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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, April 24, 1963
Prof. Jenks Follows Interests; Sacrifices Big Profits, Ulcers
By Ralph Gage
"No, I'm not really a horticulturist. That's just my hobby. I'm a cartographer."
Sound like an old cigarette commercial? Could be, but it describes George F. Jenks, professor of geography. The pipe-puffing professor is also a self-styled philosopher.
Prof. Jenks, a crewcut Air Force veteran, says he got into geography and cartography (map-making) purely by accident.
"I had a B.S. degree in education," he said, and "I taught grade school and junior high before I went into the Air Force during the war."
"I was an aerial navigator in the Air Force, and used a lot of maps. When I was discharged in the fall of '45, I went to Syracuse University. I planned to study geography and increase my qualifications for public teaching.
"WHEN I WAS enrolling, my adviser told me, 'You can either be a geographer or a school teacher, not both,' so I picked geography."
But now he is both.
A native New Yorker, Prof. Jenks said he would have liked to have been able to attend Cornell University. "I wanted to study to be a biologist or an ornithologist," he said
Prof. Jenks said instead of Cornell he attended a state teachers college because of the depression.
"I WORKED IN a dime store and a clothing store — for twenty cents an hour—to help put myself through school.
"I could have gone into the managerial end of either and be earning three times what I am now. But I'd have a roaring ulcer, too!
"I have a philosophy that you're better off doing what you like at a low rate of pay, than to earn a lot and be miserable."
IN ADDITION TO his teaching duties, Prof. Jenks is engaged in two research projects.
One involves a study of new techniques and methods of data display so that the data are represented truthfully and can be understood easily.
"WE'RE EXPERIMENTING with three-dimensional maps and graphs. We hope to come up with some which can show the average reader complex scientific data."
An article by Prof. Jenks was published in the February issue of the Kansas Business Review. The article discusses the reliability of facts and figures presented by means of maps and graphs.
For example, a simple bar graph can pointedly illustrate changes in data, but showy symbols can accidentally or intentionally confuse, rather than inform.
TWO BARS, ONE ABOUT half the length of the other, show that poultry and egg production in southeast Kansas declined by almost 50 per cent in a decade.
If, however, eggs are substituted for the bars, readers cannot help being confused. Though the eggs are the same lengths as the bars, the area representation of the eggs may lead the reader to conclude the production ratio illustrated was four to one, instead of the real two to one.
This is one of several ways in which graph interpretations can be distorted or guided.
"The mere representation of concepts by numbers, in graphs or maps, does not insure accuracy or truth. Authors can be, and often are, selective in the methods they use in data interpretation and manipulation."Jenks said.
BECAUSE AUTHORS TEND to present one viewpoint, the reader must understand how the author has treated his data before accepting facts and figures with confidence, he concluded.
A second research project Jenks is currently occupied with resulted from his work on the 1960 census.
"There is a feeling in the federal government," Jenks said, "that figures for the Negro population should not be presented in separate statistics, although racial groups were counted separately during the census." he said.
JENKS WANTED to show the movement of the Negro population but was overruled. He felt the public should be made aware of the
aspects of the movements.
He also feels Negroes could use the data to their advantage in illustrating inequalities.
The University Research Fund provided Jenks with money to hire an assistant, and he went ahead with the project on his own.
HE IS PREPARING A SERIES of 12 maps, showing the Negro population distribution change from 1950 to 1960. Most of the statistics are ready, but he has no funds to use in publishing the maps.
Jenks intends to show several of them at a coming meeting of the American Association of Geographers, in hopes of securing the needed funds. If that fails, he plans to try to interest other organizations and foundations.
when he isn't busy with research projects,he often works in a greenhouse he designed and built.
"I don't grow anything exotic," he said. "I just have a general collection of plants."
HE SAID THE EXPERIENCE had given him great respect for professional florists and greenhouse operators.
He was amazed by the way temperature, water, light and other such conditions must be manipulated in order to have seasonal flowers blooming when they are in demand.
"Easter lilies aren't much good the day after Easter," he said. He laughed and said that in the year and a half he has had his greenhouse, he hasn't been able to get a poinsettia, the traditional Christmas tower, to bloom before February.
"I GUESS IT'S the light," he explained.
