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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, February 13. 1968
Ethridge receives White award calls for 'vigorous press credo'
A return to the vigorous editorial credo exemplified by William Allen White was called for Monday by Mark F. Ethridge, Emeritus Publisher of the Louisville Courier - Journal and Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina.
Ethridge, who before his speech was awarded the William Allen White Foundation's 1968 Award of Journalistic Merit, called White "a man with a passion that never left him . . . through his observation of Kansas and national politics and by the realization that winds were stirring in the world."
Such examples as the liberal movement in England, the Sun Yat Sen revolution in China, and the stirrings in Russia which led
to the assassination of the Czar in 1005, were mentioned by Ethridge. He quoted White as saying "In the hearts of all the world was implanted a spirit of revolt against a civilization and economic order which barred so many women and children from the basic blessings of life which the machine has created."
White "did indeed outline a revolution in American life" Ethridge said. He spoke of how White and other editors of his day had broken the railroad domination of American politics and "had put into the hands of the American people such 'new weapons of democracy' as the secret ballot, the initiative, referendum and recall in 22 states, and
amendments to registration laws restricting suffrage such as poll tax.
"We take these things so for granted as part of our national life," Ethridge said, "that we are prone not to realize how revolutionary they were and how bitterly they were fought by selfish interests. Without Mr. White and his fellow editors and progressive politicians, the revolution would not have been wrought."
Ethridge said stricter libel laws, more intelligent readers "who want reason instead of invective," monopoly situations and chain newspapers have tended to "sap editorial vigor. In some chains... there is inevitably some central office thinking.
"I have heard editors say, 'But we don't have the issues to write about that our editorial predecessors did.' I dispute that," Ethridge said.
As examples of the issues at hand to today's editorial writer, Ettridge mentioned the fight for civil rights, violence in the streets, decay of the cities, poverty, and the changing political structure—especially pertinent in this election year.
MARK ETHRIDGE
"There is always . . . the problem of big government," Ethridge said. "One of the prime functions of a newspaper, in my judgment, is to monitor government, whether on the local or national level. We are, in a deep sense, the public's shield against immorality or malfeasance on the part of public officials.
"The nestors of the past, such as Mr. White, had great issues to write about and wrote with vigor and conviction," Ethridge said. "We, too, have great and agonizing issues. If we write about them with vigor and conviction, we will be fulfilling the credo to which Mr. White subscribed and which he exemplified."
Your Photos May Win
in the
KU PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
Pick up your entry blank in 13 Flint basement, the SUA office or the Design Department office.
Entry deadline is 5:00 p.m. Friday, February 16. Minimum $10 First Prize for each of eight categories.
Japanese players will present comedies
The Nomura Company of Kyogen Players from Tokyo, Japan will present three one-act comedies at the University Theatre, 8 p.m. Feb. 21. The performance will be preceded by a lecture-demonstration at 3:30 that afternoon.
"The program will be a farce, all comedy and easy to understand," said Fred Litto, acting assistant professor of speech and drama.
The Players will speak in
Japanese and program notes in English will be provided so the audience may follow the story.
Manzo Nomura, head of the company, is a former artist in residence at the University of Washington and a distinguished teacher and performer for non- Japanese-speaking audiences.
No admission will be charged for the performance, which is sponsored by the University Theatre and the Committee on East Asian Studies.
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