"What A Serve! What A Return!"
Shaking science Velikovsky at KU
Tomorrow, a man of science comes to KU. He is Immanuel Velikovsky, and he is as controversial in the arena of modern science as Galileo or Copernicus were in their day.
Why the controversy?
Seventeen years ago, Velikovsky wrote a book, "Worlds in Collision." In that treatise, Velikovsky provided evidence to prove that global catastrophes—earthquakes, tidal waves, violent storms—were caused by two planets, Venus and Mars.
HE MET WITH SCORN and—oddly enough for the scientific community—censorship. No laboratory would test his theory, scientific journals and semi-scientific magazines refused to publish his findings and the publisher of "Worlds" was urged to drop printing of the book.
Velikovsky had introduced a theory that was contrary to "official" scientific theory of the earth's development. Moreover, his theory of earth being so affected by magnetic fields on Venus, electrical charges from the sun and eratic movement of Venus itself bordered on religious heresy.
Later, after the U.S. had sent a rocket probe
to Venus, a number of Velikovsky's "facts" were bolstered by substantial evidence—Venus, as Velikovsky said, was a "hot" planet, surrounded by hydrocarbon clouds.
BUT EVEN WITH SUCH hard-core evidence, the majority of scientists still refused to consider Velikovsky's theory of an earth that might have been "controlled" by extraterrestrial matter and events. The much-vaunted "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' refused to publish a 1963 paper by Velikovsky on Venus and instead, published a slamming attack by another scientist.
And even today, the controversy of rigid rule versus radical rebuttal that is Immanuel Velikovsky continues.
When he speaks Thursday evening at the Union, Velikovsky will probably add names to the list of social and physical scientists who are more than slightly annoyed by his thinking.
But what fun such a talk might be. Very seldom these days are we offered an alternate choice to the status quo—regardless if it's the status quo of science or Pennsylvania Avenue.
Very seldom do we get an opportunity to see a full-blown attempt to make history take place.
The people say—
To the Editor:
The following appeared as editorial comment in the May 8 edition of The Holton Recorder. It was written by John E. Chandler, editor and publisher of the paper and a former graduate of KU.
From time to time over the years I have raised my voice to defend our state university against
the charge that it is getting too big. I am about ready to take another look. From the top of Mount Oread comes the announcement that at commencement this year only students in the schools of law and medicine and those receiving Ph.D. degrees will go to the platform to get their diplomas. From other
schools, two students will be chosen to come to the front representing all the other students in the school.
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York, N.Y. 10022
Main subscription rates: $s a semester or $9 a year. Published and second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year
except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods.
Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University
Daily Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin.
The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents.
Further, no student will receive his diploma at commencement. The sheepskins will be mailed later. The administration states that by eliminating the presentation of diplomas to each graduate, time will be saved. With that no one can quarrel. It will save so much time that there is hardly any need for a commencement at all.
In the opinion of this country boy when a student has invested four years or more of his life in completing the requirements for a decree from KU he has earned the time it takes to let him come forward and get his diploma from the Chancellor or his dean. And when a family has invested four years of its substance in this process it has earned the prize of seeing this achievement traditionally recognized. And if the faculty and administration have to take out three or four hours some Monday evening to see this done they can jolly well set the time aside.
Sincerely,
Cindy Chandler
Holton senior
**Foreign Students:** Interested in speci-
summer job with us.
See Dean, Online course date.
Official Bulletin
Luus. Lecture. 4:00 p.m. Prof. Orton,
Leeds U., England. 306 Kansas Union.
Psych Colloq. 4:00 p.m. Dr. Alfred
Baldwin, NYU. Forum Room, Uni-
TODAY
German Honors Banquet, 6:30 p.m.
Kansas Room, Union
Classical Film, 7 & 9 p.m. "Dr.
Strangelove." Dyche Aud.
Senior Recital. 8:00 p.m. Patrick Miller, pianist. Swarthout Recital Hall.
Experimental Theatre, 8:20 p.m.
"The Wicked Cooks"
TOMORROW
Ph.D. Final Exam; 8:31 a.m. Ellen
Pelchard, Balanz, 414 Snow.
*S'erra Xi Banquet*, 6:30 pm, Speaker
(7:30 pm, ljmmanu1 V. Ivkovsky,
"O theodoxy in Selene Noncofio mity"
"Light Space Aga Discoveries"
"Xi Banquet")
Experimental Theatre, 8:20 p.m.
"The Wicked Cooked."
2
Daily Kansan editorial page Wednesday, May 17, 1967
NEW BOOKS
A MATTER OF CONVICTION, by Evan Hunter (Dell, 75 cents); THE EMBEZZLER, by Louis Auchincloss (Dell, 75 cents); THAT SUMMER, by Allen Drury (Dell, 75 cents) Some summer reading for you, gleaned from the lists of contemporary best-sellers. But not really escapist. Allen Drury leaves his Washington setting and his semi-conservative approaches to contemporary problems to give us a somewhat sexy story of summer doings in a California resort called Greenmont. The book will not likely endure beyond next summer. "The Embezzler" may be a little different in endurance, even though some of the critics hit it hard. If you remember the insull scandal of the thirties you'll have a notion of the business at hand—a man of wealth and influence who commits a shocking embezzlement that involves him in financial and society controversy. Auchincloss' brittle feel for the upper classes is marked in this one. "A Matter of Conviction" gives you an evening with the teenage gangs on a big city street. It's as brutal and as exciting to read as Hunter's previous "Blackboard Jungle."
* *
AMERICAN NEGRO SHORT STORIES, edited by John Henrik Clarke (American Century, $1.95); ANYPLACE BUT HERE, by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy (American Century, $1.95)—Excellent new paperback volumes by and about the American Negro. A collection of short stories by Negro writers is needed, and this one includes work by some famous names: Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Frank Yerby, Ann Petry, James Baldwin and LeRoij Jones. And some lesser-known ones, too. The editor is associate editor of Freedomways magazine, and has done anthologies on Harlem. "Anyplace but Here" is a history of the Negro and his efforts to break down prejudice in America. It appeared originally just after World War II, but new chapters are provided on Marcus Garvey, the Black Muslims, Malcolm X, and the urban disturbance of recent years. Arna Bontemps is a Negro himself, represented in the short story collection, is a writer in several fields, and now public relations director at Fusk University. Jack Conroy is a name going back to the thirties, when his outstanding novel, "The Disinherited," appeared.
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THE MANDELBAUM GATE, by Muriel Spark (Crest, 75 cents)—Another story of intrigue, which is the big thing in popular fiction these days. It is set not in Germany or the Far East but in Israel, and there are spies, wild escapes, humor, and always the presence of evil. It compares favorably with maybe Graham Greene, and at least Helen MacInnes.
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THE DOUBLE IMAGE, by Helen MacInnes (Crest, 75 cents)
Helen MacInnes has been producing spy thrillers since the early forties, at least, and this is her latest. It is not winning National Book Awards or Pulitzer Prizes, but it, and her other books like it, have been vastly entertaining for many readers. Her stories are always fairly credible, and they are about people who seem worth caring for. The plot concerns a plan to compromise U.S. security, which updates it somewhat from the Nazi stories she used to write. Good for those summer afternoons ahead.