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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1938)
From Where I SIT irniiinummmii'iitimmmmmniimmniin iikihiii mmmm By CLARE IGOE it ain’t right. here i work and slave and wear my brain down to the bone trying to turn out a column with which to greet rny six silly readers each morning, and what thanks do i get. thanks, hah! for one night i go to a class and do not show here abouts and the next morning i read nasty remarks about myself in the very place which i so diligently strive to fill with my poor efforts each day. i tell you it hurts, it sort of destroys my faith in the kindness of human nature, it kills something in me perhaps it was an allu sion something about editors being nice fellows with hearts of gold beneath the rough exterior. ah, yes an illusion! a hollow laugh fills my throat when i think that only yester day i thought my feeble efforts met with some sort of appreciat ion around here, but that "was yesterday, a pox upon you, “l.m.!’ Campus Calendar Mortar Board will have a lunch eon at the Side this noon. Senior cop meeting at 12:4.r> at the Side. The YWCA comparative relig ions group will meet tonight at Mrs. Turnipseed’s house at 9 o’clock. The Amphibians will meet in Gerlinger pool at 7:30 tonight. All persons wishing to go on the ski trip next Sunday must gel their 3>1 tickets at the Dudley Field col lege shop before 6 p.m. Friday. There will he an important meet ing of Alpha Kappa Psi tonight at 106 Commerce at 7 o’clock. All members should be present. The Coed Capers enmmitee meeting scheduled for 11 o’clock has been called off. TRI DELTS HOLD DANCE The Tri Delts will entertain with a faculty dinner tonight, honoring Miss Dorothy Lode, national officer, from Scuttle. Members of the fac ulty, who will attend the dinner, are Dean and Mrs. Virgil Earl, Dean and Mi's. Karl Ontliank, Doctor and Mrs. C. L. Schwering, and Mr. and Mrs. Carlton Spencer. DEANS ENTERTAINED Dean Hazel Schwering and Mrs.’ Alice Macduff were entertained by the Sigma Kappas at an informal luncheon yesterday. Condon Museum (Continued from fape one) leontological, botanical, biological, archeological, geological, and eth nological collections. Indian bas ketry from British Columbia, the Aleutian islands, Alaska, and west ern and southwestern parts of the United States is to be found in the ethnological collection. Skate Saver His 12-year-old master forgot his skates, so Sandy stood careful guard ali night . . . even offers of breakfast the next morning failed to tempt him. What Do You Get for Your A Home or a Hovel? Fortv Dollars a Month? The Right to Live in a Decent Environment ^.F.NT.HALLY tlir> two fraternity organiza tions, tlte eouneil and Ihe house presi dents. have a tendency to be conservative. Tliey have made their policies one of opposi tion to change, of maintenance of the status quo. Despite (lie fact that this year more than ever before tlie flreek letter system is playing for tlie biggest stakes in its history, at least on the Pacific coast, the local groups liaVe produced surprisingly little action. With the entire system going by the boards in univer sity after university in the east and this term facing the problem of existence at Stanford, it seems strange that the council, particularly, continues to stand pat in a game where it might be advisable for it to draw three cards. The difficulty at Stanford which lias been attracting academic eves* for the past few weeks has arisen from pledging regulations governing women’s fraternities. The girls threatened to refuse to pledge at all because less than half the number rushed could be taken into administration-limited sororities. And the dean of women announced imme diately that the university would accept the obligation of housing the women and would reimburse the sororities for their financial losses, an oiler which seems significant in itself. # # # ■yL/'ITII (he suggestion, made by Oregon dads, that deferred pledging might be the solution to a host of University housing problems on this campus, both the interfra ternity council and the house managers threw up their hands, figuratively, and declared. “It can’! be done.” The point is that something has got to be done and J'raternities must recognize this and indicate their willingness to cooperate or face extinction within the next decade. rTMIl<3 “stand pat” that nothing can be present condit ions indicate sight into the purposes am fraternil v. de and the belief done to improve a lack of deep in tlle fill lire of I lie The fraternity system lias its strongest hold 07i the coast schools, largely hccau.se these schools were the last, 1o develop and to undergo the period of rapid growth which made the social organizations necessary. Because of its higher objectives and the hrollierhnod which it represents, the frater nity is a better home for the student than arc dormitories, other