Oregon W Emerald
ANNE CRAVEN
Editor
ANNAMAE WINSHIP
Business Manager
w __-_
MARGUERITE WITTWER
Managing Editor
PATSY MALONEY
Advertising Manager
WINIFRED ROJITVEDT
News Editor
LOUISE MONTAG, PEGGY OVERLAND
Associate Editors
Jane Richardson, Phyllis Perkins, Viriginia
Scholl, Mary Margaret Ellsworth, Norris
Yates, City Desk Editors
Bjorg Hansen. Executive Secretary
Mary Margaret Ellsworth, Anita Young,
(' Women'- Page Editors .
Jeanne Sirr.monds, Assistant Managing Editor
Shirley Peters. Chief Night Editor
Darrell Boone, Photographer
Betty Bennett, Music Editor
Gloria Campbell, Mary K. Minor
Librarians
Jack Craig. World News Editor
Published daily during the college year except Sundays, Mondays, and holidays and
final examination periods by the Associated Students, University of Oregon,
Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Oregon.
/Iduice ta /IdiUdesiA,..
When Dr. Ilarrv K. Newburn, president-elect of the Uni
versity, was on the campus recently, he described the new
advising1 >vstem he helped initiate on the State University of
Iowa campus where he was dean of the college of liberal arts.
This plan features closer contacts between students and ad
visers. The advisers attend regular meetings w hich'are de
signed to show how they can meet any situation which might
arsie. So far the program has been very succcsslul. It enables
tin students to take courses which suit personality, aptitude,
and plans for the future.
( iregon. it seems to us, would really benefit from such a
plan. At the present time students go to McArthur court on
registration dav. seek their adviser at one of the tables scat
tered throughout the room and it the student is new on the
campus, the adviser will outline a course ol study, ll the student
i:, an upperclassman the card is signed, usually without even
being read. Such carelessness on the part of professors who are
supposed to help the students, has kept some people from
graduating.
Another part of the advising system at Iowa is the personnel
department w hich consists of reading, speech, and psychological
clinics, the vocational counselor, and the oftice of student af
fairs in addition to the health service and an examinations
office. Although we have several offices and departments simi
lar to these, we need a psychological clinic to take care of the
os erworked students and those suffering from war psychoses.
Win can’t a university the size of Oregon develop an ad
vUing svstem which would help the students find the courses
for which thcv arc suited instead of lorcing needless "required
courses on the troubled, freshman or new student? Why can't
.some of the upperclassmen who have “gone through the mill'
of requirements, he used to help the new students before they
are forced to accept some stereotyped schedule dealt out to
(hem be a disinterested professor who really doesn't take time
to find out about the courses or what the student would really
be interested in taking, but says instead, “1 think you should
take this and this and this.-’
One student' expressed his opinion of l)r, Xewburn as a man
■who “is interested in everyone as an individual." Perhaps he
will see the ad\ ising problem as a problem of a lot of individuals
and will be able to do something about it. Maybe future stu
dents at the I'niversity will be able to benefit from counseling
'h professors who have been carefully selected and trained
to encourage students along the lines for which they are best
suited and from which the\ will gain most in the end.—A.W.
• • •
The question of peacetime military conscription has been
bandied about a great deal lately. Supporters of the program
claim that a large standing army will be needed if the United
► hates is to keep its proper place in the world.
Chi the other side, its opponents find an inconsistence in a
'nation looking' forward to a peaceful world based on coopera
tion which at the same time plans a large army "to maintain"
that peace.
Climbing down from the idealism on both sides for a moment,
■what would peacetime conscription actually mean to the vouth
of the l uited States?
Hoys on the Verge of entering college or at the halfwav
it ark in their higher education would be yanked into the armv
h r a year’s training in the art of war. Instead of learning to
take their places as leaders in a peaceful world in which all
nations cooperate through an international organization, the\
will reeei\e a year's training in how to take what the United
States wants. After n year of such training it will be hard
indeed to orient them back into believing that war never solves
a*u problems. It will be hard indeed to explain to them that
tl c year's training was “just in case." The tendency w ill be
b breed a class of militarists basing their ideas of order on
tbt machine gun and- fighter plane.
