UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, SUNDAY,' YOLUME XXV Emerald JANUARY 6, 1924_ NUMBER 63 If there is one accusation which the majority of the Oregon student body will rise to a man to deny, it is that the University is a “social bureau’ ’. Fling but that statement clone in to the midst where two or three Ore gon students are gathered and you have meat enough for a whole night’s bandying of words—yes, and abuse too, of the accuser. We are anxious to defend our in stitution from such a “stain”. Why"? If the condition is not true the facts will speak for themselves in our grade sheets and higher schol astic achievements. If the accusa tion is basically true, we only lose by denial. Why then 'do we hunt so eagerly for every opportunity to post a refutation1? Oxforditis stalks abroad on the campus. For weeks we have faced some sort of a “Rhodes Scholarship -’’ heading in The Emerald. Penns of the first water and pro fessors of the lesser official rostra have returned from abroad. They come from walking up and down the earth and tell us of other institutions than our own University of Oregon. The student body listens aghast and then figuratively clasps its Alma Mater to its breast, whispering fran tically, “She may be small but there are those that love her, b’gosh ’ ’. The By Stander THE SOCIAL SEASON OXFORDITIS LEARNING TO THINK TWO STRANGE ANIMALS A HOME FOR DEMOCRACY By C. N. H. An undergraduate replied the oth er day to a question, “Yes, I like that class. I am going to register in it for three terms. Miss -— is pretty and she dresses well! ’ ’ St'11 another student says: “They really ought to have a course in the care and proper use of typewriters in this school.’’ School! He said it. Courses in the care of typewrit ers, and in the mechanical details of any profession belong in a school and not in a University. "We are not, say what some people may, a vo cational school. We are a Univer sity —IT NIVEBSIT Y— we are here primarily to learn to think. The asquisition of a “profession’’ is a very important next item, but it is NEXT. All the flou-flous and fol-de-rols of technical, professional detail will never do one iota of good wdthout a muscular brain to direct their use. Brain fibers and muscles develop from hard thinking on real problems and not from cours es on “Etiquette of Buzzing for the Secretary, stenographer and office boy.’’ The school of education might as well put on a course in “Proper Dress for Teachers in the Class-room’’ and the department of philosophy enroll its students in “ Proper Sitting Positions for Phil osophers Conducting an Afternoon Eorum ’ The outside world is full of dumb Bills and dumb-Belles who can wipe off the top of a mahogany desk, take notes, and run an adding ma chine beautifully. But it is the man who sits at the mahogany desk who is the thinking human being and not j a machine. The good teacher need n’t worry about his dress too much, | and the philosopher may philosophize with his feet on the table. What happens when someone sug- j geets a little bit of real thinking to be done on one of our sacrosanct campuses. Why, he is- un-American in his notions of what a University should be. Why, sure! President Robinson remarked the other day that sometimes probably the organized Associated Students seemed very far away to some of us. Surely. There are two strange ani mals running about the campus. One of them is labelled ‘ ‘ Activities ’ ’ and the other, “Scholarship’’.