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University Daily Kansan Thursday, April 17, 1958
Political Motivation
What's a government for?
According to everything we have learned in Western Civilization, it's supposed to represent the people and perform functions for the public good. At least, that's a rough approximation.
Now student government at KU seems to be a little different matter.
Many students (about 80 per cent) don't vote, and don't follow the actions of the All Student Council or committees. Their view is "The ASC doesn't do anything, so why should I bother about it?"
That is a valid criticism. The ASC doesn't do much. The big decisions, the political maneuvering and the frenzied ballot stuffing are not conducted with the student in mind.
Rather, they are conducted to keep one party in power, or to get another party into power.
The question is, if ASC does nothing, why all this trouble to get in the driver's seat?
Just this: ASC positions, committee positions, all the spots in student government, look good on the record of a Greek (and by that we mean social fraternity or sorority) house during rush week.
You don't believe it? Then why and how is it that Greek houses, with about 2,200 members, or 28 per cent of the student body, effectively control student government year after year?
How does it happen that three Greek houses, with a total population of less than 250, hold 33 per cent of all student committee appointments? It may be coincidence that all three houses are powers in the ruling party, but it seems doubtful.
A rushee, properly impressed by the imposing list of titles the house boasts, wants to join up. The house gets a better choice of prospects for membership, and so holds its position as a leading house—it's a circular sort of thing.
This editorial is not going to weigh the pros and cons of the Greek system, though it should be fairly obvious that the writer is not a "Greek."
It does seem, however, that student government must have a more important function than to get good pledges for Sigma Phi Nothing.
As long as rushing remains one of the prime forces behind campus government, it will go on as it has—accomplishing nothing.
—Al Jones
Take A Foreign Language?
Why study a foreign language?
I'll never use it, you say. But are you sure you aren't being a little behind your times, a little old-fashioned, maybe?
When people first came to Kansas, towns were established between 12 and 14 miles apart because that was as far as you could travel in a day's journey. In those days, when a person spoke he used the words readily understood by the people in his town and perhaps the town nearest him. There was little difficulty in getting others to understand what he had to say.
After Henry Ford began building autos and most of us were able to afford one, we started traveling to Kansas City frequently and even to Denver. At first some of our expressions weren't understood by the shopkeepers and streetcar conductors in these strange foreign-looking places. But soon we learned some of their pet phrases and they learned some of ours. Our English had changed. It was now the dialect called Midwestern.
Today most of us dream about traveling abroad.
Some of us will get there. All of us have and will continue to meet foreigners. Our friends will show us slides they took when they were abroad. So far our speech hasn't seemed to change much. Actually it has. We all know what a Sputnik is even if we don't pronounce it correctly. If we've never been to a kaffeeklatsch, we at least know it involves coffee.
We are going to need these vocabulary changes sooner than we realize. Already the airlines are offering comparatively inexpensive trips to Europe.
However our speech hasn't changed enough to keep up with our wandering feet. Sputnik won't buy you a dinner in Moscow or help you to tell a Russian visitor to this country where the bus station is. Kaffeeklatsch would hardly be sufficient for a whole evening's chat with a German student.
So let's stop procrastinating. Let's just dig in and learn those cotton-picking verbs.
Quotes From The News
—Carol Stilwell
NEW YORK — Samuel Cardinal Stitch of Chicago, on leaving for Rome to become head of Roman Catholic missionary activities;
"In Africa, India, colonialism has been thrown off and the people have sought freedom. They have sought this freedom. I think, largely because the Christian missions brought to them the word of God."
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Gen, Thomas D. White, Air Force chief of staff, giving heartfelt support to the President's plan for reorganization of the Pentagon:
"I have studied the President's plan and as I understand his proposals I consider their implementation will be of great benefit to the security of our country."
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
By Dick Bibler
"—AN' JUST WHO WAS LOOKING AROUND FOR HELP ON THAT WESTERN CIV, TEST?"
.. Letters ..
Editor:
Gubernatorial Sketch
We would appreciate your support and suggestions for the All Student Council in the coming year. We feel that, with the support of the student body, we can make this an outstanding year for student government at Kansas University.
We wish to express our sincere appreciation for the support we received from the student body. We feel a deep sense of responsibility and will do our best to perform our duties to benefit every student in the University.
—John Downing, Carol Plumb
Dailu Hansan
With Fred Hall in the Kansas gubernatorial race, what appeared to be a routine political scramble has taken on new proportions.
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For one thing, he is the third candidate to announce for the Republican primary. His entrance may set the stage for another split in Republican ranks, which would just about wrap up a second term in the governor's chair for George Docking.
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There had been earlier rumors that Hall might seek another term as governor. However, an announcement from Docking that he thought Hall would stand a good chance to win the Republican nomination, because of his opposition to the right-to-work bill, really touched things off.
Hall justified the threat in 1954, defeating the administration-backed candidate, George Templar, in a primary in which he called for a thorough cleaning out of administration personnel from the state house. He went on to a landslide victory of 43,650 votes over Democrat George Docking, who was getting his baptism in Kansas politics.
His veto of the right-to-work bill stood up against all efforts of the legislature to override it. This won him the support of organized labor and he has depended on labor for much of his support in campaigns since.
Hall's term in office was filled with controversy as he made wholesale removals of administration personnel. He put through a program of state aid for high schools, increased workmen's compensation payments, equalized tax assessments, and vetoed a right-to-work bill prohibiting union-shon contracts.
Dick Brown ... Managing Editor
Larry Boston, Bob Hartley, Mary Beth
Noyes, Malcolm Applegate, Assistant
Managing Editors; Douglas Charrison,
Elisabeth Clark Harrison,
Assistant City Editors; Mary Alden,
Telegraph Editor; Martha Frederick,
Assistant Telegraph Editor; George
Anthan, Sports Editor; Bob Mary Dole,
Mary Smith, Society Editor;
Editors; Pat Swanson, Society Editor;
Ron Miller, Picture Editor.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Clyde Reed Jr., Parsons publisher, and apparently Hall's toughest competition for the Republican bid, has come out for the bill. Docking said that Hall might be able to carry enough labor votes to win. Walter Cherry, Galena businessman and farmer, is the other candidate in the Republican primary.
Hall had served 15 months on the court and his term would have expired after the November election. Gov. Docking appointed Schuyler Jackson, dean of the Washburn Law School, to the vacancy.
Hall was defeated in the 1956 Republican primary by Warren W. Shaw of Topeka. The bitterness of the primary campaign was reflected in the general election, where a divided Republican party watched Docking win by about 115,000 votes over Shaw.
Hall was appointed a justice in 1956 in the well publicized triple switch which saw him winding up on the court. At that time, Hall, completing his only term as governor, resigned shortly after Chief Justice William A. Smith stepped down from the court, and Lt. Gov. John McCuish, promoted to governor, named Hall to the court position.
Hall then worked his triple play and sat on the supreme court in relative obscurity until his April 7 announcement that he would seek the state's highest office for the second time.
Ted Winkler ... Business Manager
John Clarke, Advertising Manager;
Carol Ann Huston, National Advertis-
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Advertising Manager; Tom McGrath,
Circulation Manager; Norman Beck,
Promotion Manager.
Guard Republicans, who saw in the fast rising Hall a threat to the administration's tight hold on Kansas politics.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Hall first burst into state politics when he became lieutenant governor in 1950. After winning his second term in 1952, he came under the scowling eye of the Old
-Dick Brown
The first automobile, a Benz, was exhibited in 1889.
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