Daily hansan
LAWRENCE. KANSAS
59th Year, No.142
Friday, May 18, 1962
Backus Views Class System In Soviet Union
By Karen Craig
A KU professor of history presented three ways to look at the degree of "classlessness" in the Soviet Union last night: equality of wages, distribution of power and social equality.
Prof. Oswald P. Backus spoke to the World Crisis Discussion Group in the Kansas Union at 8 p.m. on "Class Structure of the Soviet Union."
HE POINTED OUT that persons with executive positions in industry, scholars and persons connected with the ministries live as a distinct elite group in economic terms.
"I do not believe the Soviet Union is a classless society," he told the group.
The elite group, he said, also includes persons who have made something of themselves, such as a highly skilled worker or a "mother heroine" (a woman who has had many babies).
One advantage to being in the elite group, he continued, is that this group manages to get extra housing space, despite the strict Soviet housing laws.
SPEAKING OF THE lower classes. Prof. Backus said, "I feel that such a large group is excluded from private bathrooms and private kitchens or higher wages that it is hard to see that real classlessness exists."
The distribution of power in society, he said, also seems to be a criterion which one may use regarding classlessness.
He said power is "the ability to bring one's own decisions to pass" and pointed out that it would be risky to assert that power is spread out among the people in any society."
PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE HEADS — Bill Dawson, Rafer Johnson and Rick Barnes, expressed their thanks to KU students for the co-operation National P-t-P has received from this campus.
Prof. Backus said it is "most difficult" to talk of classlessness in the Soviet Union in the area of social equality.
HE SAID THERE was much differentiation and respect given to a person of high occupational status in the Soviet Union and added that this tendency was due partly to tradition.
In a discussion period following his speech, Prof. Backus said, "I always wonder if people think of a classless society as an abstract goal. I am convinced that most people assert that they believe more things than they actually do believe, because they think it is the thing to do."
Officers Discuss P-T-P Expansion
Speakers at the People-to-People spring banquet in the Kansas Union last night expressed their thanks to everyone involved in the program and spoke optimistically of the future of P-t-P.
PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE which began at KU a little over a year ago, has grown into a person-to-person program involving students on 600 campuses. It is expanding into other programs to promote international understanding, they explained.
Samuel A. Montague, deputy director and director of operations for the organization, emphasized that the university facet of P-t-P is only one aspect of the program.
He said students in 700 elementary schools also are participating in the program, and 200 "sister" cities here and abroad have become a part of P-t-P.
"BY THIS FALL." Montague said. "People-to-People will be going full blast. We have plans under way to make it a household word."
P-t-P will have exhibits this summer in "Freedom Land" in New York, in "Disneyland" in California and at the Seattle World's Fair. Ex-President Eisenhower, one of the P-t-P founders, will have an article on P-t-P this summer in "This Week" magazine.
Students in elementary schools here and in foreign countries are exchanging art work and tape recordings. The "sister" cities are exchanging cultural exhibits and
ideas for urban improvement on the civic level.
Rick Barnes, Bill Dawson, and Rafer Johnson, national P-t-P cochairmen, also spoke at the banquet.
BARNES SAID THAT P-t-P is "a two-way road and not something that American students are doing for International students alone."
Dawson emphasized the need for deeper friendship, patience and understanding. He said American students should not meet an International student at the depot, throw
Free Jazz Concert To Be Held Sunday
(Continued on page 12)
There will be a free jazz concert sponsored by Student Union Activities (SUA) and the American Federation of Musicians at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
The performers, both students and faculty members, are: Gary Watson, Richard Scott, Bob Isle, Kenneth Bloomquist, Jim Sellards and Peter Kaufman, trumpets; Larry Long, Bill Booth, Bob Zilliox and Jack Zimmerman, trombone; Clyde Byrum, Charles Molina, Dan Wright, Andy Murray and Dean Ferry, saxophones; George Frock, drums; Stan Ricker, string bass; Kernit Mowbray, piano, and Danny Gomez, vocals.
The contract, if let to KU, would authorize the University to recruit, train, and eventually send 45 members to Costa Rica to teach one year in the public schools.
The Kansas Board of Regents yesterday gave KU full authority to continue negotiations with the federal government on the proposed $350,000 Peace Corps project.
Regents Approve KU Corps Project
Weather
THIS MOVE BY THE Regents makes KU the only university in the country operating on an entire Peace Corps project.
THE REGENTS discussed the proposed student group insurance plan and suggested that the attorney general, the insurance commissioner and the state purchasing agent check the proposal.
In other action, it was reported that civil defense investigators found 27 KU buildings adequate for failout shelters. They will be stocked with food and supplies.
Raymond C. Nichols, executive secretary of KU, said the University hopes to have negotiations completed by Wednesday.
Partly cloudy to cloudy with occasional showers and thunderstorms mostly west Kansas this afternoon, spreading to central and east portions tonight. Locally heavy thunderstorms central portion. A little warmer west this afternoon. Cooler west and centonight. Saturday, partly cloudy and scattered showers east in forenoon. Lows tonight 50 to 55 west, 60 to 65 east. High Saturday near 80.
