2.
- -
Summer Session Kansan
Page 10
Friday. June 21, 1963
Scars of Hungarian Revolt Covered by 'New Look'
By K C Thaler
BUDAPEST—(UPI)—Hungary is moving steadily toward the Communist new look.
Life has returned to the capital of this sorely tried country, and with it has come a smattering of elegance.
PEOPLE ARE well dressed, there is plenty of food in the shops, and a growing choice of consumer goods, from radios to nylons, cosmetics and the washing machine.
The ravages of war and the Soviet tanks in the 1956 uprising have been largely repaired and more is being done to polish the city.
IT IS PART of the regime's policy to relax the situation and improve living conditions. The official line heard here frequently now is: People should live better. It is evidently one of the lessons the Communist regime has drawn from the 1956 events.
Even western goods including a few luxuries, such as French perfume and brandy, have made their appearance.
Shops look well stocked on the whole, with better goods than one sees in Poland or Czechoslovakia. The uniformity of goods is one of the consequences of state production, designs and distribution, and officials concede they are up against a problem which will have to be tackled soon.
But there are still occasional shortages, and the variety of goods leaves much to be desired. So does the housing situation.
THE GENERAL easing of the situation in the wake of the regime's liberalization strategy has been marked by several developments.
One is a greater feeling of personal freedom, according to individual Hungarians and Western observers who have studied the scene for years. Political arrests are the exception and many have been freed from prisons under the terms of the recent amnesty.
There is more to be bought, and goods are of improving quality. The state runs most shops. But there are also private shops. These are popular but face the problem of getting supplies. They also are heavily taxed.
People are allowed to travel to the West in increasing numbers. A passport costs 1,000 forints or about $43. But the fee is reduced to one third of this amount in the case of travel in parties. People are lining up in front of Western consulates to get visas. The French and Italians get the bulk. The British consulate handles visa applications at the rate of 100 a day. Couples are allowed to go together.
Admission to universities and to prominent jobs for middle class and non-party members has been eased. At least this is the official order. Categorizing according to origin has now been abolished at the university admittance, says an official guide. The proletarian origin is no longer the absolute prerequisite to admission. Equally, the expert should, according to these pronouncements, get the job in preference to the mere party member. This is resented by the Communist hardliners.
PEOPLE ARE allowed to have larger apartments. But they must pay progressively higher rent. They are also allowed to own a small house. In some cases in the country the state even re-sold nationalized one-family houses because it found it too cumbersome to administer them. Farmers whose land has been nationalized up to 95 per cent are allowed to keep a small allotment of about two acres for their needs. They may sell the produce from these plots on the free market. Some have done well out of their private plots because they put more effort into their cultivation than they apparently often do on collective farms, where they show little enthusiasm.
***
The government's prognocation is that by 1965 there will be 101 washing machines for 1,000 people, 280 radios, 70 television sets, but only 46 motorcycles and 15 refrigerators. The program for the next five years provides only for 43,000 motor cars.
Earnings vary. The average wage is 1,650 forints a month or some $70.
Skilled workers earn more. Miners get about $130 a month, a factory manager some $215 a month. A typist would earn some $52 a month, a doctor between $90 and $215.
Prices are kept stable. The government says food prices have hardly changed in the past five years. But a man's suit costs between 2,000 and 3,500 forints ($110 to $155), a pair of shoes, men's or women's, between $9 and $15, radios $52, television sets $260, a washing machine $90, and nylons $2. (All forint values are translated at the improved official tourists rate of 23 forints to the dollar.)
TOURISTS have started arriving in batches, among them British and American and large numbers of Germans. Restaurants, also state-run, are busy as are the many cafes and the increasing numbers of espresso coffee shops—some of them equipped with juke boxes and an assortment of jazz records played at top volume with long haired youths crowding around them.
In others, gypsy music provides a more romantic background, with fleeting reminiscenses of the old times.
Western newspapers are not available except for the official Communist party organs. Some of the international hotels occasionally have a copy of a western paper, often hidden. None is on sale. The explanation given is: shortage of foreign currency and the need to use it for more deserving purposes.
Campus Activities
KU People Change, Trips Begin
DeCoster to Spain
He will study Juan Valera y Alcala Galiano who was a Spanish writer and statesman.
Cyrus DeCoster, chairman of the Romance languages and literatures department, will leave July 1 for one year of study and research in Spain. He is the recipient of a Fulbright grant.
