LITTLE MAN ON.CAMPUS
Editorials
Views on dissent
A glance at the headlines in newspapers from colleges and universities across the country this past week shows one striking similarity—the word Viet Nam appears in the major headline of almost every paper.
Yet the stories under these headlines are seldom directly about the war waging within the Southeast Asian nation. They are seldom about increased draft calls, seldom about humanitarian efforts to end the war.
INSTEAD, THE WORDS describe a movement, or rather two movements, taking place within this country, and taking place most dramatically on the nation's campuses. One is in support of the administration's policy in Viet Nam; the other opposes any American action in the conflict. Both groups, of course, seek peace and an end to the conflict, but they choose to demonstrate their desires for peace in different ways.
The supporters of the administration's policy in Viet Nam have adopted a strategy reminiscent of World War II. Linking arms, thousands of Americans have marched in support of the President and American servicemen.
Less overt, but nonetheless meaningful, are the drives for signatures on letters to troops in Viet Nam or donations for food and medicine to Vietnamese civilians.
THOSE PROTESTING AMERICAN action in Viet Nam have adopted other tactics. Claiming non-violence, they frequently approach violence.
A 21-year-old pacifist and professed Quaker burned himself to death in front of the Pentagon to protest continued U.S. action in Viet Nam. Less violent, but in the same vein of destruction, have been the torchlight rallies climaxed by the ritual burning of draft cards. Five young New York City men ignited their cards amidst a jeering crowd of 2,000 onlookers at a pacifist rally. In an almost theatrical incident in late October, a philosophy student at San Jose State College, California, threatened to destroy his draft card at a public rally. It took pleas from his father, and a red-haired coed to talk him out of the action.
The draft card burning ritual is an innovation in protest movements. The person who burns his draft card certainly cannot escape the draft and is not destroying the only link between himself and the draft board. The draft card burner is simply applying an age-old method of protest—non-violent disregard of authority—to a new protest movement.
NEITHER KU NOR the Midwest have witnessed the draft card ritual yet. Whether there
are elements on this campus who would indulge in such acts remains to be seen.
Though KU has not been the scene of active mass demonstrations supporting or opposing American action in Viet Nam, both movements are here.
The KU chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, nationwide instigator of the anti-Viet Nam movement, has disclaimed any ties with the actions spawned by the national committee.
ON THE SIDE of the supporters, there are at least two groups here gathering signatures for letters to be sent to Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander of the American Forces in Viet Nam. Another group seeks contributions for food, clothing and medical supplies which will be distributed by the U.S. Marines to Vietnamese civilians. KU-SDS, which attempts to see both sides of the situation, has announced plans to support an orphaned Vietnamese child.
In a sense, there are two sides to the question of these protests—at KU or anywhere else. Every foreign policy is open to criticism. Therefore, some criticism of U.S. action in Viet Nam is always acceptable. However, the need for unity within the country is often so great as to preclude criticism. As the U.S. gets deeper in Viet Nam, support by all its citizens is needed in order for the country to survive, and to battle communism effectively.
Dissent is the basis of freedom of speech and action within a free country for the dissenters often can help focus matters in their true perspective. Too much acquiescence or approval could be fatal.
AS LONG AS THE U.S. remains free and fighting in Viet Nam dissent is healthy. No one approves of war, and the dissenters have every right to voice their disapproval. But dissent in the face of defeat could prove disastrous. Fortunately, and yet ironically, the great period of dissent in our country has occurred just as the war in Vietnam is turning in our favor, according to Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Dissent now is healthy, for we are a strong nation—the nation which has been predicted to be the eventual victor in Viet Nam.
But should the unforeseen occur and the U.S. be placed upon the losing side in this faraway war, dissent within the nation would become unhealthy. National emergency frequently prompts national unity. Man's natural desire to preserve his family and his homeland would overcome the divisions of dissent. Let the supporters and opposers of the war in Viet Nam demonstrate now. When we need them, they'll be ready.
