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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, March 16, 1965
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Thank You, Lawrence
A unique program of University fund-raising was begun in 1961 by the Help-KU fund drive. The program is aimed at the Lawrence residents, who so far, have contributed $85,000 to KU student loans.
According to Irvin Youngberg, the executive secretary of the Endowment Association, it is one of the few programs of its kind in the Big 8.
Lawrence residents are to be commended and thanked for their overwhelming financial support of KU. Approximately 1,780 students have borrowed from this fund since it began.
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITIES, according to some, are supposed to be antagonistic toward the university students. The example of Lawrence residents certainly brings to light the fallacy in this judgment.
The University and the students owe a great deal of thanks to those who have contributed to this fund. KU students have an unusual advantage in going to school in a community which is as vitally interested in the students as are the Lawrence residents.
Leta Roth
The People Say
"HEY! WHAT'S THIS? WHAT'S goin' on here? I don't understand. Why ya' doin' all this? What for? What's the reason? Huh!"
"Oh"
"We have stopped asking and we are demanding!"
Well. "Oh," that makes much sense. It's wonderful national coverage. The only coverage. Now if a guy went to KU he could dig out some old DAILY KANSANS and discover an article all about integrationalists demanding Chancellor Wescow to sign a paper. But if a guy went to KU chances are he wouldn't have a reason to do so, because he wouldn't have learned, yet, about the demonstration until he switched on the television—national coverage—at the end of the day!
Well, congratulations on the national coverage. "We have stopped asking and we are demanding." Just maybe nobody will ever know what the purpose really was. That would be the most fortunate possibility for a conclusion. Sort a' face saving.
MY God! What would people think if they knew that the demonstration was, basically, to force a person to sign a paper? Would not people think that the integrational problem in Kansas is a few hundred years behind that of Alabama? Would not people think that Kansas integrationalists have no conception, whatsoever, of the fact that all the papers have been signed, and that the remainder of the Negro's fight for freedom must be won with guts? Would not people think that, indeed, the Kansas integrationalist is a little bit YELLOW, sitting in front of an office?
Well, now come on, when you really get to the point, isn't it rather trite to continue all this soul searching? Is there really anything left to talk about? It's all done, isn't it? The talking, I mean. The decisions have been made. They're not hard. All that's left is work.
What about the Firebird? What about the boys in Selma? Wonder what they think?
I'll bet there're some guys who'll just swear up and down that papers with ink on them aren't bullet proof!
Well, let's start all over again. First, hope that people will think the recent demonstration was noble, (don't snicker) Second, try to find a noble purpose for the next one (like for support of the one in Alabama, for instance). Third, organize the next one, so it will be more than just a show (like the cameramen wanted).
H. S. Dreher Salina junior
To the Editor:
I WRITE FROM BEYOND THE campus scene and from an admittedly prejudiced point of view on the subject of social fraternities and sororities. Though I am a white, anglo-saxon protestant with some college experience, I have never understood why anyone would want to belong to a social fraternity or sorority. Too many of their members seem to feel that belonging to such a group establishes, recognizes, or proclaims their superiority and privilege. This "better-than" attitude has long been a poison in the community of man, and is in fact the very basis of the white segregationalist's position.
I question whether a civil rights campus movement which seeks in
any way to extend the influence of an attitude of "superiority by virtue of belonging" is actually in keeping with long range goals in civil rights. I submit that rather than clamoring to become a part of such groups, civil rights advocates might better work toward the abolishment of such groups from the campus scene.
Sincerely, Martha D. Hazeltine Overland Park, Kan.
Sincerely.
Dear Sir:
I want to clarify a few erroneous points reported in the article concerning the SPU challenge for debate in the Thursday, 11 March, UDK. First, the debating team which I organized did not accept the SPU challenge—we challenged anyone (including SPU members) to debate the topic: "Resolved: that the United States should remain in Viet Nam." To the best of my knowledge, SPU did not accept the challenge at that time, and I left my telephone number so that they or anyone else might contact me.
In reply to Hook's statement, "If these people do not feel that they are qualified to debate without a lot of preparation, why do they write so vehemently in the University Daily Kansan?", I must say that Mr. Hook has a genius for distorting the truth, using hypothesis for fact, and resorting to "argumentum ad hominem" for lack of logic. Our group was very well prepared for debate, but the 24-hour notice of challenge from the SPU made prior commitments inescapable for members of our team. Moreover, none of our people have written anything to the UDK.
I would ask Mr. Hook how many weeks he has been preparing for this debate, but I already know.
Sincerely.
Sincerely,
Brian B. Turner
Warrensburg, N.Y.
Graduate student
Dear Sir.
WRITING IN ANSWER TO Miss Leta Roth's editorial, 'A.S.C. Strikes Again,' I suppose that I should entitle this letter, 'Leta Roth Smears Again.' Nothing is more amusing to an outsider than to observe journalistic solidarity, as back to back they ward off all measures which they deem interference, in the sacred name of what Miss Roth calls journalistic ethics, or as the Kansan Board more realistically phrases it, 'legal and economic risks.'
