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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 18, 1965
Good Old St. Pat
The Irish came out in full force yesterday to honor their favorite hero, St. Patrick. As a matter of fact, almost everyone was Irish yesterday, even the English.
Everyone seems to forget that Harold Harefoot, King of the English, died on March 17th in 1040, or that The Corn Law Rhymer, Ebenezer Elliott, was born on March 17th, 1781. But somehow, a French monk, who helped alleviate the ancient Druid religions of Ireland, was vaulted into international and long-lasting fame. New Yorkers parade in honor of him, people wear the "green" for him, and little old ladies tell stories about how they came over from Ireland during the potato famine.
The Germans forget their gipes against the French and the French don't hate the Poles on St. Pat's Day. Everyone is Irish on March 17th. If you claim to be anything else, you are labeled as un-American.
It's rather amazing that nationalities, so dear to some coat-of-arms-type people, are obliterated on St. Patrick's Day and everyone becomes Irish.
I wish people could forget other grievances and differences as easily as they forget nationality differences.
I wonder, though, whether St. Patrick knew what he started, with all the green beer, sham-rocks, etc.?
— Leta Roth
Guest Editorial
I am a member of the Kansan Board and I don't know which way to turn. I want to do everything in my power to support the battle for equal rights. But I, and the other members of the Kansan Board have been entrusted with the job of directing the policy of a daily newspaper—the University Daily Kansan. I cannot take either of these matters lightly. On one hand I have the obligation to myself and to my fellow man that is inherent in the battle for man's dignity and freedom. On the other hand, I have an obligation to the ethics of newspaper publishing.
I must fight any outside effort to control what may go into the paper and what may not. I must fight any minority group that attempts to dictate (by force) the policy of a newspaper. I must fight to keep control of the newspaper in the hands of journalists and out of the hands of politicians.
Even though I personally believe that the cause is a just one, I cannot support this type of censorship. This is the type that leads to control of the news. This is the type that sets students up as judges deciding whether or not a person's beliefs are good enough to be made public. In other words, by opposing the beliefs of the CRC an advertiser would automatically have his right to advertise in the UDK censored. Who would decide this? Not the staff of the Kansan, not the Kansan Board, not any journalist and especially not a
court of law. A committee of students would be established to sit in judgment and to decide who was "pure enough of mind to advertise." This I cannot support.
I must also fight a group that tries to use a newspaper to force its beliefs on people that disagree with it. In this case, the CRC is attempting to use the Kansan to gain a lever over people who disagree with them. By controlling the advertising of the UDK they hope to force these businesses that are alleged to be discriminating, to accept a policy dictated by the CRC. I cannot condone any group (in this case, a minority group) that will stoop to forcing a newspaper to fight its battles for it.
Another reason that I cannot support this irresponsible action is that it would set a dangerous precedent. If the ASC is allowed to direct what will and what will not be printed in the students' newspaper then there is no reason in the world that the ASC and the party in power cannot say, "Stop printing bad things about our party and, in fact, stop putting anything in the paper about the other party at all." A newspaper, must for the sake of its readers, be in the hands of journalists, not politicians.
I only wish that this matter was as simple as it appeared at first glance, but it is not.
— John Pepper, Lenexa senior
The People Say
Dear Sir:
There are many different kinds of shoes. There are even many different kinds of tennis shoes. Red tennis shoes are the best. I wear red tennis shoes. After all, who wants to wear black and white striped tennis shoes? People might think they are escaped convicts and no self-respecting tennis shoe wearer would want that to happen. Besides, they'd just get all messy in the mud. Red tennies, as we wearers like to call them, don't get muddy—they just get mad and turn redder.
What about the excitement that red tennies arouse? True, we wearers must take care—especially us blondes. Big blue tennies are the chief offenders—they like to crush. But they're about the only trouble-makers, except the worms crawling out of the ground; they think they've found a couple of red bananas. Worms are easy to get round, though.
I also wear red tennies because they fit my feet, if I buy them the right size. Incidentally, always buy shoes the right size or else they won't fit. It saves a lot of foot-to-foot combat and reduces the cases of frustrated toes. In all honesty, I suppose I should confess that the main reason I wear red tennies is that they're the swiftest things I've found for chasing pickled elephants down side streets—but that's another story.
Frances Bartlett Kansas City, Mo., junior
Open Letter to B. B. Turner:
In case our public statement to the UDK was not official enough,
SPU regrets that no one accepted
our challenge and is pleased to accept yours. You mentioned this Friday evening in the Union as the time and place; a representative of
SPU will be there.
Open Letter to B. B. Turner:
May I take this opportunity to concur with your conviction that
arguments directed against individuals or groups instead of against other arguments are morally and logically wrong, perhaps just as wrong as dropping bombs on people instead of using a rational foreign policy to create and support democratic alternatives to totalitarian social systems. (Query: is there such a thing as an *ad hominem war*?) Perhaps one might even conclude, to use your poetic allegory, that the military tigers and the political hawks who exhort and direct them ought to climb into their helicopters and go back home where they belong. But, if this policy were to be followed, there would be a grave risk that the area might be overrun by the people who live there.
