KANSAN COMMENT
Buy Peace
Members of the Congress of the United States have launched a campaign-not a political campaign, as might be expected during an election year, but an advertising campaign.
Sens. George McGovern and Mark Hatfield are spearheading the half million dollar venture, in the hopes of getting enough public support to assure passage of their "end the war" amendment.
If the proposal were enacted, all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam by June 30, 1971.
This could prove to be interesting.
Everyone knows advertising pays. Why else would companies spend millions to point out the virtues of their products?
This writer conducted an informal survey after hearing the news of the Congressional advertising campaign. In one hour of watching television, no less than 32 commercials were aired. Last Friday's Kansan contained 33 ads, not counting classifieds.
The Topeka Daily Capital contained more than 100. On Highway 10 between Lawrence and Kansas City, there are more than 75 billboards and advertising signs. Products advertised ranged from repossessed furniture to sports cars and from frying chickens to deodorant.
After all, the Vietnam war has been packaged for sale for years. Its supporters have wrapped it in bright shades of red, white and blue and pushed it onto the public with catchy patriotic slogans and tunes.
True, their product is expensive. It has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and the war in Vietnam has cost America dearly in world prestige and national unity.
But its promoters know one of the essential rules of successful advertising—make the product appear to be something the consumer cannot do without. The war, they preach, is necessary to America. Without it, our own security would be endangered.
Buy the war, exclaim the "patriots" of America, and pay for it with your money and your sons.
Now a new product is on the market—peace.
Why not sell peace?
But it's not really a new product, and it hasn't been improved, fortified or desaturated. Somebody dreamed it up a long time ago, complete with trademark—a dove and an olive branch.
So far, the promoters of peace have done most of their advertising at the grass roots level. Now peace is to be nationally advertised.
Why not buy peace this year?
It's a very good product.
What's cooking with fireworks?
By CATHY CROFT
and TERRI MENDENHALL Kansan Staff Writers
What?
The Fourth of July . . Fireworks . . Cookery? . .
What?
The art of pyrotechny (fireworks) probably originated in an accident with fire and salt while a primitive Asian was cooking, according to "A History of Fireworks" by Alan St. Brock.
The orientals have used fireworks in religious ceremonies and celebrations since the beginning of recorded history. Plays celebrated religious holidays in 13th century Italy where plastic and wood figures emitted fire from their mouths and eyes.
Later, there were fireworks at the crowning of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn. Many other members of the English royalty used pyrotechny.
The biggest fireworks celebrations ever recorded in Europe was held when the peace treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748. At one display, the French and Italians quarreling over who would light the fires, both lit them at once. A giant explosion ended the "peace" celebrations.
In the 1800's Napoleon Bonaparte used fireworks as a stunt for publicity. The "Festival of St. Bonaparte" was declared on August 15, his birthday.
Pyrotechny in America is said to have originated with merry making of the slaves, in the early 1800's, who were given a general holiday on the Fourth of July. By 1890, fireworks were used commonly in and around Chicago, where the Unexcelled (fireworks Manufacturing Company was located.
The pyrotechnic tastes of inhabitants of New York were catered for by the "Burning of Moscow" at Fireworks Amphitheatre, Manhattan Beach.
Recently, however, most of the advancements in pyrotechny has been in tactics of war.
Do you think that Asian knew what he was cooking up?
'We here at the White House take the optimistic view . . . there's no place to go but up.'
Photo by Greg Sorber
Happy birthday, America
BOOKS
THE PELICAN HISTORY OF CANADA, by Kenneth McNaught (Pelican, $1.95)—An original paperback volume that traces Canadian history from the early expenditions by Europeans to the 1970s and the premiership of Trudeau. This is a book that Americans—United States Americans—probably ought to know.
THE ORIGINS AND GROWTH OF MODERN EDUCATION, by Elizabeth Lawrence (Pelican, $2.25); ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 2, edited by M. Blaug (Penguin, $2.95); THE SPECIAL CHILD, by Barbara Furneaux (Penguin, $1.25)—Three in the field of education. The first is of special interest, it being a history of educational thought. The third treats the mentally handicapped and their education, the second is a collection of readings in education and economics.
BEHAVIOUR THERAPY IN CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY, by V. Meter and Edward S. Chesser (Penguin, $2.95); INTRODUCING PSYCHOLOGY: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH, by D. S. Wright, Ann Taylor and others (Penguin, $3.95)—Two somewhat
technical volumes in psychology and psychiatry.
DRUMBEAT and THE TRITON BRIG, by Dudley Pope (Pocket, 95 cents each)—Fast-moving novels of the sea, in the tradition of the Hornblower books. The hero here is Lt. Lord Ramage of the British Navy, and we get a naval battle between the British and Spanish and action in the West Indies, involving pirates. Grand summer stuff.
HOME OF THE GENTRY, by Ivan Turgenev (Penguin, $1.65)—An attractive paperback edition of Turgenev's second novel, the story of the homecoming of the hero, Lavretsky, who comes back to his estate, a broken marriage, and a new love.
ANOTHER WAY OF DYING, by Francis Clifford (Pocket, 75 cents); MURDER WITH MIRRORS, by Agatha Christie (Pocket, 75 cents); MARY ANNE, by Daphne du Maurier (Pocket, 75 cents)—Adventure, mystery and romance. In these you have spies, historical romance, and a murder that is solved by Miss Marple.
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
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The Summer Session Kansan, student newspaper at the University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 Street, New York, N.Y., 10022. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester or $10 a year. Published and second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas, every Tuesday and employ for the duration of the Summer Session. Accommodations, goods, and services are provided by the Summer Session Kansan are offered to students without regard to color, creed or national origin.
The opinions expressed in the editorial columns are those of the editorial staff of the newspaper. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the same as those of the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Summer Session Kansan are those of the University of Kansas Administration or the Kansas State Board of Regents.
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