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Summer Session Kansan Tuesday, July 14, 1964
No Utopias, Mr. Fowler
Elsewhere on this page there appears a letter from John E. Fowler of the Labor Party of Kansas, who questions this newspaper's recent assertion that "a certain amount of frustration will always be present—and necessary—under our system of government." Mr. Fowler's letter appears to be largely an attack on Laird M. Wilcox of the Kansas Free Press. For that reason there was some hesitation about running a letter that smacked of esoteric personal arguments, but the letter is down there at the bottom of the page.
Mr. Fowler's letter appears at a time when one group (probably the liberals, this time) is due for frustration at the Republican National Convention. Despite all kinds of polls (which may be as worthless as those of 1936 and 1948) that show Sen. Goldwater as likely to be far behind President Johnson in a presidential race, the long-frustrated right of the Republican Party appears to be about to nominate the gentleman from Arizona.
AND THE LIBERALS (or at least those persons right now grouped behind Gov. Seranton) appear to have offered, in words scarcely new but often pertinent, too little too late. Those who have been buoyed up by the Kuchels, Keatings, Javiteses and Scotts of the Republican Party will be disheartened. These are the people who, if Goldwater is nominated, will be in the political wilderness, even if the Arizonaan loses the election in November.
They will see the party leadership and machinery in the hands of the people who worked to get control of it, and they'll be frustrated, just as the more conservative gentlemen have been frustrated in recent years.
JUST AS, WE SUBMIT, some people will always be frustrated. It takes a powerful shot of idealism, or naivete, to believe that the golden days will come even if "the vast productive power of modern society" is put to work. We may achieve what the Marxists call the withering away of the state, but even in a 1984, or a Brave New World, we have the misplaced, the malcontents, the frustrated.
It would be grand if it were otherwise. We wish, with Mr. Fowler, that like Edward Bellamy we could look backward and marvel at the primitive civilization of the past world. Do away with our unproductive government, Mr. Fowler, and what will you have? Cuba? China? The Soviet Union? Utopia?
It's a lovely dream. We believe that even the aims of the Labor Party of Kansas would leave a large frustrated group of citizens, as embittered as the old ladies in tennis shoes who are about to make Sen. Goldwater their standard-bearer for 1960.
Apathy or Duty of Citizenship
ITEM:
ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—(UPI)—A man suffering from an apparent heart attack lay for two or three days on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Rock Island while passersby ignored his pleas for help.
Before he died, he told police that several people walked by while he lay half in the water and half on the rocky shore. He cried out for help but the people walked on, he said.
By Carter Van Lopik Detroit Free Press
There. 28-year-old Catherine Genovese died of stab wounds while
This story last week was born before it happened. It was born last March 13 about 3 a.m. on Austin Street in that section of New York's Queens known as Kew Gardens.
Editor:
Letters...
In the editorial "Politics and Frustration" in UDK, June 30, 1644, the writer suggests "that a certain amount of frustration will always be present—and necessary
— under our system of government." But how much is a "certain amount" and what kind of frustration is the writer talking about? Earlier in the article the author asks, "What could be more frustrating than the life of the economically deprived, or the socially deprived?" What indeed? But is this deprivation necessary? Given the vast productive power of modern society I say that it is not. Furthermore, I say that the government or economic system that makes such deprivation necessary should be done away with.
The Socialist Labor Party, recently the victim of a smear attack by Mr. Laird M. Wilcox, editor of the Kansas Free Press, offers an alternative to the present system, one in which all the means of production, distribution and social services will be socially owned and democratically controlled and administered in the interest of all society. Rather than engage in polemics as Mr. Wilcox has done, I would suggest that everyone acquaint themselves with the program of the Socialist Labor Party. The presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the SLP, Eric Hass and Henning Blomen, respectively, will be on the ballot in Kansas this year. However, due to Kansas law permitting a political party to use a name containing only two words, one of which must be Party, the Socialist Labor Party will appear on the ballot as the Labor Party of Kansas.
John E. Fowler, Secretary Kansas State Committee Labor Party of Kansas
her neighbors invoked their right of non-involvement. The press has agonized editorially since this and a spate of similar incidents happened, and a state of mind known as apathy has been all but branded as a crime.
In Detroit, the most heinous case was that of Mrs. Virginia Nixon, dragged between houses and raped by four youths after collapsing of a stroke in a phone booth.
THE HORROR of the New York case was that not two or four persons heard her cries and saw the stabbings, but 38. The first attack, to which the attention of neighbors was drawn, came 35 minutes before the first call to police.
Police Commissioner Ray Girardin "cleared" Detroiters of the charge of apathy in Mrs. Nixon's death because, he said, those who saw her fall, and the woman onto whose porch she was first taken, thought she was merely drunk
Some of those who watched Miss Genovese's death struggles on a New York street thought "It was a lover's quarrel . . . and went back to bed," the New York Times reported.
IT WAS NOT the murder, but the massive indifference that shocked.
"Nobody can say why the 38 did not lift the phone while Miss Genovese was being attacked, since they cannot say themselves," wrote A. M. Rosenthal of the Times staff.
"It can be assumed, however, that their apathy was indeed of the big city variety. It is almost a matter of psychological survival, if one is surrounded and pressed by millions of people, to prevent them from constantly impinging on you and the only way to do this is to ignore them as often as possible.
Though this "big city apathy" shocks sensibilities, it is not a crime. In Michigan, a citizen is under no legal obligation to give any assistance or involve himself in any way. The body of law defends his right of reluctance.
"THE SELF-PROTECTIVE shells in which we live are determined not only by the difference between big cities and small. They are determined by economics and social class, by caste and by color, by religion and by politics."
