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University Daily Kansan Monday, March 19. 1962
An Excellent Action
Last week the All Student Council approved the establishment of a Current Events Committee and immediately appropriated funds to bring Edward Shaw, a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, to KU to debate with a member of the Truth About Cuba Committee.
THE FACT THAT the ASC ignored past tirades against bringing controversial speakers to campus should also be noted. The Current Events Committee must not become so fearful of criticism that it brings to campus only those speakers who have pleasant and acceptable opinions.
These moves represented quick and effective action on a worthwhile proposal and the ASC deserves the commendation of the entire university community for its actions. If the Current Events Committee follows this fine example, it will be a vital and beneficial group.
This does not mean that every speaker who is invited to campus should be a fire-breathing radical. But certainly the university community should be given the opportunity to listen to a
substantial number of controversial speakers. especially those whose viewpoints are not given adequate attention in the press.
Despite the alarmists' continuing cries against allowing speakers with unpopular views to be heard, the holders of controversial opinions should be allowed to speak and to question current ideas and opinions. This type of activity has a definite place in the educational process. It prevents it from becoming stagnant and it serves to point out the weak points in popularly held opinions.
IT IS OBVIOUS that the ASC will probably be criticized for inviting the Cuban speakers. This is to be expected. There are far too many unenlightened groups who believe in freedom of speech only for those who agree with them.
The ASC and its Current Events Committee should ignore such ridiculous criticism from the radicals and continue with the excellent work they have begun.
-William H. Mullins
Kansan Editorial Castigated
(Editor's note: Ordinarily no comment is made on letters criticizing the Kansan's editorial policies. However, the violence of this particular attack leads us to point out that the letter is entirely a subjective tirade.)
Editor:
I cannot help but view with despair some of the extremes to which the Daily Kansan will go to fill a newspaper page. One obvious example is the editorial page (on which this will probably appear, causing other students to complain just as I am). Since the large newspapers across the nation usually have several editorsit is apparently assumed that the UDK must also have a number of editorials so it can be "just like the big guys". Well, this is acceptable and possibly even desirable provided the editorials were of sufficient quality to make worthwhile reading. But unfortunately the majority are not.
TAKE FOR example the editorial entitled Model U.N. Dissension, appearing in the Thursday, March 8 UDK. The author was evidently having difficulties finding a subject to discuss which he knew something about and could present an intelligent viewpoint supported by factual material. So he decided upon something, namely the purpose and "philosophy" of the Model U.N., on which he could not satisfy the above qualifications.
THE AUTHOR of the article appears to be either unwilling to recognize the international espionage carried on by both the East and the West or is unaware of one of the major objectives of the Model U.N. that being realism. I cannot accept the former as being true so I must assume it is the latter.
He stated that "the philosophy behind the Model U.N. is to give its participants a better awareness and understanding of world government." I will agree with this but must dissent when he says "it's doubtful these adolescent espionage activities (He is referring to the alleged spying by the Russian, delegation.) go very far in promoting this awareness."
When the Model U.N. was originally organized it was conceived to be almost an exact replica of the real U.N., with the exception of a few essential modifications, such as the organization of the Security Council, debate procedures, etc. It was ideally supposed to consist of the same number of nations as the original. It was stressed to the delegates that they should strive to disregard their American prejudices and make an honest attempt to assume the attitudes and ideals of the governments of their respective countries. In this manner the Model U.N. was imagined to achieve a
high degree of similarity to the real U.N.
INTERNATIONAL espionage is certainly a fact of life, as evidenced by the recent U.S.-Soviet Union exchange of spies. Therefore in order to achieve realism espionage should exist in the Model U.N. It adds interest and excitement to the tedious research and preparation of speeches prior to the General Assembly meeting. It not only increases the enthusiasm of the delegates but it also arouses interest from the non-participating students. And most importantly, it helps the delegates assume the roles of foreign ambassadors and make the Model U.N. the stimulating and enjoyable experience that it should be.
Hence I would like to ask the author of the previously mentioned article to please restrict his tutorials to issues on which he is at least reasonably well-versed and which are open to valid criticisms. For instance, why not write a critique on a more controversial issue such as the All Student Council? Now there is a controversial subject!
Gil Hall
Gil Hall Bartlesville, Okla. junior U.N. delegation chairman
* *
Criticism For Wesley
Editor:
I am writing in regard to the published letter of the Wesley foundation executive council stating that the administration has an "imperative" responsibility to assist in the abolishment of Greek discriminatory clauses. This sort of naive view springs from any of three errors.
The first error is the inability to distinguish between fact and opinion. That segregation of races in regard to public facilities is illegal is a fact. That a private organization is wrong in practicing or condoning discrimination on the basis of race or religion is an opinion. The administration has no imperative to enforce the opinions of anyone on fraternities.
