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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1948)
New or Old Look? (Editor’s Note: Homecoming Chairman Bob Don came Bursting into our office yesterday atfernoon. He was plenty burned. The “New Look’’ he and Iris committee had planned for the Homecoming celebration this weekend was already assuming the same spiritless “Old Look’’ of former campus celebrations. We sympathized with Don when he bemoaned the apathy of University students. We’d heard the story be fore. However, we agreed to print the following letter.) To All UO Students: Bv all that’s right I shouldn’t have energy enough to sit down and write this letter. That is saying that I am a typi cal Oregon student. The energy on this campus seems to flow through the few and not the multitude. WAKE UP OREGON! Your alums are going to be re turning in another twenty-four hours. My committee and I don’t want them to see the sleepy, drowsy little school I see today. As yet T havent heard the lirst noise mailing unm, um have I seen a stick go up in front of any house toward a sign! ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DANCE TICKETS HAVE BEEN SOLD SO FAR. It looks as if the alums will have to enjoy the dance alone this year. jjF.Y OREGON, it’s homecoming. ITow about some life and spirit around here—that would really he “A New Look” at Oregon. Bob Don Homecoming Chairman 'Ike' and Education General Dwight D. Kisenhower, now president of Colum bia University, has written an article in the current issue of the Reader’s Digest, which all students would do well to pe ruse. The article, called “An Open Letter to America’s Stud ents" may sound like flag waving at times, but it contains some fundamental truth, too. In brief, General Ike says that the biggest job that any young person in the country must face at this time is the career of being an American, lie admits that “a job and the stimu lus of productive work” may sometimes seem more import ant than an education, but he asks ‘That will it profit us to ant than an education, but lie asks “what will it profit us to for, unless we know what purpose animates America?" The general claims that there is a very practical purpose behind this appreciation of the “what” and “why” of America. He explains that it is exremely dangerous to assume that our country's welfare belongs alone to that mysterious mechan ism called “the government.” “Kvcrv tune we allow or lorce the government, because ot our own individual or local failures, to take over a question that properly belongs to us, by that much we surrender our individual responsibility, and with it a comparable amount of our individual liberty.” Eisenhower doesn’t stop there. Tie has another practical point to cxpalin. He warns students that after they get a job they may fall into the “rut and routine” of it. become a cog in the wheel, with no understanding of the over-all pic ture. This situation is not only detriment to the country, but he implies that it is also a detriment to the individual's enjoyment of life. As he expresses it, “each day (education) will add breadth to your view and a sharper comprehension of your own role as an American . . .To know your own char acter is to know your country’s character." And he has another warning—“If your generation fails to understand that the human individual is still the center of the universe and is still the sole reason for the existence of all man made institutions, then complexity (of the modern world) will become chaos,” What the general says is undoubtedly true. Awareness of the world as a whole and America in particular is a neces sary thing and should be one of the results of an education. Hut the general mav be overestimating the powers of compre hension and initiative of the average student with the average 12-year or 16-year education, and also overestimating the powers of the American colleges and universities. Tiu' Orkuon D 4ti y Kmkrat.d. published daily during: the college year except Sundays. Monda\ s. holiilavs, and final examin ition periods by the Associated Students. University of Oregon. Subscription rates; $d.0«> per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter nt the nostoffice. Eugene. Oiegon. BILL Y \ rFS, E Hob Riwl. Managing' Editor VlRclll. Tl’CKKR. Business Manager Torn McLaughlin. Adv. Manager Associate Editors: June Oort tec. Uobolee Brophv. Diana Dye. Barl»ara I toy wood, The Latest In Books By TERRY REVENAUGH “Chinatown Family.” Lin Yu tang. John Day company. 307 pages. $3.00. Turning from Asia and philoso phy, Mr. Lin Yutang (“Moment in Peking” and “The Importance of Living”) writes of the Chinese in America. Specifically, he tells the story of the Fong family in New York’s Chinatown of their adventures, their romances and their struggle to find happiness in a new world. “Chinatown Family” is written with such gay humor and whimsi cally penetrating observations on American life, that you will find it hard to lay aside. The setting is New York, between Pell and Mott streets; the time is the present. Mother Fong is the dominating character, a gentle lady who pre serves the dignity and tradition of old China while helping her family meet the problems of-the new world. Tom Fong, the father,. came to America during the Alas kan gold rush, to build roailroaas. When the boom died, he struggled across the continent to New York and, with his two eldest sons, toiled for ten years in his laundry to bring the rest of his family to America. With Mother Fong come young and eager Tom, Jr. and Eva. The story follows the growing up of these two children, the yearning of Tom to study science and the wistful struggle of Eva to re main a dignified Chinese lady and at th esame time to enoy the freedom of American girls. Sometimes the family fails, as with second eldest son, Yiko. Yiko, struggling to find the true America, falls into the pitiful de lusion that the secret is the glad hand, the slang and the easy money. He becomes Frederick A. T. Fong, insurance agent, poli tician and small time chiseler. One of the most revealing pas sages