In turning to the substance of Miss Roth's editorial, it should be
pointed out that there was only one amendment on this issue brought before the A.S.C., and that those who phrased it were well aware that the second part was already Kansan policy. In fact, it was copied verbatim from a statement of Kansan policy, the intent being not to belittle the efforts of the Kansan Board, but rather to recognize the steps that they had so far taken, and to incorporate such steps into the A.S.C. Bill Book. As such, Miss Roth's statements about the A.S.C. bothering to do research etc., would seem to be petty and unnecessary, though interestingly indicative of the state of her mind.
In defense of the Kansan's right to accept no dictation with regard to advertising policy, Miss Roth is forced into a blantant and unnecessary reductio ad absurdem, when she states that the logical conclusion of this action would be the dictation of news and editorial policy. She further compounds this error by citing the example of a City Council trying to control a metropolitan newspaper—but she appears dubious that the collective minds of the A.S.C. will be able to project this far.
Speaking personally, though I feel able to so project, I completely fail to see the relevancy of her example. The connection between a City Council and the metropolitan newspaper is at best a tenuous one, the connection between the U.D.K. and the A.S.C. is stated quite clearly on Page 48 of the A.S.C. Bills and Constitution, and is also appended to the Kansan Board's own Constitution: "The Kansan Board is hereby authorized to govern its activities through its own Constitution, provided that such activities shall not infringe upon the established policy of the All Student Council in the protection of Student rights."
It is in the protection of such Student rights that the amendment was introduced, and the issue deserves more serious consideration than merely attempting to bury it under a mass of verbiage couched in terms of an infringement of journalistic ethics, or still worse by claiming that there are economic risks involved.
"Patronize Your Kansan Advertisers," is a phrase which by its very nature ought to apply to all readers of the U.D.K., thus sparing students the embarrassment of complying with this adage, only to be rejected on the basis of the colour of their skins.
Hughes 14-70
Stoke-on-Trent, England
Graduate student
Sincerely.
Hugh Taylor
Dailij Hänsan
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Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16. 1912 Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Leta Roth and Gary Noland Co-Editorial Editors
"Don't Point That Thing At Me!"
BOOK REVIEWS
MEMOIRS BY HARRY S. TRUMAN, consisting of YEAR OF DECISIONS: 1945, and YEARS OF TRIAL AND HOPE: 1946-1952 (Signet, $1.25 each, or boxed $2.50).
As we go into the 20th anniversary of Harry Truman's becoming President, just as World War II was entering its last weeks, it is fitting that handsome paperback editions of his autobiography be published. The two books appeared first in 1945, and University students will note with interest that Dean Francis Heller of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences played a key role in working with Truman on the books.
Truman's role in history remains a matter of debate; the man himself was extremely conscious of how he would be rated, and historical sensitivity runs throughout this work. Those whose minds are made up and won't be confused with the facts, those who have been brought up to hate Truman and don't care to hear the other side, likely won't care for the "Memoirs"—if they'll read them, indeed.
The approach is highly personal, and chatty, in the Truman vein. Truman never thrust aside his folksy Missouri background, or his cockiness. The latter, as a matter of fact, comes through in many cases. Truman was sure he was right, and he doesn't care who disagrees.
It is curious, in a way, that one volume encompasses one year (though it also has the early background on the man), and that another takes in the sweeping events of 1946-52. We are provided a first-hand view of coming into the Presidency, the disputes with Ickes and Wallace, the Potsdam conference, the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, the iron curtain speech of Churchill, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, postwar communism witch-hunting, 1948 and the celebrated victory over Dewey, the Korean War and the firing of MacArthur.
This is important, vital history. Its literary form is never significant, and even Truman fans may become impatient with the man, and his occasional arrogance. But, like him or not, Truman participated in some of the critical events of American history, and his place in history—about which he talked so much himself—is going to be an important one.—CMP
ASSASSINATION!, by Ben Abro (Crest, 50 cents); SYLVIA, by E. V. Cunningham (Crest, 50 cents); BLACK AMBER, by Phyllis A. Whitney (Crest, 50 cents).
A threeseam of books attuned to the sixties. "Assassination" is a suspense story whose author, says the publisher, is still not known to the company. It's all about a plot to murder one of the powerful leaders of Europe. Very Hitchcockish. "Sylvia" is the current movie designed to exploit the dubious charms of Carroll Baker. It isn't a murder mystery but it is a mystery, about a private detective hired to see if a rich man's fiancee is all he hopes her to be. "Black Amber" is by a writer who has achieved previously in the field of suspense. She sends her heroine to Istanbul, a city of many mysteries, and to an exotic villa on the Bosporus. There the fun begins.
* * *
THE BLACK OBELISK, by Erich Maria Remarque (Crest, 75 cents).
Remarque has returned to the world of "The Road Eack," his thirties successor to "All Quiet on the Western Front," for the setting and era of "The Black Obelisk." The time is the twenties, the setting is Germany getting ready for the coming of Nazism.
The mood is lighter than that in the Remarque novels of recent years, and it may suggest the impact that Brecht, particularly with "The Threepenny Opera," had on young German intellectuals of that period. His people are desperate and lost, but they are able to look at themselves with some understanding.
The story, unfortunately, is told in the first person and present tense. This gets pretty cumbersome after awhile.