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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1947)
Oregon W Emerald MARGUERITE WITTWER-WRIGHT Editor GEORGE PEGG Business Manager TED GOODWIN, BOB FRAZIER Associates to Editor BILE STRATTON Managing Editor BILL YATES News Editor BERNIE HAMMERBECK Sports Editor DON FAIR, WALLY HUNTER Assistant Sports Editors MEMBER —ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS ASSOCIATED PRESS WIRE SERVICE Signed editorial features and columns in the Emerald reflect the opinions of the writers. They do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editorial staff, the student body, or the University^ ^ secon(] c]ass matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Oregon, Guest Editorial Restrict Immigration? (Editor’s note: Today the campus honors foreign-born students with the second annual International Festival. ... In Salem, the Oregon house of representatives is considering a joint memorial directed to the national congress urging that body to restrict im migration. We present this editorial, written by Flora Furrow, senior in journalism, as our statement against the memorial.) An Oregon house of representatives joint memorial direct ed to the National congress in Washington and now in the Oregon house committee on state and federal affairs reads as follows: “We . of . . . Oregon . . . respectfully represent that Where as there appeal's . . . agitation to liberalize our present immigra tion laws to the end that displaced persons from Europe may be allowed entry into this country . . . and Whereas the economic conditions in this country are now, and for a considerable time will be, unsettled because of the disruption of industrial agricul tural production . . . and . . . that the present as well as the ulti mate welfare of our country will best be served by maintaining the restrictions on immigration . . . the Congress of the United .States be . . . memorialized . . . to defeat any act or resolution ... to increase the quotas of aliens allowed to enter this country. This newspaper questions the validity of these assump tions. It is true that economic conditions have been unsettled by reconversion and strikes. However, 58 million persons— an all-time high—are now employed in the United States. A glance at help-wanted columns is more revealing. In the New York Times of January 22, as many as 32 columns were devoted to help-wanted items. In the Portland Oregonian, four columns advertise for help. The demand for labor has never been greater. Income, as well, is at its highest in the United States with a record of $164,000,000,000 for 1946, ac cording to a department of commerce report January 30. t- * * * Will "the ultimate welfare of our country . . . be best served by maintaining the restrictions on immigration"? may now be asked. "Not so,” says Norman Angell in his book, You and the Refugee, lie shows that successive waves of Knglish, Irish, Herman, Scandinavian, and Italian immigrants reached a high point in the United States just before World War 1. "Were those years . . . when America received as many as a million new immigrants each year, years of un employment, or of low wages compared with what ruled in the rest of the world? There was practically no unemploy ment in those \ ears, and the wages paid at that time of tie mendous immigration were the highest paid anywhere in the world.” Present immigration restrictions were in effect dur ing the depression of the 1930's when United States’ unem ployment and washes were dangerously low. The memorial is trying to say that immigration should he restricted because of a fear that Americans will lose their jobs to “foreigners.” This economic fallacy is based on the idea that the number of jobs is fixed. Actually, the number of jobs is created by the industry and imagination of indi viduals—bv ideas and action. That displaced persons in Europe are potentially good citizens with ideas may .easily be shown. The majority of them are Poles, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians who refuse to go home because they fear the ter rorist political regimes in their own countries. After examin ing recent Polish election tactics, Americans can hardly say their stand is not well founded. ^ ugoslavs and Rumanians refuse repatriation for the same reason. Many of these persons are of the professional classes— professors, lawyers, doctors, and business people, jealous of their freedom and individualism—fearful of persecution and collectivism : Karl ('■. Harrison, the United States representative on the inter-governmental committee on refugees urged, on January 30, that America ease her immigration laws, saying, “This country can easily absorb 100,000 European displaced persons a year for four years.” In view of the evidence, this paper disagrees with Oregon house joint memorial number 4. America, from both the hu manitarian and economic standpoints, can well benefit by admitting Europe s displaced persons. Toward One World.. Paris at Peace..Fields ofQrain, Normandy’s Landing Beaches (Editor’s note: This is the sec ond installment of an article by Dr. Carl Johnson, assistant pro fessor of Romance Languages. Dr. Johnson’s article is about his visit last summer as a guest of the French government.) By ONE WORLD CLUB The next morning after a break fast of hard dark bread and ersatz coffee sweetened with saccharin, we began to plan our activities. First again, of course, we had to see Paris. By day Paris was much like her old self. There is little damage from bombing. None of the great monuments had suffered except that they had not been cleaned for sev eral years and were wearing a black coat of smoke and soot. Automobile traffic had dimin ished. Bicycles were more numer ous. People strolled the broad side walks, loitered in front of window displays of books, jewelry, per fumes, and leather goods. There was less gaiety but plenty of life and activity. We felt encour aged. By evening, I had arranged a three-day motor trip through the Loire valley and an eight-day ex cursion through Normandy and Brittany following the roads that had figured most in the invasion and