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University Daily Kansan Wednesday. Feb. 14. 1962
The Algerian Problem
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
The large scale riots that occurred in Paris last week point out the increasing conflict between the government and the radical political elements of France. The riots were sparked by Communists, but rightist organizations have caused numerous riots in the past and as De Gaulle continues his attempts to give Algeria self-determination there will be increasing violence.
However, the only element that can offer any effective resistance to the plans of De Gaule in the long run is the OAS organization in Algeria, which has the sympathies of a majority of the million Europeans there.
The situation is—as is often the case in France—an extremely complex one involving many factors. The FLN (the Arab rebel organization demanding independence from France), the AOS (the secret rightist organization composed of Frenchmen and European settlers in Algeria demanding continued ties with France), the Communist Party in France and the general mass of French and Arab people who want peace desperately after seven years of war all figure in the moves and counter moves that are taking place in France and Algeria today.
INCREASINGLY, however, it is the last factor that is dominating events. De Gaulle and his government are committed to finding a solution to the Algerian conflict and they must deliver to remain in power. If De Gaulle does fall, there will be chaos in France.
Despite the fact that the OAS organization is powerful in Algeria, De Gaulle has begun withdrawing French troops and intends to continue He is known to be negotiating with the FLN to reach a workable solution to the problem of the million people of European descent in Algeria who settled in the country, developed and modernized it and want it to remain French. Since there are nine million Arabs, De Gaulle feels some guarantee or provision insuring the rights of the European minority must be provided. He also hopes that an independent Algeria will remain in the French community of nations that has been developed out of former French colonies.
IF THE FLN is willing to provide reasonable guarantees to De Gaulle for the well-being and protection of these European settlers, De Gaulle will probably give Algeria its independence. Provided the European settlers are willing to accept this, peace should finally come to this troubled land. Such guarantees are to the advantage of the FLN, since the loss of the European settlers would be a severe blow to the economic life of the country.
There are three key things that can be seen at present. In the first place, De Gaulle is determined to reach a solution to the Algerian Rebellion and secondly he has the support of a majority of the French people. The third element is the unknown ability of the OAS to spark an effective counter action against De Gaulle's plans. Yet, considering that the majority of the French people support De Gaulle in his determination to end the war, it is not likely that any action on the part of the OAS can be effective.
—William H. Mullins
The Spirit of Free Inquiry Editor:
The head of the economics department was quoted recently in your paper as having stated that "the free enterprise system was not challenged in the class rooms" of the KU economics department. Well, if it is not so challenged, it is time that it was.
The essence of an open society (which is the same thing as a free society) is that its basic assumptions are constantly being challenged in its classrooms; this is the real difference between it and a closed society (which is the same thing as a dictatorial society).
This spirit of free inquiry is also the distinction between education and indoctrination. One reason why many American students have difficulty in understanding the rest of the world is because they are exposed to so much indoctrination in their educational system. They therefore find it difficult to accept that other societies have different basic assumptions from their own—which also need to be respected—and contain important contributions to truth.
This faith in indoctrination is far too widespread in the United States. I understand that the People-to-People movement (which I support strongly in principle)
plans to inductrate the students going to Europe this summer with what to say about free enterprise. I mentioned this to several European students and got an identical reaction from every one of them. They said:
"But we meet lots of students like that in Europe—only they are Russians."
Denis Kennedy
Dun Laoghaire, Ireland graduate student
. . .
YAF and the Model U.N.
Editor:
I think it most fitting that the conservative Young Americans for Freedom should choose to represent the dictatorship of Portugal in the Model United Nations. Portugal is probably the most backward state in western Europe. Portugal is blessed with the lowest standard of living, and (with the possible exception of Spain or the Union of South Africa) the most repressive regime of any Western nation.
This state of affairs should indeed appeal to the local conservative element; and they should indeed be commended for so honestly and dramatically proclaiming the ideals for which they stand.
Michael W. Dunlop St. Louis senior
Policy Statement
"This column is open to contributions from readers of the Daily Kansan who wish to express their opinions on subjects of importance, these opinions being of such import that they stand or fall on the worthiness of their content. Thus, the contributions may be anonymous or signed with pen names. All the contributions must observe the rules of good taste, and some material may be cut for reasons of space."
Editor's note: It is necessary to occasionally refresh our readers' memories on Kansan policy on reader opinion columns. The following points are therefore presented:
- A column entitled Sound and Fury is available to those who wish to write anonymously. The editor's note which introduced this column explains Kansan policy on it:
- All letters to the editor must be signed. The author's name will be withheld only if he gives a valid reason to a member of the editorial staff.
