The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 12, 1960, Page Page 2, Image 2
Poge 2 The Nebroskon Monday, Dec. 12, I960 EDITORIAL OPINION Fire Safety Question Involves Many Facets Just how safe are we against fire destruction? This question hit the University community hard last week, when Business Manager Carl Donaldson told a legislative committee that it would cost in excess of $1.6 million for the school to comply with fire safety rules as set down by a new state fire safety code that went into effect last Sept. 1. , . Donaldson told Gov. Dwight Burney that the Uni versity "would challenge" some orders of State Fire Mar shall Joseph Divis, "because a university campus is not strictly comparable with elementary schools, which au thors of the code considered uppermost.'' Even with the challenges, the business manager said, the school would still have to make modifications having an estimated cost of perhaps $800,000. The problem of where the money will come from now faces admihistra tors who had not included any allotment for improved fire safety in the proposed 1961-63 biennial budget. Donaldson maintains that the new fire code was "hurriedly developed in the frame of reference to the Chicago grade school fire." We see nothing wrong with this, as far as grade schools are concerned. Something had to be done in a hurry, before tragedy struck in Ne braska. However, Donaldson has a point in questioning whether standards be the same for universities as for elementary or even secondary schools. Also, the fact that the deadline for making the costly changes was Sept. 1, allowed little time for the University to study the code and to comply with it as closely as it felt necessary. Considerable disagreement seems to a ri s e as to whether the University has taken any steps toward im proving the fire safety of its physical plant. Marshall Divis claims that a "do nothing" policy has been respon sible for the high cost in bringing buildings up to code requirements. Divis says that an assistant deputy from his office inspected the University and "told me that some of the recommendations were made to the University seven years ago and some four years ago . . . Had the Univer. sity followed recommendations when they were made, the cost would have been half of what it now is." According to Donaldson, however, improvements have been made annually on buildings, in regard to fire safety, with money coming from both the institutional building fund and current maintenance cash. All this discussion brings up an interesting question, one paramount to fire safety. How would students react if fire were to break out in one of the more crowded buildings, such as Social Sciences or Burnett Hall? We shudder to think of the bottleneck that could very well Occur. If one stops to consider that few students use the west door of Social Sciences and the south door of Burnett, plus the fact that literally hundreds more enter and exit through the north door of Social Sciences than the south, and that many more use the east door of Bur nett than the west, we might find a tragedy on our hands before we could organize an orderly evacuation. Since it is not likely nor expected that the University will introduce $1.6 million of fire safety improvements in the next month, it might -be wise to plan a temporary solution until the two parties can agree on a permanent one. So, we suggest that evacuation instructions be placed in every room of every building, with special attention brought to these instructions by being read to every class in the room at least once. It would not be out of the question to have instructors dismiss their classes five minutes early on a given day, in order that all students could "test run" the evacuation routes. This may sound childist, but if one remembers the panic that has resulted in many fires where adults were present, it is quite in line. This would take same of the financial burden off of the University and the money saved could go to improve salaries of those faculty mem bers who might object to being cut short five minutes of a few periods one day. The Daily Nebraskan will cooperate fully with the administration in publishing instructions of evacuation of buildings for those who might not be exposed to their reading in class or to the fire drills. We urge all students to maintain a constant awareness of all exits in buildings where they have classes. In addition, we would like to see the Student Council pick up these suggestions for study and possible implementation through cooperation with administrative officials. It is hoped that a satisfactory solution will be reached on both counts of improving building safety and educat ing the students without a sudden tragedy occuring to jolt our senses. Dr. Doolcy Summons New Courage for Work Of those who heard him speak here last year, who can forget the words of Dr. Tom Dooley, the young physician who has devoted his life to his village hospital in the jungles of Laos. Since then his deeds have made him known to nearly all. Not long before he spoke at the Student Union, he had been warned that the cancer which he suffered might take his life within a year. We who saw him knew that the idea of death only a short time away had driven him to work all the harder, in order that he might be that much closer to his goal of a hospital in every valley be fore he died. This past week, after spending nine days in a Hong Kong hospital because of back pains, he headed back to spend Christmas with his Laotian friends. He took with him $20,000 in medicine and equipment, p 1 u s a brace which he wore from hips to shoulders. He also took'back the knowledge that his cancer may have spread to his spine. Dr. Tom called his brace "the embrace of my iron maiden." Reporters who interviewed reported him much thinner than when they had seen him a few months be fore. He admitted that his spirit was sagging, but that the beast in him would not give up. "I'm no quitting . . . If I stop working now, I probably will die sooner," were his parting words. Few Americans have made an impact on the under developed countries of the world than has Tom Dooley. In a country that is nearly torn apart by political up heaval, he has accomplished more in the short time that he has been there than all the foreign aid Laos has re ceived from the United States. Were he to live for an other half century, he doubtless Would be known through out the world as another Albert Schweitzer, to whom he has already been compared in those countries where his name is known. We are reminded 6f the lines of Douglas Malloch's poem, "Courage." Courage is to feel The daily daggers of relentless steel And keep on living. Daily Nebraskan Metntier Associated CoIlerUte Prww, International pre Keprewntathre: National AdTertinIn Service, Incorporated Pnbllshea t: Room 51, ShHent Union, Uneoln, Nebr, SEVENTY -OVE TEARS OLD 14th & R Telephone HE 2-7631. ext. 4225. 