Jenks, who teaches Conservation of Natural Resources, a geography course, said he would like to see legislators and pressure groups work
for the benefit of society as a whole,
instead of their own selfish interests.
Commenting on the manner in which governmental bodies handle resources, Jenks said projects such as dams, roads and parks too often end up with democratically-arrived at solutions based on political solutions which prevent the projects from being in harmony with the environment.
THE ATTITUDE OF supporters of these projects also irritates Jenks.
"The hypocrisy of people who pretend to support a project for one reason, when they really back it for another selfish reason is a sad commentary on society," he said.
As an example, he cited persons who support federal dam projects, supposedly because of flood control benefits, when their real interest is in the recreational possibilities of the projects.
JENKS IS IN his 14th year of teaching at the University. He said he likes KU and Lawrence, but the schism between the University community and the town is a problem.
He said the situation was typical of college towns.
He gave as a possible reason for this schism the different manners in which the two groups measure success. In the business community, success is measured principally by financial status.
Success, he said, in the University community is measured by the respect of one's colleagues.
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FILLING A WELL-NEEDED GAP
Although my son is a college freshman, I am glad to say that he is still not too old to climb up on my lap and have a heart-to-heart talk when things are troubling him. My boy is enrolled at Harvard where he is studying to be a fireman. From the time he was a little tiny baby he always said he wanted to be a fireman. Of course, my wife and I believed that he would eventually grow out of it, but no sir, the little chap never wavered in his ambition for one minute!
So here he is at Harvard today taking courses in net holding, mouth-to-mouth breathing, carbon tetrachloride, and Dalmatian dogs. It is a full schedule for the young man, and that, in fact, is exactly what we talked about when last he climbed upon my lap.
upon my map.
He complained that every bit of his time is taken up with his major requirements. He doesn't have so much as one hour a week to sample any of the fascinating courses outside his major — history, literature, language, science, or any of the thousand and one things that appeal to his keen young mind.
I am sure that many of you find yourselves in the same scholastic bind; you are taking so many requirements that you can't find time for some appealing electives. Therefore, in today's column I will forego levity and give you a brief survey in a subject that is probably not included in your curriculum.
I have asked the makers of Marlboro Cigarettes whether I might employ this column—normally a vehicle for innocent merriment—to pursue this serious end. "Of course you may, crazy kid," they replied kindly, their grey eyes crinkled at the corners, their manly mouths twisted in funny little grins. If you are a Marlboro smoker—and what intelligent human person is not?—you would expect the makers of Marlboro to be fine men. And so they are—wonderful guys, every man-jack of them—good, generous, understanding, wise. They are each tipped with a pure white filter and come in soft pack or Flip-Top box.
But I digress. We were going to take up a topic you are probably unable to cover in your busy academic life. Let us start with the most basic topic of all—anthropology, the study of man himself.
Man is usually defined as a tool-making animal, but I personally do not find this definition entirely satisfactory. Man is not the only species which makes tools. The simians, for example, make monkey wrenches.
Still, when you come to a really complicated tool—like a linotype, for instance—you can be fairly sure it was made by Homo sapiens—or else a very intelligent tiger. The question one should ask, therefore, is not who made the tool, but what did he do with it.
For example, in a recent excavation in the Olduvai Gorge a large assortment of hominoid fossils was found, all dating back to the Middle Pleistocene Age. Buried with the fossils was a number of their artifacts, the most interesting being a black metal box which emitted a steady beeping sound. Now, of course, zoologists will tell you that tree frogs make such boxes which they employ in their mating activities (I can't go into detail about it in this family newspaper) but the eminent anthropological team, Mr. and Mrs. Walther Sigafoos (both he and she are named Walther) were convinced that this particular box was made not by tree frogs but by Neanderthal men. To prove their point, they switched on the box and out came television, which, as everyone knows, was the forerunner of fire.
If there is anything more you need to know about anthropology, just climb up on my lap as soon as my son leaves.
© 1963 Max Shulman
The makers of Marlboro Cigarettes who sponsor this column, often with tepidation, are not anthropologists. They are tobaccoists—good ones, I think—and I think you'll think so too when you sample their wares—available wherever cigarettes are sold in all fifty states.
When You're In Doubt, Try It Out—Kansan Classified