»
•From Where
I SIT
By CLARE IGOE
Today wo have a beef. And
right here and now we want to
say that it's not about the
browsing room chairs, so help
us. Not that we couldn’t say a
word or two in that connection,
but with admirable restraint
i\\ e'll hold ourselves back. Pink
has been pretty funny about the
browsing room already and
there really isn’t much more to
be said.
Nope, the dark cloud oir our
horizon right non is this inane
“man of the hour” business that
went on Friday. By the gods,
it’s not enough v.e should have
to hear up with such foolishness
umpteen times a year to select
mi ideal couple, a junior queen,
a little colonel, a Miss Oregon,
a most popular this and out
standing that. No — now Ore
gon’s stalwart males must put
themselves on the block to pick
the Man of the Hour, and his
two minute men, Tick and Took,
\\hoops!
It shatters something in us—
an illusion perhaps- that pre
sumably intelligent college men
should so degrade themselves.
Such silliness is understandable
- if not excusable in women,
who are a bit teched anyway;
b it that a red-blooded he-man
should submit to the indignity
of being voted on or not voted
on—as the “man of the hour”
i> well—it’s beyond us, and we
dm't mind saying so. What if
he isn’t the “man of the hour”
to a bunch of gaping, giggling
girls? What the the thing is
undeniably conducive to pro
fanity.
Things have romp (o a pretty
" piss when our males, instead
<■ f grabbing the gals 3>y the hair
( ini slugging- them a good one
they protested, now mince
( irk and forth waiting for the
f.ulies to vote them their “man
■ of the hour.” We’ll wager the
! caveman didn’t stop to ask the
gal if he was her “man of the
l etir.” Ha* was, or else;
Well, that’s civilization such
■ u it is. for better or for worse,
ho we ll choke down the rest of
our protests in this direction
and proceed with our story. For
1 sc worst is yet to come.
dim Hubbard Mas elected (?)
man of the hour. Now Jim, we
ore sure, is a lovely fellow, with
practically all of the sterling
v irtues added to manly beauty
nj grace. We couldn’t say for
care, because .we don't Know
i&'!r. Hubbard either personally
* i by reputation or even at
fight. So we speak out of no
personal bias.
But when we discovered Hub
livi was elected because the
) yal brother Betas bought IT -
count ’em IT dollars worth of
tickets and shall we say “stuf*
* vT the ballot box (to use an
ugly but familiar phrase > our
.stupefaction know no bounds,
and the last shreds of our illn
, ,'dons melted like snow in the
.sun. Imagine wanting to be
‘■man of the hour” that much!
J'i? upon you. Mr. Hubbard, and
v pon Jill your brethren,
i Well, it is all over now, and
* iuyL»e it was worth IT dollars
i to i!*e a man for an hour—or the
, nun of the hour or whatever
» is. But we still say it was
I pretty silly. The Mau of the
I Hour and his two minute men,
Tick and lock. My Hod!
A GOOD HAIRCUT
FOR 35c
Joe Prairie’s Shop
(. >rner 11th ami Alder J
All-Campus Bull Session
CKVERAL roars ago an attempt was made to form an
impartial, moderately liberal, discussion society, to take
up international, national, and local affairs, and to eml/odv
representatives from varying campus opinion groups. The
attempt failed in the first place because of dissension among
the parties, and secondly because of lack of interest in the
affairs to be discussed.
Today, however, the situation is much different. The turn
out at the recent Kirby Page forum, one of the largest to
gather for such a meeting in several years, indicated a
growth of student interest in significant affairs of the nation
and the world. Today, as a visit to a fraternity bull-session,
an occasional College Side booth, or even a small knot oi
students standing about the campus will show, students are
talking of worthy topics. Governments, international develop
ments, wars and possibilities of wars are in vogue as topics
of conversation.
:V*s s£«
^LASSES on the present day situations and the splendid
assembly program are the contributions ol the faculty
to the student desire for information on the topics of the day.
Other steps toward better informing the Oregon student body
are organizations such as the International club, which brings
speakers to the campus for informal discussions, but which
is neglected or unnoticed by most students.
Yesterday a suggestion was made in these columns that
forums after assembly speeches be provided more fre
quently. The argument behind such a plea is that the speak
ers are held to generalities, or to statements that do little
more than produce questions in the students' minds. For
those whose interest is awakened, the forums would certainly
he of value.
Furthermore, the result of the Thursday forum evidenced
another phase .of the question—that even after questioning
Mr. Page for an hour students still retained enough questions
and opinions to keep him going quite some time longer.
CTION on these two phases of student interest in world
policies—the desire to question speakers and to continue
the informal discussions among themselves—might well be
begun. The defunct Oregon Student federation (the student
discussion group mentioned at the beginning of this editorial)
is a possible means of reviving organized student action in
a discussion group.
The factional disputes which originally defeated the pur
poses of the organization have now been forgotten. And with
the impetus of the wider student desire to exchange opinions
on every type of problem imaginable from the navy bill to
the “anschluss, ’ ’ a new effective discussion group, without
the confusing problem of stands, constitutions, or member
ships. could be formed.
Initiative on the revival of this organization or on the
formation of a new one might well be taken by the officials
of the old OSF who are yet on this campus. Or if they do not
feel the urge they could at least delegate what authority
hypothetically remains in their “ghost" titles to someone
who would be interested.