Material that could just as easily be run in the Letters to the Editor column will not be considered for the Sound and Fury column.
Mullins Criticized Editor:
One does hate to belabor the Daily Kansan, for it is, after all, a laboratory for students, but beginning their education in the ways of the fourth estate. However, we have had in the past, and I think we are entitled to a little more perception and originality in the editorial columns. One gets the impression that the Kansan editorials merely read the "Progressive's" editorials, digest them slightly, and regurgitate them on page two of the UDK.
The editorial on YAF by Bill Mullins in Monday's Kansan is par. It is a scattergun of inane assertions about or related to Young Americans for Freedom. Nowhere is the editorial buttressed by logic or fact. Indeed, it deals entirely with superficialities, ignoring the crucial, long-range question of whether YAF is right philosophically, economically or politically. It is possible that this is due to an inability of the editorialist to argue philosophically, economically or politically. Gentlemen, we (YAF) would welcome an attack on our philosophy and its correlary economic system: the free market.
Your (CAPTIVE) readers deserve better. Perhaps if you were forced to compete for subscriptions in the free market, which you so abhor...but then, that would surely be too cruel.
Markir Payton Lawrence resident. University employee and YAF chairman
Marick Pavton
Dailu hansan
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Ban Collincher May
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Ron Gallagher
Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Bill Mullins  Editorial Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Charles Martinech .. Business Manager
"SO I GAVE HIM BACK HIS OLE FRATERNITY FIN."
By Calder M. Pickett Professor of Journalism
ESTHER WATERS, by George Moore. Premier (Fawcett), 50 cents.
A classic of realism when it appeared in 1894, "Esther Waters" has few shocks for us today. It is essential to read the book in terms of the times in which it was written.
For Esther Waters was a servant girl who ran afoul of a boy from another class, became pregnant, raised her child, renounced another love in favor of wedding the weak father of her son, and finally saw her son go off to war. It all sounds very stilted and Victorian, but it really was quite revolutionary.
Women were making their fight for social equality, and George Moore was allying himself with the feminists. He was speaking out against the injustice deloed out to the Esther Waterses of society. If we have difficulty in sobbing for Esther and her woes it is because we have become hardened by the novels that have followed it, and it is hard to believe, in 1961, that girls would go through the woes and hardships of poor Esther Waters.
* *
AMERICAN HERITAGE, December, 1961. $3.95.
The term "American heritage," as compounded by the editors of this book-magazine, continues to be an all-encompassing thing. It ranges from a scandalous love affair that rocked a New England town in the 1840s to a discussion of the strange aberration that drew so many American liberals into the Communist party, U.S.A.
It is best demonstrated, perhaps, in three other articles in the current issue. These deal with Bryan, the Great Commoner; Irving, the Americanist writer of short stories, and Barnum, who once said that "every crowd has a silver lining." These represent what to many has characterized a culture that has its own distinctiveness, a compound of phoniness and wide-eyed innocence.
The Bryan article, by John A. Garraty, is the first of three dealing with important American Progressives. There is little new here; in fact, it is merely a distillation of many other things written about Bryan. The Barnum article is distinguished by a portfolio of posters and mementoes of the showman's famous tour of England.
THE IRVING ARTICLE IS BEST. It brings out the warmness and humanity of the writer, and it is marvelously illustrated, though surely the editors could have figured out a better way to display a wide-screen kind of illustration than to insert loose pages. From the genre painter Quidor to the more recent Wyeth, there are brightly colored illustrations of the splendid creations of Irving, including, of course, Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
American Heritage, in its publicity blurb, chooses to boost the story of American Communists, which is the last in a series called "America Faces Russia." Moshe Decter tells the story, and it is a sad one, one that recalls to us that American liberals even defended—in good doublethink style—the infamous purges of the thirties.
Also in this issue:
"The Parson and the Bluestocking," a story of a Calvinist parson and a highbred girl; "Faces from the Past," a brief depiction of the dying Jackson; "The Water War," a story of the 1913 fight for control of water in southern California; "Jack Jouett's Ride," Virginia Dabney's lamentation that Jouett failed to achieve the fame of a Paul Revere; "Captain Cook's American," the story of John Ledyard, who sailed with the explorer Cook, and "I Kneel Only to God and Woman," about the American barbarian who refused to kowtow to the emperor of China.
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