KU Political Clubs Grapple With Declining Enthusiasm
(This is the third in a three-part series on KU political clubs.)
By Roy Miller
The year is 1938. The Great Depression has nearly passed. World War II is yet to come.
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Franklin Roosevelt is in the White House. Walter Huxman, a Democrat, is in the governor's mansion at Topeka.
THE ENROLLMENT ON McOread is 4,000. Of this 4,000, about 1,000 students have membership cards for Young Republicans Club.
It has been two years since Republican presidential candidate Alfred M. Landon, former governor of Kansas, was caught in the Democratic landslide and beaten soundly in his own state.
That was 1338. The Republicans were fighting to regain their perennial control of the state and their former grip on the nation.
This is 1963. A Democrat is in the White House. A Republican is in the governor's mansion at Topeka.
But although enrollment at KU's Lawrence campus is nearly 10,000, the Young Republicans Club today has about 800 members.
"STATE OFFICE HOLDERS and candidates depended on collegiate clubs then," a KU alum and a member of the Young Republicans in 1938, said. "Attention was given to the Young Republicans at the collegiate level."
Why has enthusiasm for KU political clubs declined since 1928?
The alum, now a legislative counsel, believes part of the fault for an apparent decline in activity in the political clubs rests with state politicians. Campus clubs have value as the "best source for young talent, but politicians are overlooking this source today," he said.
He got the support, and, according to the alum, collegiate support and absentee votes cast by college students was a "deciding factor" in Ratner's election.
"Rather kept up his contact with students," the alum said. "He'd invite a group of KU students over to the governor's mansion on a Sunday evening for dinner and discussion."
"RATNER MAY HAVE had some shortcomings as a governor, but I think he had better relations with the collegiate groups than any governor since then."
The alum said 200 of the 1,000 members of the club in 1938 were active ones.
Asked if he thought other activities limited participation in a political club when he was here (1935-1941), the alum said:
"I didn't think so until I started looking over a list of activities at KU
then. Yes, I suppose so. It must also be remembered that this was a time when it was easy to get into activities that didn't cost very much."
Today, an influx of student activities has hurt interest and participation in the Young Republicans, President Reuben McCormack believes.
"THIS DECLINE OF ACTIVITY is true of the campus as a whole," McCornack, Abilene junior, said. "I'm not trying to rationalize for this decline, but I think there are so many other things that take up people's time."
Because of this, McCornack said he sees value only in monthly meetings, especially in off years.
Meetings preceding the 1938 state election were often held weekly, according to the alum.
"National politics, as far as the college student is concerned, is not something you participate in every week or two weeks," McCornack said.
John Young, vice-president of the Young Democrats Club, disagrees with McCornack on the effect of competing activities on the political clubs.
"Every group has this problem," said Young, a first-year law student from Salina. "They all interfere with each other. But that isn't the point. They complement each other, too."
YOUNG BELIEVES at least three steps are necessary to maintain enthusiasm for campus political clubs:
- Secure better speaker
- Plan further ahead
- Provoke more controversy.
"I look more controversy.
"It's hard to plan and execute a program that will get the people out," Young said. "It's hard to find time for proper planning. And it's hard to get good speakers, because there aren't many good speakers around. The people that are good speakers are usually too busy. I think we should make better use of campus personalities."
Young believes that discussions of issues could increase activity in the political clubs.
For example, Young thinks the Young Democrats should support state re-apportionment and the election of non-partisan judges, and should oppose the sales tax. On the national level, he thinks Cuba, Medicine, college aid and civil rights would make good discussion topics.
MAX LOGAN, Young Democrats president, believes his club's primary need is a purpose. Although noting that his club has been in desperate need of unity in the past, he feels the organizational problems of the Young Democrats have now passed.
Logan feels some sort of club service project should be undertaken. "Such a project gives your members something to identify themselves with," he said.
Young Democrats and Young Republicans officers feel assured that each club will attract increased interest and participation as the national election approaches.
University Daily Kansan
Dr. F.S.C. Northrop, Sterling professor of philosophy and law at Yale University since 1947, will give the next Humanities Lecture April 23.
Prof. Northrop will speak on "The Unique Character of the American Legal and Political System" at 8 p.m. in Fraser theater.
Last year Prof. Northrop was awarded a $10,000 prize by the American council of Learned Societies as recognition of his distinguished accomplishments in humanistic scholarship.
During his three-day visit, he will speak at a Law School convocation and will be a luncheon speaker at a convocation at the School of Religion. His subject at the law school will be "The Importance of the Great Living Religions in the Education of the Modern American."
Yale Scholar Will Speak
Meanwhile, the leaders believe they must continue to educate future voters, and provides services and forums for political discussion. Above all, they feel, they must remember the primary purpose suggested by their names—that of assisting the two major political parties.
East Asian Studies To Sponsor Film
The conflicts that arise within a group of men under the stress of wartime is the theme of the Japanese film to be shown at 7:30 p.m. April 18 in Bailey Auditorium.
The film, "The Burmese Harp," will be the fourth in a series. The Japanese Film Festival, sponsored by the KU Committee on East Asian Studies.
Friday, April 5, 1963
Professor Grant Goodman, visiting professor of history, is chairman of the film series. There is no admission.
The film won the 1958 San Giorgio Prize, which is awarded for the film which best shows "man's capacity to live with one another."
It was also awarded first prize at the Japanese Film Festival.
Law Students to Attend Meet
Five KU law students will attend the ninth annual conference of law reviews. April 5-6. in Dallas. Tex.
Representatives of more than 90 schools and universities will attend the conference.
KU, which publishes the quarterly Kansas Law Review, is one of the few schools in the nation having an entirely student-operated law review.
Third year law students who will attend the conference include Bruce Wingerd, Marion and Edward Bailey, Atchison.
Second year students who will attend include Jerry Elliott, Hutchinson; Tom Triplett, St. Joseph, Mo., and Robert Driscoll, Lawrence.
Winegard and Elliott will lead seminar discussions during the convention.
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