Our public's opinion
On this page, "The People Say" is our most important column.
It is important because it justifies the page and the paper it is printed upon.
It is the medium that the people may use to express their views upon any subject they choose. Often, it is the only medium there is for the people to apply the written lash to the misinformed or the miscreant editorialist.
BUT FOR THE COLLEGE paper serving the college community, "The People Say" has a much larger scope than press freedom. Such a column of letters become more than an expression of opinion about the ASC; it becomes a clearing house for ideas unfortunately found only in an intellectual climate.
Many of the letters received by the Daily Kansan are written by members of this University's community who are specialists in their fields. Their comments are often invaluable in light of the wisdom they may carry.
For that reason, nearly all the letters that land on the editorial desk of the Kansan are published.
However, a certain degree of censorship is exercised upon some of those letters by the Editorial Editors.
SUCH CENSORSHIP is not the blue-pencil suppression of ideas or opinions, but rather censorship for the sake of clarity and typographical make-up.
Letters that are judged too long are often cut, hopefully in the places where the scissors do not ruin the writer's argument or approach.
Letters that contain faulty grammar—there have been several—are carefully corrected before publication.
In fact, we go to great extremes to make sure that our most important column is also our most readable.
The Editors
The people say...
To the Editors:
I take not a little curiosity in Mr. Ching's reply to those anonymous Formosan students and their Feb. 22 letter.
Chiang's present regime is confined to Taiwan and does not effectively represent the vast majority of the Chinese people. Nationalist administrators do not govern or tax or what have you any of the continental provinces where over 700 million Chinese dwell. This is not to say that the Taiwan government does not represent some Chinese but it is still true that it does not govern any significant part of China any more. The People's Republic does hold a relatively uniform sway over the country and, if world tensions are to be relaxed in the
coming years, the US policy-maker must speak with Peking.
The USA, true enough, has had relations with the Nationalist government since the early part of this century. But in those times the Kuinintang could, in spite of warlordism and a latent Communist guerilla movement, speak somewhat convincingly for a greater number of Chinese than now. Times change and the de facto status of China is different.
Formosa not part of China
Mr. Ching says that the notion of alien rule in Taiwan is absurd and that Formosa has always been a province of China. Ching armies conquered Taiwan in 1683 and Taiwan, therefore, has not "always" been a part of China. Granted that its inhabitants are
of Chinese descent from Fukien, it does not follow by this fact alone that Taiwanese "belong" to China any more than Americans "belong" to Great Britain despite a basically common Anglo-Saxon racial origin. And Mr. Ching is on uncertain ground when he says that "Formosans . . . are treated as Chinese." It is common knowledge that while local government in Taiwan is more and more in the hands of Formosans, the national administration and foreign policy of the state reflect the interests and prejudices of two million Chinese led by Chiang.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
I WOULD HAVE BEEN HOME EARLIER FROM OUR "STUDY SESSION" BUT WORTHAL FORGOT TO BRING His BOOKS"
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Next Mr. Ching states that the Kuomintang regime may be called "Free China" compared to the People's Republic — always taking care to note that "free-dom" is relative and that, anyhow, no country is free in every sense. Perhaps Taiwan should not be showered with abuse and the rest of the world left exempt. And I am the last to say that I approve of the Feking government. But it is laughable to call Taiwan "Free China."
Mr. Ching is playing with words. It may be true that Mussolini's Italy was freer than Hitler's Germany, but what have we gained from this? If nothing else, China's recent historical background would make any gains for scientific and liberal government highly unlikely either in Peking or in Taipei.
I would like to conclude this long letter with a short anecdote. I once spoke with a Chinese student who had made himself known as basically pro-Nationalist in political sentiment. But he told me he didn't enjoy political discussions adding, in the same breath, that one had the liberty to speak here but not in Taiwan —that there, even the family of a dissenter was accountable in the eyes of the state. This is a small incident, perhaps, but to me a very far-reaching one.
'Freedom' where?
Yours sincerely.
Wichita graduate student
Official Bulletin
Gordon M. Sites
Classical Film, 7 & 9 p.m. "The Entertainer." British, Bitch, Aud.
TODAY
Senior Recital, 8 p.m. Roger Sommer,
Tomer Michael Berger, French
hammer Swain
Lecture, 8 p.m. Dr. Milos萨萨-zila
Guzman, Head of Road to
Socialism. Forum Room
2
"We've Got To Meet Force With Force"
Daily Kansan editorial page Wednesday, March 1. 1967
1966 HER BLACK
THE WASHINGTON POST
1,001 afternoons in the Village
By RANDOLPH SEALEY
After having lived in New York City four years. I have discovered that tourists regard a visit to Greenwich Village to be as essential as the Empire State Building and Grant's Tomb.
Last September I guided a tour of the Village. After our fraternity's national convention, I and two brothers from the University of Rhode Island drove to New York. Upon arrival my companions desired a tour of the Village. Naturally, I obliged.
WE ENTERED THE AREA between Fourth and Eighth Streets from Boardway and elbowed our way through the evening throng. A disparate crowd was evident; clean-shaven men with suits and women in dresses wandered among figures of both sexes dressed in army fatigues and levis.
We walked past a group of bearded men wearing sunglasses and boots slouching on the sidewalk among long-haired girls with heavy black eye makeup.
"Oh, they're sort of like extras on a movie set. They even belong to Actor's Equity," I explained to the Rhode Island brothers.
We entered one of the bars. Inside, surrounded by a crowd of spectators, teeny-boppers and long hair, male and female, tossed in the stagnant air and deafening noise.
WE SAT AT A TABLE the corner of which was occupied by a button-down collared man in a pin stripe suit. The girl beside him sipped a martini.
One Rhode Islander picked up a card from the table. It read: "Three Dollars Cover Charge." Drinks, I informed him, would be a dollar-fifty.
"Uh. suppose we move along." he proposed.
On Bleeker Street the crowd was thickest, particularly around the artists' street studios, illuminated by floodlights. For $2.50 anyone could have their likeness sketched in ten minutes by an artist—if one could wait in line long enough.
THESE ARTISTS WERE real pros. No modern art nonsense was produced here, but work that would be a real credit to a student taking a course by mail from the Famous Artists School. These sidewalk artists really knew how to satisfy their clients.
A shop was our next stop. Inside, we saw pop-art posters and underground-movie-size enlargements of such celebrated figures as Humphrey Bogart and Timothy Leary hung on the walls. The counters were covered with books, oriental trinkets and chineze puzzles.
The fastest-selling line was buttons. Many customers were buying "Apple Pie Makes You Sterile" and "Hire the Morally Handicapped." but the most popular titles were unprintable in this paper. The price, at 50 cents a button, represented a handsome $100% profit for the sellers.
INCENSE AND CIGARETTE papers also sold well.
"Yes, they roll them themselves," I explained, "but before long there will be all kinds of packaged brands, just like cigarettes."
As we left the store to return westward, I saw the eyes of the thickly bearded shopkeeper twinkle behind his dark glasses.
"Prosperity," he yawned as he patted his portly belly.