Dean Eldon L. Johnson Explains Liberal Arts Position on Registration Holdup
The preregistration procedure
as it applies to the college of lib
eral arts was worked out by a
committee of department heads
and approved by the dean. Their
recommendations were then ap
proved by the registrar’s office
anH heoamo a nnrt of the nrinted
procedure. It is the desire of the
college to confine the registration
to the shortest period of time
commensurate with sound advis
ing in order that the conduct of
the classes will not be interfered
with by excessive demands on the
time of professors. There has been
a great deal of debate as to whe
ther the registration procedure
could not be successfully con
fined to a much shorter period of
time. The college and the regis
trar’s office have agreed to con
duct this experiment to determine
whether a shorter period is or is
not feasible. Since the recommen
dations were not applied to the
University as a whole, the college
of liberal arts is in the unfortu
nate position of appearing to hold
up registration procedure for ev
eryone. That was certainly not
our intent and we regret the in
convenience anyone may be
caused. We believe that in the
long run the students will be as
much interested as we in deter
mining whether preregistration
can successfully be confined to a
one-week instead of a two-week
period. The advantages to the
teaching staff are tremendous.
Eldon L. Johnson
Dean, college of liberal arts
Oregon H 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 tlie Associated Collegiate Press__
BOB FRAZIER, Editor BOB CHAPMAN, Business Manager
BILL YATES JUNE GOETZE, BOBOLEE BROPHY
Managing Editor Co-News Editors
DON FAIR FRED TAYLOR
Co-Sports Editor
WALT McKINNEY, JEANNE STMMONDS, MARYANN THIELEN
Associates to Editor
HELEN SHERMAN VVTNNY CARr
rHAYsEtLMana°“gEcfiLErE_Adv,-Using Manager _
DIANA DYE JIM WALLACE
Assistant News Editors
National Advertising Manager .Marilyn Turner
Circulation Manager ...Billijean Riethmiller
Editorial Board: Larry Lau, Johnny Kahananui, Bert Moore, Ted Goodwin, Bill Stratton,
Jack Billings.
Like Easter Eggs
If anyone desires a little recreation, but is bored with the
old solution of running around the block, we suggest he drop
over to the Library (large building next to the art museum
and across from the Phi Delt house) and check out a per
iodical for a workout. The growing pains of the library have
brought just pain to the student.
In that we have been directed by arrows through the four
years of our college life, it has not been to difficult to track
down the new locations of the various reserve and reference
rooms although it has given us a feeling of kinship with rats
in a maze.
lint then there is the crowning joy of exploring the new ar
rangements for obtaining periodicals. For the edification of
those who do not frequent the house of knowledege until the
last week of the term, we offer the harrowing tale of the dif
ficulties to be encountered. Looking for an article on the
goiter tendencies of the giraffe, you say? Then off to the
reference room and the Readers’ Guide—but, whoops, it’s
finally been moved upstairs. One less obstacle. Arriving at
the former upper division study room now knowti as the
periodical room, you find that the Fauna Weekly of Feb
ruary, 1947, carried a fine article for your use.
But the fun has just begun. In the little room at the far
end of the study hall, the recent publications are arranged in
alphabetical order so the student can help himself. They are
also arranged by issue date but this became a myth after the
first day when pawing hands made June and December
neighboring months.
There is also the question of whether or not the February
issue of Fauna Weekly will be considered a "recent" periodi
cal—with some magazines it is. with some it isn't. If it is,
you’re lucky—that is unless some untrustworthy student get
there ahead of you and slyly slip your desired magazine in
his notebook and glide out of the library. In that case, it’s
just tough shoes. An even more stunning blow is to be in
formed by the librarian that "that issue is at the bindery and
won’t be back for three months.”
All in all this business is extremely frustrating but the
fault certainly doesn’t lie with the librarians who are trying
to cope with inadequate facilities. The magazine shelves
were opened to the students in order to facilitate handling.
The few w ho have abused the privilege have brought on near
chaos. As yet the new system does not seem much more
efficient than the old, but it is still being organized. You may
get that paper written on the goiter tendencies of the giraffe.
, . ‘ M.E.T.
7Reminds Me of a Phase
/ Once Went Through' —Roget
By BETTY ANN STEVENS
I used to know a fellow who was unusually
good as H. L. Mencken, the epitome of
Schlitzv, salty satire, with elements of the
Kicnarci naraing mavis
school of swashbuckle. He
had absorbed M e n'c k en’s
writing style to such a de
gree that rumors were circu
lated they had become the
same blood type.
He adroitly adorned his
conversation nieces with such
Menckenian gleanings as, “When a news
paperman writes a book about his experien
ces, as all great newsmen do, it evolves into
a sketch of Big Men Whom I Have Met in
Small Bars.”
