Oregon f<$ Emerald
ALL-AMERICAN 1946-47
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
Letters About Willamette U's
'International Relations' Meet
Oregon Club's Statement
To The Editor:
The November 4th issue of the Emerald carried a story con
cerning an international relations conference at Willamette
University. It was stated that two students of the University
of Oregon attended as representatives of the university.
The story was confusing in that it did not indicate under
whose auspicies the Willamette conference was held. We are
somewhat confused as to the authority of the students to rep
resent the University of Oregon.
In order to clear up any possible misunderstanding it will be
appreciated if you will publish the following statement:
The International Relations Club of the University of Ore
gon, which is one of several hundred such clubs sponsored by
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, knew
nothing about and had nothing to do with the recent conference
held at Willamette university. Each year a Northwest Con
ference of International Relations Clubs is held in this region.
The 1947-48 Conference is to be held at the University of Van
couver B.C. November 20, 21. The University of Oregon club
will be represented at this conference. There is no connection
whatever between this conference and the one held at Wil
lamette University.
Bob Allen, President, International Relations Club
Phyllis McMahon, Secretary
Peter Linde's Answer
To the editor:
In last Tuesday’s edition of the “Emerald” there was an
article reporting the International Relations Conference held
at Willamette University last weekend, and quoting me as a
representative from the University of Oregon.
The next day the lead editorial of the “Emerald” was a strong
if not convincing indictment of the men who spoke at the con
ference.
All this was based, to the best of my knowledge, on a rather
brief interview with me by telephone, during which my anony
mous feminine interviewer did not tarry long with any one
question. Since the resulting articles do not fairly present what
I tried to convey to the reporter, and since I do not wish to
have my name associated with such a confused version, I
would like to make the following statement: ,
The International Weekend, or “Bundobust”, as it was called,
was sponsored by the Willamette YWCA. General chairman of
the event was Kay Karnopp, a student at Willamette. I did
not consciously represent the U. of O. or any organization, but
rather the countries Germany and Denmark. I was invited
solely by virtue of having lived in those countries for 13 of my
21 years. My main motivation in accepting the invitation was
to improve my own understanding of international problems.
1 am a graduate student of chemistry, not a politician, nor do
I yearn to be one.
The statement (emphasized out of all proportion by the
“Emerald") that ultimate democracy and ultimate com
munism are equivalent was made during the panel dis
cussion. To one not highly trained journalistically this
statement appears rather difficult to misunderstand. To
the worthy staff of the “Emerald", however, it means that
Communists and Democrats (usually this word refers to the
Democratic Party!) are the same, or that communism in
Russia and democracy in the U.S. are the same. Has Russia
achieved complete communism? If so, why are the freedoms
of the individual citizen still highly restriced? Have the United
States attained complete democracy? If so, why does race dis
crimination still hold sway? Democracy and communism are
goals which perhaps will never be attained to the point of per
fection.
As regards the general trend of the discussion at Willamette,
I find on retrospect that the ideas presented there are remark
ably similar to those expounded by Mr.Adamic at his speech last
Tuesday (it may be noted here that a group of Willamette
University students were present by invitation at Mr. Adamic’s
speech). It seems incongruos that the “Bundobust” should
be attacked while Mr. Adamic in the same issues received an
objective, uneditorialized review.
Peter Linde.
New Tape Recorder Viewed
' By MICHAEL CALLAHAN -
This week’s column goes a little out of the beaten
groove to cover what we think is the greatest ad
vancement in the recording field in many a year.
The first of the new commercial wire-recorder com
binations arrived in Eugene recently, and even after
trying one out we couldn’t believe it. These sets
combine a standard-band radio receiver, a good
record turntable, and the wire recorder’s machinery
all in one chassis.
Instead of the old wire tape, the new combina
tions use a spool of fine stainless steel wire, a mile
and a half of thread-thin steel in a palm-sized spool.
One spool of this wire plays as long as 20 10-inch
records, and for just one-third the cost. We found
that with the flick of a switch the wire would re
cord any program that the radio was receiving
while it came through the loud speaker, or any
disc on the player, or a “live” program through the
attached microphone. And the wire is guaranteed
forever, if it should accidently be broken, it can
be spliced together into a neat little knot that will
play right on through without any interference.
Imagine a record collection that could be
“erased” and changed through the years! The wire
recorder does it.
Because the wire is only electrically magnetized
to the vibrations of tone instead of actually being cut
as is a phonograph record, we found that any spool
or part of a spool can be re-magnetized to a new
program with no trace of the old coming through.
Surface haze and mush were cut out entirely when
a spool recording was made of an old disc, and the
fidelity of all the wire-recordings was like perfect
FM.
The present price of wire recorders is pretty stiff,
the model we saw cost over $200. However, it Boss
Petrillo’s ban on platter-production holds, the big ^
disc companies will be forced into the competition
to build cheaper sets. Watch the quality of the “live”
radio programs skyrocket when the public tunes «
in not only to listen but also to record for the future.