deals with the difference in sex education of Chinese chil dren and American children. Young Tom cannot understand the stories of storks and garbage cans told by American parents to their children. He comes to the conclusion that Americans are not ashamed of sex—they are ashamed only of childbirth. Mr. Yutang occasionally for gets he is only the teller of the tale and the story loses itself while he makes his own com merits on America. But the com ments are so witty and so gentle, the interruption is easily forgiv en. Not so easy to forgive are philosopher Yutang’s long discus sions on the origins of life and matter or the merits of Laotse. To be sure, these discussions come from the mouths of young Tom and Elsie, but they are ob viously mouthpieces. Yet, with “Chinatown Family,” Lin Yutang has proven that an Olympian philosopher can know and write of people, their strength struggles and foibles. The story of the Fong family, as its members discover America, meet prejudice and make paths to success and happiness, is well told and genuinely human. When you have finished you will have made warm and lasting friends. Part of the routine of taking a girl to a party is waiting an hour While she sits before the mirror taking 10 years off her life. Eisenhower said he thought mill* tary men shouldn’t run for office, but that was just one General's opinion. •In MY Opinion..." FROM OUR READERS On the evening of June 27, 1947 gambler Benjamin (Bugsy), Siegel was killed by a shotgun blast as he sat in the living room of Virginia Hill’s mansion in Beverly Hills. Now the Beverly Hills chief of police says he knows who did it, but “the persons involved are so big that we can’t go out and give them the bum’s rush. This was no ordinary shooting,” he - added. “There was big money behind it.” The foregoing paragraph is part of an AP dispatch print- . ed in yesterday’s Emerald, and it goes to show what happens to law enforcement when big money is made an excuse for murder. Maybe Siegel wasn’t the kind of man you or I would want for a neighbor, but the law is supposed to punish mur der, no matter who the victim is. Now big money stands in the way of the killer’s arrest. If police in other parts of the country are in such awe of big money as the Beverly Hills department seems to be, it won’t be long before man-hunting licenses are issued—for a $50,000 fee. Dean Pass. -The Lowdown Critic Hurst Turns From Music to the Silver Screen By BUD HURST .. .A few years ago William Sa royan wrote a stage play about people and entitled it THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. It was good enough to win him a Pulitzer prize. Now the Cagney brothers, James and William, have taken the play and transplanted it, al most word for word, to the silver screen. It is a thing of beauty. Once upon a time they was a guy in the city by the Golden Gate what ran a bar named Nick’s. The guy’s name was Nick. This here Nick had a sign outside his place what read “Come in and be yourself” and you shoulda seen the results that sign got. There was Joe and Tom and Kitty and that fool dancer and the old timer what was off his nut and that Schmoe what kept beatin’ the daylights ou'ta that pinball rig. Darndest outfit ya ever saw. Take Joe f’r instance. This character musta had a stack of lettuce a mile high on account of he’d just come in Nick’s and sit there drinkin’ ehampain and spendin dough to make folks happy. It musta got results cause he seemed to be havin’ a good time of it and he sure did work wonders with a lot of folks. Like the time he tooK this Kit ty under his wing. Kitty was a little twig off the tree of life what had a consheeance and the curves to go with it. She bept the con sheeance inside her and sold the curves on the open market. Some doll she was. Well, anyway, this Joe intro duced her to his stooge named Tom who they say was even dumber than me and what hap pens but they hit it off right off the bat and get all tangled up in this love racket. Joe does all this and by get'tin’ Tom a job gets them all set up and stratened out. And just like that there hap py Then in walks this old stoop who starts unravellin' this wild tale about when he ran the wild wTest and this Joe says he believes him and you should see this old boy light up all over. And this Joe guy keeps it up all night and makes some folks cry and others laugh and spends his time doin things he’s always wanted to do like seein' how much gum he can chew at once and playin' with toys and passin’ out stogies to society dames and stuff like that. There's something about him what makes you feel kinda funny and sorta makes you wish you could do all them things too like makin’ people feel good and feel in’ sorry for them when they need feelin’ sorry for. Me, I’d like to get to know the guy better because I seemed to be livin’ a whole life in the two hours what I was around. Maybe if I hung around and went back and saw him again he’d teach me some of spellin’ and grammer cause my old lady says J ain’t so hot on that stuff and if I wanta write for one of them big papers I gotta get off the fence. But this guy is gonna be around again soon, Joe tnat is, and you oughta go down and meet him and all those other folks. No kiddin, you’ll have the time 'of your* life. Today’s Staff Cork Mobley Day Manager Advertising Staff: Staff: Ken Hodge, Sue Maddock, Barbara Williams, Shirley Hillard, Rosemary Beatty. NightStaff: Night editor, John Roaney, Nancy Wright, Jane Smith, Joan Gorlenski, Edith Ha ding. Bob Gohrke City Editor Copy Desk: Patricia Potts, Le ona Kohler, Elizabeth Erlandson, Virginia Bond, Victor B. Fryer. Campus Calendar 4:00—Junior commission meet ing of the YWCA. 4:00—Service committee meet ing of the YWCA, held at the YMCA. 6:30—ISA elections in 105 Com merce. 7:30—Ski club meeting in the band room of the military building. YW Position Open The-YWCA cabinet is accepting petitions for house, chairjnan until 5 Friday, announced Laura Olson, president. Any sophomore, junior or senior is eligible and will be in charge of all equipment, grounds, improvements, and upkeep of the Y bungalow.