Valera was in the diplomatic service from 1847 to 1858. His first novel was written in 1874 and he wrote several others following it. Valera has also published translations in verse of the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas More, James Russell Lowell, John Green-leaf Whittier and others.
New Radio-TV Division
The radio and television summer program, as a division of the Midwestern Camp, is being directed by Bruce Linton, professor of journalism and director of film productions, and Gale Adkins, associate professor of speech and drama.
There are nine students which are enrolled in the part time course. Their program is concerned with the production of news programs of both radio and television. The students will be writing, producing, and discussing their programs and work. Their work will be recorded and analyzed. The students are working with the equipment at Hoch Auditorium studios.
Rav Nichols Returns
Ray Nichols, son of vice chancellor Raymond Nichols, has returned from three years at Oxford University, Oxford, England, with a Bachelor of Letters in Literature degree.
Previous to his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, Nichols received an A.B. degree at Kansas University.
After a month with the Governmental Research Bureau, Nichols will attend Princeton University on
a Danforth Fellowship to work on his Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Physics Teachers Here
The second University of Kansas summer institute for college teachers of physics will begin Monday for thirty physicists from all parts of the country.
The expanded course, supported by the National Science Foundation, now covers 10 weeks and participants this year include junior college teachers.
TWO COURSES on selected topics in modern physics will be given for all institute participants. Objective of the program is to increase the subject matter competence of physics teachers from small liberal arts colleges.
The institute staff includes Dr. Arnold A. Strassenbent and Dr. Gordon G. Wiseman of the KU physics department, and Dr. John M. McKinley of Kansas State University. Three guest lecturers will visit KU during the course.
Eight hours credit toward a master of science degree is available. Participants also receive a $750 stipend plus an allowance for dependents.
Ford Fellow at KU
One of three Asians appointed as 1963-64 Ford International Fellows will attend the University of Kansas. She is Miss Leila Sirri Kilani of Jordan, who will enter the Graduate School to study the teaching of mathematics.
The Institute of International Education, which administers the program for the Ford Motor Company Fund under a $250,000 grant, has selected 48 fellows from 46 nations in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Commonwealth countries.
The fellowships provide for a year of graduate study in a university or research center of the fellow's choice.
Chancellor Back from Meeting
Kansas University Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe returned Thursday from the American Medical Association (AMA) meeting at Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Chancellor Wescoe, who still retains several positions with the AMA, had attended the meeting since June 12.
John H. Nicholson, associate professor of education, will travel to Junction City, June 19 to attend a meeting of the research committee of the Kansas Association of School Administrators. Nicholson, secretary of the committee, will be accompanied by Carl S. Knox, superintendent of Lawrence schools.
Nicholson to Junction City
Visiting professor of education administration, Dr. James Harmon of the University of North Dakota, is taking the place of William J. York, associate professor of education, who is spending the summer at the University of Nebraska.
Harmon Replaces York
The State Geological Survey at the University of Kansas has published a geologic cross section, extending from the Zenith-Peace Creek oil field in eastern Stafford County to the Augusta oil field in western Butler county.
Publish Geology Survey
This 100-mile-slice—compressed to a map 40 by 30 inches—is depicted from information gleaned from sample data from 19 oil wells. On the map each vertical inch equals 200 feet. Horizontally one inch equals 3 miles on the ground.
This cross section, prepared by W. L. Adkison of the U.S. Geological Survey, is the first report of an extensive subsurface study to be made of the Sedgwick Basin in south-central Kansas.
Japanese Prints Exhibit
The Japanese prints from the William Bridges Thayer Memorial Collection are on display at the Kansas Union in the Browsing Room.
The pictures were loaned to the Union for one month by the University of Kansas Museum of Art. They were painted by Utamaro who lived from 1753 until 1806, and Hokusai who lived from 1760 until 1849.
D&G
AUTO SERVICE
VI 2-0753
½ blk. E. 12th & Haskell
Patronize Kansan Advertisers
Ends Tonight "Papa's Delicate Condition" and "Bashful Elephant"
Starts Tomorrow!
Cont. Sat. & Sun.
From 2:30
TONIGHT AND SATURDAY!
"BALLOON" AT 8:15—"GUNS" AT 10:15
PLUS CO-FEATURE
TWIN HITS!