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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Feb. 11, 1965
To An Anxious Friend
(Editor's note: This is William Allen White's Pulitzer Prize-winning editor's written in 1922. White was the famed editor of the Emma Jaffre Gazette. It is reprinted here in honor of Emma Jaffre in White day, being observed in honor of White birthday.)
You tell me that law is above freedom of utterance. And I reply that you can have no wise laws nor free enforcement of wise laws unless there is free expression of the wisdom of the people—and, alas, their folly with it. But if there is freedom, folly will die of its own poison, and the wisdom will survive. That is the history of the race. It is proof of man's kinship with God. You say that freedom of utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply with the sad truth that only in time of stress is freedom of utterance in danger. No one questions it in calm days, because it is not needed. And the reverse is true also; only when free utterance is suppressed is it needed, and when it is needed, it is most vital to justice.
Peace is good. But if you are interested in peace through force and without free discussion—that is to say, free utterance deciently and in order—your interest in justice is slight. And peace without justice is tyranny, no matter how you may sugar-coat it with expedience. This state today is in more danger from suppression than from violence, because, in the end, suppression leads to violence. Violence, indeed, is the child of suppression. Whoever pleads for justice helps to keep the peace; and whoever tramples on the plea for justice temperately made in the name of peace only outrages peace and kills something fine in the heart of man which God put there when we got our manhood. When that is killed, brute meets brute on each side of the line.
So, dear friend, put fear out of your heart. This nation will survive, this state will prosper, the orderly business of life will go forward if only men can speak in whatever way given them to utter what their hearts hold—by voice, by posted card, by letter, or by press. Reason has never failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.
William Allen White
Food Production May Be Answer
(Editor's note: The following is the third of a four-part series on the world food and population problem. The first was an introduction to the problem. The second was an analysis of birth control ideas, and that discusses food and agricultural issues. The last with examples the relative values of birth control and agricultural production, including the financial means for carrying out a program.)
While birth control involves resolving various moral questions, increasing agricultural production involves only determining which of the known solutions is best and carrying out the program.
At the outset, it is important to point out that continued doles of food are not the ultimate answer. While it is vital that the United States and other nations continue and increase food distribution to underdeveloped nations, the problem cannot possibly be solved without these countries improving their domestic food production drastically. It may come as a shock, but even the United States cannot feed a world population twice its size.
AT PRESENT, THE U.S. government is cooperating with many nations in the world in establishing agricultural research stations within the countries, seed and plant improvement projects, extension services, irrigation projects, use of pesticides, and programs to train the local people how to use these facilities. U.S. aid also is making possible the training abroad of native agricultural specialists. Work by the United Nations, particularly the Food and Agriculture Organization, other countries, and private organizations also has been along these lines.
Modern Americans are used to hearing a great deal about the prospects of food from the sea, but this idea has little prospect of solving the immediate food problems in the next two decades. In the first place, there is not a need to turn to the sea. At the present, there is plenty of land upon which agricultural
goods can be produced; the sea will become important only when available land becomes scarce. Also, and more importantly, the capital investment required per unit of additional food from the sea is much higher than in conventional agriculture.
ONE PLAN OF action which should get increasing attention in the near future is that of increasing the use of fertilizers. Dr. Raymond Ewell, the vicepresident for research at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in a speech before a meeting of the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in Chicago on Sept. 1, 1964, said, "Fertilizer offers the best possibility of substantial increase in agricultural production between now and 1980." This speech by a chemist, economist, and former adviser to India and other countries, has recently appeared in an expanded form in Chemical and Engineering News.
His confidence in the effectiveness of fertilizers to do the job is based primarily on findings of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The report of the seventh Meeting of the FAO Fertilizer Industry Advisory Panel, July 7, 1964, said, "There can be no manner of doubt that when farmers in developing countries use fertilizers — even without other improved farming methods — the results will be good." The report said the average increase in yield to the most economic treatments in all countries, crops, and seasons was 74 per cent. The regional averages were Near East and North Africa, 54 per cent; West Africa, 72 per cent; and Northern Latin America, 95 per cent.
