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University Daily Kansan Monday. April 30, 1962
The YAF's Phobia
The KU chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom is still beating its dead horse. They have continued to complain because the faculties of the economics and political science departments would not submit to their interrogation. They recently invited a representative from the state legislature to speak before them and he also criticized the faculties of the two departments for refusing to submit to the YAF poll.
The background of the quickly shattered YAF poll attempt is a typical story of the actions of political pressure groups. The YAF decided the economics and political science departments were crawling with liberals and that the conservative viewpoint in these fields was not being adequately represented (the assumption being that a liberal professor cannot be expected to deal fairly with the conservative viewpoint). To establish their contention the YAF decided to conduct a poll of the two departments to determine the political and economic philosophies of their faculties.
THE FACULTIES of the two departments refused to cooperate with any poll, but several members said they would be glad to talk to any YAF member who wanted to come forward as an individual. The YAF screamed that all this was not fair and the faculty members had no business refusing to submit to their interrogation. They
have kept up this wailing ever since. Last Friday state representative John D. Bower joined the chorus.
The YAF seems incapable of realizing that it is not competent to investigate the political and economic philosophies of the faculties of two large college departments and pass judgment on whether or not those philosophies are adequate and allow the faculties to present all viewpoints fairly. The idea that such a project can be carried out with a poll is totally ridiculous.
THE STRANGE part of the whole affair is that there is at least one responsible and usually clear thinking member of YAF, but either the responsible members have been unable to prevail or their thought on this particular subject has become as clear as muddy water. It is unfortunate that a state representative would support such a project.
By focusing its attention and energy on such negative projects as the discredited poll plan, the YAF is effectively alienating any responsible conservatives who might be interested in it. And responsible conservatives who believe in the Goldwater brand of conservatism are few in number anyway. But if the YAF wants to continue its public foolishness, that is one of the privileges political groups in this country enjoy.
William H. Mullins
The All-American Award
The All American rating the Kansan received this weekend marks the third time the Kansan has achieved national recognition in the last year. The members of the Kansan staff feel that the journalistic freedom that has been accorded them is largely responsible for this remarkable record.
The fact that the Kansan is truly a student newspaper means that its staff members take an interest in its production which probably would not exist under conditions of faculty or university control that are found in many colleges and universities. Today a shocking number of colleges and universities have demonstrated a lack of faith in their students by monitoring many of the decisions made in the operation of their student newspaper. The Kansan finds this deplorable and offers its sympathy to those student bodies that do not enjoy the depth reporting that can only be offered by a free campus newspaper.
Although the Kansan is certainly proud of its record for the past year, it is determined to make an even better record in the next 12 months. In reviewing the Kansan news coverage in the last year we have tried to realize its weaknesses as well as its strengths. In doing this it has been noticed that there are several ways in which the Kansan can improve in its service to the reader. Thus the Kansan shall, in the future, attempt to eliminate its weaknesses in the hope that it can be of even greater service to the reader.
By Calder M. Pickett Professor of Journalism
KENNEDY IN POWER, by James Tracy Crown and George P. Penty. Ballantine, 50 cents.
The cover blurb suggests to us that we are about to read "a critical and skeptical analysis." Well, this might be that, but it's only gently critical and seldom skeptical and it casts many admiring glances at "our young President."
—The Editors
Don't misunderstand, please. I don't seek an anti-Kennedy diatribe. But I can't really say I learned much from this short volume.
In taking their critical look at Kennedy, the authors spend more time being critical of the previous Eisenhower administration. They are probably partly right. Blaming Kennedy for all the troubles of the world makes about as much sense as hanging the depression on Hoover.
When Crown and Penty deal with the problems Kennedy has to face—Russia, atomic fallout, space exploration, dealing with neutralists, Cuba, the military, and disarmament—they are on safe ground, though they tell us little that we couldn't glean from news magazines or the New Republic.
An interesting section deals with Civil Defense and what the authors call the "balance of terror." They agree with Gov. Meyner of New Jersey that "There is one and only one defense against nuclear war—and that is peace." They maintain that the American people have been urged to build fallout shelters but that such shelters really won't solve any problems.
Civil Defense is nonsense, they say. "Of all the shocks administered to the public in the post-World War II era, the most profound is the admission by governments that they cannot ultimately protect their people... The American and Soviet publics today must each be satisfied with their government's promise that if they are blown up they may rest in the posthumous assurance that their attackers will likewise be despatched into eternity—probably within the hour."
The Rough Edge
By Bill Mullins
The speeches of the campus politicians lead us to think they are becoming more professional—they can talk for an hour and say nothing.
A lot of people are saying that the programs advocated by Gold-water and cohorts will do nothing to settle international tensions, which shows you they are not thinking right. World War III would settle things rather thoroughly.
***
The freedom of expression in a university community is a wonderful thing — every teacher stands ready to deliver any of his opinions the administration has approved.
It seems that Action took votes away from UP during the last election. Well, it is just what you would have expected. Those Action people are acting like politicians.
- * *
UNIVERSITY Dailu Hansan
--context the words of someone who might be said to be a Negro leader.
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service 8 East University News Service. United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. Examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Ron Gallagher  Managing Editor
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triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
telephone 718-3-2700
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Bill Mullins  Editorial Editor
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Mistake Pointed Out
Editor:
I read with interest your recent article about "The Pioneer." Since I walk past "The Pioneer" several times daily, I am well acquainted with him. Your statement "The bronze figure, standing almost 18 feet high . . ." is rather inaccurate, however.
