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University Daily Kansan Monday, April 1, 1963
Potential Threat to UN
Frederick H. Boland, president of the UN Security Council, put the shift in the "center of gravity" of the United Nations in a new light in his speech Friday at the opening of the Model United Nations.
The shift in the effective strength of the UN from the Security Council to the General Assembly has been fairly obvious. The results of this shift also have been fairly obvious-at least on the surface. With more emphasis on the role of the General Assembly, the threat of the Russian veto in the Security Council in many cases would be circumvented.
OF COURSE this shift in emphasis also diminished the UN strength of the big powers. One nation, one vote—this is the rule in the General Assembly. The increasing number of new, nonaligned members, achieved greater significance when the effective power of the UN moved to the General Assembly. This, too, has been a fairly obvious development.
What has not been obvious, though perhaps it should have been, is the potential danger of the divergence of interests between the big powers and the newly influential non-aligned nations. These nations are primarily newly independent ex-colonies. The bitter taste of colonialism is still fresh in the mouths of many of these nations.
It hardly is surprising that an ex-colony would think that the abolition of all the remaining traces of colonialism is the most important function of the United Nations. Anyone tends to see his own problems as the most important. The
overall picture is remote by comparison with the everyday conflicts that these nations faced for years as colonies.
THE NON-ALIGNED ex-colonies have the voting strength in the General Assembly to keep UN activity focused on the problems of colonies emerging as ful-fledged nations and members of the UN. In recent months UN activity has focused on the Congo. This is an area of great importance to other ex-colonies, but not exclusively so. The Congo rates all the attention it is getting. That ex-colonies are particularly concerned with the Congo situation does not diminish its importance to the rest of the United Nations. This is not a case of divergence of interests.
The big powers are not likely to lose interest in the Congo, but less spectacular colonial problems could have great difficulty holding the interest of the big UN powers. As yet this is a POTENTIAL threat to the United Nations. The disinterest shown by the big nations from time to time has more often than not been the result of developments other than a possible preoccupation of the United Nations with problems almost exclusive to the small, non-aligned nations or ex-colonies.
As a potential threat, the divergence of interests between the big powers and the non-aligned ex-colonies need not and must not be allowed to undermine the United Nations. If the big powers were to lose interest in the United Nations and withdraw their financial support, the UN would go the way of the League of Nations.
— Dennis Branstiter
Editor:
Kansan Politics
Several days ago a letter appeared in the UDK stating that this paper was and still is prone to support Vox Populi. I, of course, did not believe this since I had been led to believe that newspapers (and I use the term loosely) are not to support any particular view or group, but to give an overall unbiased picture. I am afraid that I have been sadly misinformed.
A PICTURE appeared in today's UDK of Reuben McCornack and John Underwood, Vox's candidates for ASC president and vice-president. I probably would not have noticed this if it had not been for the fact that there were no apparent reasons for this picture to appear. It's only relation to the article it appeared above was that these two are running for these two positions next year. I am not saying that this picture should not have appeared, but only that The University Party candidates, Charles
... Letters ...
Whitman and Doug Hall should. also, have been pictured.
I had understood that a university newspaper was not to show favoritism to any particular campus affair or election but to present both sides, giving each equal coverage. It seems, in the case of the UDK, that the overall picture is not given and all the readers receive are the opinions of the editors.
Marcia Spicer
Wichita freshman
(Editor's note: The front page picture of the Vox candidates for student body president and vice-president was used to balance photo coverage of the candidates from both parties. The Kansan used a front-page picture of the UP candidates when their candidacy was announced, but no picture of the Vox candidates was available when Vox announced its candidates. Actually, the UP picture was larger, although no favoritism was intended.)
BOOK REVIEWS
50 GREAT SHORT STORIES, edited by Milton Crane (Bantam Classies, 75 cents).
Though the short story can't compete these days with the novel, here is a collection that includes some of the best. Certainly the writers are top-drawer: Hawthorne, Pushkin, De Maupassant, Poe, James, Conrad, Mansfield, Huxley, Joyce, Hemingway, Parker, Faulkner, Saroyan and Salinger. Some of the choices are obvious, but by and large this is one of the better short story anthologies.
JOURNEY TO SHILOH, by Will Henry (Bantam, 50 cents).
