Editorials
On leadership
Where is student leadership at KU? Supposedly one of the functions of the student government is to train student leaders, but the fall elections gave no evidence that that ASC function is being fulfilled.
Neither political party had much to say, other than the jumble of half-thought out proposals' that they called "platforms." The problems of universities is a much talked-about subject in America, particularly since the Berkeley demonstrations last year. But neither Vox nor UP offered much to the discussion at KU. The proposals ranged from the inept (UP's Hyde Park plank), to the inane (Vox's enthusiastic cheerleaders plank). Lacking issues, the campaign debate instead centered around the possibility of trivial campaign violations, of the ASC's myriad trivial regulations.
OUTSIDE THE ASC, the most important organization is the AWS, a group that stresses the leadership potential of women. So far that organization hasn't found the female leadership it seeks, nor is it likely to, if its "High School Leadership Day" is a sample of the way the AWS tries to develop leadership. On that day, the girls invited outstanding high school seniors from all over the state to KU, and when they got them here, they showed a silly skit on the history of the University, topped with a fashion show. Little wonder most intelligent girls prefer to go east for their college education, having sampled KU's idea of the emancipated woman, good clothes, the social graces and good clean fun.
Like the political parties, student body president Leo Schrey has not touched such potent and important issues as in loco parentis and student rights. Rather, his only major program this year has been something called the ASC visitation program. Nor did his State of the University speech at the start of the year promise much more.
Perhaps the absence of student leadership is not a serious problem for events generally create the leaders if those in power fail to act. At KU last year, the fact that student government and the political parties did their best to ignore the civil rights problems did not prevent students from acting. And at Berkeley, when the student leaders failed to act effectively on the free speech issue, it was Mario Savio and the FSM who forced the abandonment of Cal's repressive rules. Here again, the failure of Vox, UP, and all the other official leaders to face KU's problems doesn't mean these problems won't be faced. It merely means that other students, in other ways, will have to lead.
— Justin Beck
Ellis B. Stouffer
For 28 years he lent his services as chairman of the University Budget Committee.
The University lost a friend, scholar, and a great contributor to its history with the death last week of Dr. Ellis B. Stouffer.
In addition to serving as an outstanding professor and dean. Stouffer helped lay the foundation to make KU what it is today. In 1946 while serving as assistant dean of the University, he helped supervise the great academic expansion after World War II.
HIS WORK AS CHAIRMAN of the New University Planning Council in 1952 began work which led to KU's present master plan.
Stouffer Place, the 300 apartments housing university married students, was named in his honor and stands as a memorial to his many contributions.
KU WILL APPRECIATE his work here for many years. The students of the future will continue to benefit from his sense of service and uniring dedication.
The People Say...
To the Editor:
I TOOK THE REASONS given by Bob Stevens for our remaining in Viet Nam to be essentially two: 1) we are defending democracy and the U.S. against Communism in that country and 2) if we were to pull out, the lives of those already killed in that struggle would be meaningless.
First, we may very well be fighting Communism in Viet Nam, but we are definitely not defending democracy—unless that word has become so broadened in its definition as to include dictatorship. We have supported a long line of totalitarian regimes in that country, but we have yet to support one which is, in any sense, democratic. Indeed, we did not even allow the elections provided by the Geneva accords to take place. As for defending America, I am sure the Vietnamese would prefer that we defend it on our own soil.
- The Editors
It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
We were thinking...
Bertrand Russell
Further, does the end of containing Communism justify the use of any and all means? Hither most assuredly believed that it did, but do we? It seems to me that there is an implicit understanding contained in the American political ideology that the
The editors welcome letters of opinion from all Kansan readers. We reserve the right to edit all letters for style, content and unreasona le length. All letters must be signed. Opinions expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors.
ends do not, in fact, justify the means and that wrong actions, even for the best of reasons, are not justified.
