Page 2 DAILY EMERALD_Thursday, April 8, 1948
r ^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__
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 _—
JEANNE SIMMONDS, MARYANN THIELEN, BARBARA HEYWOOD
* Associates to Editor ^
HELEN SHERMAN
PHYLLIS KOHLME1ER
Asst. Managing Editors
WINNY CARL
Advrtising Manager
DIANA DYE
Assistant News Editors___
No Happy Family, This
Most University faculties strive, but seldom are able, to
be “one big happy family.” The University of Oregon has
been no exception. The ideal state has not been reached, and
now it is too late, for the state board of higher education is
on the march to stamp out “nepotism.” Nepotism is a nasty
word meaning “favoritism extended toward nephews or other
relatives.”
University employees this week are signing affidavits
showing that they are not related to the other employees who
have the same names. Does Associate Professor So-and-so of
the University English department have a brother, Assistant
Professor So-and-so, who teaches animal husbandry at the
state college? That’s tough. One of them has got to go. We
can’t have any nepotism in this, our educational system. Are
both of them good instructors? Does each support his own
family? That’s tough, too. One of them must go back to
selling insurance or join the regular army. No nepotism,
remember?
Does the head of the campustry department have a bright
young son who has been employed to teach history ? 1 ut.
Either junior or the old man must look elsewhere. This nep
otism is bigger than just father and son.
We pray that the powers will look kindly upon “distant re
lationships.” We have in mind a bright young University em
ployee who has no near relatives on the payroll. He signed
his affidavit in good order, but added a note that “I think
we are both descended from the same ape.”
The Wrong Direction
The Daily Bruin of UCLA suggests a grading scheme of
some merit. Recognize the plus and minus grades, says the
Bruin, in computing CPAs. In our case a "B plus” would be
worth 3.25, and a "B minus” maybe 2.75, while the ordinary
garden-variety “B” would retain its present value of 3.
Now this is a fine scheme in its direction, but we have a
hunch that the direction is wrong. It would appear that the
wiser course would be to make grades more general instead
of more specific. The idea of measuring comprehension of
English literature by the decimal system is cpiestionable
enough under the present system. If we make the ratings even
more exact, there is even more cause for complaint. How
about the student who doesn’t quite qualify for a “plus”
on his “B?” Is he to be allowed to figure the grade 3.25? It
gets ridiculous.
On The Tax Dollar
Comes now Frank C. Butterfield of Chicago, managing dir
ector of “Tax Payers, Inc.,” to file suit in federal district
court, asking an injunction against execution of the European
Recovery plan.
Ostensibly Mr. Butterfield heads a group of people who
want lower taxes, a very human want. \\ e quarrel not with
his ultimate goal. But we do feel he is being extremely short
sighted if he sees the “Marshall plan” only as a drain on the
American purse, and not as “spending a little money to save
a lot of money.”
The European recovery program is a $6,000,000,000 project,
and $6,000,000,000 even in these times is a lot of money. But it
is a piddling amount when you stack it up against the cost of
a war, or the cost of a Europe in despair, or the cost of living
on an island in a totalitarian world.
Mr. Butterfield and his Chicago tax payers would be ser
ving their cause better if they stumped the country urging
more and better support for this altogether reasonable ex
penditure.
Erase the Blackboard Professor
By MARVIN MYERS
In almost all clasrooms today, university
students are being subjected to a situation
which is unfair and dangerous: the ordeal of
trying to pay attention to a professor while
the blackboard behind him is cluttered with
left-over information from previous classes.
This difficulty is increased when the in
formation is only partially erased. Unfinish
ed statements on the board present a chal
lenge to the students and they sometimes
strain themselves imagining all sorts of con
clusions. It becomes dangerous when the in
formation left on the board concerns a sub
ject about which the students know nothing.
Take the left-overs from a chemistry class,
for example. Not long ago a group of stu
dents in an eastern university became inten
sely curious about a lengthy formula followed
by five exclamation marks which was left on
the board.
They shopped around in drugstores and
finally obtained the ingredients called for in
the formula. Unfortunately, while they were
taking the stuff home in a wheelbarrow for
investigation, a passing motorist flipped away
a burning cigarette which lit in the middle
of the chemicals. It took a 10-man crew of
street cleaners all night to tidy up the mess,
and a black, evil-smelling cloud hung over
the spot for a week.
Students are not the only ones who suffer
from cluttered blackboards. The tragic case
of Professor P- clearly illustrates
this: One morning his reader appeared in.
class and scrawled this message on the board,
“Professor P-had his skull fractured
during a bridge game last night and is in no
condition to go around holding classes to
day.”