Upon careful measurement, I find the bronze statue to be exactly 72 inches tall (six feet), or one-third your figure. The statue is mounted on a seven inch base, giving a total height of 79 inches.
David Byer Hamlin junior
--context the words of someone who might be said to be a Negro leader.
Hamlin junior
**A Reader Corrects Himself**
Editor:
My humblest apologies are in order. I made a serious error in fact in my letter to the Kansan April 26, and I feel I must acknowledge the said error before I am pounced upon.
I stated, rather flippantly, that 90 per cent of the leadership of the NAACP was white. This, of course, is untrue, but a look at the executive roles of the organization and a briefing of its history makes my point equally as well.
THERE IS not now, nor has there ever been a Negro at the head of the NAACP. Two multi-millionaires, Joel and Arthur Spingarn, founded the group. They are white. Joel Spingarn was president of the group until his death in 1939. Arthur Spingarn then took over and has been NAACP president ever since. Head of the NAACP life membership committee and chief fund raiser is Kivie Kaplan (also white). Jack Greenberg (also white) heads the organization's legal staff. Another white serves in public relations.
I wish to make one thing clear, however. No other parts of my letter were derived from such flippant facts as I wish to correct. My material comes from a summer of research on this very question in the deepest South (Alabama). I am not a Southerner. I think the material I found goes deeper than the material feeding the Kansas critics of the South.
RIGHTS DEPENDS on individual point of view exclusively. Nothing, but nothing makes one viewpoint more valid than the other. How the picture would change if each American could spend time living in different sections of the country.
Granted, these are rights under the law that Negroes are not afforded in all parts of the country—but I see none of those legal rights abrogated here. Therefore, I cannot help but condemn advocates without-justification as mere publicity seekers.
Once again, I apologize and stand corrected on my error in fact.
Tom Turner Kalamazoo, Mich., senior
- * *
I was flabbergasted Thursday afternoon when I read the editorial page of the Daily Kansan and saw the letters written by two Southern white students who evidently desire to contaminate KU with their Dixiecrat and segregationist ideas.
Reply to Turner
My astonishment was doubled when I learned that one of them, Tom Turner, is a journalism senior who has been taught that truthfulness and accuracy are hallmarks of his intended profession.
IN THESE letters I can see the same old methods of the Ku Klux Klan, the White Citizens' Council and the John Birch Society. They are:
1. Claim the Negro is HAFPY in a situation of discrimination and segregation.
3. Attempt to discredit Negro leaders by saying the masses of Negroes oppose these leaders.
2. Pretend friendship for the Negro in order to allay suspicion as to real motives.
4. Pretend to be impartial and objective in order to hide racial prejudice.
5. Misinterpret or quote out of
6. Perpetuate false reports and stereotypes.
Turner says: Ninety per cent of the national officers of the NAACP are white.
The truth: Of the 58 executive and administrative officials of the national office of the NAACP, seven are white. This is about 12 per cent. The list is available at the NAACP offices in many cities and can be obtained at regional headquarters in Kansas City.
The truth: On page 166 of the 1961-62 Student Directory his address is listed as 1432 Narrow Lane Court, Montgomery, Alabama. Since the beginning of this school year his parents moved to Michigan.
Turner says: His own home town is Kalamazoo, Michigan. (This leaves the impression that he is a Northerner.)
Turner says: Civil rights advocates claim the Constitution contains only two items — the Freemain and the 14th Amendment.
The truth: The statement that "All people are created equal" is not in the Preamble of the Constitution. It is in the Declaration of Independence and Negroes refer to this document and not to the Preamble of the Constitution. The NAACP bases lawsuits upon all Amendments that pertain to individual and group rights. Suits claiming violation of the 15th Amendment (voting rights) have been tried in court repeatedly.
TURNER SAYS: According to "their own decreed" Booker T. Washington, "Rights come only as they are earned."
The truth: Washington is not "revered" for his political ideas by Negrates. These ideas have been rejected repeatedly by responsible Negro leaders for 60 years. Washington has been dead almost 50 years. Citizenship rights are endowed by birth and naturalization, and are not revokable at the pleasure of the Ku Klux Klan or the White Citizens' Councils.
RR
Turner says: Rev. Martin L. King had to be protected by white police officers from a mob of Negroes who wanted to lynch him.
Turner says: Clauses or no clauses, the Greeks still have the right to cling to membership vote and blackball.
THE TRUTH: Rev. King had to be protected by his own church members and by the national guard when local police failed and refused to halt a mob of white Alabama hoodlums threatening to lynch him.
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THE TRUTH: This is one truthful statement Turner made. And since it is true, why not eliminate the discriminatory clauses? What these clauses accomplish is to place these fraternities in the category of confessed, on-the-record slanderers of a whole race by officially endorsing the notion that a person is necessarily objectionable simply because of his race.
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The fraternities have the right and the ability to reject a Negro or anyone else without singling out a whole race for special condemnation.
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I AM SURE Turner's Dixiecrat ideas would be more compatible with those espoused at the University of Alabama. Perhaps he has become homesick. Incidentally, Mr. Turner now admits that the classic statement of bigotry signed by Mr. Ken Costich was written largely by Turner.
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If he were a freshman or an untrained man, his untruthful statements might be considered excusable and based upon mere ignorance.
But Turner is not an untrained man. He is in his fourth year of journalism. He has been schooled in investigative techniques and taught to find and tell the truth. The truth was and is available.
Thinclmanchai Mrs Mor Mrs Ree Reg and nate Geo Cha
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For this reason I can conclude only that he deliberately attempted to mislead the readers of the Kansan.
James E. Alsbrook Lawrence junior