revised TUX tones for UX
American Presidency argument for democracy
How well is the democratic form of government doing in the world today? A quick and easy answer is, "Not very well. It's slow and cumbersome. Its naiveté, in the face of what is considered to be human nature, is unbelievable. It looks to the good in man despite the concept of irrevocable original sin which seems to dominate world conditions."
Yet in considering the accomplishments of the United States as a democratic force in the world, a force for good, the concept of democratic government comes out rather well.
It is difficult to sit in the seat of the chosen people, but there is where all Americans sit today — certainly not through their questionable innate goodness or superior intellectual abilities, nor because of their military power or staggering economic advantage. Our nation occupies the seat of power because our land is the most productive, naturally endowed, and developed land on this earth — and perhaps because its people have a humanitarian vision of man's destiny.
LITTLE MAN ON.CAMPUS
BUT THAT WOULD not be unless we used this potential in a way that would benefit not only our land, our people, but also the peoples of the world. We have not gained that eminence by knighting ourselves as chosen people but by attempting to give those peoples democracy in action, government by and for the people, food, self-sufficiency — and, most of all, the free right to choose for themselves.
It is not easy to justify those actions in the light of what may be thought of as imperialistic actions on the part of the United States. This nation long ago, at the time of Woodrow Wilson, attempted to move toward world peace and began to accept the responsibility for feeding the hungry multitudes of Europe.
This was the first move of the United States toward world leadership and this movement still goes on. I believe it will continue until the problem of developing nations is solved—or until Communism seizes the leadership. Although the Communists may seem often to be winning the propaganda war, the fact remains that they cannot feed themselves, let alone the world or even their satellite nations. This is the advantage of the United States — money and food and resources—and it is easy to say, on the surface of things, that our advantage should be kept unto ourselves.
What are we trying to do in assuming the Atlas-stance with the world on our shoulders? In the light of the wildly variant stages of development of the nations of this earth, it seems almost insane to imagine that one nation would attempt to enforce the right to free choice of government for every nation and hope to provide our own standard of living.
MANY PEOPLES ARE not ready for this free choice or for economic stability or independence. Yet the United States is willing to pour men and money—most importantly men—into this fight in the hopes that other peoples will come to believe that democracy is the way for every man, for every nation, to realize the best life on this earth.
This argument, I realize, means nothing to the Communist who is convinced that his way of life could be the best on earth despite the ever-growing failures that form of government reaps in many countries. And in our protestations of good will (not convincing, of course, to men of other beliefs) we can only point to the fact that democracy has worked magnificently for a long time in our modern world.
Why it has worked can be explained explicitly in the story of our presidents. For there is where the ultimate success of our nation lies. And perhaps the best argument for the democratic form of government lies in the way the office of the president works, not only through the foresight of the men who wrote our Constitution but also in the way the freely-elected presidents of this country have interpreted the mandates and powers to which they fell heir upon election to the office.
The record of the presidents of the United States is a glorious one, despite the failures and mistakes now recorded in the historicity of this country. By and large, given the demands of his period in office, each president has performed loyally, some imaginatively, to administer the needs of the country, whatever those needs may have been at that particular moment. When quick and moral action is needed, the president invariably uses the powers invested in his office to implement a sober and proper course for the nation to pursue
IT SEEMS OBVIOUS from this record that democracy may rest assured, barring cataclysmic events, that the presidency (through the foresight of the Constitution makers, the common sense of the electorate, and the stature of the incumbent) will remain always in safe hands. For the mere act of election has given most occupants of that office a vision of the responsibilities to the whole nation, the dignity and grandeur the office demands of each incumbent, whatever the needs of his time in office.
The controls and checks so wisely placed upon the president have served well, but in times of special need such as war and economic crisis the powers vested in that office have also worked well to serve the country.
And we are seeing now, in the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, a continuation of these usages of power when the time is right. This is the way the executive powers of this government are growing and will continue to grow as this nation develops, so long as men of vision and inventiveness are occupying that office and the United States takes its place—not necessarily sought but forced upon it—as the leader of this world.
WE COME AGAIN TO the question of why the United States must carry the load of leadership. It is simply that our way of government can and will accommodate itself to the humanitarian goals of this world where no other way of government could or would. It has many times over proved its strength and above all its ability to rise to the needs of a nation and a world when chaos threatens.
Whether or not it is good and workable for all the peoples of this earth is yet to be decided. The path that this country, under the presidency as it is continuously developing, would appear to be pursuing may in the decades to come prove to be right—or it may fail.
If it should fail then it would be the greatest failure yet seen on this globe and it, assuredly, will have proved to be a step forward to the realization of the destiny of man, whatever it may be—hopefully, a destiny of peace and good will.
But if these accomplishments are not realized, I personally would say that human nature finally must have received only what it deserves.
THEN I WOULD SAY — "Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."
— Yvonne Willingham
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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2
Daily Kansan
Tuesday, January 18, 1966
YOU SHOULDA BEEN HERE YESTERDAY WHEN THIS GUY PINCHED TH' DOLL NEXT TO HIM."
The People Say...
To the Editor:
RECENT ARTICES IN THE Kansan indicate an alarming complacency shared by KU students and their student government "representatives" concerning the extent of Administration control over student decisions. Blatant disregard for any concept of democratic decision-making manifests itself in the numerous screening processes manipulated by Administration officials to maintain "good housekeeping" by promoting adherence to the "generally accepted standards of propriety."
Such articles as the recent series on the All Student Council have portrayed the student bureaucracy as imaginative and responsible to student interests, yet one article details the process of enacting legislation through the "student" council. The Legislative Committee, following a request by the Chancellor, meets with him "to discuss proposed legislation" which eliminates the Chancellor's having to return a bill for minor errors. "In addition, the committee obtains the Chancellor's viewpoint to incorporate with their findings."
Other administration personnel assist in this screening process. Of candidates nominated for Panhellenic president the Dean of Women's Office requires an essay discussing what the candidates feel the "purpose and functions" of the organization are, to be followed by a personal interview. Similar regulations exist for officer candidates for the All Women Students.
THE DEAN OF MEN is by no means left out of this maintenance of the "generally acceptable standards" of student behavior. A student who recently chose to stroll through the campus in the early morning wearing but his shoes was arrested by local police and suspended from the University. It awes me to think how a KU student can be any more indecent than a similarly-costumed Lawrence resident that he should suffer this double jeopardy.
I am here opting for the minimization of administration control over student affairs; I seek the maximization of making students responsible for their own actions. The role of a moral agent lies in feeling the satisfaction and suffering the consequences of one's own actions. Does Miss Taylor's exercising responsibility for KU women's chastity make these girls any more moral? Or do KU men act any less indecent following Father Alderson's shielding of public decency? Certainly KU must be an efficient place to "train" a 20-year-old child.
Donald Olson
La Mesa, Calif., sophomore
European classics in paperback
Two volumes of European classics are hot off the paperback presses. One of them is fairly familiar stuff—short stories by Anton Chekhov, Ward Six and Other Stories (Signet Classics, 75 cents). These have been made available elsewhere; this is a very attractive volume, and the stories have that sharp perception of man and society that so marks Chekhov, particularly the title story "Ward Six" in which Chekhov's view of the world is that of a gigantic insane asylum.
Another is Friedrich Holderlin's Hyperion, a new translation by Willard R. Trask. "Hyperion" appears in English here, and it is a work that takes the interesting form of letters from its 18th century here to a German friend. The book was said to have had a great impact upon Nietzsche.