But why this reluctance? Why this spate of incidents on streets and on subways in big cities? Why, as the New York police said after a recent beating case on Broadway which 50 people witnessed without doing anything, "That's about average."
RECORDER'S JUDGE Frank G. Schemanske, who frequently uses bench warrants to get the reluctant on the witness stand, says people are simply afraid.
- Afraid of the police.
- Afraid of reprisals.
"So far as street incidents go,
people are very much aware through publicity that many carry knives and other weapons." Judge Schemanske said. "They don't want to be cut or hurt; they'd rather look the other way."
Nor do they want to be involved with the police. The Times, after interviewing as many of the 38 witnesses to Miss Genovese's death as it could locate, said not one refused to act because he had had an unpleasant experience with the police. But they are aware that statements must be taken, appearances made in court, time lost from jobs.
"THERE IS ALSO an element of risk," said Circuit Judge Benjamin D. Burdick. "Everybody can be a police officer. He has the right to make an arrest, and to use all necessary force. But what if you're wrong. You're taking action on what you see visibly. You have no time or opportunity to diagnose the situation.
"That's one of the penalties you have to pay for being a citizen in a democracy such as this. This is the chance a responsible citizen has to take.
"You have to think about it in these terms. If you become involved with the police or the courts as a result, you must remember that the accused man is entitled to his day in court."
"But there is a common law where you, as a human being, come to the assistance of another human being," he said.
WHAT IF YOU, intervening, use more than the "necessary" amount of force, and the culprit is killed or maimed as a result? Here, too, there is an element of risk.
"You can be exonerated for doing an act of mercy," he said eliminate
(Continued on page 3)
Summer Session Kansan
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BOOK REVIEWS
THE PRAIRIE, by James Fenimore Cooper (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
Though it appeared early among the Leatherstocking tales, "The Prairie" is chronologically the closing volume, and one which each year assumes more importance among American novels. In this one we find old Natty Bumppo on the American plains, Daniel Boone-like making the move westward.
He comes into conflict with a party of emigrants led by Ishamael Bush, who represents to Cooper all the ugliness of civilization as eminently as Natty Bumppo represents the graces and beauty of nature.
American literature folks put this one high on the list. To some readers it will seem old-fashioned and improbable, but in its symbolism it stands at the top of the five Leatherstocking tales.
* * *
THE MAJOR PLAYS, by Anton Chekhov (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
Now comes another collection of Chekhov, and it is a real bargain that the reader gets in this one. The plays are "Ivanov," "The Sea Gull," "Uncle Vanya," "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard."
Some of these are among the most influential plays in the modern theater. Chekhov was a master of the tragic situation, told in such low-keyed drama that it almost seems plotless.
***
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, by Shakespeare (Signet Classics, 50 cents)—This is a new edition in the Signet Classic Shakespeare series, with an introduction by Bertrand Evans of the University of California. There are commentaries by Samuel Johnson, Shaw, Mark Van Doren and others, and there is an extensive bibliography. Such an edition should prove of special service to students of Shakespeare.
* * *
More than most of Mark Twain's novels this one should be regarded as a children's book. It is a delightfully improbable tale, and except for some pretty brutal views of Merrie Olde England it should not offer nightmares to the small ones.
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, by Mark Twain (Signet Classics, 50 cents).
In case you don't know the story, it's about Tom Canty, slum boy, who trades places with Edward Tudor, heir to the throne of England. Kenneth S. Lynn gives us an afterword, in an effort to make this sound as important as "Huckleberry Finn," but, let's face it, Lynn or no, it just isn't.
** ** **
THE LAND GOD GAVE TO CAIN, by Hammond Innes (Dell, 50 cents).
Here is an exciting adventure story set in the Far North. Hammond Innes, who wrote the popular "Wreck of the Mary Deare," made two trips to Labrador, and from these was inspired to write this novel. Basically entertainment, this book makes no pretensions to literary excellence, but it will be good summer reading for many.
* * *
CENTRAL PASSAGE, by Lawrence Schoonover (Dell, 50 cents).
Here is a science fiction tale that is a little more than that, dealing with two people destined to destroy the whole human race. Schoonover's people are like those in some other recent science fiction tales endowed with super-intelligence but too smart, you might say, to live.
* * *
BOULE DE SUIF, AND SELECTED STORIES, by Guy de Maupassant (Signet Classics. 50 cents).
Students of the short story place de Maupassant at the top of the list of significant pioneers in that form. Here is a new translation of de Maupassant's "Boule de Suif and Other Stories," by Andrew MacAndrew, whose name has been represented on many recent paperback volumes.
De Maupassant was a master of realism and economy of style. His stories take place in most French settings, and characters are broad. The point of view frequently is savage and shocking to the reader who expects light entertainment.
"Boule de Suif" was published in 1880 and helped to make de Maupassant's reputation.
* * *
One of the towering works of 18th century literature is this picaresque novel by Smollett. This is the story of the career of Roderick Random, who journeys through the lusty century and meets up with sailors, soldiers, ladies and prostitutes. The stage, as in other great works of the century, is broad—from Glasgow to Guinea, from Paris to Paraguay.
RODERICK RANDOM, by Tobias Smollett (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
"Roderick Random" also is regarded as one of the first great works of the sea. Its characters, like those in "Tom Jones," are quite different from those which came along in the more efface 19th century. The book was written when Smollett was only 26.
AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, by Joseph Conrad (Signet Classics, 50 cents).
A slighter tale than many he wrote is this story of tropical river and jungle by the master of realistic mood. Conrad here depicts the gradual degeneration of Willems, his progression through treachery to self-betrayal.
Like "Lord Jim" and "Victory," this book describes civilized man in a primitive setting and provides deep psychological insights into the condition of man.