4228, 4227 JMwmIWIwi are 13 bt tmntrr r s w the r. 5r SrT ""-"WW atwtmt rnh- mt Mnll V free faj If -.'i-",."'! "".."V "mm.ittw. n m th, v-trt of r prntm tmtiMe Mw rnlvrntty. The malm at Hi Dally Mrwkm atafr mm rrramrally rropnniibi fee wtu fhy mr, er . at era. to h. Stated ebrnJM t, 1865. " Many European Obstacles To African Development By Eric Sevareid The distant observer has ! the impression that the head of the family-elect j jumped up from the Sunday i lunch table and exclaimed i "Anyo n e i for a fast i g a m e of f rica?" brother ! Ted ran to the closet for the but terfly net in which Sevareid to snare the "facts," and G. Mennen Williams sent out a rush order for a polka dot pith helmet for the his toric moment when he would say, "Mr. Lumumba, I presume." Mad dogs and New Deal ers go out in the midday sun, which has been a good thing for most people; but it has not diminished the sun. It might be wise for all latter-day Tugwells, roll ing up their sleeves to make Africa over, to un derstand that the infesta tion of Africa's political, economic and emotional mosquitoes is old, in places immune even to patented American DDT, and loves fresh, exposed flesh, how ever muscular. What 1 am expressing here is not the spirit that built America; but it is, I think, the spirit of the wis est Europeans and Africans who are trying to build Af rica. And if Mr. "Kennedy's New Frontiers lie in equa torial, not north American climes, as It begins to ap pear, I hope Mr. Williams will let the earlier scouts trace at least a rough map in the dirt by his camp fire before his safari treks toward the hinterland. I am glad there is at least one enthusiatic, un wearied democratic coun try left in this world so stained and soiled with pub lic problems, and I am glad it is my own. Most other peoples, if forced, would confess they too are glad. But let us not risk the fate of another Children's Cru sade. Let Teddy understand that the "facts" about mod ern Africa already fill vol umes and innumerable wiser heads than his, that statistical methods will not lay bare the hidden source springs of much African behavior. Let Mr. Williams avoid the gossip fate of the lady emissary to whom Pope Pius supposedly said, "But, Mrs. Luce, I am a Catholic!". and not be told by some African chief equipped with Oxford ac cent and degrees, "But, Mr. Williams, we have been dis covered!" I am troubled by the President-elect's judgment I. ' ' i1 V im. im r f 1U.N THE BARKiCADC!,! that Africa (like Asia and Latin America) has been "short changed." I do not like the suggestion of guilt and moral responsibility in this. Africans have not been short changed by America, and only in degree and in places by European colo nists. Africans were short changed by fate, according to the iron law of anthro pology by which the weaker races of man continued to reside at the poor ad dresses, whether equatorial Africa, the Aleutians or the Australian bush. I am troubled by the concomitant reports that Mr. Kennedy tends to re gard Europe and Africa as two separate sets of prob lems, that American ener gies and ideas can, in large measure, be switched from the former to the latter. This is surely illusory. The American road toward mas sive amelioration of the dangerous African chaos runs through London, Paris, Bonn and Rome. The direct and exclusive American opportunities for effective work in Africa are sharply limited. Ameri cans in Africa must move through the corridors and around the obstacles of European investment, insti tutions, procedures and at tachments almost every where they set foot; and they will find that nearly all, if not all, their bright est ideas have been throught of and often tried, before. What Americans CBn do and must do, first of all, is to make African nation alists abandon their com fortable hatreds and ack nowledge that the British and the French, if not yet the Portugese, truly are moving out of Africa, truly do seek free and viable Af- LITTLE MAN J ,Tiu l-; JO A we ke a Awrrge op pact-we comt ex?ecr reoFeeeaz&wzF IN In y rCK-TH AAA. it Kail rican states. By no means must they be given to think ,. they can play off the United . States against its European allies. The ex-colonial powers of Europe are not getting rich. Their politics are now dom inated by a whole new atti tude toward Africa. Afri- can leaders ought to re joice at the thought of what a combining and cooperat ing Europe could do with its new money, its old tal ents and experience to lighten the gloom and griefs of the Dark Conti nent. For this reason this midwifery at the birth of the new peoples into the 20th century as well as for the fateful reason of the world's power balance, the overriding objective of the '60s must be to accelerate the movement toward a new and unified Europe. This movement is now en dangered by the growing trade split between the con tinental "Six" and the British-led "Seven." Let Mr. Kennedy, and all of us, remember the anxi ous words of Gladwyn Jebb upon his retirement as Brit ish Ambassador to France: "Unless a real effort is soon made to achieve the politico-economic unity of Western Europe, we shall all and I mean without exception go into a slow decline in comparison with the bloc of the Eastern countries. And we know in our hearts where such a process must inevitably lead." It will lead, of course, to the remorseless spread of Russian influence and con trol, with the new Africans among the earliest and eas iest victims. fttet. 