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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Sept. 25. 1957
The Passing Of POGO
POGO (The Party of Greek Organizations) has faded like the youngster in the crap game.
Contrary to many gala exits, e.g. Douglas (Old Fade Away) MacArthur, the band of political leaders quietly met one gloomy night in May, 1957, and decided it best that POGO cease to be.
When the ex-party members left the meeting the Allied-Greek Independent party was and still is the only active campus political party.
It was no surprise that POGO went the way it did after a resounding defeat at the polls in the spring election. POGO, always a forerunner in competition for council seats, was trounced 18-6, not to mention losing the student body presidency.
As one of the ex-POGO leaders said following the party collapse, "There just wasn't any use in going on. In the first place our name was enough to keep the independents from voting for us. We have been accused of stuffing the ballot boxes, and the rumors have damaged us beyond repair." He even looked sad.
To many the fall of POGO is welcome. They were not the most respected party on campus.
Nevertheless they were probably the best organized and in most cases the best led.
For three years POGO campaign chairmen perfected a system that almost assured the party of 900 votes in an all-school election. The system was geared to give the party a majority of council seats, but even with the usual amount of surprise supporters, POGO could never mass enough votes to win the student body presidency.
Several times during POGO's short but steamy history the party was suspected and sometimes convicted of pulling shady tricks at the polls. It was because of this, in part, that many students could not find sympathy for POGO.
The name Party of Greek Organizations was a handicap to POGO. The name "Greek" never quite appealed to independent students. As an example, POGO could never count on more than a few scattered votes from freshman dormitories.
When everything came to a close last spring, the end of POGO was truly the end of a controversial and colorful political party, whose success was never complete, and whose failure was inevitable.
Bob Hartley
Disarmament- Is It Good?
On September 19, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson made an announcement which probably stirred joy in the hearts of many young men and their mothers. He ordered a cut of 100,000 men in the armed forces in addition to those made earlier this year.
These cuts will bring our armed forces down to 2,600,000 men. Wilson promises more cuts by the middle of next year.
Mr. Wilson justified these cuts by saying that the money was needed for the production of the United States' new 3,000-mile guided missile. Mr. Wilson could have asked for additional money for missile production. Congress is aware of the international situation and the race for new and better weapons.
This additional cutback following so closely on the heels of previous cuts should fill the country with a feeling of uneasiness. Russia and China are building up their armies, and war clouds are gathering in the Middle East.
If we should enter a war tomorrow we would have a source of manpower which hasn't been tapped—young men aged 18 to 25. But even under an accelerated training program, none of these men would be ready for active duty for at least three months.
It takes time to train men to fight. Even a common rifle-bearing infantryman requires specialized training, not to mention specially trained radio operators, engineers, mechanics, etc., needed to fly our planes, man our ships and move our armies.
If we are going to cut our armed forces, we should at least require physically fit young men to undergo a six-month training period. The present six-month program is optional, not required.
Able-bodied men are being passed by. If a war should develop they would not be ready for months.
Now is the time for the U.S. to take a look at its defense program. We must plan ahead. After the bombs fall it will be too late. With inter-continental missiles in the possession of unfriendly powers we would not have enough time to recover from an enemy attack which would hit at our very vitals.
The time for preparation is now, not ten minutes after we are reeling from an unexpected nuclear attack. Our Civil Defense program is rusty and weak, our radar and plane spotting posts have huge gaps. Now we are weakening our armed forces, our greatest protection from the enemy.
Russia doesn't need to waste their time in disarmament conferences with us. Give us time, we're disarming ourselves.
-Lee Lord
Fall-It's Here
The feeling is difficult to define. Many try to pin down the feeling. The feeling of Fall, I mean.
It's a sensation that just appears. Everyone knows it is here, but no one knew when it came. Maybe it was when the first leaf fell. Or when the smell of that leaf moves slowly through a quiet evening, leaving a taste of other Fall evenings when leaves were something for children to play in and no one but an adult would think of burning them.
Maybe Fall really comes later. Maybe it is when it becomes just a little easier to get up in the morning.
Or maybe we're making it difficult. Perhaps Fall is a myth, maybe it is the end of summer and not a beginning at all. Fall could be the time of year when you tire of swimming, become bored with tennis, and find that the sun isn't quite as important as it was in June.
Could it be the time when hay fever goes south? Fall could mean different things to different people. To the old it may warn of slippery walks and an aching joint; to the young, the approach of Hallowe'en, the experience of eating too much during Thanksgiving, and a promise of tinsel and candy to go with a December Christmas.
Fall is the time of the hunter. You know Fall is here when you are first awakened by the sound of geese heading south for the Winter. Guns appear from closets. Alarm clocks ring a little earlier. And strangely enough, arising early for hunting is not the same as arising early any other time... another puzzlement of Fall.
The University campus is a mystical place. In the fall everyone looks different. By May everyone looks alike. Why?
To some, Fall might easily be defined as simply a season conducive to hayrack rides. This is healthy reasoning, but not comprehensive.
Whatever it is we're glad it's here.
It seems the Asian Flu has made an appearance on every campus but ours. Maybe it has had trouble with our entrance requirements.
—John Eaton
We hear the paratroopers in Little Rock dispersed some rioters with bayonets. Maybe that is the only way the riff-raff will get the point.
From Brownsville, on the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, to the northwest corner of the Texas Panhandle, the distance is 801 miles.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, trieweekly 1968, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Member Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York. N. Y. news service; United Press. Mall subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and holidays. Full-year examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3. 1879.
Extension 251, news room Extension 376, business office
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Bob Lyle ... Managing Editor
Marilyn Mermis, Jim Banman, Richard Brown, Ray Wingerson, Assistant Managing Editors; Bob Hartley, City Editor; Bill Johnson, City Editor; Leroy Zimmerman, Telegraph Editor; Nancy Harmon, Assistant Telegraph Editor; George Anthony, Malcolm Applegate, Spencer Bishop, Mary Crosser, Social Editor; Martha Crosler, Assistant Society Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
**arry Boston** Editorial Editor
John Eustis Del Haley, Jim Slim, As-
sell Edipps
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
The Mennonites first introduced a variety of wheat that would successfully grow in western Kansas.
Harry Turner Business Manager
Kent Pelz Advertising Manager; Jere
Glover, National Advertising Manager;
George Pester, Classified Advertising
Manager; Martha Billingsley, Assistant
Classified Advertising Manager; Ted
Winkler, Circulation Manager; Steve
Schmidt, Promotion Manager.
Coronado and his exploration party were the first white men in what is now Kansas.
NIGHTSHIRT PARADE, RALLY AND DANCE
featuring
"The Collegians"
Parade at 7:15 p.m. $ ^{\circ} $ -Dance from 9 to 12 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 27
- WEAR YOUR FAVORITE NIGHTSHIRT
ROYAL COLLEGE SHOP