Civil War fans should not expect here anything very definitive about the battle of Shiloh. Mainly it's about a bunch of Texas kids who are trying to join up with Hood's forces, and the troubles they have, and their eventual involvement in the bloody battle of Shiloh.
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VEECK—AS IN WRECK, by Bill Veeck, with Ed Linn (Bantam, 75 cents).
For many years Bill Veeck has been known as one of the craziest and most outspoken sports figures in America. This is his story—front office maneuvers, the players themselves, the ball clubs, the stunts, the prejudices. As America moves into another baseball season this volume is likely to attract many readers.
55 DAYS AT PEKING, by Samuel Edwards (Bantam, 50 cents).
One of the latest publishing gimmicks is to write a novel from a screenplay; this has been done in "55 Days at Peking." Edwards has constructed from Philip Yordan's screenplay a short novel about the Boxer Rebellion.
Individual Freedom
Editor:
In regard to Robert Strevey's letter of March 28, may I say that the argument used by Mr. Strevey and others when they advocate Prohibition, Censorship, or allied evils, is a gross fallacy.
To claim that by taking away the freedom to choose between several courses of action, one is giving "... greater freedom to the individual ..." is to say that by chaining the individual to a post, one is giving him the freedom to move. This claim has the inherent fallacy of contradicting itself on the most important point it brings up, that of giving the individual freedom.
ASIDE FROM the absurdness of the argument, is the danger it presents. To take away one freedom, even if it is a minor one, is to make the way easier for the abolition of other freedoms, and finally to allow totalitarianism and group regulation.
Prohibition was tried earlier in this century with disastrous results. The crime rate went up, and the public became very disrespectful of law and order and of our law-making and law-enforcement agencies. It was several years after the repeal of prohibition before public respect of law and order was again common in the United States.
The common failing of proponents of "Social Reform" is that they cannot look further than the tip of their collective nose, which is usually high in the air. Please, Mr. Strevey, review your definition of "liberal" and "freedom."
Charles G. Hanna Wichita freshman
Daily Hansan
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Ponderables Apathy? What Apathy
A Kansas editorial writer (you guessed it, me) (or is it?) recently contended that the cause of student apathy in campus politics is that the ASC and campus politicians are out in left field. That is, they sweat the small stuff in Mississippi and ignore the local issues.
This editorial was written with a base realization that those vested interests with sensitive toes would holler a rebuke in defense. This happened all right. An ASC spokesman, Greg Turner, made the reply.
BUT IT was not a defense nor an explanation of student apathy towards campus politics. Turner simply denied that there is any apathy.
For an ASC member to contend, seriously, that there is no such thing as student apathy is comparable to a fish saying, "Water?— what water?"
This crude but telling analogy can be carried further: Like the fish who knows nothing but water, and thus replies in wonder, "What water?", the ASC has been swaddled in apathy so long it considers it normal—like home.
AND THEY WELL might consider it home. Given the heavy academic load of school work, student apathy is understandable. The leaders don't have time to handle anything but the signing of resolutions (those dirty dogs at Ole Miss) and other actions which can be carried out by following the old tried and true formulas.
Not that the leaders wouldn't like to cover the local scene with a fine tooth comb, but they just don't have the time. The students have neither the time nor the interest to even so much as attach their signatures to resolutions to be sent to those dirty dogs at Ole Miss.
But this leaves us with a semantic dilemma. While we can't fairly blame the members of ASC for the existing conditions, we can't honestly call their achievements and outlook, progressive or forward-looking.
Perhaps the critics of ASC (myself included) fail to realize that the possible vistas for achievement by the ASC are limited. Chances are the ASC has done, and will continue to do, the things which the members are in a position to handle.
Since Turner doesn't dig the business of calling this condition student apathy, let's be fair and find another name for it. But we must not play foot loose with the true meaning of words.
I FIND no complaint with this. After all, the members of the ASC are students first and legislators second.
I give up. If someone else can think of another description for student apathy, we are open to suggestion. But with one stipulation. Please document your suggestion with facts that reflect the truth of your description.
Sorry, but after one-half hour of plowing the furrows of my brain, I can't think of another adjective or phrase to describe the condition.
THE ANSWER must lie in the realm of coining new adjectives.
Let us give it a fling. ...
— Terry Murphy
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"I'LL SURE BE GLAD WHEN NEXT TERM STARTS — SEEMS SO DEAD AROUND HERE NOW DURING FIRST WEEK."