factors being equal. But the I'ni versify, like other schools, had more pressing reasons in mind when it encouraged their organization. Installing the fraternity system gave the I'niversify a chance to unload one of its big gest problems into outside hands -the afore mentifmod housing problem. Since the period of rapid growth is over, the I’niversity and other leading institutions of higher education show signs of looking at the situation more ideally. The fraternity system has fulfilled its duty, physically, but has it provided the proper background for student life? Can it be revamped, modified, and refinanced to put it in such a condition as to justify its continued existence? « * ® JSJOW, the proposal to install deferred pledging, despite the fact that this sys tem seems to be an improvement, has been rejected, always, because of financial reasons. Such reasoning is an indication of short sighted policy. Why can’t it be done? House managers are quick to protest, that, the new pledging system would mean a re duction of <tlie number of men living in the house and a corresponding reduction in reve nue. This is not a satisfactory answer, for every 'fraternity on this campus is over crowded. Unfortunately, the first challenge to (he Creek system is an economic one. Co-op houses are indicating that slightly lower liv ing standards can be maintained at a little more than one-third the cost of living in a fraternity. But Ihe co-ops, too, are crowded. None ol the houses on the Oregon campus can accomodate more than 2.) men and some can not approach that figure. Students* live IT CANT HAPPEN HERE (Editor’s note: The following unsolicited contrbution was written entirely by a well-known professor.) A Reporter’s Dream of the Fall Grades “I have been highly grati fied,” said Prof. M. Agitat Molem of the Universitas Ore goncnsis, in an interview with an Emerald reporter, ‘‘at the attitude of my students toward their grades for the fall term. "In several instances, stu dents to whom T had given D’s telephoned my house to express their appreciation of the course. I recall that one of the young women said the mere matter of the grade was nothing to her; that all she wanted was to learn. She had been encouraged by her sorority head to take this course and was particularly urged to take the courses in political science and accounting, and when she received a D in one of these and an F in the other all her sorority sisters gathered around her and com plimented her on emphasizing the essentials and not making grades her only consideration. "Then there was that girl who has been in the running for Phi Bete with a 3.3 OP A. She complimented both her in structors who each gave her a V in a four-hour course and ex claimed to one of them that she'd rather have a D in a course like that than to have missed it and made an A in some pipey type of course. “ 'I would have lost my re spect for you,’ said one of the men in my class, ‘if you had given me anything better than F after the lousy final exam I wrote. All the fellows at the house are backing me up in my determination to take that course over. Dad wrote me his congratulations for picking out courses with good, solid content and for having the nerve to stick it out even if 1 failed, and enclosed an extra $10 bill. Dad said the high standards of the University had been demon strated anew by the low grades of one as industrious and cap able as his son, and that he was glad I had no foolish notions about going east to school. He asked me to express his per sonal appreciation to all my professors and to tell them he would double his donation to the library browsing room.' "Not a single student, you can say in the Kmerald.” the professor continued, warmly, “pointed out that he had had a B at mid-term, B's and C's on all Ilia papers, and asked where he had fallen down in his final to give him that F which is going to stand between him and initiation in his house—or even that D which will keep him out of a needed NYA job. “The only protest, you may say, came firm a student who argued a bit that the A I gave him was a little too liigh'and who couur hardly be persuaded to defer to my better judgment not to reduce the mark. "I expected never to see such universally high sportsmanship and true regard for scholarship. You may cjuote me on that,” Professor Molem concluded as a D student rushed in beaming for late registration. Just then the reporter's 7 o’ clock alarm went off and ter minated the “interview.” in tenement conditions, three and four to a room, have little closet, space, and sleep in droves on cold porches which do not have one-half the ventilation required by state health laws. And still the managers howl lhat deferred pledging would be impossible—because they couldn’t keep the house full to the eves. rpm; solni ion must go deeper—deeper lha.11 pledging, although evils attend that insti tution which