Judy Farrell
The ignored 5,000
It is a fairly well recognized fact around the Big Eight that KU should have a good basketball season this year, possibly even a great one. The Athletic Seating Board, acting with its usual keen sense of judgment and astute foresight, has also become aware of the possibilities of a good basketball team and has gleefully leaped upon the occasion to stick the KU students for a $4 season ticket.
"WHY NOT?" THEY argue. Every school in the conference has at least a $4 season basketball ticket charge and the money will be used in constructing a much needed addition to the present football stadium.
Of course the Athletic Seating Board was probably aware of a statement on every student's certificate of registration which says—"This Certificate of Registration and your KU-ID Card entitles you to admission to unreserved
seats for regularly scheduled intercollegiate basketball games,"but after all, University policies such as this are reserved for the students to follow, not the administrative organizations.
BUT THE MOST outrageous part of the seating plan is that it provides for only two-thirds of KU's student body. What about the 5,000 students who were a little bit late in getting to the ticket window? If they want to watch any basketball games they will be forced to spend a minimum of $1 per game, or $10 for the season to watch their school in action. This is more than grade school and high school students pay to watch the Jayhawks play.
If the Athletic Seating Board wants to cheat the students out of their money, they could at least provide enough student seats so they can cheat everyone equally.
We were thinking...
— Ernie Ballweg
The great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being; expand, if possible, to his full growth; resisting all impediments, casting off all foreign, especially all noxious adhesions; and show himself at length in his own shape and
An educated man stands, as it were, in the midst of a boundless arsenal and magazine, filled with all the weapons and engines which man's skill has been able to devise from the earliest time.
statue, be these what they may.
Whoso belongs only to his own age, and reverences only its gilt Popinjays or smootsmeared Mumbojumbos, must needs die with it.
- Thomas Carlyle
2 Daily Kansan Wednesday. November 17. 1935
"NO MATTER HOW LOUIS HER SPEECHES - YOULL HAVE TO ADMIT HEN ALWAYS HOUSE THEIR ATTENTION."
University Forum Public blocks progress
Scientific discoveries have long been recognized as the source of a vast number of impressive advances in the modern world. What is not so widely appreciated, however, is the fact that important research findings are often neglected, even for many years after they are reported.
Publication of scientific investigations does not automatically insure appropriate applications. At times this is fortunate, in that it prevents premature utilization of data that later may turn out to be incorrect or misinterpreted. On the other hand, when research findings have been shown to be valid, then failure to make use of them can often be a serious detriment to the welfare and improvement of society.
AVOGADRO'S BRILLIANT GAS volume principle was forgotten about for nearly half a century, with the result that progress in structural organic chemistry, synthetic medicinal agents, dye chemistry, etc., was virtually arrested from 1810 to 1800. The discovery by Semmelweiss that unsanitary conditions were primarily responsible for childbed fever was rejected by his contemporaries, and untold suffering and deaths continued until others ooke up to the same conclusion.
By 1925 the devastating effects of the ingestion of radium salts had become evident, yet the perceptive physicians who noted them were ridiculed and harassed by leading medical spokesmen of the day for challenging the "accepted" therapeutic safety of radium. It was a costly price to pay for the neglect of new research findings!
On the other side of the ledger, premature applications of research findings have become equally disturbing. Full-scale development of non-biodegradable synthetic detergents had already taken place before any recognition was given to their potential to pollute water sources. The serious long-term dangers of certain types of pesticides to plants and animals did not really become known until these agents were in use on a massive scale, and the chronic risks they offer to man are only now becoming apparent.
NEW FINDINGS ON sources of atmospheric pollution show that previously unheeded industrial and automotive developments are largely responsible. Nuclear tests were conducted for over ten years before the implications of the most hazardous component of their debris, iodine-131, became evident. New evidence of toxic effects of low-level fluoride ingestion has brought the saety of fluoridated drinking water back into question.
Many other examples of unwelcome consequences of the misuse of research findings can be cited. But both scientists and the public have a joint responsibility not to discard the normal and proper procedures for adequate testing and properly controlled experimentation before large-scale adoption of research findings is made for technical or social purposes.
Albert Burgstahler Professor of Chemistry
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