University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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26 THE JAYHAWKER An - i ooks at the uture commoni,ail OK a 4ww4s, hdt cll. %Li-Wel over this country this fall it will be said that educational institutions are opening under the most unusual conditions in their history. Of course this is true, but one wonders how much this means to the student body and to the public. If education functioned as it should, every institution in the coun- try would be devoting its major efforts to helping young people understand the complex and forbidding conditions that face them and the world. The second phase of World War II, ending with V-J Day, is but little more than a year past. For a few weeks immediately following the use of the atomic bomb the people of the world seemed to have been shocked into a realization that war must not be permitted in the future. Now many look at the atomic bomb as another inevitable aspect of war, just as the airplane and the submarine, rather than an indication that war must end. Frequently in the last few weeks there have been startling press releases—one to the effect that in France another war is being accepted as inevitable and other statements of similar import. Very re- cently you may have read of preventive war. True enough, some editors have scathingly indicated talk of warfare as criminal. this we can agree, if it is talk calculated to produce or bring it about, but warning against warfare and warning against the trend of events that might precipitate war, such as that recently made by Professor Urey, is not criminal. In the year that has passed since V-J Day there have been incidents and reports that make many un- easy about the conduct and outcomes of the recent world conflict. A metropolitan paper recently carried a powerful editorial dealing with the well-known fact that during the past great conflict human life was conscripted but the producers of the sinew of war had to have their profits. Already there have been investigations of war profiteering in our own capitol. We have read how soldiers were killed by defective ammunition and defective supplies. Many people question seriously the happenings in China, holding that the part that our country has played there is not in accord with principles of true democracy. Cyni- cism and criticism of what appears to be rampant imperialism is common and widespread. Within our own country many events have given further concern. Much is said and written about pro- duction strikes. Prices have risen rapidly and there seems to be no adequate program of adjusting scar- city of materials to demand; black markets abound. Some reputable writers say that a very dangerous type of inflation is already here and reputable periodi- cals predict a depression—soon and severe. Among a multitude of other incidents one might mention the election in Athens, Tenn essee; the fact that at the time our government was demanding free elections in a foreign country, thousands of citizens in one of our states were petitioning for a free elec- tion in their own state; the rapid development of race prejudices; the increase in lynchings; the turmoil in labor management relations. No exhaustive catalogue is necessary. There is nothing new about the situation except that with the coming of the atomic bomb there is an urgency that never existed before. It really seems to be one world or none. The old formulas do not seem to

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Jack Gove casts glowing glances at Eddie Brass during a Tri-Delt-Phi Gam hour dance. Early morning band practice shows a telling effect as three drummers pound away with closed eyes. Adrea Hinkel, Georgiann Bennington, Ber- niece Hughes, Virginia Powell, Virginia David, and Mary Crow crowd around the 013 Music Box at a Miller Hall Pajama Party. Glen Kappelman and Bill Guil- foyle, officers of the Young Demo- crat Club, get detailed instructions from a big wheel-horse before a gath- ering of the clan. Jeanne Gorbut, Jane Owen, a rushee, and Pa- tricia Kelly receive Rush Week coffee from Mother Baldwin, who is entering her twenty-fourt.5 year as housemother for the Gamma Phi ' s. Chancellor Mallott watches the game as Governor Schoep- pel eyes the crowd which gath- ered to watch the K.U.-T.C.U. clash. Not Egyptian slaves working on a pyramid, but workmen re- fitting the catacombs under the stadium for veterans. Bewildered freshman looks desperately about for raisin pie during the lunch hour. Dorothy Brewer, Trumpet major from Olathe, adds volume to the old adage, He who tooteth not his own bazoo, the same shall not be tooted.

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FALL NUMBER, 1946 27 serve, hence cynicism and pessimism increase. To there is only one sound basis for an optimistic outlook. That basis is the belief that educational institutions in our country could assume the major objective mentioned above and could expedite its implementation. So far this objective which we may call social, economic and political literacy has never been in reality a major one. It has appeared by inference in statements of objective. There has been much talk of citizenship and teaching democracy, but no implementation that w ould permit the development of genuine social, economic, and political literacy. The reasons for this situation are many and com- plex. One will be discussed at length as a major factor. Recently, General Chis- holm, Canada ' s deputy min- ister of National Health, published an article called Can Man Survive? He says, and I believe him, that man ' s natural and inevit- able future lies in the further development and use of his brain, his ability to think, a n d further, these influences, which everywhere limit man ' s thinking . . . and disturb his judgment are his `taboos ' . Now taboos are not just social sanctions set up in primitive tribes. They are present in all societies. They are the social sanctions set up in all tribes by interested and powerful groups and authoritatively imposed on the young to protect the privileges, ideas, or faiths of the old people. They affect attitudes about such things as money systems, educational systems, systems of government, sexual education and marriage, clothes, health, foods, and religion. Old ideas and customs are generally called `good ' or ' sound ' , and new ideas, or experimental thinking or behavior are usually labelled ' bad ' , ' un- sound ' , ' communist ' , ' heretical ' , or any of many othe r words. Like individuals, educational institutions are sub- ject to taboos and serve in turn to implement them. Therefore, to hope that man can improve his think- ing sufficiently and quick enough to survive is hop- ing for much. Yet I do hope for various reasons. Two in particular are appropriate here. In this great land there is still more individual freedom than anywhere in the world. The educa-. tional institutions have not yet become dominated completely as they are in totalitarian states. Ours is the only great nation where there is even a chance of an education effective and free enough to offer hope for the development about which General Chis- holm writes. And further, one out- standing condition among the unusual conditi ons men- tioned in the first paragraph may have far reaching sig- nificance. That is the nature of the population in most of the institutions of higher learning all over the nation. This population can be divided into two parts. The first is comprised largely of service men and women, most of whom are gravely concerned about their future and can appreciate the seriousness of the world situation. The second and smaller division has apparently less awareness of the import of recent events. They are planning a future as if certain of a return to the status quo ante. The more active and vociferous of these will endeavor to reconstruct the collegiate atmosphere of the campuses of past years. If the first of these groups become the dominant influence upon our campuses, they might be of ma- terial value in aiding the development of an educa- tional program less crippled by the taboos previously discussed. Whether they will do this or whether they will follow the other population into an escape situa- (Continued on Page 80) Slap, Th ink, and Read! Chosen to write the feature article for the first issue of the 1947 JAYHAWKER, Dr. A. H. Turney will be remembered by most students as the short, stout man who gave them their entrance examinations. Holding B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota, he is Director of the Guidance Bureau and one of the hill ' s most widely read and re- spected professors. The editor enthusiastically recommends this contribution as must reading for all thinking university students.