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Summer Session Kansan Friday, June 26, 1964
The Bare Facts of 1964
Topless bathing suits seem to have captured the center of the stage from the Supreme Court and Sen, Goldwater. This is good. This may make the summer, with its night after night of severe weather forecasts, endurable.
MEANWHILE, BACK at the Republican ranch, the Senator from Arizona seems headed for the presidential nomination, despite the hopes of the Scranton folks, who waited too long. They call to mind the Stevenson forces of 1960, who thought they could pull off something like the
Wendell Willkie people of 1940, and get the nomination for their man at the last minute. Why, if the Scranton people hate Goldwater so much, weren't they in there trying months ago?
Editorial writers$^a$, columnists and cartoonists also are writing a lot about last week's Supreme Court ruling on state legislative apportionment. The Summer Kansan had something to say about that a week ago. The one who had the something to say has done some second thinking: Why shouldn't state legislatures be set up on a dual system like our Congress? Is there a need for bicameral legislature under the recent court ruling?
ALMOST NO ONE has written about Moon Maid, who appears to be turning good. Nor about Little Orphan Annie, who is milking cows and feeding chickens and tending cats, which, like Sandy, smile.
Let us condemn the weather. Let us speculate whether topleast suits will ever be seen—publicly in Lawrence. Speaking of topleast suits, are the nudists coming to Lawrence again this year?
Democrats-Normally-Are More Liberal, Noisier Than the Smooth. Cautious GOP
By Carol Knupp
Election time is fast approaching. And so are the presidential nominating conventions—the time when both political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, are at their best politicking and banner-waving.
Both gather their forces and factions, and try to elect a candidate for the presidential election and formulate their party platform.
The Democrats will perform those functions in a bigger, noisier, and more fratricidal manner than will the Republicans. Lusty confusion will be everywhere. More zest and sheer love for the game of politics will be displayed.
The Republicans are a different lot. Their convention, as well as their party, is usually quieter, smoother, more efficient, and possibly better run. They accept politics as a business, and prearrange everything to a neat, well-kept schedule.
And yet both parties will have members wearing Ivy League lappels. There will be men who mouth black stogies, and ladies who will be wearing dresses from chic to chintz.
They are suspicious of a third party, each being committed to the preservation of the other.
And in the end their platforms will embody many of the very same principles. Both are committed to constitutional government, the two-party system, and a private enterprise economy. They try for a semblance of centralized direction without benefit of strong ties of doqma or discipline.
Both are walking on the path of moderation. Year by year party issues of the two have narrowed until now they are arguments more on details than on basic issues.
In the 19th century the Democrats were inclined more toward the states' rights issue. The 20th century sees them less so inclined. In the previous century the Republicans were adamant nation-firsters, but today they tend to accept more states' rights.
Traditionally and historically the two parties have not been as similar to each other as they are now.
There have been three phases of party power in America. The first, lasting until the Civil War, was the Age of the Democrats. The second, stretching through the first decade of this century, was the Age of the Republicans. And the third, beginning in 1930, might be called a New Age of the Democrats.
Thomas Jefferson, the first national party leader, formed an alliance bringing together the North and South, the rural farmer, and the urban factory worker.
That mainly agrarian group was the first of the grand coalitions. It started out as the Democratic Republican party, but soon dropped the "Democratic." Later it split into Republican and Democratic elements, and ended up as the Democratic party.
During that 60-year period, which ended with Lincoln's election, the party changed in many ways. The party took on a southern and westward cast with the leadership of Andrew Jackson.
The 1850s were a time of party upheaval. The Democratic party was split by the conflict over slavery.
The Republican party was the winning alliance. It was founded in 1854, at which time it gained many of the liberal members of the Whig party.
The party was radical in many respects, appealing to farmers, workers, and small business. Lincoln led the Republicans to victory on a platform that opposed further extension of slavery and favored internal improvements.
After the Civil War, the party consolidated and broadened its coalition of interests. Liberal home-stead policies helped solidify the support of farmers and immigrants. A high tariff stand attracted many eastern workers. Sound money policies and railroad land grants won the support of financiers, industrialists, and merchants. Above all, the Republicans were the "party of the Union," with a national appeal that seemed to transcend the lines of class, group, or section.