Charles Hook
SPU Field Secretary
I WISH TO SPEAK OUT ON behalf of the UDK, which has recently come in for a lot of adverse criticism. Cowardly, hypocritical, craven, dishonest, self-righteous—these are only a few of the milder epithets bestowed on the student newspaper. Such rash charges do not deserve refutation. I want to deal in more concrete matters, matters touching more directly upon the heart of journalism—accuracy.
Dear Sir:
Your story on the Gabriel Marcel lecture last week ("Speaker Says God Non-Existent") drew violent reactions against the UDK from some of my friends. (I add at once that these friends are, like Marcel, Roman Catholics, and are therefore prejudiced as well as being morbidly sensitive.) They asserted that you failed to report anything that Marcel did say and that you reported only what Marcel did not say. I, of course, replied by insisting on the freedom of the press and on your well known policy of independence. This did not satisfy my hypercritical friends, however, who seemed to think it monstrous that
you should report the exact opposite of what in fact occurred.
I think it must be conceded that your story was not accurate in every detail. This does not necessarily mean, however, that your story was completely without merit. You spelled every proper name correctly (and Nietzsche is a very hard name); you abbreviated Monsieur with marvellous and consistent accuracy; you got the location of the lecture right (which, incidentally, proves that the reporter was actually present at the lecture or at least knew someone who was present because the lecture was originally scheduled for Fraser and was switched to Hoch only at the last moment); you included several correct facts about the speaker (I think it is important to distinguish true from false facts)—that he was a Christian, French, existentialist philosopher; and you almost got the title of the lecture right: You said it was "The Myth and Death of God, etc." whereas in fact the title was "The Myth of the Death of God, etc." That was just a harmless little verbal slip, however, which no one could hold against a harassed reporter struggling in the depths of Christian atheism.
Sincerely,
Dennis Quinn
Assoc. Prof., English
Dailij Mansan
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@1965 HERBLOEK
THE WASHINGTON POST
A. D. 1965
The People Say...
Dear Editor:
CONGRATULATIONS TO BRIAN Turner! He certainly does tell a fine parable! (UDK, Fri, March 12)
Having been an avid outdoorsman since about age three, his letter on tigers and forests, etc., was a refreshing change from all the heavy politics that have been discussed in these columns recently.
In the course of my outdoor pursuits, I have developed an interest in wildlife management. On this basis, I feel compelled to offer a few words on principles of tiger management. One of the near-universal tenets of wildlife management that Brian overlooks in his amusing parable is the tendency of a specie to thrive when its habitat is good, and to either stop multiplying or starve itself out when the habitat is unsuitable.
Perhaps Brian's tigers thrived so well because the people took too little interest in the actual condition of the forest, turning to it only when it suited their own convenience, and thereby allowing the forest to become an ideal place for tigers to live and multiply. Perhaps the people doomed themselves by their own conceit, stupidity, and shortsightedness.
In any case, that sure was a fine story. Brian, and since I am concerned with the control of tigers, why don't we get together and discuss the nature of tigers and of forests, sometime.
(Snort, bearded, and) Sincerely,
John Garlinghouse
Salina junior
Gentlemen:
THE TIME HAS FINALLY come! The March 16th edition of the UDK was the biggest snub of a fellow Jawhawk that I have ever seen. I opened the paper to the so called "sports page" and what
headlines did I see? There were three separate articles, each concerning high school athletes, of whom only one has proven himself outside of high school competition. Who cares about the all-stater from Larned or the all-stater from Wyandotte? We might when they have proven themselves in collegiate competition, but not until then.
In the meantime let's give recognition where it is truly deserved. Last Saturday afternoon a KU senior performed on national T.V. He was Herald Hadley from Shallow Water. With thousands of people looking on Herald ran 22 times around a wood track. These were 22 important laps because he was competing in the NCAA Indoor track championships, the National Championships! Herald won this race and proceeded to set a Kansas school record, an all time Big Eight record and a national meet record in the process. This might not seem like much to some people, but to those of us who respect the endless hours and literally hundreds of miles spent preparing for such an event, it is vitally important this hard work and effort be publically recognized.
A track man is not paid the way some of the collegiate "jocks" are paid. Their only reward is the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, and sometimes from a little piece of metal.
Therefore I believe that when a fellow Jayhawk wins a national championship, his school paper should carry an appropriate article relating this in detail to the student body. The UDK has not done this and it is high time that they did.
In closing I only wish to say, "Congratulations, Herald, on a job well done."
Bob Boyd Houston, Texas, senior
BOOK REVIEWS
THE GREAT TREASURY RAID, by Philip M. Stern (Signet, 75 cents).
Here, in the midst of income tax time, one may feel particularly impelled to read this book that first appeared a year ago. It is quite an expose of taxation abuses, and there is likely to be considerable indignation from the folks who read this low-priced volume.
Stern's contention is that every year about $40 billion in potential tax funds never reaches the Treasury because of loopholes in the tax laws. Some are accidental; some are by design. He mentions a businessman who earned $20 million and didn't pay a penny on tax. He talks about the oil depletion allowance, which he says hasn't been touched since it was passed in the twenties.
touched since it was passed in the lives of Stern would tax all income—even fringe benefits. He favors a major overhaul of our laws to correct what he views as inequities.