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University Daily Kansan
Monday. Feb. 10, 1964
Union Display Becomes Popular
Ev Lee Stone
"Kill" magazine and The Worker formerly "The Daily Worker"-are on display in the Kansas Union as part of an exhibit of extremist political publications.
There has definitely been a response to the display, said Charles Whitman, Shawnee Mission senior, who works at the information desk in the lobby. "At no time since the display began has there been no one looking at it," Whitman said. Others working in the Union lobby concurred.
THE EXHIBIT was prepared by Laird M, Wilcox, Lawrence freshman and chairman of the SUA Minority Opinions Forum.
Two criteria were used to judge the publications in the display as extremist, Wilcox said. First, the publishers must refer to themselves and their readers as either leftists or rightists. Second, the publication must be termed leftist or rightist by political scientists.
Wilcox thought some of the literature in the exhibit would be offensive to some people.
In the display is a sample of "The Rockwell Report," the official publication of the American Nazi Party. It purports to "save humanity from the madness of Marxism and Jewish parasitism."
THE NATIONAL States Rights Party is also represented by "The Thunderbolt." This publication claims the NSRP is organized in 38 states and describes its policies as an "alternative to Rockefeller and Kennedy." It advocates "racial integrity," anti-semitism," and "states rights."
There is also an archist publication on display. It is "Way Out" (formerly "Balanced Living") and claims to be "a correspondence school of adult education," to "expose the far-reaching manipulations of the great industrial, landed, and financial interests," and to be devoted to "reducing government control of private life."
"The Weekly People," the official organ of the Socialist Labor Party, claims to have been "fighting Lahr's battle for six decades." It is "eager that people be informed and have access to revolutionary ideas, as the capitalist press is keeping them in ignorance."
WILCOX SAYS the left wing in American life has been steadily declining in power and membership.
Foreign Study GoalofStudents
With the beginning of classes some students are preparing for travel and study abroad.
Concentrating on the language of their choice, study enrolled in Introduction to German Civilization, Introduction to French Civilization, and Introduction to Spanish Civilization are preparing for the Language Institutes. They recieve one hour credit for the course and background information on the country they will visit.
"Students are selected on the basis of academic performance and promise," said Miss Rosemary Hodgins, the instructor traveling with the Spanish Institute this summer. The students first express a desire to participate in the Summer Institutes during the fall. Then the instructor of the student in the French, German, or Spanish Department must recommend the student. Each department must also recommend the student before final selection is made by the College Office. All of the institutes require that the student have a minimum of 10 hours of credit in the language he is studying before going abroad. "The primary goal is a summer school," said Assistant Professor Helm t Huelsbergen, who has worked on the preparations for the German Summer Institute. With their work in the institutes students may earn 6 hours of credit towards a degree from the University of Kansas.
The French Summer Institute group is composed of approximately 40 students and will study in Paris. The students live in dormitories with French students. The group takes side trips on the weekends to nearby centers of interest.
Only leftists interested in specific causes such as the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee" have been able to survive for any length of time. Even these are relatively short-lived, he said.
Membership in leftist political party organizations probably totals only 25,000. Wilcox said. However, in non-political organizations he believes their membership may be as high as 1,000,000.
"The extreme right has experienced fantastic growth." Wilcox said. He said that between 1956 and 1962 membership in rightist organizations has doubled every year. In non-political organizations Wilcox believed membership may run as high as ten million. The John Birch Society is an example of a non-political party rightist organization, he said.
WILCOX DISCUSSED the reactions of leftist and rightist factions to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The right wing's immediate reaction was that "they didn't have anything to do with it," Wilcox said. First reports of the wire services had said rightists were to blame.
The left was slow to react. "Slug- gish." Wilcox the said. The leftist press published mostly memorial biographies of the late president.
Since then, Wilcox said, rightist have used the assassination to brand the left as violent by association with Lee Oswald, the alleged assassin.
THERE HAS actually been little violence from the left, Wilcox said.
"In the thirties there was some occasional violence in connection with labor disputes," he said. "But it was the right which has been most violent by bomentings, lynchings and beatings as exemplified by the Ku Klux Klan."
The leftists press responds to the accusations of violence by the rightists with defensive, and sometimes offensive, tracts that doubt Oswald's guilt. "They say, 'Look here. Oswald was writing an anti-communist book. Where did he get the money to do it?'" Wilcox said.
The growth of the rightest factions in the country "signifies that we have been under some fairly heavy pressures," Wilcox said. "Our foreign policy has not been successful." He believes rightist sentiment is a "pathological response to the arms race, insecurity, and the failures of our foreign policy."
THE DECLINE of the leftists, on the other hand, has stemmed from the rise in living standards and from harrassment from the right government.
Laird Wilcox said he was chosen as chairman for the SUA Minority Opinions Forum because of his large collection of extremist literature. He is also editor and publisher of "The Guide to Minority Opion Periodicals," which lists and describes extremist publications with circulations of less than 100,000, and an editor of the "International Peace Disarmament Directory" and "The First National Civil Liberties Directory."
Last-Minute Rush Causes Headaches For Librarians
Well, Mac, are you going to wait until the last week of the semester to do research on your term papers, reports, reviews or whatever, that will fall due?
Probablv.
And then you'll rush to the library, stand in line with the other latecomers, complain that the girl behind the circulation desk is never going to wait on you, or that she must have gotten lost in the stacks because she's been gone so long—and then gripe because the book you wanted is checked out?
Then you'll swear under your breath that you'll never again wait until the last minute rush for term paper sources; but you probably will.
This is the problem that John M. Nugent, head of the circulation department, has to cope with.
ine circulation department a
Watson Library ordinarily checks cut between 400 and 500 books each day.
"That number usually triples at certain times during the semester," Nugent said. "Before Christmas vacation, spring vacation, and the week before finals, we usually check out 1500 books a day."
Nugent said that students complain of the service at these times, but they don't realize that it is the best possible under the circumstances.
Students are impatient and they are quick to forget that the person behind the desk might have to search for several books located on the eight floors of stacks. Nugent said. "At these peak periods, we take employees from other tasks and put them behind the circulation desk to handle the increased volume of work," said Nugent.
Kansas Governor to Present Award
Governor John Anderson, Jr., will present the annual award to a distinguished older citizen of Kansas as a feature of the 14th annual Kansas Conference on Aging March 2-3 at the Kansas Union.
The Kansas Citizens Council on Aging, Inc., will have its annual business meeting during the conference. Mason Bridges of Topeka
is chairman of the council.
Among the speakers will be Marvin E. Larson, state director of social welfare, and Miss Amelia Wahl, Kansas City, Mo., representative on aging in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
E. A. McFarland, manager of institutes and conferences for KU is the program chairman.
Rankin Drug 1101 Mass. VI3-5440
1964 ROCK CHALK REVUE BLOC DRAWING
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12 7:00 P.M. FORUM ROOM-KANSAS UNION
Any person representing 20 or more (organized or unorganized) is eligible to draw
FRIDAY, FEB.28-$1.60 & $1.25 SATURDAY, FEB.29-$1.90 & 1.60