Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1938)
Usually we are ones to main ^ tain stoutly that college stu , dents are just as smart as any - body, no matter what people say, but sometimes this simple, , almost touching faith is rudely jolted. For instance the other day. We were walking across the campus and it was a lovely day. The sun was shining, the grass was green, the tulip trees (or magnolia trees, as some dolts stupidly maintain? were in blossom, and there were robins on the lawn contentedly massa cring worms. I We were happy, the^ robins were happy—all God's chillim were happy. Well, maybe the worms weren’t very happy. W'e don’t know, though. We can’t remember that they looked par * ticularly unhappy, but then the facial expression of a worm is inscrutable beyond analysis.' But to get on—here we were, walking through sunshine and ‘ lightness, and what did we see? > We saw, to our utter amaze .* ment, two students engaged in t a startling pastime. They stood » at some distance apart, waiting .* craftily until an unwary robin * should wander between them. Then one of them would whip I out with a golf ball, shy it ex i pertly at the unfortunate bird. : and the other would catch the ? ball as it bounced up. T Only the remarkable agility * of the birds kept them from be j img slaughtered mercilessly, arid ' needless to say, all of theta got 1 , away. Our indignation knew 1 no bounds, however, wiien the 1 two happy youths maneuvered i about so that W'E stood be j tween them. And let us tell ' you right now it is plenty uu < comfortable to stand between two golf-ball-shying fiends in tent on their game. ■ * >:■ * J The only bright side of the event came our of our convic : tun that the whole incident i might increase robin-worm un * derstanding and bring about a i better situation far the worms. 1 Imagine slithering happily along the ground, intent on your own simple doings and satisfied with life, only to gaze up and encoun , ter the beady eye of a robin I fixing you coldly and hungrily. Him is the robin to know, on the other hand, that the worm m ight hu\e better idea- of wlyut to do itli his time than stuff , ii g the epiglottises ol a family little robins? You -ee how ■ the thing works out? Never \ having been imohexi in a slnii \ la r situation, the robin just * wouldn’t understand. i However, standing a r o u n u , having; golf balls shitNi at you ' must engender t he same helpless feeling the worm hi%. pool ing I up at a loan and hungry robin I —ami maybe it will teach the I robins a lesson! Somehow this dissertation. I which started out to be a scath ing- reflection yjfi the mental i level of students who would hive the fiendish ingenuity to thiuk of such a pastime, has i drifted into a justification of , their amusement and a repri mand to the robins. And as if that weren’t bad enough, here v -> are now expounding the philosophy of worms Now how did tiuit happen? , *• *• We relish the logical state <i -at of LeRoy iScotty Scott, w < > confides that he likes fun li.vause fun is better. Good is o'[ right, too. he maintains. *be c vise, reasonably enough, good t i • better too. Editorial Board: Darrel Ellis, Bill Peace, Margaret Ray, Edwin Robbins, A1 Dickhart, Kenneth Kirtley, Bernardine Bowman. LEROY MATTINGLY, Editor WALTER R, VERNSTROM, Manaj LLOYD TUPLING, Managing Editor Associate Editors: Paul Deutschmann, Clare Igoe. Elbert Hawkins. Sports Editor Bill Pengra, City Editor Lew Evans, Assistant Managing Editor UPPER NEWS STAFF Martha Stewart, Women’s Editor Don Kennedy, Radio Editor Rita Wright, Society Editor Alyce Rogers, Exchange Editor Betty Jane Thompson, church editor John Biggs, Chief Night Editor The Oregon Daily Emerald, official student publication of the University of Oregon, published daily during tne college year excej t Sundays, Mondays, holidays and final examination periods. Entered a3 second-class mail matter at tne postmce, Eugene, Oregon. _^__ A 'Colossal' Coming Attraction ~pVARL M. Pallett. secretary of the educa tional activities board, lias announced that success or failure of ‘‘Peer Gvnt” "would determine the future of such large scale pro ductions. Up to the present the University theater has been the only outlet for Oregon students infected with the drama “bug." While the work of this group has been especially com mendable, the opportunities it can extend to those interested in the drama are limited from both the spectator and the actor viewpoint because of physical conditions. With the production of Peer Gynt, th* field for participators has