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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, February 12, 1968
An anxious friend
About 45 years ago, railroad shopmen in a small Kansas town joined their nation-wide brethren in a strike against railroad company unions. Remembering that in this time, the labor union drive was young and the political climate subsequently viewed all such movements as bedfellows of "Bolshevism," it does not seem unusual that the then governor of Kansas, Henry Allen, ordered troops to suppress the shopmen's strike with any means short of violence.
Many Kansans supported Gov. Allen's actions and intentions; only a few decried them and these few were angrily labeled "liberals" or, worse, "Bolshies." It was a bit odd then that the editor in this particular small Kansas town supported the shopmen's srike, and although nobody dare call him a Red—he was a prominent man—many of his friends who supported Gov. Allen reprimanded him severely.
It was therefore in desperation and despair that the editor wrote a letter explaining his stand with the strikers to one of these fingerwagging and perhaps fair-weather friends. But the letter was so broad in focus that the editor decided it should reach all his dissenting friends and so he ran it on page one of his small daily.
The letter, "To An Anxious Friend." was read by many more than the editor's Kansas eronies—it later received a Pulitzer Prize. And the editor himself, William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette, went on to become perhaps the most famous of all editors. (Indeed, although he has been dead for some 24 years, we still honor him with a birthday party.)
Four decades have since passed, but for those of us who are bereaved over the course of this nation today and who don't have much time for historical genuflection, it seems almost as if the ink on Mr. White's editorial has hardly dried.
For in a day when not only medal-laden generals but also our very President can casually tell us that to dissent against a bloody exercise in foreign policy is treason, Mr. White's editorial seems all too apropos. In a 1968 of half-truth, of un-truth and of the Big Lie, the Emporia editor's 1922 editorial slams at the soul of every thinking man with the force of a battering ram.
So not for history's sake but for the sake of painful relevance do we today reprint "To An Anxious Friend" in its entirety.
Dan Austin
To An Anxious Friend
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 the proof of man's kinship with God. You can 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 decently and in order—your interest in justice is slight. And peace without justice is tyranny, no matter how you may sugar-coat it
with expediency. 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 upon 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. Now 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 never has failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.
William Allen White July 27,1922
What's new in books
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, by Marcel Jullian (Crest, 75 cents)—A history of one of the great dramas of World War II, when Hitler made big talk about invading England in July 1940 and the RAF faced him down and defeated Nazi airpower. Several pages of photographs help to tell the story that this generation knows only from the history books. The book originally was published in French.
*****
THE LAST ONE LEFT, by John D. MacDonald (Crest, 75 cents); AFTER THE ACT, by Winston Graham (Crest, 60 cents)—Two new paperback thrillers, but thrillers of different types, "The Last One Left" carries its author from the poor man's Raymond Chandler school of detective writing to a more substantial adventure thriller, though it too is about murder. But it's murder on the sea, and adventure in the Bahamas. How can this one miss in the movies? "After the Act" is by the author of "Marnie," and like its predecessor it is a suspense tale. London and Paris are the settings for this mod-ish story.
*****
SUMMONED BY BOOKS, by Frances Clarke Sayers (Viking Compass; $1.35) - A compilation of essays and speeches by the author, assembled by two of her devoted followers. Frances Clarke Sayers
was a librarian, professor and superintendent of work with children at the New York Public Library. Her book is an appreciation and also a statement for those who think children might find enjoyment in something that's not on television.
** ** **
COLLECTED POEMS 1930-1965, by A. D. Hope (Viking Compass, $1.45)—Poetry by the co-winner of the 1965 Encyclopedia Britannica Award for Literature, written over a period of more than 30 years. Hope is professor of English at the Australian National University, Canberra.
ALONG THIS WAY, by James Welden Johnson (Viking Compass, $2.25)—An autobiography of a distinguished Negro leader published in the thirties and now in quality paperback. Johnson's years were 1871-1938, and he was one of the leaders of his race in his time. He was in politics, pamphletering, university teaching, diplomacy, the NAACP, and wrote a great many books. This book is the story of his life, and it is sure to have a strong new audience.
*****
*****
THE FAULKNER-COWLEY FILE, edited by Malcolm Cowley (Viking Compass, $1.45) - Letters and memories of the 1944-1962 period. The Faulkner-Cowley literary relationship began in the
forties, when Faulkner was a forgotten writer (the Nobel Prize came in 1950). The letters between the two men help to provide a picture of Faulkner not likely to be found elsewhere. Cowley is one of the most distinguished of America's literary critics.
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THE AMERICAN 1890s: LIFE AND TIMES OF A LOST GENERATION, by Larzer Ziff (Viking Compass, $1.95) - Engrossing literary history of a period worth considerable attention. Larzer Ziff, professor of English at the University of California (Berkeley), gives powerful portraits of such people as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edwin Arlington Robinson and Theodore Dreiser, as well as describing the times themselves.
*****
A HARVEST OF WORLD FOLK TALES, edited by Milton Rugoff (Viking Compass, $3.25)—A marvelous big paperback, of quality production and quality price as well, but it's worth it. Nineteen areas of the world are represented in this collection—African, American, American Indian, Arabian and Turkish, Chinese, Egyptian, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indian, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latin American, Russian, Scandinavian and Spanish. All kinds of folk tales are included.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"I'M MARKING YOU ALL ABSENT FOR THIS TEN-O-LOCK
LECTURE! OR IS IT NINE O'CLOCK?"
'Blithe Spirit' acting seems too restrained
Americans have always found it difficult to write or appreciate high comedy. Something in the American temperament silently rebels against the sophisticated amorality and the gib, educated humor that is characteristic of a large part of British comedy. For most Americans high comedy is an acquired taste, one which is difficult to acquire in this country because of the scarcity of adequate productions.
The KU production of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit is, in almost every respect, adequate. In some respects it is far more adequate and fully justifies the revival of the play in its original form, rather than in the form of its more recent musical version.
The play is about an eccentric medium who surprises everyone, including herself, by bringing back the whimsical ghost of Mr. Condomine's wife. Since his first wife's death, Mr. Condomine has remarried, making him, as his first wife points out, an "astral bigamist." Coward exploits almost all the comic possibilities of the situation except the morbid ones which, in comedy of this kind, are best avoided.
James Hawes, as Charles Condomine, is outstanding. He shows not only a firm grasp of the spirit of the play but also an ability to choose the proper accentual patterns and intonations which are absolutely essential in urbane British comedy.
Julia Callahan as Madame Arcati, the medium, is also good in this respect. What flaws she has are amply obscured by the peculiar and slightly frenetic mannerisms of a befuddled psychic.
Jo Anna Schneider, as Mr. Condomine's second wife, handles her part adequately, but many of her lines are spoiled by an American accentuation, and some of her American pronunciations are annoying.
Jeri Walker in the part of the ghost maintains an ethereal, prankish character that helps establish the mood of the play.
The principal defect of this otherwise very good production was a reluctance on the part of the actors to let themselves go, to attempt the intricacies of British speech patterns. The lines as delivered are funny, but proper rhythmic stresses would have made many of them hilarious.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
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