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Summer Session Kansan Friday, July 27.1962
Women and Kennedy
A frightening movement has manifested itself in the last few days. Women are again arising.
They made a try for space travel and narrowly missed. No doubt the defeat is but a temporary one and fertile minds are already plotting the path to a new victory.
They made a try for equal pay and appointment consideration in Federal jobs and won. No doubt the victory is but a start toward bigger things.
things. The days of the once-powerful Women's Christian Temperance Union and the hatchet-wielding Carrie Nation may be returning to fight the battle on the civilized field of Congress and the President's office, rather than the saloons and taverns of yesteryear.
It's still too early to judge with certainty whether the latest victory was won by a feminine underground movement, or just happened. But likely it was the former. Lying dormant since the struggle for suffrage, the feminine underground bided its opportunity to splash forth with a stunning victory in the area of Federal employment.
Perhaps this latest move was a preparatory move toward paving the way for a woman president. This too, is Federal employment.
Kennedy's statement leaves little doubt as to which side the administration is on, with his statement that federal job appointments or promotions must be "without regard to sex, except in unusual situations."
unusual situations. But those last three words leave a glimmer of
hope for the opponents of the feminine Blitzkrieg. "Except in unusual situations"—think of what can be done with the ambiguity of the phrase.
Federal employment officers can have a heyday. You can probably cautiously assume that "without regard to sex, except in unusual situations" refers to the job, rather than the person applying. After all, there aren't too many situations where regard to sex is unusual.
But you never can tell what kind of person is going to apply for Federal employment. There might be some applicant who had an unusual sex that an employer might want to regard.
Of course, there are several meanings to the word "sex" which undoubtedly will cloud the purpose of the edict even more.
A couple of North Carolina State College students made a trip to Washington recently to offer Kennedy some advice on how to improve his forensic style. They thought he was woefully short of forceful gestures. Perhaps they should have helped him with his semantics.
But, on the hand, maybe the President with the CIA and the rest of the U.S. intelligence agencies helping, got wind of the feminine underground movement for equal pay and rights in Federal employment. He then tactfully established the escape clause—"except in unusual situations"—which might stave off the move toward equality.
He might be found out. It was a courageous thing to do. —Karl Koch
Evangelist Graham Hopeful for Youth
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Evangelist Billy Graham concluded an eight-day revival in Fresno, Calif., last weekend. Much of his crusade there was directed to help people and the priests so they could be better. He wrote a dispatch sizing up today's young people and what they—and we—can do to help their generation.)
By Dr. Billy Graham (Written for United Press International)
FRESNO, Calif.-I detect an encouraging trend among American youth.
During my tour of various cities this summer, I have preached to the largest crowds in my career. The amazing thing is that these crowds are made up largely of young people under 25 years of age.
Night after night we have asked those under 25 to stand, and almost invariably it is over 50 per cent of the audience. Some nights it runs as high as 75 per cent.
It is true that from all reports juvenile delinquency has risen especially in the major cities this summer. However, I am convinced that much of our delinquency can be attributed to spiritual causes.
THE SAME QUESTING and hunger which drive some to delinquency are driving others to religion. As I look over these thousands of young people night after night in these meetings, I can see a serious "quest" written on their faces.
Psychologists and sociologists have various theories about teenage defection from normal living in this mid-twentieth century. Some say it is all a part of growing up and that they will outgrow their seeming abnormalities. Others say that they are a product of these uncertain times and should therefore be excused for their demeanor. Still others point accusing fingers at youth and say they are getting worse than ever.
I have counseled scores of these teenagers this summer, and I am convinced that the new generation is more serious and has far greater religious curiosity than any generation in this century.
Young people need a cause to follow. They have an abundance of idealism. They respond to a challenge. I find that the tougher I make the challenge of the Gospel, the greater their response is.
They are not looking for easy ways out, and they are not looking for
easy solutions. They are seeking for a purpose and meaning in life. That is why the Peace Corps has had such widespread acceptance among our youth.
WHEN THEIR elders by their loose conduct and shaky ideals give them the impression that life is meaningless, they are dislusioned and rebellious. One young girl wrote to me recently: "Yes, I am crazy, mixed-up and miserable. I don't care much what happens to the world, because I think with the mess the world is in it is not worth caring about."
Many of these youngsters I talk to feel that they have inherited a hopeless, leaderless world. They think that the older generation has failed them.
The Communists have been extremely effective in martialing the youth of various countries. The revolution in Cuba was led by young people. Unless we reach the youth of our generation with a dynamic spiritual cause, there may not be another generation of Free America.
However, the vast majority that I have talked to seem to be determined to do something about their world. This summer I have seen thousands of the finest young people in America, representing all strata of society, moving forward like a mighty army to pledge their allegiance to Christ. They have said they are going to follow the Cross into the battle of life.
Today the world needs youth aflame with love instead of hate in their hearts, following Christ and dedicated to the proposition that they will not stop until the Kingdom of God reigns in the hearts of men throughout the world.
YOUTH THROUGHOUT the nation are restless, seeking an authority, a cause, a challenge, an ideology, a philosophy in which they can believe and to which they can give themselves.
If we could have even a dedicated minority on every campus and in every community to commit themselves to certain moral and spiritual principles, it could alter the course of history.
I think I detect such a movement at this time. Every American should hope and pray that it gains momentum.
3 Faiths Into Religion Ghettos
By Claire Cox United Press International
By Claire Cox
NEW YORK Americans are scaling themselves into religious ghettos, a new study of social frictions and tensions reports.
The Jewish ghetto, instead of being wiped out, has been augmented by Roman Catholic and Protestant ghettos, the study found.