been widened great ly. and the lack of spectator facilities of the cracker-box auditorium in Johnson hall have been overcome as well. The east is large enabling many more would-be dramatists a chance to realize their longing to get behind the footlights. And gigantic McArthur court will provide seating* space for every interested spectator. * # # jyjANY colleges throughout the Country have won renown with campus produc tions. either of the “jamboree” type or of the more serious nature, such as Ibsen’s spectacle will be. While at Oregon the revival of Junior class “frolics’’ would be difficult, tlie production now under way lias every indication of being a success. The record «of Director Horace Robinson is already studded with gems of dramatic achievement. Spectacle production is not new to him for during the summer his was one of the minds behind the Eugene Oregon Trail pageant, which won national recognition for a 600-foot stage and a cast of 3000. For Director Robinson building a stage to the roof of the “Igloo” will be a small-time job. ^ ^ J^RAMATIC rendition is also ably cared for with Walden Boyle, star of many Guild hall plays, directing and playing the lead. When the talent of the University symphony orchestra, veteran of many radio broadcasts, is added the promise of something colossal becomes more than a press agent’s dream. The first appearance before many Oregon students will be that' of the Master Dance group which is providing the ballet numbers. While this organization and its connected de partment in women’s physical education have been active, little opportunity is given stu dents to view its recitals. Thus attraction is piled on attraction. “Peer Gynt” should set a precedent. In the Mail BUDGET TROUBLE? To the Editor: Allow me to congratulate The Emerald on Tuesday’s editorial regard Dr. Arthur J. Marder’s impending' ‘‘vacation,” or per haps “eviction” would be a bet ter word. I am heartily in ac cord with its content and know that a substantial number of students feel as I do. After all, history is to a per son, not what happened, but what one can remember about what happened. When a professor can make his lectures as vivid and interesting as Dr. Harder can, memory works much better and history possesses the real and vibrant qualities of a living thing instead of a dead collec tion of facts. Dr. Harder pos sesses the valuable gift of mak ing history live, he can put across a lecture that maintains almost continuous interest, he can make one like history. And now we hear that Dr. Harder will not be back next year! Budget trouble! In the past Oregon has lost many good professors to other institutions of higher learning. The reason being almost always financial, other schools reward ing the men more in accord with their true worth. But this is not a case of that type. This is a case of the powers that be not being awake, of them allowing an exceptionally good professor to leave this school, and all be cause id' a few paltry dollars. A professor who is admittedly needed on the faculty. This case lands right square in the laps of Professor Clark. Dean Gilbert. Dr. Erb, and The Budget; and between them they should be able to make whatever arrange ments are necessary in-order to prevent Oregon from losing one of the brightest stars from her rather dim scholastic heavens. Dr. Marder should be retained on the faculty at all costs. It is funny how funds seem unavailable to retain one pro fessor yet at the same time seem available to convert a per fectly good study hall into a museum while students study on the main libe stairs. This one professor’s simple needs would not require nearly as much as is paid to some of our highly-tout ed coaches, but pardon me, I forgot that athletics is much more important than scholas tics! Dr. Erb should go into this situation. At one time Dr. Erb left Oregon for Stanford and a higher salary. He must have been a good professor, other wise Stanford would not have wanted him, and for this reason he should certainly appreciate the unquestioned ability of Dr. Marder and take the necessary steps to retain him on the faculty. Yours truly, Stuart Mockford ONE OF THE BEST To the Editor: I'm glad to see The Emerald has at least called the atten tion to the fact that Professor Arthur Marder will not be on the campus next fall term un less something is done imme diately. , It seems a shame that if the history department needs an other professor, even if Dr. No ble is coming back, that such a scholar as Dr. Marder must be sent to some luckier school. Al though