Dregon ft Emerald
The Oregon Daily Emerald, official publication of the University of Oregon, published
daily during the college year except Sundays, Mondays, and final examination periods.
Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Ore.
Member of the Associated Collegiate Press
SOB FRAZIER, Editor
BOB CHAPMAN, Business Manager
-w
BILL YATES
Managing Editor
JUNE GOETZE. BOBOLEE BROPHY
Co-News pditors
walt McKinney, jeanne simmonds, maryann thielen
Associates to Editor
WALLY HUNTER
Sports Editor
PHYLLIS KOHLMEIER
HELEN SHERMAN
Assistant Managing Editors
BARBARA TWIFORD
Advertising Manager
Editorial Board: Harry Glickntan, Johnny Kahananui, Bert Moore, Ted Goodwin, Bill
Stratton, Jack Billings.
ft's Up To You
For the fourth time in the history of Oregon’s bills and legis
lation, the sales tax will come before the voters. On Tuesday,
the polls will be open from 8 to 8, with a special polling place
provided for University students, where the voters may regis
ter their ayes and nays.
This sales tax, according to authoritative sources, will not
be a new tax—but rather a redistributed one. Instead of upping
property taxes, and state income taxes, which would be neces
sary because of increased costs of state government, the sales
tax would supplement the present incoming funds to an esti
mated $22,000,000—the necessary cash. A three-cent-on-the
dollar affair, the proposed tax, if passed by the required two
thirds of the Oregon voters, will be on a pay-as-you-go basis,
which may or may not be preferable to the quarterly, semi
annual or annual tax paying setup. The tax would fall, essen
tially, on all retail purchases except food bought for household
consumption, or ‘‘food for human consumption off the premi
ses,” as the bill states. Excepted from this will be motor fuels,
newspapers, religious literature, and some personal property
which is not taxable because of federal and state constitutions.
Twenty-seven states have sales taxes at this date, with Ore
gon’s neighbors California and Washington in the fold, and
Idaho and Nevada outside.
According to statistics compiled from the bill, which was
passed by the 44th Legislature under its official title, “Enrolled
House Bill No. 460,” the tax will be distributed as follows: one
sixth to the 36 Oregon counties, based on their assessed valua
tions ; one-sixth to the cities, based on population; one-sixth
to old-age assistance (to make up whatever is lacking in net
liquor revenues); one-sixth to schools, based on pupil atten
dance, and two-sixths to the general fund for general govern
mental purposes.
The Emerald does not advocate either pro or con policy. It
does advocate that every voter registered in Lane county and
attending the University investigate the bill further if he feels
this information to be inadequate, and vote on the basis of the
findings.
The polling place for students will be located in University
high school at 16tlrand Alder streets.
J.B.S.
High Cost Of Awakening
Coffee (even black coffee) costs 10 cents a cup almost any
where in the University community. Time was that it cost a
nickel. From this we may gather that inflation has hit the Wil
lamette valley, and that the cost of keeping awake has gone up
100 per cent.
This has aroused a degree of criticism, although it has not
resulted in any serious decrease in the quantity of coffee con
sumed by the Oregon student body.
While the Oregon student mutters his hoarse complaints, and
orders a second cup (which he can get for a nickel), there are
strange things happening in California. In the Los Angeles
area, according to the wire services, coffee is selling for three
cents a cup at some of the chain drug stores. A coffee tycoon
warns that the great American drink may face stiff competi
tion from the 5-cent beverages.
"With all this in mind, we engaged the proprietor of our favor
ite campus bistro in conversation the other day. We talked
about business—his.
Coffee, he reports, costs 4*4 cents a cup. He saws-lie can't
operate on a ■*) cent profit. Our source, a man of undisputed
honesty and character, threw in the following facts about the
coffee business. \\ e pass them on for the information of the
University's coffe-consuming clique:
Sugar at about $9.50 the 100-pound sack, is up 25 per cent
over the pre-war level. Coffee, cream, labor, cups, rent, neat,
light, gas, oil, and life insurance are also up. The figures are
available, but become meaningless after a time.
In the first six days he was open this fall, he lost (or broke)
17 cups. Good china cups cost 65 cents. The pottery jobs don’t
pay, he says. A little quich mental arithmetic indicates our
man would have to sell 1473 cups of nickel coffee before he d
pay, he says. A little quick mental arithmetic indicates our
coffee for 10 cents, he need sell only 190 cups to make up this
loss, as any fool can plainly see. If we figure the second cup at
5 cents, and that not everybody buys a second cup, then our
man’s story begins to get a little involved.
Before the war, by the way, these cups cost 18 cents.
Most places which charge a dime for coffee, are willing to
throw in a doughnut “free.” The doughnut costs about 2Vz
cents. Take it from there.
Of course there is also the device of running out of dough
nuts about mid-morning. This is unfortunate, our man reports,
and is not an intentional trick to bilk the customer into coming
through with another 2 and Vz cents profit.
The restaurant business, he contiues, aims for a 20 per cent
mark-up. In August Oregon restaurants realized an average of
only 11.3. Furthermore August is a peak month. Things always
get slower in the winter. Looking real pitiful our man ex
plained items such as heat and keeping the door closed that
don't figure into the summer statement.
Now coke is different. Coke is still a good thing at a nickel.