liberation of France. To the Provinces I went in large sight-seeing bus ses that carried thirty passengers. The wheat along the Loire was in shocks and looked unusually good. The bridges which had been of fine heavy stone were all destroyed. Some were still lying in the bed of the stream. Reconstruction had started on the most important ones. Between Orleans and Tours we saw no less than 50 useless bridges. The castles ■ were not greatly damaged. Most of them—Chambord, Beugency, Blois, Amboise, had served as fortresses for the Free French and the Mar quisards during the war. The Nazis turned some artillery | fire on them, but no irreparable damage was done. They are quick ly being brought back into condi tion as tourist attractions. Each one is provided with excellent guides and each has its own treasures of art, tapestries, furniture, and his torical materials. I had a diary with me, written by the poet Longfellow in 1826 when he made a similar trip (except that he walked all the way), and I was amazed at the accuracy of his de onri nt inn And the Hedgerows The Normandy-Brittany trip was more impressive but hard to de scribe. I went by train to Rouen and by bus to Caen, Bayeau, Cherbourg, Avranches, St. Malo, Brest, Loii ent, Lissieux, Falaise. All these are well known names now. They all resembled Le Havre. The heart was gone from each of them. Each had its own history of bitter fighting, a history known to every one. We visited four of the original sixteen invasion beaches. I had al ways pictured them as long stretch es of sand like Agate Beach. But they were all small, curved inlets, with fine hard sand which would carry tanks and trucks at low tide. The Dieppe invasion failed large ly because the sand there is coarse and soft. The heavy guns and sup ply trucks became stalled and made excellent targets for the Nazis. There were many evidences of the invation at each beach great aims made of sunken boats filled with stone and serving as breakwaters reached out into the English Chan nel. Landing craft of every type lay on the sand. Historic Spots Only two monuments have been set up thus far—one at Arromanch es — ies — Bains where Winston Churchill came ashore in August 1944, and the other at Courseulles where General de Gaulle landed on June 14, 1944. Sprinkle the area with cemeteries and you will have a general idea of the sights. As in the Loire valley, the crops looked wonderful. All but two of my fellow-travelers were French. They were thrilled at the sight of cows, sheep, apples, and all the food prod ucts of Normandy. They laughed and said, "Les Normands su moins ne creveront pas de faim—at least the Normans will not die of hunger. We stopped to see the Bayeaux tapestry also which was made by the wife of William the Conqueror and which tells in embroidery the history of the conquest of England. We spent a day also at Mont St. Michel. The great old cathedral which was a shrine in the middle ages was literally packed. Our guide said that since the war, the visitors at Mont St. Michel number about 5,000 per day. Back to Paris Back in Paris I looked up former friends, attended lectures, browsed in book shops, went to the opera, the movies, several museums, the Lux Telling the Editor ABOUT THE BOOK OF LAJJ To the Editor: Wouldn’t it PLEASE be possible to stop that column of drivel known as “Book of Lau’’ ? I hate to think Df the rating given our Emerald by the high school journalism classes who receive it under the exchange system. A publication and the source of a publication are evaluat ed by the contents of that same publication. The column is not indicative of college life, nor its level of thinking, nor its literary ability. To say the least, the column is a reflection up on the Emerald, the School of Jour nalism, and the Faculty as a whole, for sanctioning publication of such rankling trash. Robert B. Merrifield (Reader Merrifield’s point is well taken. This is a sample of several such letters. The Emerald hopes to make further such communications unnecessary. The faculty, however, is blameless in this connection and we hope to keep it so.—Ed.) embourg and Tuileries gardens, and searched the shops for souvenirs for my family. I had good luck in every respect. But the principal theaters were closed. I had wanted to see some plays at the Comedie Francaise—Molliere, Racine. As for the changes in France and in the people, I could speak indefin itely. But if you will bear in mind that I am speaking only from my own observations and perhaps not al ways with perfect accuracy, I can^ sum them up brifely. France lacks especially, coal for her industries, clothing and food. The needs are greatest in that order. She was wealthy. She is, for the time being very poor. Her transpor tation facilities are disrupted. Her factories are working only part time for want of power. She relied on luxuries for much of her wealth —perfumeb, wines, silks, foods— and it takes time to replenish lux ury supplies. Miss Elizabeth De Cou observed that the French are tired. That is true, I believe, but a little bit vague. They are also underfed, underpaid, poorly clothed, and uncertain as to the future. After the first war end ed in 1918 they built up the devas tated cities quickly, only to have a worse storm pass through in 1940 and yet even a worse one in 1944. Will it happen again? Opinion among the French was divided. Some, (a very few) said, “Mais non,” others said, “Mais oui.” I also came away in doubt. Carl L. Johnson ITFTiJ - T HEATBE ^ “The Time of Their Lives” and “South of the Rio Grande” DANCING Saturday Nights to Art Holman’s Orchestra Willamette Park Ph. — Springfield 326 WESTMINSTER FOUNDATION 1414 Kincaid St. UNIVERSITY CLASS—9:30-10:30 A. M. Leader: Marvin A. Tims. Subject, “What Men Live By” CHURCH SERVICES 11 A. M. Central Presbyterian Church Fairmount Presbyterian 10th & Pearl Sts. E. 15th & Villard FORUM, 6:30-7:30 p. m. (Preceded by Social Tea at 6 P. M.) Leader: Ellen Sutherland (Student Panel) Subject: “Where Is Democracy on the U.-O. Campus?” WE HAVE RECEIVED THE SHIPMENT OF SHOES WHICH YOU HAVE WAITED FOR! DROP IN AND SEE OUR FINE SELECTION OF WELL KNOWN BRANDS got to e ar