In major cities across the country, the intermingling of various groups reaches a sharp cutoff point at 5 p.m., with members of each of these three groups retreating to their separate ghetto, it said.
PUBLISHED BY THE Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents Reform Judaism, the report, entitled "A Tale of Ten Cities," charged that "religious bigotry is still widespread and deeply embedded" in American life.
"Beyond the question of anti-Catholicism, of anti-Semitism, or anti-Protestantism, is the stark fact that we Americans know precious little about the realities of religious relationships in America," the report said.
THEY PRESENTED pictures of religious tensions in Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Muncie, Ind., Nashville, Tenn., New York, Philadelphia, Plainview, N. Y., and the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
It was written by Rabbi Eugene J. Libman, spiritual leader of Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C., and Albert Vorspan, director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
"There is a tendency among Americans to lump together interracial and interreligious relationships," the report said. "We tend to assume that these two areas are either identical or so closely related both in causes and in means of resolution that working at one automatically helps with the other. Nothing could be further from the truth."
"... Interreligious tension can no longer be concealed, can no longer be swept under the rug as un-American."
Lipman and Vorspan said many justified criticisms could be made of contemporary American religion. It can be labeled superficial or irrelevant in many ways, they said, and social action is the main avenue found so far for improving interreligious relations.
TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, by Jules Verne. Double day Dolphin, 95 cents.
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, by Jules Verne. Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents.
It is said that Junior is more fascinated with Jules Verne than Daddy. This is probably true. "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" seems pretty tame today, especially since the great feat of the submarine Nautilus (which bears the name of Captain Nemo's incredible sub). But Jules Verne's novels are of interest on two levels—that of story-telling, and that of science fiction.
"Twenty Thousand Leagues" appeared a few years after the American Civil War, and its predictions foreshadowed not only the submarine but the electric power revolution as well. It is a fascinating story of the scientist Aronnax, the harpooner Ned Land, the servant Conseil, the mad Captain Nemo, and a mysterious sea creature that was upsetting shipping and sea travel lanes almost 100 years ago.
In the course of the story Verne takes his readers through most of the underwater regions of the earth, including a visit to Atlantis. Verne's absorption with travel and strange lands also was demonstrated in "Around the World in Eighty Days," a fast and funny story that has become well known to many Americans through the spectacularly successful film version of 1956.
Which version, by the way, created a stereotype concerning the story. Even the cover illustrator of the Dolphin volume has been sucked in: adventurous-looking balloons decorate the cover. And there isn't a balloon in the whole book! Phileas Fogg, Cantinflas, the detective Fix and the rescued Indian maiden make their incredible travels, but chiefly by train and boat, and once by elephant. Never by balloon. Here again, one must conclude that Hollywood was even more imaginative than the novelist.-CMP
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SATANSTOE, by James Fenimore Cooper (Doubleday Dolphin, $1.45).
The avowed purpose of Cooper in writing this novel, which was one of his last, was to express his strong dislike for the anti-rent movement that struck New York state in the 1840s. The author's attitude, however, does not become a polemic, and this book, detached from its sociology, compares favorably with the Leather-stocking tales.
stocking tales.
It is the story of Cornelius Littlepage, a Long Island aristocrat, who goes to the Albany region during the French and Indian war to survey land and fight the French and Indians. He has companions, in true Cooperian fashion—Dirck Follock, a Dutchy-talking friend; Guert Ten Eyck, a gay and lovable "Albanian"; the Rev. Mr. Worden, a likable Episcopal minister, and Jason Newcome, a New England clod, graduate of Yale, and the most likely target of the aristocratic Cooper.
"Corny" has a lady love, too, the charming Anneke Mordaunt, a true Cooper heroine. There are gay shenanigans in New York City, in Albany, on the Hudson river, and then some backwoods excitement. It is all quite predictable, basically unimportant, and quite enjoyable.—CMP
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THE CRUSADES, by Harold Lamb (Bantam, 75 cents).
With gusto and thunder, so that you almost hear the clashing of shields and the thudding of horses' hooves, Harold Lamb recorded for us the story of "The Crusades." It is great popular level history, but it is well-documented history, too.
He tells this now incredible, and no longer very romantic, story of how the primitive world of western Europe, swept up in religious frenzy, engaged on one of the greatest crazes of all time and tried to wrest the Holy Land from the infidel (and much more civilized) Moslems. It was a story of great names and great causes, and it played a key role in making possible the Renaissance of a few centuries later.
It was a mad venture, but when one considers Europe of the time (and Lamb does much to explain Europe of the time) an understandable one. Chivalry was in flower, the people were little advanced beyond barbarism. This is a vivid and exciting panorama unfolded here.
***
It is of some interest that American film critics selected the 1934 film, "David Harum," as one of several to be exhibited at the Seattle World's Fair. "David Harum" though it starred Will Rogers and was a great boxoffice success, was not a critical success. But critics are forgetful, and "David Harum" has become a kind of legendary figure in American life.
DAVID HARUM, by Edward Noyes Westcott. Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents.
The novel itself was vastly popular, and it is still readable, though not for its style. It is essentially romantic, even though Westcott provides good local color touches. David Harum himself is a lovable and memorable figure, a crafty New York state banker and horse trader and cracker-barrel philosopher.
Will Rogers, in fact. It's difficult to read the novel and not recall Rogers driving his trotting horse to victory as "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay" booms forth. There's no horse race in Westcott's "David Harum." Too bad.-CMP
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Steve Clark and Karl Koch Co-Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Bonnie McCullough and Bill Woodburn Co-Business Mgrs.