demand its revision, and deeper Ilian keeping the house full. If a fraternity cannot operate on tlie num ber of memberships for which its house was constructed, somethin" is wrong and Univer sity and state aid should he enlisted 1o cor rect it. Tf taxes are too high, let the University hold the house titles—it already owns land upon which additional University houses can he built and get the fraternities and sorori ties the reduction which applies to state owned land. If a small group of men hold house mort gages at eight per cent and there is little possibility of the tong owning it before it falls to pieces, why not refinance at four per cent 1 And if graft and mismanagement account for some portion of the high hills the students pay and repair costs and upkeep are too high, put the management and upkeep under Uni versity supervision in order that they may he handled efficiently and at a minimum. # iS * rJ'MIU fact is obvious that a student paying *40 a month deserves to live in better Ilian tenement conditions—and isn't. One reason this is true is that this crop oi students is still meeting 20-year-old obii [oations. This is partly caused l.y the lack of Collection between the houses and the ad ministration. A student cannot defraud a Eugene merchant—not. with any degree of success—and he cannot get out ol paying University fees. But. for years, he has been able to leave school owing his fraternity hundreds of dollars. The University has not fulfilled its obli gations to its students in more ways than this, however. It has not provided them with con ditions conducive to study—with the type of environment in which a student should live. It has passed rules about the Oregon man's classes, campus conduct, his grades, and even when and how he can use the books in the library: but it has let his living condi!ions, most of all in need of investigation, pass with out notice. TQEFERRET) pledging raises a problem with mimy ramifications. It is an opening into a situation which stands whore it is now because of years of neglect, and negligence. Perhaps it is not the key to solving that problem—and if it is. it will take years to reach that solution. But, fraternity leaders, don't give up be cause it's not the easy course and may be a threat to the status quo. And don’t overlook the fact that the full house is no indication the fraternity is achiev ing its purpose. There are things, more than mere ideals, in the fraternity system, which make it worth perpetuation. But they are not sufficient to warrant the discarding of those ideals of brotherhood and fellowship and scholarship—and the educa tional aspects of this institution should not he pushed aside. It's time to stop playing ostrich. (A re LEROY MATTINGLY, Editor WALTER R. VERNSTROM, Manager LLOYD TUPLING, Managing Editor _Associate Editors: Paul Peutschmann, Clare Igoe. f b,e _°rpfon Dai,v Ernerald, official student publication of the University of Oregon, published daily during the college year Cbe^oii ,,n< UyS* M°nday9’ hoI,daya and ^*nai examination periods. Entered as second-class mail matter at the postfTice, Eugene, Editoiial Hoard: Parrel Ellis, Bill Peace, Margaret Ray, Edwin Robbins, A1 Pickhart, Kenneth Kirtlev, Bernardine Bowman. SIDE SHOW By Bill Cummings and Paul Deutchmann National Now that the Sino-Japanese war is entering into its sixth month we see an increasing flood of pamphlets—“The Far Eastern Incident,” "Japan in China,” "Japan's Position in China,” etc. Each ..purports., to ..tell., the truth abyut the situation. Each deals in phrases and catchwords. The Chinese hurl “aggression, Invaders Go Over the Top The Japanese cheered . . . the Chinese departed. They Walked the Plank ... This ferry had trouble in I'riseo’s hay . . . the passengers were transferred, via plank, to another vessel . . nobody slipped, all arrived In port safety. jingoism, aggrandizement.” The Japanese return with “commun ists, bandits, anti-policy.” * * *• Japanese publications turned out for the benefit of the Unit ed States popular opinion usual ly deal in a number of argu ments. First, they point out that Japan has three times the trade with this country that China has. Then they point out that the “war,” pardon us, “in cident,” is purely defensive, for Is not Japan merely defending her nationalists and investments ($1,400,000,0001 in her neigh bor? Thrn they prove that they are not in the least interested in more territory, but only in stamping out the anti-Japanese feeling, which a “misguided" acquired. Last, hilt not least, they point out some horrible things that the evidently sadis ie-minded Chinamen have done. Chinese arguments follow the same general plan. They can even start with trade, showing that Japan's buying from the United States will fall off if she gets China. Then they point out that Japan is fighting an aggressive war for purposes of “territorial aggrandizement.” They list