Page 2
University Daily Kansan
Monday, Feb. 24, 1964
White Wash
George Lincoln Rockwell has given KU students a very misleading impression of himself. In his speech Thursday afternoon, he said virtually nothing about the real backbone of his program to rid America of it's "undesirable elements" (Negroes and Jews) and wipe out everyone's number one enemy, communism.
IN A 45-MINUTE talk with reporters before his speech, the Nazi leader rambled on and on about the ideas he and his Storm Troopers scream about in the streets and mutter over on their way to jail. He seemed to have a wordy opinion about everything and anything, was never at a loss for something to say, and spouted fistfuls of unlikely fact. The documents to verify the claims he made were, unfortunately, somewhere else at the moment.
Speaking at the Kansas Union, he forgot his campaign and settled down to the task of wedging his foot inside the college student's mind, not unlike the Fuller Brush man attempting to squeeze past the front door. His humble decision to pass up an opportunity to preach Nazi doctrine, in favor of providing insight into his methodology and tactics, left a solid impression of only one thing: avoidance of the issues.
thing: avoidance of the LAW.
YES. MR. ROCKWELL, it's a fine idea to be more determined about whatever it is we're most interested in. No, we don't need to ignore the possible Presidential candidates just because they aren't extremists. Yes, we'd love to see you run for Governor of Virginia, you might have to debate on the mundane problems which face ordinary citizens, people who want facts and practical solutions, not emotional rantings.
He knew the students would flock to hear what they thought would be a full-scale harangue with Swastika and all, and his decision to appear as calm and rational as possible seemed to have the hoped-for effect. Those who had come to jeer and shout him down found themselves, instead, laughing nervously at harmless little anecdotes about life in the Navy, voodoo dancing girls and General MacArthur's letter writing habits. The picketers might as well have paraded outside a Girl Scout meeting.
HIS MESSAGE was that you can "change attitudes by emotional engineering;" but his method proved that lack of emotion, when emotion is most expected, can have an equally dramatic effect. There is no doubt about it, he knows how to get the most out of a speaking situation. A random sample of student opinion afterward found no one really very much against Rockwell, but no one very much for him either. Before the speech, most of these young men and women probably held rather skeptical opinions about the man and what he stands for.
The seed of doubt was planted. The idea that maybe he isn't so bad after all began to grow. His purpose was accomplished. He whitewashed a bad image, never touching the real reasons Chancellor Wescoe made it a point to say before hand that George Lincoln Rockwell "has nothing to offer." That comment is still valid.
— Larry Schmidt
Tower of Babble
Mistrust and personal suspicion is crippling the work of KU liberals.
Instead of a healthy communication among the various liberal groups there is too often a confused wail.
Ironically, their goals are similar, even identical: promotion of racial tolerance, international education, debate with the radical right, and protection of civil liberties.
BUT THE attitude seems to be, "Stand back, eye the fellow who shares your with care; he may somehow taint your cause."
I get the distinct feeling that some would like to have a monopoly on worthwhile goals.
THE DIFFERENT FACTIONS should consider the recent work of President Johnson. He has engineered the tax cut bill through the Senate and the Civil Rights bill through the House—the latter bill being stronger than one originally proposed by President Kennedy.
His by-word is the Biblical quotation: "Come, let us reason together," a poetic way of saying "Let's talk it over, find out each other's problems, and get something done."
$$
* * * * *
$$
He has worked with Democrats and Republicans alike, assuming that as Americans they want the best for America.
THE APPROACH of the President could do a lot for KU.
As it is, the far left writes off the moderates as yellow-spined. In turn, the moderates suspect the far left of being Marxist revolutionaries.
Neither likes the clothes the other wears.
Neither likes the clothes the other wears.
Neither likes where the other goes at night.
Neither likes the tone of the other's voice.
Neither likes where the other goes at night. Neither likes the tone of the other's voice. Consequently, neither understands the other's problems and nothing is done.
KU students live in a free community-on the surface. But underneath it is like the proverbial Tower of Babel, and our freedom to act is turned into a prison of chaos.
117 117
Suspicion cuts off the understanding which puts vitality and progress beyond our reach.
Tom Coffman
Win Without Score
Editor:
The People Say...
The principals in the debate, Dr. David Jones and Mr. Richard Wolff almost refused to tangle, Dr. Jones, first to speak, immediately proceeded to violate usual debate procedure by failing to give a constructive speech. Instead he launched into an attack on Christian "faith." This was most unfortunate because it left Mr. Wolff with nothing to attack and Dr. Jones with nothing to defend. Of course, it's possible that this is the way Dr. Jones wished it to be. But such situation doesn't make for good debate.
