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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Feb. 20, 1958
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Discriminate? We Can't!
The United States cannot afford racial discrimination. Our America, we say, is a democratic country, a place where every person has equal opportunities, where competition is encouraged. The United States is a place where the people always have plenty to eat, where no person need starve. This is what most of us believe about the United States and this is what we would like for other countries to know and believe.
U. S. prestige in other countries is extremely important to us at this time. To facilitate this prestige, we encourage the exchange of foreign students. But what kind of an opinion do foreign students get of our country? When a dark-skinned East Indian or Liberian foreign student is refused service in a cafe or refused lodging in a hotel or turned away from the local swimming pool or refused a good seat in a theater, how can the student believe all that we tell him about our democratic ideals?
What will the foreign student say when he writes home to his people? Will he say that "America is the land of opportunity only if you have white skin, a democratic country without adequate representation of a minority group, a place where nobody starves but where only certain people are served food in the restaurants, a government of the whites, by the whites and for the whites." If this is what the foreign student
says in his letters home, we don't wonder. If this is why some of the peoples of the world scoff at our constant preaching about how wonderful we are, it is not surprising.
The foreign student who has gained such an impression of the United States is both right and wrong in his opinions. The democratic form of government is a good one and we firmly believe in our system. We have a race problem and many of us bow our heads in shame at some of the incidents which have occurred in connection with that problem. We are going to solve the race problem and we are working to correct this lag in our democratic system.
The United States cannot afford racial discrimination for another important reason. When we close out one segment of society, when we suppress any group of people, we are not taking full benefit of our total national intellectual capacity. We are saying, in effect, that no matter how brilliant the man, no matter how much he has to offer in any field, unless he is white he will not be given full opportunity to contribute to our society.
This is National Brotherhood Week. We have everything to lose and nothing to gain by discriminating. Let's do ourselves a favor by observing Brotherhood Week throughout the year.
Evelyn L. Hall
What Is A Farm Surplus?
For years the United States has been trying to get rid of the farm surplus. Each session of Congress old and new ideas are heard on how to cut down the surplus. No idea has worked yet.
Exactly what is a farm surplus? That is simple enough to answer. It is the products of the farm that are grown that the people of the country do not need.
Why do we have the surplus? We have it for a variety of reasons, including more and better machinery that makes it easier to grow more, more economical ways of preparing food that cut down the need for more food, and an economy that forces the farmer to produce as much as he can to keep up with the cost of living.
What do we do about it? At times we try to make the farmer produce less or we pay him for all the food that he can't sell at a good price. We go about doing this with taxes from the general public and the farmer.
Secretary of Agriculture Benson, when he presented his 1958 farm bill before Congress, suggested a reduction in the parity prices slowly and steadily, fallowing whole farms and trying to get the farmer to move into the city.
But now with the slight recession we're in and the accompanying unemployment, the time would be most inopportune to begin such a plan. With the recession the parity price would be more essential and there would be no room in the cities to employ the farmer.
Also there are those farmers who are making more than they ever had off the plan of parity prices and laying aside land. They would not want to go to the city and make less money.
So another government plan is doomed to failure and the country still has a well-defined farm surplus problem.
—Doug Parker
We're Sorry
An editorial, "Maintenance Not So Hot," in Tuesday's Daily Kansan, blamed the buildings and grounds department for the failure of the heating system in Oread Hall during the recent cold spell. The editorial questioned the efficiency of the department.
However, buildings and grounds is not responsible for heating in the dormitories. That is the job of the housing office maintenance crew, which takes care of all maintenance troubles in campus housing.
The Daily Kansan regrets the error.
. . . Letters To The Editor
Editor:
In reply to the letter from Hulse Wagner, resident supervisor of Stouffer Place, which appeared in the Feb. 14 Kansan, I wish to take up the defense of Stouffer place residents who are dissatisfied with the inadequacy of legal parking space near their homes.
Mr. Wagner implies that we should be so grateful to the state for providing new, completely furnished apartments at $60-70 a month, that we can overlook the inadequacy of parking facilities. His contention that Stouffer Place compares quite favorably with Sunnyside is true. Stouffer residents pay an extra $25-40 a month for what they get, and so have a perfect right to superior living quarters.
I have queried the residents of eight Stouffer apartments as to Mr. Wagner's duties in his capacity as resident supervisor. Not one of the 14 adults with whom I talked could name one duty for which they knew him to be responsible. Most of them had not seen him since they picked up the keys to their apartments in September. Yet Mr. Wagner, by his own admission, receives as compensation for his position the use of an apartment like that for which other residents pay $70 a month,
Perhaps it is for lack of other duties that Mr. Wagner has undertaken the supervision of Stouffer place manners and morals. Whatever the case, if he is going to take a minority stand on this controversial issue, perhaps he should inform his relatives of it. Apparently his father-in-law, State Sen. August Lauerbach, who parked illegally in the StouFFER Place drive when he arrived Saturday night before the Iowa State game, hadn't been told.
plus $25 a month in cash. Thus perhaps it is Mr. Wagner who should be grateful to the University—and to other Stouffer residents who indirectly foot the bill.
Stouffer place apartments do appear to be bargains. There are some aspects of the residents' situation, however, which are not immediately apparent. Beside the parking situation, there is the procession of repair and maintenance men who file through our homes, each with a master key with which to let himself in, should we happen to be out. There is the well-publicized small refrigerator, and the lesser-known coercion used by University officials to prevent our installing an auxiliary line telephones. And there is the two-page, twelve-month lease which lists a
In general, Stouffier Place is a nice area in which to live. Most of us are glad to be here and wouldn't move to Sunnyside, no matter how much the material saving. But we still feel that the published criticism of the parking situation is valid. Should Mr. Wagner decide to use the upper parking lot and thereby relieve the congestion which exists in the lower lot, those of us who now use the upper lot regularly will welcome him.
multitude of other restrictions and limitations not normally imposed by private landlords.
Cloyce Wiley Lyndon senior
Daily Transan
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