KWav. April 4, 1960
Page 2
The Doilv Nebraskan
Editorial Comment:
'What Can I Do?'
Just Write a Letter
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WW.hycBR:m I THINK YDO'RE 6X I I APRIL f OH HUH... I Y1 SPoIffv '
(ITHINKWIfE J L0OINS, INTELLIGENT AND I FOOL?) L APRIL FOOL J VSO jcbHy
ymAy extremely cy6 if '
Friday Norman Cousins, editor of the
Saturday Review, shocked many members
of his Coliseum audience out of their' com
placency with a few vivid descriptions of
the tremendous power wrapped up in some
nuclear bombs possessed by nations of the
world today.
For instance, a million trucks each car-
rying 20,000 tons of TNT would only
equal the blasting power of one large nu
clear weapon. I.
A thousand planes dropping "blockbust
ers," the type of bomb that devastated
Cologne, Germany, in World War II, could
fly missions every day for 14 years and
still equal only the force of one of the
atomic weapons we and our potential
enemy have today.
4
And these weapons could be delivered
by intercontinental ballistic missle from
a country like the Soviet Union to the
United States in only 14 minutes. And as
Cousins said, with this prospect, how can
there be any real hope in bomb shelters
in the whole concept of civil defense?
Power has never been as great or as un
controlled, Cousins said. And never has
rational control been so low. At this point,
wt have reached the ultimate in human
irresponsibiltiy.
Cousins suggested that the best solution
was to make the United Nations a really
effective form of world government. Man
datory disarmament, division of powers,
support of the national government's steps
towards peace all these things are
needed.
And time is one of the most important
factors. Even now, some learned men have
said, the nuclear bomb is obsolete. It has
been replaced by the specter of CBR
chemical-biological-radiological warfare,
a potential "weapon" which is not as cost
ly as missiles and bombs, more easily de
veloped and capable of production in many
more nations than are atomic weapons.
Cousins said 100,000 letters to the Presi
dent to back him in his search for dis
armament and peace would produce posi
tive .government action. If a mandate of
the people might lead towards a real peace,
then we should certainly give the Presi
dent and government that mandate.
The audience at the Cousins Convoca
tion would produce two and a half per
cent of the 100,000 letters that the Review
editor spoke of. In light of the whole coun-.
try, our potential number looms large.
And this is certainly no time to utter the
"ugly sound" of "What can I do?"
As Mr. Cousins said, "We are called
upon ... to play the role of individuals
... to justify the role of life."
Unopposed Election Potential Harm
In the IFC election of last Wednesday was opposition for these posts, the basic
the two top positions were filled without ideas of the IFC members and their ex-
. any opposition or discussion. This was a pectations toward future officer perform-
drastic departure from the practice of re- ance were aired. This gave the members
cent years. In 1958 there were three candi- a more democratic participation in fra-
dates for top offices and again in 1959 ternity government and it gave the officers
there were three candidates. In both cases a much clearer picture of what they
there was extensive discussion and pre- would be expected to do.
sentation of campaign platforms.
; ' The extension of contested election into
The pity of an unopposed election in an the two top posts would have been a slam
organization as big and as important as at no one and of benefit for all. It is to be
the IFC is not that it automatically means hoped that "other organizations will not
that you will get poorer officers. The of- take up the IFC's recent practice whether
ficers could be as good by this method as out of a noble motive such as a desire for
by any other if the selections by the old unity or out of selfish political desires,
executive board were made on the basis
of merit
The real harm from unopposed elections OlltV 9 CsCLTC
is that there are no platforms or cam- J
paign speeches. Without platforms there AJtftlit Tin 1 nil
is very little chance for the members of UUUL J lllUll i
the IFC to air their own thoughts on the jy o
qualifications for officers and the proper I TOQTCL11X Jit UlQf
critieria for an IFC program. ' " "
Judgiug from the response to the Stu-
In the elections for secretary, treasurer, dent Union advisory cabinet filings, it
public relations chairman and rush chair- would seem apparent that only nine per-
man, the matter went far differently. In sons arc interested in channeling criti-
each election there were extensive and cism of Union programming in a construc-
varied platforms, lengthy discussions on tive or effective 'way
the relative duties of each officer, and a
careful examination of the experience and The Union, avowedly established to
other qualifications of the candidates. serve the students, has an activities pro
gram geared to the students' needs. And
Several small houses aired the view since the Union activities program is fi-
that they should have representation on nanced totally by student fees, it seems
the IFC executive board in order that they reasonable that the student body would