the treaties protect ing the territorial integrity of China and show' that Japan is violating them. (Japan has al ready proved that she is not.) Some appropriate pictures may also he included, like the one of the squalling Chinese youngster left sitting on a pile of debris from a recently dropped bomb. There are cap tions about “Orphaned by Jap anese Bombs,” “Bombs Over China," etc. * * * Incidentally, both kinds of pamphlets take up the Marco Polo bridge incident and the Shanghai naval officer incident. Both explain how right they were. The Japanese (speaking of the latter one) tell how Jap-, an was trying to be patient, but the stubborn Chinamen would have nothing but war, and de liberately kidnapped an officer, killed two seamen, and "forced” the kindly Nipponese to send over 300.000 men. The Chinese tell another in teresting story. The kidnaped naval officer (so they say) was AWOL, because fiis officers suspected that he frequented houses of ill fame too often. * * * So the charges are hurled back and forth. And the propa ganda that is being poured forth is of quite a persuasive nature. Much of it is made up of statements from our news papers, quotations from Ameri can statesmen, etc. We can oly say, “Keep your fingers crossed.’’ Unless we can resist this propaganda and keep open minds on the subject, we would probably be incapable of resisting the kind of “informa tion’’ which might get us into an “incident.” Arrest Caused By Charge of Rifling Corpse LOR ANGELE.S( .lan. 19.— Formerly an embalmer in the coroner's office, Edgar R. Bul lington, 49, was arrested today on a charge of stealing gold from the mouth of a corpse. He has denied guilt. Bullington’s resignation was announced yesterday. He had been employed by the county for 11 years. * * * WASHINGTON, Jan. 19. Value of senate oratory reached a low level when Senator Ellen der continued his five-day at tack on the anti-lynching bill as a part of the South's filibuster. One lone senator, Davis, re publican, Pennsylvania, was at his desk at the time. Negotiations Begin To End Shut-Down PORTLAND, Jan. 19.—For tlie first time since members of the typographical union walked out last Saturday, negotiations to end Portland's newspaper shutdown will be resumed tomorrow. It is understood that publishers will submit the same proposition that was presented before the strike was called, namely, that all differences be settled by arbitra tion. Union representatives did not disclose what the union would have to offer. Union spokesmen were mean while preparing to carry the issue to the public by presenting speak ers at various meetings. Death Toll Mounts After Quebec Fire ST. HYACINTHE, Que., Jan. 19. —Death’s toll from fire that trapped students and teachers in the College of the Sacred Heart reached an official count of 47 by tonight. The list may be swelled to greater proportions as five of the injured are so near death that the last rites of the Roman Catho lic church have been administered The “Brown Jug” tells a sorry tale about poor old Hiram. He went up to New York to make his for tune pulling some skin games on innocent strangers. However, the first fellow he tried to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to turned out to be the owner of the darned thing, and if Hiram hadn’t paid ten dollars ta keep quiet, the man would have had him arrested. Spencer's Butte Needs Studen ts' Assistance They're going, to strip her. Facing the loss of its primeval forest covering the problem of saving Spencer Butte, University’s pigger's paradise long regarded as one of the school’s outstanding landmarks, was thrust into the hands of the students and faculty members of the University yesterday. • A campaign in collaboration with the Eugene Register-Guard to raise through students and townspeople, $1100 for a temporary option on me property was announced py Dean Wayne L. Morse, of the law school. The money, if raised before Feb ruary 1, will hold the property un til the May primary elections when a proposed half mill sales tax bill will be put to the people. It is hoped the tax will provide sufficient funds within six months to make up the remaining $6100 necessary to com plete the purchase of the tract. Private owners of the butte have held the land for years in anticipa tion of its purchase as a proposed city park but accumulating taxes have forced the marketing of the timber, ‘Dean Morse explained. He stressed the urgency of rais ing the money before February 1, and preventing the butte from be coming a barren eye-sore to the University site. The dean asks that every student and faculty member make some contribution leaving it either at his office in Oregon hall or Business Manager J. O. Lind strom’s cfffice second floor, Johnson hall. Contributions have already been received from several faculty members. Nanking Takes the Count... .Nanking; s ancient walls yield to Japanese rope ladders.