INDEED, THE history of trying to achieve good conscience by "assisting" in the abolishment of "evils" is not a happy one. The prohibition law ushered in the era of big time gangsterism in this country, and the laws against gambling provide crime with one of its most lucrative industries. Brotherhood cannot be forced upon those who do not think it extends beyond their own self-constructed definition of it. There are always many who are willing to abridge the rights of others on the basis of personal opinion.
The second error is a religious one. Those who feel they have the backing of God in their effort to make men obey the golden rule are as out of date as the crusades. Jesus Christ says he stands at the
door of a man's heart and knocks; he does not break down the door. Paul says that love is patient and kind and does not insist on its own way. (I assume that the Wesley foundation is acting in love.) So, writing letters and passing resolutions are easy, but as Christians, the Wesley foundation should know that only God can give a man the love to accept another man as a brother.
THE THIRD ERROR is laziness. So, the letter of the Wesley foundation represents a retreat from reality. They cannot think that prejudice is such a weak force that it can be effectively dealt with by the administration (which does not exist in a university primarily as a coercive entity). How quickly the writers of the reply to the Chancellor's letter clear themselves of any possible charge of discriminatory attitudes; how quickly they condemn the fraternities' attitudes. It is a good theory to say that mere racial difference is no basis for determining incompatibility between two people, and yet it is a great psychological problem to some people.
Doubtless the forcing of fraternities to remove all discriminatory clauses would be a great victory for the reformers, but it would only be a paper victory defeating straw men. If you can't force righteousness, you can force sterile unwilling conformity. A fine way to build the new Jerusalem!
I see here no vital encounter between man and man, but only the desire to invoke the big brotherly hand of the administration; no real concern for others, but only self-righteousness, no satisfaction with real personal gains in the area of brotherhood, but only the childish insistence that all visible trace of discrimination be swept away in a twinkling.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Michael L. Clark Deerfield, Ill. graduate student
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Sound and Fury
The Cuban Situation
Last week Fidel Castro announced to the Cuban nation that it would be necessary to ration food and medical supplies. This marks a tragic moment in the course of events which have brought this country to the brink of economic chaos. Cuba is isolated. Her people are under siege. The Pearl of the Antilles is being ground to dust.
What has brought this about? Why, when the rest of the world prospers, must the Cuban eat less tomorrow than he did yesterday? What has he done to deserve this?
THE ANSWER is that he has done nothing. The United States is unhappy with his government and is trying to get rid of it. Thus the United States has placed an embargo upon Cuba. All trade has stopped and Cuba is caught in an economic vise. What is to be gained is as yet undetermined. What is being lost, to the Cuban at least, is very real. And so Fidel has announced the need for rationing.
Herberto Sein, a Mexican educator who recently visited our campus, has called Cuba a "martyr nation." That her government is popular cannot be doubted: What other type of government would dare place guns and ammunition in the hands of the governed? And indeed, what can our policy of starvation do but unite the whole nation more closely together against a common enemy? What is to be hoped for by our policy? No doubt the same thing the Romans sought when they made martyrs of the Christians.
THE UNITED STATES is wrong. We are wrong. We can gain nothing but hatred and fear by this embargo. By strangling Cuba we strangle ourselves. By depriving others of the right of self-government, of self-expression, we renounce that right ourselves. The world will not always agree with us. We must protect that right. We must protect Cuba's right. We must stop the embargo and stop it now! For if Castro is killed or overthrown by this policy the United States will be held a murderer of her own values.
-A Troubled Observer
George Eliot must have looked around her and decided that life was a grimly deterministic matter. She was writing her novels sometime before Darwinism had become influential, yet "The Mill on the Floss" is as Darwinian as many novels that appeared 50 years later.
This is a big book, a long book, a deservedly important book. It was one of the earlier landmarks in realistic fiction, and it paints a picture of English society that was far from the romantic side so many enjoyed reading about.
THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, by George Eliot. Doubleday Dolphin,
$1.45.
Books in Review
IT IS A TRAGIC STORY, THAT OF A BROTHER and sister relationship—Tom and Maggie Tulliver and Dorlcote Mill on the river Floss. Maggie is romantic and dreaming, a rebel of sorts; Tom is dull, plodding and uninspired, but arrogant and domineering. When Maggie falls in love with Philip Wakem it is a relationship that Tom cannot sanction.
But neither can the rest of society sanction it, and Maggie is socially ostracized. Finally she and her brother meet their deaths in a raging flood on the Floss.
Neither Tom nor Maggie was able to adjust to life, and so both perished. This seems to be what George Eliot is saying. The fit survive, and Tom and Maggie are not of the fittest. It is a grim view, and one that had numerous parallels in the literature that followed it 100 years ago.—Calder M. Pickett, Professor of Journalism