might be more favorably treated. wish to have a voice in how its money is
spent
la other words, simply because thero
In an effort to improve this program
ming and budgeting, the Union board cre-
i tti ated an advisory cabinet with the sole
iUl7 .F tlCllltV purpose of representing the various sec-
1 J tors of students at the University.
DnVC DcSCrVCS is obvious that the student body has
11 o opinions about the activities in the Union
Ml Ull OliPPOrt since comments are heard daily. Why not
i , XX channel those comments into a repre
In case no one has noticed the rather entive group created for that very pur
stunning bulletin board in hall outside the Pse
Student Union cafeteria, the AUF faculty
drive is on, In order for such a group to exist, there
The faculty drive is a sort of shakedown ls 8 Beed for interest in it. With so few
cruise for the major event to come next applicants an apparent assumption is that
fall. We refer, of course, to the AUF stu- there is passive interest, if any, or no
dent drive. ' neei tor change.
Every organization is supposed to have a
purpose. But in no organization is that pur- Th Union recognizes an important fac-
pose more clearly defined than in AUF. tor it is easy to program an event be-
AUFis the one opportunity that Univer- cause it always has been held. It is much
ity students have (officially) to donate to harder to try to be creative and just in
a charity. It is their one opportunity to planning events.
share their plenty with someone less fortu-
Bate- ' . .l Filings are still open for these positions
Considered in terms of similar organiza- on advisory cabinet and interviews
tions on other campuses, the University's wffl be held Saturday Appli-
AUF is remarkably successful At the con- cant needed for the follow
elusion of its fall program, the organization "nfi.s Sf-.fKi, w r? ?
had collected approximately $4,000. - . ens Dorm, Women's Dorm In-
At Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, defnfent Men, Commuter Students, Grad-
Colorado and even wealthy Oklahoma, P?" . Students, Fraternities, Sororities,
campus organizations figure they "are do- famed Students, Foreign Students and
ing well if they collect half that much. Independent Women.
Of course, this is no excuse for compla
cency. The University has a fine tradition Applications may be picked up in the
for generosity when worthy causes are in- Union Activities Office. We hope the num
volved. AUF supports five worthy causes, ber filed by April 23 is many times larger
Give what you can. than the present pathetic number.
Daily Nebraskan
SIXTY -NTNE YEAE3 OM .WJptl. rate, mn n pa? aemnter or M tor t
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TrfetAooe KE S-76U, ext. 4228. 422$, 4227 onteara sh,nt-i
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Tr'hMir it-T rnaar asrtnt tht nhal Far. auwat Stair Wrttaia Xlka Mllroy, Aaa Morar
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lZmmttme mm minium PaMnuhiaa akali aa fraa Ctnrt Otark, CblB Wan. oha Jrtt.
.iuriai MMR'blp aa Ww part af taa Cbaaaa- Hal Rmwa, John Nahm.
tlwaart afaar -iwmbar af th. faeal af BLKI.NESa STAFF
EUTfT-Tr ai i-. rt of mnr raa aaWa Maaacar ftmrn Ralmaa
a MwrMaiW r Mn.lhH fur arbat thajr aat. at ArKa Khiura
JaL 2a.T. irtS-aTt-Wai a. uH. -Jatla Maaagat Baj tmtmU
The Essence
By Doug McCartney
I have just finished read
ing a book which struck me
with the impulse of a
sledgehammer. It was
Nevil Shute's On the Beach.
A short while ago I also
saw the movie. Both ver
sions filled me with horror
not at the sights or the
words, for little gruesome
detail was exploited, but at
the idea the end of man
kind through his own un
seeing ways.
The story describes the
aftermath of a nuclear war'
from which there are no
suvivors.
But the most frightening
aspect of this book, is that
it is NOT science fiction. It
could become reality to
day! This is an acknowledged
fact, but no one listens, no
one seems to care. Can the
human race be so unrea
soning, so stupid as to end
his brief existence in such
a pitiful way? I wish I
could answer "no," but
generations of mankind
seem to have proved other
wise. War could have stopped
with the crossbow, with
gunpowder or with aircraft
It could have stopped be
cause people wanted it
stopped. People could have
said, ."Let us end this, it is
foolish to kill." But they
didn't.
With the creation of nu
clear weapons mankind and
his science have risen to
technical levels where hey
hold their future in their
hands. It is as if God had
given mankind this vast
energy and said, "You
have not learned from the
Flood, the Sermons or the
Cross! I give you one more
chance to mature. Make
your own future, or your
grave!"