For five decades after 1860 this coalition gave every presidential race to the Republicans, except for Cleveland's victories in 1884 and 1892
Meanwhile, the Democratic party survived, with its hard core in the South.
It capitalized on the mistakes and excesses of the party in power. Its platforms championed the principles of low tariffs, state rights, civil service and currency reform. However, the Democrats were not able to consolidate national power.
The Great Depression changed all that. The bleak years of job-hunting and breadlines brought a new political temper. People in all classes and groups turned away from the GOP.
But Wilson's coalition was not broad or firm enough to stay in power for long. The 1920s became years of supremacy for the Republicans as the "party of prosperity."
In 1912 the Republican coalition split as cleanly as the Democratic coalition had in 1860, with the result that Wilson was elected. Heaimed his "New Freedom" program at the "common man"-labor, farmers, small businessmen—and at the solid South.
The Democrats, under Franklin D. Roosevelt, offered some kind of New Deal to the "forgotten man." and voters felt themselves forgot- ten.
Roosevelt not only strengthened the farmer-labor-southern alliance that Wilson had led; he put together a grand coalition of these groups plus Negroes, unemployed, middle-class people, national and racial minorities. That coalition gave the Democrats in 1936 the electoral
votes of every state except two.
The Republicans have drawn their leaders from men who made good the hard way. That quest for self-made heroes is the reason for many military figures.
Traditionally the Democrats have turned with surprising frequency to America's aristocracy for their principal leadership. The party of the common man has been run more regularly than not by men of uncommon wealth or cultural heritage.
Today, the political parties may be summarized in the following way:
"The Democrats are a large group of second-class roughnecks, led nationally by a small group of first-class aristocrats; while the Republicans are a small group of second-class aristocrats led nationally by a large group of first-class roughnecks."
Both will bear watching as they perform their two main party functions—nominating a presidential candidate and formulating their platform.
Real Risks Run By Rotund Folks
A man able to provide himself and his family with plenty of food let rotundity speak for his comfortable position in life. At the same time, plumpness was thought to enhance a woman's charm.
LINCOLN, Neb. —(UPI)— Years ago, overweight was considered a sign of success and prosperity, health education specialists at the University of Nebraska say.
This is not so today, the specialists said. An overweight person is not necessarily well nourished.
Statistics show people who are very much overweight seem to be more susceptible to certain diseases, may have less resistance to infection, and even tend to have more accidents than slim people.
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Summer Session Kansan
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Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
THE SIN OF FATHER AMARO,
by Eca de Queiroz (Delta, $1.95).
Member of Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th St., New York 22, N.Y. 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 Sundays, University holidays and examination periods. Published Tuesdays and Fridays during Summer Session. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
BOOK REVIEWS
Comparatively unknown in this country, and first published here only last year, "The Sin of Father Amaro" is a classic of Portuguese literature that is bound to become a conversation piece among American readers.
The story concerns a priest who seduces a young and innocent girl, and de Queiroz makes a powerful indictment of society and hypocrisy. But it is not merely a social document, for like the best works of literary realism and naturalism it is marked by compassion and understanding.
The author was born in 1842 and died in 1900, years which suggest that the novel appeared in the heyday of realism. De Queiroz was a diplomat by profession. This translation is by Nan Flanagan.
THE COLONIAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN THOUGHT, by Max Savelle (Anvil. $1.45).
Max Savelle, who has done considerable writing on the colonial period, shows in this paperback original how American thought originated in the formative years of America. Documents support his text.
The persons who are represented are some of the important names in our early history. They include Franklin, Cadwallader Colden, Samuel Sewall, Prof. John Winthrop (of the 18th century), Nathaniel Ames, Jonathan Edwards, Andrew Hamilton, the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, Cotton Mather and Philip Frenaeu and others.
Writings range over a wide list, from Franklin on electricity to that patriotic ode called "The Rising Glory of America."
THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN, by Morris L. West (Dell, 75 cents).
Few novels in recent years have met the popular acceptance of "The Shoes of the Fisherman." Granted that Morris L. West had a timely topic, for the death of Pope John coincided beautifully with his story of a pope of the stripe of the already beloved John. But beyond that "The Shoes of the Fisherman" is a good novel.