The music will include arrangements by Bill Holman, an arranger for the Stan Kenton band; by Dave Friend, a Topeka librarian; music from the Berkeley School of Jazz, and the Count Basie arrangement of Hefti's "Little Darlin'"
Museum Receives Imperial Porcelain
Master of ceremonies will be Dick Wright, Lawrence resident and recent graduate of KU.
The Museum of Art at KU has received an outstanding addition to the William Thayer Memorial Collection, forty pieces of Imperial Sevres porcelain. The service was purchased by W. B. Thayer, Sr., and his wife on a trip to Paris about 1000.
The porcelain dates from the time of Napoleon III and is an exact copy of the service made for Napoleon I.
The collection consists of 28 plates (22 with portraits of people in Napoleon's circle and six with famous battles of Napoleon), two large oval platters, three large bowls, three large tureens, two gravy boats, and two other small dishes.
The porcelain has been tentatively valued at about $5,000.
Premier Hits U.S. Intervention
OBNOVA, Bulgaria — (UPI) —
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
said today that American forces
sent into Thailand by President
Kennedy “will be driven out.”
The Premier said the agreement to send the American troops into Thailand was signed "by the feudal rulers" whom the United States is trying to keep in power but that "the people will erase the pact."
Khrushchev did not say who would drive them out, but his implication was that such action would be taken by the people of Thailand.
"We are not going to start war because we think that we are all born on this world and have to live together," he said.
"IT IS ONLY A QUESTION of time." he said.
It was "stupidity," Khrushev said, to send United States troops into Thailand.
Khrushchev insisted the Soviet Union's intentions are peaceful.
"IN NORTH VIET NAM where the people are in power, creative work is done. In South Viet Nam, where the Americans are, blood is being shed.
"In Viet Nam," Khrushchev said, "the French fought for seven years and the Americans may fight for 15 years. But they will get out of there.
"This action by Kennedy does not bespeak a great mind. It is an unreasonable decision . . . blood will be shed there.
"Once in a hundred years a man like Dulles (the late U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles) is born who spoke of positions of strength in such a brutal manner that there was no need for us to make any propaganda against him. He himself revealed the brutality of his policy."
He said that the secret police were created in the Soviet Union during Lenin's time "as an instrument aimed against the enemies of the revolution."
KHRUSHCHEV ALSO DEALT with the late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
"Stalin, however, directed this instrument against working class and the party. But this is obviously our business and not the business of the imperialists."
In his wide-ranging speech, Krhushchev took in a world perspective and said all in all he could view it as "good."
THIS, HE SAID, WAS BE cause "we are stronger than the imperialists."
Khrushchev, heading an official Soviet party and government delegation, flew into nearby Pleven airport this morning then drove to this collective village. Obnova, oldest collective in Bulgaria was founded by the Bulgarian Agrarian Party when it was in power shortly after World War One.
Bonds totaling $600,000 for married student housing and bonds totaling $1,950,000 for a men's dormitory were approved. The Regents also sanctioned KU's budget of more than $12 million.
In actions affecting Kansas State, the Regents approved a $16,006,449 budget for the coming fiscal year.
The Board also approved a measure to transform the Department of Business Administration into a School of Commerce with C. Clyde Jones as dean on recommendation of K-State President James McCain.
The Regents also voted to apply for a grant from the Ford Foundation for expert help in preliminary planning on a new auditorium and discussed the possibility of Kansas State entering into an AID contract to assist in the development of a university in northern Nigeria.
Rail Negotiations Collapse Over Featherbedding
CHICAGO —(UPI)— The sudden collapse of talks between the nation's railroads and five unions tossed the controversy over "featherbedding" back to the Kennedy administration today.
Railroad bargainers walked out of the negotiations yesterday, charging that the five Operating (on-train) Brotherhoods refused to give ground on work rule changes recommended by a Presidential commission.
commission. The recommendations included proposals that would eventually eliminate the jobs of about 40,000 firemen, who allegedly are "featherbedding" on diesel engines.
J. E. Wolfe, top bargainer and spokesman for the carriers, said the railroads would tell the unions within 10 days whether they would put the commission recommendations into effect.
If such a move is approved by the railroads, Wolfe said, the work rule changes would become effective within 30 days of the notification.
The Brotherhoods, representing 211,000 employees, have rejected the recommendations as a basis for negotiating new contracts.
Wolfe said the railroads are free to change the work rules and that the unions are free to strike. This, he said, was because the agreement to create the commission stipulated that its operations and recommendations would replace mediation and emergency board processes required by the Railway Labor Act.
Engineering Mistake Blamed for Explosion
WASHINGTON — (UPI) Grant L. Hansen, the vice president of General Dynamics missile company, said today that "an engineering mistake" probably caused the experimental Centaur rocket to explode less than a minute after it was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 9.
Hansen, who is also director of the Centaur program, said preliminary data indicated that the May 9 explosion of the first Centaur flight test was caused by the "design of the weather shield between the nose fairing and the Centaur itself."