The events of On The
Beach supposedly take
place in 1964. Shute writes
that by this time almost all
countries, large and small,
have nuclear weapons. His
war is precipitated not by
Russia, but by Egypt, who
A-bombs Washington and
London with Russian-built
bombers. The United
States, believing the attack
came from Russia, re
taliates. A month later the
war is over, the entire
northern hemisphere de
stroyed. Radiation slowly
envelops the rest of the
globe and the final chapter
is written of the human
race.
It this to be our bleak fu
ture? Circumstance cer
tainly point that way. Many
of the' world's smaller
countries are very close to
developing nuclear weapons
today., Shute had a name
for these, 'The Irrespon
sibles." And I think of the
type of men heading the
Castro regime in Cuba.
Even bow they hurl hate
and defiance at es. What if
their heavy fingers could
push a button firing a mis
sile as easily as they trig-
Bail Cy To Join
Language Pros
Prof. Dudley Bailey, direc
tor of freshman English, has
accepted an invitation to join
an international committee of
authorities on language and
usage. ,
The committee will advise
upon editorial policies of the
University Dictionary, a col
lege dictionary which is be
ing prepared.
The editorial committee is
composed of English lan
guage scholars in America,
England, the European Con
tinent and Australia,
ger their machine guns. A
prime example of an "Irre
sponsible." Any time in the near fu
ture we may have our self
centered, unthinking way of
life blasted to oblivion. Ii
we're lucky we won't be
around to see a bleak end
ing such as Shute de
scribes. Now, more than ever be
fore in history, we, the
common citizen, must act!
How? What? It would
take greater minds than
mine to supply an answer.
But for a start the au
thor, who evidently has
done a great deal of re
search and thinking on the
subject, writes this conver
sation between two dying
people asking the question,
"Couldn't anyone have
stopped it?"
"I don't know , . . Some
kinds of silliness yon just
can't stop. I mean, if a
couple of hundred million
people all decide that their
national honour requires
them to drop cobalt bombs
upon their neighbor, welL
there's not much that you
or I can do about it. The
only possible hope would
have been to educate them
out of their silliness."
"But how could you have
done that, Peter? I mean,
they'd all left school."
"Newspapers," he said.
"You could have done
something with newspa
pers. We didn't do it. No
nation did, because we
were all too silly. We liked
our newspapers with pic
tures of beach girls and
headlines about cases of in
decent assault and no gov
ernment was wise enough
to stop us having them that
way. But something might
have been done with news
papers, if we'd been wise
enough."
Two challenges, two
hopes for the future. One is
education, the other, the
press.
Study history, find out
what man did; study psy
chology, find out why he
did it and what he might do
next; study international
relations and economics
and find man's needs;
study science, and solve
them.
Then, press of the world,
tell and teach the world,
warn and beg them, but get
the idea through our heads
that we aren't playing
tiddlywinks anymore. We
can't afford to be uncon
cerned. No one is safe, no
one is immune!
The next time YOU day
dream about that certain
girl, that good job waiting
after graduation, that vine
covered cottage, think for a
moment about-just how fast
that rosy future might dis
appear in a flame-red
cloud.
For the press, this is the
most momentous challenge.
It is time it shows it can
lead the world, as well as
observe It. It may be the
guardian of the future.
If the world accepts' the
reponsibility of the power
that has been placed in our
hands, thoughts of color
and race, background and
wealth, will disappear, and
it will be our finest hour.
Otherwise, it is liable to
be our final one.
Campbell Soups
Give $2,000 Grant
A $2,000 unrestricted grant
has been presented to the
University by the Campbell
Soup Company.
The manager of Campbell's
Nebraska plants, W. L. Par
vin, told Chancellor Clifford
Hardin that the money could
be used "for any purpose you
consider worthy and bene
ficial to the University."
The grant was part of a
large program on the part of
the company to stimulate aid
to education in the United
States.
. "We hope that grants such
as these will encourage oth
ers to lend similar education
support," Parvin said.
fust a Reminder:
Applications Due
Freshman applications for
Innocents Scholarships are
due today in the Office of
Student Affairs in Administration.
NOTICE TO SENIOR MEN STUDENTS
If you require funds to complete your
education, opply to the undersigned.
STEVENS BROS. FOUNDATION INC.
10-a12 Endkett Bldg. St. Paul 1, Minn. PKana CAaital 2-S1S4
Music Department
Plans Tone Talk
A University music sym
posium featuring a demon
stration and discussion of
12-tone music will be held
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the
Student Union.
The symposium will be
sponsored by the music de
partment under the direction
of Wesley Reist, Jack Cros
san, Arnold Schatz and Pris
cilla Parson. All of the direc
tors are members of the
music faculty:
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