Platter lines: Top-rank is the rating for Bing
Crosby’s release of the month, “Freedom Train” and *
a reissue of “The Star Spangled Banner,” spoken
as poetry. At first hearing, Irving Berlin’s “Freedom ^
Train” seems a simple ballad, but it becomes more
fascinating with each hearing. Berlin set his story
of the train bearing the nation’s documentary treas-- 4
ures to a strong beat and a jazz tempo. We think
that is a symbolic and unusual touch that sets the
record apart. A
“Hand in Hand” by Sammy Kaye takes over
this month’s Record of the Month spot among na
tional song mags, replacing Robert Merrill’s “Whif- 1
fenpoof Song.” Kaye’s offering is smooth, straight
and sentimental, but over it we pick the other side,
“Santa Claus for President.” “Santa, the little peo- 1
pie’s choice,” is a good novelty number, especially
the opening chorus. We don’t see the comparison be- «
tween “Hand in Hand” and the superb “Whiffen
poof Song” by Met baritone Merrill.
Concerto-Master Freddy Martin came up with a '*
glittering arrangement of “Hora Staccato,” featur
ing his own piano theme behind the ork and Gene
Conklin’s solo whistling. Conk is the real star, his
trills and swoops come off perfectly . . . Deanna
Durbin has cut her first new album of this year: .
“Something in the Wind” from the picture of that
name. Only two of the selections are above fair, the
title song and “The Turntable Song,” which was ~
something of a hit on the jukeboxes a month ago.
Columnist Lau Peers Inside Russia ]
T ARRY T ATT
The Soviet Union is being widely cussed and dis
cused, as was the infant United States 150 years
ago; this is probably the only comparison one may
make between the two. Very recently University
students were privileged to hear a lecture by one of
the Soviet’s more vocal apologists. We reason that
if educational activities went to all the trouble and
expense ($250 in good old capitalist currency) to
have us thus broadened, this vermilion-colored po
litical curiosity must be reasonably important. In a
burst of enthusiasm we hastened to find the proper
books and take a check on this place called Russia.
It is big. It is in Europe. But let me go on.
For instance, did you know that Catherine the
Great was a German princess, and not Russian at
all? We gathered from the footnotes that most of
the time she wished she’d never left the royal beer
gardens in Berlin, or that . . .
At the time Union troops were reducing Geor
gia to a heap of magnolia blossoms over the fate
of less than two million negroes, the czar of that
period, (sort of a 19th century Henry Wallace),
freed 40 million serfs with a stroke of the pen. They
promptly repaid him by tossing a bomb in his sleigh.
They couldn’t find anything left of the czar, so they
gave the sleigh a state funeral. We understand that
sleighs have always been more popular than czars
in Russia.
After the revolutionary war, America’s naval
hero, John Paul Jones, accepted a captain’s com
mission in the Russian navy. Russian officers were
so piqued at this affront that many refused to take
command of their ships, something the historians
say was the only decent thing that happened to the
Russian sailors since oars were abandoned for sails.
The czarist governments were so fearful- of in
coming liberal ideas that American newspapermen
11- ————
were not allowed in Russia until 1900. A similar
situation exists toddy, only this time it’s Uncle Joe
who is leary of the Yankee pen-wielders. Many ■«
Americans would like to see U. S. newsmen in Rus
sia.
In 1907 a group of bandits with radical tenden
cies pulled a 5170,000 train robbery and sent the
money to Lenin, who was then an exile in Switzer- «,
“land. The far-sighted bandit leader was named Jo
seph Stalin. He is one of the few men ever to make
robbery a successful profession.
Russia engaged in one war after another to gain
control of the Dardanelles because she wished to „
keep foreign warships out of the Black sea. This
was a defensive, not offensive, policy. The Russians,
long hungry for the Dardanelles, probably have not H
lost their appetite. Perhaps oft maligned, but not (
often fooled, Uncle Sam had this in mind when he
dealt Turkey into the Truman Doctrine.
Greatest influence on Russian ideology was a ^
German philosopher named Hegel, who thought of .
history as a jerky, bumpety, process over which the
individual had no control. The Comies maintain that »
a person may be called free ONLY if he accepts this
historical process, which will, of course, culminate
in a classless society. We see now why Russia and
the rest of the world cannot agree on a common
definition of freedom.
All Communists are relativists and cannot (and
do not) believe in such absolutes as truth, religion, „
etc. With everything relative, there are no such ~ |
things as ethics. A Communist may, therefore, use ,
any means at his disposal to justify what he con- 1
siders the inevitable end.
Glad we got the straight dope so we won’t go on ^
judging the Reds too harshly. We mustn’t let a few
little things, like ethics stand in the way of a beau- ^
tiful friendship.
Coed V-ball
By CORALJE THOMSON
Only two games were played in
girls’ intramural volleyball last
night. The Chi Omega-Gamma Phi
Beta game ended in a 24-24 tie. The
Gamma Phis led at half, 15-13, us
ing the non-rotation system but
the Chi O team caught up in the
second half playing rotation.
The Hendricks Bings slaughtered
an uninspired octet from Pi Beta
Phi 39-10. The Bings, led by Jo
anne Listerud with 12 points, had a
21-6 half-time advantage.
Alpha Gam became the undefeat
ed champions of league 111 by vir
tue of a forfeit from the Susan
Campbell Corkers.
\ __
Pontiac was an Indian chief.
"CHICKEN AT ITS BEST"
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with French Fries
toast and drink
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We serve a full line of
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at the
WHITE PALACE CAFE '
Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
47 E- 10th Phone 172