Would it not be better to train them as statesmen so that
Air Alert
By SHl’BERT FENDKICK
A summer series of symphonic
concerts, titled “Saturday Sym
phony,” will be inaugurated over
the Blue network by the distin
guished British conductor, Sir
Thomas Beecham, on Saturday,
April 7, from 1 to 2 p.m. Sir Thom
as will conduct a specially organ
ized American broadcasting com
pany symphonic orchestra during
four concerts on April 7, 14, 21,
and 28.
A radio trip into northern Ger
many will be conducted for the
radio audience by Commander
Scott on “Romance of the High
ways” Sunday, April 8, from 10:15
to 10:30 a.m. over KORE. He will
also relate an “unreal reality,”
which is an interesting, little
known fact about the country.
Elementary, Dr. Watson
A cosmopolitan group of artists
and the mysterious strangling of a
notorious blackmailer involves
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
in the “New Adventures of Sher
lock Holmes.” “The Curious Affair
of the Viennese Strangler” is the
name of the show, starring Basil
Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and
Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.
The incomparable Bob Hope is
in the news again. This time he has
been made an honorary member of
the Chamber of Commerce of Po
mona, Calif. His plugs about the
little city of 30,000 have put it on
the map.
“The Veterans’ Aide.” a program
to assist ex-servicemen and wom
en in a better understanding of
their rights, benefits, and privi
leges, will be heard on NBC week
ly. starting Saturday, April 14,
from 10 to 10:15.
Murder, He Says
Charles Laughton and Ella
Raines re-create their original
film roles in a radio version of
“The Suspect,” presented by the
“Lux Radio Theater” over CBS
Monday, April 9, from 6 to 7. The
story is a drama woven around a
mild-mannered tobacco salesman
who kills his wife because of her
constant nagging.
ubeefi
Why is Rosemary Jones so fond
of the ATO song all of a sudden?
It might possibly be because of the
pin she’s been wearing since East
er vacation. But don’t get wor
ried, fellows, it’s her brother (she
tells us). You might also ask Rosy
and Charlotte Gething about the
house-warming Pete Walsh and
Bill Davis held Friday night. And
Diels Wilkins, their third room
mate, was he alone?
Biggest surprise of this or any
term was the sight of the diamond
on Mary Gregg’s third finger, left
hand. Those navy flyers must be
fast workers!
Just ask Nancy Wortman, Theta
freshman, when Scott is coming
home and watch her reaction. It
won’t be long.
Patt Skinner, Alpha Gam, always
said she'd never get married unless
she was swept off her feet. She
was. Last Saturday she married
Keith Crosswhite, USHC. P.S. She
hadn’t seen him since she was a
freshman — in high school. Were
(Ph'asc turn to page three)
Word Mixups Theme
Of Stuart Chase’s Book
By FABER O'HAGAN
THE TYRANNY OF WORDS, Stuart Chase: Harcourt.
Brace and company, $2.75. What is an elephant? Well, it all
depends. An elephant is one thing to Herbert Hoover, another
to the king of Siam, and a third thing to John Ringling. The
blind men in the fable found that the nature of the beast de
pended upon where it was touched—a snake if the trunk were
held, like a tree if a leg were
touched. An elephant could be any
one of a dozen different things.
This multiplicity of meanings
furnished both the theme and the
need for “The Tyranny of Words.”
Mr. Chase points out that com
munication between men breaks
down when readers or listeners
have no clear conception of an
author’s definition of the words he
uses. Thus John Ringling might
talk to the king of Siam for hours
about elephants, too, and not even
reach an agreement in principle.
Such a dense intellectual fog is
much worse than listening to a
strange foreign language. When a
Russian tries to talk with an Eng
lishman it is immediately appar
ent to all parties that nothing is
being communicated. The English
man may not know what the Rus
sian is talking about but at least
he still knows as much as before
he started listening.