A criticism of American students lias often been that they
lack interest in affairs other than sports and dance bands.
Three years ago, the Oregon Student federation was hailed
as a disavowal of this criticism. The course of events, how
ever. seemed to prove that the pessimists were right.
Today, as never before, college students of America are
interested in more than last night’s date. A wise step would
be an organized effort to produce this interest, and accom
plish, if nothing else, the silencing of dour critics of
the “worthless youth of today.”
And it would be interesting to experiment with an “all
c-ampus bull-session.”—P. D.
An Eye to the Future
JX a few -weeks members of the interfraternity council will
elect officers for the coming year. To those men will fall
tin1 duty of forming the organizations policies, and into their
laps will he thrown a number of difficult problems.
In the past few years scores of indictments against the
fraternity system have been flung at the council's dool\
Critics have declared that under the present closed rushing
system the freshman is pledged to a house “before he knows
what it is about.” The fraternities have been discredited as
houses of intellectual ill-fame, where study is a vice, not a
virtue. They have said that the student’s entry into Univer
sity life is disrupted in its first stages because of the diffi
culties in acclimating him to new surroundings. They have
said that the fraternities offer poor conditions for educational
pursuits. Besides indictments, most critics have offered plans
to remove the problems and their causes.
DfT both plans and indictments have largely been dis
regarded by the group which they concern the most. The
deferred pledging plan offered at the last meeting of the
Oregon Dads has received no answer. There has been a ten
dency in the council to lock the door against suggestions,
and thmv the existence of deficiencies in the system.
Sociologists have long claimed that when an institution
is attacked by organized critics, that institution is on the edge
of decadence. And when no action is taken to readjust it to
new conditions, it falls.
HPHERE is a need at the present time for an especially'
strong group of leaders, leaders who will bring the inter
fraternity -council to face problems that can no longer be
ignored.
When the boys gather around the council board to elect
officers later this month, they will do well to eye cifrefully
the qualifications and the policies of the candidates. Or some
bright morning they will wake to find their institutions
beyond possible rejuvenation.—L. T.
Old Bool
A statue of an old miner, housed in the museum at the
University of Nevada, was recently unveiled, and it was
discovered that the boots were too modern for an old miner.
Since then the. sculptor has made plans to copy boots from a
picture of an authentic miner.
That's giving him the old fashioned boot.
Pollock's FOLLY
By BOB POLLOCK
THE OTHER DAY I strolled out into the spring sunshine with
the joy of youth in my heart and my soul at ease. Hearing the
lusty crack of horsehide on hickory—or something that sounded
like horsehide on hickory although it might not have been—I investi
gated and found a baseball game. It seems we were playing the
gentlemen from University of Portland although this .fact is not
exactly germane to my story.
Well, 1 went in—because it was free—and I sat down. And
as I sat I began to think. It is always easier for me to think sitting
down somehow. \s I thought I gnzed about me and I saw twenty
or thirty earnest young men clad in something that looked like
l>\ D’s with numerals. They were engUged, my instinct told me.
in a game of baseball. V. hat is more they were enjoying it mightily.
Then my gaze wandered afield and I saw other young men
clad in what I presumed to be football uniforms. They were prac
ticing. running hither and thither with great speed and abandon.
I wondered mightily at this strange activity because L. H. Gregory
whom 1 read daily declares that Oregon will not be engaged
in a football contest until next autumn. Which is a very long time.
* * ai‘ si:
THEN' THE REASON for the activity burst upon me. The
young men were working so mightily in order that when the autumn
arrived they might be skilled in the highly technical game of foot
ball. This meant that they would win games, that the aluminiums
would be happy, that the coach would retain his job and his hair.
and that they would retain their scholarships.
Which is all well and good. I couldn’t help thinking, as I sat
there, that maybe they were earning them.
And then my thoughts returned to the game of baseball which
was going on. I dug into my memory for such facts and statistics
as I had stored there; but in spite of all my digging I could find but
few records of scholarships to baseball players. “What,” I said to
myself, “are these boys playing ball because they like to? It is
not the fashion.”
1 must be sure of this, I felt. So I gazed once more at the
playing field. On the field were citizens that I knew—for example,
there was L. Sherm Mattingly, Emerald editor and alleged pitcher.
(Ihe L , in case you didn’t know it, stands for lousy—as far as
Sherm’s ability as a twirler is concerned.) I knew he wasn’t get
ting paid. Nobody would pay him to play baseball. And I knew
a lot of the other lads weren’t getting any gelt and such of them
that were only drew pittances as opposed to the justly-earned wages
of the basketeers and the pigskin-toters and pushers.
This tale hasn’t much moral, except maybe this: Oregon—and
this includes any college of size—has a professional football and a
professional basketball team. It hasn’t a professional baseball
team. When one of the lads gets a banged-up knee he doesn’t say
first, “My God, my scholarship!” and then, “My God, my knee!”
He says, ‘ Shucks, I won't get to play in the next game!”
I don t know the answer. We have professional teams because
we want ’em, I suppose. But somehow it is a pleasure to watch
a grime that is played for fun. And it’s too bad we can’t get rid
of a few subversive interests and advance the idea of really amateur
sport to basketball and football, too.
P'S' Someday I'll get up a lot of courage and define the term
“subversive interests.” But then I might be one someday myself—
we all have to graduate.