Ramparts staff talks
KU historian writes, edits for national magazine
By PATRICIA PRUITT
The Frederick Mitchells like to surround themselves with the things they love, Mrs. Mitchell had said. That night, they sat at a candle-lit table with two friends, discussing literature and literary figures.
Mitchell, assistant professor of history, was host for a day to Ramparts Magazine officials Robert Scheer, managing editor, and Dugald Stermer, art director. Scheer was between planes to Europe to see Bertrand Russell and Sartre; Stermer, to Boston.
THEY GOSSIPED about nationally-known names and talked of art. Mostly, they talked of Ramparts and its goals.
As they brought their pipes out, the group moved to the book-lined living room, where Mitchell seated himself on a pile of pillows across from the sputtering fireplace.
His wife joked that "Mitch" has recently become well known to readers of Ramparts at KU as THE Frederick Mitchell, because he is on the board of directors and editors. His single contribution, however, has been a review of a large, expensive history book: "Kino: The Cartographer of New Spain." by Ernest J. Burrus, S.J.
YET MITCHELL is caught up in the mood of Ramparts—in the challenge to the status quo media of Life and Time, the challenge to the American mind.
"We're out to change the world," Scheer said, "and we want
to do it through the existing structure. We're flamboyant, flippant, and moral. Based in San Francisco, we're the only national magazine published west of Chicago.
"All the other national magazines start out with a basic policy, right? We don't; we print what's good and what's controversial. We make up our rules as we go along. We do not discuss things politically, but morally."
They are against the Vietnam conflict on moral bases, and recently ran an article by Dr. Benjamin Spock with pictures of Vietnamese children who were victims of the war.
"WE BELIEVE in a kind of primitive democracy. Right now," he said, "nothing is moving. We want to create a dialogue among magazines, since the old New England town meeting isn't possible."
Mitchell interrupted, "It's a dangerous thing—and a marvelously dangerous thing—to try to change the concensus. There's no telling what would happen then. But Ramparts is doing what I as an individual would like to do and do not have the courage to do."
He has been with Ramparts for one year, beginning with his days as a student at Berkeley. Although the publishing house is in San Francisco, Mitchell receives all manuscripts for approval.
Originally a Catholic literary quarterly, published independently by laymen, the magazine
had evolved by 1960 into a more cosmopolitan piece with the hiring of "Protestants, Jews, and agnostics" and was changed to a monthly.
"WE ARE AFTER all a mass media, and we're appealing to the masses," Stermer said. "We must attract their attention with flamboyancy or they won't read it. In 1960, the circulation was 2,500. Eighteen months ago, it was 25,000. Today, it's 150,000, with 10,000 going abroad. We are trying to expand because we want this magazine to influence. Look at Nation—it has the right idea but no readership."
He went on, "We're a combination of the moral and intellectual, and the professional slickness. We must be this combination or else the paper becomes either worthless or just another pamphlet. We're not just another right-wing sheet."
Ramparts is a magazine with an essence of mobility and insight, applied to a national character. Has his interest in history any bearing upon his wholehearted support of Ramparts?
"I study Latin American history," he prefaced, "with all its upheaval and its present build-up to the bursting point. I think revolution is natural and inevitable, and I'm not afraid of it. But, no, this is an individual concern—not that of a 'historian.' It might come to the question of whether a historian should mediate in his times, but that's silly.
Angel Flight commander's orders heard, obeyed by 20
By DIANE SEAVER
"Right face, to the rear march, team halt."—These and many other commands can be heard from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays in the Military Science Building.
And if you were watching as well as listening, you would see 20 women students drilling. The girl giving the commands is Eileen Ireland, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, and the girls following her orders are the members of the Angel Flight Drill Team.
Drill teams at KU have been fragmentally organized in previous years but this is the first year that the spirit and organization have been such that KU has a real drill team representing it.
Miss Ireland, who was initiated into Angel Flight and promoted from second to first lieutenant Tuesday night, said that the addition of a drill team will allow women other than pom-pon girls to represent the school.
"THIS WILL HELP school spirit. At K-State, the drill team marches at all athletic events," she said.
Miss Ireland says what the drill team is doing now is classed as women's military drill. She wants to start marching to whistle commands soon. Eventually, she predicts the team will march to drum commands.
The KU team is organized into four squads of four people each. At the beginning of this school year, every Angel Flight member went to drill practice to learn the fundamentals. Then before Thanksgiving, 16 were picked for the team. Miss Ireland makes the 17th member, not counting the alternate squad of four girls.
Since this is a pioneer year, the
Angel Flighters do not have a marching uniform. They are concentrating on perfecting their marching techniques and routines well enough to perhaps perform at the half-time of a March basketball game.
ALTHOUGH THE ROTC gets an hour of credit for marching, Angel Flight will have to wait and become better established before getting any credit for it.
Miss Ireland was a member of the Job's Daughters Drill Team that won first place in world competition held in Richmond, Va., several years ago. Due to this victory, her drill team
marched in review before the late President Kennedy.
The KU Drill Team is the second Miss Ireland has started. She also started a Job's Daughters Drill Team in Grandview, Mo.
Chris Liguish, Fort Worth, Texas, senior and Angel Flight commander, said, "I think the drill team is doing well. If the people involved are willing to work, I know it will grow."
Daily Kansan Wednesday, January 18, 1967
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FREDERICK MITCHELL Ramparts board member
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