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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1947)
Emerald MARGUERITE WITTWER-WRIGHT Editor GEORGE PEGG Business Manager BOB FRAZIER, TED GOODWIN Associates to Editor JACK L. BILLINGS. Managing Editor tULiU News Editor MARYANN THIELEN and walt McKinney Assistant Managing Editors BOBOLEE BKOrtix ana BRUCE BISHOP Assistant News Editors JEANNE SIMMONDS Women'* Editor PAT THOMPSON Executive Secretary JUNK GOKTZ.E Assistant Women’s Editor BOBBIE FULMER Advertising Manager Signed editorial features and columns in tne Jtsmeram ions of the writers. They do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editorial staff, the student body, or the University. Entered ns second class matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Oregon. — I. ■' ■ — -- On Housing - Inquiries from some of the 60 men now temporarily housed in a barracks in the PE building as to how soon they can ex pect to move into the new vet dorm can best be answered, In the near future.” Dr. Karl M. Pallett, assistant to the president, said in Fri day's Emerald that the new building should be finished shortly. Neither he nor Mrs. Genevieve Turnipseed, director of dormi tories wanted to build up hopes I* riday afternoon by setting any specfic date but ag'reed that the second floor might be fin ished iti about two weeks. Just A Guess We looked over the job and arrived at the non-expert con clusion that the second floor can be finished in two weeks and the first floor by the end of the month. Mrs. Turnipseed said that the new building will accom modate 378 men. This will relieve the present crowding in vet hail number 1 and will leave two men in each double room and one ineabh single. It will provide a section for the 33 men of Phi Sigma Kappa and rooms for men now temporarily housed with townspeople. The combined capacity of both vet halls will be 753. The cafeteria, which was finished on time in spite of labor difficulties, is now feeding about 600 men and can accommo date up to l,00tt, Mrs. Turnipseed said. ^ The Reason The delay wcj,s the result of a work stoppage by the local carpenters as the result of a failure to negotiate a wage dispute with the general contractors' association. 1 he other building trades continued to work but their progress was retarded by the absence of carpenters from November 27 until December 26. Work was resumed when the carpenters local and the con tractors’ associated signed a contract establishing a new wage of $1.75 as the scale for Eugene. •-* Prior to the establishment of a “going wage" scale, the FHPA contract held the Walle-Camplan Co., which is build ing the dorm, to the old scale of $1.55 an hour. 1 he carpenters refused to work at that scale and until tire new scale became officially established by agreement with the contractors' associ ation, the. carpenters' part of the work was suspended. Pioneers Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, and Sigma Kappa are three organizations whose lead other sororities and living groups would-be wise to follow. 1 hese sororities were the iiist to agree at the end of fall term that their underclassmen, mem bers would not be required to spend between-class hours in th over-crowded library. h'or years, ^sororities, always aware of the (• PA required of their pledges, have sent their freshmen to the 11b 1 a 1 \ for a set period of time. It was assumed these coeds would spend that time studving. Actually, worthwhile study and learning cannot be enforced, and often the underclassmen spent their libe hours gossiping with friends, meeting their dates, or sleep ing in the browsing room. h'or years, this situation caused little comment although some observers have consistentlv taken a dun \ic\\ of the nai\e practice of sentencing freshmen to serve "time' in the library. Past fall when the unprecedented enrollment shrank available study space some consternation arose over the disturbing groups of giggling coeds oh\ iously not studying. Letters to the editor and an editorial appeal to relieve the situation final ly brought about the hoped-tor result. The above-mentioned sororities were the first to relax their rules, b'reshmen and pledges will be allowed to study at their houses during free hours and only those with actual work to do in the library will utilize the facilities there. To these houses, daring enough to break with seemingly inflexible tradition, our compliments. Toward One World * ♦. uo Moral Inferiority of Minorities 4 f (Editor’s note: The following article by Dr. Ber reman, prdfessor of criminology, is a continuation of a series of weekly essays contributed by the Uni versity One World Club. The article carries out the policy of the club to promote better race relations by exploding theories of "white” superiority.) By DR. J. V. BERREMAN Divergent and unpopular minorities become vic tims of our habit of stereotyping and are often con sidered to be bad in the degree to which they are dis liked. Race and nationality groups in America repre sent this principle. A part of our common stereotype of the Negro now, and of Chinese and other immigrant groups perhaps more in the past, is that they are criminal. This belief has perhaps been a factor in keeping alive the common prejudice against them, with its atten dant problems. It is true that some of these minority groups have, or have had in the past, high rates of arrest and com mitment. This, with its attendant publicity has helped establish the stereotype. But many such beliefs have no basis in fact. Moreover, in the degree that those groups have high crime rates it is impossible to at tribute the fact to their race or national origins as such. Corrections Before the crime rate of Americans and of the for eign born can be properly compared certain correc tions must be made. For example, a very large part of the crime of na tional minorities such as Chinese and Mexicans con sisted of acts which were entirely permissible in their own countries, and which they had not learned to look upon as anti-social. Another factor in the apparent criminality of mi norities is their greater exposure to those social con ditions out of which crime grows. The great majority of immigrants were common laborers. Their low income coupled with discrimina tion against them forced many of them into the city slums. Some groups, including Chinese, Japanese, and American Negroes have never been able to get out of these areas. Hence, they