The syrup costs $1.85 a gallon, and a gallon of syrup makes
132 cokes if you don’t spill any, or give anybody too much. Of
course, he points out, you might fail to collect from somebody.
Coke glasses break, too.
Milk is also a good deal. It costs a nickel and sells for a dime.
“People,” he comments, “should drink more milk.”
That seems to be the story. Coffee at a nickle is a gift item.
Our man wonders about a 7-cent cup. He thought about it over
the summer, but discarded the idea because of the penny prob
lem.
Our Eleventh street operative, though, reports an establish
ment in his neck of the woods that still sells coffee for a nickel.
Publishers Note:
In order to participate in the what-happened-when game,
it is necessary for the student to invest in an impressive number
of tomes each year so that he too can raise his hand in class.
This neat requirement plays right into the publisher's hands,
and every year hundreds of thousands of beautifully bound
textbooks, awesome in their newness, are distributed among
university bookstores to be sold in turn to the eager,knowledge
seeking student. Some of the light dies from his shining eyes
when he receives the bill for his beautiful books. Plunking
down an average of $17, he somehow feels these handsomely
bound volumes are a little too fine for the rough use he will
give them.
For one thing, no one will dispute the fact that it rains quite
a bit at Oregon. Covers fade and pages ripple and depreciation
sets in at a startling rate. The underlining method, employed
by those who have read their “Good Studying Habits” book
let, doesn’t add to resale value either. Students find an equally
sad situation when they attempt to sell their used texts, only
to discover that a newer edition or completely different book
has been selected for the course.
Several courses at the Univecsity are using 25-cent pocket
book editions for outside reading. Last year's Twentieth cen
tury literature course used the Modern Library series at 95
cents each for their studies of the novel. These books are well
bound and more suitable for student purposes.
We suggest the publishers think about putting out more
cheaply bound texts for college students so our minds would
not register $3 or $5 winging away as one of our books drops
into a mud puddle. Lower-priced volumes would also leave
something besides lint in our pockets and gaping emptiness in
our billfolds at the end of registration.
Of course, for those who use their books strictlv as show, we
I
suggest they continue buying the “purty” ones.
M.E.T.
i
Old Oregon Changes Hands
Bert Moore is now editor of Old Oregon, replacing Harry
Cdickman who put out the alumni magazine all last year.
We're sorry to see Harry leave, but if he must, Bert is an
excellent choice for the job. Both students are on the Emerald
editorial board, and we know them both from years back.
Under Harry Glickman's pen the magazine doubled in cir
culation. and developed into a publication of interest to per
sons who were not alumni. But it did not lose its original
Webfoot flavor. We think it’s pretty good. Glickman, who will
graduate in January, is responsible for most of the improve
ment in Old Oregon.
Bert Moore, who writes a movie column for the Emerald, has
distinguished himself as a writer, an oracle of sorts, and a
fountain of miscellaneous information. There should be no
lowering of Old Oregon standards under the new leadership.
i "V
<n*
Second
By BETTY ANN STEVENS
Proving that a true gentleman
always behaves in a gentlemanly
fashion, no matter the circumstanc
es, is this tale of Dr. Kurt von
Schuschnigg, former chancellor of
Austria.
The small, bespectacled gentle
man, garbed in undershirt and
hanging suspenders, was surprised
in his downtown room by reporters.
With plu-perfect aplomb he assent
ed to an interview in his “you-all”
German accent. Then he bowed
low from the waist.
All of which causes one to pon
der the reaction of an undergar
mented Loretta Young if a report
er walked in and caught her in sus
penders. A curtsy, perhaps ?
* * *
An imperfect stranger ap
proached Pat King on Thirteenth
the other day. “Aren’t you at Ore
gon State?” she burbled brightly.
Rather defensively, Pat explained
that “No, she wasn’t going to
O.S.Q.” “Oh, but you told me you
were,” the stranger persisted. Pat,
thinking she had mistaken her for
a freshman counsellee, pointed out
that she had been here for two
years, and had no intention of
transferring. Whereup the strang
er cheerily threw over her shoul
der, "Oh, you must Jiave changed
your mind.” Piqued, Pat trundled
on to her woodlore class.
Even if she had been considering
Oregon State, Larry Lau’s column
on the curriculum Over There
would have scotched the idea.
* * *
Campus life, under the G. I. Bill,
say most of those who keep a rup
tured duck in the upper righthand
bureau drawer, is not hay. It’s
fierce, they tell you, waiting for
the eagle to scream. Something
new under the heavyside layer,
however, was the veteran who in
sisted that Emerald hall authori
ties pay him his monthly subsist
ence In Advance.
Vice Presidents to Meet
The vice-presidents of all living
organizations are asked to meet in
the recreation room or Susan
Campbell hall Monday at 12:30
p.m.
r —
Come and Get
'em...
□ You Don’t Learn That
in School
Meet Me At No Spe
cial Place
King Cole Trio
pp Red Silk Stockings
and Green Perfume
Jiminy Crickets
Ray McKinley
| | If I Had My Life to
Live Over
My Adobe Hacienda
The Dinning Sisters
| | Across the Alley From
the Alamo
There Is No Greater
Love
Stan Kenton
pp] Sunrise Serenade
Through
Tex Beneke and y
Miller Orch. ,/
70 West Tenth Ph. 5266'