Editor:
I attended the debate Tuesday on "Naturalism Versus Christianity" sponsored by the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. I went there expecting a lively exchange on vital issues. I came away disappointed
Mr. Wolff managed in his constructive speech to build a historical case for his central thesis: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Again, however, Dr. Jones circumvented debate procedure and refused to answer the proposed central issue. If this thesis is allowed to stand, then the other supernatural claims which
he did attack as unfounded are not hard to accept. Maybe Dr. Jones thought the issue was not worthy of his rebuttal, but what happened eventually to the one Personality from whom the entire civilized world reckons time is an issue not gracefully avoided. After the whole question centered around "Christ"-ianity.
around 'Christian family.'
In debate, just as in basketball and in tiddledly-winks, you don't win unless you score. On this basis I'd have to cast my vote for the debater who bothered to organize a constructive effort and
who wasn't challenged on it. Anyone can criticize, but it's a bit more difficult to be constructive! Allen Crumpa. Graduate
Daili Transan
University of Kansas student newspaper
111 Flint Hall
UNiversity 4-3646, newsroom
UNiversity 4-3198, business office
Editor:
Founded 1889, became bweekly 1904,
bweekly 1908, daily 16, 1912
trweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1907.
Member Inland University College Repress.
represented by National Advertising Service.
18 East 50 St. New York 22, N.News service.
subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon.
ing the university. Saturday, June 15, University holidays,
and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Allen Grunau, Graduate
I was disturbed to read of the plans by the CRC to picket the Sigma Nu fraternity rush unless the fraternity removes a discriminatory clause. In view of the fact that the local Sigma Nu chapter tried, despite threat of retaliation, to have the clause removed at its national convention, the CRC should acknowledge the obvious desire to comply with its wishes.
The goal of the CRC should be to bring about a change in conduct and to bring about new attitudes toward the problem of discrimination on our campus. This cannot be done solely by deleting clauses from charters. The Sigma Nu's made an effort. In doing so they took a step in the right direction. Some of those who demand more from them have yet to risk anything they already have. Let us Negroes be as quick to show acknowledgement as we are to claim foul.
Jim Kimball Lawrence senior
KSU's McCain on Rights
A Negro professor at Kansas State University was refused a haircut by an Aggieville barbershop last week. James O. McCain, KSU president, was quick to act. Working with the NAACP, President McCain made the following statement to the K-State Collegian:
"I was shocked and angered when Dr. Delon Hampton . . . was refused service at a local barber shop.
refused service at a local barber shop.
"I invited Dr. Hampton . . . to my office and apologized to him for this inexcusable indignity.
$$
* * * *
$$
"Respect for the worth and dignity of the individual human being is a cornerstone of our religious faith and our democratic ideology ... racial intolerance is a negation of the Christian ethic . . .
"We must be mindful that these visiting foreign students, especially the many from Asia and Africa, judge us not only by the hospitality they receive but equally by our treatment of our own minority groups. . .
"I respectfully commend to all of us a searching of our conscience to make certain of our own responsibility in this sensitive area of race relations. It should be quite clear what that responsibility is."
BOOK REVIEWS
THE INHERITORS, by William Golding (Harvest, $1.65).
In just a few years the name of William Golding has attained an eminence with the American reading public, or at least some segment of it, comparable to that of George Orwell. The fact that Golding has a message for the conservative-minded, especially the youthful conservatives, has helped him.
youthful conservatives, has helped him.
"The Inheritors" followed "Lord of the Flies" by a few years. It is a starkly symbolic tale, telling about eight Neanderthals who are doomed to extinction because of Darwinian progression. Golding has compassion for the doomed eight, but he also presents them as being logically doomed.
Such a story is far removed from the usual world of 20th century writers, and it is scarcely science fiction. The collegiate generation that reportedly is reading "Lord of the Flies" should read this other novel about the effects of a primitive world upon man.
***
THE STARS LOOK DOWN, by A. J. Cronin (Little, Brown, $1.95).
A new generation of readers may be ready for this novel of almost 30 years ago, a novel of stark and grim simplicity that conveyed much more power than similar proletarian literature of the period.
Cronin wrote "The Stars Look Down" shortly before the great fame he won with "The Citadel" and "The Keys of the Kingdom." It demonstrates his basic skill as a good story-teller rather than as a remarkable stylist, and it is a novel of scope, like the works of Dickens and Thackeray. Even more important it is an unrelenting depiction of life in a desolate Scottish mining district from 1903 to 1933.
The big episode in "The Stars Look Down" is a mine disaster that claims 100 lives; the big theme is the conflict between father and son and the related conflict between capital and labor.
Realism is the keynote of this book, which has few of the gentle and kindly touches that marked the later Cronin novels. It deserves a wide audience in the 1960s, as it received in the 1930s.
"Folks, I Might Be Able To Get Some Of The Candidates To Drop By For A Few Words"