K-State, Emporia, Pittsburg, and Hays.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Frank Morgan and Dan Felger ... Co-Editorial Editors
If Wichita U could be limited to Wichita students only, and if Wichitans could be excused from paying taxes to support the five state schools (and forfeiting the right to attend these schools), then we might justly leave Wichita a municipal university. But this is hardly intelligent or practical.
Alan D. Latta Wichita junior
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
THE TRAVELS OF MARK TWAIN, edited by Charles Neider. Coward-McCann, $7.50.
One of the themes with which Mark Twain scholars remain eternally fascinated is that of innocence. These scholars contend that in his earlier works—and even within some volumes themselves—an attitude of ingeniousness and innocence is apparent, that Mark Twain is at first a simple man learning a trade or learning a new life and that he shifts to disillusionment and cynicism.
Though this theme of innocence may have been overstated, it can be pretty well shown in "The Travels of Mark Twain" that tiredness, boredom, sophistication take over. The light-hearted and witty passages of "The Innocents Abroad" are a good deal different from the traveloguish episodes in "Following the Equator" and "A Tramp Abroad."
Humor is missing in the later books, and so is that devilishness with which Mark Twain earlier attacked not only the endless succession of guides, the Catholic priests, Jews and Italians and Arabs but also the "pilgrims" themselves. One cannot imagine the Mark Twain of "Following the Equator" leaving a quarantined ship to see Athens by night, or being vastly amused as one of his fellow innocents rides a donkey into a mosque.
What Charles Neider has done here is to collect and classify the travel writings of Mark Twain. The travels begin with that joyous jaunt in a stagecoach heading west, an unabridged dictionary constantly falling on the heads of the sleeping travelers. It continues in Mormon Utah, silver-mining Nevada, and frontier San Francisco. This, of course, is Mark Twain "Roughing It."
Asia is next, and here are chapters from "Innocents" and "Following the Equator." Those from the earlier book are far better, though Neider has removed episodes such as the irreverent visit to Galilee. Jerusalem and Bethlehem and pieces of the cross are all here to lampoon—and revere. The African chapters are largely from "Innocents"—visits to bustling, mysterious Tangier; pilgrims with their hammers chipping away at the Pyramids.
Then the reader finds Twain learning piloting on the Mississippi, visiting an old Gothic house that reeks of Victorianism and Sir Walter Scott, exploring around the streets of New Orleans and itemizing the accomplishments of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This is "Life on the Mississippi."
Next we follow Mark Twain as he sails on the Quaker City in the Holy Land expedition, traveling to Gibraltar, getting mixed up with guides in Paris, viewing Versailles in open-mouthed wonder, making fun of "The Last Supper" and other works of the old masters, riding in a Venetian gondola, imagining the days of Romans and Christians and gladiators, climbing Vesuvius, counting beggars and freaks in Constantinople, paying homage to the czar at Yalta. This is Twain among the "Innocents Abroad."
Quite properly, Neider breaks into "Innocents" by inserting some European chapters from "A Tramp Abroad," including some touring of Heidelberg, watching young German students duel, visiting Geneva, and listing all the American dishes an American is unable to find in Europe.
The final section of this always fascinating—and frequently unforgettable—voyaging of Mark Twain deal with Australia (interesting but only occasionally amusing comments on Sydney and Melbourne, the weather, and horse-racing) and the islands (a memorable chapter on Hawaii from "Roughing It" and depictions of the Fiji Islands and Ceylon from "Following the Equator"). For Mark Twain fans, which should include much of the American population, here is a book to keep and cherish.