money seems to be lack ing for retaining of this popu lar professor, it seejns that if the light individuals would be come interested, some way would be found to keep him here. Plenty of money has been available for new build ings and they are even now being landscaped. Why can’t some of the effort being cen tered on obtaining funds for this work be shifted to keeping a good teacher to fill one of these buildings? I’ve taken two courses from Dr. Marder and have never re ceived anything higher than a C grade. In fact, I received more hours of D from him than any other professor in the Uni versity. And I studied, too. Re gardless, I add my plea to oth ers to save Dr. Marder. He’s one of the best men at Oregon today. Sincerely, R.W.H. AND STILL MORE To the Editor: Bravo for your editorial con cerning Professor Marder this morning. The students like and want to keep Dr. Marder. In spite of a few ugly rumors to the effect that he exercises “autocracy in the classroom,” and that once in his class there is no getting out in time for lunch, the fact is that nobody cares much. He has put color and life into a formidable mass of material. If there is anything in this .trend toward student democracy, let this be consid ered a vote. On the campus, as well as all over America, there is a rapidly growing interest in European and Far-Eastern affairs. And well there may be. for they are now home events. We have a professor returning from the Far East with fresh views and (Please turn t'o page shvn) Polly's Folly i_ '_ EVERY TIME I get stymied and can’t think of anything with which to make a column —and you've no idea how often this happens, or have you?—I don’t do like Pink and spill the clankings of my mind on paper. No, indeed. I go sit down by myself and out of my inner consciousness I spin an idea. Maybe it isn’t such a hot idea but Descartes and some of the other boys have done it and look where they are. My idea this evening is to tell you about some of my ex periences with the road oiling crew with which I worked last summer. Of course, I can’t toss in the spicier bits ljke the one about the grass widow who made hay out of us over in Fossil, but I can recount inno cent little yarns like the fol lowing: It was our fortune or misfor tune to have as a foreman a big husky Scandinavian who stood six feet two in his bare feet, which was the way he preferred to stand. He was tough ana to see him coming down the road sort of quarter ing into the wind with his hat cocked over one eye was a sight which always reminded me of H.M.S. Hood bearing down on a rowboat. WELL, ONE DAY we were trying to lay road with our cus tomary speed and dispatch but things weren’t going so well . . . presently the foreman ar rived on the scene, cast a glance at the grief, picked out the man he thought was re sponsible for it all and fired him. This gentleman got up from where he was sitting and stated mildly that he didn’t mind being fired but goodness gracious how he did hate that long walk into town alone. It was, he said, hardly fair to make a man do that stretch all by himself. A foreman has to be quick on the uptake or he is not fore man for long. Without a waste motion the Push strolled across the road and into the pit where the shovel was work ing, looked over the assem blage, and fire' one of the less likely - looking stick wielders. “Here,” he said to ex-employe No. 1, “is company for your walk.” And with that he strolled on back up the road whistling to himself. TRICKS ON AN oiling crew are standard equipment and it was not at all unusual to find anywhere from three to half a dozen lighted cigarettes in one’s pockets ... it was common practice as well to hook up a bomb to the engine of a truck and then when it exploded—■ as it did when the motor start ed—the luckless gear-jammer would have two or three pails of water thrown on him, “to stop the fire.” Probably one of the better gags of the summer was the one somebody pulled on one of the drivers . . . he’s still looking for the perpetrator. It was the custom for the truck drivers to drive all day without stopping for lunch—that is, they would eat a sandwich with one hand while steering with the other. Somebody got to the lunches one day before the drivers picked them up and carefully removed all the meat from the sandwiches and replaced it with a thick coating of axle grease mixed with a shot of No. 12 which is road oil. One of the gear-jammers grabbed his lunch on the run, took a huge bite of sandwich and got most of it down before he * tasted (Please turn to fagC seven)