IF THE "FREE" governments use the same tactics and methods as do the Communists, what is the practical difference between them? Obviously, the answer is nothing. It makes little difference to a dead Vietnamese that the bullet which killed him was defending him from the evils of communism. Further, if the U.S. has the right to oppose communism in Viet Nam, the Soviet Union had the right to crush the revolution in Hungary, and Red China, by our example, would be perfectly justified in sending an army to oppose a capitalist revolution in southern Mexico. If
one nation has such a right, surely consistency demands that . . . nations have the same right.
Second, I seriously doubt that the American soldiers who have already been killed in Viet Nam care a great deal whether we stay in or get out. The fact that their lives have been tragically wasted is not sufficient reason to waste still more. Is the assertion that you must go to Vietnam and probably yourself killed because Joe Doaks from Iowa was killed there in 1964 now a cause sufficiently worthwhile to meet your sacrifice? I am sorry that Joe was killed, I wish you had been, but that is no reason or shipping over more volumes.
Thomas Kellogg
Wichita sophomore
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Books touch past
One of the interesting books about that incredible era in our national life we call the roaring twenties is a new volume in paperback. It is William Allen White's A Puritan in Babylon (Capricorn, $2.45), the biography of Calvin Coolidge.
But the book is more than a biography; it also is a history of the times that preceded the great crash of 1823. White was often —though not always—in the inner circles of the Republican party, and he was highly conscious of the meaning of that man in the White House who said the business of America is business.
The view will trouble the orthodox, but White's book, which appeared in the thirties, is not a piece of muckraking. The author's extraordinary sensitivity comes through in a rounded though not definitive—portrait of that incredible nonentity who once was president.
WORLD WAR II HISTORY gets two excellent volumes in paperback-Stalin's Correspondence with Roosevelt and Truman, and Stalin's Correspondence with Churchill and Atlee (Capricorn, $1.95 each). These are the documents themselves. There is no editing, which perhaps is a shame. But scholars can turn to the volumes themselves for the evidence they need.
And there are new paperbacks about that war of 50 years ago. Don Congdon has assembled one called Combat, World War I (Del, 75 cents). This consists of a series of documents that proceed from the first month of the war and the Battle of the Marne right up to the armistice. Such persons as Alan Moorehead, Winston Churchill, Robert Graves, Hansen Baldwin, Siegfried Sassoon, T. E. Lawrence and Leon Welff tell the stories.
SOME OF THIS MONTH'S paperbacks show the diversity of the publishing field. Hertha Orgler's Alfred Adler: The Man and His Work (Capricorn, $1.65), for example. The writer gives here an excellent interpretation of the career of the celebrated psychologist who stressed such concepts as inferiority complex. The work is in non-technical language, a fact which should make it understandable to the average reader.
The other book is Ferdinand Czeenn's Versailles 1919 (Capricorn, $2.45). Here is a large and scholarly work that takes us beyond the scenes of the conference that followed the war to end all wars. The negotiations, the personalities involved, the age-old arguments, the questions of colonies and reparations, the discussions about the proposed League of Nations—all are in this valuable book.
For the anthropologists there is Edward Herbert Thompson's People of the Serpent (Capricorn, $1.65). This describes life among the Mayas. Thompson's field is archaeology, and he describes especially the celebrated Chicenit Itza, the splendid Mayan city. Stories of vanished civilizations are always fascinating; this one provides special thrills. Another new curiosity is Irving John Good (ed.) and The Scientist Speculates (Capricorn, $1.85). This is an anthology of what he calls partly baked ideas—a wild book of brainstorms in many fields.
DELL LAUREL HAS PREPARED a valuable volume called Eliza Bethan Age in its "Masterpieces of World Literature" series (95 cents). There are writings here by Holinshed, Hakluyt, Bacon, Marlowe, Jonson, Spenser, Donne, Raleigh, Sidney and several others. And mystery fans get their usual dividend—Agatha Christie's 13 at Dinner (Dell, 45 cents), featuring Hercule Poirot (who else?) and Ellery Queen's Lethal Black Book (Dell, 50 cents), an anthology of mystery tales.
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