are subjected to at least two conditions known to be statistically correlated with crime, namely—low economic status, and resi dence in the most crowded and run-down sectioii of our cities. art Negroes Such social factors probably account in large for a high crime rate among Negroes. The Negro as a class lacks education and ecoi im ic security. He has little political experience and is discrimiEj ted ive lit ect ob 4 ■ little industrial training. He against in employment. He is forced to in thee most dilapidated- slum areas of our ies and on our poorest tenant farms. He is sut constantly to restrictions upon his activities and tacles to the realization of his ambitions. It isbojl surprising that he develops at times embittyfreji , titudes toward white society. It would be strang in deed if he proved as law-abiding as the people rho suffer none of these frustrations. Compared with whites of similar economic ant oc cupational status, similar education, and sit lar sub-standard living conditions the Negro does lot show excessive criminality. Moreover, Negroes luve low rates of conviction for embezzlement, U ud drivjng while intoxicated, and auto theft, ai e smaller proportion of Negro prison commitments ire for sex offenses than is the case among whites. Court Bias A final factor in the criminal record of mini itj groups must be mentioned. That is the bias in c m inal statistics which results from unequal treaty :nt by police and the courts. Negroes are more oftei ar rested on suspicion than are whites. They are ra elj permitted to serve on juries. _ Other sample studies have shown Negroes ti ice as likely as whites to be committed to prison if < in victed, only half as often paroled or placed on pro >a tion, and granted pardon in only one-fourth the) -o portion of white prisoners. In the years when feeling ran high against ,h various immigrant groups those minorities were i ib ject to comparable discriminatory treatment at hands of public officials he ;lief ( seei t jiat When all the facts are considered the linority groups are inherently criminal est on the flimsiest of foundations. The same ca b hown to be true of other common stereotype! on vhich our racial, national, and religious preju&es est. f 1 Primer for Freshmen No. 2—Professors You may be doubtful, but the Su preme Court has ruled that profes sors are people. Additional evidence lies in the fact that the census taker counts them and the telephone com pany puts their names in the book. It is not surprising that one may have questions because students, parents, and merchants often call them (the professors) by other names. It is not strange that on lookers wonder because they (the professors) often act up in ways that may be professorial but which . are rather distantly connected with human behavior. Professors are folks who have ideas and get sore if others are too tired to have them. They are per sons who can't understand why a fellow puts a pillow over the alarm clock at 7:45 a.m. They are individ uals who think the alphabet starts with “D” or ,-F.” They are those who think it is a crime to copy some famous speech and hand it in for a term paper. They are creatures who study the heredity of the atom for fifteen years and expect you to solve the question of "Why?” in fifteen minutes. They are fellows who talk in other persons' sleep. They are odd bipeds. Professors are easily identified if you know' what to look for. Most of them carry brief cases that are filled with unnecessary weight. Most of them don't have their suits pressed. Most of them wear glasses and most of them have sparse cra nial decoration. Most of them tell the same stories year after year. Most of them buy more things than they can pay for and w'hen out of debt break their necks to get back into the red-ink puddle. Most of them love geniuses and hate dumb bells and most of them grade stu dents by the method of “what the devil, when the devil, and how the devil.” Most professors rub their heads, pull their ears and say “ ’er” and “ah” between words when lecturing. Some have a sagging sense of hu mor and some have “I” trouble. A few have itching degrees and scratch and dig at them continual ly. Most professors think the world is in an awful mess and most of them have written books about it, but new professors always think old profes sors make a mess of books so they (the new ones) write new books. When a professor runs for office he gets licked; but when a commiL— member is needed to serve witlfcut pay, he is sure fire to accept, always ready to make a speech out expenses and vaguely wo: how it happens that he is so lar. His secret ambition is to a building named after him andjhis secret hope is that an oil well unexpectedly gush up in his yard. You may like professors becaus there isn't anything else you cand< with them and you may dis ik| them for the same reason. When ’o| get old you will remember them y not in your will. When you the soup you may ask them towfi a “character” for you and whenjto kids go to college you may make a trip to the professor’s office to do a little apple polishing for the ytung “pride and joy.” Yes, professors are peop4ebuJs< are milkmen and tax collectonj —From Kent State Univei^it; Ohio. & i BANTER By Lejeune W. Griffith The $64 question - Discussions on cab drivers always bring to mind a particular character encountered in Chicago. He was a little round man who assured us that we were the luckiest people in the terminal when we drew his cab. He went on to say that he was the sharpest character this side of Bob Hope. The cabbie started out with a few classic quiz chestnuts, such as “a little Indian and a big Indian were walking down the street. The little Indian was the big In dian's son, but the big Indian was n’t the little Indian's father. What was the relation?” After passing this and similar tests successfully, the S64 question was offered—with the drivjfri promise that $64 actually would| paid if the answer were correct And so began the questi “There’s a big battle, see? 1 >j have one army, I have the otl r. We have the same number of m n, same equipment, everything is equal. We fight. All the men ire is. hilled off except the two of Which one wins the battle?” We told him the question wa^ ri^ diculous and unfair be-sg-jpe ti was no possible answer for it. we asked additional questions,) merely repeated the originahquel ;ion over again. Finally we stoppJ talking, and he leered back at is^— (Please turn to page six)