Whether it is a great one remains to be seen. West tells a powerful story, as readers of "The Devil's Advocate" already know, and he appears to have understanding of the Italian people. This book has the drama, the emotion and the suspense of the earlier book.
Many readers will find this paperback of special interest in the light of recent events in the news. It should have a wide audience this year.
THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL TODAY, by James B. Conant (Signet, 60 cents).
Perhaps the busiest gadfly in the eyes of American education is the former president of Harvard. This is the book that came out about five years ago and added materially to the furor about our schools.
Conant believes this book should be read along with his more recent "Slums and Suburbs." He says in this newly published volume that only 15 per cent of the high schools he has studied are providing their students with an adequate education, that students are not receiving an opportunity to develop their abilities and that we definitely need better teachers and more advanced courses.
The talented students are neglected, he says (one would guess that the situation is being improved more and more). The problem, perhaps, is that of striking a balance between elitism and the democratic concept of an education for all.
MADAME BOVARY; by Gustave Flambert (Signet Classics, 50 cents).
Here is a new translation of the work many have called "the perfect novel." In any translation the book is one of the most powerful commentaries on society of 19th century France.
But the book is more than a social comment. Flaubert described the shallow, grasping Emma Bovary, who feels confined by her provincial life and her cuckolded husband. The husband alone escapes the scathing criticism of Flaubert.
THE EUROPEANS, by Henry James (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
Here is one of the slightest yet most amusing volumes ever to appear from the pen of Henry James. The title suggests a European setting; actually the book takes place in America and shows a pair of Europeans who are seeking their fortunes in this country.
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As usual, of course, they are more sophisticated than their crude American cousins, but the cousins are wise in their way and still come off well. This book, by the way, is comparatively simple in style and plot and will be refreshing to many who find some James novels heavy going.
Many years before the masterworks of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, this slight novel appeared. Lermontov was born in 1814, the book was published in 1840, and later that year he was killed in a duel. The book is a new translation published by the New English Library in 1962 and "Americanized"—as Signet puts it—for the Classics edition.
A HERO OF OUR TIME, by Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
The hero of the novel is a young army officer named Pechorin who involves himself in wild adventure. But in all his recklessness he cannot escape the complexities of his character.
LOVE'S CROSS CURRENTS. by Algenorn Charles Swinburne (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
This book is Swinburne's one completed novel, and Marya Zaturenska, poetess who has written an afterword for the volume, calls it "the solitary prose masterpiece of a poet." The book is regarded as a penetrating examination of the inner circle of Victorian aristocracy.
Swinburne considers a great English family, closely bound together, with a special code of manners and morals. A series of sharp character portraits is offered by the writer.
The big thing about this one is that it has a spooky cover with Hayley Mills featured, and the magic words "Walt Disney." Now whether this will draw the adults is another matter, but any older folks who like suspense and intrigue should eat this one up.
THE MOON-SPINNERS, by Mary Stewart (Crest. 60 cents).
It's set on Crete, a fact which gives the story special lure, and you might guess that it concerns an English girl (now Hayley obviously is no Cretan) who gets involved in murder. This one might be no international prize-winner, but for summer days it should prove quite diverting.
THE MESSENGER, by Charles Wright (Crest. 50 cents).
We are going to see more of this kind of novel, because the young people who are writing today are not concerning themselves with romance and derring-do, especially if they're young people who have been immersed in social causes since they were 12. Charles Wright has written a book about New York's half world that already has received considerable praise.
His hero is a young Negro, as disturbed and mixed-up as many other young men stumbling about in the big cities of America. The boy becomes involved in drug addiction, homosexuality, all the rest of it that is becoming common subject matter in the novels of today.
ANIMALS, MEN AND MYTHS, by Richard Lewinsohn (Premier, 95 cents).
Some vastly entertaining, semi-scholarly works with anthropological touches are appearing these days for the general reader. Here is another. Richard Lewinsohn offers here an absorbing book about animals and men from the earliest history until today.
Others have long commented on the way nature offers us lasting metaphors. This book tells how they came about, and discusses superstitions, experimentation with animals and religion, breeding rare animals and many other subjects.