In a Fog
However, when the listener hears
j familiar words in a known lan
guage, he is easily persuaded that
he understands. He seems to un
derstand—he may even be willing
to fight in defense of his new
knowledge—but it is possible that
the word means so many different
things to different men that only a
blank, or at best a fog, results.
Look at philosophical writing,
for example. Henry James defined
philosophy as “Just words, words,
words!” The definition seems quite
sensible when it is remembered
that philosophers are partial to
such words as “being,” “becom
ing,” “heaviness,” “truth,” and
“justice.” Exactly what do those
words mean ?
Who knows what they mean0
It is reported that a wealthy Eng
lishwoman, Lady Welby, offered a
prize of 1,000 pounds to any phi
losopher who could prove that he:
1. knows what he means, 2. knows
what anyone else means, 3. knows
what anything means, 4. means
what everyone else means, 5. can
express what he means. Philos
ophers, like artists, are notoriously
poor but the prize has not yet been
claimed.
Politicians, Too
Politicians lean toward words
like “liberty,” “freedom,” and
“sovereignty,” and when those
words are united with a philos
opher’s jargon the world may be
stimulated to violent and unjusti
fied action, as in the case of
Spengler and the Nazis.
So, if you can’t understand Aris
totle it may not be your fault.
Haven’t literary critics puzzled
over his “catharsis” definition of
tragedy for 2500 years? Moreover,
didn't he once state that heavy
objects fall faster than light ones V
In our own century, Einstein has
shown that there can be no such
things as absolute time or space.
Scientists have accepted his proof
and are now revising their theories
to include this new knowledge. In
“The Tyranny of Words” Chase
they might lead their nation in cooperating economically and
politically with other nations in such a manner as to make
war an obsolete means of the past? W ould it not be better to
spend more money on schools in order to see that deserving'
boys and girls get such training?
Still looking at the practical aspects of conscription, men
trained with weapons in one year will find all their training
outdated within the space of a few years. If they were called
tip for actual combat service, it would mean learning all over
again.
W e agree with those who find peacetime conscription in
consistent with the ideas of world cooperation. Let us hope
that, in keeping with our democratic traditions, we will never
see the dav when it is enforced in the United States.
asks that comparable revisions be
made in language, so that original
thinkers won't have to turn, as did
Einstein, to the language of mathe
matics in the search for words
clear enough and explicit enough to
express their thought. At the pres
ent time there are far too many
blanks in our thinking, and words
are too often responsible for them.
■ By ARNOLD PORTER
The sign was conspicuous, very
conspicuous; for while it was
printed in quiet black Roman let
ters and though the letters Were
not too tall nor artistic, their
simplicity arrested the attention.
“Recorded Concert,” it starts,
“4:00 Reading Room.”
I neared the long room as the
exploratory urge assumed control.
Another sign informed me that
this was “not a study room.” In
side there were two fireplaces, one
at each end of the room; thick
rugs covered the floor, and the
• • •
walls were lined high and deep
with books of every kind. Com
fortably spread on the davenports
were various personalities more or
less affiliated with the campus.
From the dignified juke box
situated in the middle of the vast
assemblage came a sound usually
connected with the Philip Morris
program. The music was soothing
and more subdued than some com
monly heard.
The room was silent except for
the hypnotic music w'hich seemed
to fill the whole room and fan the
flames as it overflowed into the
fireplaces.
I selected a chair and relaxed
while the music drifted forth and
saturated the air. Glancing about,
I noticed that most of the devotees
either pretended to be, or were
asleep. This seemed to be the
prevalent, approved method of
listening to the music. I tried it
with satisfactory results. It was
nice; moreover, I was sleepwj
Gradually I drifted off.
The awakening came from a
screaming crescendo followed by
absolute silence. This was extreme
ly annoying; my nervous system
was practically shot. A slim grav
haired lady opposite me attempted
to smile while she asked if I had
enjoyed the recordings. I informed
her that most concerts, including
this one, besides having a depres
sive effect upon me, put me to
sleep! (This seemed to amaze her).
I got to my feet and struggled out,
still doubtful as to whether or not
I had enjoyed the afternoon.
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