Eventually the fellow regressed into sin
ister platitudes like, “Newspapermen meet
such interesting people. And they’re all news
papermen.” This was delivered in a rough,
tough snarl. He also developed a gastro
duodenal ulcer, read only the liberal week
lies, wore a beret on the back of his head, and
wrote letters promoting vivisection to the
editor of the Oocheegoomwah Express-Bee
Reck At latest report, he was experimenting
with smutty verse in iambic tetrameter.
There lurk many pitfalls for the uncon
scious plagiarist in the works of Thomas
Wolfe, Damon Runyon. Ernest Hemingway,
Noel Coward, Virginia Woolf, and Henry
Wallace.
One might very well pray to be delivered
from paragraphs of glorified adjectives,
blinding, deafening color, four-letter words,
brittle monosyllables, the slippery stream of
consciousness, and the disapproval of the
Republican party.
The crosspatch I bear Max Shulman.
Would that he had lived during the Irish
potato famine and had learned to write with
an undernourished brogue.
Because of him, I have “fits of pique,”
“smile becomingly,” find my throat “all
choked up,” and crave hominy grits.
Because of him, improper nouns like
“navel,” “Green Goose,” and “cop” have
crept insidiously into my vocabulary.
Because of him, suspicion has, been cast
upon the legitimacy of Ivy Butterphlop, Ap
ertura Cranium, and Felina St. Garblesnatch.
But the absolute, soul-wrenching apex of -
humiliation was reached just yesterday when
I snapped, becomingly, of course, “Oh, zip
your lip,” and realized, in a colorful, deafen
ing, blinding flash that Shulman, that das
tardly “literary” influence, was the incen
tive for my mirth-provoking, knee slapper of
a witticism.
Public Opinion Is the Answer
By LARRY LAU
(Editors JNote: Since Columnist Eau s dis
cussion of Portland vice conditions 11 days
ago, and since the Emerald editorial shaming
the Portland press for being sleepy, the Em
erald has been swamped with mail. Much of
it has been from Portland newspaper people.
Some of them patted us on the back. Others
administered the pats a little harder and a
little lower.
A Portland reporter wrote, assailing Lau's
article as "superficial," explaining in part:
‘‘Knowing that these things exist and cleaning
up Portland are two entirely different matters . . .
getting proof on the big boys is almost an im
possibility ... if the police department allows
what you and the City club say it does, then the
district attorney has a very limited force to de
pend upon to obtain evidence . .
There are few who deny that Portland has
its share of vice. The argument is, how
much. Admittedly there is enough evidence
to warrant public attention. The newspapers
of Portland have the same information as the
City club. Perhaps, because a paper must
know its city, they have more.
A cleanup of this size is one over which anv
district attorney could hon
estly shudder. Probably the
only weapon with enough
force to effect a thorough
cleanup is an aroused public
opinion. The newspapers, as
dispensers of information, are
the tools with which this wea
pon must be forged. To date,
we wonder if these tools have
been nut to their most effer
tive use?
Presenting ALL the facts and letting
the public decide, on the basis of these facts,
what should lie clone, is a prime responsi
bility of the Oregon press. True, there are
laws of libel which no paper dares cross. True
also is the fact that the men behind an or- '
ganized vice ring love publicity like bubonic
plague. The lack of a positive public opinion .
could be because the public has not been com
pletely informed.
The history of journalism is dotted with
case after case where a paper dared to bring
“irregular” conditions to the public’s atten
tion, case after case where editors risked
libel action for the public benefit. If cities
like New York and Chicago can be cleaned
up, we see no reason why Portlanders need *
think of vice and corruption as “inevitable.”
Where are the thundering editorial pages
and accusing headlines that made the Ameri
can press the worlds greatest? Perhaps the
press has “progressed” too far. Newspapers
of yesteryear had consuming faith in the *
people and in their inherent ability to make a
correct decision in time of stress. We hope -
the streamlined press of 1948 hasn’t lost that
faith.
Democracy at best is truly, “a government
of the people." If this be so, then the people's
will may transcend the law. The people many
acquit and convict. We think it the duty of
a newspaper to acquaint the readers with all
the facts. In so doing the case will be put
directly to the highest court in the land, in '
this case, the citizens of Oregon.
There are laws on the statute books of Ore
gon which specifically prohibit the various
forms of vice existing in Portland today.
\\ hen passed by the legislature, these laws -
were meant to be enforced. If the citizens of
Oregon no longer desire their enforcement, if
they want laws to conform to existing condi
tions, rather than conditions to conform to
the law, then, at least for the sake of state *
pride, the laws should be so ammended. 'r