1M0. Hall flrixHcate, Inc. ON CAMPUS TH AFIFfSNCCW' Staff Views BOVINE Agriculture was prac tically the only profession in the pioneer days but mod ern times find it has strong competition from many other professions. Such competition has made the field one ot the most technical and special ized professions of all. No longer does anyone that de sires to farm jiist plant wheat and corn anci call himself a farmer, but he is finding that an education is almost- essential. Without this education, many farm ers are being forced off the farm because they failed to produce a good living. With this technology and the need for cbliege educa tion in mind, it would seem that Ag College enrollment would be oft the steady in crease. But contrary to this we find that Ag enrollment has dipped for a number of years. Last year's 960 students is four more that the total this year. Decreased enrollment seems invalid when you cftnsider that a college edu cation almost seems to be a necessity for the farmer of ten years in the future. But as the number actually associa ting themselves with the agricultural pro fession Of farming has de creased, specialization has increased. One farmer produces many times the product that several farmers did 20 years ago Mechanization has made it possible for one farmer to increase his acre age as much as four times that of days when horses and manpower were the big machines. Such specialization has increased a number of off- -Campus Roundup Student Civil Rights Groups Gain Momentum By UPS Efforts to end local dis criminatory practices are mounting at colleges and universities across the coun try and new civil rights ac tion groups continue to form. University of Texas stu dents held peaceful demon strations before five non integrated restaurants and the Texas Theater last week. More than 100 white and Negro students demon strated at the theater one weekend, recently. The students passed out cards prepared by the Uni versity Religious Council stating, "I will continue to patronize this establish ment if it is integrated," an effort to convince owners that they would not be eco nomically hurt by integrat ing. Wilson College (Cham bersburg, Pa.) student coun cil approved a policy to boy cott the Penn-Wilson, a lo cal restaurant as long as it practices racial discrimin ation, and the faculty has authorized the appointment of a faculty committee on civil rights to work with the student government. Roosev e 1 1 University (Chicago) student senate voted last month to send letters protesting civil rights policies to Governor Ernest Vandiver of Georgia and Maydr William Harts field of Atlanta. Colleges United for Ra cial Equality (CURE) was formed in late October to coordinate New York area campus civil rights activ ities. Participating are stu dents from Barnard, Co lumbia, New York Univer sity, Queens and City Col lege of New York. Projects include picketing at Wool worths and publishing a ci vil rights newsletter. The recently reactivated Human Relations Commis sion of the University of Minnesota Student Associ ation is studying University policies in various areas in cluding admissions, scholar ships, employment and also plans a campaign to bring campus discrimina tion problems to the atten tion of the entire student body. The University of Wiscon as 1 1 '"VAXJl.-. -y-Malamammmm C H - t aMT L f n v j i - . j a. - j' VIEWS by Jerry Lmnhrrson farm agricultural positions Increased research, new in dustries such as fertilizer and more need for agricul tural educators has helped to lake up the slack in the aecrease of farmers. Of the total 660 students in Ag College today, prob ably only around 30 to 35 per cent will ever go back to the farm. Andther 40 to 50 per cent will probably work in an indirect agricul tural profession. The re mainder will leave agricul ture as a profession and will go into some other pro fession. What has lured the youth away from the farm is a question that has been asked many times. Often times when there are two or three or more in the family, the father has a set up for only one to continue upon his retirement; there fore, the rest of the young sters begin looking for orf farm work. Unstable farm prices compared to a guaranteed salary in other professions has lured other youth from staying on the farm. Many of the youth do not want to take a chance on an in come when they can go in to a profession that has a designated Salary. The lush city life and the increase in me importance of social life has also tak en some of the farm boys away from home. Urban life has claimed the working day with the evenings oft for occasional social events. Many of the farm boys apparently feel that an 'eight hour day is an advantage over the 12 15 hour day that occurs fre quently during the summer on the farm. sin Student Council on Ci- val Rights and the Wiscon sin Student Association Hu man Relations Commission are investigating discrim inatory problems in Madi son. Over 70 students attended a conference in Ithaca, New York sponsored by the Cor nell Committee Against Seg regation designed to "edu cate, direct and strengthen students in the fight against segregation.' The Chicago Youth Com mittee on Civil Rights is planning a series of demon strations to protest what they consider the Board of Education "lack of con cern" over segregation in Chicago. In addition, the committee plans to testify at the board's budget hear ing. Christmas Cards Remember everyone 00 your Christmof litt. O Mother father Husband Wile Sons Daughters' O Sisters Brother Aunts Uncles Cousiaa D Nieces Nephew O Grandmother Grandlafher O Grandson Granddaughter C3 Sweetheart Darling little Boys Little Girt O Special Frlena Netfihbo? O Dear One Pal All ot youOur Wish O Friends Across the Wile O Those III at Christmas O Ministers Priests D The Boss Q Many 6hee Cnoost dom mi comaiett setactam GOLDENROD STATIONERY STORE 215 North 14 Opan Shopping Night to 9 rf'f rim t$ ff;"" ""l Of ; TJT IMMiM