THUS DR. EWELL believes that a new crash program of fertilizer plant construction is essential. He estimates the cost will be $5 billion.
estimated need of an annual production of 30 million tons of plant nutrients in the underdeveloped areas by 1980. This production, he says, will maintain the present production of 16 ounces of grain per day per person in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The underdeveloped countries must attain an annual production of 15 million tons by 1970, he said. Much more fertilizer would of course be needed for improvement of the present situation.
Dailij Fränsan
Domestic production of fertilizer in all three underdeveloped continents, according to Dr. Ewell, is about 1.5 million tons in 1963-64, and a good estimate for 1970 is 3 to 4 million tons. Though a crash program could increase production to 5 to 6 million tons, Dr. Ewell believes it is already too late to increase production greatly by 1970. Fertilizer will have to be imported to avoid the famine.
A NOTE OF ENCOURAGEMENT comes from India, where plans were announced in September to build a complex of five giant fertilizer plants, each with a capacity of 200,000 tons annually. Not only does a million tons represent a big share of what Dr. Ewell predicts will be needed, but it promises to increase India's production of foodgrains by 10 million tons, and it goes a long way toward raising India's fertilizer manufacturing capacity to 2.25 million tons, which is the goal of the Fourth Five Year Plan which begins in 1970. At the same time, the new corporation which is being established to build the plants will launch an ambitious program for educating agriculturalists in the use of fertilizer, for this is not a hit-and-miss process.
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No matter what method or methods to improve the agriculture in underdeveloped countries is used, the educational problems must be overcome at the same time. Certainly, a poor farmer who does not know how to read or write cannot know about plant biology, for instance. Also, a farmer accustomed to producing just enough for his own family will have to be taught the benefits to himself and his society for him to produce enough to feed the ever-growing sectors of the population which are not in food-producing occupations.
Greg Swartz
Traveling Man
'Mother Courage' Opens with Success
"Mother Courage and Her Children," Bertolt Brecht's depiction of the Thirty Years' War, was carried out with professional quality last night in the University Theatre.
The costumes were drab, scenery was barren, and the language of the characters was crude, but the result was brilliant.
The play, stripped of the glamour that fascinates many playgoers, was carried by the actors and the unusual. Brecht, a playwright of the "lost generation" submitted this play in 1939 and caused a revolution in theatrical productions thereafter. Instead of the usual theater gimmicks, he used slides, unsensuous dialogue, imageless props and tough characters.
Joining Mrs. Veselinovic in her success was her husband, Mladja, who portrayed the Chaplain. His role took on significance when one understands that the Thirty Years' War was a religious war. He was a Protestant chaplain when the Protestants were in strength, and with little effort, he shed his minister's robes for the clothing of a peasant when the Catholics gained an advantage.
USING WELL THE facilities of the University Theater, the production of "Mother Courage" featured a live orchestra (dressed in derbies and vests), which was raised and lowered into the scenery mechanically. Black and white, and color slides were shown against backdrops above the heads of the actors—showing other views of the scenes the audience was seeing.
Mother Courage, portrayed by Branka Veselinovic, the University Theatre's guest artist, was the central character and the success of the evening.
She had the toughness, the detachment, the polish that gave Brecht's most cynical lines great impact. At once, she was the person of poverty, stamina, prosperity and understanding.
But the props and costumes alone were not the main attraction, nor the main success of the production.
The dialogues between Mother Courage and the Chaplain on war were a core in the performance. Mother Courage was extremely fond of war, as it was a portentious wind to her business—selling all types of wares from a gypsy-type wagon. The Chaplain felt that war was, in many respects, like love—"it always finds a way."
Excellent performances were given by the supporting members of the cast, especially George Bradley as the Cook, who came closest to giving Mother Courage a romantic interest. (although this interest was expressed in terms of buoyant friendship.)
WITH GREAT FORCE, she predicted the destruction of her three children. Not only with her voice, but with nearly every movement on the stage, her part was conveyed to the audience.
PLAYING A MUTE, Julia Callahan was very convincing—the frustration she endured at not being able to tell Mother Courage of the fate of a younger brother who had been captured by the enemy spread to the entire audience. The two brothers Eilif (Avi Seeever), the brave one, and Swiss Cheese (Steve Grossman), the honest one, both may be credited with convincing performances.
The production, on the whole, was free from technical mistakes and difficulty with lines. The play carried itself with a polish and finish that gave a definite professional touch, especially on opening night.
- Bobbetta Bartelt