The students cheered lustily for 10 or 1*T
minutes and then marched out singing,'
“We’ll be Glad When You’re Dead, Yoi^
Rascal You.”
The professor’s skull eventually closed sufj.
ficiently and he returned to his class. How
ever, the announcement of his earlier condi
tion was still on the board. Every morning
the students would glance in see the announ-'
cement, and leave immediately. When ths
professor arrived he would spend the hour,
sitting in the empty classroom and wonder
ing what had happened to his scholars.
This went on for two years, and it began
to bother the professor. He worried about it
until he became more absent-minded than is^
considered healthy for a person. One day,
in this condition, he walked out of the lib
rary carrying one of its periodicals, an act
strictly forbidden by all respectable libraries.
The librarian on guard-duty, perched atop
the building and armed with a deer rifle,
spotted the professor before he had gone five
paces and dropped him in his tracks. His
-death can be blamed directly on un-erased
blackboards.
Will your professor be next?
Eager Beaver No Meager Beaver
Apparently the cost of living is higher in
Corvallis than in Eugene, or at least so the
two scales of payments to graduate students,
research assistants and teaching fellowships
at the University and the College seem to in
dicate.
According to the latest scales, if you are a
graduate or a research assistant at the Ag
school your salary is going to fall somewhere
between $720 and $980, but for the same
work at the University you are going to have
to tighten your belt a bit because your year’s
pay will fall somewhere between $660 and
$810. Likewise, if you have a teaching or
research fellowship at state, you can com
mand from $900 to $1200, while for the same
job at the University, you’ll have to gear
your appetite to run on an income that will
fall between $900 and $1020.
The reasons for this situation aren’t ex
By BILL WASMANN
actly clear, not any clearer than the reason,
for the addition of BA courses at State, and
besides reasons can’t remedy the situation^
current announcements are out. This year’s
horse has disappeared from the barn. The
best we can hope to do is to get the barn door
closed before the critter gets loose again next
year. For the present we’ll have to be content
with the idea that the difference can be ex
plained by the idea that perhaps the boys up^
the road a piece do a higher class of country-^
clubbing than meets the ear.
The sad part of the situation is that
students aren’t much different from work-*
ers, and who can deny the economic principle
that workers swarm to that labor market*
which pays the highest price ? Our only hope
here seems to be another economic concept,
that of psychic income. One thing is certain,
the eager beaver is not a meager beaver.
/
Stan Kenton Waxes a Purple Label
Virtuoso Kenton’s latest record release is
now available at all of your favorite music
stores. The likable side is titled “The Peanut
Vendor.’’ The reverse is termed “Thermopo
lae.” The abstract ideas expressed by the res
pective arrangers, Pete Rugulo and Bob
Graettinger, cause equally abstract specula
tions as to Stanley’s whereabouts. He has
left the dear old Balboa Bash
era among the more authen
tic antiques, and with “Ther
mo-” he reaches a point which
might well preceed the com
plete evolution back to dixie
land or merely a ban on
musical instruments.
Kenton’s frantic trends BR
have hardly won the approval
of all those who do approving. The music he
has played in the past like “Southern Scan
dal,” "Intermission Riff,” and “Unison Riff”
has sold him to the ranks. But by adopting
this psuedo-impressionistic style which ne
glects melody and rhythm, Kenton might as
well be trying Greek on the Fourth of July.
So, allow “Thermopolae” several whirls—
By FRED YOUNG
give this meaningless melodrama a chance to
appeal to you, and if you need a purple label"
in your collection—this fills the biJk- —
Johnny Mercer has a new record. The
greatest thing he’s ever done. Haven’t heard
it, but for us all it need is a name. So catch'
“Goofus.”
With a little diligent searching, practically
all of the Boyd Raeburn records ever pressed
will be found in the downtown music shops.
The last two Jewel records “Duck Waddle”
and “Soft and Warm,” besides other Jewel
and Musicraft editions,, including his album..
New albums about town have been made
by Nellie Lutcher, Lena Horne, and Peggy
Lee. I don’t think Dizzy plays in any of these*
so they might not be to good.
Sometime, if you don’t have a date at the*
library and consequently have nothing to
do, mosey into the music room and hear the
excerpts from “Wozzeck” by Alban Berg*
You'll want to hear it more often. And it
might convince you that Kenton should keep
his stand nearer the great American audience"
and the peanut vendor should keep the
change. _ ^